Using some impressive new motion capturing technology in L.A. Noire, Team Bondi is pushing the envelope and delivering something we’ve never truly seen: realistically-detailed facial animations in a video game. The film noir mystery theme that it incorporates is greatly enhanced by this new development, and while most of us have been impressed by what we’ve seen, someone with experience in motion capturing isn’t.
David Cage, proud director of the well-received interactive drama Heavy Rain, was recently asked about L.A. Noire due to its similarities with his creation. After explaining some of is initial impressions, he went on to say:
It’s a list of important problems that cannot be solved with their technology. I think L.A Noire looks good – honestly, it does – but I don’t think they’ll go much further than where they are. With the technology we use, we can improve; there is a lot of room for improvement and we hope to show very soon where we are now.
It’s undeniable that the video game industry has never seen facial animations as detailed as we’ve seen from L.A. Noire, but could David Cage be onto something even better? His team is notably working on new projects, supposedly straying from the Heavy Rain archetype. The project may be far from release, but if David Cage is this underwhelmed by something so seemingly great, then he must have something in place that will knock our socks off.
[Source]
