Brendan McNamara, founder of Team Bondi, the developer of the elusive and intriguing LA Noire, has commented on the believability of the game’s characters in the latest edition of OPM. Claiming that they’re taking the process even further than the likes of Heavy Rain, McNamara quotes how a key element of LA Noire is interrogating suspects and picking up on their particular tells. He states:
“We wanted to make a detective game. And a key part of that is interrogating people. If you’re going to see if somebody is lying, you have to be able to look for little poker tells, all that stuff.”
Suggesting players still have to “suspend disbelief” to buy in to how real the likes of Heavy Rain’s characters Ethan and Madison actually are, gamers can expect something extra in the 1940s set crime drama.
“The characters look great [in Heavy Rain], but in the terms of believability you still have to sort of suspend your disbelief and enjoy the game. This is going to be a bit of a line in the sand, compared to that.”
McNamara goes on to reference the dreaded “uncanny valley,” a psychological concept that theorises people express revulsion the closer a simulacrum (such as a robot or a digital character) becomes more life-like (after a certain point). A bold claim, especially considering Hollywood has been trying to overcome this specific challenge for years and have yet to completely master the process.
Via: ConnectedConsoles
TSBonyman
I saw an article on the new motion cap tech in a mag recently (either opm or edge), looks incredible!
DRCD1
Lie To Me (TV Series), but in the 1930’s and better and playable?
bunimomike
Great, great show. Tim Roth is sublime.
DRCD1
Indeed. One of my favorite TV series, along with Stargate Atlantis, Bones, Burn Notice and LOST
badgersnapper68
I sincerly hope its as good as it sounds, as this could actually be an innovation using the power of the PS3/360 that doesn’t revolve around just having shinier graphics – even though the graphics are a big help……..you know what I mean!
Mr_writer
Colour me interested….
Apnomis
Sounds incredible if they can pull it off, I’ll have to start taking notes while watching Lie To Me* on Sky One so I know what to look for!!
Does Heavy Rain suffer from uncanny valley? Lauren Winter has odd looking teeth but other than that I wasn’t troubled by the characters. Does the uncanny valley effect even apply if the character is motion captured? Isn’t the point of uncanny valley that visually they look human but they are still unnatural in movement/expressions etc hence the dislike of them? If you are using MoCap surely you are capturing the human movements and expressions of the actor and therefore uncanny valley doesn’t apply? The problem would be trying to do a photo realistic character without it being based on a real person…
DrNate86
I think it is more to do with the fact that they look almost entirely human but something isn’t quite right, which we find more unappealing than something that clearly isn’t human.
Kovacs
The kids freaked me out. More like the “KILL IT WITH FIRE! Valley”.
rht992
hmmmm i’ll wait for a new trailer before i pass judgment. its been too long since we all saw this game in action
bunimomike
If they don’t have mitten-hands, I’m happy.
sabbat7001
But mittens and so adorable and…OH MY GOD! GET IN THE CAR, GET IN THE CAAAAR!
sabbat7001
*are
gideon1451
So, they’re still actually making this?
There’s never much news on this game. Looks good though.
SmokeyPSD
I’m sick of hearing Team Bondi talk.
All games that the developers have endlessly talked without actually showing anything have never came up with the goods.
Here is what I know that’s concrete about this game This is no longer going to be a freeroaming experience making full use of a bluray disc. The developers themselves are feeling the crunch of the limitation of dvd media. limiting their creative freedom.
This should’ve been a brilliant masterpiece, instead we’re going to get another multiplat, with technical limitations, both in storage space, and prolly even technical issues. Even RDR had it’s problems. The template of RDR is not good enough for what they’re attempting to do with this, a period noir detective piece. Team Bondi is just not upto the task doing a freeroam on 1 dvd.