LA Noire Production
LA Noire a video game released on 20th May 2011 for consoles and was released for computers on 11th November 2011. Created by Rockstar games and Bondi, this game was seen as a new generation videogame available on Xbox, PlayStation 3 and now computers. The game has a Pegi rating of 18. The game contains extreme violence - Multiple, motiveless killing - Violence towards defenceless people - Descriptions of criminal techniques - Strong language. These factors limit the amount of people that can purchase the game and will mean they don’t make as much money.
L.A. Noire tells the story of Cole Phelps, an LAPD detective who is haunted by his actions in World War II. Phelps joined the U.S. Marine Corps along with a man named Jack Kelso, with whom he often clashed over various matters regarding military procedure. The events of L.A. Noire take place after the end of World War II, following Phelps as he joins the force. Kelso has moved on to become a private investigator for an insurance company called California Fire and Life, hoping to put the demons of the war to rest.
The game uses a Havok Physics game engine; a physics engine developed by Irish company Havok. Havok allows for real-time collision and dynamics of rigid bodies in three dimensions. It provides multiple types of dynamic constraints between rigid bodies (e.g. for ragdoll physics), and has a highly optimized collision detection library. By using dynamical simulation, Havok allows for more realistic virtual worlds in games.
Rockstar ran a competition to win a trip to Los Angeles to attend the Festival of Film Noir at the Egyptian Theatre (which is actually featured in-game as a location), take an Esotouric Black Dahlia bus tour, and play the game a month before its official release.
On 29 March 2011, Take 2 Interactive announced that L.A. Noire was selected to be shown at the Tribeca Film Festival, the first videogame to be recognized by the festival. L.A. Noire was screened as a sixty minute long film on 25 April 2011, followed by a question and answer session on the game's story and the technology used to make the game.
On 6 June 2011, Rockstar published L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories, a collection of short stories from noted crime authors, all based on the L.A. Noireuniverse.
- Discuss the objectives of the game.
The purpose of the game is that you are a police officer soliving crimes in LA. As you solve each crime you progress through the ranks of the LAPD. There is on main crime that you need to solve, however there are other smaller crimes that are not relevant to the main story but you can chose to solve those.
- How does the game immerse the audience?
The game uses HD graphics and facial movement capture to make the game look more interesting for the audience.
How does the game make the audience more interactive?
The game allows the player to asses whether characters are lying, you can examine evidence and write in Cole’s notebook. The activities in the game allow the player to get engaged in the game.
- What are the key features of the game?
- Looking at characters faces and decide whether they are lying
- Questioning witnesses and suspects
- How does the game use media convergence?
The game allows players to share their achievement on fan sites, Facebook or Twitter. This is all within the game where as in previous games you wouldn’t have been able to do this all within the game.
- What are the possible future developments of the game?
The HD, 3D and face detection technology has never been used before so with the success of LA Noire this technology will become more widely used making games better and more detailed than ever.
Behind the scenes of LA Noire. This shows the technology behind the game giving the audience an insight into the making of the game.
