Do Enough Gamers Have The Patience For L.A. Noire?
In just about every facet of entertainment, we see evidence of a depressing decline in attention spans and overall patience. It's one of the reasons we believe the Call of Duty phenomenon is both sustained and widespread.
But when it comes to a game like Team Bondi's L.A. Noire, which very clearly requires a player to step into the shoes of a detective - a position that demands the utmost in regards to patience and diligence - we're a little concerned: does the current "satisfy me now" gaming culture have room for such an intellectual title? We have more confidence than we had last year, when we asked if Heavy Rain was simply too smart for most gamers; as it turned out, the game went on to be a huge success. With over 1.5 million units sold, that greatly eclipsed the original expectation of only a few hundred thousand. So it proved there is an audience for such an interactive experience...at least so far as the PlayStation 3 is concerned.
Therefore, we'd hope to see L.A. Noire succeed in much the same way. In fact, we hope it's even bigger. Based on all the footage we've seen thus far, it appears to feature a combination of slower-paced sleuthing (i.e., exploring a crime scene, following up on clues, interrogating suspects, etc.) and action mechanics that remind us of Red Dead Redemption in terms of execution. This could very well be one of the best productions of 2011; there's no doubt it's already one of the most ambitious of the generation. But as CoD grows and the casual gamers become a bigger and bigger part of the gaming demographic, we still worry that certain intellectual pursuits will be ignored. We know a lot of you are looking forward to it, certainly, but then again, we have an older-than-average readership.
So we have our concerns but hopefully, later this year, we'll find that L.A. Noire was yet another rip-roaring success for Rockstar...well, provided the game turns out as well as we think it will. Review scores still push software, remember.
3/13/2011 9:27:46 PM Ben Dutka
http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/8715.html
