LA Noire M.I.A

Rockstar's new game, LA Noire, was released last week. According to reports, it has sold more copies in the UK upon its release than any other new IP. I think this is partly due to its pervasive advertising campaign and partly due to Rockstar's reputation of developing, almost without exception, excellent games. Their most recent release, Red Dead Redemption, was my favourite game of last year and they are probably best known for the tabloid-baiting, mainstream-crossover series, GTA. Rockstar's name can, to borrow a movie term, 'open' a game, like a videogame Tom Cruise. Only taller.

And, unlike some of Mr Cruise's films, Rockstar has delivered - LA Noire has received excellent reviews in the gaming and mainstream press. Most of my twitter (I'm @30somethinggmr) timeline is playing or talking about the game, with all but one of those agreeing with the reviews.

It seems the only interested gamer not playing the 'James Ellroy 'em up' is me. My brother bought it for my birthday through play.com and, despite being despatched on 17 May has still not reached me by the 23rd. This is probably the only time I've ever wished games were download only, though with my broadband speed (2MB with a following wind) I'd probably still be waiting for that to finish downloading.

My/his pre-order bonus has, however, arrived - I have a, currently redundant, code for an extra mission and a code for a free download of the original soundtrack. As with last year's Red Dead Redemption, the soundtrack is excellent (Rockstar is probably the best user of music in games around), enabling me to at least imagine what playing the game is like. Here's hoping the postie delivers the game itself tomorrow.

UPDATE 24/5/11

Like Odysseus, my copy of the game finally found its way home! I think I probably could have walked it here quicker but the main thing is that it has arrived - I'll be playing it tonight after my daughter has gone to bed. 7pm seems a reasonable bed time for a 8-year old...