Flashback Friday: Thinking Back to Times When the Trailer is Better Than the Final Product

I was thinking the other day about certain movies, games, and other stuff I would get excited for thanks to enticing trailers, only to end up a bit dismayed with the final product not at all nearly living up to what I expected. I understand a trailer/ad/etc. is supposed to build hype/interest, but it can paradoxically harm the result when it is little like what was initially promised. 

One big example of this would be, "Watch Dogs." That surprise first trailer years ago was insane. Moody, gorgeous graphics, and just cool. It piqued everyone's interest, and the resulting game was fun but not Earth-shattering. Many fans were annoyed the graphics didn't match the trailers in quality (even on PC) and the gameplay had more busy-work and mini-games than badass hacking. Sometimes, a trailer totally misrepresents the tone of something. The movie, "Home Sweet Hell," was advertised as an over-the-top comedy with Katherine Heigl and Patrick Wilson. It ain't that at all, instead being pitch-black in tone with some twisted humor, but you're laughing more because you're uncomfortable with how gruesome the story gets as opposed to having your funny bone tickled. The flick was ravaged by critics and seen by few.

Lots of people compared and contrasted the, "Watch Dogs," trailer versus the game.

I imagine anyone reading this article has had an example pop into their head of a trailer that was much better and/or different from the final product. I don't begrudge anyone for trying to make an awesome trailer--you want to sell your product, whether it's a movie, game, television show, or anything else! Just be aware that when you give people the wrong impression about what they're getting or truly show, "All the good parts," in your trailer with nothing left to surprise the consumer, you might have a problem on your hands.

Film Friday: "Watch Dogs," Could Actually Work Quite Well as a Movie

I remember back when the first (surprise) trailer for, "Watch Dogs," dropped. June 4th, 2012, at the now-defunct E3. It was an intense cinematic that showed us a weird near-future with a cell phone that could hack almost anything. The trailer was intense, had amazing visuals, and oozed with style. Then the game itself came out and was...well, perfectly fun but not absolutely amazing. There was a solid sequel and, "Watch Dogs: Legion," which was passable but lacked much of any spark. That debut trailer for the first game, though, it just had something special and made me wonder once or twice, "Would this concept actually work better as a movie or show?" Now I have my answer as a, "Watch Dogs," flick has been announced with Sophie Wilde to star as the protagonist/main character. Here is a YouTube video I found of that original trailer, by the way:

The, "Watch Dogs," game gave you power but couldn't give you too much power lest it breaks the game. You could mess with stoplights, gain mains, have brief blackouts happen, tweak cameras, and more but it was all within the technical limitations of your gaming console and to a degree where you still faced a challenge within the game. The plot also was a bit drab in the first game as the main character (a man named Aiden Pearce) was basically out for revenge against a big corporation to avenge the death of a loved one and oh look, my own eyes are glazing over at this potboiler setup. The games had a vibe though, just like that first trailer, and if the movie can nail that vibe of being a techno-thriller where all our information is at the hands of corporations and hackers, that would be fun. 

Plus, all this is even less far-fetched than when, "Watch Dogs," was first announced way back as I mentioned in 2012. Now our entire lives truly are on our phones and computers with it easy for nefarious forces to access us. What's to stop corporations/politicians/or rebels from taking advantage of literally everything being interconnected? One just hopes whoever has this power doesn't also have nefarious goals. This was all just announced so we are a long way away from even a movie trailer let alone a concrete release date. That said, with the right vibe and a halfway decent story (plus a hefty enough budget for cool technological effects) I'd wager a, "Watch Dogs," movie could be very enjoyable.

"Watch Dogs: Legion," Impressions

I played the first, "Watch Dogs," game a decent chunk despite the unlikeable main character. I enjoyed the 2nd, "Watch Dogs," even though it was a lot more of the same because of the very easy-to-like characters. The hacking gameplay was always solid, but I often found myself getting bored. Now we've got, "Watch Dogs: Legion," where the main gimmick is you can recruit literally almost any character to join your hacker team as it takes on an evil private military corporation in the UK. My impressions are that it is a fine game, but a little dull. I didn't really play enough to feel I can do a full-on review, so I'm just going to offer some thoughts.

