Poll: Can you judge a game by it's trailer?

[infernovolver]

A trailer has to show gameplay before I can judge the game it represents, but that doesn't stop me from judging whoever made it for not putting gameplay in there. It's gotten so bad with commercials that don't show gameplay it can turn me away from a game.

 

[Kae]

Well yes you can, as you said Dead Island's trailer was amazing, and I was really exited for it, then the second trailer came around, and I really can't remember what it looked like or what was it about, but when I saw it I said "This is going to suck, isn't it?" and it sucked, therefore I say that sometimes you can, probably not all the time though.

 

[Ninjafire72]

Like most people have said, it depends on whether the trailer has gameplay in it. Trailers that are 'made entirely from in-game footage' (Infinite, LA Noire) are usually safe to bet on, and I trust those ones to help me judge. Granted LA Noire kinda fell apart at the end, but the trailer did depict the game for what it was and I didn't find any differences between the trailer and actual gameplay.

 

[BathorysGraveland]

For me, yeah. Some at least. For example, certain art styles are enough to make me completely avoid a game, so a trailer that shows a game using one of these styles is an automatic no. However, gameplay trailers are a more logical choice for others.

 

[Nazulu]

No, not really. I can judge if it interests me and that's it.

I continue doing some research and watch some of the game play on Youtube to decide if it's actually good or not.

 

[burningdragoon]

Pre-rendered or live action nonsense trailers, no. Although I guess you can judge a little of the story or simply by the fact that they went with a non-game footage trailer to be a bad sign.

So it's a bad sign if the game is on such an early stage that the details about the gameplay has not been presented yet? Most announcement videos of upcoming games are pre-rendered in order to show off story, characters and artstyle. Are you saying all the games that have ever done that have turned out bad?

Wow. No, I didn't say that at all. In fact the first thing I said was you can't really judge a game by it's prerendered nonsense trailer. Sure I left out "might" but by saying "I guess" it meant I don't fully buy into the idea.

 

[GigaHz]

No...

I could write a multi-paged response outlining why the very idea of judging a game based on its trailer is almost completely pointless.

Or I could just say "Dead Island" and have all the reasons explain themselves.

If you don't get it, long story short: Incredibly well done trailer, horribly mediocre game.

Any company could make a game trailer look amazing if they hire the right creative team. An amazing trailer tells me absolutely nothing about the game itself. It almost makes me long for the days when "game trailers" were edited together by a random game developer. Many were clearly made by people who knew nothing about editing but at least you got a brutally honest, non-stylized representation of the final product.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I'm going to say not at all. Definitely not cinematic trailers, for obvious reasons (those being it doesn't tell you anything about the gameplay), and gameplay trailers I still wouldn't completely trust because you still don't get the controls, and they're cherry-picking the best parts anyway. Only the actual game is an accurate portrayal or itself.

 

[natster43]

Yes, for me at least. I usually watch trailers and am all like "That was fucking awesome! I can't wait to shell out 60 dollars for that game!" and then I do and usually have a good time. While certain games have trailers that have nothing to do with the game itself with all their pre rendered mumbo jumbo that can be hella misleading (Dead Islands original trailer for example) but You can also watch pre rendered stuff like the Halo 4 trailer and be all like "Yup that sure is Halo." So yes you can judge a game on any of it's trailers, but with pre rendered non gameplay stuff you should be wary as it can be misleading.

 

[Yopaz]

Pre-rendered or live action nonsense trailers, no. Although I guess you can judge a little of the story or simply by the fact that they went with a non-game footage trailer to be a bad sign.

So it's a bad sign if the game is on such an early stage that the details about the gameplay has not been presented yet? Most announcement videos of upcoming games are pre-rendered in order to show off story, characters and artstyle. Are you saying all the games that have ever done that have turned out bad?

Wow. No, I didn't say that at all. In fact the first thing I said was you can't really judge a game by it's prerendered nonsense trailer. Sure I left out "might" but by saying "I guess" it meant I don't fully buy into the idea.

Yeah, sure you said that you can't judge a game from the trailer. However you also said

simply by the fact that they went with a non-game footage trailer to be a bad sign

That it's a bad sign that they wont show us any gameplay?

 

[ToastiestZombie]

Sometimes.

For example, I think its fair to say one can judge Black Ops 2 by its trailer. Guns? Check. Explosions? Check. Robots? Check. Terrible dubstep song in the background? Check. Anything else? Nope.

The funny thing is, cut out the first two sentences and I could be talking about the actual game. Heh.

Let's hate on COD in an unrelated thread again! I love that game!

For example, I think it's fair to say one can judge Skyrim by its trailer. Swords? Check. Magic? Check. Sneaking? Check. Big ass monsters? Check. Anything else? Nope.

At least COD actually has GAMEPLAY in it's trailers, instead of some of the crap trailer other companies put out.

