Realism in games: L.A. Noire

With expanding technology in games we are seeing more realistic scenery, vehicles, and now faces

Team Bondi has taken realism to a whole other level.

Using "MotionScan", Team Bondi has been able to bring to the table a new dimension in game play - the ability to fully read emotion from a character's face. MotionScan uses high definition facial scanning and intelligent algorithms to capture HD video of an actor's face with incredible detail.




The game is coming out to be beautifully developed. Your choices you make in-game are the same that real world detectives would have to make. Is the suspect lying? Is he nervous? You decide. Why is he sweating? His cheek twitched! It's the ultimate choose-your-own-adventure game. You play detective and you decide who's guilty and where to take the case. Investigation is key so the game forces you to think.

L.A. Noire is going to be bringing a new era in gaming. But how real do you want your games to be? Obviously attention to details in environment and faces is definitely a welcome addition to games but what about gameplay? L.A. Noire gives us what a more realistic game is going to be like. But I don't think the realism is going to make a huge splash with all developers and games. I truly hope that this level of realism isn't brought in to games such as GTA or if a different Red Dead Redemption is made.

The reason being is that while you have to rely heavily on facial and body language in this game, it's not something you have to rely on a linear story line based game. Also, L.A. Noire takes a different approach when it comes to fighting bad guys. You don't have one guy taking out a warehouse full of 50 baddies. The realism comes in and has the main character in actual situations and brings it closer to real life.

Make sure you mark May 17th on your calendar for the release of one of the most anticipated games for this year.

Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect get honored

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has nominated Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood for 7 awards and Mass Effect for 6! Huge news for these game. They were nominated for Best Artistic Achievement and Best Game among them.

There are of course more games on the list of nominees. Check them out on their site. The awards will be announced on March 16th and will stream live from the site. Stay tuned for more information...

John Hughes meets Zelda

If John Hughes made a Zelda movie, this would be it!

Sony Xperia in action

So the Xperia (PSP-phone) looks pretty sweet. Gameplay looks nice on it. If I weren't mistaken I would've thought Sony decided to release two handheld gaming systems this year...

Sony: Get a life!

Sony has been in the news a lot lately ever since they decided to sue George Hotz and various other PS3 hackers. This week a judge granted Sony's request and will allow them to comb through the computers and hard drives they confiscated from Hotz in order to find information that relates to the hacking of the Playstation.

Federal judge Susan Illston ruled probable cause that Hotz does possess the code, videos, and step-by-step instructions on cracking the code on his machines.

"That's the breaks." - U.S District Judge Susan Illston

At least she's not making Hotz retrieve the code from anyone who he may have forwarded it to as Sony requested.

"It's information. It can't be retrieved. It's just not practical," Illston said. "What would they do, Xerox it and mail it back?"


Sony is now threatening to sue anyone who decides to post the code. Maybe they should sue themselves since they "mistakenly" tweeted the code themselves.

Sony has also taken measures to make sure any modded consoles do not make their way onto PSN. The two known workarounds for custom firmware PS3's are now being blocked from accessing the network.

Let's hope they don't implement their plans to place a serial code security system on future PS3 games. Traditionally this is for PC games to deter piracy of games. The plan is to begin placing long serial numbers inside the case that needs to be inputted into the console before it can even be played, Sony would allow this for up to 5 consoles at least.

No one wants to deal with the hassle to play a console. You're supposed to just rip off the wrap and begin gaming goodness. It's not like a PC where you have the keyboard in front of you and can be entered in seconds. If the serial numbers are at least 25 alpha-numeric characters long, that's an estimated 3 minutes of entering the code, another 3 minutes to have the game fully load, another 2 minutes to get a new game started,  and another few minutes to make sure you have all your settings the way you like them. You just spent 10 - 15 minutes to begin playing where normally would take you 5!

Sony, get a life!

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Galactus fight revealed!

This is absolutely an insane fight! Galactus as the end boss for the most anticipated fighting game this year and it looks out of this world. Thanks to IGN for the exclusive.

Capcom has decided to show us how powerful Galactus is by having him flick characters off screen. His combos exceed anything that I've seen in any Marvel vs. Capcom game so far. Enjoy!

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