Why LA Noire PC edition is late

By Tom Phillips Published 19 October, 2011

Dev not started until console DLC done.

Development on the PC L.A. Noire: Complete Edition did not start until all work on the game's console brothers was complete, Rockstar has said.

That includes all of Team Bondi's work on the vast array of post-release DLC missions, Rockstar exec Jeronimo Barrera told IGN.

"We're big fans of PC games and love getting our games into PC gamers' hands as quickly as possible," Barrera explained. "In the case of L.A. Noire, we did not have the time to begin PC development until we were able to wrap up work on the console version of the game, and all of its DLC.

"It's also important not to rush our PC development so we can deliver a high-calibre experience that not only takes advantage of the platform's benefits, but is also worth the wait."

Shortly after completing L.A. Noire, controversial developer Team Bondi closed its doors. Work on the PC version was undertaken by UK outfit Rockstar Leeds.

L.A. Noire: Complete Edition is due out in the UK on 11th November. All existing DLC cases and other content are included in the box.

Players can fiddle with the game's resolution, frame-rate, anti-aliasing (up to 6X), anisotropic filtering (up to 4X) and SSAO, plus set user interface scaling, shadows, textures, lighting and overall level of detail.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Phillips

Tom joined Eurogamer in 2010 and has quickly made his mark writing news and columns and coming up with puntastic straplines. Questionable beard. @TomPhillips151 on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Phillips archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 7 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • bad09 #1 7 months ago

    RDR

  • thewool #2 7 months ago

    No one cares about LA Noire - R* release RDR!!!!!!!

  • Toothball #3 7 months ago

    I'd quite like to see LA Noire in 3D with all it's fancy PC effects (or at least as many as I can switch on before my machine explodes). I got the Xbox version on launch but it rubbed me the wrong way and I stopped playing it, so I'm reluctant to buy this again.

  • cianchristopher #4 7 months ago

    6x Anti Aliasing? I'd imagine very few cards would support that. Don't most cards support 2x, 4x, 8x, and so on?

  • kangarootoo #5 7 months ago

    Because the devs starved to death at their desks?

  • arcam #6 7 months ago

    Nice sentiment, but I really think the truth is they never would have bothered with a PC release if console sales weren't disappointing. If they actually wanted to do good PC releases and sell as many PC games as possible, they would have released RDR by now. That would sell many more copies, so why have they chosen to release LA Noire instead? I can only think it's because they are trying to encourage people to move to console, and are only interested in a PC version if they have exhausted sales on console and need the PC sales to rescue their bottom line.

    Hopefully I'm wrong, and there is a technical issue why they have chosen to port LA Noire but not the RDR that gamers have been crying out for.

  • awb83 #7 7 months ago

    I think the game is overrated

  • NewbieZilla #8 7 months ago

    I loved LA Noire. Wish they had come out with more DLC for it. Even if you had to pay for it seperately. LA Noire was a game where the season pass was done right.

  • homerramone #9 7 months ago

    Doubt

  • Darren #10 7 months ago

    @cianchristopher - Wings of Prey on the PC had up to 6x anti-aliasing support so I'm guessing that it and L.A. Noire use some kind of custom AA due to the DX9 engine using deferred rendering which is incompatible with standard multisampling AA.

    Be thankful it includes it though as Grand Theft Auto IV had no AA support at all despite the fact the Xbox 360 version used (a somewhat basic) 2x MSAA. These days though, with DX10/DX11 and FXAA/MLAA, there's absolutely no excuse at all for not including some kind of AA support in PC games.

  • orangpelupa #11 7 months ago

    what is 6x anti aliasing?

    and what method? (MSAA, FXAA, MLAA, CSAA, etc)

  • Darren #12 7 months ago

    P.S. I'm surprised the game only supports up to 4x anisotropic filtering given how easy it is to force 16xAF in any game through the driver with very little performance impact. Otherwise, it's good to see the developer is actually including graphical options to tweak in the game as it seems many developers neglect them, forgetting that they allow the user to choose between a balance of quality and performance.

  • Darren #13 7 months ago

    @orangpelupa - The older AMD cards used to support 6xMSAA I believe (Half-Life 2 has an option for it for example) but I suspect this game will be a custom AA, maybe based on FXAA/MLAA. I know my GTX 580 does not support the 6xMSAA option in Half-Life 2. Perhaps this is even a typo and was meant to read 8xAA?

  • bobfish09 #14 7 months ago

    Nice to see work being done at a UK studio, even if no one cares about LA Noire any more.

  • skowhegan Verified Staff Writer, Eurogamer Network #15 7 months ago

    @Darren 6x is what Barrera said.

  • metalangel #16 7 months ago

    Bunko!

  • dingo75 #17 7 months ago

    "We're big fans of PC games and love getting our games into PC gamers' hands as quickly as possible," Barrera explained.

    RDR Rockstar!

  • SniperZoz #18 7 months ago

    Someone needs to tell Rockstar we want RDR 1st .... LA Noire (maybe!) .... and the next GTA ...

  • kongzi #19 7 months ago

    Shortly after completing L.A. Noire, controversial developer Team Bondi closed its doors. Work on the PC version was undertaken by UK outfit Rockstar Leeds.

    I reckon that (and probably piracy concerns) has a lot more to do with it being late.
    Another interesting thing here is that LA Noire is now apparently a full-on Rockstar franchise

    EG is becoming more and more like other game sites that are just mouthpieces for publishers and marketing. Do any of you guys care about being an actual journalist or is it just the free games? How about posing some critical questions sometime? Some fact-finding here and there? A follow-up to a previous story?

  • Caimbeul #20 7 months ago

    only 4x anisotropic? odd.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #21 7 months ago

    "Why LA Noire PC edition is late"


    ... 'Piracy'

  • StooMonster #22 7 months ago

    Loved L.A. Noire, if Rockstar want to make it a franchise and tell us more film noire stories that's fine by me.

  • deadstoned #23 7 months ago

    Red Dead Redemption please =D

    Also watch out for the console trolls above lol

  • orangpelupa #24 7 months ago

    @Derren

    4xAnisotropy is maybe because the "MotionScan" texture limitation.

    so higher aniso maybe resltin graphic glitch like flicker or see boundaries

  • Inmediasress #25 7 months ago

    @arcam
    That's spot on.
    Before that incident there was no mention of the PC release, if it went on to become an 8 mill selling game like RDR they wouldn't have bothered with it. Just as they won't bother with RDR.
    Edited by Inmediasress at 19/10/11 @ 15:41

  • jimr9999us #26 7 months ago

    L.A. Noire always felt like a pc game to me...looking forward to playing it while wifey is watching Criminal Intent on the sofa across from me.

  • Matix #27 7 months ago

    @Blitzkraig

    Yes, the money is made on consoles because stupid sheep like you choose to play on the inferior machine.