Customers who preorder Rockstar's latest at GameStop and Wal-Mart will get codes to download new cases; Best Buy and Amazon offering attribute-enhancing in-game suits. UK deals also revealed.
L.A. Noire is the latest game to dole out in-game content as retailer-exclusive preorder bonuses, as Rockstar Games today laid out five separate incentive packages designed to draw players to pick up the game from specific stores.
GameStop and Wal-Mart landed the marquee bonuses, as customers purchasing the game from either store before or at the May 17 launch will get an additional downloadable case. Those who go to GameStop will receive "The Naked City" case--in which protagonist Cole Phelps investigates the death of a beautiful woman--as well as a Badge Pursuit Challenge, which rewards gamers who find 20 hidden shields with a new suit that holds extra ammo. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart customers will get access to the "A Slip of the Tongue" case, which has Phelps bringing down a citywide racket on a trail of clues that starts with a single stolen car.
Best Buy and Amazon.com are also getting exclusive incentives in the form of new outfits that confer enhanced in-game abilities. Best Buy customers will get "The Sharpshooter" detective suit, allowing for more precise aiming with rifles and pistols. Those who go to Amazon for a copy of the game will instead receive "The Broderick" detective suit, which boosts melee attacks and makes players more resistant to damage.
Finally, Rockstar Games is offering its own exclusive preorder incentive for those who order from the company's store, though it is not of the in-game variety. Instead, the Rockstar Warehouse will be shipping out its copies of L.A. Noire with an official T-shirt, available in multiple sizes, as well as men's and women's styles.
L.A. Noire is in development at Australian studio Team Bondi and follows Detective Phelps as he becomes entangled in a violent web of vice, corruption, and crime in 1940's Los Angeles. Players jump into the seedy underworld of the metropolis and are tasked with solving a series of murders in what Rockstar describes as an "open-ended challenge."
For more on L.A. Noire, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.
UPDATE: Rockstar has confirmed the same bonuses will be available in other territories too. In the UK, The Naked City and Badge Pursuit Challenge will come with GAME pre-orders, A Slip of the Tongue will accompany Play's pre-orders, "The Broderick" suit will come with Amazon UK pre-orders, and "The Sharpshooter" will ship with pre-orders from Zavvi. Rockstar also confirmed that gamers in Canada would get the same deals through the same retailers as their American counterparts.
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
You guys are ridiculous. The cases are cases that are not going to be in the game. It's not like Rockstar is taking out parts of the game and give you an unfinished product, they are just adding NEW missions for those who preorder it. I repeat, the cases are NOT being stripped from the game, they are just adding new cases.
I don't know why every gets so angry about this stuff. I've looked at the Gamestop and Walmart websites and the both say they're standalone cases. So its not like if you don't preorder the game that the story is going to cut out in the middle of the game. At worst it will mean that you'll have 30 to 45 minutes of gameplay less than some who preordered ( or how ever long one of these cases take to solve). I mean I've never come across a Rockstar game that didn't last me at least 20 hours to play through. Preorder exclusives are just a way to build up a little hype for the game and encourage people to buy the game early so that the company's sales figures look a little better during the time when people actually pay attention to them. They can be nice but I've never come across one that I've felt that it has a drastically altered the game experience for me. I t seem like these days all that takes to get gamers into an uproar is too use the words "exclusive and "DLC" in a sentence.
Who the hell comes up with this stuff?! It's like they're sitting in a room somewhere and some idiot says, "Hey I know! Why don't we screw over every single consumer so that NO ONE can have the full game!" And then for some unimaginable reason, everyone else thought that was a great idea!! How do we stop this bull?!
ffs REALLY??? this isnt as lame as selling 3 versions of the same album with 1 different song but jesus.... how do people reseach the market for games with all this different stuff flying everywhere? please. simplicity for the love of god....-.-
No thanks. I like to get the version the non-elites receive. solidarity with a la masses. viva la peasante .
@Danny_1993 Did you mean on your post "what about uk benefits?" that do the uk get these incentives? Well we do. The naked city is available at "GAME" that is certain. I can't remember where each version comes from exclusively but the stores involved are "GAME, amazon, play.com and zavvi.com. Anyone wishing to know which DLC you can get these sh*tey incentives from then th answer is at www.rockstargames.com/lanoire/preorder
I just completed an online survey about gaming and its future developments and regarding buyer incentives it looks like they are here to stay! I was asked about if I thought if it would encourage me to buy a certain game and I said no... Much to my surprise I discovered that at the end of the survey, the results were 81% in favour of these exclusive dlc incentives? Only 6% were against it and most others thought they didn't know or wanted free t shirts instead! I mean COME ON? lol numptys. Obviously it wasn't anybody from gamespot who voted?
