Trailers: Rise of the Video game

Ok I'll admit my intentions to keep this more regularly updated as come to nought but hey lets go for occasional but hopefully interesting.

Anyway it is the impeding release of Mass Effect 3 that has stirred this one or more specifically it's trailers. It seems to me these days that trailers for the triple-A (basically the ones with the massive production budgets) game releases are increasingly proving far more interesting and well generally epic than a lot of film trailers.

Let's start with exhibit one, for the aforementioned Mass Effect 3 :



Even if you're not familiar with the franchise (and thus free of the "oh, my god it's so and so" moments) this still does a fantastic job of selling a big sci-fi adventure where the heroes to save Earth from sinister aliens (who intent on even attacking random fields).

It's very much in the no-dialogue, quick edit montage style of trailer that you often see with action blockbuster films of similar type. In fact compare it to something like The Avengers and you'll see very similar beats.

Next up we have this :



The above trailer for Gears of War 2 works because it is almost the opposite of the game itself. Quiet and reflective in contrast to the loud, frenetic action of the gameplay itself it managed to eek out those characters a little more.

Crucially it gives you just enough to wet the appetite and wonder what is in store as the team head out on what very much appears a suicide mission. It's franchise that has always had a good pedigree with it's trailers from day one;



And the franchise would go back and use that music again in a surprisingly effective sequence in the third game.

This next one really does something different and manages to really spark interest as at first you wonder what it's for before you start to recognise the battling foes. Again it's one that plays off the dynamic action of the game itself rather than directly presenting it.



Then we have a trailer that was actually better than the game it advertised and certainly more original in it's content than the game. And you know a trailer is effective when it garners disapproving press coverage.



But seriously this is really, really well edited and is actually in my view one of the best entries in the zombie genre for some time despite only being a 3 minute advert for a deeply average game.

The new Tomb Raider trailer suggests that very soon it'll be very hard to tell the difference between a video game trailer and film trailer at all. The uncanny valley is getting smaller all the time;



The trailer for Assassins Creed : Revelations is an excellent match of montage and music that really both suits and sets the mood of the franchise.



Anyway there's a few of my favourite examples and there are surprisingly many more I could have picked, but it's certainly true we've come a long from when video game advertising was this;