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Sky and AMC are getting down and dirty this Wednesday with a Season 3 teaser trailer and first-look pics for Gangs of London. Today’s evocative images paint a vivid picture of the one-person-army gangster saga, which tells the story of London being torn apart by the turbulent power struggles of its international gangs and the sudden power vacuum that’s created when the head of London’s most powerful crime family is assassinated.

Gangs of London, starring Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, Joe Cole, Michelle Fairley, Lucian Msamati, and Brian Vernel, takes audiences to the U.K. capital, where drugs and a power struggle corrupt from the inside out. Pippa Bennett-Warner, Narges Rashidi, Asif Raza Mir, Orli and Eri Shuka, Jahz Armando, and Fady Elsayed return for the intense drama’s third season, with new cast members Andrew Koji, Richard Dormer, and T’Nia Miller. Phil Daniels, Ruth Sheen, and Mat Fraser join the madness as guest stars.

Loudermilk, an irreverent music-based dramedy series, has gained popularity since streaming on Netflix in 2024. Cutter, a beloved character from Season 1, abruptly departed the show due to the actor's real-life battle with substance abuse. There are hopes and plans for Cutter to return in Loudermilk Season 4, potentially focusing on his return and subsequent sobriety.

Created by Peter Farrelly and Bobby Mort, Loudermilk is an irreverent music-based dramedy series that debuted on the Audience Network in 2017. Following the first two seasons, the show changed networks to Prime Video for its third and final season in 2020. Now available to stream on Netflix, where the show has found new life after reaching the top of the most-watched TV shows, Loudermilk continues to increase its popularity in 2024.

The show's title refers to Sam Loudermilk (Ron Livingston), an acerbic recovering alcoholic and former music critic living in Seattle, Washington. As Sam laments his career failures, he...

Cutter's absence in Loudermilk Season 2 was due to actor Danny Wattley's real-life struggles with substance abuse. The show's executive producer, Peter Farrelly, stated that Wattley has since gone through rehab and is now sober. Plans for Loudermilk Season 4 include the return of Cutter and the resolution of his character's storyline.

The dramedy Loudermilk appeared to drop Danny Wattler’s character Cutter after season 1, but there was a behind-the-scenes reason for the show's choice. Loudermilk is a comedy-drama that focuses on the taciturn music critic Sam Loudermilk, a recovering alcoholic who can’t stop insulting everyone he meets. Although Loudermilk’s personal life is something of a mess, the show’s antihero does his best to act as a counselor for an addiction support group. Loudermilk’s mean streak is tempered by how much he cares about his group’s regulars, even if he is scarcely more prepared to...

Updated, 9 Am: The previously unaired third season of Loudermilk premieres today, Tuesday, April 27 on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S.

Previous, March 10: Loudermilk has found a new home. Amazon has picked up the praised former Audience Network comedy series starring Ron Livingston. Seasons 1 and 2, which had aired on Audience, will premiere on Prime Video on March 12. A premiere date for the previously unaired third season will be announced soon.

This marks a happy ending for the series, created and executive produced by Peter Farrelly and Bobby Mort, produced by Big Branch Productions and distributed by Sony Pictures TV, which made the deal with Amazon.

“I could not be more pleased that Loudermilk is finding a second life on Prime Video,” Farrelly said. “It’s a show that I’m extremely proud of and one that deserves to be seen by all. I would argue that it has the...

HBO Max released the trailer for the upcoming comedy series “That Damn Michael Che,” which premieres on May 6.

Each installment of the “Saturday Night Live” star’s 10-episode series illustrates what it feels like to experience everyday situations from his own perspective, including racial profiling, unemployment and falling in love.

Fellow “SNL” cast members Cecily Strong, Heidi Gardner, Colin Quinn, Ellen Cleghorne and Colin Jost lend their talents to the series along with guest stars Omari Hardwick, Geoffrey Owens, Godfrey, Billy Porter and Method Man.

Che serves as an executive producer alongside Lorne Michaels, Erin Doyle and Oz Rodriguez.

