LA Noire developer Team Bondi has "defeated the uncanny valley" according to founder Brendan McNamara.
"We wanted to make a detective game," McNamara told the latest issue of OPM, picked up on by ConnectedConsoles.
"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."
But how does it compare to Heavy Rain, the mag asked, given all the plaudits that game accumulated for its performance capture?
"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," McNamara reportedly said.
"This is going to be a bit of a line in the sand, compared to that."
LA Noire - rumoured for release in spring 2011 - is a 1940s crime thriller in which players rise through the ranks of the LAPD.