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.A. that stretches for 8 square miles, and over 400 characters that have all been motion captured by actors. But Bondi took things further with a technology called MotionScan, that captures the actors’ heads, producing realistic (and recognizable) faces with believable expressions–the better for the player-turned-cop to determine who’s lying about a crime. I talked to Brendan McNamara, the head of Team Bondi and L.A. Noire‘s writer and director, about the technology.

Read the full article at Fast Company.