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Alan Wake dev aiming to top L.A. Noire facial tech

Remedy Entertainment, the studio behind celebrated spook fest Alan Wake, has set its sights on trumping L.A. Noire’s highly extolled facial animation technology.

According to a report by EDGE Online, the Finnish studio is looking for a way to copy blood flow beneath the skin, allowing a character’s cheeks to flush realistically when they get all hot under the collar.

“L.A. Noire has set a bar for facial animation," said Remedy boss Matthias Myllyrinne. "But [Rockstar’s game] is here, we’re aiming to be here,” he added, while putting one hand up and then raising the other significantly higher.

Remedy’s rumored to be working on a sequel to Alan Wake for PC and Xbox 360, following a series of job vacancies cropping up online. Furthermore, the technology Myllrinne spoke of just happened to be demonstrated using one of the series’ key characters – Ikka Villi.

L.A. Noire, meanwhile, is pencilled in for release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 next month. The game has attracted much praise for its eye-popping aesthetics, particularly the facial expressions of its characters which play an integral role in gameplay as you scrutinize suspects in order to unravel the truth.