LA Times Teams Up With Rockstar For Awesome LA Noire Marketing Stunt

In just under two weeks, L.A. Noire will be immersing players in the gritty crime filled city of 1947 L.A., giving many their first experience of the life style. In recognition of the incredibly strange and extreme crimes committed during that time, Rockstar Games and the Los Angeles Times have teamed up to inform us on what really happened back then.

As time and technology evolves, so does the mindset of the common criminal. While nowadays we fear hackers, piracy, a high tech assault on our respective homelands, it was only 60 years ago that none of these fears existed. Criminals required more than the internet to plan their escape routes, and had to use creativity to their advantage and throw the cops off their scent. L.A. in the 1950’s was especially well known for extreme criminal activities, so while developing L.A. Noire Team Bondi has done extensive research, which involved reading through every single daily L.A. Times from January 1st through December 31st 1947.

While doing so they came up with a great, interesting idea. Teaming up with the L.A. Times, they’ve created a 1947 crime map, which shows us a map of the city in 1947 with markers spread out on it, representing some of the more interesting incidents of the year and where they actually occurred. Some of these are really quite intriguing, such as one about acrobatic burglars who broke into a grocery store through a skylight. Not only did they have a creative entry route for stealing over $2500, which was nothing to sneeze at back then, but the thirsty burglars guzzled several quarts of milk before making their escape. You rarely see this quality of criminal any more, since most resort to the front door, or the electronic back door. Other stories of interest include a 72 year old man defending himself, successfully, from 3 muggers, and a woman who “playfully” stabbed her lover to death.

While none of the stories presented here actually make it into the game, they’re still interesting, and it gives an insight into the type of material that Team Bondi is using for their inspiration in the game. Not all of them are so light hearted as our acrobatic burglars, and after reading some more of the rest there’s no doubt we’ll be delving deep into the frightening territory of desperate human psyche. Take a glimpse at history, and then tell us if you’re ready to get your hands dirty trying to solve some of the most difficult crimes in one of the toughest cities in 1950’s America.

L.A. Noire releases on May 17th in North America and on May 20th in Europe, and it keeps getting more and more interesting as those dates approach.

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