Also in today’s TV news roundup:

Dates

Apple TV Plus revealed that the first three episodes of the upcoming drama-comedy series “Physical” will premiere on June 18. The final seven episodes of the season will be released weekly every Friday. Created by Annie Weisman, the series is set in the idyllic...

More than two years after its sophomore finale aired on Audience Network, Season 3 of Peter Farrelly and Bobby Mort’s Loudermilk comedy has found a Stateside home, on Amazon Prime.

Distributor Sony Pictures Television has announced that Seasons 1 and 2 of the comedy (20 episodes in all) will land on Prime Video this Friday, March 12, while the U.S. premiere date for Season 3 (which Canada got dibs on back in December) will be determined soon.

More from TVLineThe Boys Spinoff Casts The Rookie Vet, Nears Series Order at AmazonLittle Marvin and Lena Waithe's Them Terror Anthology Scares Up Amazon Premiere Date...

Sony Pictures Television series “Loudermilk” from Peter Farrelly has found a new home on Amazon Prime Video. “Loudermilk” aired its first two seasons on the now-defunct AT&T Audience Network.

Those two seasons will become available on Amazon’s Prime Video platform on Friday.

“Loudermilk” was renewed for Season 3 before AT&T shuttered Audience last year. The third season, which does not yet have a U.S. premiere date, has already streamed on Prime Video in Canada.

“I could not be more pleased that ‘Loudermilk’ is finding a second life on Prime Video,” Farrelly said in a statement on Wednesday. “It’s a show that I’m extremely proud of and one that deserves to be seen by all. I would argue that it has the best ensemble cast on television and deserves to be in the conversation with ‘Schitt’s Creek’ and ‘Cobra Kai,’ shows that started on one network but...

https://youtu.be/ZHxsuGAy5Q8 Rockstar Games rolled out L.A. Noire, the award-winning title from developers at Team Bondi, way back in 2011. The open-world detective story allowed players to make their way through 40s-era L.A. solving crimes and shooting up the bad guys, noire-style. It got a current-gen console update in 2017, and, later that year, a VR tweak with L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files. Now, Sydney-based Video Games Deluxe, the offshoot studio behind the VR title and founded by the game's writer/director Brendan McNamara, is teasing an …...

Developer Video Games Deluxe, the studio that previously worked on LA Noire: The VR Case Files, has revealed that it is developing a new VR project in association with Rockstar Games.

“Having finished the critically well-received L.A.Noire: The V.R. Case Files we are now gearing up for a new project, a Aaa open-world title in VR for Rockstar,” says Video Games Deluxe via a Linkedin post. “2020 marks our 7th year of working exclusively for Rockstar in Sydney and we are excited to [be] taking on this groundbreaking project.”

The post goes on to say that the studio is looking to hire for multiple positions including “Senior Programmers, Engine Programmer, Designer, and Animator.” No further details regarding the project are offered in the brief post.

Developer Video Games Deluxe doesn’t get a lot of recognition (their name barely even pops up in relation to the development of L.

In this short film, a man learns the hard way that living with Jigsaw from the Saw movies is not as cool as he thought it would be, with Jigsaw’s “games” being more annoying and mildly inconvenient than the devious life-or-death situations we’re used to seeing him devise.

“Living with Jigsaw” was written and directed by Chris Capel and stars Brendan McNamara.

by Joseph Leray

Details were always light on "Whore of the Orient," a new  game project by Sydney, Australia-based film studio Kmm led by ex-"L.A. Noire" devs Team Bondi: one image, a snippet of exposition, a few job postings here and there. Last month, the internal team at Kmm reportedly stopped development as some staff were laid off.

Enter Intuitive Game Studios, founded by "L.A. Noire" design lead Alex Carlyle and storyboard artist Kelly Baigent, rising like a phoenix from Team Bondi's ashes. According to the company's Facebook page, Intuitive Games "is an independent game developer with big ambitions" that with a focus on "quality and content to proudly produce exactly the kind of games we would want to play ourselves."

