“Your latest word on L.A. Noire is that it is coming along “splendidly” and that we can expect more details very soon, but that was in September. I’ve been anticipating this game for ages now and I was wondering if you can provide any new information or when in fact you’ll publicly provide more information. By the way, is it still on the PS3?”

Rockstar’s reply:

There will be something great to see soon – a proper in-depth look at the game and why it is so ground breaking and innovative, both in terms of the game’s design and the amazing new technology to support it. Expect to see a long-awaited reveal via a big cover story next month.

Finally the the big reveal everyone has been waiting for, we’ll keep you up to date with any developments as soon as we have specifics on when/where this big reveal will be.

Source: Rockstar Newswire

A total of 9 positions have opened, including animators, programmers and 3D modeling jobs. You can check them all out at Team Bondi’s jobs page.

The game doesn’t currently appear on any of parent company Take-Two Interactive’s fiscal 2009 release list, so we’ve still, absolutely no idea when it’ll get released!

via Kotaku

• Team Bondi’s goal is to have every NPC in the city feature a distinct personality and different knowledge sets
• The game is not being funded by Sony, who dropped the title (Phil Harrison and Brendan McNamara (Team Bondi head) can’t stand each other, McNamara & Company’s tendency to miss milestones did not help either, but had very little to do with Phil’s decision), there is nothing stopping a 360 release.
• The amount of music in the primarily jazz soundtrack is “comparable to GTA.”
• The detecting mechanics are described as “an analysisfest” to which reaction has been polarizing, one calling the detective elements “fatally boring” and another remarking that the mechanics are “absolutely innovative.” The former dubs the game “Assassin’s Creed: Noir Edition” and the latter went on about “investigating the social structure of 1947 Los Angeles.”
• Finally, information about at least some of the crimes you will be investigate in the game can be found here.

Surfer Girl later updated their post with the following details about Sony’s dropping of the game:

UPDATE: Sony stopped funding the game when Phil dropped it years ago. The bad blood between Brendan and Phil, which began during the development of The Getaway, is the primary factor in the game being dropped. Team Bondi would likely still be with Sony if Phil never took control of WWS, there is a reason that Brendan affiliated Bondi with SCEA rather than SCEE, who has authority over Australia.

There is no indication that Team Bondi are going the route of Ratbag, whose title Ikon (later became Scavenger, which never made it to stores) was dropped by Rockstar after being dropped by Sony, Brendan is quite amiable with the Housers.

Those detective elements are so polarizing that the implementation of them is cited for the reason of at least one resignation and there has been a number of departures at Bondi. Internal horror stories about Bondi appear to be plentiful.

Interesting developments, we’ll have to wait and see what comes of this.

Source: Surfer Girl

Now, we don’t ever see Sony shouting about any sort of exclusivity for this game, and Team Bondi still say either “PS3″ or “next-generation consoles” depending on who you speak to, so this still doesn’t really count as “official”, but there we go.

• The game will be a free-roaming title with a historically-accurate recreation of Los Angeles in 1947.
• Team Bondi has even hired a costume designer to research the clothing of the era so the game’s attire can be accurate.
• Aside from main story, side missions will be based on actual cases pulled straight of the newspapers of 1947.
• A US Marine plays a big role in the story.
• Not so exclusive…but LA Noire definitely ain’t coming to Xbox 360, the size of the game is an obstacle to this.

We’re not sure how true any of these details are, or where they came from, but the story has made quite a few high profile gaming websites/blogs, so we may as well share it with you.

Thanks Surfer Girl Reviews Star Wars [via Kotaku AU]

Since the release of the game’s trailer, we’ve had absolutely no information on the game. There’s been speculation on which consoles it will be released for, but still no confirmation on that either.

We’ll keep you up to date on any developments we learn about right here at lanoire.net.

The financial report also stated that fellow Take-Two title LA Noire is due out in fiscal 2008. The spokesperson suggested that both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 releases are likely, stating, “LA Noire is being developed for next-generation systems.”

So once again it now looks like it may well be coming out for the 360 after all. We still have no solid conformation that it is for definite, but I guess we’ll have to just wait patiently for that.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

This PS3 exclusive “confirmation” may not surprise you, as way back in July 2005, Team Bondi orginally announced that the game would be developed “specifically for the PlayStation 3.”
However, more recently in September 2006, another article on IGN mentioned that “publisher representatives have made it a point to list L.A. Noire for ‘next-generation consoles’ and not solely the PS3″.

So while this latest press release contradicts that statement and reverts back to TB’s original intentions, it doesn’t technically serve as “official confirmation”, though it is beginning to look more and more likely that L.A. Noire is indeed only in development for the PlayStation 3. I have contacted developers Team Bondi to see if we can get an official word on which console(s) the game will be released for, and will update this post accordingly if and when I get a response.

We don’t have any more information on the game itself, but we’ll be sure to post any interesting developments we find out about in the coming months.

Oxford, UK-Feb 27 2007- NaturalMotion today announced a partnership with Rockstar Games, Inc., the world-renowned publishing label, to integrate NaturalMotion’s revolutionary euphoria engine into upcoming next-generation Rockstar Games titles. Rockstar’s integration of euphoria is well advanced, with today’s announcement following several months of close collaboration between the two companies.

It is important to note that as of yet no specific titles have been confirmed, though it appears we’ll be getting seperate announcements on those in the near future. It looks fairly likely that this technology will be used in Team Bondi’s LA Noire, which is of course being published by Rockstar Games. Here’s a little more info on the technology:

Based on NaturalMotion’s DMS technology, euphoria uses the processing power of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to simulate the human body and motor nervous system, thus creating fully interactive game characters that act differently every time. With euphoria, games move away from canned animation, towards a much richer, life-like experience that is unique to the player.

So essentially, you shouldn’t see the same movements twice from characters, it will always be different just like in real life. While this is (possibly) some of the first real information we have on the game, it’s looking quite interesting already.

Links:
NaturalMotion
Press Release (pdf)