I’m sick and tired of trailers for games including almost all their footage from cut scenes. Actually, the new trend is to have an awesome looking into movie and then cut it up for the trailer (cough Paradox). You would think having the internet and the ability to look at actual gameplay footage would stop this. But apparently not. Look, if your just going to show the intro movie, then say it’s an intro movie. Or say it’s from a cut scene. This isn’t 1997 anymore, we aren’t going to be amazed by videos ala Final Fantasy 7. It now has to be in the gameplay.
Here’s one of those examples, Battlestations: Pacific
Now I could be wrong, but it looks like nearly all of that is from cut scenes/intro movie. Meanwhile here’s a real gameplay video:
While some parts are close, there’s still a marked difference between the two. It’s quite some difference. But really, why not just show the real game play? Why do you have to try so hard to sell the game via a video? When you lie like this, it’s going to get out quickly that the game doesn’t match the trailer at all. In the end you only hurt yourself and your reputation.
Sometimes people wonder why bootlegging games are so popular? It’s because some people want to test the games before they put down some hard earned money. If your expecting a game that looks something like the trailer or teaser, and you get something that’s crap, you shouldn’t be shit out of luck when it comes to your money. Especially today, the last thing you want to do is spend 60 bucks for a game and find out it looks nothing like you expected.
Of course part of the problem are game “journalists” who are too close with the PR people at these companies. They write good reviews just so they can get review copies before anyone else. I’m sure a lot of these reviews would look different if the writer had to put down their own money to review the game. Someone really needs to investigate how close the Video Game PR agencies are to some of these reviewers. Unfortunately people have bigger fish to fry then worrying about some board game “journalists”. Ethics will always get the short end of the stick when it comes to situations like this. It’s sad but true.
Who could resist a game with that boxart? I couldn’t back in the day when I saw the game at a Kay-Bee Toys. The box also doesn’t lie, there is actually multiple Galleons in space that fight by firing Cannonballs at the player. In the game you are the hero of legend of the Incas, and you fight in a Tumi shaped spacecraft against the Spanish. The game includes a mix of everything that was great in games in the early 90s. Puzzles, Mazes, Dogfights, all in a early FPS view in which it felt as though the user has a mask on. The story is rather odd and includes a mix of Inca mysticism in it.
Even more incredible is that while you are in FPS mode you also battle Spaniards in Conquistador gear who fire at you by waving their sword at you. Yes, they wave their swords at you and it fires balls of energy. I remember the game being somewhat easy, but fun and memorable. Unfortunately it’s probably tough to find, and even tougher to play on today’s computers. If you can find Inca and get it working
Speaking of boxart, I miss the old big boxes that computer games used to come in. Sometimes you’d look at the box and be able to decide whether it was worth it to buy a game or not. Hell, even if the game sucked you could always flatten the box and display it. Unfortunately it seemed to hit it’s peak in 99 right before they went to the smaller DVD style boxes. I still have my Shogun Total War (and Mongol Invasion Expansion) which just had an incredible fold out box.
Plus sometimes you got such goodies in the bigger boxes. Like large manuals that actually explained the game to you. Maps that showed you where you were in the game world. Opening the game box in the past used to be somewhat exciting to see what you were getting. I even enjoyed reading the back story in manuals. I was talking to a friend recently about American McGee’s Alice, and how we both disliked the actual gameplay. But everything else including the wonderful supplemental were just outstanding and we were excited when we heard there was going to be a sequel to it.
But hey, while gamers are getting less and less with every purchase, might as well screw them out of the extras too. The state of games today is just sad, although it is nice to hear that EA is facing a Class Action Suit for the Madden franchise being a monopoly. It’s not surprising, considering that one of the reasons EA bought the exclusive rights to the NFL was because ESPN 2K5 won since they dropped their launch price to 20 bucks while EA continues charging 50-60 bucks for their yearly roster updates.
Comments (0) 
