Sure, a bunch of games are up for awards--but what did you think for the trailers for 'em?
With the VGA's almost upon us, we thought it'd be a good idea to take a look at one of the categories where you the fans get to make a choice: The Trailer of the Year. I'll be running down all of the nominees and breaking down why some deserve the big prize and why others... well, they tried, anyway.
Assassin's Creed: Revelations: E3 2011 Trailer
You have to hand it to the folks who select the tracks behind some of Ubisoft's trailers over the last couple of years. Using DJ Shadow's "Lonely Soul" for the first Assassin's Creed was a surprising fit for an action-adventure game mostly set in and around historical Jerusalem, while Sigur Ros' "Seaglopur" was used to haunting effect for for their Prince of Persia reboot. Now, here we are with this little mini movie featuring a globe-trotting, aged Ezio battling his way into a fortress on the edge of the world set to Woodkid's "Iron," and if anything, it's got me spending my 89 cents on this track, no doubt.
As for the trailer itself, it does the hard work of selling some of the mystery underlying the Assassin's Creed series while also getting across gorgeously that however it turns out, this will be the end of the road for Ezio.
Batman: Arkham City: Hugo Strange Reveal Trailer
Hard as they come. That's the best way to describe this two and a half minute video featuring one of the Arkham City guards being interrogated by that game's villain, resident genius/mad scientist Hugo Strange. But let me rewind: yes, this is the trailer that debuted during last year's VGAs so it actually ran back in 2010 but don't worry about that, right (note: Spike TV and MTV share the same parent company). On a serious note, though, if you love or even just like Batman, how could you not be enthralled by this little piece of video? At the time that it was released, a friend of mine was convinced that it was live-action, so fluid is the animation and vivid/realistic are the faces. But it's all digital and it's all gorgeous in it's grimy, vicious way.
Without featuring any gameplay footage, it still communicated the experience and threat of Arkham City and made Batman seem more dangerous--and in even more danger--than ever.
Dark Souls: Ignite '11 Debut Trailer
"Oh the places you'll go, oh the things that will kill you." That seems to be the message of this gameplay-heavy trailer for From Software's Dark Souls, the follow-up to Demon's Souls. Showing off the many locations you'll visit and enemies you'll face, this trailer doesn't waste any time telling gamers what's up with this killer spiritual successor to the 2009 cult hit. In fact, one of the most interesting things about this trailer is the way that it preys on gamers' anxiety about being killed by the many things in this game--an anxiety that the Dark Souls audience seems to feed off of, thriving on the almost punishing challenge at the heart of the game.
Darkly beautiful and very deadly, the trailer for Dark Souls tells you exactly what you're in for.
Dead Island: GDC 11 Cinematic Trailer
As a trailer for a videogame, the GDC reveal for Dead Island is a failure.
Stick with me here: as a piece of video featuring the aftermath of zombie chaos--in reverse!--it's kind of evocative and tells a neat little mini-story about this family destroyed by an outbreak of the living dead at a hotel resort. But as something that's supposed to get me anticipating a pretty interesting game with an open-ish environment and a tone that's more Dawn of the Dead '04 than 28 Days Later (if you don't get the difference, we can't be friends), well, this trailer doesn't do that at all. In fact, I'd be hard-pressed to call it a trailer for anything, given that it could stand in for nearly any non-comedy zombie movie or game of the last few years.
Hindered by essential vagueness, this trailer doesn't really work, pretty piano music be damned.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution: SDCC 11 Purity First Propaganda Trailer
Context is essential and that's primarily what this entirely gameplay-free trailer for the Deus Ex prequel delivers. And it's a complete and total reversal from the Dead Island trailer, succeeding in every way where that one failed. Created as a kind of in-fiction manifesto against human augmentation, it gradually, steadily builds to a chaotic crescendo where the world as you know it will be decimated by drug use and people burdened with expensive custom parts doled out by soulless corporations that just want you to upgrade. It ties into the themes of the game (or at least the ones that game is ostensibly committed to) while also giving you a sense of the world in which it takes place and the reality you'll be facing in it.
Like any good to great propaganda piece it shocks and creates intrigue, and most importantly for Deus Ex, it creates that little thrill that causes you to want to check out the world from which its sprung.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Debut In-Game Trailer
Of course, Max Von Sydow and dragons don't hurt your case. Featuring what was at the time some of the first gameplay footage out in the wild, this trailer is pretty much in the same vein as the one for Dark Souls, heavy on the whole "what you'll be doing" part of the trailer experience. It serves as your first look at the highly detailed world of Skyrim and even your first "Shout" from the game (with the barbarian in the trailer even collecting the dragon's soul).
Showing players some of the game that you want them to play might not be the most innovative way of crafting your trailer, but when players are in love with The Elder Scrolls the way many of us are, gameplay might just be enough.
Hitman: Absolution: E3 Trailer
Another case where I feel the need to match the trailers, this one seems like a weird cousin of the Arkham City video in that it shows off the capabilities of its hero (sans actual gameplay) but it feels like it exists in a void. Why the need to obscure Agent 47's face? What's with the woman in the shower? What does the "Absolution" in the title have to do with anything we're seeing onscreen?
While I don't require that every little mystery be spoon fed to me in a game's first trailer, I have to return to the idea of context: Hitman: Absolution's trailer lacks it.
Prey 2: E3 2011 Trailer
Two points: first, there are a surprising amount of things that could be improved with the injection of a little Johnny Cash music for mood. Point the second, I have no idea why or how this game is related to the first portal-riffic Prey. Regardless, this one works, playing off the tail-end of the live-action debut trailer, and then establishing your character as a human bounty hunter on a multi-species alien planet. Again, no gameplay here, but you get a sense for the kind of arsenal your character will be toting in-game and even a tiny bit of mystery with the target's "They're using you--" at the end there.
Action-packed and to the point, it shows off an alien playground that should be fun to explore and catch criminals in.
Tomb Raider: E3 2011 Trailer
...or "Lara Croft Begins," if you will. Okay, I hate the construction, "I went to find x but x found me." Writers, stop using it, it's terrible and half the time it doesn't mean anything. Grammar griping and irritation at the breathless, mostly content-free narration aside, this trailer works in terms of selling gamers on the new direction for the rebooted Tomb Raider franchise. By the end of the trailer, they've rebuilt Lara Croft from a wisecracking pneumatic brunette with guns to a survivalist heroine on the shores of an island which seems to have ensnared ships for centuries. This island might even have tombs on it, who knows?
A nice piece of franchise rebuilding on the part of Crystal Dynamics, it's probably the first time in a long while that anyone has been excited about a new Lara Croft adventure.
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception: E3 2011 Trailer
Less than a minute into the trailer for the latest from Naughty Dog and Nathan Drake meets his new nemesis and gets shot in the chest. That's the way to set up your next big adventure right there. Okay, there's not a lot of flash here by which I mean to say it doesn't have the deadly pacing of the Arkham City trailer or the moodiness of the Assassin's Creed trailer, but again, there's always something to be said for getting to the point and Naughty Dog would like very much to introduce you to their new blockbuster adventure and there's nothing at all wrong with that.
Like the trailer for the latest summer action movie, Uncharted 3: trailer sells you a big, explosive gaming experience and gets you hyped for more of what you like.
You can vote for your favorite trailer on the VGAs page. The Spike TV VGAs will premiere LIVE on Spike TV, MTV2 and Spike.com on Saturday, December 10 at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT.
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