• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

What were your favorite bullshot trailers?

Gentlemen

Gentlemen

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,600
Discord got me thinking about these.



Feels like the last 10-15 years saw a lot of trailers that try very hard to convince you this is actual gameplay, but never were. And I don't want to get into the muckity-muck over 'visual downgrades' from an announcement trailer (although a good case could be made for the first Watch Dogs E3 trailer), and I don't really mean trailers that are more about tone and setting than gameplay (like the notorious "dead daughter" dead island trailer) but think about how the last several generations of consoles oversold time and again on what 'next gen' gameplay would look and feel like.

And I get it. A lot of these trailers were made under extreme duress from publishers, and not every system or bit of polish was ready for actual gameplay so they're cheated in more than a few ways. Developers had enough on their plates trying to create AAA/AAAA production values on an already unreasonable timeline, only to have to produce noninteractive demos for quippy stage presenters and further strain your remaining development resources. And in that spirit I want to appreciate, not mock. These things were difficult to create, even if they were non-representative of the final product, or in one way or another never saw the light of day.

 
Addleburg

Addleburg

The Fallen
Nov 16, 2017
5,077
I didn't even have a Wii, but I remember being super impressed by some of the Red Steel bullshots that came out prior to that game's release. I don't know if they ever made their way into trailer form, though. But I remember thinking that if that's what the Wii was capable, I wasn't giving it enough credit.
 

GreedyG

Member
Dec 13, 2017
39
I'm going to get a lot of flack for this but the Halo Infinite reveal in 2018 is the most recent example I can think of.

Either that or the game went through the worst kind of development hell.

Edit - thinking about it this probably fits more in the 'tone setting' category but was billed as an engine demo.
 
Xeonidus

Xeonidus

“Fuck them kids.”
Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,317
Killzone 2 always comes up in these discussions so that one lol.

Kinect Star Wars is another infamous one.
 
Poimandres

Poimandres

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,920
Loved the early Bioshock Infinite trailers.

Anthem's first trailer was a good example.

Also RIP Deep Down, we never knew you.
 
Doomguy Fieri

Doomguy Fieri

Member
Nov 3, 2017
5,297
PS3 first party was *chef's kiss* for bullshot trailers. Produced so much good forum content. I will always remember that age fondly.
 
Iwao

Iwao

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,865
They've all been mentioned.

MotorStorm (2005).
Every glorious Versus XIII trailer.
BioShock Infinite (2010).
 
Ryuman

Ryuman

Member
Nov 1, 2017
1,599
B.K. said:


Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The 2011 trailer seems pretty real to be honest. Definitely the closest they got to Versus XIII as a game. I still hope a build from around this time leaks one day

As for the second one I don't thing CG Cinematic trailers count as bullshot.
Ra said:
Don't forget 2013, that's when we hit the parallel universe:

Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

The Altissia parts of this trailer are very fake though lol. Plus just the random mishmash of enemies in front of the Citadel which we know was a proof of concept demo by Tabata's team when they came on board. They kept using that map for tech demo purposes again and again afterwards. Such a nothing trailer despite the amazing cinematics surrounding it.
 
Rowsdower

Rowsdower

Shinra Employee of The Wise Ones
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
16,886
Canada
The Aliens: Colonial Marines Cinematic Trailer.



Not a trailer, but the 2012 E3 demo as well. All faked, but damn was it great.



Just... what this game could've been. At least we got Aliens: Fireteam Elite.
 
DogNut327

DogNut327

Member
Aug 10, 2020
110
Aldi said:
The Division Gameplay E3 trailer

Click to expand...
Click to shrink...


The car door closing is an all time E3 moment tbh. I'm not sure what all the visual downgrades are from the final release but I recently played through for the first time on Series S at 60fps and was blown away by how good it looked for a 7 or 8 year old game.

youtu.be

Watch Dogs - Game Demo Video [UK]

A glimpse at the future with the first game demo video of Watch Dogs. Visit http://watchdogs.ubi.com for more info!
youtu.be youtu.be

Not sure how to embed but the 2012 Watch Dogs demo blew me away, especially the final scene. Shame what happened, both the downgrades and just the overall mediocrity
 
ss_lemonade

ss_lemonade

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,700
Witcher 3 Sword of Destiny is the one I remember the most because the devs (or was it PR?) were insisting that the game looked exactly like that and I believe it because there was only a few months left before release
 
Crossing Eden

Crossing Eden

Member
Oct 26, 2017
53,589
This actually reminds me of the thread I wanted to start about how in hindsight downgrade controversies were incredibly toxic because game optimization is a very real thing and most things are shown at events like e3 not with the intent to deceive but to provide a reference point for what the game is aiming to be. And that because we're being shown a product that's literally not complete and one that has to look finalized things have to be scripted and controlled which results in a level of polish that may or may not be present in the full game. On top of the fact that part of the toxicity is often boiled down to how reductive those controversies are in the first place, which often does include taking an incredibly specific asset/set of assets looking different as evidence that EVERYTHING looks worse. Concluding with the idea that, judging the games that had such controversies, it's kinda fucking stupid to get so angry at one of the best looking games of all time not looking better for performance reasons. One of the most embarrassing examples being puddlegate.

 
Ryuman

Ryuman

Member
Nov 1, 2017
1,599
Crossing Eden said:
It looks very real because it's meant to look very real. But a lot of that was faked gameplay and the game was nearing quite close to the time where it was either gonna get cancelled or taken over by Tabata.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I know all the details. I'm just saying that you can see that all the systems there are pretty natural. I'm not saying that it all worked perfectly like that, but there's nothing really crazy or fake about anything in that trailer. There is some kind of game being played there.
 
