One month from today: BioShock Infinite

Raitosaito said:
I knew the "this is not a bioshock" stuff was coming, but it is much earlier than I expected. Like I thought it was all going to come flooding in with the OT, so much for that.
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I wonder if those will be the same people that complained that Bioshock 2 was more of the same.
 
Gorillaz said:
I actually feel the the 30 second commercial does more justice then the 60 sec one.
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The 60 second commercial felt less awkward than the 30 second one. That one really just finished suddenly.
 
I thought the commercial was fine to get a mass audience. I'm kind of a sucker for that song since the first trailer it was in so that may be clouding my judgement. The game needs to sell a lot to make it's budget back. We know the game itself hasn't been compromised so it's not an issue to me. It's not like there isn't going to be combat like that in the game. It should have showed Songbird though.
 
Juan29.zapata said:
You have got to be fucking kidding me.

You mean, I had to pay double, and I don't freaking get it on release day? Holy shit, I hate Amazon.

EDIT: The ad wasn't so bad, it'll definitely attract the attention of people watching TWD. Which is great.
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The advertising person in me is dying to know how much a :60 spot on TWD costs. Has to be astronomical.

edit: One thing that bugs me about the spot is Courtnee's voice sounds horribly out of place.
 
CaptainGyro said:
That really cleared that up
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What's there to clear up? The commercial was absolute shit. Here's what it tells the millions of viewers watching Walking Dead: "Here's a game with insanely fast, nonstop, nonsense action! SO EXTREME, YO!"

There's some booby demure-eyed chick about to be hanged, someone's on a balcony surrounded by clouds about to shoot an old guy in the head, ROBOT HAND COMES OUT OF NOWHERE (but no chance to actually appreciate the Handyman's old-timey design, since you can't even get a good look at him), and then the rest of the commercial is motion sickness-inducing vaseline blur as the CGI whips along... rails? Well, we know they're rails, but people watching won't know what the fuck is going on. And then everyone dies, and the girl says "Booker," and a blimp appears.

BAM. BioShock Infinite.

To be fair, though, every commercial on Walking Dead is shit. The abysmal ME3 and Halo 4 ads come to mind.
 
Alright commercial, the ending was weird and honestly, I think it would have been better if they had showed a beefed up version of the original 'Beast of America' trailer with in-game footage.

Overall not bad, and it reminded me of my hype for the game.
 
RoKKeR said:
Alright commercial, the ending was weird and honestly, I think it would have been better if they had showed a beefed up version of the original 'Beast of America' trailer.

Overall not bad, and it reminded me of my hype for the game.
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They actually showed the Beast of America trailer in movie theaters for a while.
 
Not really seeing the issues with the commercial.

Sure, its a little odd, some of the animation or sequences seem a bit off? IDK, overall not nearly as bad as some people are making it out to be in my opinion.
 
The ad was fine IMO. It's a 30 second TV commercial with one goal: to sell copies. That's why they spend money on marketing and television slots. Even brilliant things are almost always given the same treatment: the people who are anticipating it for the "smarter" elements are going to know that they're not the focus of the spots, and people who don't really care (they should!) will see that the game has potentially a lot of suspense/tension/action -- which is fine, because that's clearly also a large aspect of the game.
 
i_am_not_jon_ames said:
The advertising person in me is dying to know how much a :60 spot on TWD costs. Has to be astronomical.

edit: One thing that bugs me about the spot is Courtnee's voice sounds horribly out of place.
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No kidding, I was wondering that too.

And I guess it sounds out of place because they took it directly from the game instead of recording new lines.
 
Neiteio said:
What's there to clear up? The commercial was absolute shit. Here's what it tells the millions of viewers watching Walking Dead: "Here's a game with insanely fast, nonstop, nonsense action! SO EXTREME, YO!"

There's some booby demure-eyed chick about to be hanged, someone's on a balcony surrounded by clouds about to shoot an old guy in the head, ROBOT HAND COMES OUT OF NOWHERE (but no chance to actually appreciate the Handyman's old-timey design, since you can't even get a good look at him), and then the rest of the commercial is motion sickness-inducing vaseline blur as the CGI whips along... rails? Well, we know they're rails, but people watching won't know what the fuck is going on. And then everyone dies, and the girl says "Booker," and a blimp appears.

