The spotlight deal of the day over at Amazon today is the video game L.A. Noire for Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 for $44.99 each (that’s 25% off the list price of $59.99).

Note, this deal is only for today, June 14, 2011, until midnight PST while supplies last.

[On the product page, click “See price in cart” for a pop-up window that shows you the discounted price.]

From the Xbox 360 product page:

L.A. Noire is a gritty, single player detective game set on the infamous streets and in the smoke-filled back rooms of postwar Los Angeles. Designed and developed with a nod to the classic film noire movie genre, L.A. Noire blends crystal clear graphics that bring the iconic look and feel of the era to life, with a combination of innovative technology and unique gameplay that allow you to solve crimes through interrogations and investigation. Additional features include: five LAPD based crime desks to work, the ability to analyze the case as well as suspects for clues, an accurate block-by-block recreation of eight sq miles of 1947 Los Angeles, multiple difficulty settings and more.

L.A. Noire
Xbox 360 I PS3
DEVELOPER: Team Bondi
PUBLISHER: Rockstar Games
RELEASE DATE: May 17, 2011

Of all the many exciting titles being released in the year 2011, L.A. Noire has easily developed one of the biggest buzzes of them all. With game-changing (literally) performance capture technology being used and some intriguing new crime-solving gameplay, folks have been lining up to get their hands and eyes on this one for some time now.

As far as whether or not the game lives up to all the hype, we’ll get right into the down and dirty truth: yes, L.A. Noire is an impressive accomplishment with many elements worthy of praise. The world is huge and detailed, the performances from an awesome cast of recognizable character actors is phenomenal, the music is fitting and sets the tone wonderfully, and the cases are complex and often times brutally realistic. In this game you get to be a detective more so than you ever have before, and that, my friends, is pretty damn cool.

Amazon is currently offering a $15 credit towards future purchases after you pre-order the video game L.A. Noire for Xbox 360 or Playstation 3.

Also, with the pre-order, you’ll receive the Broderick Detective Suit, which boosts your fist-fighting capabilities and resilience to damage. The Broderick Detective Suit will come packaged in your game box.

Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 editions of the game are priced at $59.99 and will be released on May 17, 2011.

In an unexpected bit of news, it’s been announced that the upcoming Rockstar Games crime title, L.A. Noire, has officially been selected to the Tribeca Film Festival.

Yes, you read that correctly: a video game has been chosen as a selection at a film festival — the first to achieve such an impressive feat. The game uses unbelievable performance capture technologies that present flawless facial expressions and lip synchronization unlike anything we’ve ever seen in a game. This plays into the game’s crime solving gameplay, where you’ll need to read many different people, decide whether they’re telling the truth or not, and choose your questions carefully based on your reads.

We’ve seen a trailer and impressive first images from Rockstar Games’ upcoming title, L.A. Noire. We’ve also seen a video showing off the astounding technologies behind the game, which create shockingly accurate facial expressions and lip-to-word synchronization.

All of these previews of the game have been created using in-game content, but what we had not yet seen was true gameplay — what it will actually look like when we get this bad boy in our hands and begin our adventure in 1940s post-World War II Los Angeles.

Rockstar has now release just that and as you might expect, it looks pretty incredible. As you’ll see, it does look like a Grand Theft Auto-style game, but mixed with these awe-inspiring new performance capture effects and the added crime-solving elements that require you to interrogate suspects, read their expressions, and find evidence, L.A. Noire is no doubt going to be a top contender for game of the year.

You can see the new gameplay trailer by clicking over to the other side now!

Back in November, we helped to show off a great trailer and impressive screenshots for a game that’s been catching eyes everywhere: L.A. Noire.

The game comes from Australian developer Team Bondi and publisher Rockstar Games, who are responsible for a couple of titles you may have heard of like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. L.A. Noire takes that same type of open world, hop in a mode of transportation and travel to your destination type of game we all love so much, but adds an insane cinematic tone and gameplay that requires you, a detective, to investigate and solve crimes.

The big selling point, however, has to be the shocking realism that has been achieved with the characters in the game. Incredible detail goes into every face you’ll see or talk to (which plays an important role in the game when you need to read whether someone is lying to you or not), and you’ll want to weep with joy when you see how accurate their animated lips synch up with every word spoken.

Speaking of this detail, there’s now a feature showing off the technology that went into making L.A. Noire so realistic, and you can see how it all works by clicking on over right now. You shan’t regret.

For those who aren’t aware of its existence yet, a new game is on the way from publisher Rockstar Games and Australian developer Team Bondi titled L.A. Noire, and so far it looks like it’s going to blow minds.

The game is very much in the same vein as acclaimed film L.A. Confidential — set in the decade prior in post World War II 1940s Los Angeles where “corruption, drugs, and jazz” reign. The city was meticulously recreated for the time period right down to billboards and ads selling actual products from back then, setting the stage for one of the biggest and most ambitious video game titles to date.

If you’d like — and it’s highly recommended that you do — you can click on over to the other side now to see the first trailer for the game, as well as a bunch of new screenshots. See for yourself why gamers are oh-so-very-excited for this one.