What Is Wrong With Alan Wake's Facial Animation

Last night I played the first couple of hours of Alan Wake and the game is good fun. A little bit of Left 4 Dead mixed with a dash of Doom 3's flashlight and other bits and pieces. The game was originally intended to be the big DirectX 10 demo for Windows Vista but somehow wound up being an Xbox 360 exclusive.

The locations and environmental effects in the game look fantastic but there is one thing that stands out as freakishly bad (other than the Lincoln, Sync and Energizer product placements), the facial animation! Every time I watch a cut scene I cringe, here's why.

I've just recently finished Mass Effect 2 and Final Fantasy XIII, here's what their facial animation looks like as a comparison for the horror that follows.

Mass Effect 2

Final Fantasy XIII

Now, my friend says Uncharted 2 on the PS3 looks amazing and who am I to disagree?

Uncharted 2

(not sure if this is ingame but it looks it to me)

...and now Alan Wake *shudder* (make sure you wait to see Rose)

So as you can see... FREAKY! It reminds me of this classic