Image: Rockstar Games via AFP Relaxnews
Six and a half years after its debut, high-profile detective game “L.A. Noire” is being given a re-release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and as a seven-mission compilation rebuilt specifically for virtual reality.
With an ambition and United States obsession in line with that of its publisher, “Grand Theft Auto” network Rockstar Games, Team Bondi’s “L.A. Noire” sent players back to a 1947 Los Angeles, as Patrol Officer Cole Phelps uncovers a conspiracy touching some of the city’s most established men.
Story beats drew upon detective noir novels and films, notably elements of James Ellroy’s L.A. Quartet as players navigated around a recreation of late 1940s Los Angeles—a meticulously constructed historical alternative to the contemporary environments spoofed in “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” and, later “Grand Theft Auto V”—with Phelps interviewing suspects and players interpreting facial tics and body language in order to extract crucial testimony.
Those interview sections were a major selling point for “L.A. Noire”, replicating the faces of film and TV actors within the game: Aaron Staton of hit show “Mad Men” became Cole Phelps, with the rest of its cast including fellow “Mad Men” alumni Patrick Fischler and Andy Umberger, Gil McKinney from “ER” and “Friday Night Lights,” John Noble from “Fringe” and Keith Szarabajka of “The Equalizer.”
Though Team Bondi was liquidated in 2011, Rockstar is still able to bring the original Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC game to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and the HTC Vive VR headset on November 14, 2017.
The PS4, XBO and Switch editions will include the original game plus its additional post-release content, with remastered graphics for the PS4 and XBO as well as support for 4K resolution visuals on the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X.
The Switch edition receives a new gesture-based control mode, contextual touch screen controls, new wide and over-the-shoulder camera angles, and HD rumble features designed to take advantage of the home and portable hybrid’s detachable controllers.
Finally, for Windows PC computers with a HTC Vive headset, seven of the original game’s two dozen cases have been reconfigured for virtual reality as “L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files”. JB
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