 

[burningdragoon]

Pre-rendered or live action nonsense trailers, no. Although I guess you can judge a little of the story or simply by the fact that they went with a non-game footage trailer to be a bad sign.

So it's a bad sign if the game is on such an early stage that the details about the gameplay has not been presented yet? Most announcement videos of upcoming games are pre-rendered in order to show off story, characters and artstyle. Are you saying all the games that have ever done that have turned out bad?

Wow. No, I didn't say that at all. In fact the first thing I said was you can't really judge a game by it's prerendered nonsense trailer. Sure I left out "might" but by saying "I guess" it meant I don't fully buy into the idea.

Yeah, sure you said that you can't judge a game from the trailer. However you also said

simply by the fact that they went with a non-game footage trailer to be a bad sign

That it's a bad sign that they wont show us any gameplay?

To reiterate: I guess it might be a bad sign. I am 100% not saying that prerendered trailer = bad game.

I myself have seen enough prerendered trailers (after screenshots and other details have been released) that were significantly more awesome than the final product or set the completely wrong tone of the game, especially for games that have little if any prerendered cutscenes and even for games that I ended up liking that I write off most trailers like that as "cool but prerendered nonsense", but that's me writing off the trailer not the game.

 

[imnot]

Yes.
Boobies.
Boobies everywhere.
There is a worse one for it but I can't find it at the moment.

 

[tacotrainwreck]

Purely cinematic trailers often result in me judging games more negatively. It's sort of like the developers saying, "Here's what we want the game to be like, but in reality it's nowhere close."

 

[ToastiestZombie]

Snip

There was no crappy dubstep in the actual trailer, you must of watched the remix a FAN made. I'm not denying the fact that Black Ops will have those, because it will. Robots are actually new to the COD series, have you seen robot mech tanks in MW? No. The trailer actually shows a LOT of new features that are all new to the COD series, so I don't really see where your point is.
Here's a list:
Mech Tanks
Holograms
Horses
Quadcopters
New guns

They haven't released all the details about the SP and MP's innovations in a trailer yet because they're going to do that for future trailers nearer november. Bur here's a list of innovations that weren't shown in the trailer:
.Strike Ops Singleplayer mode. About twenty levels throughout the campaign where you go from an RTS perspective and can control anything you want on a LARGE battlefield. If you fail at this it doesn't just stop and let you try again, the story goes on and changes whether you've failed or won.
.Zombies campaign mode, so now a full 6 hour length campaign based around zombies.
.They are overhauling EVERYTHING about multiplayer, meaning we don't know what they're going to use. They've confirmed that they won't be taking over the pointstreaks from MW3 or any of those changes from previous games and starting anew.

If COD is a "LOL NOTHING CHANGES" after that then you're really trying hard to hate on COD.

 

[Yopaz]

Pre-rendered or live action nonsense trailers, no. Although I guess you can judge a little of the story or simply by the fact that they went with a non-game footage trailer to be a bad sign.

So it's a bad sign if the game is on such an early stage that the details about the gameplay has not been presented yet? Most announcement videos of upcoming games are pre-rendered in order to show off story, characters and artstyle. Are you saying all the games that have ever done that have turned out bad?

Wow. No, I didn't say that at all. In fact the first thing I said was you can't really judge a game by it's prerendered nonsense trailer. Sure I left out "might" but by saying "I guess" it meant I don't fully buy into the idea.

Yeah, sure you said that you can't judge a game from the trailer. However you also said

simply by the fact that they went with a non-game footage trailer to be a bad sign

That it's a bad sign that they wont show us any gameplay?

To reiterate: I guess it might be a bad sign. I am 100% not saying that prerendered trailer = bad game.

I myself have seen enough prerendered trailers (after screenshots and other details have been released) that were significantly more awesome than the final product or set the completely wrong tone of the game, especially for games that have little if any prerendered cutscenes and even for games that I ended up liking that I write off most trailers like that as "cool but prerendered nonsense", but that's me writing off the trailer not the game.

Oh, I don't disagree with you that a pre-rendered trailer says nothing about how the complete product will be. I just disagree with the statement that a game featuring a pre-rendered trailer can be judged for not showing gameplay. You said it was a bad sign if they used pre-rendered rather than gameplay. I said that it is because most pre-rendered trailers are featured before they have anything clear on the gameplay.

 

[BenefitEvil]

I always thought the point of a trailer was to get you to buy the game/product/movie the company was selling. They are designed to show you the coolest bits so you want the product. If this is true you can't trust what you are being shown. If the goal is to sell the product then why be truthful? Sure you have laws to help protect the consumer and reviews help but buying anything based on just a trailer is (in my opinion) stupid. We as American's should be smarter consumers and wait before we spend our hard earned money. If we voted with our dollars and waited a month before making our choices, maybe if we did we wouldn't have as many bad games