Forgot password
Enter the email address you used when you joined and we'll send you instructions to reset your password.
If you used Apple or Google to create your account, this process will create a password for your existing account.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Reset password instructions sent. If you have an account with us, you will receive an email within a few minutes.
Something went wrong. Try again or contact support if the problem persists.

9 Incredibly Expensive Video Games That Didn’t Turn Out Very Well

Making a game is really expensive. I mean, like really expensive. Way more expensive than making a cake, or a wardrobe. Games are a lot more fun and interesting though, so it's all relative - right? I mean, what video game would be less fun than looking at a wardrobe? Especially when the cash thrown at it is so immense.
This article is over 10 years old and may contain outdated information

5) L.A. Noire – 2011

Recommended Videos

lanoire3

Estimated cost: $50,000,000

I would be blown away if $49,999,999 of this didn’t go into those facial animations. I mean, look at them. LOOK AT THEIR FACES. Jesus, they’re so real. This game’s three yeas old now, and on a last-gen console, and it’s still outshining every single other game that dares to try and have characters with faces in it. Even famous Hollywood characters with actual faces like Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe. Cough.

L.A. Noire was impossibly well presented, and a perfectly captured slice of the the dark underbelly of ’40s California. What it was not, on the other hand, was that good of a game. It hurts me to say it, even today, but there’s no escaping the fact that it was simplistic, disjointed, and dare I say it, a bit dull.

[zergpaid]

Rising through the ranks of the L.A. Police Department – as well as having free roam of the city itself – sounds like a virtual dream come true, but in practice it was little more than an on-rails point and click adventure. It was Grand Theft Auto with the stabilizers on. Arguably that gameplay choice was within context – to begin with at least – but that context quickly dissolves when you’re running around candlelit sewers looking for a schizophrenic with a flamethrower by the end of the game.

If rumours are to be believed, this technology is coming back in a big way for next-gen, with formerly broke developer Team Bondi’s spiritual sequel Whore of the Orient.


We Got This Covered is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy
Author
Image of Ciaran Utting
Ciaran Utting
CiarĂ¡n Utting loves video games and books with pictures of speedboats on the cover. There's plenty more of his drivel on Twitter.