BAM. BioShock Infinite.

To be fair, though, every commercial on Walking Dead is shit. The abysmal ME3 and Halo 4 ads come to mind.
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And yet every friend that saw the commercial thought it was great.

It manages to condense every major gameplay mechanic of Infinite into a 60 second clip that still manages to look stylish and have a sense of narrative. I really don't see how it could be considered terrible.
 
Just watched that lecture Ken Levine gave at BAFTA. Really good. I was pleasantly surprised by how non-idiotic the questions from the audience were, since that's usually the worst part of these things.

Levine gave quite the candid answer when questioned about why Bioshock was so pared down from System Shock 2 gameplay-wise. We already knew why, but it's not so often you hear it said aloud.
 
Zeliard said:
Just watched that lecture Ken Levine gave at BAFTA. Really good. I was pleasantly surprised by how non-idiotic the questions from the audience were, since that's usually the worst part of these things.

Levine gave quite the candid answer when questioned about why Bioshock was so pared down from System Shock 2 gameplay-wise. We already knew why, but it's not so often you hear it said aloud.
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Do you have a link? I need a good bedtime story tonight. :lol
 
Neiteio said:
What's there to clear up? The commercial was absolute shit. Here's what it tells the millions of viewers watching Walking Dead: "Here's a game with insanely fast, nonstop, nonsense action! SO EXTREME, YO!"
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oh. I thought it also told millions of viewers that it was a game from "the makers of the highest- rated first person shooter of all time" and it had won 85 awards, it blew one IGN guy away and that it was an "early favorite for game of the year in 2013".
 
CaptainGyro said:
oh. I thought it also told millions of viewers that it was a game from "the makers of the highest- rated developers first person shooter of all time" and it had won 85 awards, it blew one IGN guy away and that it was an early favorite for game of the year in 2013".
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Average Joe probably figures Call of Duty "blew IGN away" and won awards, too. And to Average Joe, Infinite looks just as extreme and shooty. Good if you want to sell to the CoD crowd, and that's definitely what they want, because it won't look enticing to anyone tired of the same shooters or who wants something that ain't brain-dead.

To the guy above me: What does the original BioShock ad have to do with anything? Although it is better -- it has atmosphere, lots of cold murky darkness. This one just had some generic white guy killing old people to rescue a big-boobed girl in a place surrounded by clouds.
 
Neiteio said:
Average Joe probably figures Call of Duty "blew IGN away" and won awards, too. And to Average Joe, Infinite looks just as extreme and shooty. Good if you want to sell to the CoD crowd, and that's definitely what they want, because it won't look enticing to anyone tired of the same shooters or who wants something that ain't brain-dead.
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There's no new CoD game coming out til the end of the year. It's a good time to have an apparent alternative in their field of vision.
 
Ithil said:
There's no new CoD game coming out til the end of the year. It's a good time to have an apparent alternative in their field of vision.
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No, I agree it'll help sell the game, and that's what the ad does. It's just shitty for brand equity, because it brands the game as something juvenile and brain-dead, par for the course. I guess the strategy is, sell the dudebros on it with this ad, because the people in it for the style and atmosphere and immersive world already know the game before the ad.
 
Neiteio said:
Average Joe probably figures Call of Duty "blew IGN away" and won awards, too. And to Average Joe, Infinite looks just as extreme and shooty. Good if you want to sell to the CoD crowd, and that's definitely what they want, because it won't look enticing to anyone tired of the same shooters or who wants something that ain't brain-dead.

To the guy above me: What does the original BioShock ad have to do with anything? Although it is better -- it has atmosphere, lots of cold murky darkness. This one just had some generic white guy killing old people to rescue a big-boobed girl in a place surrounded by clouds.
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And how is that lying or selling the game short? Most of the footage I've seen from the game is heavy on the shooting action, and that scene that you just described seems to be part of the game. At least I'd hope so. I thought it was a very cool scene. But not cool in like frat guy terms of cool, but like, it seemed like a pretty good scene. It is representative of the game because it is from the game.
 
brandonh83 said:
And how is that lying or selling the game short? Most of the footage I've seen from the game is heavy on the shooting action, and that scene that you just described seems to be part of the game. At least I'd hope so. I thought it was a very cool scene. But not cool in like frat guy terms of cool, but like, it seemed like a pretty good scene. It is representative of the game because it is from the game.
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I think it sells the game short because, well for starters, in the actual game the characters think and talk and communicate, they have personalities and their world has a history and isn't just Evil Villain's Cloud Lair where today we're executing Brain-Dead Big-Boob Beauty, the stereotypical role for women in videogames.
 
