L.A. Noire

L.A. Noire is an open-world neo-noir detective game developed by Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games. It is the only game that was developed by Team Bondi, which was closed down on October 5, 2011, just a few months after the game was released. It was released on May 17, 2011, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and then later for Microsoft Windows in November, and the remastered version for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, on November 14, 2017.

The game takes place in Los Angeles in the year 1947, two years after the World War II ended, and it follows Cole Phelps, who becomes a police detective throughout the city of Los Angeles, and he attempts to solved crimes, and cases during his life of a police detective.

Plot
The game opens in late-1946 to early-1947 Los Angeles, Cole Phelps returns to Los Angles and later becomes an LAPD police officer. Months later, he later becomes a police detective at the Traffic, Homicide, Vice, and Arson desks. And he must solve all of the dark cases throughout the city of Los Angeles.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) For starters, this is an open-world police detective game that has a very interesting premise about the rise and fall of detective Cole Phelps, as he attempts to solve many cases in post-war Los Angles in the year 1947.
 * 2) It has very likeable and memorable characters like the main protagonist Cole Phelps. It also has very likeable partners (except Roy Earle), such as Stefan Bekowsky, Rusty Galloway, and Herschel Biggs.
 * 3) The game tells a lot of interesting stories with each case. At first it seems like it'll mainly focus on Cole Phelps rising up in the ranks of the police. However, if you find the newspapers you'll find that the game eludes to something bigger going on behind the scenes. In this case, a conspiracy surrounding some of the biggest figures in the city using what's called the Suburban Redevelopment Fund, which is a scam that buys up land that the city plans to repurchase through eminent domain for the new freeway project, burning down the house of anyone who refuses to sell. They then put up cheap houses using substandard materials to boost the land's value, which will force the city to buy it back from them at a massively inflated price.
 * 4) Excellent soundtrack that was composed and produced by Andrew Hale and Simon Hale, especially the memorable main menu theme.
 * 5) * On the topic, you can listen to a lot of catchy 1940s songs on KTI radio, such as "Murder He Says", "Hey! Ba-Ba Re-Bop", "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", etc.
 * 6) The gameplay design is nicely crafted as players must investigate crime scenes for clues, follow up leads, and interrogate suspects; the player's success at these activities will impact how much of each case's story is revealed.
 * 7) It has good gunplay that gives the guns more realistic recoil.
 * 8) The game has over 95 real-life 1930s and 1940s vehicles from Pontiac, Buick, Chevrolet, Ford, etc, rather than parodying them.
 * 9) Speaking of real-life vehicles, there are 15 total hidden bonus vehicles. By reaching certain ranks, you will unlock the location of each vehicle (5 at a time). They will be represented by a "?" on the map. These vehicles are also some of the best in the game with varying in terms of design, handling, and speed.
 * 10) The game's tone throughout the story is nicely done, with a mix of lighter themes, darker themes, haunting themes, horror themes, and suspense.
 * 11) It has an interesting interrogation system where depending on if you get answers right or wrong, can give you more info on the events prior to the incident and/or a clue.
 * 12) The game has a number of funny and iconic moments, such as the way Cole gets verbally aggressive when selecting "Doubt".
 * 13) Great performances, such as Aaron Staton as Cole Phelps.
 * 14) Good graphics that will almost give you a late-1940s feeling in the streets of Los Angeles, what's more, is how accurate the setting of 1947 Los Angeles is. Even more importantly, It has lots of real-life locations and landmarks throughout the city of Los Angeles that you can actually visit, such as the Union Station, Chinatown, and Angels Flight.
 * 15) The DLC cases are great, especially the DLC case Nicholson Electroplating.
 * 16) The game also has bonus outfits with attributes to them.
 * 17) * The Sharpshooter: Increases accuracy with rifles and pistols. Available after completing the Patrol cases. Part of The Complete Edition of the game.
 * 18) * The Broderick: Increases damage resistance and fist-fighting capabilities. Also allows Cole to carry a Nickel-Plated HP Browning. First available as a pre-order bonus, later as DLC.
 * 19) * Button Man: Grants extra ammo. Unlocked by completing The Badge Pursuit Challenge.
 * 20) * Chicago Lightning: Increases accuracy with the BAR, Thompson, and Shotgun. Can only be obtained by being a member of Rockstar Games Social Club.
 * 21) Throughout each level you can find a newspaper. Reading a newspaper will trigger a cutscene showing the backstory of whatever is on the front page. At first it may seem like nothing, but as the game progresses you begin to realize that the information given is based around the events of Courtney Sheldon getting acquainted with Doctor Harlan Fontaine all the way up to the Suburban Redevelopment Fund's downfall.
 * 22) There are secrets that you can find, such as golden film reels, police badges, novels, and golden records scattered around the city of Los Angeles.
 * 23) The remaster introduced four new outfits and they decided to make the game a little easier thanks to the novels collectible.
 * 24) * Hard-Boiled Detective: Permanently removes one of the incorrect actions during interviews. Unlocked by finding all eight of the Novels.
 * 25) ** Unlike when using a Intuition Point to remove a wrong response, if Cole accuses them of lying the game does not cross out incorrect evidence to make the selection easier.
 * 26) * The Incognito: Makes it more difficult to be discovered while tailing persons of interest. Unlocked by completing all of the Vice Desk cases without ever being discovered while tailing suspects.