"I really do want to stay in Australia and try and overcome the drive which is leading everyone to Canada or the like," Carlyle told McV Pacific.

By Joseph Leray

According to some recently posted job listings, Whore of the Orient -- the new game from L.A. Noire director Brendan McNamara -- is ramping up production soon, with a projected (and probably optimistic) release date in 2015.

Orient will be "narrative action adventure, similar in genre to L.A. Noire," using the same MotionScan facial technology made famous by Team Bondi's 1940s epic. The lead animator position calls for "realistic human animation."

These details aren't altogether surprising, given McNamara's work on L. A. Noire, but there's enough here to raise a few eyebrows. Team Bondi's assets were liquidated and its doors closed after the release of L.A. Noire, and it seems strange to jump right back into the kind of grand, ambitious project that scuttled the studio in the first place.

Most of Team Bondi has since been brought on at Kennedy Mitchell Miller, a film...

Federal Minister for the Arts, Simon Crean has announced the government will invest $20m in a games fund over the next three years.

The announcement comes after the screen and gaming sectors have lobbied for games companies to be included within Screen Australia’s Producer Offset scheme, as indicated in Spaa president Brian Rosen’s opening speech on Tuesday.

Crean made the announcement of the new Australian Interactive Games Fund at the Screen Producers Association of Australia Conference in his keynote address.

Crean said: “This $20m fund will help build a sustainable base for the Australian interactive entertainment industry to respond and grow in a global market expected to reach $90.1bn by 2015.”

“Australian games studios are recognised internationally for their skill and originality in developing interactive games played all over the world but the local industry is coming under increased pressure in the midst of a major market shift.”

“This...

Directors: Matthew E. Smith, Brendan McNamara, Paul Newman, Ross Steeves Ummm... What the fuck? The Light of Love, eh? Is that what this is? "Let's trip the lights fantastic, let's dream the biggest dreams." I totally get it. (No, I do not.) Well... "Can you teach me this?" "It cannot be taught." Damn. Okay, then what am I supposed to do with this? There is something about Lucent L'amour, Lucent Dossier, and Lucent Rossier... Or none of the above. "What about a Jesus dress?" Sure, why not. I cannot deny that "you've got to feel the feminine energy," but first and foremost "it's about doing your thing."...

Tonight the BAFTA Video Game Awards are being held in London and the list of nominees shows the breadth of talent being celebrated and you can watch along live with us.

BAFTA’s push to educate people about the importance of gaming and to celebrate the very best in this medium is commendable and they are best placed to do this with access to the top names in the industry.

The titles being celebrated tonight include the annual editions of the most popular franchises but there’s a lot of innovation on show; the latest version of Call of Duty, Portal 2, Super Mario 3D Land and the internet-conquerinig Skyrim are all up for awards tonight along with many more.

The IGN stream will go live from 20.15 and you can watch along below,

Here’s the feed, enjoy!

The 2012 BAFTA Game Award nominees are below,

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Assassin’s Creed Revelations - Martin Schelling,...

Last week it was all about the 2012 BAFTA Film Awards, and now sees our attention turn to gaming with the announcement of the nominees for the BAFTA Video Game Awards 2012. We were there last year and hope to be covering it again this year. But in the meantime here’s the full list of nominees, featuring the cream of the crop of video gaming.

Personally I hope Uncharted 3 sweeps the board in all the categories its nominated in, and – being a Mario fan – I hope Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 pick up awards… although Dead Space iOS could give them a run for the money in the handheld categories!

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Assassin’s Creed Revelations – Martin Schelling, Darby McDevitt, Raphael Lacoste / Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft Batman: Arkham City – Jamie Walker, Sefton Hill, Adam Doherty / Rocksteady Studios/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – Development Team / Infinity Ward...

Last week was all about the movie awards but now BAFTA keep up the momentum by announcing the nominations for the 2012 Video Game Awards. Batman: Arkham City and L.A. Noire come in strong but we’ve got the full list for you below.

