Xboxist

LA Noire Release Date Set for Spring 2011

How exciting! Rockstar has just sent along a new trailer for its upcoming game, LA Noire, and yes film fanatics, it's still spelled wrong. Having been announced several years ago (yes its really been that long) we were beginning to worry that the ambitious project had been shelved. But lo and behold, the mysterious game still lives. And now, we know that it will be a strongly story-driven crime drama, like something out of the great Hollywood films of the 1940s and 1950s. For a masterclass on the Film Noir genre, check out Roman Polanski's neo-noir classic, Chinatown. After viewing the trailer, we suspect there might even be a bit of crime solving, rather than simply crime committing, going on in Rockstar's latest game. The publisher describes L.A. Noire as a dark and violent detective thriller set against the backdrop of Los Angeles in the post-war years of the late 1940s, the most corrupt and violent period in the city's history. At the end of the trailer, we're treated to a bit more exciting information: the release date is set for 'spring' 2011.

Based on groundbreaking performance capture technology that goes beyond traditional methods to render every subtlety and nuance of an actor's facial expressions and emotions, L.A. Noire is the first game to truly explore what it means to be a detective, offering players the opportunity to solve crimes through a blend of classic action, clue-finding and interrogation, allowing players to analyze every subtle nuance of an actor's performance in order to get to the truth.

According to Rockstar, this trailer was made entirely from in-game footage.