By Alec Meer on April 19th, 2008 at 2:49 pm.
At last – Meet The Scout:
We have a very good idea who you are, Gametrailers.
Seems a bit tighter than the, to my eye, slightly iffy Demoman trailer. The Scout-as-jerk angle was the only way to go, really, and it works – certainly, I really, really wanted to see him take a beating by the end of it. Which is, of course, very much the point.
Also, the Heavy eating a sandwich is one of those images that’s bound to grace desktop wallpapers across the globe.
Pretty good, any idea which class is coming next? I am sensing ‘meet the spy’ is going to be spectacular.
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It seems very short to me, but the animation of the Heavy very slowly turning around, and the ensuing fight, is great.
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Very amusing but I’m waiting for the pyro ;)
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Meet the Guido!
Razor: Meet the Pyro.
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Tight indeed! Although yes, a bit short.
But “slightly iffy Demoman trailer”? That one was bloody brilliant!
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While this one was short but good, where did the concensus come from that the Demoman trailer was bad? I thought it was stupendous. So the accent is a little cheesy, so what? A black one eyed scotsman with a skull cap firing spiky royal blue balls at a wall isn’t cheesy? This game is ALL ABOUT cheese!
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Looks like the typical Mac user to me :P
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Almost as unappealing as the demoman clip
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I continue to be amazed by these trailers. The look on the Heavy’s face as he’s reaching for the sandwich is just priceless. I really really can’t wait for the Pyro one.
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The animation’s amazing, but the quality is still not quite up to the brilliant Heavy/Soldier/Engineer ones. Especially the Heavy and Soldier ones. I was with the view that the Demoman one – whilst I could see what they were doing – wasn’t that funny, and this is rather like that. Kudos to Valve for doing it, but it’s a B rather than an A.
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I have no idea what you guys are on. Seriously, this is pretty much perfect characterisation.
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I think the reason the demoman one was panned so much was because the accent wasn’t just bad, it was so bad it wasn’t even recognisable as Scottish. I don’t understand why British accents in general are always so AWFUL in games. I know they’re made in America a lot of the time, but surely there are some actually British people that live in America. They can’t be that hard to find!
What’s more, they may even be from places other than London and Poshville, Berks.
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Chalk me up as another who enjoyed the Demoman one. I thought this one was a little forced, personally – still good! – but trying too hard for laughs.
Oh and to people talking about the length, I saw someone else check the times of each video and the Heavy, Soldier, Engineer and Scout videos are lengthwise within about 3 seconds of each other. The Demoman video is about 20 seconds longer than any other. That’s probably why Meet the Scout seems short.
@John
Yes, and a lot of British people in America will have picked up American inflections to their voices. That’s why the accents never seem right to real Brits, because they’ve been affected by that. It’s nobody’s fault. Similarly, that could be the case with the Demoman. Also, I can’t believe people slate the accent when the Heavy is so over the top, or the Medic. Even the Sniper is pretty ridiculous.
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and uh…. everyone knows there is no way in hell you can dodge a turret :)
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@ Steve
Hehe, you have a point re: the other accents. I guess they’re all very outlandish, and would sound ridiculous to actual Russians, French people etc. I wasn’t really slating the demoman’s accent for being “over the top” though, merely.. not very Scottish. If you see what I mean.
I take your point re: inflections etc though, hadn’t thought about that before.
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If they made another Meet the Heavy trailer showcasing only his sandwich eating prowess, I would watch it until the end of time.
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Oh but by the way, I’ve just remembered:
as much as I think the Demoman’s accent is poor, for a really atrocious British accent you need look no further than Rainbow Six: Vegas. Probably the worst English accent ever? That guy DEFINITELY wasn’t English ;)
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“That’s why the accents never seem right to real Brits, because they’ve been affected by that”
Nah, it’s because they are being done by non british people. Anyone who has picked up inflections or even adopted another accent can almost always slip into the accent of their home town with ease.
(edit)
Especially if they are a supposed VO talent.
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I happen to think the Demoman is my favorite, and probably the only one I actually found funny (Soldier is a close second, but only for the end.)
I found this one short and not funny or all that appealing.
As a side note: Anyone else see the “Copyright Valve lololol” in there?
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Just in time for my berfdae!
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For those of you with Smartphones, EEEPCs or other small-screened devices…
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@ Ixis: It’s been in all the Meet The… clips since they started doing that title screen (from Meet the Soldier onwards I believe).
