Saturday, January 23, 2010

I love gaming this generation...

The latest trailer for Mass Effect 2 recently dropped. It continues a trend of outstanding trailers for high end games. The production values of triple A titles this generation and in particular the trailers have been outstanding. The latest bit piece of media has raised the bar for game trailers and, though I was already stoked for the game, prompted me to reserve a copy at Gamestop (something I almost never do, at a place I hate to go.)

The surprising quality of game ads seemed to originate with the Mad World commercial for Gears of War (the franchise seems to have set more trends this generation than anything without the word hero at the end). Gears of War 2 upped the ante with an impressive series of creative ads that were powerful and dramatic, ironically far more so then anything in the game itself including the story's clumsy attempts at drama or poignancy.

It isn't just that the ads are 'good' or well made but that they also exhibit more genuine drama and creativity than most big budget movie trailers/movies. One of the cool things is that these trailers have ranged from actual micro films featuring real actors (Halo ODST), showcased real gameplay (Uncharted 2), or only in-game cinematics (Mass Effect 2). They've featured songs from popular contemporary artists, vintage favorites, indie bands, classical symphonies, original orchestrations, poems and monologues.

As a geek/techie/gamer though, I think what's cool is that the art of game design and the technology behind them has becomes so sophisticated that trailers of this caliber don't have to resort to live action footage or cgi over the game itself in order to achieve this level of quality and impact (though the Halo series has to great effect.)

Graphics are so advanced developers will often create cutscenes in engine and with 10, 20, 30 hrs of content, the cinematic trailers have no problem distilling a rousing 2 or 3 minutes of pure awesome.

The industry is doing phenomenal this gen, in large part because of the indirect exposure it's received to Joe public thanks to Nintendo's underpower, underdeveloped, Power Glove 2.0 called the Wii (no I don't hate it, it's just a bit lazy for the company that practically invented the video game). It's success and newfound attention by people who formerly regarded it as a pastime for lazy kids and 40 year olds living in their grandmother's basement, has bolstered it's image and fostered growth and maturity in all areas.

This calls for a list...which I'm not going to do now.

In the meantime check out the Mass Effect 2 trailer. Bioware has already released some pretty cool ads but this one is the crown jewel. If you don't think games are a legitimate form of drama or can't be as powerful as a film, take a look at this.

The embedded video is small and low quality. Click here, for a hi-res version.