Misleading game trailers

[I.Muir]

Supposed bio shock infinite game play trailers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snDNJdmSSHc
Another one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEBwKO4RFOU

Some actual game play but you really need to have played the game to know the extent of these lies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXIlcu95_Y8

Now anybody who has actually played the game now knows that these two videos are complete lies.
It should be illegal, it's not representative of actual game play at all, it's intentionally misleading. It's a good thing the game is not as godawful as aliens colonial marines was but this kind of behavior on the part of publishers is unacceptable.

Discuss
What can be done?
Are there other examples you might have?
On a level of 1 to 10 how dastardly and manipulative are these trailers?

 

[Nouw]

Spoiler: Dead Island's Announcement trailer is pretty much the pinnacle of misleading game trailers.

Telltale need to hire whoever made this because on it's own, it's a damn fine trailer.

 

[I.Muir]

Spoiler: Dead Island's Announcement trailer is pretty much the pinnacle of misleading game trailers

Telltale need to hire whoever made this trailer.

It's pretty but there is no actual game play there. Well there isn't any in the ones I posted either but you know what I mean.

 

[Nouw]

Spoiler: Dead Island's Announcement trailer is pretty much the pinnacle of misleading game trailers

Telltale need to hire whoever made this trailer.

It's pretty but there is no actual game play there. Well there isn't any in the ones I posted either but you know what I mean.

I don't see why this thread needs to be restricted to gameplay trailers but if that's the way you want to go, go for it. I submit Jimquisition's episode on A-LIE [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/6832-A-LIE-ns-Colonial-Marines]-ens Colonial Marines. It has nothing to do with me being ripped off, no >.>.

 

[WoW Killer]

That's two and a half years old mate. It'd only be misleading if that was the only video available and they were still advertising it as a representation of the game upon release. They put out plenty of footage of the real game.

Find me someone who thought "hmmm, that Bioshock Infinite looks pretty good, I wonder if there's some gameplay footage on YouTube: oh look, I'll just skip past all these recent videos and take a heavily out of date posting as my only source of information on this product". Find me that guy.

 

[GoaThief]

I've yet to see better (worse) than this, a perfect 10 on the bullshittery scale ;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ialZcLaI17Y

The game ;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXmZX8iz2SE

 

[I.Muir]

That's two and a half years old mate. It'd only be misleading if that was the only video available and they were still advertising it as a representation of the game upon release. They put out plenty of footage of the real game.

Find me someone who thought "hmmm, that Bioshock Infinite looks pretty good, I wonder if there's some gameplay footage on YouTube: oh look, I'll just skip past all these recent videos and take a heavily out of date posting as my only source of information on this product". Find me that guy.

You mean a walk through.
The gameplay trailers are the same.

That being said there is always one person like the one you are describing.

I was lucky relying on my disreputable friend allowing me to the play the game before I bought it. Same with aliens except I didn't buy it, I wouldn't accept a free copy at this point.

 

[I.Muir]

The booker in the trailer kind of sounds like a young Harrison Ford to me.

Is somebody actually playing in there or is it entirely scripted? It looks as if they are trying to make it look like somebody is playing even if they are not, somebody with terrible aim perhaps.
That a fair amount of effort and money for something nothing like the game.

 

[I.Muir]

I've yet to see better (worse) than this, a perfect 10 on the bullshittery scale ;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ialZcLaI17Y

The game ;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXmZX8iz2SE

Bullshit yes
Pretending to be gameplay - no
Also check out mirrors edge in third person for more hilarity

 

[King Aragorn]

Aliens Colonial Marines was complete and utter lies. The pre-release footage was billions of light years better, it even looked like a darn different engine. Better lighting, textures, sound effects, smarter AI, better environments.....
I could go on and on, but I think at this point we all know how the final game turned out to be, and how much of a train wreck it was.

 

[Averant]

Killer said it right, mate. Those videos are a couple years old, and if they already had that much of the game flushed out at that point, then that means they had two years to change it all, and that's very very easily done with that much work already completed. So no, it's not misleading, though I wish they hadn't changed quite as much of it.

What's curious is, looking through the early gameplay vids, you can see certain points where the current game is based off of the old game, like the crow house, and the songbird tossing you into a building.

My only gripe is that they made Elizabeth look and sound like a 15 year old with a big rack, rather than the 20 year old she's supposed to be, and was in the older gameplay.