I love when we talk about casual reaction to TV spots for our favorite games. It feels like some sort of amateur anthropology.

Neiteio said:
I think it sells the game short because, well for starters, people think and talk and communicate in the game, they have personalities and their world has a history and isn't just Evil Villain's Cloud Lair where today we're executing Brain-Dead Big-Boob Beauty, the stereotypical role for women in videogames.
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I won't argue Liz's measurements (she looks like a woman from that period, wearing a corset, not like a DOA or Ninja Gaiden reject) but the thing I try to keep in mind is that there's no way Columbia's history and personalities and all that other awesome stuff could be conveyed in a 30 or 60 second tv spot. If they want CoD players or an even better comparison, Assassin's Creed players to give Infinite a shot, the TV spot is gonna have to be Cloud Lair with damsel in distress. The rest of us were gonna buy it anyway.
 
Neiteio said:
I think it sells the game short because, well for starters, in the actual game the characters think and talk and communicate, they have personalities and their world has a history and isn't just Evil Villain's Cloud Lair where today we're executing Brain-Dead Big-Boob Beauty, the stereotypical role for women in videogames.
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You're pretty much saying all of that stuff is okay in the actual game because the actual game presents it with context, but this is a very short TV commercial to bring awareness to the game; there's no time to establish the plot or context of what's going on. You see a scene like that and you become interested in learning more about what's going on. I'd love to see something more cerebral, but what you see in the commercial are legitimate elements from the game and I don't think people who see the ad are just going to think that there's absolutely nothing else to it or going on with the scene.
 
i_am_not_jon_ames said:
I won't argue Liz's measurements (she looks like a woman from that period, wearing a corset, not like a DOA or Ninja Gaiden reject) but the thing I try to keep in mind is that there's no way Columbia's history and personalities and all that other awesome stuff could be conveyed in a 30 or 60 second tv spot. If they want CoD players or an even better comparison, Assassin's Creed players to give Infinite a shot, the TV spot is gonna have to be Cloud Lair with damsel in distress. The rest of us were gonna buy it anyway.
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Even a simple line establishing the fact this is an isolated world where the Founding Fathers are worshipped with near-religious zeal would've made the whole thing much more interesting than the clusterfuck of motion blur it was. Seriously, just throw a line in there and clearly show the American iconography -- the flags, the statues, etc. That would at least be an improvement and would take all of two seconds.

I guess that's one point in the favor of the AC3 commercials -- it was clear they were set during the Revolutionary War, so at least it would slightly peg the meters of people who were maybe awake in school. (Although for the record, I don't care for AC3 at all.)
 
Neiteio said:
Average Joe probably figures Call of Duty "blew IGN away" and won awards, too. And to Average Joe, Infinite looks just as extreme and shooty. Good if you want to sell to the CoD crowd, and that's definitely what they want, because it won't look enticing to anyone tired of the same shooters or who wants something that ain't brain-dead.

To the guy above me: What does the original BioShock ad have to do with anything? Although it is better -- it has atmosphere, lots of cold murky darkness. This one just had some generic white guy killing old people to rescue a big-boobed girl in a place surrounded by clouds.
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The thing is, the shooter crowd are the ones that buy the most games. That crowd is very likely to be watching a zombie action show like Walking Dead. I mean, it's not like this trailer was placed before some art house period drama series. If they weren't looking for brain-dead, would they be watching a show literally about brain-dead creatures? Okay, that was a little cheap, but I couldn't resist the pun!

