Blendshapes actually work pretty good and I find myself comfortable with it, but I'm trying to achieve a good joint-based solution and as an example I looked at digital tutors for both blend shape rig and joint based rig...they're good tutorials and explain how to achieve good results. Also I strongly suggest you to take a look at Judd Simantov "The Last of Us" video on YouTube and Jeremy Ernst GDC2011 paper on Facial rigging for Gears of War 3 which is what I'm currently using for a re - usable rig.
Cheers
