It’s been safely assumed for a while now that Rockstar Games, the popular video game studio behind huge franchises like Grand Theft Auto and Max Payne, as well as the remarkable open-world western, Red Dead Redemption, and the recent L.A. Noire, which they published for Team Bondi, has been hard at work on Grand Theft Auto V, the follow-up to 2008’s record-shattering hit, GTA IV.

Now those assumptions have been confirmed in a subtle announcement from Rockstar. If you go to the company’s website, you’ll see the subtle announcement…and not much more.

DLC is, most of the time, an evil thing. Gamemakers like to create tempting new quests and items and various other things, and then force you to pay even more money (on top of the $60 you need to drop in the first place) in order to get these things.

Now, to be fair, so long as the DLC isn’t crucial to the main game’s storyline, it’s not a big deal and we still have the choice whether or not to spend a little extra on a certain game. But when something does feel important (like Mass Effect 2‘s Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC, perhaps) or when John Cleese is constantly on your ass to buy more crap (yes, we’re talking to you, Fable III), a line is crossed.

All of that said, it’s surprising that more companies don’t win the hearts of gamers everywhere by throwing some free DLC our way from time to time. To get the ball rolling, Rockstar Games will do just that with word that they will be releasing a little free DLC for their hit western title, Red Dead Redemption, come September.

An amusing new video has hit Funny or Die for those of you who played the recent Rockstar Games and Team Bondi release, L.A. Noire (Read: Game Review: L.A. Noire).

The video shows us what the popular game””which takes place in 1940s Los Angeles as a WWII vet named Cole Phelps works his way up the LAPD ranks by showing off his keen eye for details and his ability to solve tough cases””might look like if it existed in real life.

The video exaggerates some of the things you find yourself doing often in the game, which is what makes it so humorous. Though I must question the jab about running over pedestrians at the end of the video””anyone who’s played knows that every person in ’40s L.A. was a ninja, and almost always finds a way to inexplicably avoid death by vehicle.

You can see the live-action L.A. Noire video by heading below now!

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.

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.