The Game Informer cover story on “L.A. Noire” gave the world its first glimpse of the groundbreaking facial capture technology powering Team Bondi’s detective tale in 1940s Hollywood. We left the demo hoping that the finished product can live up to the very high bar that Rockstar and Team Bondi set. Recently, Rockstar brought by a brand-new live gameplay demo that showed off another mission in the career of LAPD detective Cole Phelps.

This case occurs during Phelp’s stint on the traffic desk but it’s a more sordid tale than a mere speeding ticket. It starts with Phelps and his partner Stephen Bukowski getting a call to investigate a car crash. Two women, actresses June Ballard and Jessica Hamilton, have apparently driven their car off an embankment and into a Coca-Cola billboard. Things get a little more interesting when Phelps arrives at the scene to interview Ballard, who claims they were drugged and put in the car as a setup.

From here, this seemingly open and shut case drags Ballard into the seedy underbelly of 1940s Hollywood. Ballard, a veteran b-movie actress and moll to mobster Guy McAfee, appears unreliable. She’s intent on fingering producer Mark Bishop for the crime, but then warns Phelps to let her and her husband “settle the score.” She’s clearly shifty, but Phelps knows there’s definitely more to this story when he finds an unsettling piece of evidence on the scene: a torn pair of women’s underwear. A fellow detective also shows him a fake shrunken head, presumably stolen from a movie set, that was used to wedge down the car’s gas pedal.

Next Phelps goes to interview the other passenger, Jessica Hamilton, at the hospital. Her doctor informs him that there is evidence that Hamilton was drugged and possibly sexually assaulted. Speaking with Hamilton, it’s clear that she’s a naive girl who wants a break into acting so badly that she’s easy prey for the predators that populate the movie industry. While she has little memory of what happened and is scared to talk, Cole cajoles some information out of her. It’s interesting to see how the player has to judge the character of each witness. Here, Phelps takes a much softer approach than he did with June Ballard, perhaps sensing Hamilton’s fragile makeup.

Throughout the case, Phelps makes constant notes of clues, bits of interviews, objects in the environment, photographs, letters and more. Each clue will open up more lines of questioning during your interviews, so it’s wise to gather as much information as possible. You’ll frequently have to use documented clues and facts to contradict a witness who is lying.

After interrogating Hamilton, the case takes a turn into dark territory. First, Phelps does a tail mission on June Ballard, who makes a call at a diner telling her husband to “take care” of Bishop. After Ballard gives up Bishop’s address, Phelps arrives at the producer’s apartment just in time to get in a fight with some Mafia thugs who are presumably there to rub out the producer. After dispatching the goons and interviewing Bishop’s wife, Gloria, a sinister picture appears to take shape: Bishop is somehow involved in a ring that takes aspiring young actresses and makes them sexual prey for depraved Hollywood types.

While we won’t spoil the solution to the case, suffice it to say that this game might feature some of Rockstar’s grittiest content ever. However, before you accuse them of being shock merchants, consider the fact that every case in the game is actually pulled from the newspapers of 1940s Los Angeles. This stuff really happened; it’s just been adapted and slightly altered for the game (most of the time this involved writing endings for unsolved cases). However, the real meat of the “L.A. Noire” experience comes from the investigations.

“L.A. Noire” is a risky proposition for Rockstar. While the painstaking recreation of 1947 Los Angeles is as richly detailed as any of the open world environments the company has envisioned, this game has a distinct, deliberate pace that’s quite different from anything else it’s done in the past. Based on what we’ve seen so far, “L.A. Noire” has the potential to be something very special. Will Rockstar’s audience be ready to embrace it?

‘L.A. Noire’

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Rockstar Games

ESRB rating pending

Release date: Spring

Mini review

‘Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom’

For: PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

From: Game Republic/Namco Bandai

ESRB Rating: T for Teen

“Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom” is a new game with an old soul — a fresh adventure that, for good, unflattering and arbitrary reasons, is a welcome throwback to 3-D gaming’s more experimental formative years.

In a nutshell, a kingdom has succumbed to darkness, and the guardian of the kingdom (known henceforth as the Majin) has been hidden in captivity long enough to achieve mythical status. But then along comes Tepeu, a human gifted with the ability to talk to birds and animals. With their (and your) help, he rescues the Majin, and together, they set out to restore the kingdom to its former glory. “Majin” plays like an escort game with a twist: Instead of being helpless and in constant need of protection, the Majin is the one doing much of the protecting. You control Tepeu directly while giving commands to the A.I.-controlled Majin.

“Majin’s” puzzles hit a perfect difficulty note — never needlessly opaque, but elaborate and creative enough. And while some so-so combat always punctuates these puzzles, the game rarely makes you slog through too many enemies before serving up another challenge.

— Billy O’Keefe, McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Top 10

HANDHELD GAMES

The editors of Game Informer magazine rank the top 10 handheld games for December:

1. “God of War: Ghost of Sparta” (PSP)

2. “Ys: The Oath in Felghana” (PSP)

3. “Sonic Colors” (DS)

4. “Plants vs. Zombies” (DS)

5. “Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem” (DS)

6. “Super Scribblenauts” (DS)

7. “Professor Layton and the Unwound Future” (DS)

8. “Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep” (PSP)

9. “Valkyria Chronicles II” (PSP)

10. “Golden Sun: Dark Dawn” (DS)

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

New game releases

The following titles were scheduled for release the week of Jan. 2:

• “StarDrone” (PS3)

• “ilomilo” (X360)

• “Lost in Shadow” (Wii)

• “Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of Osborne House” (DS)

• “Alt-Play: Jason Rohrer Anthology” (DS)

— Gamespot.com