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

correction rip roaring success for Take two. 

I was reading that LA Niore has an budget of some 150 million dollars with its motion capture technology and the hours and hours of motion capture using real actors. But i doubt its that high but i am not susprized if this game cost an small fortune around the 50 million mark 

so the game needs to be success and i am sure that simply the Name Rockstar slaped on the cover will offer millions of sales despite little invlovement from rockstar 

Grr should I canel or not cancel my pre-order :l?

I care a little bit about patience but,what if this game is mostly just.Search,find something,interogate,repeat?

EDIT:Well I just heard that this game is(the person said it like this)

"Well it is....AWESOME,its like,its like,people been saying wheres GTA5,wheres GTA5,this is GTA5!"

Can't wait to get my hands on it and pop it into the ps3.

I just saw the Mass Effect 3 trailer,after I get Mass Effect 2,I'm going for Mass Effect 3 pre-order :)

If Heavy Rain can get 2 million audiences on the PS3, this can triple that on a PS3/360 release without ANY issue.

you can put GTA5 to rest becuase the people saying that are people who cant read and think the game is being made by Rockstar and not Team bondi. This game was going to be an SCE game before they pulled the plug and Take Two came to rescue. 

i do! i do!!

If Heavy Rain and Mass Effect can sell two million copies per platform, then I'm sure a well marketed Rockstar game can match or outdo those numbers with ease. This is Rockstar, I don't think they've had a game bomb yet on the Xbox or Playstation consoles and I doubt their new effort will be any different.

im sure it will do much better than heavy rain people are smart this game wont be that much of a strain.

its not rockstar and how about state emergency 

No major release from Rockstar has been a commercial failure this gen, the team might not be Rockstar but the game is being marketed under the rockstar banner. The marketing for this will ensure it's at least a relative success even if the game is mediocre. If it is a critical success, this game will sell akin to Red Dead Redemption, count on it.