“Actual Gameplay”…Where Developers Need to Cross the Line and When it isn't ok to Lie
With E3 2009 looming nearer with each day, developers are getting ready to play their hands and show their upcoming games with some very amazing trailers if gameplay is not ready…Some “trailers, will be a little too good.
Black screen…fade-ins and fade-outs….sweat…camera zoom-ins, and you see it pop up, this is actual in-game footage. We awe in amazement at the beauty that has just unfold and anticipation rises greatly just to wonder a few months to a year later, “What the hell happened?” when that actual gameplay footage is truly revealed. This is no way to bash companies and developers who have done this in the past like the infamous 2005 Sony E3 Conference with all of their “actual game footage” trailers, but instead look at everyone who continues to do this and how easy it is to get tricked.
Usually as a first unveiling of a game, some developers decide to go the route of using pre-rendered visuals to show their game off and don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that at all because who doesn’t like pre-rendered videos? They make everything look just so much better. The problem is that pre-rendition is tagged as actual in-game footage so that we believe that will indeed be what the final product is able to achieve. Some developers actually obtain those visuals like Guerilla Games Playstation 3 Shooter, Killzone 2 which is arguably identical to their “Gameplay trailer” if not better. Other companies also do a very nice job of delivering a very technically good looking game as the final product like Yuke's Osaka’s UFC 2009 Undisputed and when you at least obtain that then everyone is happy. Anyone remember that E3 2007 trailer for UFC? Don’t have to, it’s below:
UFC 2009 Undisputed E3 2007 Trailer
As real as it gets huh? Now with the game releasing this week and pretty much finalized with a playable demo out now on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, this is another case where the final product still looks damn good and Yuke’s Osaka can be proud to have achieved what they achieved without tagging a pre-rendered trailer as actual gameplay.
UFC 2009 Undisputed Demo Gameplay
Same goes for Fight Night Round 3. Remember the Sony E3 2005 Conference where Fight Night was shown and was said to be running real time using Criterion’s RenderWare technology? Again, don’t have it, it’s below:
Sony Conference E3 2005 Fight Night Showing
Fight Night Round 3 Flash KO Trailer
Odly enough, even the latest Fight Night Round 4 doesn’t look like the E3 05 real-time showing...what’s up with that EA?
I AM REAL!!!
Content like that is okay to some degree when developers at least deliver the final product worthy of praising. When you start to get to gameplay trailers where the final product ends up being no where near the same as the trailer, that’s where the line needs to be crossed. Let’s take a look at those games.
