My friend has twin boys (coming on 5 years old) that he loves more than I can put into words, he described the trailer as "art".
It is possible not to be a reactionary, "think of the children!", hysterical fuckmuppet and still come across like a good parent I think.
That depends on the veiwer. Some people have a harder time disconnecting themselves from what they are viewing. Different topics affect different people different ways.
Calling people who are affected by things differently "hysterical fuckmuppets" is kinda lame.
My friend has twin boys (coming on 5 years old) that he loves more than I can put into words, he described the trailer as "art".
It is possible not to be a reactionary, "think of the children!", hysterical fuckmuppet and still come across like a good parent I think.
And it's also possible to understand that there are multiple sides to this issue and it doesn't need to be made into an "us versus them" scenario. I didn't find the trailer offensive due to any content at all, but I can completely understand and sympathize with the fact that some people have an intense, instinctive reaction to it. My problem personally is that the trailer fails to represent the game whatsoever; i wanna see some gameplay already, because I know whatever comes out is going to have absolutely nothing to do with that trailer.
My friend has twin boys (coming on 5 years old) that he loves more than I can put into words, he described the trailer as "art".
It is possible not to be a reactionary, "think of the children!", hysterical fuckmuppet and still come across like a good parent I think.
And it's also possible to understand that there are multiple sides to this issue and it doesn't need to be made into an "us versus them" scenario. I didn't find the trailer offensive due to any content at all, but I can completely understand and sympathize with the fact that some people have an intense, instinctive reaction to it. My problem personally is that the trailer fails to represent the game whatsoever; i wanna see some gameplay already, because I know whatever comes out is going to have absolutely nothing to do with that trailer.
I keep hearing the bolded part over and over, and it still makes no sense to me.
The themes expressed in the trailer, things like sadness and loss and the destruction of innocence, along with an interesting narrative like a family literally being torn apart by themselves will most definitely not be in the game. What will be in the game will be plenty of chopping up zombies, and running from zombies, and shooting zombies while optionally chatting with your buddies over your headset. Which is awesome, that game sounds like tons of fun. But that trailer doesn't tell me about that game.
My friend has twin boys (coming on 5 years old) that he loves more than I can put into words, he described the trailer as "art".
It is possible not to be a reactionary, "think of the children!", hysterical fuckmuppet and still come across like a good parent I think.
That depends on the veiwer. Some people have a harder time disconnecting themselves from what they are viewing. Different topics affect different people different ways.
Calling people who are affected by things differently "hysterical fuckmuppets" is kinda lame.
Maybe I overreacted, but I was really bugged by that guys response, "oh, Poland!" as if it's a relief Americans couldn't have been so heartless.
/shrug
Oh yeah and show the gameplay +1
But still, props on the trailer that almost made me cry.
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Olivawgood name, isn't it?the foot of mt fujiRegistered Userregular
edited February 2011
With any luck, if the trailer is at all indicative of anything in the final game, it's a mood
I don't see why those themes wouldn't be in the game. Hell, Nier pulled that shit off masterfully with probably a fraction of the budget, and a developer with a horrible track record.
Of course there's gonna be plenty of chopping and running. But action doesn't negate tension.
With any luck, if the trailer is at all indicative of anything in the final game, it's a mood
And if they can pull off that mood in the game, it'd be an amazing game, and I'd be totally up for playing an engrossing experience like that. But until I see some gameplay footage with that kind of emotion, that trailer might as well be Peter Molyneux talking, personally. I've seen way too many games focus on what they could be, instead of focusing on what they are, to not worry about getting burned by something like this.
Anyway, sorry for posting so much on it, I'm sure everyone's getting annoyed with my hogging the topic for a bit.
My friend has twin boys (coming on 5 years old) that he loves more than I can put into words, he described the trailer as "art".
It is possible not to be a reactionary, "think of the children!", hysterical fuckmuppet and still come across like a good parent I think.
That depends on the veiwer. Some people have a harder time disconnecting themselves from what they are viewing. Different topics affect different people different ways.