When anyone can be the main character it results in none of the characters being that interesting. The gimmick of recruiting different folk with assorted skills that the game randomly generates is cool and all, but none of the folk I found happened to be that intriguing. They were a random jumble of stats, facts, and even with the random generation two characters looked and sounded almost exactly the same who I got to join my hacker squad. The voice acting was solid, but it seemed like random phrases being spouted off as opposed to much else during cinematic moments or when squadmates chatted. It made me feel less invested in the story even if the gimmick of playing as anybody is kind of cool.

I was having fun playing, "Watch Dogs: Legion," but it didn't wow me. It was just perfectly passable fun. The gameplay was solid, the graphics were good, but besides the, "Be anybody," feature it was more of the same from the series. I returned the Playstation 4 copy I rented yesterday and did not have the urge to check it out again. That kind of says it all.

Assorted Links of Use to Your Gaining of Knowledge

I've seen, read, and heard some interesting things lately, so why don't I share them with you, my dear reader/readers?

Links

Let's start off with an article that is quite the saga. Someone from Gawker spent 14 hours at a T.G.I.F. restaurant in a quest to see if the current "Endless Appetizers" program was truly unlimited, and to experiment with how much mozzarella sticks a human can both physically and psychologically handle.

Soooo, Russia and the Ukraine are currently a mess, with a commercial plane full of innocent victims falling in the cross-fire.

Oh, and Israel and Gaza are currently a nightmare of violence and trouble too.

This piece by the Daily Beast discusses how DC Comics has an apparent diversity crisis, especially when compared to Marvel and their recent new announcements.

Speaking of DC and Marvel, one of my favorite bloggers, Caleb Mozzocco, goes after good ol' DC for making fun of Marvel when he feels they don't really have a leg to stand on, or as he puts it, "Good God, that's some chutzpah." Considering how Marvel is at least trying new things with some of their comics (the wonderfully surreal "Moon Knight", "She Hulk" being good fun) its kind of an odd thing for DC to do.

I discussed my thoughts on "Watch Dogs" early on while playing it, and this article about the ending is very interesting in pointing out how when the game finally and truly lets you make a moral choice, what you would want to do is perhaps very different from how the main character, Aiden Pearce, has behaved the entire game with you merely guiding him in a somewhat on-rails fashion through missions. Be warned there are spoilers as it discusses the game's conclusion.

As I don't want people to think I only rag on DC when Marvel does plenty of idiotic things too, here is the full list of Marvel's solicitations for October 2014. Upon seeing how many comics there are for this "Avengers VS. X-Men: Axis" event right after "Original Sin" has just wrapped up in August, I can only conclude Marvel is trying to kill people in some sort of deluge of comics which will cause them to drown under the weight of all the paper. Needless to say, I'm not planning to read "Axis" due to my often-discussed being done with event-comics for the foreseeable future.

Oh, and lastly, you might have heard about the alternate-continuity "Life of Archie" comic with its 36th issue where Archie dies saving his gay friend, the newly-elected senator Kevin Keller, from an assassin out to kill Keller for his gun-control views. I honestly never would have thought a decade ago I would use those words in describing an "Archie" comic, but between Kevin Keller, the extremely good "Afterlife with Archie", and now this, "Archie" comics have found a way to be incredibly relevant and interesting. Who would have thunk-it?

"Watch Dogs" Initial Impressions on a Playstation 3

Getting Cracking at Hacking

I have the Target edition of "Watch Dogs". It comes with an extra outfit.

My fiancé, Samii, bought me "Watch Dogs" yesterday for my birthday (I turned 26th on the 27th) and I have already played it extensively. As I don't have a Playstation 4 or the funds to go out and get one I enjoyed "Watch Dogs" on my Playstation 3. One thing I've found remarkable is that there are basically very-little-to-no reviews for "Watch Dogs" I've been able to find for PS3 or the Xbox 360 (I saw ONE review on a French website for the PS3 which I had to have Google poorly translate for me). Considering how many of us have the "older" consoles I find this odd, so I thought I would share my initial impressions of "Watch Dogs" with the added aspect that I'm playing it on PS3.

