L.A. Noire Is Free With GTA+, Featuring Gorgeous Era-Appropriate Vehicles

If I were to describe L.A. Noire in one cliche, it would be: "They don't make them like they used to." If you've never played it before but enjoy noir detective stories, this might be the perfect interactive experience for you. You play as LAPD detective Cole Phelps, performed by Aaron Staton, whom you might recognize from his famous role in Mad Men.

The story is era-fitting (1947), where you have to solve intriguing cases in a town where corruption is at its peak, which leads to a historically high murder rate. To top it all off, the drug trade makes Tony Montana's Miami look like a child's playground. There's also a pattern of suspicious arson cases forming alongside racketeering conspiracies, and dead bodies are popping up seemingly everywhere.

Without going into any spoilers, if you've seen and liked or even loved movies like 2013's "The Gangster Squad" or Roman Polanski's classic "Chinatown" from 1974 featuring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, then the main storyline from L.A. Noire will more than likely make you want for more after the end credits have rolled. The bad news is that knowing Rockstar, there will probably never be a sequel.

The game initially came out on May 17, 2011, for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and later joined PC and newer generation consoles like PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and even Nintendo Switch. It might not look like it now, with $300 million budget AAA bangers from Sony, but when it came out, L.A. Noire was pretty unique in its handling of motion capture facial animation.

Not only did the developers use the likeness of the actors, but they also scanned and accurately portrayed their facial animations. This was pivotal for the game, given that interrogations are a main gameplay mechanic where you must read people's body language and facial expressions.

Cars from that era represent another central theme. The map of Los Angeles is huge in this game, so getting from one end of the map to another will take a while. And yes, of course you can steal cars from unsuspecting citizens, given that it's a Rockstar game. However, you don't necessarily use force like in Grand Theft Auto; you flash your police badge and claim the vehicle in the name of law enforcement.

It's not a true Rockstar game unless it features a ton of vehicles you can requisition, drive, crash, and destroy, and, oh boy, does this game deliver. In no particular order, people have spotted some of the fanciest and most beautiful rides from that era.

Take the gorgeous 1938 Avions Voisin C30, for instance, or the 1939 Buick Century convertible coupe. The 1941 and '47 Buick Super models are nothing to scoff at either. The 1939 Cadillac Series 60 Special is another gem, and in its heyday, it proudly donned a 346-ci V8 engine mated to a 3-speed manual gearbox that sent power to its rear wheels. We also have a 1947 Cadillac Series 61, Series 62, a 1942 Series 75 Limousine, and more from the Caddy range, but one that stands out among others is the V16 model.

Otherwise called the Cadillac Sixteen, this old-timer was a real beast, as the nameplate suggests. The V16 generation was famous for its 452 cubic-inch (7.4-liter) engine that produces a modest 185 horsepower that propelled this not-so-gentle giant forward at a top speed of 93 mph (150 kph). A few years back, in 2022, one was auctioned off for no less than $1,575,000.

The 1947 Chevy Fleetmaster is also making an appearance. The Fleetmaster had a short shelf-life between 1946 - 1948. It wasn't for your average dock worker, being part of a top trim level range. Although the name is now part of history, it was the talk of the town, with supposedly more than 400,000 models sold yearly in 1949 and 1950.

The few models I mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg. There are more cars than you can count in L.A. Noire, and that's fantastic because you get to drive even more gems like the 1946 Lincoln Continental, 1937 Lincoln K, 1939 Lincoln Zephyr V12, 1941 Mercury Custom, 1942 Nash Super 600, 1947 Oldsmobile 98, 1948 Oldsmobile 88, 1938 Phantom Corsair prototype, 1947 Studebaker Champion, 1947 Studebaker Commander, or the 1948 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport. The list goes on, and on, and on, so we'll just stop here.