Calling people who are affected by things differently "hysterical fuckmuppets" is kinda lame.
Maybe I overreacted, but I was really bugged by that guys response, "oh, Poland!" as if it's a relief Americans couldn't have been so heartless.
/shrug
Oh yeah and show the gameplay +1
But still, props on the trailer that almost made me cry.
Oh. I thought you were maybe addressing people in the thread. The thing that sucked about that video of the dudes reaction was that it was made public for yuks. If I was him I wouldn't have let them do that. Like I stated earlier, that didn't really do gaming or Dead Island any favors.
I notice you're not linking to, let's say, the Sales-Age threads, or the 999 thread where people are having a good Q+A with the translation team at Aksys, or the various company analysis threads that pop up with great regularity.
Gaf is occasionally a cesspool, but they're just like every other forum in that regard.
Randeh - You're only reading what you want to read. Some of us got interested by the trailer because it shows a seems to be a zombie game where you're helpless, with Condemned-like combat.
You seem obsessed with the girl dying in the trailer.
It's horror though. It's not supposed to be a nice thing.
This is something that's been bugging me about some of the criticism that's been flying around regarding the trailer. I don't have kids, but having a niece and nephew I can fully understand how people who DO have kids are feeling rather uncomfortable about this - you see something like that, the most horrifying thing that any parent, hell any person with a basic sense of pathy, can think of, and immedietly you start to self-insert and superimpose and whatnot, and by the end you are thoroughly creeped the fuck out.
With zombies, though, there is absolutly nothing sacred in regard to what goes on. Not because it's malicious, not because it's trying to be any more manipulative than any other kind of horror/media is, but because the undead as a concept make no differentiation between anything beyond if they're edible or not. They just do what they do, and we know that coming in, and it just sseems a bit hipocritical to be jonesing for a game based on the premise of some force trying to eat every still-living human on the face of the planet and then say "that goes too far/they're just doing that for shock" when a member of a specific considerably-sizeable denomination of the human race finally gets munched.
EDIT: And this foreign-born son of Poland says hi and fuck you too. Prick.
I hated this trailer. "That's what zombies do" is not an excuse for presenting something unnecessarily vile for the sole purpose of shock value. No self-respecting gamer should be excited about this, and I'll tell you why...
Now, I realize that to people who do not have children the imagery of a child dying is surreal. It's as fantastic, mentally, as imagery of zombie infestation or a post-apocalyptic wasteland. It's something you can't contextualize to yourself in the way that a parent could. You can empathize, project yourself into the character and think about how that would affect you, but you can then disconnect and move on.
That's the point... it's not surreal to me, as a parent. When you focus on the death of a child as the entire point of a trailer, when you dedicate half of the trailer to watching her desperately scramble for the safety of her parents only to have her die all the same... it's not part of a fantasy game world to me anymore. It's evoking a very primal chemical response in me as a parent. I can't choose to disconnect or choose not to empathize with that father. My emotional response is raw and immediate; I'm not controlling it and it's taking me to a place I don't want to go.
I imagine this is pretty similar to what a trigger feels like to other subsets of the community.
The "that's what zombies do" argument is silly and I can pick it apart in one paragraph. If that argument were true you could sit there and be equally excited about a 3.5 minute trailer that literally showed a zombified man, chasing down, attacking, cornering, ripping the clothes and flesh off of an underage girl, zoom in to her face as she screams and pleads for this not to happen, and then watch as over the course of the remaining 2 minutes as she's literally bitten to death while she sobs and her body wracks with pain until she spasms to death from blood loss.
If you can describe the above sequence as "cool" then I'll believe your "meh, zombies are mean, that's what they do" argument. I'll also suggest you might be autistic or sociopathic or lying - take your pick.
