I’ve already consumed the best that Gears of War 3 has to offer. And I did it for free.
It’s nothing to do with the game, which I have no burning desire to play. It’s the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFWNeMCI_Mg
As I clicked play, I was fairly sure of what to expect – a lone soldier, an ‘epic’ setting, no sound effects and a moving song. It’s pretty much what you get, and it works well.
When I bought my Xbox 360, the original Gears of War was the only major system seller at the time, so I bought it, and played it through with a friend. It’s a perfectly serviceable game: there isn’t anything shockingly wrong with it (except perhaps its representations of gender and race, but that’s another post), and it provided a nice distraction at the time. By the time the sequel came around, I wasn’t interested: I’d moved on to other experiences and platforms. I played it long enough at a friend’s place to know I wasn’t missing anything.
Yet there’s still something about that ad. And Microsoft knew it.
“Even I want to play that game,” my girlfriend said to me after we saw the ad at the cinema. She’s about as far from the target audience of Gears of War as anyone could be.
What happens when the ad is better than the game? It’s not an uncommon trend – gone are the days when videogame ads had a distinctly hokey air about them. Publishers generally know how to sell their wares, especially when we get into the so-called ‘AAA’ category.
It happened again with Halo 3 – another game that I had very little interest in playing beforehand. The game had one of the best marketing campaigns of this console generation – the ‘Museum’ and ‘Gravesite’ trailers are captivating. But it’s the ‘Believe’ ad that is most remarkable:
Even today, I get more enjoyment out of re-watching this ad than I did from all my time playing Halo 3. Is it just that we’re still more comfortable creating short sequences of moving image than we are actual games? That the excitement created by tertiary experiences, such as ad campaigns, soundtracks, action figures or books is still more provocative than the games themselves?
Feel free to share other trailers that you’ve enjoyed more than the game in the comments. I’ll be interested to see how far this extends.
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Tags: Gears of War, Halo 3, marketing, trailers
Y’know, I think the Power Glove needs a Wii-make. For real.
I think the Gears titles make pretty decent games actually. The art is generic, the story is laughable, the violence is tiring – but if you push all that to the back you’re left with a pretty fun little rollercoaster shooter series.
These atmosphere trailers are missing the only bit of Gears of War I actually like and are therefore mostly worthless, I think. Instead of trading in a reflection of the actual gameplay experience they use sloppy melodrama to capture your attention. I think it works as an advertisement because of the power of music but I don’t expect this kind of experience from the game and frankly I don’t want that experience from Gears of War. If I was after drama I’d seek out drama rather than a shooter.
If that makes sense.
Personally I feel like these trailers are completely vapid apart from the small amount of gameplay and setting details you can gather from their images.
Dom has a beard.
There are ladies.
That’s about all I see and I dont think that makes it better than the games at all.
… sorry to be a douche in my first ever comment on your site though
No problems, Chris – thanks for stopping by and commenting. I actually think we’re getting at the same point from very different angles here: the Gears trailers, like the Halo 3 ones, are about as different to the actual game as you could be while still including the same art, as you put it.
To an extent they’re almost misleading; I watch the first Gears trailer and think I might be getting some sort of intelligent musings on a post-apocalyptic world when of course the game offers nothing of the sort. Where we differ, of course, is that I kinda like that drama (at least as it is in the trailers) whereas you don’t. :p
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Haha totally agree. These trailers hint at whimsy that is largely lacking from the macho games they’re advertising. It’s emotionally fraudulent, they’re pretending the games’ themes are more subtle then they actually are.
Still, great ads.
Now if they did a trailer for, say, Zelda: Wind Waker or Mario Galaxy like this it would make sense, as they’re games built on moments such as those captured in these trailers.
Here’s a fan trailer for Mario Galaxy that is along these lines, but also reflects the game more accurately then the gears/halo ones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-2L4PTV14A&playnext_from=TL&videos=_vkp026l8zI
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Just wanted to say, you guys have made a permanent reader out of me. These articles are better than anything you find at IGN or in Game Informer.
Keep up the good work.
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