The Bureau: XCom Declassified Trailer Screams YOLO!

[Andy Chalk]

The Bureau: XCom Declassified Trailer Screams YOLO!

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In an XCom world of permadeath, You Only Live Once.

The last couple of promo trailers [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/126386-The-Bureaus-Agent-Cole-Embarks-Upon-The-Chase] for The Bureau: XCom Declassified haven't exactly been upbeat affairs. Death, despair, darkness, loss of hope; it's a cold, hard world. But hey, baby - YOLO!

The latest (and, dare I say, greatest) trailer for The Bureau takes a bit of a different look at what happens when permadeath is combined with the curse of epically bad leadership. As you might imagine, it's not good. You only live once, kid. Whoops.

The video is wonderfully amusing, but not everyone is amused. A surprisingly large number of comments on YouTube are negative, calling it a horrible trailer or saying that 2K Games doesn't know its audience, and one user has actually threatened to cancel his preorder. Maybe it's all ironic, but I suspect some people are perhaps taking it a little more seriously than they should. Come on, man - YOLO!

The Bureau: XCom Declassified comes out on August 20 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.


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[shadowmagus]

While the whole "YOLO" thing is stupid, I found myself mildly amused by this. Its meant to be comical, obviously, so taken in said context, it's not the worst two minutes I've ever spent on a youtube video.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Eh, no point having a 2 minute video for one joke. 30 seconds would have kept it snappier, though less gameplay of different people dying.

OTOH, gah, I wish YOLO would go away though. Not because I've actually heard people say it, but like with Justin Bieber, everyone keeps blathering on about how much they want it to go aw- oh goddamnit.

 

[MCerberus]

At first I thought that they threw away all the good feelings they worked so hard for getting rid of that game's bad reputation.

Then I laughed at the accurate portrayal of Tumblr.

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

This is possibly the best video game trailer I have seen in years! When The Bureau was first announced people were screaming that the creation of an XCOM shooter was going to destroy the franchise and that perma-death would cease to exist. The devs heard this and said, "Lets make a trailer that reassures those people while at the same time mocking them relentlessly.

I really would have preferred they played it straight, kinda undermines the whole point of perma-death in the first place.
And the fact that they actually SAY YOLO isn't going to earn them any points with me.

I actually think that makes it even better. One more 'gritty realistic our game is for serious' trailer and I was going to go insane. I'm glad that marketers are starting to realize that not everything has to be serious. (Sharknado, amirite?)

I mean, why worry about jokingly insulting your fan base when there's marketing to be done? #YOLO

 

[Phrozenflame500]

2K Exec 1: Hey Bob, we need a cool new way to market our game
2K Exec 2: Yeah Jim, I was thinking, kid's are into rap nowadays right?
2K Exec 1: Sure Bob, but our game has nothing to do with rap
2K Exec 2: No problem, let's just take a stupid catchphrase the kids are using and shoehorn it into our trailer
2K Exec 1: That's a great idea Bob!

And then they both went back to sacrificing goats to the DRM God.

Seriously, I know they're doing this "ironically'. But in the words of 4chan: "Ironic shitposting is still shitposting".

 

[Kristian Fischer]

Yeah, because 4chan is totally worth quoting, and shouldn't be burned to the ground and sown with salt. Lighten up, people. For Glod's sake, be a little less cynical and you'll live happier lives.

 

[Makabriel]

Perhaps I'm in a weird place today, but I really liked it..

Or maybe it was the alien mind probes. I dunno.

 

[Doom972]

Oh good, I was considering paying the full price and preorder it but now I don't want to anymore.
I know that it's just a joke, but it's a very poor one that hints at an attempt to reach the widest audience possible.

2K Exec 1: Hey Bob, we need a cool new way to market our game
2K Exec 2: Yeah Jim, I was thinking, kid's are into rap nowadays right?
2K Exec 1: Sure Bob, but our game has nothing to do with rap
2K Exec 2: No problem, let's just take a stupid catchphrase the kids are using and shoehorn it into our trailer
2K Exec 1: That's a great idea Bob!

And then they both went back to sacrificing goats to the DRM God.

Seriously, I know they're doing this "ironically'. But in the words of 4chan: "Ironic shitposting is still shitposting".

Well said.

 

[VonKlaw]

This kinda makes the game look really bad. Not the dumb meme but the gameplay. It looks awful.

This. I get soldiers are supposed to follow what they're commander says, but in a supposedly realistic-based game, having you men RUN ONTO LAND MINES THEY CAN CLEARLY SEE without question just makes me question how much they've bothered with the AI.

 

[Agayek]

That trailer is incredibly stupid. In a good way.

But people aren't giving it a fair deal either, most likely because most of the internet automatically hates anything related to the acronym "YOLO". What (very) little actual gameplay is shown is pretty solid.

 

[Reeve]

What's people problem with the YOLO meme? Aside from it being true that each person does only live once, the trailer was funny.

 

[Eomega123]

That was pretty funny, I might look into this game a little more now.

 

[Bostur]

Lets try that again.

I thought it was funny. There is something very traditional X-Com'ish about sending dozens of soldiers to their deaths and saying whoops.

 

[teh_Canape]

I really would have preferred they played it straight, kinda undermines the whole point of perma-death in the first place.
And the fact that they actually SAY YOLO isn't going to earn them any points with me.

I actually think that makes it even better. One more 'gritty realistic our game is for serious' trailer and I was going to go insane. I'm glad that marketers are starting to realize that not everything has to be serious. (Sharknado, amirite?)

I think it especially shows with the soldiers yell "yolo!"
it's pretty obvious it's voice acting done solely for the trailer and not actual ingame voice acting

 

[Deathfish15]

I want to find the SOB that decided to put together "YOLO", shouting it at the rooftops, and ring his freakin' neck! That crap is the most annoying shit I've ever heard ever...yes, more than a Britney Spears' song. Worse yet is when on VOIP and having to listen to people shouting it over a mic. PUKE!

 

[Karoshi]

This is pretty funny.

The more I see of this game, the more I like it... yet not enough to buy at launch. Sorry Xcom!