Not exactly LA Noire 2 I guess. But it is by the same people, and it looks to be a sandbox type detective story. This one is set in 1936 Shanghai. Could be cool. I liked LA Noire a lot. I recognize it had definite flaws, but it was still fun, and had a fantastic story to it. I'm anxious to see what this one will be like. My guess is it will come out in 2015. http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/21/team-bondis-w****-of-the-orient-receives-funding
Sounds like some misleading reporting (though a confusing situation). The way I understand it, even though this funding announcement is pretty new, it was finalized months ago (March/April time period). Around April, it was announced that w**** of the Orient was on hold, and much of the staff (if not the whole staff) were let go. Warner Bros backed out of the project, and it didn't seem like they could find any other financial backing ($200K certainly wouldn't get them far). http://tsumea.com/news/210613/screen-nsw-invests-more-than-870000-in-creative-digital-projects I wouldn't be too optimistic about this coming out. I don't think anyone is particularly eager to give these guys a bunch of money to make a game (Warner Bros backing out definitely isn't a good sign). And frankly, I think that's a good thing, given what they did with LA Noire. The development/production of the project that is, not the quality of the game. The fact the game turned out decent was probably due to efforts by Rockstar and maybe even Sony, not these guys. I'd rather funding go to other studios. Maybe Rockstar can spend some resources on a game like this at some point. I'd put more faith in them than these guys.
Kind of offensive title, don't you think? http://cdn3.spong.com/news/l/a/lanoirecre359168/_-LA-Noire-Creators-New-Game-w****-of-the-Orient-_.jpg
You might be right. I remember all the horror stories about how bad Bondi was, and how they mistreated their crew. My hope would be that they learned from their lesson. While 200K might not be enough to do the project a lot of times once one big investor comes in, others are eager to get on board because they see others are willing to invest. It would probably help if it was a company putting up that money rather than the govt. of Australia. The game being set in a 1936 Shanghai sounds like a fun setting. But if this game doesn't come out, I hope another game in this genre happens soon. I don't think it's a good sign that they only have one still screen shot from the game at this stage, and it hasn't changed in a long time.
If that's not offensive, then how about they should change the location to Mexico City and call the game "w**** of Mexico".
Yeah, I think this being a grant from their government rather than actual funding from a possible publisher/investor/etc. doesn't really help much (governments tend to give money to lots of poorly-run studios, just to stimulate the industry in their country). Warner Bros backing off, and the fact that no one else has stepped in yet (despite even getting $200K) doesn't really give me much hope. I'm actually not 100% clear who would be left to work on the game. I assumed McNamara would be on board, given that it is his IP, but I don't see a lot of comments from him (just the heads of the new production company). Team Bondi is mentioned as working on it, but they were closed down (with some employees joining Rockstar and others working on CG films). It likely doesn't matter (very unlikely this gets made), but I'm curious who all is actually pushing this thing. If some of the good creative people behind LA Noire (sans McNamara I guess) are with Rockstar, they could produce something like this perhaps. Rockstar did want to keep the IP. And if nothing else, the increasing popularity of Kickstarter and indie games should give opportunities for games like this to be made, assuming the right creative minds are interested. Preferably without having to spend $50M-$100M to do so though. For the side-talk about the name, I believe it is explained somewhere that this was a slang term for Shanghai during this time period (unlike "w**** of Mexico"). Or something along those lines. Don't really care whether that makes a difference (you can be the judge), but that's the reason for the name IIRC.
w**** of the orient was a nickname for Shanghai back in the thirties. It was something the city was commonly called amongst seedier types. So it makes sense for a game about the seedy underbelly of Shanghai set in 1936. I don't doubt that they hope the name will give them some free publicity.
I'm a bit surprised that this is the name. I wonder if any groups advocating for rights / censorship will speak up about the name.
Well many gamers are geeky, anime-loving, yellow fever white kids, so I imagine this will appeal to that demographic. Many game developers fit in that group as well..
Awesome! One of my favorite games. I don't know if this will help ever bring about a sequel or not, but being able to get this and play it on my xbox one is huge. I have hilarious video of my wife trying to drive in that game after a few too many margaritas. It's always good fun watching her try and drive around LA after she (the player) has had too many drinks.
