Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/10/25/the-launch-trailer-for-titan.html
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“Titanfall: two become one” sounds like a postapocalyptic wedding announcement.
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Mucho Badass!
I’m just a game-observer these days so take this with a grain of salt… It is funny how top-tier games are still so derivative of films. The Kill Bill song lift is disappointing. Couldn’t they find another song that hasn’t already been claimed by a piece of prominent cultural media? (I guess Tarantino was just lifting too, but it actually related to the content of the film)
Maybe it’s the nature of these huge games– they can’t take chances on un-proven material, so opt to quote from the films they love. Makes sense. Would love to see the Tarantino of games though… Maybe there is one? Like I said, I’m not really deep in the culture at this point.
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Wolfenstein 3D?
Max Payne?
Left4Dead/L4D2 strikes me as the Zombie version of his Vampire movie
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Tarantino of games, hmm… i don’t know it depends on what one means by that. There’s definitely a good number of game creators/directors that are very well known for having a unique voice and their games reflect their vision. Kojima probably the most cinematic and well known of all, but even people like Miyamoto who have been around for a long time definitely march to the beat of their own drummer, despite the fact that they are staples of gaming.
If you mean someone who is more independent and likes to dive into as many original ideas as possible i’d probably say few people can do it as well as Tim Schafer and his studio.
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My son pre-ordered. He grew bored with Destiny as he didn’t have anyone in his cohort to play with.
This looks awesome… but is it in-engine footage? actual gameplay? some scenes it sure looked like it was in game, but… dayum
Tarantino of games? hmmm, tastes differ of course. I like a sort of Ken Levine game myself, not perfect of course. Maybe that guy who made Tetris. There are some amazing Japanese game designers.
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I would assume it’s in-engine, if anything it could be in-engine with higher res assets specifically for cutscenes. However companies like to say up front if something is running within the game or if it’s purely CG, but they’re not really required to say so as far as i know.
Edit: re-watched for a bit and i’m mostly sure this is not in-game. I’d love to be wrong though
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No Spice Girls soundtrack? Opportunity missed.
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I didn’t mean games that feel like a Tarantino film… I meant games that come from a unique singular vision. If they quote other media, they’d take it to another place and make them their own… I think you’re right-on with Wolfenstein and Doom; those kind of made up a whole genre while that films actually copy at this point. Max Payne though was horribly derivative… The bullet time and paper-thin characters… ugh.
Most everything Tarantino does is derivative and frequently with paper-thin characters? Only his leads really display more than a single emotion, or use in a story?
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Loved Titanfall, cannot wait until Friday for the Titanfall 2 release. That is all.
Yeah, Tarantino was bad choice on my part. Maybe the Kubrick of games would be more like it? Spielberg?.. You’re examples are good ones. Kojima and Miyamoto lift and quote but you never seem to notice since they always make it their own, don’t they? They guy who made ICO and Shadow of the Colossus too.
I’m sure I’m just not versed enough to throw my opinion out there. What I meant is this: So many game ads and cut-scenes just seem like straight lifts from films circa 5 years ago. Thing is, you could say that about 90% of all media you see out there! I’ll take my seat, thanks.
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Yeah, I s’pose it’s a matter of opinion, and I didn’t mean to hold up Tarantino as some great filmmaker. I think Jackie Brown is his best and rises above those faults you point out. Not so much with many others. I still really despised Max Payne… The comic book motif was great, I’ll give it that.
Miyamoto is extremely versatile with his games, even if he plays within existing genres and ideas he has an uncanny ability to make things fresh and exciting. I admire him for it. Kojima can be more pretentious and bloated with his execution and ideas, but he’s really good at pushing the lines of story telling in games vs movies. I can’t fault him for taking risks that few people in the industry are willing to make.
Fumito Ueda is the director of Shadow of the Colossus and Ico, he doesn’t have a huge library of games under him but his work is so massively influential, it is the definition of “videogames as art”. Quite literally so, more qualified people have used his work as proof that games can aspire to be more and be taken seriously.
I don’t see anything wrong with lifting and retreading old ideas. All great ideas come from something that already exists. Also i do appreciate your thoughts on games even if you don’t feel uniquely in a position to get too deep into it. I find the discussion in general to be enjoyable. Games are definitely a passion for me, i don’t play games as much as i used to but i definitely follow it closely.
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That’s offline rendered.
Here is a (single player) gameplay trailer made of mostly in-engine scripted sequences.
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I think Wolfenstein 3D was pretty close. A well-made story. Had a couple of minor loose ends that seem like they were left in for possible sequels too.
The popular song with cutesy lyrics was pretty corny. “Here’s a rocket sound” was goofy enough to win my heart just a little.
That said, have we learned nothing? Game intro cinematics, and now trailers, have shown embellished reimaginings (to put it kindly) of what the actual gameplay feels like for decades now.
(1995)
No, the actual graphics never look as good, the movement never feels as natural, the dramatic and memorable cinema-style camera angles, editing, scripts and acting would be unplayable even if possible. It’s just a different media.
The good thing is that nowadays some trailers are such well-made and entertaining enough mini movies that you can enjoy watching even if you don’t care about the game, or indeed are just plain better than the game. Dead Island comes to mind. Personally I think Civilization:Beyond Earth is a great example of a weak game with a powerful cinematic intro.
Doesn’t hurt if you good a stylish cyberpunk theme going either. Haven’t played this, but I doubt the themes are explored in-game as well as in this nice little B movie.
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So was the human completely CG? They’re getting so good at this that I can’t tell anymore. And I don’t mean just good at modelling and motion cap etc. but they figuring out how to direct (is that the right term here?) CG scenes in ways that conceal the usual subtle telltales, maybe by distracting you from them by showing you giant mechs fighting in a lush forest.
Yeah the person is fully motion captured, regardless if it was in-game or a cinematic. And the stuff that is basically movie quality can make for very convincing life-like graphics, there’s plenty of movies that have obvious CG set pieces but people generally don’t notice the faked backgrounds and people in fairly innocuous scenes
