Big LA Noire reveal coming next month

By Tom Bramwell Published 22 January, 2010

"In-depth" details in magazine cover story.

Rockstar has said that February will see the first "in-depth" details of LA Noire released to the public.

"There will be something great to see soon - a proper in-depth look at the game and why it is so ground breaking and innovative, both in terms of the game's design and the amazing new technology to support it," the publisher wrote in a Q&A on its website.

"Expect to see a long-awaited reveal via a big cover story next month."

Developed by Team Bondi, the studio set up by The Getaway director Brendan McNamara to develop a PlayStation 3 game in early 2004, LA Noire has been seen only fleetingly since then in a series of trailers.

The first two of these came in late 2006 in the form of a teaser and cinematic, before everything went quiet again until another CG trailer in September last year which depicted a couple of cops chasing down a suspect and then punching him off a rooftop to the accompaniment of moody jazz.

It's not clear whether the game is still a PlayStation 3 exclusive, with Rockstar evading that part of the question in the website Q&A.

Elsewhere, Rockstar also addressed recent accusations about working conditions at its San Diego studio, which is developing Red Dead Redemption.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

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

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Comments (31) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Zidargh #1 2 years ago

    I am actually particularly excited about this title. The genre, era, atmosphere and Jazz music will make a fantastic combination. With this and Red Dead Redemption, I think Rockstar are going to have a pretty formidable couple of years.

  • smoothpete #2 2 years ago

    Awesome, I had given this one up for dead. I might have to re-read my Raymond Chandler novels in anticipation :)

  • cianchristopher #3 2 years ago

    Team Bondi?

    Are they Australian?

    Serious question, has Australia ever produced any noteworthy videogames? (BioShock had 2K Boston/2K Australia, but that's an American game through and through)...

  • Murton #4 2 years ago

    Totally forgotten about this one, looking forward to seeing more in the reveal next month.

    Hopefully it'll still be a PS3 exclusive, if it's multiplatform then we can expect to see a shorter game with less content in order to trim it down for a DVD release similar to what has happened with Final Fantasy. Or possibly a change of lead platform resulting in what started as an exclusive actually being a port, which would be something of a disappointment given the way most PS3 ports go these days.

  • lunnyt00n #5 2 years ago

    @ Murton

    If you believe any of what you just typed in your second paragraph, then you are a fool!

    I suppose if it gets announced for the PC, it will have to be cut down aswell as that still uses DVD, according to your logic.
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 12:03

  • Yaz #6 2 years ago

    @Murton

    Except there's no evidence FFXIII was trimmed down due to the 360. That's just gamers putting 2 and 2 together to make 5 (as usual ;)).

    Still, I do look forward to La Noire finally being revealed next month.

  • Murton #7 2 years ago

    It's pretty well documented that MS charges publishers a fortune for multi-disc games. John Carmack if Id Software said last year that game world in RAGE was going to be half the size as was originally planned to get it down to two discs instead of four in order to produce the game on 360 without incurring massive fees from Microsoft. The PC however is an open platform so no royalties or submission fees need be paid, so a PC version could be on a single blu-ray or six dvds and it wouldn't matter at all.

    I guess we'll have to wait for the reveal to see if this game is "as planned" or if it has had to be hamstringed a little in order to become more profitable.

  • chessboxer #8 2 years ago

    Many people forget that it doesn't matter how many discs a PC game is sold on because all the content has to be installed to the HDD. I don't think I've seen a PC game that would run from the disc without an install since early 2000, back when PC games were all on CDs and back then, an 8x CD-ROM was considered fast and a 128MB graphics card was very high end.

    I wonder what R* have been doing the last 3 years with this title.

  • VibratingDonkey #9 2 years ago

    Wow. About time. This game has been in some form of development since 2004. What's up with all these weird big projects which linger on, sucking money out of companies? Rockstar in particular has been ridiculous when it comes to this stuff.

    Red Dead Redemption
    Max Payne 3
    L.A. Noire

    I'm glad all these games will eventually be released, but what happened? I Am Alive and Splinter Cell also went to development hell and managed to return. Apparently I Am Alive is getting redesigned, much like what happened to Splinter Cell. I guess Alan Wake could be bundled in with these.

  • Yaz #10 2 years ago

    @Murton who wrote "It's pretty well documented that MS charges publishers a fortune for multi-disc games"

    And it's well documented that there are a number of 360 games on 3 DVDs (Blue Dragon, Star Ocean 4). So it's not that MS charges a fortune, it's that iD simply did not want to pay that amount (whatever it is) for a 3 DVD game.