Even in horror movies there is always a juggling act between what you show and what you do not show, either for ratings or artistic purposes. If you can find me a movie that graphically and realistically depicts someone going to the bathroom multiple times per day, eating every meal, having unsimulated sex with a real person for a realistic amount of time in one long uncut shot, going to work for 8 hours (man this movie's getting long) I'd ... not want to watch that. Nobody would - that sounds REALLY boring and kind of gross. You understand the point that even graphically violent movies have elements they choose not to depict for some reason or another. The "this is REAL" argument is also ridiculous for this reason.
As for why every game should dislike this trailer? For one, it's a sandbox game - one of the most difficult and time-consuming types of gameplay to develop from a technical standpoint. From what I heard the game development wasn't going that great. And what do they show us? A CG cutscene involving no gameplay and certainly nothing "sandbox"y. Sony tried to do this with Killzone and people were furious - CG trailers offer no insight into what we're spending $59.99 for as this article outlines perfectly. Even the all-CG trailer for Arkham City at least depicts activity that the player can control (gliding, combat, interrogation), so it's showing off a GAME.
Why does this game get a free pass on the "CG-only = dumb" criticism because it had shocking content? The criticism is still valid. They showed NOTHING to do with a game. It's a GAME trailer. I expect something to indicate gameplay other than "you and your family are going to die" - THAT seems like a very short, very uneventful game to me.
If they had changed one thing in that trailer my position would be completely reversed and I'd be arguing for this trailer as an artistic triumph both for content and as an example of what this medium really stands for: reverse time to the point where the dad still has a chance to save the little girl, freeze on his outstretched hand, and end it.
The motivational purpose for the "cute little girl" or the "helpless princess" or any damsel in distress is to evoke an effort on the part of the gamer to save her. Imagine if the Ico trailer had shown her
leaving you at the end,
or if the Shadow of the Colossus trailer had shown you
that killing these things was a dick move.
It sucks all the fun out of what was otherwise and incredibly emotional journey through gameplay. This is the same idea: she's dead at the beginning, you can't save her, where is my interaction point with this presented story? If she's dead no matter HOW you "reverse time" (evoking replaying that part of the game in the gamer's mind) ... where's the game here?
You know what I call a game where a little girl's going to die, become a zombie, then bite the father and I can't actually do anything, you just have to watch it? I call that the opening sequence to Dawn of the Dead. That shit is seven years old. How anyone can think this is "edgy" or "groundbreaking" is beyond me. It's LITERALLY the exact same sequence...
As gamers you should feel cheated: you were shown an incendiary marketing gimmick, not a game. You should be pissed based on that principle alone.
Yo, dude
It's a pretty well put together piece of film
I think I've got a right to admire it regardless of whether or not I'm a "gamer"
Besides, Dawn of the Dead's opening sequence was entirely different for two reasons: 1) it was the setup for the rest of a film rather than a self contained story and 2) the wife survived. No one survived in this trailer. That's difference enough in tone and tenor to set it apart
As for you personally disliking the trailer because you've got kids and it disturbed you on a fundamental level, yo, that's awesome. It shows that you are a human being with human feelings and would totally pass the Voight-Kampff test. But you should recognize that some of us don't have that personal connection that you do, and can admire a piece of fiction for being bleak and uncompromising. Why do you think Cormac McCarthy won the Pulitzer Prize, fer crissakes
Shit, maybe some of us can admire it even though we are parents, specifically because it evokes a powerful emotional response. Tycho loved Heavy Rain and acknowledged that he might not love it as much if he were not a parent at the time, and loved Silent Hill 2 primarily because he was a newlywed when he played it
Olivaw do you really think it's a well put together trailer, though? I mean, I've watched it, and I was pretty underwhelmed. Compared to things like...
Michel Gondry's Music Video for Sugar Water by Cibo Matto:
I thought the Dead Island trailer sucked. I know we all lower our expectations for video game narratives, but if we're judging this as a short film, I don't think it should just be compared to short films involving video game promotional products.
(Even then, though, I think the Gears trailer was a lot better.)
Beck on
Lucas's Franklin Badge reflected the lightning back!