"Watch Dogs" Thoughts

Graphics
These are perfectly fine. Samii commented (she was watching me play) that even with this being on a PS3 the graphics looked quite good, especially at night with the rain coming down and creating a somber mood. As many have commented online, the graphics on a Playstation 4 don't even come close to the images from the debut trailer back in 2012, but I think things look good enough to maybe not impress, but at least be solid.

Gameplay, On Foot
This is highly enjoyable and well-done. From the shooting mechanics working solidly to hacking being easy and quite fun, "Watch Dogs" plays excellently on foot. It is a lot like your "Grand Theft Auto" or "Saints Row" games, with the big addition of hacking giving everything an air of futuristic magic. Whereas in previous games most pedestrians were random screen-filler, here they all have an interesting little fact about them, with some even providing side-mission opportunities through careful listening-in on their phone calls or viewing their texts. The ways the world can be manipulated are fascinating too and introduce some fun elements to the game that are quite creative and elevate it above being a simple clone of other open-world adventures.

Gameplay, Driving
I read online how people were saying that "Watch Dogs'" cars handled in an "arcadey" fashion before I started playing the game, and that is a perfect way to describe it. Now, I'm not upset that in the game "Watch Dogs" once you start driving the cars don't handle that realistically, it just is a bit of a tonal shift to go from this serious semi-realistic game to feeling like I'm playing a modern-day "Cruis'n USA" with hacking thrown-in. Still, driving gets the job done even if it feels a bit floaty and as if the cars don't have much weight or heft.

Shooting digital aliens is more fun than bouncing on hard-to-hit flowers.

Activities
This game is loaded with things to do, maybe too much. There is the main story, the Digital Trips (why do people say they love the flower-bouncing? I hated that), the alternate reality games, Fixer missions, stopping random crimes, and about fifty other things you can wander off and do (Try singing "Do you want to climb a CTOS tower" in the same vein of Frozen's "Do you Want to Build a Snowman", anyone watching you play will crack up). The good thing is that you of course can skip any of these optional activities, but with all the little extra things you can unlock from doing them, it is a pretty good idea to engage in at least some of the optional stuff. 

Online/Multi-Player
I can't yet comment on this because Uplay was being a pain in the tuckus for me and I couldn't get anything working that involved other players--be it the "invasions" or a simple race. Heck, I can't even get the CTOS mobile app to cooperate for me! I suppose this is just some post-launch issues that hopefully will get worked out as I really would like to try hacking a live person.

The Story
I haven't played a ton of "Watch Dogs" yet so I feel making a judgement on the main story may be premature. With that said, Aiden seems like a cranky sad-sack who is a bit of a loser. Thankfully, the supporting cast is at least somewhat interesting, with Jordi being a hoot in all his sociopathic glory and Aiden's sister coming off as just the right mixture of sympathetic and unable to understand why Aiden behaves the way he does (namely, going off and causing trouble).

Loading Screens
This is probably the biggest problem with playing "Watch Dogs" on the Playstation 3. Sometimes it can take the game quite awhile to load after I fail a mission and it's taking me back the most recent checkpoint, or if I'm engaging in fast-travel. It isn't utterly horrendous though so I'm not torn-up about it.

Closing Thoughts

"Watch Dogs" has so far proven to be greatly enjoyable and I'm pleased to have a copy all my own. While the game may take a bit longer to load and not render shadows and such as well as the Playstation 4, I would say the differences are probably minimal enough that if you own a PS3 or Xbox 360 you don't need to rush out and buy the newest generation of consoles in order to fully enjoy "Watch Dogs".

You ought to play a copy on whatever console you have for sure...unless its a Wii-U, in which case you're stuck waiting awhile (if the game actually does come out for the Wii-U in the Fall). Anyways, "Watch Dogs" is fun and I look forward to spending more time with it.

Some Thoughts About May and How April Already Needs To Be Over

Half-way to May
We are almost mid-way through April and I'm already thinking about May. Why? Well, besides the fact that April is often a miserable month of rain and pollen, May tends to be one of my favorite months--and this May seems to be so chock-full of fun stuff that this year won't be any different.