@Vari3ty well since your giving me a choice on which to pick from then obviously i would choose to buy from my friend, no matter what! I know what yer getting at but this is not what i meant... I mean that my friend is finding it hard to stay afloat at the moment in the centre of a Scottish city because of huge game stores... then sh*te like this comes out and gives even more money to the huge retailers and it really sticks the knife in, much deeper! The reason why u think i should choose between the 2 is nothing to do with it! If it is because I said that i have nearly paid for it? The reason i said that was because, regardless where you are pre ordering it from if you have already started paying for it then you miss out too, u see? So if i bought it at amazon before these stupid incentives came out then i would probably miss out as ive already paid for it!
ABSOLUTE CRAP. And they wonder why people pirate games, cause we don't like getting SCREWED!!
I was actually thinking about picking this up but I'm finally over all this exclusive preorder bull. I think I'll just wait for GTA5, even though I know they'll do the same thing with it.
they wouldn't sell a car with 3 tires, why sell parts of a game when i pay full price? it's unfair is what it is.
@aTRUEplaya I agree. I feel that's disrespectful for us as consumers and gamers when buying at a certain retail and under certain circumstances gives you some exclusive content. I they want us to think that's a bonus? Please. There should be just 1 game, the same for everyone. What comes next? if we pay more for a game we will get more content?
I never understand why developers never put the full things in. They always like to get little gimmicks on us for stuff that should already be in the game. I will still get this game but probably won't DLC unless its worth it until the GOTY edition comes out later.
"Variety is the spice of life." I like that they are doing this. they wanted to mix things up a bit for the consumers and players im all for it. so, you better choose wisely! (im going for The Naked City package)
Put everything you make into every game for christ's sake. Imagine if certain super mario bros levels were only available if you picked it up at walmart?
Hmm, this is a no win situtation really. I wonder if there's any chance to buy the extra stuff. In most cases it never is, so without knowing much about the game, a gamer is going to either end up with no extra content, or something they realise later they may not have wanted...frustrating...
This is worse than ridiculous. I might consider a GOTY or some other means by which I can play the game I'd just paid for. At this point it seems more obnoxious to play a game and wonder what I'm missing than to skip it entirely. Whoever came up with this garbage was pretty smart; if they cover all major promotional outlets, they can claim the customers "love" the idea, as they just happened to buy the game at the promotional store.
GameStop are offering a suit that holds more ammo? Do they not know that it's already been announced you have unlimited ammo lol And also where are the UK benefits?
I see why people might be upset but for people who think your not getting the whole game thats not true your just getting extra for reserving it an dim sur theyll release it latter as a dlc pack if youv ever play a rockstar game youll knot they DO NOT cheat you on content
i hate this, but it is happening with more and more games :( when i buy a game i want the whole thing, i dont want it to vary depending on where and when i get it.
Its funny how Wal-Mart censors its music and bans certain books, but it has no problem selling Rockstar games. If Rockstar cares about the future of censorship in videogames, they should not be cutting an exclusive deal with a retailer that promotes it in other mediums. I'll pass.
Thanks Activision.. look what your crappy DLC methods have started.. now its turning into a hybrid.. (buy the game but you don't get all of it) And an even bigger thanks to casual gamers who have no standards at all when it comes to quality
I really hate mutually exclusive retailer bonuses. I can kinda understand if it was, say, only from one since then you could get everything from that one. This way, no matter which you get, you're missing out on something, and I don't like thinking I gave the company 60 of my hard earned dollars for them to give me less than the full game.
Yeah, this kind of nonsense is starting to get to me. It's true what they say, "Want to ruin something? Make it mainstream." I miss gaming before gaming was cool. This is one of my most anticipated titles in 2011, but I'm going to wait and see what happens with these missions (and I'm going to try to wait for a PC release anyway).
The gaming industry has changed. Nowadays, people only get 90% of the game if they purchase the game from an retailer who has deals with Rockstar. And for those who lives in places where there aren't any Gamestop, Amazon or any of those retailers, you get 80% of the game. If you want the *FULL* game, you need to pay around $250 for it, from different retailers.
I don't really see the point myself :\ Yeah it offers something "exclusive" for people that pre-order, but eventually everything will be released as DLC further down the road. Or for free in the GOTY edition.
Awesome! Now once they tell me which console the game runs better on, I'll maybe pre-order... but they won't be getting anything from me until then.
@Gelugon_baat Well, a better way to do that is to refrain from pre-ordering it, since that's the scheme that they're using. That's what I do with the DLC on every game I buy, since I think that whole system is b.s.
Got I hate this stuff....Gamestop always seems to "lose" my preorders anyways. It's been 1/3 for the times I've preordered where they've actually given me the game. This just goes to show that there's going to be some DLC for this too...the whole DLC system just needs to die out.
So, an amazing day one purchase now has to wait indefinitely till I can get a full game, good job guys, way to reduce sales. I want to have all the missions in my game, but not only did you make 2 missions you need to get from a specific retailer, you made them from two separate retailers... You were cool once guys, what happened...
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