    And wrote "Id Software said last year that game world in RAGE was going to be half the size as was originally planned to get it down to two discs instead of four"

    No, the problem was maintaining the QUALITY not the size. iD originally wanted 3 discs to match the quality of the PS3 version, however with 2 discs, some of the texture detail will be less in certain areas;

    [link url=http://www.joystiq. com/2008/08/08/carmack-xbox-360-rage-a-little-blurry-key-sce nes-same-as-p/
    ]http://ww w.joystiq.com/2008/08/08/carmac...[/link]

    "They'll get the high quality compression. But if you go into some areas in the wasteland, like behind a fence where nobody will typically go and explore, this is where the 360 version may look a little blurry compared to the PS3."

    Nothing about RAGE being half the size originally planned.
    Edited by 1 at 22/01/10 @ 15:39

  • NewbieZilla #11 2 years ago

    I have high hopes for this game. But, even if Team Bondi don't manage to deliver on the premise, I really hope some other developers take on the mantle to do the genre justice.

    @ chessboxer
    Its Team Bondi developed. R* are publishers.

  • aaronali #12 2 years ago

    I'm bringing it back.... WOOOOT!!
    yeah, that's right old school seemed appropriate.

  • sarcasmoidosis #13 2 years ago

    Please let it be on PC too. Pretty please?

  • man.the.king #14 2 years ago

    @Yaz

    "Except there's no evidence FFXIII was trimmed down due to the 360"

    And exactly what sort of evidence would you be expecting? SE issuing a press release to that effect?

  • man.the.king #15 2 years ago

    It's telling that EG feels the need to classify LA Noire as a 360 game as well (read the heading: Big LA Noire reveal coming next month - News - PlayStation 3 PC Xbox 360 News by Tom Bramwell) when there's no evidence for that (all this is is an assumption based on Rockstar's silence on that issue). Going by that logic, the Mass Effect 2 page (and possibly the pages for the GTA4 DLC) should also include PS3 in the small heading banner at the top.

    I guess EG's attitude towards console exclusives can be summed up as follows:
    - If non first-party PS3 exclusive, it is listed as multi-platform until confirmed otherwise
    - If non first-party 360 exclusive, it is listed as exclusive until confirmed otherwise
    Edited by 7 at 23/01/10 @ 20:52

  • NewbieZilla #16 2 years ago

    " when there's no evidence for that (all this is is an assumption based on Rockstar's silence on that issue)."

    LA Noire was once being published by Sony. They pulled funding, and now Rockstar are publishers. They are making one exclusive franchise for the PS3 which is The Agent. Jack Tretton has even said that the exclusive franchise is not LA Noire before The Agent was confirmed. If LA Noire was exclusive too, wouldn't he have said so? Also, why would it be down as "next generation consoles" on the Team Bondi site?

    If I'd be arguing anything it is that I have seen no evidence it will get a PC release. That is not to say I doubt this eventuality.

  • man.the.king #17 2 years ago

    @NewbieZilla

    All of that doesn't change the fact that as of yet, it has not been officially confirmed for the 360, only for the PS3. That's just EG, doing what I said in my last post, i.e. if there's even a slim chance that a supposed PS3 exclusive may go multi-platform but is not confirmed yet, EG will treat and list it as multi-platform, while even if there's a chance that a supposed 360 exclusive may go multi-platform but is not confirmed, EG will treat and list it as 360-exclusive. Again, as I said, you have to look no further than some of the "exclusive" DLC that came out on the 360 first, e.g. Fallout 3 (and I think GTA4 as well) and were reviewed separately and had separate listings.

    No offense, but I think this is what's affecting your perspective. If I'm wrong about you, my apologies.
    Edited by 5 at 23/01/10 @ 22:53

  • NewbieZilla #18 2 years ago

    @ man.the.king

    Er, [link url=http://w ww.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/5067.html
    ]http://ww w.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/5067....[/link]
    "and Tretton said it isn't L.A. Noire."

    Might be interested in checking this out, too.
    http://ww w.kotaku.com.au/2008/09/la_noir...
    Edited by 1 at 24/01/10 @ 00:56

  • Yaz #19 2 years ago

    @man.the.king who wrote "And exactly what sort of evidence would you be expecting? SE issuing a press release to that effect?"

    No, I expect if a claim is going to be made, then there's some evidence to support that claim. Surely that's reasonable? Overwise we can ALL claim anything we like regardless of the facts.

    Hence if you or others want to claim that, in your opinion, FFXIII was trim down due to DVD on the 360, then fine that's YOUR opinion, but don't go stating it as fact.

  • Yaz #20 2 years ago

    @longyan

    ???

