It is not our fault that we, as gamers, see a trailer for an upcoming game with impressive graphics and say to ourselves, “That must be just some cutscene, that isn’t how the game actually plays/looks”. It’s not our fault because for a decade or more that’s been the truth with nearly every trailer or teaser released. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
It looks like those days are somewhat over. Sparked by next-gen consoles, game developers are pushing the limits on the hardware to make stunning games. One of the first we’ve seen was in Gears of War for the XBOX360, which, when released matched the trailers in look and feel. At least for current expectations, games look good enough to make their own cutscenes.
But still, old habits die hard, so last year when the first trailer for Assassin’s Creed were released, they looked just a bit too cinematic and reactive to be true gameplay. As such, while the trailer was very impressive, it got shoved in the back of people’s mind as just a pretty cutscene. Fortunately, now we find that the game truly plays much like the trailer. (I say much because some of the angles of the trailer aren’t really seen in gameplay).
As the launch date of fall of this year approaches, and UbiSoft has their showcase gathering in Paris called Ubidays, more trailers and gameplay have been shown, and all of them are impressive. They back up the gameplay by showing, well… gameplay.
Thank goodness this isn’t console only, because I still haven’t purchased any nextgen consoles, and am planning to beef up my PC a tad this summer.
There’s still a trailer for a game I can’t believe is indicative of real gameplay, even though there have been countless suggestions that it will be, and that’s the stunning Killzone 2 trailer released before the PS3 went to stores. It will be hard to keep my money in my wallet if it truly looks and plays that way. And if it does, it may shake the trailer cynic out of me.
