LA Noire gameplay exposed in 'Orientation' trailer

If you're still not sure what to think of LA Noire, Rockstar's 1940s-set old-Hollywood detective thriller, then today's trailer should give you a much betteridea of what to expect when the game rolls into stores on May 17.Not so mucha "trailer" as it is a "three-and-a-half-minute preview," the new video offers the most unvarnished look at the game anyone outside of the press has gotten to date, complete with over-the-shoulder gunfights and onscreen prompts.

Aside from showing off Noire's shooting, fighting, driving and exploration, the trailer also offers glimpses of interrogation (guided by a notebook and facial tics) and finding clues at crime scenes, two key things that should make the game more than just a Grand Theft Auto from the cops' perspective. It also looks goddamn amazing. (Watch carefully, and you may evenspot some of actor Aaron "Cole Phelps" Staton's colleagues from Mad Men.)We've been told to expect a hands-on with LA Noire in the coming weeks; until then, this gives us plenty to chew on.

Feb 9, 2011

Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.