Rockstar Games recently told Kotaku that their much talked about upcoming release, L.A. Noire, will ship on three discs for the XBOX 360. The game file is so large that it takes up an entire twenty-five gigabyte PS3 Blu-ray disc. This is not because it’s set to be the longest game ever made, however. The reason given for the game’s size and use of three DVD discs for its Microsoft version is its abundant use of MotionScan technology for its characters’ facial expressions.
“L.A. Noire was always going to be a massive game, from the size and detail of the world to the length of the cases, and of course, the sheer amount of MotionScan data required for the faces of over 400 actors in-game,” stated Rockstar’s Jeronimo Barrera. “To tell the story and make the game we wanted to make, we knew that it was going to take an entire single layer Blu-ray disc and three Xbox discs.”
Despite this news, there’s no need to worry about having to get up a lot to change the game disc.
“Since the game is built around the concept of progressing through individual cases from desk to desk, players on Xbox will find disc-swapping is hassle-free,” he said. “In fact, players will only need to swap discs twice at natural breaks between cases, without interrupting the flow of the game.”
“Throughout development, we created lots of great cases, the bulk of which were central to the main story of Cole Phelps and his rise through the ranks of the LAPD, alongside other cases that felt more like strong stand-alone episodes. This gave us a powerful main story, and left us with quality extra content that we wanted to put out as DLC, that would slot seamlessly into the existing game.”
One of the most anticipated upcoming releases, Rockstar’s L.A. Noire is sure to be a hit when it debuts on store shelves later this month. The film noire inspired crime game is set to hit the PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360 on May 17.