Tackleberry

Tackleberry

Member
Oct 31, 2017
4,863
Alliance, OH
This thread was MADE for Killzone.

Looked great on the trailer.. then the game comes out and it's just brown and grey. A total "by the numbers" boring ass shooter.
 
The Silver

The Silver

Member
Oct 28, 2017
10,748
DogNut327 said:
youtu.be

Watch Dogs - Game Demo Video [UK]

A glimpse at the future with the first game demo video of Watch Dogs. Visit http://watchdogs.ubi.com for more info!
youtu.be youtu.be

Not sure how to embed but the 2012 Watch Dogs demo blew me away, especially the final scene. Shame what happened, both the downgrades and just the overall mediocrity
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
came to say Watch Dogs, outdoor environments still look great

also looking at this again after so many years and it really reminds me of Hitman
 
Alienous

Alienous

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,628
Crossing Eden said:
This actually reminds me of the thread I wanted to start about how in hindsight downgrade controversies were incredibly toxic because game optimization is a very real thing and most things are shown at events like e3 not with the intent to deceive but to provide a reference point for what the game is aiming to be. And that because we're being shown a product that's literally not complete and one that has to look finalized things have to be scripted and controlled which results in a level of polish that may or may not be present in the full game. On top of the fact that part of the toxicity is often boiled down to how reductive those controversies are in the first place, which often does include taking an incredibly specific asset/set of assets looking different as evidence that EVERYTHING looks worse. Concluding with the idea that, judging the games that had such controversies, it's kinda fucking stupid to get so angry at one of the best looking games of all time not looking better for performance reasons. One of the most embarrassing examples being puddlegate.

Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That's the flipside of the praise impressive demos get. The vast majority of games don't have downgrade controversy - optimization results in improvements.

When a studio presents a visually impressive vertical slice they're throwing their bag over the fence. It's a precommitment, and a risk.

Ubisoft did it a lot, and that ends up being unfair to other games. You had Watch Dogs, Ghost Recon Wildlands and The Division dominating E3 coverage on the strength of their visuals - because Ubisoft were willing to present infeasible footage when others didn't. The criticism keeps it reasonable - initial positive coverage is balanced by critical coverage if the product doesn't match.
 
Druffmaul

Druffmaul

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account.
Banned
Oct 24, 2018
2,228
Guerilla deserves some lashes with a wet noodle because they knew damn well their 2005 Killzone 2 trailer was bullshot. But honestly, I think the finished game looks better than the trailer in several ways.
 
Crossing Eden

Crossing Eden

Member
Oct 26, 2017
53,589
Ryuman said:
I know all the details. I'm just saying that you can see that all the systems there are pretty natural. I'm not saying that it all worked perfectly like that, but there's nothing really crazy or fake about anything in that trailer. There is some kind of game being played there.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
By most accounts there actually wasn't.
Alienous said:
That's the flipside of the praise impressive demos get. The vast majority of games don't have downgrade controversy - optimization results in improvements.

When a studio presents a visually impressive vertical slice they're throwing their bag over the fence. It's a precommitment, and a risk.

Ubisoft did it a lot, and that ends up being unfair to other games. You had Watch Dogs, Ghost Recon Wildlands and The Division dominating E3 coverage on the strength of their visuals - because Ubisoft were willing to present infeasible footage when others didn't. The criticism keeps it reasonable - initial positive coverage is balanced by critical coverage if the product doesn't match.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yea again it's dumb because when all three of those games ended up looking gorgeous anyway, and the studio ended up outright creating games prettier than those demos years down the line as they got more familiar with the hardware, then yea it's not a balancing act to get that heated. It's just toxic.
 
Lucini

Lucini

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,533
Crossing Eden said:
This actually reminds me of the thread I wanted to start about how in hindsight downgrade controversies were incredibly toxic because game optimization is a very real thing and most things are shown at events like e3 not with the intent to deceive but to provide a reference point for what the game is aiming to be. And that because we're being shown a product that's literally not complete and one that has to look finalized things have to be scripted and controlled which results in a level of polish that may or may not be present in the full game. On top of the fact that part of the toxicity is often boiled down to how reductive those controversies are in the first place, which often does include taking an incredibly specific asset/set of assets looking different as evidence that EVERYTHING looks worse. Concluding with the idea that, judging the games that had such controversies, it's kinda fucking stupid to get so angry at one of the best looking games of all time not looking better for performance reasons. One of the most embarrassing examples being puddlegate.

Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Side note: this is probably why so many trailers have some manner of disclaimer on the screen during their demos these days. There's always some phrasing of "Not final," "work in progress," or "not from a final build" to denote that what's on screen isn't indicative of what we will eventually play or at least not 100 percent.

Someone invoked the Madden Next Gen..that trailer was such complete bullshit. That series visuals have not reached that point at all yet over a decade later. Animations are barely better than the generation before that trailer and are still surpassed in some places by a game from 2004. I'm still pretty bent out of shape about that one.
 
Renteka-Bond

Renteka-Bond

Chicken Chaser
Member
Dec 28, 2017
4,309
Clearwater, Florida
The 'gameplay' portion of the new KHIV trailer is 100% bologna and I can't be convinced otherwise. It's definitely representative of what they want to do, sure, but it's not actual gameplay.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.