With regards to dodgy Brit accents, even we can’t get it right sometimes. Witness Fable and Dominic West’s turn as a stereotypical cockney in The Wire (youtube isn’t forthcoming, so have this piece of loveliness instead).
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“The enemy has taken your sandwich!”
He is such a little jerk. Awesome.
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Eh, who cares about the scout. Let’s meet the Pyro!
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All I can say is, I loled.
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Poor poor Heavy. Everyone always picks on the poor cute Heavy.
I’m still petitioning for the scout to be banned from the java server on basic principles.
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I thought the HUMOUR in the Demoman piece was spot on. Yes, the accent was poor, but poor accents are all over the place, and British TV is full of ads and television shows where people do appaling American impersonations and no one bats an eyelid.
I’m more interested in the quality of the humour, and for me, a hard drinking, semi-paranoid, quasi-sociopathic Scotsman is a bellyfull of laughs.
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All of these trailers thoroughly own. But Valve will have a hard time beating the soldier one:
“UNLESS IT’S A FARM!”
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I felt sad when the heavy died…:(
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How appropriate, recently I’ve felt like playing TF2 for the first time ever and Scout is one of the few classes that appeals to me currently.
Okay, so I’d play a snotty-nosed asshole but in the end I’d play a snotty-nosed asshole version of Speedy Gonzales with a shotgun.
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it was pretty good not the best of the trailers though.
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Yeah – poor fella just wanted to eat his sandwich in peace… :(
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Where is my Heavy plush toy, Valve?
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Great new video!
I always seem to get the impression that Valve are continually improving animation and cinematography? techniques.
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Sadly, these seem to be getting worse as they make them. I’m hoping the Pyro one is good though.
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If by ‘worse’ you mean ‘less funny’, then I’m with you. Worse? I doubt it. The point, to me, is that the scout is being portrayed as a self-centered jerk with the skill to back it up and I think the video put across the idea that this is not your average first person shooter (remember, it’s still advertising) quite well.
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@ Thiefsie: I know someone who, as a Scout, has dodged and destroyed Tier 2 turrets. So, that’s not very apt.
The video seemed short to me as well. Of course, that’s probably due to the extended opening bit showing how fast he is. Meet the Demoman had something similar, but it was AFTER the title screen, so it seemed longer.
Also, I, too, loved the Demoman one. Probably because the Demoman is sociopathic, bordering on the stark raving.
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@KBKarma – just a Level 2 Sentry? I take it you’ve never seen this.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_e2102v_nCM
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He didn’t respawn, so maybe he was just unconscious!
I would’ve preferred more character stuff, but I’m a dialogue guy. …..So come on, Pyro!
(Demoman was a bit too ‘Dan Castellaneta’, ie, unlistenable)
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Much as I loved the Heavy and the Soldier, I can’t help thinking that the Engineer’s has been the cleverest so far.
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The thing about the accents, well… the Demoman is bad, but the worst, by far, is the Sniper. Is that really meant to be an Aussie accent? And yet, one of the lead designer chappies is an Aussie. This leads me to believe it must be deliberate. It is pretty funny, after all, even if I do wince every time Demo says anything.
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I couldn’t stand this video. That Jersey accent is terrible. I’ve never even been to New Jersey and I can tell!
Completely unwatchable and lacking in all merit. Way to fuck up again, Valve.
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Wow, when did the humour die around here?
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As far as single images go I prefer the heavy, about to lose, reaching for either his shotgun or his sandwich. The look on his face is priceless.
“Completey unwatchable and lacking in all merit.” is destined to become a running joke among my friends. I mean, really?
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I liked it!
Also, has Source just grown a real-time ambient-occlusion shader? Or is it just another effect (like depth of field and true motion-blur) that’ll only get used for cinematic stuff like this?
At any rate, it’s rather tastefully done. :-]
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@Steve Hutton: You mean this? Yeah, it’s my new desktop wallpaper.
This is a close runner up though.
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Frakking brilliant
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It’s more a bad bostonian accent. Either way, it ain’t close.
Yeah, the Scots accent is off; but, no offense to Mr. GladOS, the Australian sniper ain’t so ozzie, and I’m sure the corresponding cabal had some fair dinkum antipodeans on staff (we are talking tf2, here).
You know, they’re bad, but I’ve got a lot more to care about.
The Scout, well, the piece was a bunt single. The sammy was there, but there wasn’t any real insight into his character. We got a taste of competence, but no real inspiration.
Still, if you can get on base with every at-bat, you’re outstanding.
