L.A. Noire Message Board

Amazon's 'Spring Sale' kicked off today on select digitally distributed content for PC, featuring deep discounts on titles that even if you don't play now could be saved for a rainy day. The standout of the pack is Rockstar's detective adventure L.A. Noire for $5, a price that makes us almost forgive and forget any confusion over "truth, doubt or lie" interrogation techniques.

Also worth grabbing is the Dragon Age Pack, a bundle which includes Origins Ultimate and Dragon Age 2, for $10. The recently released and well-received shooter The Darkness 2 can be yours for $12.50.

There's also a couple Hamiltons off Mass Effect 3, Syndicate and Kingdoms of Amalur. Check out the list of discounted core titles (there's also 300 casual titles on sale) after the break.

• Steam overlay now works in DX11 mode.
• Fixed issue where a small number of valid display resolutions were missing.

#batman Just like a comic-book plotline where two crimefighters battle it out to find out who's best, the members of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts will decide whether Cole Phelps and Batman had the better video game. More »

• DirectX 11 support added for improved performance on many Windows Vista and Windows 7 setups using DX11 graphics cards
• Option added to game launcher allowing switching between DirectX 9 and 11 renderers
• Additional checks added that make sure a selected video resolution is fully compatible with L.A. Noire

Even following the closure of developer Team Bondi, Rockstar isn't necessarily giving up on more LA Noire. In a recent Q&A session, a Rockstar rep noted that while there won't be any more content released for LA Noire, fans shouldn't "count out the possibility of a new game in the LA Noire franchise in the future." The studio added that it is "considering what the future may hold for LA Noire as a series," and that it doesn't "always rush to make sequels, but that does not mean [it] won't get to them eventually." This isn't the first time LA Noire has been referred to as a franchise. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick called it "a powerful new franchise" shortly after LA Noire's release last year, though that was before Team Bondi was shuttered.

That Rockstar is still bullish on LA Noire is particularly noteworthy considering the fate of Team Bondi. In other words, if Rockstar pursues an LA Noire sequel, it will do so without the developer that made it a success. Then again, that's not anything new for Rockstar -- it's currently developing Max Payne 3, part of a series originally created by Alan Wake developer Remedy.

#lanoire With its original developers shut down and with a story that ends rather conclusively, you wouldn't think Rockstar's LA Noire would be in line for a sequel. But it might be. Maybe. More »

Rockstar has revealed that another L.A. Noire game could still happen in the future...

A month after the last half-off deal for Bastion on XBLA, Microsoft is offering the discount again. If you happened to miss out on our #5 game of 2011, you can pick it up for 600 Microsoft Points from January 31 through February 6. If you're eager to spend money this week, all LA Noire DLC is half off on the Xbox Live Marketplace through January 30.

Upcoming XBLA releases include Puddle and Quarrel this week, and a new Kinect dance game from Konami's DanceMasters team on Feb. 1. You can see Rhythm Party above, in the moment before you're struck blind.

#speakuponkotaku While games like L.A. Noire and Batman: Arkham Asylum put on a good detective show, are we really detecting anything? Commenter Soleyu describes what a true detective game should be like in today's elementary edition of Speak Up on Kotaku. More »

#sherlock Sherlock, the BBC's modern-day Sherlock Holmes reimagining, is a heck of an enjoyable tv show. In addition to the solid writing, strong acting, and un-cheesy modernizing of Holmes, I'm struck by the many ways that Sherlock uses the visual language of video games to place viewers in the mind of the master deducer himself. More »

#2011yearinvideogames The hardest thing at the end of the year is to parse yourself from the hype you're experiencing and think back to the games you played during the summer, the spring, and yes, 2011's early months. More »

Heavy Rain asks us "How far would you go to save someone you love?" Few games bother with this sort of question because the answer is intensely personal. Most games would rather task you with saving the world than with rocking a baby to sleep or patching up a failed relationship. This intransigence on the part of developers to create idiosyncratic stories that resonate with the individual is holding the medium back.

Why should gaming's prime inspiration be Michael Bay instead of David Lynch, David Mamet, Paul Thomas Anderson, or even Mel Brooks? An interactive medium like this has the potential to tell complex stories in ways that are sublime, irreverent, and evocative.

Gaming could explore the human condition by interfacing with the player like books, movies, and TV never could. Instead, we do battle with rogue Russian nationalists, storm Normandy for the 47th time, or fight off an alien invasion. I can't relate to any of this.

I'm tired of saving the world, and the industry is belatedly coming to the same realization. My favorite games of 2011, L.A. Noire and Catherine, spent generous time on character development, with highly personal stories that resonate with the individual.

#gamemusic2011 Welcome to Kotaku's "Best Game Music of 2011," a multi-part series in which we'll be talking about the best video game soundtracks of the year. Today, we'll take a look at the smooth tones and bustling swing of Rockstar's L.A. Noire. More »

If we're to get another L.A. Noire game, it will most likely be developed at a Rockstar studio.