 

[The Task Master]

Resident Evil 5 had a amazing trailer but the game was a very big disappointment. I thought it was going to be a completely different however it became... well... you know. I would have waited for them to rewrite the story instead of putting in co-op to make it ok to take place in Africa but what's done is done. Total loss

 

[josemlopes]

That case with Bioshock isnt misleading, its a work in progress, they didnt release that 2 months before the release and said "This is the game". No, they just showed how the game was shapping up to be at the conventions and in a way if you took out the HUD it would actually be preety dam close, the AI interacts with you in the same way it does in the video.

 

[hazabaza1]

That case with Bioshock isnt misleading, its a work in progress, they didnt release that 2 months before the release and said "This is the game". No, they just showed how the game was shapping up to be at the conventions and in a way if you took out the HUD it would actually be preety dam close, the AI interacts with you in the same way it does in the video.

Yeah this.
If you're expecting something to be basically the final project 2 or 3 years before release you're being unreasonable. If you're expecting it to be the final project a few months before release, that's making sense. You're exaggerating.


But anyway... if we're talking about gameplay trailers only, I can't thing of anything else that hasn't already been said. There's the obvious cinematic trailer lies, but they're harder to apply.

Captcha: Nyan cat
Oh god it's growing.

 

[I.Muir]

Supposed bio shock infinite game play trailers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snDNJdmSSHc
Another one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEBwKO4RFOU

Some actual game play but you really need to have played the game to know the extent of these lies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXIlcu95_Y8

Now anybody who has actually played the game now knows that these two videos are complete lies.
It should be illegal, it's not representative of actual game play at all, it's intentionally misleading. It's a good thing the game is not as godawful as aliens colonial marines was but this kind of behavior on the part of publishers is unacceptable.

Discuss
What can be done?
Are there other examples you might have?
On a level of 1 to 10 how dastardly and manipulative are these trailers?

That's not fair. I know it may seem like pandering to defend Bioshock but that footage is quite old and the developers told us outright that a LOT had changed in the final product.

You have to calm down and just accept that things change over years, ok?

For the worse it seems.
I don't know about you but that game they are "playing" right there seems a lot more interesting.
Why build up a persons expectations a few years ago to only cut it down later to what it actually is?

Now I bought it knowing what it is anyway but it was still a disappointment for me that it could have been so much more
In the trailer Elizabeth interacts more with her environment, helps you with combat and that combat seems much more intense in general.
People could summon one of those blimps to attack or you could prevent them from raising the alarm.
They envisioned it as so much more but the publisher likely rushed it causing it to be cut down to what it was.

Was there any actual game play footage before the game came out?
Or do I have to take it for granted any game play footage if it's a few years old is false and the end product is inferior.

 

[Luca72]

I don't think it's worth mentioning non-gameplay trailers here. You have to realize that a cinematic advertisement for a game is by its very nature bullshit. You think an advertising firm that's contracted to do a Dead Island trailer has any incentive to show what the game is really like? They probably have nothing to do with development and little understanding of the product they're selling. Someone gives them art assets and a general overview of the story/atmosphere, then they do the best job they can to generate as much interest. I honestly think the team that did the Dead Island trailer has as much artistic ability as the people that did the game. It's not like they have some sacred duty to be honest about their product.

To me it's almost like a cereal commercial, where some batshit lunatic cartoon animal pops out and starts dancing around. Of course it has nothing to do with the product, it's just there to get your attention.

Gameplay trailers on the other hand are much more sinister, since they're supposed to be showing you a functional demonstration of the product you're interested in. Barring a demo, they're as close as you can get to the actual game. Of course the game won't look like it's pre-alpha - even Half Life 2 didn't live up to all the promises it made in its' tech demo. But that's different from the outright deception of a game like Aliens. I'm not sure where Bioshock Infinte fits on this scale, since I haven't played the game yet.

The solution? It's obvious. Don't buy the hype. Don't pre-order anything. If it's worth buying, you'll know it within a week of release. Watch a Let's Play if you really need confirmation. I don't understand why everyone thinks they have to be the first to get something.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I can't think of a trailer that lied to me from a gameplay point of view. In the case of Dead Island, it's just a very elaborate pre-rendered cutscene. I only evaluate gameplay from a trailer; if a trailer is just a cutscene, or a bunch of cutscenes, obviously I'm not going to take the bait.

 

[Happiness Assassin]

I don't count the Bioshock infinite one as that game went through several reworkings in order to make it work. They had to delay the game by about a year already and that demo is almost 3 years old on its own. No game stays 100% consistent throughout development.

OT: I don't think I have every been straight up lied to in a trailer, though the Dead Island one was definitely misleading in terms of tone. Also the demo for Aliens:CM.

 

[AlbertoDeSanta]

I'm pretty sure 90% of trailers you see for games these days are solely Theatrics. Not many of them actually show gameplay, which is a shame if you're just watching TV and might be interested in said game being shown.