Friday, May 6, 2011

L.A. Noire


Rockstar Games, the publishers of the videogame Red Dead Redemption, a popular western saga, are turning to crime. The game L.A. Noire is a murder mystery set in 40's Los Angeles, in the style of movies like The Big Sleep and Chinatown. Because the real roots of this material is literary, bred from stories like those of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, Rockstar is going the extra mile and has commissioned a number of authors to write stories inspired by the game. An ebook of the stories will follow shortly after the game's launch, and includes writers like Lawrence Block, Andrew Vachss and Joyce Carol Oates. Seems like a great idea to me. The stories will stand on their own merits, and when your fingers are starting to fall off from playing the game, you can retire to your easy chair and give your digits—and your brain—a rest without leaving the noir milieu.

Read the whole story—and an excerpt—at EW.com's Shelf Life.

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