We may not see a sequel to L.A. Noire crafted by former Team Bondi leader Brendan McNamara, but he will continue to make video games, as revealed in an interview with film director George Miller.

Miller spoke with Financial Review, and revealed he was partnering with Kennedy Miller Mitchell Interactive, a combination of former Krome Studios and Team Bondi employees, to develop a Mad Max video and McNamara’s next project, the currently dubbed Whore of the Orient.

Parts of Team Bondi lives on, even if it’s not called Team Bondi anymore. The LA Noire developer ran into financial turmoil after the game’s release in May, forcing the studio to dissolve, but some of its employees, including McNamara, joined Kennedy Miller Mitchell Interactive.

There’s no timetable for either game, but former God of War designer Cory Barlog was once working with Miller on the long-gestating Mad Max video game. Miller has been trying to get a new movie off the ground for years, as well.

Australia has one of the most lenient video-game-rating systems in the world.

No, really -- despite its reputation as an ultra-conservative, mature-rating hating government, "the reality is that many more games that are restricted to 17-year-olds in the U.S. or 18-year-olds in Europe are available without edit for 15-year-olds in Australia," said Chris Wright, former marketing head for THQ's two Australian studios, Blue Tongue and Studio Australia. "On balance, Australia is probably the most lenient country in the world for access to mature games."

No, really -- Wright was the man who presented Saints Row to the Australian classification board and he prepared plenty of ratings submissions in the country, both as head of THQ Asia Pacific and its two Australian studios. He knows the system, meaning he knows what it has and what it doesn't, such as an R18+ rating.

"I believe passionately that Australia needs an R18+ rating," Wright said. "But for me the R18+ rating is not about access to games, but parity with other entertainment forms and the acknowledgement of gaming as an adult pursuit. The R18+ rating will have a net effect of greater overall restrictions on access to games -- many games that would have previously been available to 15-year-olds will now only be available for 18-year-olds and above -- but will mean that a few games at the top end of the maturity scale are allowed to be released."

Legislation in Australia recently approved the R18+ rating (though it may take a few years to be enacted) and its Law Reform Commission is attempting to revamp the country's video-game rating system to acknowledge its adult audience. But recently, Australia has had more than ratings to worry about.

#lanoire You might think that getting slagged as an intemperate martinet who alienated and exploited an overworked staff at a studio that completed just one video game before going bankrupt would be, well, limiting to one's future career options. Not Brendan McNamara of the former Team Bondi. More »

Former Team Bondi head Brendan McNamara recently illuminated why L.A. Noire's Detective Cole Phelps would often ... overreact during interrogations.

"When we originally wrote the game the questions you asked were coax, force and lie. It was actually force because it was a more aggressive answer. That's the way we recorded it," McNamara explained at the Bradford Animation Festival, reports Eurogamer. "But when the game came out it was truth, doubt or lie. Everyone always says Aaron on the second question is a psycho. So that's not his fault."

McNamara also feels the reason some players felt the characters were dead from the neck down was because they were so lively in the face. He believes that players got used to seeing the facial detail and started getting picky about other stuff.

"It's a subtle thing, but once you attune to that level of realism then you start looking for the other things," he said. "And we had some criticism from people saying people were a bit stiff in their clothes and from the way they were done. But they were only stiff in comparison to real life."

L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition is coming to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 15th in North America (and November 18th elsewhere), just a week after the game debuts on PC. And like the PC game, The Complete Edition comes packed with every piece of DLC released thus far.

The bonus cases stacked atop your desk/disc include "The Nicholson Electroplating," "The Consul's Car," "Reefer Madness," "The Naked City" and "A Slip of the Tongue." They cover the arson, vice and traffic beats, and are offered alongside The Badge Pursuit Challenge and all unlockable outfits and weapons.

There's also a new prologue that explains why Cole Phelps transforms into Sergeant Frank Drebin every time he gets behind the wheel of a car.

(Or is there? Truth, doubt, lie, etc.)

#lanoire L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition is coming to the Playstation 3 and Xboxz 360 next month, Rockstar said this morning. More »

#lanoire Team Bondi, the Australian studio that saved the worst year of its existence for the one in which it finally delivered L.A. Noire, owes its employees more than $1 million, according to papers filed in the studio's liquidation. More »

LA Noire's defunct developer Team Bondi owed AU$1,425,156 ($1.4M USD) to creditors when the decision was made to shutter the studio. Edge reports over a million dollars was owed to the staff, with tens of thousands owed to developers who defended the working conditions at the studio, and nearly $100k apiece owed to the studio's controversial executives.

The real kicker is that nearly $150K is still owed to Depth Analysis, Team Bondi studio boss Brendan McNamara's firm that created the MotionScan facial animation tech, unquestionably a major factor that helped the game stand out.

Hold up, we take it back... the real kicker is that $54,427.01 is still owed to Bondi's accountants.

