One of the most ambitious games of the year, L.A. Noire, has shipped to retail today for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. For those not paying attention for the past several years it’s been in development, L.A. Noire is an open-world detective game set in the mid 20th century from the same publishers responsible for Grand Theft Auto.
Yes, that’s reason to be excited.
L.A. Noire is a crime thriller that tells the story of Cole Phelps, a decorated World War II veteran and new detective in the LAPD. Set amid the boom of Hollywood’s Golden Age, players must search for clues, interrogate suspects and chase down criminals to solve a series of cases based on real world incidents. As he rises through the ranks of the LAPD, Phelps comes face-to-face with the corrupt heart of Los Angeles: from fallen starlets to double-dealing police officers and the vast reaches of the criminal underworld — and finally, the darkness of his own personal demons.
L.A. Noire features MotionScan, a new technology that captures every nuance of a real actor’s facial performance, delivering the most lifelike characters ever seen in a video game and creating brand new gameplay out of the art of interrogation. You can see the MotionScan technology in action in this video, the L.A. Noire official launch trailer.
The M-rated L.A. Noire is available today for the Xbox 360 and PS3 for the MSRP of $59.99. The game will release internationally on May 20.
DailyGame will have a full review of L.A. Noire as soon as we’ve spent sufficient time with the game to do a review justice.
