Topic: L.A. Noire - OT

@Tibob People are too happy with this ignore button. They get one comment and they start blocking.

@MegaTen Same in my case. In my case I have the PS4 but I've stopped playing MOST games for it because of the rediculous downloads. AC Unity with the 23GB "patch" was the last straw. I have to watch my bandwidth as I have unlimited as long as I don't "use too much" (and they refuse to define 'too much'), and besides that even the PS4 runs out of disc space on the default drive too easily due to the mandatory full installs. I was excited about Switch third party because I thought it would solve that problem. If it's just carrying over, I doubt I'll be too enthused on Switch either. In this case, I'm glad to hear they're not actually cheaping out on the plastic and making you download the rest (mostly because it makes me think that Nintendo isn't being too lax with their policies), but it doesn't make me feel any better about the future of third parties where there are 7-30GB "day one patches." If I can't play the game without downloading as much or more contant than was on the original disc/cart, then it's just an incomplete product and they're making me pay for the rest. I was really excited about this game on Switch. Not sure if I'll get it on PS4 or just skip it now.

Actually it could. The fact that Xbox One S and X have Ultra HD Blu-ray drives give them access to 50GB, 66GB and 100GB discs. The upside of using UHD 50GB discs is that they have greater read speeds than regular 50GB Blu-ray. And 100GB discs are often used for UHD Blu-ray movies, however less VFX-heavy movies are typically shipped on 66GB discs. The overwhelming majority of UHD Blu-ray movies also include the movie on regular Blu-ray as well (primarily due to the fact that special features wouldn't fit on the UHD without compromising the quality of the main feature).

So, the option is certainly there. Or they could always ship the game on two 50GB discs.

@MsJubilee
Yep. For some it's too tempting to turn the Internet to be a big consentment machine.

It's not like there's no more other great games on Switch that are 100% physical and playable forever.

Now that I canceled L.A. Noire I might pick up Nights of Azure 2 instead.

@MegaTen Yeah. Granted if the above eshop size is only 14GB until a pending patch, then it's not so much the lack of attractiveness of the 32GB card that's the issue in this case, but the classic AC Unity problem of "sell game today, actually make it later." It's not like Playstation has a shortage of 15+ gb mandatory "patches". "Content not on cart because it doesn't fit on a cartridge smaller than the maximum size which we didn't buy, download separately" is a Nintendo Switch problem. "Content not on disc, to be released as a download in time for launch because we haven't actually finished it in time for pressing" is a problem with the Western game industry as a whole regardless on platform.

Rime is the former, NBA2k sounds like the former, but it sounds like L.A.Noire may be the latter. Not sure if it will affect PS or not. But 15 GB is a lot to tell people to download when you're buying a physical product. If your game code isn't final, no biggie, tweak it in time, it's a 5mb download. But if your art and sound assets aren't final and you need to distribute separately, maybe you just shouldn't release the game yet.

@MegaTen I don't know that Westerners are any less into physical than Japanese....just that more of the Western market has been conditioned to love digital by companies that were in a position to shape that thinking early on. There was this odd obsession with everything as a subscription service for a while, and digital content distribution was a part of that...but only if there was a savings associated. There's no savings with giant storage downloads. I think Squeenix partakes in this quite a bit (FFXV is more download than it is physical on PS4) as well, so Japanese companies aren't immune...but it's definitely less appreciated there.

Here, it's mostly about conditioning everyone to accept Games as a Service....to accept everything as a service. For now it's a patch, and in 5 years it will be "well you have to download the game anyway, who needs physical?" and the cackling geese on the internet will gladly repeat that line and mock anyone who wants their "little plastic unlock key like it's 1995" until everyone is shamed into submitting to renting their games at retail price as a service. Ultimately the goal is trying to eliminate the retailers and manufacturers cut entirely. It won't work of course, but they keep trying.

If GameStop were smart they'd work with publishers to be a point of delivery manufacturing solution. Write everything to a disc or card card at the store at a download kiosk in a pretty box with some free LE swag. But GameStop isn't smart....

Yeah, software as a whole, not just games has moved to "everything by the seat of your pants": Ship now, figure out if it works later, and fix it only if it sells well. The next project is in the pipeline, abandon ship! The "Cloud" has more or less destroyed any meaningful product life cycle. Gaming just takes it to an unimaginable extreme because it's not just bugs they can play loose with. The actual product content itself can be played loose.

If we were to compare it to the car industry, the old model would be that the shipped car may fail to start due to a defect in the starter wiring harness that wasn't tested properly. It sucks, and it's stupid, but at least they can fix it in 30 minutes or so at the shop. The new model is they ship you the frame, but the engine and seats will be delivered Feb 19th if there are no more delays. And the starter wiring harness will still be defective anyway.

@SKTTR But there's only one game that's unique from the rest. That's La Noire.

I know L.A. Noire is unique and it's still on my most wanted list for Switch (but for a much lower price now that it's confirmed that it's not fully on cart). That's why I'm saying I buy it for a couple of bucks later down the road when the price is ok to stomach a half physical game.