 * 27) * The Murphy: Permanently removes the reloading animation for handguns, shotguns, and Tommy Guns. Unlocked after completing the Obstacle Course at the Army Base in under 3 minutes.
 * 28) * The Untouchable: Prevents you from taking damage from fistfights and also does not show bloodstains. Unlocked by dodging 20 punches in a row without being hit.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) While it was revolutionary for the time, the motion capture hasn't aged well and causes the faces to fall into the uncanny valley.
 * 2) * The motion capture for the rest of the body doesn't seem to be as sophisticated as it is for the face (example - the hands are pretty static and don't move until it's necessary, like picking up a piece of evidence), which might make the animation fall into the uncanny valley for some.
 * 3) * The skin of everyone is incredibly smooth, and oddly shiny sometimes.
 * 4) * It seems to have trouble capturing eyes/wrinkled skin. Case in point, John Noble.
 * 5) * It can also terrify if you figure out the trick - mainly that they can only animate one face in a shot. It's painfully obvious with the camera angles, only one person talking at a time and the numb expression of your partner doing an interrogation.
 * 6) * The PC version has some additional issues: because the faces have to be animated well for the interrogation sequences, if the video quality is set to low, you get detailed, well-animated faces on incredibly ugly character models. The effect is disconcerting at best.
 * 7) You can't drive or ride every type of vehicle in the game, such as riding a Pacific Electric Railway Streetcar or driving a White Model 798 Bus, a Ramez Removals delivery truck, etc.
 * 8) Finding any of the collectibles mentioned in WIR #16 is frustrating since the game doesn't mark them on your map and they're scattered all around Los Angeles, forcing players to use a guide.
 * 9) Finding all the collectibles is also pointless since you get nothing for finding most of them aside from the novels.
 * 10) Roy Earle is an incredibly unconvincing partner, and is one of the worst characters in the the game.
 * 11) Reading the faces of the suspects to tell if they're lying or not does not work because of how ridiculous the faces can be. At other times, the cues are either Sherlock easy, or sometimes it's very subtle. Sometimes they make a quick frown or eye roll, which can lead to the player selecting "Truth/Good Cop" and ruin their perfect interrogation.
 * 12) The console versions of the game were unstable at launch as many players reported overheating and freezing issues on both PS3 and Xbox 360. The game can still freeze occasionally on both consoles.
 * 13) You can't turn off the radio through conventional means. It can sometimes be turned off by using the siren in a police car during a case but can't be turned off at all in civilian cars. The only other option is turning off the music through the settings menu but this will also turn off the background music.
 * 14) There's no reason for the game to be open world. Aside from the collectibles and street crimes, there is nothing to do since you can't customize your vehicles, purchase clothes, or eat food.
 * 15) The ranking system doesn't do anything other than give you outfits and the location to secret cars.
 * 16) No 100% completion reward other than an achievement or trophy on the console versions.
 * 17) There is a terrible plot twist with Cole Phelps that is very insulting to players. That twist reveals Phelps is cheating on his wife with Elsa. It came out of nowhere and even though the game did foreshadow the twist, the foreshadowing was poorly written and executed.
 * 18) Historical inaccuracies: Despite being set in 1947, the game's setting has a few features that did not exist at the time, as well as making a few factual errors, although many of these can be interpreted as taking artistic license.
 * 19) * Many of the vehicles and songs in the game are from 1948 or 1949, the most notable being the 1949 Chevrolet Styleline.
 * 20) * In one case, there is a letter with a ZIP code. ZIP codes were not introduced until 1963.
 * 21) * The animation for characters entering cars shows that they are putting on 3-point seatbelts. Lap style seat belts were not even offered as options in cars until 1949 and 3-point seat belts were patented in 1955.
 * 22) * Many storefronts display a 50-star American flag. The 49th and 50th states would not be admitted until 1959.
 * 23) * The Intolerance film set from 1916 was located five miles north of its in-game location and long dismantled by 1947.
 * 24) * Many of the film reels you collect are films that were released after 1947.
 * 25) The Homicide Desk has a predictable and dumb plot twist related to the Black Dahlia Killer. About half a dozen women all found dead in the exact same unusual circumstances, some with messages clearly meant to taunt the police, and it isn't until the penultimate case that anyone seriously entertains the idea that there's a serial killer. It's somewhat justified by Captain Donnelly being a borderline obsessed with delivering swift retribution, but it's still jarring.
 * 26) * However, Phelps does uncover more than enough evidence to charge the suspects, and even though he's wary of how convenient it all seems, he doesn't have the proof to say otherwise.
 * 27) * Some of Donnelly's later dialog also indicates that he's trying to get convictions for the murders to prevent mass panic erupting from the public revelation of an active serial killer.
 * 28) * Dramatically, the plot can easily come across as the cast being too apathetic to both follow the evidence specific to each case and follow-up on the theory of a single mastermind. Technically, there's dialogue and plot points to make that scenario less likely: such as the killer's MO being common knowledge, inconsistencies between the crime scenes and strong motives/opportunities for some of the suspects.
 * 29) Plot Hole: Why did the Suburban redevelopment fund members decide to record their meeting where they blatantly expose their crimes and leave the reel in an abandoned studio?