Yeah, people dancing in front of a camera in a music video. That's pretty revolutionary right there.
I think the trailer was pretty good. It managed to hold my attention all the way through and I liked the music. My eyes were constantly drawn to the jerky and somewhat unrealistic movements of the parents, though. At any rate, it has certainly achieved its goal of generating a buzz about the game; and in that respect, it deserves recognition.
As for people declaring that we should hate the game because the trailer depicts a young girl dying -- well, I guess it just goes to show that even video gamers are not immune to moral panic, at least not if they are parents. Honestly, there are so many movies and video games out there that depict far more depraved acts perpetrated on young girls, innocent animals, or anything else someone might conceivably have an emotional connection to. There are video games about creating snuff films, games in which cutting people's heads off and playing soccer with them is considered fun, and even games where whoring out your wife and then brutally murdering her is an option. There are movies in which college girls are raped by trees, young girls masturbate with crucifixes while possessed by the devil, and preteen boys have sex with adult women. Some of these movies are even considered to be classics. But we should hate Dead Island because a CG girl was killed by zombies in a promotional video?
I'm really dumbfounded at the amount of controversy this trailer has generated all around the internet. Regardless of my feelings on it or whether it was good or bad marketing has done their job, people are still talking about it.
If the below statement from Destructoid is anywhere near true...
Imagine Borderlands set on the Just Cause 2 island with the Left 4 Dead style of zombies, featuring a quest system similar to Fallout 3 and the weapons system of Dead Rising 2. Blend all of that together, and you get Dead Island; or, as Deep Silver likes to refer to it, a "first-person zombie slasher action RPG."
...this will be an awesome game for me.
InitialDK on
"I'd happily trade your life for knowledge of my powers."
-Louis C.K.
Dead Island trailer sucked. I mean, look at these two music videos that do something completely different in a completely different market for completely different reasons.
Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't show kids dying or whatever, I'm just saying it's not an amazing trailer. If you look at what those music videos used those film techniques to achieve, they created a very surreal, almost dream-like atmosphere, as they should, because the technique doesn't really make sense unless you make good use of it. In the Dead Island trailer, yeah, I liked the glass, I liked the blood, I liked the arm, but why doesn't the father drop the axe? That would have been far more interesting in reverse. Tripping, too, would have been excellent (something we see much more of in the Spike Jonze film). Even spray from a canister (a fire extinguisher, for example) would have been beautiful, but none of those images are present. My complaints are not with the concept, but with the actual filmmaking. It's somewhat boring to watch, a bit muddled, and it's worse when you watch it a second time and think "man, it would have been so cool if they had done X instead".
Beck on
Lucas's Franklin Badge reflected the lightning back!
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KlykaDO you have anySPARE BATTERIES?Registered Userregular
Oh god, I'm too late. It's utterly irredeemable, total tripe. Don't read it if you value any kind of good storytelling.
... Really? What do you expect from a book about Zombies? This isn't Shakespeare, it is a much simpler entertainment.
You can read a chapter for free on the site.
Despite the almost "fan-fic" style, far too convenient survivalist wet dream stuff and occasional political jabber it's solid based on that. I have ordered it so I guess I will know soon enough, but frankly I LOVED the homepage of the dead fiction area, there was some awesome stuff on there.
Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't show kids dying or whatever, I'm just saying it's not an amazing trailer. If you look at what those music videos used those film techniques to achieve, they created a very surreal, almost dream-like atmosphere, as they should, because the technique doesn't really make sense unless you make good use of it. In the Dead Island trailer, yeah, I liked the glass, I liked the blood, I liked the arm, but why doesn't the father drop the axe? That would have been far more interesting in reverse. Tripping, too, would have been excellent (something we see much more of in the Spike Jonze film). Even spray from a canister (a fire extinguisher, for example) would have been beautiful, but none of those images are present. My complaints are not with the concept, but with the actual filmmaking. It's somewhat boring to watch, a bit muddled, and it's worse when you watch it a second time and think "man, it would have been so cool if they had done X instead".
