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!