Rockstar's upcoming L.A. Noire is heavily influenced by the world of pulp detective novels. So it's entirely fitting that the game is getting a spin-off anthology of short stories.
"Transmedia" is the latest buzzword to get publishers all excited, referring to the use of one intellectual property across several different forms of media. It's been happening for years, of course, as novelizations of video games are nothing new. But Rockstar's effort with L.A. Noire has the potential to be rather interesting.
L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories gathers together a series of original tales penned by Megan Abbott, Lawrence Block, Joe Lansdale, Joyce Carol Oates, Francine Prose, Jonathan Santlofer, Duane Swierczynski and Andrew Vachss. The stories aren't directly based on the game itself, but many of them do feature characters that appear in the game as well as cases and locales.
The complete anthology will be available as an eBook from June 6, though selected stories will be made available across "various media outlets" just prior to the game's launch on May 17. You can read an excerpt from one of the stories -- "The Girl" by Megan Abbott -- here.
Source: Daily News from GamePro.com
Tuesday, May 3, 2011