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Rumor: Whore of the Orient action adventure aiming for 2015
KMM Interactive, the studio that picked up Brendan McNamara and the remnants of L.A. Noire's Team Bondi, posted openings that suggest the group's next game, Whore of the Orient, is scheduled to be complete in 2015.Spotted by Superannuation, job openings describe the game as a "narrative action adventure" that is "similar in style to LA Noire," and uses the same MotionScan tech that gave Cole his grisly demeanor.The job descriptions set a target for full production from early 2013 to mid 2015. Whore of the Orient is a next-gen console and PC game published by Warner Bros. Interactive, and McNamara first pitched it as "one of the great untold stories of the twentieth century."According to a website that went live for a spell in August, the game is set in 1936 Shanghai, China, and stars the International Police Force, a western group "hopelessly trying to keep the lid on and keep the peace." The website taglined the game as, "Whore of the Orient. Paris of the East."L.A. Noire spent seven years in development, so just two for a game "similar in style" and using the same technology, from much of the same team, seems ambitious. But hey, that's what energy drinks are for.
LA Noire team's 'Whore of the Orient' headed next-gen, published by WB
A new website for LA Noire dev Team Bondi's next game, Whore of the Orient, popped up this morning (as discovered by OPM), along with new information about the barely mentioned "great untold story." The game is headed to "next generation games consoles and PC" with Warner Bros. Interactive as publisher.The game's set in 1936 Shanghai, China – "Whore of the Orient. Paris of the East," as the website calls it. A "group of Western cops hopelessly trying to keep the lid on and keep the peace" seems to be the focal point of the game (the group's known as the "International Police Force"), though it's unclear exactly what kind of game it is. It sounds to be just as hard-boiled as Team Bondi's last effort, LA Noire, and the gritty look of the image above incurs the same comparison.Team Bondi leader Brendan McNamara is once again at the head of the project, leading the remnants of LA Noire's dev team picked up by Kennedy Miller Mitchell.
'Whore of the Orient' is next game by LA Noire studio head
Team Bondi founder Brendan McNamara's next game will be titled Whore of the Orient, according to Australia's Financial Review. Little to nothing is known beyond the title -- which has already sent FOX News segment producers into a Bengay-rubbing tingly fervor -- with McNamara previously stating it is "one of the great untold stories of the twentieth century." The game will be produced by KMM Interactive, the studio that picked up the broken pieces of McNamara's Team Bondi after it imploded this summer despite the success of LA Noire.
Team Bondi founder McNamara writing game based on a 'great untold story'
Ever since Team Bondi got shuttered, Brendan McNamara has been all too willing to share his unique insight on L.A. Noire, the studio's final game. Based on comments made to Eurogamer, he's ready to move on now. McNamara claims to be writing a new game based on "one of the great untold stories of the twentieth century." This is a pitch he is making on his own -- one he says has a few publishers interested. But as of right now, he can't say much else. "Hopefully I'll have something to announce on that pretty soon," he concluded. If we were a betting blog, we'd say that great untold story is about the one time we found a $20 bill in the laundry. It won't have a really climactic ending, but the QTE segments are sure to knock your socks off.
McNamara explains why LA Noire's Cole seemed like a 'psycho'
Former Team Bondi head Brendan McNamara recently illuminated why L.A. Noire's Detective Cole Phelps would often ... overreact during interrogations. "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 answer. That's the way we recorded it," McNamara explained at the Bradford Animation Festival, reports Eurogamer. "But when the game came out it was truth, doubt or lie. Everyone always says Aaron on the second question is a psycho. So that's not his fault." McNamara also feels the reason some players felt the characters were dead from the neck down was because they were so lively in the face. He believes that players got used to seeing the facial detail and started getting picky about other stuff. "It's a subtle thing, but once you attune to that level of realism then you start looking for the other things," he said. "And we had some criticism from people saying people were a bit stiff in their clothes and from the way they were done. But they were only stiff in comparison to real life."
Rumor: Team Bondi to be acquired by Mad Max studio, KMM
Mad Max's George Miller is playing host to the artists behind L.A. Noire, Team Bondi, as the developer faces a tortured reputation, burned bridges with Rockstar and is in need of fresh studio support, according to sources at Kotaku. Team Bondi bossman Brendan McNamara has been spotted touring Miller's KMM Studio in Sydney, including a stop at Dr. D, the animation shop currently finishing Happy Feet 2, one person said. A few former Team Bondi employees -- the same ones who reported terrible work conditions under McNamara -- work at Dr. D and found it unsettling that McNamara was touring the offices, the source said. Apparently Miller is a fan of Team Bondi's work and is sympathetic to McNamara's reputation as a strict taskmaster, according to one employee at Dr. D: "The word is going 'round that Team Bondi is being folded into KMM studios; Team Bondi is pretty much doomed after the scandal and can't find any new supporters, so by doing this they can hide their name."
L.A. Noire lead programmer defends Team Bondi, admits development hardship
Team Bondi has caught a lot of flack from ex-staffers recently about unfair work hours in the final weeks of L.A. Noire development. Lead gameplay programmer Dave Heironymus recently defended the company to the IGDA in a letter republished by Gamasutra, explaining that he "didn't want to see [Team Bondi] destroyed by anonymous ex-employees." Taking a similar stance as studio boss Brendan McNamara, Heironymus says that while employees worked long hours, they weren't being asked to do anything that their superiors weren't also doing. Heironymus also downplayed the 100-hour weeks that some staffers have claimed, saying that he would have discouraged any members of his team attempting to work that much. However, Heironymus isn't claiming innocence for Team Bondi's management. He writes, "no-one at Team Bondi is under the illusion that crunching is a good way to work and we're actively working to learn from our mistakes for our next project."
L.A. Noire's mocap system claims to set new bar for 3D performances
"Traditional motion capture could never bring to life the subtle nuances of the chaotic criminal underworld of L.A. Noire in the same way as MotionScan," claims Team Bondi's Brendan McNamara, commenting on MotionScan. It's the new motion capture technology being employed first by his studio's moody crime game, L.A. Noire. In a press release yesterday, Depth Analysis announced the new tech and touted its many applications in the forthcoming Rockstar title. Allegedly, MotionScan uses "32 high-definition cameras to capture true-to-life three-dimensional performances at up to 30 frames per second," thus allowing for the supposedly "emotional performances" that McNamara says make L.A. Noire "a truly unique and revolutionary game." Aside from the claims of higher quality, the mocap system supposedly has lower operation costs due to a streamlined post-production processing time. With any luck, we'll finally see all this big talk in action -- and compare ir with other performance-capture scenes in games like Uncharted 2, Alan Wake and Heavy Rain -- this September when the game arrives on store shelves.