Let us know in the comments section below which you want to win and what’s missing from the list.

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Assassin’s Creed Revelations - Martin Schelling, Darby McDevitt, Raphael Lacoste / Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft Batman: Arkham City – Jamie Walker, Sefton Hill, Adam Doherty / Rocksteady Studios/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – Development Team / Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games/Activision Blizzard Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Jean-Francois Dugas, Antoine Thisdale / Eidos Montreal/Ubisoft Portal 2 – Development Team / Valve/Valve Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception – Evan Wells, Christophe Balestra, Amy Henni g/Naughty Dog/Sony Computers Entertainment Europe

Artistic Achievement

Batman: Arkham City – Jamie Walker,...

L.A. Noire was "too big", creator Brendan McNamara has said. The Team Bondi head explained how the small studio's ambition saw development go on for seven years. "One [thing] is the size, it's a huge game - probably too big. The map's massive, and so that's probably my fault," he told Official PlayStation Magazine. "We had to build a new process to do that. We were a brand-new studio - we had brand-new tools, new technology. We have tools that allow you to build cities now, but we had to build that kind of stuff and make it work. "Everything from the road network, where all the trolley cars go, all the cables connecting automatically to all of the buildings." McNamara continued: "The tech was pretty extensive, including MotionScan. I'd (more)...

Making the news rounds yesterday from an interview in the Financial Review, George Miller, the director behind the Mad Max films, a stalled CG Justice League movie, and most recently, Happy Feet is partnering with Kennedy Miller Mitchell Interactive, the new home for former Team Bondi and Krome Studios developers to work on Miller's long-in-development Mad Max 4: Fury Road game.

The fairly comprehensive piece looks at Miller's creative output over the last few years and the struggles with getting not only foreign-backed films but games developed in Australia as the fluctuating value of that nation's currency has made outside investment a challenge and was certainly at least indirectly responsible for the collapse of both Krome and Team Bondi as operating entities. Fury Road was originally set to be made at a Swedish developer, but Miller was impressed with Team Bondi's work and tapped members of that team to...

Former Team Bondi boss Brendan McNamara, the writer/director of this year’s mega successful L.A. Noire claims he is making a new video game set around “one of the great untold stories of the 20th Century.”

McNamara was speaking to Eurogamer at the Bradford Animation Festival 2011 and hopes to reveal much more about the game in the coming weeks.

We spoke a great deal about McNamara over the summer amid the allegations of poor working conditions and the eventual closure of Sydney-based Team Bondi, but McNamara himself has spent his time writing this new game which will be on a similar scale to L.A. Noire.

McNamara says;

“A lot of people who were working on L.A. Noire have gone across to Kmm, some of them to be working on some of the film projects,” said McNamara. “A lot of the art and animation guys went across.

L.A. Noire's aggressive interrogation scenes have been explained by the game's creative lead. Protagonist Cole Phelps would often respond with over-the-top responses when talking to suspects in the detective game. Brendan McNamara has revealed that the original script saw a different list of player responses than what actually made it into the final game. "It's funny. A lot of people say Aaron [Staton, who played Phelps] turns into a psycho," he told Eurogamer. "When we originally wrote the game the questions you asked were coax, force and lie. It was actually force because it was a more aggressive (more)...

It’s been a long time coming but finally last week Grand Theft Auto V was officially confirmed as being on the horizon with the announcement that a trailer reveal will hit the web tomorrow, Nov 2nd.

That was the first significant official announcement we’ve heard on Grand Theft Auto V since 2008′s extremely successful release of Grand Theft Auto IV, as Rockstar have just allowed rumours and speculation to spread and not confirming or denying much, instead insisting on staying quiet on their future plans.

This of course has always been the Rockstar way. Let others speculate whilst they get on with creating the best games they can. As Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick put it back in September 2009 ago;

“We’re not going to announce it, we’re not going to announce when we are going to announce it, and we are not going to announce a strategy...

