The latest salvo in the video games as art debate has been launched, as Rockstar's upcoming cinematic love letter to film noir, LA Noire, has been honored with a an official selection at Robert De Niro's Tribecca Film Festival in New York City.
L.A. Noire will displayed and featured as part of the Tribeca Talks track with a live gameplay session and a Q&A moderated by Geoff Gilmore, Tribeca Enterprises' Chief Creative Officer.
Rockstar's CEO Sam Houser is stoked for the announcement, and is quoted by Techland as saying that "We're thrilled that L.A. Noire is being recognized by the Tribeca Film Festival in this way. It's a real honor, and another step forward for interactive entertainment."
Picking up where cinematic titles like Heavy Rain have left off, LA Noire features new technology that allows the developers to capture every small facial tick, gesture, and nuance in an actor's face and transfer it digitally. Couple it with a plot line involving a serial killer in prohbition era Los Angeles, and LA Noire seems poised to be a game that narrows the gap between dramatic cinema and video games.
A fantastic trailer for the game can be seen here. You can also see more about the game's incredible facial capture technology here.