You're missing the forest for the trees. The only reason for using reverse in the Spike Jonze video is to show stuff that looks cool in reverse. The trailer does this too, but it's just window dressing- the primary use is giving new significance to events you've already seen by filling in the background, like a flashback.
The muddledness is intentional- it drops you in the middle of the action slightly confused as to what's happening, and you have to reconstruct the story and reverse the action in your head as you watch it, until it blindsides you with an emotional two by four.
to be perfectly honest, i knew the girl was a zombie from the start
she had a bloody mouth and all
i was initially thinking 'oh god the zombies threw her out a window and she fell to her death! ' but then a closer look revealed the aforementioned zombie traits and i was all "lol k"
the real emotional hit is seen in the father's face as he realizes his family is literally going to die and be eaten in front of his eyes that is fucking GRIM nightmare stuff because it touches on insecurities that pretty much every spouse/father has. that's what makes the trailer so hard to watch. they are going to die, and there is nothing you can do to save them.
i don't know if any of you guys read the comic series Crossed, but it's one of the more fucked up zombie stories out there. one of the guys basically goes through what the father in the trailer does, and he is just not all there afterwards. that shit is soul-breaking.
curly haired boy on
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
I'm really dumbfounded at the amount of controversy this trailer has generated all around the internet. Regardless of my feelings on it or whether it was good or bad marketing has done their job, people are still talking about it.
If the below statement from Destructoid is anywhere near true...
Imagine Borderlands set on the Just Cause 2 island with the Left 4 Dead style of zombies, featuring a quest system similar to Fallout 3 and the weapons system of Dead Rising 2. Blend all of that together, and you get Dead Island; or, as Deep Silver likes to refer to it, a "first-person zombie slasher action RPG."
...this will be an awesome game for me.
You got that right, brosef.
The debate over whether it's a good trailer is getting weird (what the heck do those videos have to do with anything?). There's always a vocal 2% who hate something because the other 98% like it.
A good horror film/game becomes GOOD when it connects with the player/view and pulls at them emotionally. It's the whole point - to dig deeper than the surface. It's why some zombie media becomes acclaimed, because it goes beyond the normal easy-to-pull-off bloodbath. It's connects so strongly that you actually CARE.
The opening of the new Dawn of the Dead set the tone perfectly - and that tone is why that movie is actually really well liked and was a sleeper hit/remake. Walking Dead accomplished the same thing with the father-son-wife connection. If you are to buy into the fact that there is a zombie apocalypse, and feel that horror, then it has to be believable - and it becomes believable when you realize that no one, not even youth, are safe. In fact, they are probably some of most vulnerable.
I can understand if that's unsettling - it supposed to be. So if that's not your thing, cool - you don't have to like the horror genre. But that's what horror is, it's terrifying.
darklite_xI'm not an r-tard...Registered Userregular
edited February 2011
Not a fan of the trailer. The whole child-zombie thing feels like a cheap attempt at tugging at your heartstrings. As someone without children or a heart, it does nothing for me, so I find myself watching the trailer and all I can think is "This reverse-time shit is annoying as hell and the musical ambiance is a rip-off of the Mad World trailer." Now, here's the thing, I love zombies, and I'll probably buy this game because of it, but quite frankly I think it's safe to say that we're starting to reach zombie overload. Believe me, those are words I never thought I'd utter in my lifetime, but between a new zombie game coming out every other week interspersed with movies, comics and television shows, I think it's time for a break.
I've never been a huge fan of sanbox games, so I'm hoping this one has a solid storyline to go along with it. For now I'll wait and see.
darklite_x on
Steam ID: darklite_x Xbox Gamertag: Darklite 37 PSN:Rage_Kage_37 Battle.Net:darklite#2197
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KlykaDO you have anySPARE BATTERIES?Registered Userregular
edited February 2011
ITT everyone is going to die eventually and there is NOTHING any of us can do about it.