L.A. Noire development studio Team Bondi is close to entering administration, an insider has revealed. The Sydney-based studio is currently selling off game IP and remaining assets, according to Develop. Staff are either being offered severance packages or being asked to transfer to fellow Sydney studio Kennedy Miller Mitchell, including studio head Brendan McNamara, who recently toured the studio with his staff. Papers and documentation to endorse these claims have yet to be released, although such papers may remain private for up to 28 days under Australian law. Rockstar and animation company Depth Analysis remain unaffected (more)...

Rumors are circulating that Team Bondi head Brendan McNamara is trying to get Team Bondi absorbed into another company with a new name, as a result of the public damage to his companies name in the aftermath of L.A. Noire’s production trouble. With Rockstar now reluctant to publish anymore of Team Bondi’s games, McNamara is in talks supposedly with George Miller‘s Kmm studio, creators of Mad Max and Happy Feet video games, for a kind of merger/absorption deal.

Kotaku reports;

“One verified source working at Dr D, George Miller’s Animation Studio, claimed that multiple members of Team Bondi, including Brendan McNamara himself, were seen getting a tour of the Dr D offices.”

Apparently George Miller was very impressed with “Team Bondi’s efforts and McNamara’s insistence to stick to his artistic vision in the face of deadlines.” Ironically isn’t that the very...

Over the past few weeks, details have leaked out from former Team Bondi employees, dishing the dirt on alleged poor working conditions during the development of "L.A. Noire." The game has done well, both critically and commercially, but one has to question the studio's methods in getting the product out the door. The original news came through an IGN article by Andrew McMillen, wherein a number of workers claimed that they were forced to work long overtime without compensation, and stated that over 100 contributors to "L.A. Noire" were omitted from the credits.

Today, a follow-up story at gamesindustry.biz reveals some further details from two former Team Bondi employees, including internal emails. Big surprise: it isn't pretty.

Given the long production period – over seven years – it's not entirely surprising that the relationship between Rockstar and Team Bondi was a bit on the rocks. According to employees, Rockstar management...

Reports of poor working conditions are coming out from former and current employees of Team Bondi, the makers of hit game L.A. Noire. The issue stems from an IGN article that quotes current and former employees at Team Bondi unhappy about how they were treated during the games development cycle. One employee stated:

“I was told that I was taking the piss by saying that I couldn’t give every single one of my weekends away. We were looked at as a disposable resource, basically. If you weren’t in the ‘inner circle’” – an exclusive group which seems to have consisted of the former Team Soho employees – “you were just a resource to be burned through,”

The article talks to no less than eleven former or current employees as they paint a picture of a very unstable and contentious working environment. In addition, because of these accusations, the International...

Reports of poor working conditions are coming out from former and current employees of Team Bondi, the makers of hit game L.A. Noire. The issue stems from an IGN article that quotes current and former employees at Team Bondi unhappy about how they were treated during the games development cycle. One employee stated:

“I was told that I was taking the piss by saying that I couldn’t give every single one of my weekends away. We were looked at as a disposable resource, basically. If you weren’t in the ‘inner circle’” – an exclusive group which seems to have consisted of the former Team Soho employees – “you were just a resource to be burned through,”

The article talks to no less than eleven former or current employees as they paint a picture of a very unstable and contentious working environment. In addition, because of these accusations, the International...

Donning my digital fedora and pinstriped suit, I strode down the finish line at Sunset Blvd. and finished the Team Bondi and Rockstar Games title L.A. Noire (2011, written and directed by Brendan McNamara) this past week. As a film noir buff, gamer, and Los Angelino, I generally found Noire an engrossing experience, a welcome change of pace in the context of an industry saturated with sports titles and first person shooters. However, much like the inexplicably gender altered title (it's Noir, not Noire, as it is Los Angeles, not Las Angeles), I found myself scratching my head at certain problematic decisions made about the game's structure that, upon reflection, are generally problematic of another "cinematic" mystery game, Heavy Rain (2010). So, if you're a fan of video games, film, and the mystery genre in particular, I urge you to read on. Beware, however, that certain story points will be revealed with regard to both titles.

