Anyone from this part of LA who can vouch for the accuracy of the map/scenery?

[Officer Dibble]

In most R* games I like to compare the in game maps and scenery with the real life place it's based on.

In this case though because it's so old I guess even if it was very accurate it would be changed a lot by now anyway.

If there anyone here from LA who knows the place well and can say how accurate the map/scenery is?

[Detective Hudson]

My friends Grandfather lived in L.A in the 40's, he was born in 1920 something and never was drafted for some reason. He watches us play this game and he can vouch for it.

[1upChuck]

Born and raised in LA, I can tell you that some things are correct and some aren't. I've been studying LA from the 30's-50's and some things they have aren't correct. It's mostly things like: signs having the wrong type faces, things being on the wrong corners and some things being in the wrong part of los angeles completely. Buildings are missing, some are there but shouldn't be yet for the year the game takes place. Some of the roads are wrong altogether.

For the most part, it's pretty good. Nitpicking aside, it's great. I took it to my parents house and showed them. They were dying to see it after seeing all the commercials. They were finding their old hang outs, and old job locations. A lot of the places are gone, but just as many are still there today in LA. Renovations and owner changes have changed a few sings, but downtown LA buildings are mostly still there through broadway, spring, ect. You can even still ride the Angels Flight train for $.25, although it has been rebuilt.

[Officer Dibble]

Thanks that's good to know. I am from the UK but know NY pretty well and often saw the similarities with GTA IV and the real thing but LA is a bit of a mystery to me.

[1upChuck]

Well, this game actually makes a lot of sense when you go looking for roads...I'd suggest going to a street in the game, and then google mapping that same street on the computer. Make sure you use cross streets. You will see most of the major buildings and hotels are still there.

Easiest to do for downtown LA. They did that area pretty precise in the game.

Midnight club LA, was HORRIBLE....made no sense, and didn't really look like LA except for a couple of places.

[noire2008]

I came across an article here: http://www.1947project.com/47PplaysLANoire

It's very extensive and covers a pretty good bit in regards to your question. I found the website when looking up how relevant the cases in L.A. Noire were. I found a lot of similar cases to the game. Really neat.

[lakingsgeek]

I am from Los Angeles and can vouch for the accuracy. It's not perfect but quite impressive nonetheless. Any remotely large building is in the game and many smaller ones as well. I frequent downtown LA quite often and can find the exact buildings that many of my favorite bars and restaurants are located in, even the smaller ones.

Unfortunately the store fronts don't always reflect the type of business they should be, but at least the building as a whole is accurate.

Here's a good example of an impressive and somewhat obscure building. The Golden Gopher is a bar downtown on 8th between olive and hill. In the game it's a drug store, but you can see the distinct windows right above the bar/store if you drive by it.

Golden Gopher

It's kind of strange that they didn't reflect it as a bar in the game considering it has one of the oldest liquor licenses in Los Angeles and used to be a cop bar back in the day.

Another semi obscure business/building is the Clifton's Cafeteria's in the game. One is on Broadway between 7th and 8th i think, the other is on Olive between 6th and 7th. Those are real restaurants, only the Broadway location exists today.

I actually think it's a shame that they didn't include more historic landmarks to find. If I had my way I could probably think of 50 buildings worth noting as historic landmarks. They are in the game but they didn't bother marking them as landmarks.

As far as inaccuracies one of the most annoying was the "Westlake Tar Pits". That should be the La Brea tar pits and they aren't in the real location at all. Their real location isn't on the game map. IRL they are on Wilshire just east of Fairfax, next to the current location of the LA County Museum of Art. Wilshire doesn't run far west enough in the game. I would have loved for Wilshire to extend to Fairfax Ave as there are a ton of great Art Deco buildings in that area known as Miracle Mile.

I could go on and on about this stuff. Being able to drive around 1947 LA is a dream come true.

[ThisIsNotGTA]

Team Bondi also stated that they made it a bit different on purpose. Don't remember the reason, but I guess it has something to do about the technology and the gameplay. Maybe even the looks of it. Or if it was to hard to make it accurate.

[1upChuck]

Cliftons was the 1st thing my parents wanted me to look for in the game lol. Moving the tar pits is a weird thing to do if you didn't have to. My guess would be permission issues...but idk.

I too see so many building in the game, and i get ready to press Circle to view the landmark as I drive by it, but nothing happens LOL.

I wish they had rendered leimert park in the game. I wanted to see what it looked like then, and where they found the body in the black dahlia murder, in game.

[Dave]

The tar pits were moved so they could be included in the game - same with the art museum and a couple of others. The actual locations are outside of the area covered by the game's map.

[Nem Wan]

The behind-the-scenes stuff described using 1940s aerial photography as a major source and some of the mistakes such as what storefronts and what types of business seem consistent with what you couldn't see from that perspective.

Some changes may have been to deliberately fictionalize to avoid unexpected lawsuits over something being based on a particular business. Just changing the names might not have been enough.

It's too bad Coke and Pepsi didn't want to play. I'd rather have their ads than "King Cola".

[lakingsgeek]

(05-25-2011 12:10 PM)Nem Wan Wrote:  The behind-the-scenes stuff described using 1940s aerial photography as a major source and some of the mistakes such as what storefronts and what types of business seem consistent with what you couldn't see from that perspective.

Some changes may have been to deliberately fictionalize to avoid unexpected lawsuits over something being based on a particular business. Just changing the names might not have been enough.

It's too bad Coke and Pepsi didn't want to play. I'd rather have their ads than "King Cola".

I understand why changes were made. The tar pits are in the wrong place because they really wanted to include them in the game but couldn't justify adding maybe 4 or more square miles of map to the game. That's a ton of work/money.

If it was my decision I would have just left them out and utilized some of the other great buildings that are on the map. For example I would have used the Bradbury building and created an interior for it. It's the most amazing interior in all of Los Angeles.


They could have created more interiors for the landmarks. I would have loved to walk into the Central Library's dome. Or how about making the Biltmore Hotel a landmark and recreating the entrance on Olive.?

[Jimmy Crake]

(05-25-2011 02:35 AM)Dave Wrote:  The tar pits were moved so they could be included in the game - same with the art museum and a couple of others. The actual locations are outside of the area covered by the game's map.

Yeah I think the social club page mentions only around 90% is accurate. But know nothing of L.A. and I still think its the best map to feature in a game of its kind.