Dead island reveal trailer, piece of art or too far?

[Choppaduel]

There was a baby that got eaten in Dead Rising. Is it less bad because they didn't show it?

Yes, but in a making the game less bad way, rather than making it less amoral. Heavy implication and showing the event are distinctly different, what exactly happens is left up to the audience to infer in heavy implication. They could have shown that scene in unnecessarily explicit detail, that would have been way worse, and quite boring tbh.

 

[Choppaduel]

Well its definitly not art, but its nothing that should cause a stir, I mean so zombies attacked a family and they played the footage in reverse

Yes, the zombie thing is getting old isn't it?

I hereby decree that the creation of tradition zombie based works are redundant and unacceptable, some innovation must be applied to the concept if one is to create! (citing 28 days later & l4d as acceptable innovations on the concept)

(sorry about the snootiness, I was goin for a laugh, don't have a lot of confidence in how it turned out)

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

Very effective trailer. I know it's kind of obvious at this point, with the soft piano music contrasting violence and reverse chronological progression, but it worked.

 

[BanthaFodder]

it was really sad... to be honest, I'm with this guy:http://geeks.thedailywh.at/2011/02/18/geek-news-father-of-the-year-of-the-day/
won't buy the game if that happens frequently/is the general tone of the game. Left 4 Dead is tounge in cheek "ZOMGESUS ZAWMBEEZ!!!" fun, hence why it's so enoyable (you can play Still Alive or Re Your Brains on the jukebox in 2). I play games to have fun, if Dead Island is gonna take the "it's the apocolypse and everyone I've ever loved is dead" approach to the point where it's a total downer, I personally see no real reason to play

 

[Turbo_Destructor]

i think this trailer is fantastic, it reminds you that zombies used to be people. They're not just squishy targets for you to slice to pieces, for each zombie there is a person who probably died a horrible death which they )in most cases) didn't deserve.

I'm sure that FOX news and other moronic media groups like them will call this a gratuitously violent trailer that will corrupt the minds of children, but in fact if it does anything it does the opposite. It makes the violence mean something, rather than being the enemies being objects of ridicule, and the violence being for it's own sake, the enemies become objects of pity, and the violence takes a tone that is more "unpleasant, but necessary".

 

[BanthaFodder]

Wait what's up with the THESE ARE JUST PIXELS argument? If we're talking visually, yes, games are pixels, and living creatures are merely reflected waves of light, but you OBVIOUSLY know that we AREN'T just reflected waves of light, there's more to us, and there's more to a game than just pixels.

I'll bet the people crying "IT'S UST PIXELS" are the same heartless bastards who left Toy Story 3 with perfectly dry eyes.

 

[Cgull]

There's an amazing amount of conclusions about the feel of the game being jumped to so far in here, especially considering it was only the reveal trailer. By the time the game is released it might've changed into a version of 'Zombie Peggle' for all any of us really know.

That said, I liked the trailer, I'm a fan of videogames that (appear) to try and capture the 'backs-to-the-wall, if you're lucky and/or a bit crazy you MIGHT survive this' feeling. Doesn't happen enough!

 

[Bat Vader]

I'd prefer my games to be games. The reason that some games endure isn't because they are filled with clever storytelling or because they had an emotive trailer. It's because they are very good at delivering what they are and vry good at not trying to be something they aren't.

I don't see why games need to be considered as art. Perhaps this is a function of the quality of modern graphics that people want games with realistic graphics to be considered as something more realistic than a game. But they are not. They are games. I can't think of a single game that attempted a serious story that actually worked.

Also the word 'art' should not be used. It's too subjective to be relied upon and too emotive to have any meaning. I would rather have a game with no story that's fun and rewarding to play (in whatever way you deem those things to work) than a story with no game. That's what books and movies are for.

THis trailer suggests a game about zombies that greatly misses the point.

Red Dead Redemption had a pretty serious story to it that worked. Sure, some parts of RDR were comedic but overall it seemed pretty serious. I am the opposite. I need games to have a good story in them. The main reason I play games is to complete the stories they have. If the story of a game cannot hold my interest than I have no real desire to keep playing it.

On Topic: I thought the trailer was pretty interesting. I loved how the music is calming but also sad at the same time. At the end of the trailer when it is revealed that the little girl is actually their daughter it made feel bad for the family.

 

[Shaun Hastings]

I think this game is a brilliant idea.

It's one of those things (or so I hope it'll be) that will frustrate you at the beginning. You gotta learn how to shoot a gun, know that your stamina goes down every time you swing a weapon and that this game will spare no one - considering we saw how bad of a condition that kid was in. It's more... realistic, I guess you can say (considering it's a zombie game, not exactly that realistic).

Either it'll be a new fantastic zombie game or it'll sink in the mud. Because we all remembered how well that realistic factor worked in Metal Gear Solid 3. Ugh...

But on the media, shit, I don't think it's that big of a deal. It's fiction. [/I]Fiction. Worse things are written in books and they don't make a big deal out of it. So what if they take the pictures from our imagination and make them clearer? No big deal.

 

[Infernai]

I honestly think the trailers better when played in reverse: Not saying it isn't good the way it is, i just prefer the reversed version:

 

[The Wykydtron]

I liked it, it's nice to see a trailer that's not just a shitload of explosions and gunshots.

And the reverse time thing was gone rather well (although the zombies looked fast and in a melee focused zombie game that's probably not the best type of zombie to go for)

well if they weren't fast the family would've had a chance, thats part of what makes it scarier and more saddening. they cant outrun them, they cant kill them all, they cant hide. they are fucked, we know it they know it and there is nothing anyone can do but watch as a family dies in a desperate, hopeless, struggle.

in one word BRILLIANT!, in a sentence, brilliant but really, really, REALLY fucking disturbing, especially to someone who isnt a fan of horror and has seen/played no horror films/games.

I can see the arty brilliance but the one doubt nagging at me through that entire trailer was "will this work from a gameplay perspective?"

Yeah it has been proven that games can run on apocalyptic despair (see Amnesia and to a lesser extent Limbo) but from a gameplay point of view the amount of fast zombies + mostly melee based combat = a trip to frustrating death valley

 

[everfreeDragon]

I honestly thought it was beautiful trailer that could bring the toughest people to tears once they realise what happened. It got me interested in the game and made me want to buy it.