  • man.the.king #21 2 years ago

    @Yaz

    "Hence if you or others want to claim that, in your opinion, FFXIII was trim down due to DVD on the 360, then fine that's YOUR opinion, but don't go stating it as fact. "

    Correct, I'm not stating it as fact. Actually, so far I've not stated it at all.

    Also, since there is no evidence to the contrary as well, don't go stating that FFXIII WASN'T trimmed down due to DVD as a fact. Interpretation can run both ways.
    Edited by 1 at 25/01/10 @ 20:14

  • man.the.king #22 2 years ago

    @NewbieZilla

    http://www.kotaku.c om.au/2008/09/la_noire_at_least_a_year_off_very_expensive_co ming_to_360-2/

    Nobody from Bondi has said that. As Kotaku says, ""Then again, Crago’s boss of the GDAA, not boss of Team Bondi, so we’ll peg this last bit a rumor for now."

    For some reason, the PSXExtreme link didn't work. Could you please edit and correct it?

  • Yaz #23 2 years ago

    @man.the.king who wrote "Also, since there is no evidence to the contrary as well, don't go stating that FFXIII WASN'T trimmed down due to DVD as a fact. Interpretation can run both ways."

    Er-hem, if you actually read my first post *properly*, you would see that I didn't state "FFXIII WASN'T trimmed down due to DVD" as a fact.

    I said and I quote "there's NO EVIDENCE FFXIII was trimmed down due to the 360", which IS a fact, since there is no evidence to support this claim, only speculation. Big difference don't you think? ;-)

  • man.the.king #24 2 years ago

    @Yaz

    (Being a bit cheeky here, but I'm sure you won't mind)

    Er-hem, if you actually read my first post *properly*, you would see that I didn't state "FFXIII was trim down due to DVD on the 360" as fact either. But you didn't let that interfere with your snipe at me :) .

    But, to cut a long story short, yes, I do believe that some sort of alteration has taken place with respect to FFXIII in part due to the disk formats involved, but, since - as you say - there is no proof, I was not stating it at all prior to this. There was something related to this on a Japanese blog though.

    "since there is no evidence to support this claim, only speculation."

    Not all speculation is baseless, however. People will apply their own preferences and interpretations over all things, just as you do.
    Edited by 3 at 25/01/10 @ 23:58

  • Yaz #25 2 years ago

    @man.the.king who says "you would see that I didn't state "FFXIII was trim down due to DVD on the 360" as fact either""

    Correct you didn't *say* it, but since you singled me out for challenging Murton over that matter with a sarcastic reply, you did appear to be agreeing with him, even if that was not your intension.

    And said "Not all speculation is baseless, however. People will apply their own preferences and interpretations over all things, just as you do"

    Correct, which is why I always attempt to seperate speculation and opinion from fact (as seen in my first post here) :-)
    Edited by 3 at 26/01/10 @ 00:21

  • man.the.king #26 2 years ago

    @Yaz

    "you did appear to be agreeing with him, even if that was not your intension"

    Maybe, but since they were not my words, all that was was assumption on your part (at that point in time).

    "since you singled me out for challenging Murton over that matter with a sarcastic reply"

    What did you expect me to do? Reply to everyone who was arguing with Murton? I know you (after a fashion, although not literally), so I replied to you. If that doesn't sit well with you, fine, I won't do it next time.

    By the way, if you ever expect to see proof for such issues, you are mistaken. Regardless of whether such trimming happened or didn't happen for the reasons outlined, this kind of detail would never be made officially public. Wherever such issues are discussed, people will (usually) apply their preferences over logic (that goes for me too). I can't say for sure, but if the situation were reversed and rumor would say FFXIII had been changed because of some limitation on the PS3, I'm not too sure you would be as eager to dispel that rumor :) .

  • Yaz #27 2 years ago

    @man.the.king who wrote "I can't say for sure, but if the situation were reversed and rumor would say FFXIII had been changed because of some limitation on the PS3, I'm not too sure you would be as eager to dispel that rumor :)"

    To be serious for a moment, yes, I would. I wouldn't accept it as *fact* unless it's proven to be fact, and that usually requires word from the devs on such matters. Of course, I would state my opinion one way or another if there's no proof, but I wouldn't claim my opinion was fact.

    The same with FFXIII being trimmed down. My issue here is that the JP version reveals this game to be 38GB (the 360 version will have more compression). That's 38GB out of the 46.5GB available on the Blu-ray disc (50GB is base 10). This leaves just 8.5GB free on the PS3's Blu-ray disc. So if it's true that about half the game has been trimmed out, then all of that is certainly not going to fit in just 8GB of space, hence something was going to be trimmed out anyway.

