[Type text] [Type text] Sophie Minissale IAB MEDIA PRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS PART A REPORT: VIDEO GAME RESPONSE GAME IN QUESTION: LA NOIRE (Team Bondi) MA 15 Australian developers Team Bondi have teamed up with open world experts Rockstar Games, to create the action packed La Noire. The game is set in Los Angeles, a town full of glitz and glimmer and temptation. It’s the 1940s and the effects of WW2 are still present. La Noire brings you a time of violence, corruption and fancy cars. Where everyone is a lair and you are the justice that weeds out their selfish and criminal intentions. You play as Cole Phelps, effortlessly played by actor Aaron Staton from Mad Men. The game has used newly developed technology called MotionScan (developed by an Australian company Depth Analysis), which enables a high- res 3D recreation of a person's face -- not just capturing bits and pieces of facial animation but their entire head, right down to the hairstyle. This means that actors actually play the characters and are not just animated into the game. This is a crucial point of the gameplay when it comes down to the interrogation part gameplay, where players have to decipher human body language to progress throughout the game. Stevens, T. (2011). LA Noire's Amazing MotionScan. Available: http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/17/l-a-noires-amazing-motionscan-facial-capture- system-demonstrat/. Last accessed 24 Aug 2014
Transcript
[Type text] [Type text] Sophie Minissale
IAB MEDIA PRODUCTION AND ANALYSISPART A REPORT: VIDEO GAME RESPONSEGAME IN QUESTION: LA NOIRE (Team Bondi) MA 15
Australian developers Team Bondi have teamed up with open world experts Rockstar Games, to create the action packed La Noire. The game is set in Los Angeles, a town full of glitz and glimmer and temptation. It’s the 1940s and the effects of WW2 are still present. La Noire brings you a time of violence, corruption and fancy cars. Where everyone is a lair and you are the justice that weeds out their selfish and criminal intentions.
You play as Cole Phelps, effortlessly played by actor Aaron Staton from Mad Men. The game has used newly developed technology called MotionScan (developed by an Australian company Depth Analysis), which enables a high-res 3D recreation of a person's face -- not just capturing bits and pieces of facial animation but their entire head, right down to the hairstyle. This means that actors actually play the characters and are not just animated into the game. This is a crucial point of the gameplay when it comes down to the interrogation part gameplay, where players have to decipher human body language to progress throughout the game.
Stevens, T. (2011). LA Noire's Amazing MotionScan. Available: http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/17/l-a-noires-amazing-motionscan-facial-capture-system-demonstrat/. Last accessed 24 Aug 2014
Because most of the game is acted out it is very similar to how a movie is shot, with the exception of the action sequences which involves a third person view of the situation such as high profile car chases or elaborate shoot outs with criminals. Since the game is set in the 1940s post World War Two, a lot of traditional and sometimes politically incorrect terms and roles are displayed. For example, women are seen to be “kitchen dwellers” and most African American characters are looked down upon and have racial slurs used against them. This aspect of the game provides an insight into the time of the 1940s, a time where all modern teenagers haven’t experienced.
The game is set up in four parts as you travel across the four desks of the LAPD Detective Agency (Homicide, Arson, Traffic and Vice). Each of these sections involve about three to four levels where you have investigate crime scenes. Through these
[Type text] [Type text] Sophie Minissale
levels you really get a feel for 1940s America and more specifically 1940s Los Angeles. The main attitude to particularly crime in this game is to favour the hard approach. Coming straight from the backhand of World War Two, some of the die- hard attitudes still resonate with the policeman. This promotes a message of violence towards teenagers and can also promote unethical approaches to problems.
Given the rating of the game (MA15), it could be said that the target audience would be of matured aged teens and adults. The game does deal with some very adult themes, which can be confronting to some adult audience. Some of the appeal from
the game comes from the fact that it embraces the new motion tracking technology and the new options that opens.
The characters used to convey the compelling tale of La Noire, are your very typical hero and villain. The traditional good cop and bad cop are displayed here with the main protagonist Cole always displayed in light and often heroic colours. He is also shown to be wearing his war medals. Where as the suspected criminals are shown in dark and harsh colours (reds, blacks etc) and are shown to be either smoking or drinking which the main character often refrains from doing.
[Type text] [Type text] Sophie Minissale
As well as the break through in technology, the main appeal from the game I think comes from the fact that it is set in such a diverse and open era bubbling with ideologies that most modern viewers would not be familiar with and the open world gameplay provides players with an even more attention grabbing experience and an even more realistic experience.
[Type text] [Type text] Sophie Minissale
BIBLOGRAPHY
O'Donnel, S. (2011). LA Noire Good Game Stories. Available: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/stories/s3224490.htm. Last accessed 24 Aug 2014.
Qusade, R. (2011). The Technology Behind La Noire. Available: http://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/12361/watch-the-new-la-noire-video-the-technology-behind-performance.html. Last accessed 24 Aug 2014.