You see, after the meltdown of the Wii Shop Channel just 10 years later, there is nothing that can bring me my 300 Wii downloads back when, for instance, my SD card gets corrupted and I have no backup. The same will eventually happen with my 300 Wii U downloads in 5 years, and then again, a couple of years later with my Switch downloads.

Therefore I'm going physical-only this gen. Unfortunately L.A. Noire is no real physical game, it's half a digital one.

I'm aggravated as anyone about large downloads for physical, but in fairness, the Wii Shop Channel went down for particular reasons, and this was when it was handled through a 3rd party company.

The eShop as we currently know it will likely be around far longer than 10 years. Especially seeing as console cycles are evolving into backward compatible upgrades. I suspect the Switch line will be around for many, many years. And new consoles will simply build upon the Switch library, fully BC ala Xbox One X. Nintendo can't afford to roll the dice starting from scratch again. They're going to build the Switch brand like PlayStation and Xbox.

I'm more opposed to the fact that they have a respectable Triple AAA killer game on their hands for Nintendo users - in years (I think the last one they had for Nintendo was the excellent 10/10 game Bully: Scholarship Edition on Wii), and then they don't embrace it fully and don't make a good respectable retail version of it.

Instead of putting a sticker on it saying something like "First 32GB Mega Cartridge" to market it as the huge Triple AAA game it is, it will have the anti-consumer sticker saying "you may have to buy microSD card, needs internet to play, must download 14GB to play".

This is the first time that something like this is happening on a Nintendo console. The way it's being released on retail is crossing my line of acceptance. I cannot support it at all. That's all, one pre-order sale less. I'll buy those amazing half-games later when they're very cheap. I presume prices of releases like that will drop fast as they should.

@JaxonH As the Wii Shop disappears next year (after 12 years), I'm not confident enough in crystalballing that outcome for Switch. I expect 12 years for the Switch eShop as well - maybe a little more but eventually even less. Two new generations will have come by that time, and the old will get swiped again.

@SKTTR
Even if that's the case, 3 generations from now I won't be playing the Switch anymore. If there's a classic you want to play down the line, it'll be there on your Switch to play. The fact 3 new Nintendo consoles will have released means you won't be thinking about Switch games or playing them except for perhaps rare occasion.

Which means nothing is going to happen to the system if you're only playing it once a year. Which means your system will likely last a lifetime and the games that are on it. And with 99% of all physical games being on the cart, what are the statistical odds of, 15 years from now, getting the urge to play an old Switch game and that game just so happens to not work (what are the odds of that, slim to none) and even if it didn't work what are the odds it's one of the 1% of games that had large downloads...

So it's not that it can't happen, it's that statistically speaking it's incredibly unlikely. And I base all my decisions on statistical data.

@JaxonH @SKTTR
Don't you guys think that 12 years from now someone will have the "14GB patch" hacked and that it will be widely available for anyone who wants to replay the game ?

I know it's a speculation, but as much as the eshop going down. (so a pretty likely one, yes) Regarding the "legal side" of things, I'd be amazed if making a game you purchased playable was reprehensible.

@Tibob @SKTTR
Possibly, but who needs that when you can back up your games on micro SD?

Take a spare SD. Put it in. Get all your game downloads on it. Take it out and store it somewhere. If something ever happens, you've got a backup. That easy.

You can do that right now. In fact, I have all my games backed up from when I upgraded to my 400gb micro SD. My 256gb has all my digital games installed on it. That's the solution right there.

@Tibob: Yes, it occured to me, that with all the day-one-patches and half-physical-games that - one day - a crack is in order to download the needed data from unofficial servers; that there will emerge a community of hackers just to retain all the necessary data so we can update all our rushed, unpolished, vanilla, day-1-patch-needing cartridges and so that we'll still be able to play our physical half-games. It seems to be like that is the future of (retro) gaming. It's really starting with this generation (at least on Nintendo; the other consoles went into that awful direction sooner).

Has anyone seen footage of the game running on switch ?

Bethesda has presented both Doom and Skyrim "hands on" in game salons, but yet I have not seen LA Noire anywhere. Ten days before release... that's a bit concerning, isn't it ?

@Tibob
I think being a more low-key release is why. I'm sure it'll look fine, but it's not going to have the pretty new graphics like the other versions so I imagine they just didn't want to advertise that to the point everyone starts making comparisons and saying "oh, look how much worse it is than the other versions"

Well I really wanted to support rockstar but I just Can't, i have decided that I will only buy physical format including indie games and if it isn't playable out of the box then It's pointles, I mean you have a portable console take it on holiday buy a game to play on your travels yet Can't wtf, if they Can't be bothered to sell me the whole game I Can't be bothered to give them my hard earned cash, not when skyrim and Doom give me the core experience out of the box.

@Ervex_109
And I would then point you right back to it. Because the same will hold true for cartridges.

Any idea why is this is not available for pre-order on Amazon US yet? Checking everyday is driving me crazy. They did something similar with FIFA but in that case it was made available about 2 weeks before release. With LA Noire we are less than a week away from launch.