This May we have a variety of movies I'm immensely excited for, such as the new "Godzilla" and the upcoming "X-Men: Days of Future Past". Plus, there is the new "Amazing Spider-Man 2" that I hope will be good, but am not as pumped-up for as the other two flicks.

May also has some cool games coming out, with the "Wolfenstein: The New Order" sounding bizarre, but at least worth a rental to experience the fun, and of course there is "Watch Dogs" which funnily enough comes out on the very day of my birthday, May 27th (I'll be twenty-six, in case you're curious). I have been excited for "Watch Dogs" since that very-first trailer revealed its existence at the 2012 Electronics Entertainment Expo AKA "E3" and can't wait to play it.

I truly hope "Watch Dogs" is good as I have high-hopes for the title and would be extremely pleased if it turns out to live up to expectations. Considering they delayed it a good six months just to fix-up the bugs that's theoretically a good sign that we are getting a fun, quality, and polished product. Should my saving of funds be enough to play it on a Playstation 4 that would be even better, as I'm hoping to have built-up enough money sometime in the near future to get one of those snazzy consoles.

So, we are only at the mid-point of April and already I'm thinking about all the good stuff at the start, middle, and end of May. Either I'm getting ahead of myself, really don't like this month we are currently in, or its a mixture of both of those factors. Whatever the case, I await May as it slowly creeps ever-closer.

Links, Because Interesting Things Are Always Happening!

Today I thought I would share some links on all the various going-ons in our assorted forms of entertainment and the world itself.

Links!
First off, just a friendly reminder in case you forgot, but the 2014 Winter Olympics are starting, with the Opening Ceremony airing tonight! Check your local listings and watch it (or at least tape it). Oddly enough, the Ceremony wasn't until Friday morning US time, and will be broadcast Friday evening. The whole time-difference business threw me off.

In one of the stranger stories I've heard lately, someone who was trying to pull a prank or otherwise just cause trouble posed as Ubisoft's CEO, Yves Guillemot, over the internet and put in a fraudulent request for the company to abandon its trademark to the upcoming (and highly anticipated game) "Watchdogs". Everything has been squared away now, but I wonder if the trouble-maker will find themselves on the receiving end of a lawsuit or even criminal charges.

Jay Leno has made friends and plenty of foes, but the end of his term hosting the "Tonight Show" (for a second time, but that's a whole different conversation) is definitely the end of an era. He has made it clear he wasn't ready to go, but is overall okay with moving on. I truly do wish him the best.

Tom Spurgeon has some thoughts about the issue of sexual harassment in comics, and the question of when things aren't necessarily harassment, but a bit too, "comfy." He links to two fascinating pieces discussing examples of this that are definitely worth a read.

Chris Christie looked like a strong contender for the 2016 Presidential election. Now, with this whole bridge scandal causing countless problems, and his horrendous job handling it, Christie's political career may basically be toast. He is in major trouble unless he can somehow miraculously make this issue go away--although even if he were to prove he is innocent that just makes him look ineffective, as if he has no idea what his staff could have been upto. It's a real no-win situation, at least for Christie--I imagine Hilary Clinton is eagerly waiting for 2016 and this like an early birthday present.

Longtime Marvel-artist and otherwise popular illustrator, John Romita Jr. has switched-to DC or been poached from Marvel by DC, depending on whom you ask. He will be working on the "Superman" comic with one of DC's go-to writers, Geoff Johns. This is quite the steal for DC, who has been seeing more and more of their creators leaving for other companies--possibly due to issues with an over-interfering editorial department, if the occasional rumors and interviews are to be believed.

"The Biggest Loser" is a popular show and I caught some of the later episodes this season, along with the finale. There, we all saw how the winner, Rachel Frederickson, was quite skinny. The kind where you would possibly argue she was now dangerously underweight-skinny. This set social media abuzz and had folk asking if she had just now gone from one kind of weight problem to another. I myself think she may have pushed herself just a little too far to make sure she won the competition, and hopefully will attain a more healthy weight now. I suppose we shall see.

It may officially be a kid-flick, but early reviews have indicated "The Lego Movie" has plenty of jokes that skew toward an older audience, plus I love Lego so of course I want to see it. Now I have heard a Lego version of Batman plays a pretty big role in the film, so I really want to see it.

