Unfortunately (or fortunately, when looked at from the standpoint of getting anything else accomplished in my life), I do not have a system that will run LA Noire, the new title from Rockstar Games.
Let’s review what Robert is a huge fan of, shall we?
- Rockstar’s immersive Grand Theft Auto series
- Los Angeles history, especially 1930s, 40s, and 50s
- Noir, both film and print
- Historical crime
- James Ellroy
From the Wikipedia article:
As the title suggests, the game draws heavily from both plot and aesthetic elements of film noir – stylistic films from the 1940s and 1950s that shared similar visual styles and themes including crime, sex and moral ambiguity and were often shot in black and white with harsh, low-key lighting. The game uses a distinctive colouring-style in homage to the visual style of film noir. The post-war setting is the backdrop for plot elements that reference the detective films of the ’40s (as well as James Ellroy’s novel L.A. Confidential and the Academy Award winning Curtis Hanson film based on it), such as corruption and drugs, with a jazz soundtrack.
So you see my unfortunate/fortunate situation.
And now along comes an article in the Guardian, describing a book being released in conjunction with the game: ‘LA Noire video game inspires short story collection’.
A literary glimpse into the world of much-hyped new video game LA Noire is being provided by authors including Joyce Carol Oates and Lawrence Block, who are contributing to a new anthology of stories set in the world of the game.
Out next week from Rockstar Games, makers of Grand Theft Auto, LA Noire takes place in 1940s Los Angeles and pits gamers against historically-inspired crimes. An unusual collaboration with Mulholland Books will also see the publication in June of a collection of short stories based on the game’s characters and cases, with contributors ranging from the award-winning Oates and Block to the bestselling Francine Prose and Edgar-nominated thriller writer Duane Swierczynski.
“Using the game’s world as a springboard, we worked with the genre’s best writers to create stories that lived up to the finest traditions of crime fiction,” said Rockstar founder Sam Houser. “LA Noire draws on a rich history of not just film, but also great crime literature for inspiration.”
So, there’s that.
The only anachronism is that it’s being released as an ebook, which is peculiar; I can’t imagine the combined set of crime history buffs who are also gamers with ebook readers is that large. Alas, as I also have no ebook reader*, I will not be able to join in the fun on the reading side either.
I guess I’ll have to go old school to get my fix: queuing up some selections from TCM on the DVR. ;)
- $50-60 would be about my price point, with the ability to put my own text on there, preferably with an open-source operating system.