Incoming 2011 - L.A. Noire

What we know

L.A. Noire is a brand new project coming from Rockstar's Team Bondi from Australia, and is gearing up to be released this May.

The game uses the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, the same one seen in previous titles like Grand Theft Auto IV or Red Dead Redemption.

As such, it will feature a wide open world, 1940s Los Angeles, where the protagonist, LAPD detective Cole Phelps, who served in World War II, must now use his skills in order to track down criminals in the city of angels.

The title won't be a regular detective title, however, as Team Bondi used a revolutionary in-depth motion scanning technology so that the faces of characters in the game will act and behave just like the real thing.

As such, players will actually need to examine the posture, voice and face of their suspects in order to determine who is lying and who is guilty.

Why it matters

Rockstar proved that its internal teams are capable of greater things besides pumping out new iterations of its prestigious Grand Theft Auto series, as proven by last year's Red Dead Redemption, coming from Rockstar San Diego, who managed to earn several game of the year awards around the world.

Now, a year later, the company is pushing Team Bondi's L.A. Noire as another title that will define the detective genre, the same way Red Dead did with the western cowboy one.

The game has had a pretty troubled development cycle, being announced back in 2004 and subsequently delayed or pushed back, but it seems that all that is in the past, and Rockstar is ready to release it with its seal of approval this year.

The new motion scan technology can be a double-edge sword, however, as it can deliver that extra bit of realism needed for such a title to work, but it can also easily push the animations and characters into the uncanny valley, thus making lots of people avoid it altogether due to the surreal nature of their faces.

Like with Red Dead, nothing is certain, so we need to way until May to see if the Team Bondi/Rockstar bet pays off.

L.A. Noire is set to appear on May 17, in North America, and May 20, in Europe, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.