When bad boy publisher Rockstar announces anything, the gaming world tends to stop whatever it's doing and take notice. Whether it's a report on what they had for breakfast that morning or the revelation of an entirely new game, we want to know all about it.

So imagine our delight upon discovering that - this morning, anyway - it was the latter. The company has unveiled its plans to publish L.A. Noire, a 1940's Los Angeles-set crime thriller, for next generation platforms.

The press release's careful sprinkling of words like "crime," "corruption," "drugs," "action" and "open-ended challenge" has us salivating for another GTA-style saga like the bloodthirsty Pavlovian dogs that we are, but Noire seems to have even seedier aspirations. The game will cast the player as a noir detective hunting down a demented serial killer in a gritty and sinister post-war metropolis. And if you're thinking, "Soundtrack?" then we hope you dig jazz.

Rockstar also deigned us with a 36-second trailer. Disappointingly, only six of those seconds show anything but titles and company logos... and that precious footage pretty much consists of the screen below. Is it gameplay? Stock documentary footage? Or just a trailer for another trailer?

Either way, in our never-ending quest to make your life as easy and effort-free as possible, we're giving you the choice - watch the extended director's cut with its artsy black screens demanding that you question the dark existential emptiness of your own life... or just watch our edit and cut straight to the action. Err, semi-action.

Both options lurk behind the Movies tab above.

September 25, 2006