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I think the scot’s is till my fav, but this wasn’t too shabby. I suspected it would be him talking about how awesome he is; it’s the only thing that fits his character.
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I love the fingerprint smudge he leaves on the lens when he pokes the camera. Very subtle.
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Are people really complaining about bad accents in TF2? It is a cartoon after all, could it possibly be intentional? Even if it’s not, get over it.
Video was great. Um…yeah.
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Yeah, definately some advanced lighting going on there, certainly not real-time. Characters are probably boosted cinematic versions as well (faces at least). So closer to Pixar than the game then.
But who cares, they’re brilliant!
Boink!
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I liked it. I have no well-crafted defense for liking it, but I did. And I thought the demoman was okay too. Certainly the weakest of those released, but nothing cringeworthy.
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Everyone keeps complaining about the Demo while the Medics accent is even worse, worse as in over the top. He’s probably my favourite character when it comes to the voice. Even though he’s using every German sterotype in the known universe, hear him scream OKTOBERFEST! makes me laugh every time.
Those accents are all intentionally so far over the top.
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The characters are stereotypes in every way. That includes their accents. Come on people, lets act a bit more mature here rather than descending into YouTube style comments…
For the record, I liked it :)
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You only gotta look at the soldier to realize it’s a monumental parody.
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Fuck that — why do something wrong, when you can do it right?
I think it’s bizarre that the Sniper has that one ‘dinkum Aussie’ line, when he’s got one of those super-dense almost-Aussie Cockney accents (see also, say, Kano in the Mortal Kombat movie; go on, you know you saw it), and it makes perfect sense for him to have it — as I said way back when, he’s obviously an Allan Quartermain-esque ‘wild colonial boy’, with his slouch hat and his kukri and his flashing the vees and his love of Mother England (and the whole ‘sleeping in a buffalo carcass’ thing…) If they removed that one line, he’d make perfect sense. Silly.
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For me, the “Hey, what’s up?” moment justifies the entire video.
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My favourite so far. BOINK
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Yeah this is terrible; Valve fucked up Lets get ‘em!.
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^sarcasm^
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“Copyright LOLOL”. Gotta love the small touches.
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I think the only thing thats wrong with it (and can be said of all of them) is it leaves you wanting even more.
Which is actually a good thing, if you’re from the ‘glass is half full‘ club.
Now all we need is a TF2 mini series. I genuinely think this is a project that could be a series.
And to those not getting that all these accents and, well, EVERYTHING is infact a parody, google your way to eBay and buy yourselves a new sense of Humour, the one you have is showing its age!
(for the record, I just showed these vids to mum and she lolled).
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Great!!!!!!!!!!!!
BOINK!!!!!!!!!!!
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How can you guys say that the Demoman video was bad?
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Am I the only one gets a sense of Matt Damon in the Scout?
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CrashT:
Do you like apples?
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I enjoyed it, especially the sandwhich/shotgun bit:
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/8122/heavysandwhichuc9.jpg
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Lunaran: My sarcasm-detector is in the shop, but I have a feeling you’re joking. I HOPE you’re joking.
But either way, he’s not from Jersey. He’s from the south side of Boston.
Only a Southie could be that big of a prick. ;)
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I thought it was great. The animation is getting better and better, and I for one can’t wait for the next one, whichever it is.
If he’s from Southie, clearly NONE of the accents are very good, but they all serve their purpose. I still can’t decide if the Spy is Spanish, Italian, French, or Fritañol.
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Aww The heavy is so cute, I want a plush toy of him. I loved this episode though, only one to make me laugh on my own.
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Are you people actually complaining?
1) He’s meant to be a jerk.
2) They’re comedy characters. Of course their accents are going to be weird.
3) The Demoman’s video included the lines “T’all Ya fine Dandy’s, so proud, so cocksure with your head full of eyeballs”. Does that really need any kind of defence?
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Oh yeah, I was going to mention the little ‘backstory’ snippet from the Valve update; I like how it gives a little extra to the character (it’d be pretty awesome to hear the Spy barking out the bios at the start of the videos: “Der Shcout! Birseplace: Boston, Massachusetts! Shcout vas raised on zer mean streets of Boston, vhere he cultivated der untamed savachery und fleet-footedness for vich ze crude little man-boy is now known.”
(Meanwhile, could the slower folks please remember that stereotypical accents are a staple of broad comedy, and not wrong ones).
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It’s good, but something of a disappointment after the more-or-less stellar videos that preceded it.
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