L.A. Noire shows off once more in this final trail before the game launches

By Ryan Fleming May 11, 2011

While we all know Los Angeles to be among the most civilized, crime-free and cleanest cities in the world, but it wasn’t always the culturally rich town that it is today. Rockstar hopes to recreate those forgotten days when violence and corruption were common in Los Angles, in the upcoming detective-based open world game, L.A. Noire.

With just a week to go before the release of L.A. Noire, most gamers have probably heard plenty about the game already. It was the first video game ever accepted at Tribecca, it has a script of over 2,000+ pages, solving the crimes is incredibly in-depth and intricate, and more. If not, or if you are just so excited for it that you need a taste, Rockstar and Team Bondi have released the final launch trailer for the game.

Check out the trailer below, and look for L.A. Noire in stores on PS3 and Xbox 360 on May 17.

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Ryan Fleming is the Gaming and Cinema Editor for Digital Trends. He joined the DT staff in 2009 after spending time covering…

Gaming

L.A. Noire developer may be filing for bankruptcy

Following reports that Team Bondi, developer of L.A. Noire, may be folded into Keller Miller Mitchell (KMM) Studios, more details on the shape of Team Bondi have leaked out. According to Develop, the Australian developer has begun to sell off its IPs and additional assets, and may be preparing to file bankruptcy.
No papers have been filed yet with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, signifying that the developer has not begun the process of trying to sell itself, but reports suggest that current Team Bondi employees have been given the opportunity of taking a new job at KMM, or accepting a severance package.
Assuming that the reports are true—and with more and more evidence supporting those reports it seems likely—then this may mark the sad end to a promising studio. Following the release of L.A. Noire after years in development, the game wowed critics and audiences on its way to selling 3.5 million units since its release in May. But despite the praise and solid sales, the behind-the-scenes issues within Team Bondi soon came to the surface.
L.A. Noire publisher Rockstar eventually decided to cut ties with Team Bondi after once toying with the idea of folding the developer into itself and rebranding them as Rockstar Sydney. But issues with the development, and especially with Noire’s director Brendan McNamara, soured relations. Several former Team Bondi employees also came forward and painted a bleak and unsafe working condition, and put much of the blame on McNamara, calling him a “bully” among other things. Other employees have since come to McNamara’s defense, but the damage was done, and Team Bondi is currently under investigation by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA).

Gaming

L.A. Noire dev Team Bondi may be joining Mad Max creator’s Australia studio

Team Bondi, the developer of the Rockstar Games-published L.A. Noire, may be in discussions that will see Brendan McNamara and his crew absorbed into George Miller's KMM Studios, insider sources tell Kotaku. Miller is of course known as the creator of the Mad Max series; more recently, KMM's animation spin-off Dr. D has seen success with its Happy Feet movies. It's hard to say what role the Bondi staffers would take on, or if that possibility is even being discussed.

In terms of concrete information (albeit from anonymous sources), McNamara has visited the offices of Dr. D. It is also "broadly known" at KMM that Miller is a fan of the Noire director, largely for his "refusal to compromise his artistic vision in the face of deadlines" (Kotaku's words). Everything else in the story is speculation on the part of both the sources and the writer.

Gaming

L.A. Noire lead programmer defends Team Bondi in a letter to the IGDA

Reports emerged last week of troubling working conditions at Team Bondi, the Australia studio responsible for developing Rockstar Games' latest, L.A. Noire. The info came from a number of unidentified former Bondi staffers, who also indcated that the situation led to a split between Rockstar and the studio on future projects.

As is always the case with these sorts of stories, there are multiple perspectives and not all of them see things as the whistleblowers do. Disturbed by the allegations raised by those former Bondi staffers, Noire lead programmer Dave Heironymous fired off a letter to the International Game Developer's Association, which he then shared in its entirety with Gamasutra. Heironymous admits that working conditions were difficult -- really, that's nothing new for the games industry, especially during "crunch" periods -- but he believes that the allegations which have been raised are not so much meant to make things better as they are meant to see the studio "destroyed."