Lately video game trailers have been leaving movie trailers in the dust. Before watching that, I would have passed up a game like this because zombies are in everything nowadays, but if the game can live up to that trailer, I'll get it on launch day.
Oh god, I'm too late. It's utterly irredeemable, total tripe. Don't read it if you value any kind of good storytelling.
... Really? What do you expect from a book about Zombies? This isn't Shakespeare, it is a much simpler entertainment.
Why is there any reason a book with zombies in it should be held to a lower standard than any other kind of genre piece? It doesn't have to be Shakespeare, but it does have to avoid being insulting to the reader.
And even if you're not expecting great literature, that book is barely competent. Leaving aside the frequent misspellings, punctuation and grammatical errors, misuse of words, and misspelling of characters' names, there are huge problems with story structure. Does the main character have any personality traits beyond Rambo-like proficiency at killing zombies? Do any of the side characters? Thanks to the main guy they certainly are never in any danger or adversity. Everyone is just a cardboard cutout where a character should be, shambling around just as brainlessly as the dead, with both groups existing solely to make the main guy look good. If he's got a name at all I can't recall it.
It's fanfic, and not good fanfic if such a thing can exist. And the ending is really abrupt and anticlimactic. I mean, every single aspect of that book is shit. I can't even think of how to disparage it without going through it bit by bit, and it certainly isn't worth the effort.
Despite the almost "fan-fic" style, far too convenient survivalist wet dream stuff and occasional political jabber it's solid based on that. I have ordered it so I guess I will know soon enough, but frankly I LOVED the homepage of the dead fiction area, there was some awesome stuff on there.
I guess you'll know soon enough how it is.
Although, from that online chapter, this paragraph is about the level of writing in the rest of the book. If you can read this paragraph with a straight face, I guess go for it?
One of my fellow officers from the squadron came over to tell
me about the rumors he had heard from Jake, our mutual friend
when Jake had returned from a mission over one of the outbreak
areas in Atlanta, GA. During the mission Jake said that he had seen
numerous infected corpses walking the streets in the south part of
town. He said he could see the stray dogs barking at them in the
streets and watched as the infected tried to lunge at the dogs. He
was using the camera pod to digitally zoom in. To him it seemed like
some of the younger gang members were trying to take law into their
own hands by shooting the infected corpses.
But...here's the thing...what if the game can't live up to that trailer? What if that trailer exists just to make you think the game isn't exactly like every other zombie game out there? Is it still cool to celebrate that trailer as a brilliant piece of marketing?
But...here's the thing...what if the game can't live up to that trailer? What if that trailer exists just to make you think the game isn't exactly like every other zombie game out there? Is it still cool to celebrate that trailer as a brilliant piece of marketing?
You just described pretty much every cinematic video game trailer ever. I can't comment on how great it is from a marketing pov, but I know I wouldn't have been interested enough in even clicking this thread if I hadn't already seen the trailer.
One of my fellow officers from the squadron came over to tell
me about the rumors he had heard from Jake, our mutual friend
when Jake had returned from a mission over one of the outbreak
areas in Atlanta, GA. During the mission Jake said that he had seen
numerous infected corpses walking the streets in the south part of
town. He said he could see the stray dogs barking at them in the
streets and watched as the infected tried to lunge at the dogs. He
was using the camera pod to digitally zoom in. To him it seemed like
some of the younger gang members were trying to take law into their
own hands by shooting the infected corpses.
Jesus.
That's.
What is that?
Bacon-BuTTy on
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DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
edited February 2011
That pretty much reads like any police blotter I've ever read in my life.
Posts
It is possible not to be a reactionary, "think of the children!", hysterical fuckmuppet and still come across like a good parent I think.
That depends on the veiwer. Some people have a harder time disconnecting themselves from what they are viewing. Different topics affect different people different ways.
Calling people who are affected by things differently "hysterical fuckmuppets" is kinda lame.