    Unless of course the game was going to be released on two 50GB discs, which we've never been led to believed will happen (and was an unlikely goal when developement started), and neither was it likely that their aim was for a game which would take experienced gamers over 100-120 hours to complete (SE says FFXIII will take 50-60 hours for experienced gamers).

    So, imo of course, FFXIII was always going to be trimmed down in some way (for the reasons SE have given), but how much of that can be attributed to the 360 is open to speculation, but I really don't believe we can just point the finger at the 360 and say "it's all your fault 360, it all because of DVD!!!".

    Goodnight.

  • man.the.king #28 2 years ago

    @Yaz

    "Of course, I would state my opinion one way or another if there's no proof, but I wouldn't claim my opinion was fact."

    Which is what I also did, of course. Nowhere did I claim my opinion was an irrefutable fact.

    "To be serious for a moment, yes, I would"

    There's nothing I can say about that statement other than accepting it at face value, so that's what I'll do.

    "it's all your fault 360, it all because of DVD!!!"

    I'm not accusing MS of anything here, if that's what you are thinking. What I'm saying is that, in an RPG, sometimes it is desirable for a player to move around freely from one area to another. A large enough storage medium will usually allow that without problem. However, a smaller storage medium will necessitate some change in the game itself, to reduce the number of times a gamer would have to change discs (sure some may not mind it, but the developers will still try to reduce the number of disc changes as much as possible). This may result in either (a) changing the flow of the game so that disc changes can be reduced, or (b) removing such content as may interfere with this. Since this game is meant for multiple consoles, SE would try to achieve at least game story parity between versions. That is why I believe the limitations of storage medium may have imposed some changes in the game.

    If you choose to believe that the medium on which the game is meant to be stored does not affect development, you are welcome to believe that.

    I choose to believe that the number of factors always affects the equation.
    Edited by 2 at 26/01/10 @ 07:40

  • Yaz #29 2 years ago

    @man.the.king who said "What I'm saying is that, in an RPG, sometimes it is desirable for a player to move around freely from one area to another."

    And what I'm saying is that neither you nor anyone else knows whether the structure of FFXIII involved this *before* they decided on a 360 version! According to SE shortly after the 360 announcement, the 360 didn't change their plans on the PS3 version.

    Look at MGS4, it's on a 50GB Blu-ray disc, it's a PS3 exclusive, and yet that game is split into numerous acts, requiring an installation for EVERY act. Now if before release MGS4 had been announced for the 360, countless gamers would have claimed these seperate acts are all the result of DVD on the 360, saying they needed to restructure the game to fit on seperate DVDs, and therefore the 360 has changed the game (along with their list of how the 360 has made MGS4 worse than it could have been).

    I really don't think you can deny that had MGS4 come to the 360, many gamers would have assumed the seperate acts were the direct result of supporting DVD, just as many gamers claim the 360 has changed the structure of FFXIII and caused it to be smaller than it would have been.

    And wrote "If you choose to believe that the medium on which the game is meant to be stored does not affect development, you are welcome to believe that."

    That's not the issue here, the issue is whether the design of FFXIII REQUIRED changes to be made on the PS3 version because of DVD on the 360, and I don't believe there is any evidence to support that claim, only speculation.

    And finally said "I choose to believe that the number of factors always affects the equation."

    And I choose to believe that the equation isn't complete when there are numerous variables (i.e. facts) missing.

    How many great but LINEAR exclusive games are there on the PS3? If ANY of those were announced for the 360 before release (pretend it could happen for a moment :-)), then certain gamers would have blamed the linearity of those games on the 360, listing all the ways it could have been less linear had it remained a PS3 exclusive. So again, like FFXIII, such speculation does not make something true, no matter how much you believe the evidence supports it.
    Edited by 2 at 26/01/10 @ 16:09

  • man.the.king #30 2 years ago

    @Yaz

    "like FFXIII, such speculation does not make something true, no matter how much you believe the evidence supports it."'

    It does not make it false either. Right now, the actual events could swing either way. So just as I cannot claim the DVD forced SE to rethink some parts of their game as a fact, neither can you claim the opposite as a fact.

    "And I choose to believe that the equation isn't complete when there are numerous variables (i.e. facts) missing. "

    I have to admit - this bit here made me smile. Very well put! For me, however, logic dictates that there is enough possibility that DVD might have dictated some changes to the overall flow of FFXIII.

  • NewbieZilla #31 2 years ago

    When will Eurogamer post the info that was released? That is, the proof that it is multi platform (which isn't really going to be a surprise to those with a brain) and that it has a planned release date of this year.