This chart has been making the rounds on the internet.

If 46.67% of comic-readers are female, then why do we still have so few female comic-creators (besides the obvious sexism and harassment that sometimes seems endemic to comics), and even less comics with a female super-hero lead? I don't know, but maybe statistics like these will help show companies that the stereotype of the sweaty and nerdy man-baby is an incorrect portrayal of all comic-readers. I mean, I am a nerdy man-baby, but I'm not overly sweaty.

Lastly, I am sick of all these snowstorms smacking us down across our nation. They seem to be happening on almost weekly basis since we rang in the New Year. Weirdly enough, it appears the Farmer's Almanac pretty accurately called that we would be getting this nasty winter months ago, so that's interesting.

Discussing Trailers For Upcoming Games That Look Promising.

Coming Out Sooner or Later
As my subject lines says, I thought I would talk about trailers for various upcoming games that make them look promising. Of course, the problem with trailers is that even something which is terrible can appear to be awesome (Hello, "Aliens: Colonial Marines"!), so who knows how good these future titles will be. From the promising footage of both cinematics and game-play however I think we may be in for a treat with these titles. No, there are in no particular order except for the first one which I am in fact most excited about...

Watch Dogs
Last summer I heard about how at an otherwise boring E3 there was a demo for a game that looked incredible. Yes, there was the issue that the graphics looked too good for current consoles (and it has been confirmed this is a next-gen title) but otherwise it was so glorious. You watched the tricks the main character did with his cell-phone and went, "How did he do that? How can that be possible in a game?" something I hadn't asked about a title in some time. I now present that debut trailer to you in all its glory:
 Yeah, that looks pretty awesome, doesn't it? There is a 2nd trailer you can find here, but for my money that first one was just plain amazing. I am so excited for this game and if it is as good as it looks it may be the main reason I buy a next-gen console earlier on instead of waiting the safe year-or-so for all the kinks to be fixed in the machines. The release date is a tentative Fall 2013.

Battlefield 4
I enjoyed the third game in the series even if single-player was quite mediocre -actually, let's be honest and just call it bad. With the fourth entry in the series, however, it seems the goal is to make that single-player experience something memorable. I now present to you the 17-minute trailer of what is apparently game-play. I know that sounds like a long time but it goes by pretty quick in this action-packed mini-movie:

If the actual game can live up to that, and deliver some awesome multi-player we may have us a dynamite game on our hands. I've heard release dates as vague as Fall 2013 and as specific as October 25th, 2013.

Beyond: Two Souls
There are a lot of videos of this title floating around, but let's view that first suspenseful trailer:

 Pretty snazzy, wouldn't you say? I recognized developer Quantic Dream's last title "Heavy Rain" as the best game of the year in the early days of my blog, and I stand by that decision completely. David Cage and company look to be making something just as unique and fun with this game. I look forward to October 8th, 2013 to play it.

The Last of Us
Naughty Dog has an interesting history. They did Crash Bandicoot, did those Jak and Daxter games, and then suddenly leap into realistic(ish) stories with those Uncharted games. Now they are going all sci-fi with this title, which is a zombie game without zombies...in the sense that it is a fungus causing all the trouble. Here is a trailer breaking-down some of the story:

I am intrigued by the premise. We will find out if it is a good game on June 14th, 2013.

Grand Theft Auto 5
Come on, was there any doubt I would at least be a little pumped-up for this? Now to view the 2nd trailer which introduced us to the main cast.
This game will probably sell more copies than anyone could imagine. I would bet it will be pretty good too. Expect it on shelves September 17th, 2013.

Remember Me
This game has slowly been gathering more and more press. Even if the rest of the game isn't that great, the memory-remixing bits should at least be a ball. To illustrate that I have a video of the "memory remixing" at work:
Very cool. It is out June 4th, 2013.

A Potentially Great Year for Gaming
All of these titles should be out in 2013 if their current release dates hold. This makes me think that we might be in for quite an enjoyable year of gaming even if only half of these six games deliver on their seemingly vast potential for fun and deep story-telling. We will know what is good before too long.