Anyway, I think the advertising for this game is working on multiple levels

- The Bioshock name is enough to get some people to take a look
- The setting is distinctive which is apparent from most media
- Female lead character who is already popular
- Lots of action and crazy powers for those who are so inclined
- Mystery, pushed by things like the What Happened To Columbia? videos
- Positive impressions, but unlike some games it doesn't feel like the entire game has been shown before release

I would personally like them to focus more on the intrigue of Columbia itself, but I think it ticks pretty much all the boxes and on the back of (presumably) positive review scores the game is going to do very well for itself!
 
Neiteio said:
Even a simple line establishing the fact this is an isolated world where the Founding Fathers are worshipped with near-religious zeal would've made the whole thing much more interesting than the clusterfuck of motion blur it was. Seriously, just throw a line in there and clearly show the American iconography -- the flags, the statues, etc. That would at least be an improvement and would take all of two seconds.

I guess that's one point in the favor of the AC3 commercials -- it was clear they were set during the Revolutionary War, so at least it would slightly peg the meters of people who were maybe awake in school. (Although for the record, I don't care for AC3 at all.)
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I just think the second you try to explain too much, you risk losing the mainstream audience. Hell, I've tried with my friends IRL about the religious/Founders stuff and how it's a floating crazy city that's cut off from the rest of the world, and they're like "why?" or "where'd the city come from?" or "what are they even doing there?". For TWD and network TV audiences, you just want whiz-bang, giant cyborgs, rescuing a girl, and crazy powers in a unique environment. That's what'll get people to take a chance on it.
 
Poimandres said:
The thing is, the shooter crowd are the ones that buy the most games. That crowd is very likely to be watching a zombie action show like Walking Dead. I mean, it's not like this trailer was placed before some art house period drama series. If they weren't looking for brain-dead, would they be watching a show literally about brain-dead creatures? Okay, that was a little cheap, but I couldn't resist the pun!
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Most people watching WD normally don't even like zombie shit but watch this show because it's not about the zombies, it's about the characters. Even the "dudebros" watching it come back for the characters, not the kills. This Infinite ad didn't operate on the right wavelength at all, and it's a shame, because the game's world has the same sort of LOST-like mystique that attracts WD's audience in the first place. None of that was conveyed in the commercial. Just mindless killing in a foggy landscape that was hard to contextualize.
 
Neiteio said:
Most people watching WD normally don't even like zombie shit but watch this show because it's not about the zombies, it's about the characters. Even the "dudebros" watching it come back for the characters, not the kills. This Infinite ad didn't operate on the right wavelength at all, and it's a shame, because the game's world has the same sort of LOST-like mystique that attracts WD's audience in the first place. None of that was conveyed in the commercial. Just mindless killing in a foggy landscape that was hard to contextualize.
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I can see where you're coming from, and a sense of mystery wouldn't have gone astray I agree.

But... there are a lot of brain-dead people watching The Walking Dead. You might be watching the show for the right reasons, but you don't get to ratings like that without drawing in the lowest common denominator. I know plenty of vacuous people who don't give other great shows the time of day but watch The Walking Dead because "zombies!!!".
 
Zeliard said:
Just watched that lecture Ken Levine gave at BAFTA. Really good. I was pleasantly surprised by how non-idiotic the questions from the audience were, since that's usually the worst part of these things.

Levine gave quite the candid answer when questioned about why Bioshock was so pared down from System Shock 2 gameplay-wise. We already knew why, but it's not so often you hear it said aloud.
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Do you recall at what time he answers the SS2 question?
 
FartOfWar said:
You need more than a day to one-sit this.
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Nah son.

keep-calm-and-poop-sock.png
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It's in Irrationals best interests for someone to literally die from playing this game for too long. Dat immersion!

Like when that guy laughed so much he had a heart attack and died while watching A Fish Called Wanda. Now THAT is a sign of a funny film.
 
Poimandres said:
I can see where you're coming from, and a sense of mystery wouldn't have gone astray I agree.
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I thought there was a sense of mystery to it in the first few seconds of the film, with a girl nervously looking around as she's got a noose around her neck and she's in the crosshair of a gun, then the crosshair cuts to an old man excitedly talking to a crowd of people around the woman, and then we see the that the old man is the one who is intented to be shot and then the plan breaks down. Then the video just ends with the blimp popping up. It may not be super rich in depth but I totally disagree that it's just a commercial that lacks any mystery at all and that the commercial is just showing mindless killing
 
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