The continuation of my talk with Nelson pulls back the curtain on Rockstar's latest baby. Nelson offers up more insight on the particular brand of alchemy that going into Rockstar's successful games. Find Part 1 here.

We have to talk a bit about "L.A. Noire," right?

Sure.

I'll start off by being frank: I thought "Redemption" was a big dice roll for you guys. By the very nature of the game that you were making, a lot of the tools that you've mastered already--for creating this cacophonous, multilayered urban environment where it seems like anything can happen and anything does--you couldn't use that same tool set when you're making a western.

It seems like you guys are facing the same prospect with "L.A. Noire," where you can't deliver the kind of crazy, chaos-ready world in "L.A. Noire." Again, just by the very nature of the story that's trying to be told,...

There is one word that comes to mind when you’re playing through L.A. Noire: Ambition. It was ambitious for Brendan McNamara and Team Bondi to take the game’s main technical innovation — a new form of motion-capture performance that makes the population of Noire look vastly more “humanlike” than most digi-people — and turn it into a central aspect of the gameplay: You have to stare into the eyes of the game’s characters and decide if they are lying or telling the truth. But the true ambition of Noire only really becomes clear after you’ve been playing the game for awhile.

Rockstar Games Image from L.A. Noire

Rockstar Games last week released L.A. Noire, a hypnotic detective thriller developed by Australian studio Team Bondi. The videogame has been called groundbreaking for the facial-recognition technology used to create its characters, and the resulting psychological dimensions of gameplay. In witness questioning and interrogation sequences, the player, as young detective Cole Phelps, tries to ascertain the truths and lies in what he’s told. Because L.A. Noire’s cast of characters...

Insert Credit endeavors to suss out where you should be allotting your video game allowance, sifting out a single title from many and crowning it as The One Game You Need to Get This Week. Don't consider these reviews, gentle reader. Rather, think of Insert Credit as a mix of hands-on time, informed opinion and intuition.

For the week of May 18, 2011, you should insert credit into: "L.A. Noire".

For the most part, Rockstar Games' protagonists have been rebels, people who object to the order of society and/or find themselves on its fringes. If they do make their way to the center, it's by virtue of bloody reprisals and vengeful comeuppance. From the nameless punk criminal in "Grand Theft Auto 3" to put-upon boarding school student Jimmy Hopkins in "Bully," the outsider status of Rockstar's hero characters probably accounts for a lot of their fan base. Their games give you...

L.A. Noire was large enough to fit on six discs on Xbox 360, it has been revealed. Team Bondi founder Brendan McNamara told Official Xbox Magazine that it took "miraculous compression" to fit the game on to three discs. "We've always been called stupidly ambitious," he said. "Along with Rockstar we make very big games. "It took a lot of effort to get down to three discs - I think we were on four or five or six at one point - and to get it on to one Blu-ray [on PlayStation 3]. We're pretty pleased that we got it (more)...

The makers of Grand Theft Auto are set to revolutionise gaming by exploring the noir crime genre. Here the aim is to interrogate criminals – not kill them

Two police detectives burst into a filthy apartment. A woman is cowering on the floor amid upturned furniture as a group of hired thugs search every drawer and cupboard. A fist fight ensues, the heavies are dispatched and the officers are left to question the traumatised victim.

How do they start questioning her? How will they know if she's telling the truth? Well, that's your problem. You are the cop and this is a whole new type of video game.

La Noire is the latest offering from Rockstar Games, the notorious publisher of Grand Theft Auto and last year's brilliant western shooter, Red Dead Redemption. The action takes place in the seamy, crime-sodden La of the late 40s; the familiar hunting ground of Raymond Chandler,...

