L.A. Noire on the Xbox 360 spans across 3 discs in total, while the PS3 version stuffs the entire experience on one Blu-ray Disc. Three discs aren't too bad, especially considering it was once at a staggering six discs.
But knowing that there isn't yet a Xbox 360 model that comes with a built-in disc changer, Team Bondi turned to advanced compression techniques:
It took a lot of effort to get down to three discs – I think we were on four or five or six at one point – and to get it onto one Blu-ray [for the PS3 version].
Said L.A. Noire director, Brendan McNamara, while speaking with Gamespot in a recent interview. McNamara continued:
We're pretty pleased that we got it down to that in the end
It's the biggest map that we've done and that Rockstar have done, so there's a lot of detail in there, and also a lot of actor's performances – 21 hours worth.
McNamara called the feat "miraculous compression".
At first, many trashed Sony for including Blu-ray Disc early in to the PlayStation 3's lifecycle, but now, it's proving to be useful. For all you dual-console owners out there, are three discs on the 360 enough to get you to buy the PS3 version of L.A. Noire instead? Let us know below.