And it's also possible to understand that there are multiple sides to this issue and it doesn't need to be made into an "us versus them" scenario. I didn't find the trailer offensive due to any content at all, but I can completely understand and sympathize with the fact that some people have an intense, instinctive reaction to it. My problem personally is that the trailer fails to represent the game whatsoever; i wanna see some gameplay already, because I know whatever comes out is going to have absolutely nothing to do with that trailer.
I keep hearing the bolded part over and over, and it still makes no sense to me.
Twitter
Maybe I overreacted, but I was really bugged by that guys response, "oh, Poland!" as if it's a relief Americans couldn't have been so heartless.
/shrug
Oh yeah and show the gameplay +1
But still, props on the trailer that almost made me cry.
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
Of course there's gonna be plenty of chopping and running. But action doesn't negate tension.
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And if they can pull off that mood in the game, it'd be an amazing game, and I'd be totally up for playing an engrossing experience like that. But until I see some gameplay footage with that kind of emotion, that trailer might as well be Peter Molyneux talking, personally. I've seen way too many games focus on what they could be, instead of focusing on what they are, to not worry about getting burned by something like this.
Anyway, sorry for posting so much on it, I'm sure everyone's getting annoyed with my hogging the topic for a bit.
Twitter
Oh. I thought you were maybe addressing people in the thread. The thing that sucked about that video of the dudes reaction was that it was made public for yuks. If I was him I wouldn't have let them do that. Like I stated earlier, that didn't really do gaming or Dead Island any favors.
Come on, let's stop giving them shit. They're every bit a resource for excellent discussions just as any other high-tier gaming forum.
By the way, for those of you complaining about the child violence seen in this trailer, I wonder how you felt about the
in Dead Space 2.
Blog||Tumblr|Steam|Twitter|FFXIV|Twitch|YouTube|Podcast|PSN|XBL|DarkZero
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I notice you're not linking to, let's say, the Sales-Age threads, or the 999 thread where people are having a good Q+A with the translation team at Aksys, or the various company analysis threads that pop up with great regularity.
Gaf is occasionally a cesspool, but they're just like every other forum in that regard.
Olivaw do you really think it's a well put together trailer, though? I mean, I've watched it, and I was pretty underwhelmed. Compared to things like...
Michel Gondry's Music Video for Sugar Water by Cibo Matto:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN9auBn6Jys
Or Spike Jonze's music video for Drop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co3qMdkucM0&feature=player_embedded
I thought the Dead Island trailer sucked. I know we all lower our expectations for video game narratives, but if we're judging this as a short film, I don't think it should just be compared to short films involving video game promotional products.
(Even then, though, I think the Gears trailer was a lot better.)
I think the trailer was pretty good. It managed to hold my attention all the way through and I liked the music. My eyes were constantly drawn to the jerky and somewhat unrealistic movements of the parents, though. At any rate, it has certainly achieved its goal of generating a buzz about the game; and in that respect, it deserves recognition.
As for people declaring that we should hate the game because the trailer depicts a young girl dying -- well, I guess it just goes to show that even video gamers are not immune to moral panic, at least not if they are parents. Honestly, there are so many movies and video games out there that depict far more depraved acts perpetrated on young girls, innocent animals, or anything else someone might conceivably have an emotional connection to. There are video games about creating snuff films, games in which cutting people's heads off and playing soccer with them is considered fun, and even games where whoring out your wife and then brutally murdering her is an option. There are movies in which college girls are raped by trees, young girls masturbate with crucifixes while possessed by the devil, and preteen boys have sex with adult women. Some of these movies are even considered to be classics. But we should hate Dead Island because a CG girl was killed by zombies in a promotional video?
Please.
If the below statement from Destructoid is anywhere near true... ...this will be an awesome game for me.
-Louis C.K.
I'm convinced.
... Really? What do you expect from a book about Zombies? This isn't Shakespeare, it is a much simpler entertainment.
It's art.
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You can read a chapter for free on the site.
