This week on Twitter a bunch of friends were cracking wise about some L.A. Noire crossovers with other video games. That seemed to be as good an idea as any for this week's 'Shop Contest. Don't worry, I've included images.
Here's what we're going to do: Cole Phelps is a video game cop, right? Let's have him investigate other video games and characters. Here are several images to exploit:
Source Images: Interviewing, interrogating, and badgering suspects.
Phelps also gets real grabby at the crime scene; it's funny how driving a car past the perimeter contaminates all the evidence, but Phelps pawing a gun and getting his prints all over it doesn't. Anyway, here he is doing that. Funny objects could be swapped into his hand.
Source Images: Phelps handling evidence; Phelps handling more evidence.
Further, if you've played L.A. Noire, you've come to expect Caruthers, the medical examiner, at the beginning of nearly every case. Given how much death happens every day in video games, I suspect he could be a hilarious guest-star in someone else's world, or they could guest-star in his.
Source images: Caruthers and a body; Caruthers and detectives; Caruthers and another body.
Finally, in about 18 months of the 'Shop Contest (really, it's been that long?) I've noticed how frequently Mass Effect dialog wheels come up as a joke. I think L.A. Noire's "Truth/Doubt/Lie" system is the next evolution of this. While I don't think this image is particularly exploitable, it gives you an idea of how the options show up in-game. Obviously, this overlay on other photographs, particularly non video-game ones, could be funny.
Source image: Truth, Doubt, Lie in action.
By no means are those your only options. A Google image search turns up numerous high quality screenshots of L.A. Noire so feel free to look for those, too. Also, one advantage you have here is to desaturate the color completely, as L.A. Noire includes a black-and-white presentation mode for that extra hardboiled feel. Use that if you want. Just include some game element of L.A. Noire and make it funny. If you're stuck, there's got to be about a thousand O.J. Simpson jokes here.
You know the rules: The 20 best will get rounded up and published at the end of next Saturday. Meantime, I and the rest of the starred commentariat will approve and promote as many as we can so folks can see them and pass judgment.
This is your no-frills step-by-step procedure to participation in the Kotaku 'Shop Contest.
1. Create your 'Shop.
2. Upload it to a free image hosting service. I suggest imgur. It's stupid simple. No account is necessary.
3. This is very important: You must use the URL of the image itself. In imgur, this is the second URL it gives you after you upload the image. It's under "Direct Link (email & IM)"
4. At the beginning of the comments roll, click "Start a New Thread"
5. To the right of your name, select "Image."
6. Paste the imgur URL in the image URL field. It's the field that says "Image URL."
7. You can add editorial commentary if you want, but you can hit submit and your
8. This is important: Keep your image size under 1 MB. It will not upload to comments if it is over that size.
'Shop entry will be uploaded to the comments.
As an added inducement, I want to let you know I do star commenters who send in worthy/funny submissions - whether or not they're chosen for the final 20. This may not happen immediately. I usually start rounding up a gallery by the middle of the week. This is my subjective call, but I do want to recognize as many contributors as possible, and show gratitude for making this such a popular feature on weekends.
Now, Gentlemen, start your 'shopping!