What to say about Rockstar? They’ve made me gnash my teeth in anguish this week by stating, to nobody’s surprise, that Red Dead Redemption is unlikely to grace my PC, your PC or anyone else’s PC. But they are giving us LA Noire. They finally got round to releasing Grand Theft Auto IV but there were technical issues and beyond them it needed a monstrously powerful computer to fully capture its criminal charms. And then they went and annoyed parts of the substantial modding community by releasing a patch which, some claimed, was designed to cripple non-vanilla versions of the game. What to say about Rockstar?

(more…)

Team Bondi, developer of Rockstar hit LA Noire, is kaput. Edge reports that documents were filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, indicating that the studio would close. The studio entered administration in late August, with its assets reportedly sold to Australian production company Kennedy Miller Mitchell.

Although LA Noire was an unquestionable hit for publisher Rockstar, becoming the "fastest-selling new video game IP ever in the UK," the game was on a separate narrative track from the internal drama going on at Team Bondi. Seven years of development took its toll on the staff and company.

In time, the truth will shake out about what went wrong at Team Bondi, in a year that should have established the studio as a force ending with its demise. For those who only care about the future of LA Noire ... don't you worry, IP holder Take-Two Interactive (parent company of Rockstar) isn't about to let a new series -- that shipped 4 million copies -- just disappear.

#lanoire Let's find out, since publishers Rockstar have today released some screens of the late-to-the-party PC edition of the face-reading hat simulator. More »

We sent Agent Smee to study the case of the L.A. Noire port to PC. This is the detailed report he sent back. Having studied its contents, we have no reason to suspect foul play.

The notebook I carry around everywhere is an unreadable mess. Written in handwriting so poor I can barely sometimes decipher my own words, it’s a collection of incomprehensible interview notes, indecipherable idle thoughts, scrawled doodles, contact details inevitably copied down incorrectly and shopping lists written over one another in different coloured ink before being scribbled out. It’s a nightmare, is what I’m saying, so playing LA Noire in the presence of the hard-nosed Detective Cole Phelps turns out to be some kind of lurid personal fantasy. His notebook, you see, is beautiful. Meticulous, organised, copperplate writing, lifelike portraits and intricate still life pencil compositions, the perfect tool of organised life. It’s not exactly often I find myself jealous of fictional videogame characters, but boy howdy do I want to be able to organise a notebook as well as Phelps.

(more…)

Release dates and system specifications: least entertaining of all the PC game-related facts. Oh well, it’s worth stating, given this is Rockstar’s first PC game in a while. Ambitious but oddball detective puzzle/action saga LA Noire is coming to PC as ‘the Complete Collection, which includes all the DLC release to date. In terms of PC-specific features, all we’re promised is “increased resolution and graphical detail along with keyboard remapping and gamepad functionality.” Plus NVIDIA 4D Vision support, but whatever.

When’s it due and what kind of PC will it need? I’m totally going to make you click Read The Rest Of This Entry to find out. SUCKER.(more…)

Rockstar revealed this morning that its crime drama slash adventure game, L.A. Noire, will become available on PC in North America on November 8, and in Europe on November 11, nearly six months after it debuted on consoles. There's no mention of a Mac port, but it is launching on OnLive the same day, allowing Mac gamers one potential avenue into this gritty city.

The "Complete Edition" was handled by Rockstar Leeds (Liberty City Stories), and adds 3D support, includes all the DLC missions, and asks for a lot in terms of recommended specifications. Head past the break for the full rundown.

#lanoire Evidence of Rockstar Games reissuing crime thriller L.A. Noire later this year in the form of a "Complete Edition" has reportedly been spotted by Eurogamer Czech. That apparent re-release and the PC version of Team Bondi's game are supposedly slated for November. More »

Some sad news, I’m afraid. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has announced that Team Bondi, developers of LA Noire, have gone into administration. It’s not long since stories of the troubled and prolonged development hit the airwaves and Rockstar had already stated they would not publish the team’s next title. Rockstar do own the rights to LA Noire though and the PC version is in the hands of their Leeds studio. This shouldn’t change anything on that front, though we shall keep an eye on the situation. As for Team Bondi, judging from what conditions were apparently like in the studio, it’s amazing to see the ambition that still made it into LA Noire. Sad times indeed for those hardworking people who may undeservedly lose their jobs.

The PC version of the game (handled by Rockstar Leeds) is arriving later this year. We’re taking it a look at it very soon.

You don't normally expect a company to develop a well-reviewed hit in May and then enter administration three months later, but L.A. Noire maker Team Bondi is following a strange, tumultuous timeline. SmartCompany reports that the Sydney-based studio has been placed into administration, with accounting firm de Vries Tayeh handling the ongoing process.

A company in turmoil can be placed into administration to help facilitate payments to creditors, possibly through sale of assets or parts of the company. It's not known how exactly administration will proceed with Team Bondi, but earlier reports suggested that company assets were acquired by Kennedy Miller Mitchell (KMM), an Australian production company thought to be working on a Mad Max game. Staff at Team Bondi were reportedly offered jobs at KMM if they did not take severance pay.

If you're looking for further developments regarding the L.A. Noire franchise, it will be have to be at Rockstar -- the publisher owns the rights to what is likely to be the last game from Team Bondi as we knew it.