Reception
L.A. Noire received "generally favorable reviews" from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic. It was praised for its facial animation, narrative, characters and performances, music, world design, and interrogation gameplay, though responses to the shooting and driving mechanics were mixed. The Guardian 's Steve Boxer described it as a "breakthrough for games"; Edge felt that most elements are achieved better by other games, but that "few developers have brought such a diffuse set of genres together so atmospherically, stylishly or cohesively". GameTrailers wrote that it "sets a new standard for storytelling in video games", though noted some overall limitations compared to other games.

Reviewers praised the game's facial animation, with several stating that it is the best in any video game. GameTrailers wrote that "it allows a level of emoting that's never been seen in interactive entertainment". Matt Liebl of GameZone felt that the interrogation mechanic would have been unrealistic without the use of MotionScan. Joystiq 's Justin McElroy considered the technology "nothing short of revolutionary", noting that it allowed the player to view "an actor's entire performance"; Edge found that it added a "human element" to the interrogations. Some reviewers found that the body animations failed to match the faces, sometimes failing to bridge the uncanny valley, but felt that the effect added to the realism and subtlety of performances.

GameSpy 's Ryan Scott considered L.A. Noire to be "one of the strongest stories Rockstar's ever published", and Giant Bomb 's Brad Shoemaker called it "among the best in the business", citing its cohesiveness and tension near its climax. Liebl of GameZone thought that the focus on narrative and performances excelled the game over Rockstar's action-oriented titles. Carolyn Petit of GameSpot found that the game's later chapters made the slower pace of the early story more worthy. GamePro 's Will Herring similarly lauded the game's final act, noting the narrative's accuracy in its portrayal of Los Angeles; conversely, some reviewers felt that the game became less interesting towards the end, and some found that it became repetitive. Hilary Goldstein of IGN wrote that the cases that strayed from the formula—particularly the Homicide desk—were among the best, though noted that the game failed to reach the emotional heights of Heavy Rain.