In the latest cross-cultural move that seems to just make sense, Rockstar Games announced that their upcoming crime thriller "L.A. Noire" will tie into a collection of short stories. Published by Little, Brown and Company, "L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories" brings together literary luminaries to deliver lurid tales about sex, crime and skullduggery in the City of Angeles after the Second World War. The contributors list is a real murderers' row of crime writers: Megan Abbott, Lawrence Block, Joe Lansdale, Joyce Carol Oates, Francine Prose, Jonathan Santlofer, Duane Swierczynski and Andrew Vachss. Some of the eight stories will connect directly to characters you meet throughout the course of the game. From the press release:

"L.A. Noire draws on a rich history of not just film, but also great crime literature for inspiration," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. "Using the game's world as a springboard, we...

My interviews a few weeks ago with Team Bondi head Brendan McNamara showed just how big an influence film and, in particular, the noir genre have had on the upcoming detective game. The connection gets even stronger with news that Rockstar's next title will be an official selection at this year's Tribeca Film Festival.

The technologically stunning release will get a special spotlight during the 11-day festival, with one of the game's cases being played live in a theater on a filmscreen and a Q&A with Rockstar representatives moderated by Tribeca's Geoff Gilmore. In a statement released by Rockstar today, Gilmore says, "What Rockstar and Team Bondi have accomplished with L.A. Noire is nothing less than groundbreaking. It's an invention of a new realm of storytelling that is part cinema, part gaming, and a whole new realm of narrative expression, interactivity, and immersion. We are poised on the edge of a new frontier.

After re-envisioning the Western with last year's hit "Red Dead Redemption," Rockstar Games' next game takes on a new archetype of 20th Century cinema. "L.A. Noire" put players in postwar Hollywood in the shoes of a young police detective, working to quell crime on multiple desks in one of the precinct houses. Austrailian dev outfit Team Bondi's been developing the game for several years, but will finally see release on May 17th. Now that the game's in the home stretch, studio head Brendan McNamara can talk about what's gone into making the

Brendan, can you give a quick rundown of Team Bondi history. How the studio came together and how long you guys have been in business for?

We've been in business since 2004 basically when six of us came out from London to Sydney to start Team Bondi. And previous to that, we worked at Sony, where we had...

With a technology called MotionScan, an actor's complete performance--their facial expressions, how they talk, when they blink--are captured for use in a video game. We spoke to Brendan McNamara, the head of the team behind the detective game using this tech, "L.A. Noire."

Throughout the history of video games, the industry has had an inferiority complex when compared to Hollywood. And each year some developers create games that are more serious and more story-oriented, as if to say, "See? We aren't just kids' toys? We can be Art too!" Last year, Heavy Rain took up that cinematic mantle. This year, it will be L.A. Noire.

Made by Team Bondi and Rockstar--the Aaa developer behind the violent and cinematic Grand Theft Auto series--l.A. Noire is set in post-wwii Los Angeles, giving the player the role of Cole Phelps (Mad Men's Aaron Staton), a war-hero turned police detective. The game features a detailed L.

Videogames have always trended toward outlandish visions. The history of the medium is top-heavy with monster-infested fantasy worlds, outer-space battles, and racetracks that feature a perhaps-unrealistic amount of exploding cars. But the makers of the upcoming La Noire are trying to capture the most spectacular image of all: The human face. The look and narrative of the game is taken from the noir-detective genre — lots of shadows and moral ambiguity — but the real draw of L.A. Noire is the photo-realistic technology that makes the characters look far more humanlike than, say, the mannequin-people of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

Aarti Sequeira's first thought upon learning she won "The Next Food Network Star" isn't something she can share.

"It was an expletive that I probably can't say," she tells Zap2it the day after her win was revealed on the Food Network finale Sunday night (Aug. 15).

"Yesterday was India's Independence Day. So it was a huge day for me to win," she adds. "Today is the seven-year anniversary of my husband proposing to me. And then Thursday is my birthday. So this couldn't happen at a better time."

Her mother, who heard the news by email, couldn't contain her excitement.

"My mum called. Her voice was so high. I'd never heard her voice so high," says Sequeira. "She sounded like a 16-year-old who the cutest boy in school had asked out or something. She was so excited."

Sequeira and her husband, actor and director Brendan McNamara, have been celebrating...