Despite the almost "fan-fic" style, far too convenient survivalist wet dream stuff and occasional political jabber it's solid based on that. I have ordered it so I guess I will know soon enough, but frankly I LOVED the homepage of the dead fiction area, there was some awesome stuff on there.
You're missing the forest for the trees. The only reason for using reverse in the Spike Jonze video is to show stuff that looks cool in reverse. The trailer does this too, but it's just window dressing- the primary use is giving new significance to events you've already seen by filling in the background, like a flashback.
The muddledness is intentional- it drops you in the middle of the action slightly confused as to what's happening, and you have to reconstruct the story and reverse the action in your head as you watch it, until it blindsides you with an emotional two by four.
to be perfectly honest, i knew the girl was a zombie from the start
she had a bloody mouth and all
i was initially thinking 'oh god the zombies threw her out a window and she fell to her death!
the real emotional hit is seen in the father's face as he realizes his family is literally going to die and be eaten in front of his eyes
i don't know if any of you guys read the comic series Crossed, but it's one of the more fucked up zombie stories out there. one of the guys basically goes through what the father in the trailer does, and he is just not all there afterwards. that shit is soul-breaking.
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
You got that right, brosef.
The debate over whether it's a good trailer is getting weird (what the heck do those videos have to do with anything?). There's always a vocal 2% who hate something because the other 98% like it.
A good horror film/game becomes GOOD when it connects with the player/view and pulls at them emotionally. It's the whole point - to dig deeper than the surface. It's why some zombie media becomes acclaimed, because it goes beyond the normal easy-to-pull-off bloodbath. It's connects so strongly that you actually CARE.
The opening of the new Dawn of the Dead set the tone perfectly - and that tone is why that movie is actually really well liked and was a sleeper hit/remake. Walking Dead accomplished the same thing with the father-son-wife connection. If you are to buy into the fact that there is a zombie apocalypse, and feel that horror, then it has to be believable - and it becomes believable when you realize that no one, not even youth, are safe. In fact, they are probably some of most vulnerable.
I can understand if that's unsettling - it supposed to be. So if that's not your thing, cool - you don't have to like the horror genre. But that's what horror is, it's terrifying.
Ophidian Wars: Opac's Journey
I've never been a huge fan of sanbox games, so I'm hoping this one has a solid storyline to go along with it. For now I'll wait and see.
Should change the game name to "SAD Island".
Why is there any reason a book with zombies in it should be held to a lower standard than any other kind of genre piece? It doesn't have to be Shakespeare, but it does have to avoid being insulting to the reader.
And even if you're not expecting great literature, that book is barely competent. Leaving aside the frequent misspellings, punctuation and grammatical errors, misuse of words, and misspelling of characters' names, there are huge problems with story structure. Does the main character have any personality traits beyond Rambo-like proficiency at killing zombies? Do any of the side characters? Thanks to the main guy they certainly are never in any danger or adversity. Everyone is just a cardboard cutout where a character should be, shambling around just as brainlessly as the dead, with both groups existing solely to make the main guy look good. If he's got a name at all I can't recall it.
It's fanfic, and not good fanfic if such a thing can exist. And the ending is really abrupt and anticlimactic. I mean, every single aspect of that book is shit. I can't even think of how to disparage it without going through it bit by bit, and it certainly isn't worth the effort.
I guess you'll know soon enough how it is.
Although, from that online chapter, this paragraph is about the level of writing in the rest of the book. If you can read this paragraph with a straight face, I guess go for it?
You just described pretty much every cinematic video game trailer ever. I can't comment on how great it is from a marketing pov, but I know I wouldn't have been interested enough in even clicking this thread if I hadn't already seen the trailer.
Jesus.
That's.
What is that?
Maybe the guy is a genius.
That had me staring in awe and even though they showed you the end - I was hoping for something else
If the game seriously trys to pull you in and make you emotionally attatched by finding videos, pictures etc then sign me up.
Also not a fan of dead rising style, more a fan of borderlands/fallout 3 style.