Petit of GameSpot found Phelps's character development "fascinating", though Herring of GamePro wrote that his rapport with his partners made the game more interesting. Giant Bomb 's Shoemaker felt that the character's dialogue made them feel appropriate to the setting. Critics lauded the cast's performances, with particular praise for Aaron Staton, John Noble, Andrew Connolly, and Michael McGrady; Edge felt that Connolly "dominated any scene he's in". Some reviewers found that the performances made the characters feel more believable and convincing; IGN 's Goldstein praised the actors' mannerisms. Ryan McCaffrey of Official Xbox Magazine (OXM) wrote that the performances made it "a hell of a great drama to watch unfold"; similarly, McElroy of Joystiq felt that they made it one of the "most compelling video game stories ever". Eurogamer 's Oli Welsh wrote that Staton as Phelps "does his best with a dry character".

Accolades
L.A. Noire received nominations and awards from gaming publications. It was nominated for Best Graphics at the Spike Video Game Awards, losing to Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. The game received nine nominations at the 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, and three at the 12th Game Developers Choice Awards. It was nominated for four awards at the 10th Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards, of which it won Music of the Year. Along with Batman: Arkham City, it received the most nominations at the 8th British Academy Games Awards with eight, including Best Game and Performer for Staton; it ultimately won for Original Music. The game was nominated for four awards by GameSpot, and won Best Atmosphere. L.A. Noire appeared on some lists of the best games of 2011, including Ars Technica, CNET, CNN, GameSpot, The Guardian, Kotaku Australia, and NPR. The game's 2017 re-release was nominated for Best Remake/Remaster from IGN, and for the Freedom Tower Award for Best Remake at the 7th Annual New York Game Awards. The VR Case Files was nominated for Best VR Audio at the 16th Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards.

Sales
On the day of the North American release, Take-Two Interactive's shares closed up 7.75%—a three-year high for the company—which was attributed to the game's positive reception. The game shipped four million units across both platforms in its first month. In the United States, L.A. Noire was the best-selling game in May 2011, selling 899,000 copies across both platforms, which Wedbush Securities considered lower than its estimate of one million units. It was the best-selling game in June 2011, but had dropped out of the top ten by July. McNamara felt pressure for the game to sell well—The Getaway sold four million units—and he was ultimately satisfied with its commercial performance. The game had shipped almost five million copies by December 2011, and approximately 7.5 million copies by September 2017.

The game topped the charts in the United Kingdom following its release, becoming the fastest-selling new intellectual property; 58% of copies sold on Xbox 360, and 42% on PlayStation 3. It remained atop the chart for three weeks, pushed to second place upon the release of Duke Nukem Forever in June 2011; it remained within the top ten of the weekly charts until mid-July. It was the eighth-best-selling game of 2011 in the United Kingdom. In Australia, video game retailers in major cities reported that the game was out of stock within a week. Within its first week on sale in Japan, L.A. Noire sold over 71,000 copies; the PlayStation 3 topped the charts with 58,436 copies, while the Xbox 360 version placed 11th with 12,621 copies.

Trivia

 * David Zwierzchaczewski (who did cutscene animations for the game) used to work at mh:freshwebsites:Oska Software from 2002-2004 as the lead 3D artist/animator.
 * The company that made the game, Team Bondi, went bankrupt due to how expensive it was to make the game and shut down the day before it was released.
 * It spawned the "Press X to Doubt" meme.
 * Development was started on a spiritual successor game called Whore of the Orient, which would've to take place in 1936 Shanghai, in the hands of Western powers, filled with mob crime and political troubles. It was planned to be released in 2015 for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Windows. Unfortunately, Whore of the Orient producer Derek Proud revealed in June 2016 that the game was effectively cancelled, and it had not been worked on since 2013. There are a few screenshots and leaked footage of this cancelled game. More information can be found on the Unseen64 website.

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