NEWS: Fool Me Once, Shame On You; Fool Me Twice, SHAME ON YOU DAMNIT!!!

This "Two Souls" looks interesting. On the radar it goes.

Presently, my hopes are set on Wasteland 2 and Dishonored. A new snealy exploration game from the designer behind System Shock and Thief? Sign me up.

Couldn't agree more. Lately many games that had a lot of potential were broken down and simplified in order to appeal to more audiences. The same happened to a couple of long running game series.

Games with heavier and deeper stories, such as Heavy Rain, tend to be slow paced and/or with long cutscenes and dialogs. And that isn't atractive to the "casual, but describe itself as hardcore" gamer that is only used to FPS such as CoD and BF...
Also games with sharper and complex commands have been have become much simplier button mashers.

In other words, games such as you described are just don't sell that much. Just look back at the top selling games of 2010 and 2011 and you'll have the idea.

Unfortunately, due to the companies' maximum profit policy, I think we can expect more games that "could have been much more than they have come to be" and trailers that look so awesome for games that feels lame.

Honestly I don't even keep track of whats coming out anymore. Ninety percent of the time it just leads to disappointment. I'd rather just be pleasantly surprised when something good actually does get released.

There are people who make games and people who market games. Sometimes depending on the company those people don't work together but a few days a year. The part of selling games is corporate and the part of making games is more artistic. I find that in almost any medium involving art and money there are bound to be let downs. However I choose to be excited. Here is why

I truly love exploring new worlds and stories. Do I experience let down with poorly designed levels? Yes, we all do. Do I expect every game to live up to the trailer? No, in fact I have a policy of once I have decided to play a game (or watch a movie) I try to stop watching all previews. no easy task sometimes. Purely because of the issue that Bob so elegantly brings up.

I also think we are let down too easy, but that may be a different topic all together. Nothing is perfect

I am always hopeful and excited for the next years games however lean and bleak they may seem. Because that only means to me that I will have to try a little harder to find the games who don't sport a big advertising budget and can't (or wont) get a corporate stooge to lie to us about how this new game is not just any game, it is a transcendental experience.

You didn't mention that dead island was co-op. I can forgive a lot in a game when a friend and I can play it, have fun and mock it's developmental failures together...haha. God bless being able to dupe weapons in that game. Sometimes games are good accidentally on purpose. I agree that E3 was sort of a non event. I guess with the new consoles approaching in what I think will be 2013 the developers are working on new IPs for the next generation. That's what I'm excited about the next generation... and Rainbow Six Patriots... although like you my faith in game developers is definitely shaken.

I hope games never become as bad as films when it comes to trailers; because film companies have basically realised that all they need is a good trailer to get you in the cinema and the film itself could be a pile of pish. They don't care about your critique, just your money.

In other news, reliable games developers still make good games. Most games from Bethesda, Remedy, Bioware, Ubisoft and Konami, still live up to the hype. There's also the Mortal Kombat series, which in my opinion has never been awful. Some games have been deff better than others and I was a little disappointed by MK vs DCU but all in all it's a fine franchise.

You know, as sixth degree curmudgeon, I think I should point out that any game marketed between the years 1985 to 2015 has never really accurately depicted a game's actual content. How many ps1/n64/saturn/genesis/snes/nes games had commercials more awesome than the game they were selling? Even the current gen games today have hit or miss commercials with often dodgy connections.

Agree with you 100%, Bob, although this can actually work in the opposite way (in rare instances). Case in point, the new Black Ops looks pathetic, which is what I am expecting, given how bad Call of Duty: MW 3 is (waste of $60). So my expectations are so low that maybe I will be pleasantly surprised. As for E3, I agree, it did seem like much ado about nothing, although...The Last of Us looks awesome (hopefully, the game lives up to the trailer)

I still think Heavy Rain sucked big time and I don't really think Beyond is gonna be any better. David Cage is not a game director in my opinion, and gameplay is a strength his games don't have.

But Last of Us looks pretty good, the South Park game looks interesting. I'm willing to give AssCred another chance, but it better be REALLY good.

And I don't even want to talk about Dead Island.... generic game, full of bugs. Amazing trailer, though.

Wii U? Not buying it, same way I did not buy the Wii.

Its from Quantic Dream and is thus untrustworthy. They have a bad business model, they blame their failings on used game sales and not the fact that their orginal game is a one shot wonder. Yup, same killer everytime. Exciting. Sell the game let someone else play it and get blamed by the scum sucker. Build ANOTHER game with way too much money and still not be able to write a good story. I am wondering if you get to have Ellen Page pee in this one?

Its on my radar all right. Used, director's cut and at most half price.

I really liked your article. Before reading it, I've never really given much thought to this issue, I was, let's say, resigned, that marketing for games should be made of things that wouldn't be in the game, to make it look awesome and touching, even if those sequences of facts would never be in the actual gameplay.

I share now your view. I really feel cheated, and the worse is that I didn't feel it until now. There tons of game trailers that were inarguably good that most movies wouldn't even dream of achieving such patterns, yet, the trailer had nothing to do with the actual gameplay or, even worse, not even a video sequence in the game.

Let's hope and wait that Beyond: Two souls isn't one of those. I really wish that it can be a remarkable gaming experience, such as "Shadow of the Colossus" which is completely different from everything I've seen!

Over and out.

I think recently there's been a big surge in trailers for games that don't exactly represent the games that they're actually promoting. The recent furore over the trailer for Hitman: Absolution being a good example. Is it a well made trailer, yes, it has an undeniable grindhouse quality but it's still very well made. Although It doesn't represent the Hitman gaming experience people are familiar with and if you compare it with the demo footage it doesn't even seem like the same game.

I think the bottom line from a developer/ publishers point of view is that they want publicity and a lot of the time the easiest way to do that is via "controversial" trailers, Tomb Raider being a prime example.

As for emotional context in games I'm all for it. Mass Effect from a gameplay point of view isn't the most astounding game ever but the story and characters make the game to the point where a character dying actually elicits a response and this has made it into one of the most recognisible names in gaming. On the other hand though Enslaved: Odyssey to the West which also featured fleshed out characters that you actually cared about and a refreshingly different representation of a post apocalyptic landscape and was critically well received. Didn't get the success it deserved with many gamers not wanting to get bogged down in story and emotional context and so a planned sequel was canned.

There's always going to be an element of risk involved in bringing any new gaming property to market but adding in depth emotional character driven story is an additional risk which I fear is one that not many are willing to take when there are so many gamers who are just going throw money at whatever brainless FPS comes out next.

I quit after ps2 but my nephew had ps3 and I may need to resume come winter.