By Jim Rossignol on October 15th, 2008 at 12:03 pm.
Holy wow, I’m stunned by how many plot spoilers and visual giveaways EA have managed to cram into their Dead Space launch trailer. Half the game seems to show up in this two minute edit-splatter. I’d suggest you only watch this if you have have zero intention of playing this (rather good) ultra-violent space shooter.
The reason I know how spoilery it is, of course, is because I’ve played the game in question. My review is in the next issue of the best PC gaming magazine there has ever been: PC Gamer UK. It has their Fallout 3 review in there too. The magazine is out on 23rd October, and Dead Space comes out on the 20th of October on PC.
Its abit grating nowadays how much games are spoiled by the constant thunder of the PR Department, I’ve intentionally imposed a blackout on the PR stuff for Deadspace and am still somewhat looking forward to playing it as a result. You should never spoil a horror game, on the other hand SPOIL ME WITH FARCRY 2 TRAILERS I WANT MORE
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Any clues on what you gave it, Jim? Maybe in thumbs, what angle are your thumbs, all the way up or 45 degrees? I’m going to be checking out the game so I’ll probably avoid the trailer.
nabeel
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Of course those of us who haven’t played the game would have attached no particular significance to the images in that trailer prior to you indicating they contained spoilers.
Now we care.
Well done.
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The value of a spoiler warning clearly outweighs the negative effects of a post-spoiler warning image significance association spoiling.
Of course almost all trailers showing game footage have some degree of spoil associated with them, this one is just particularly bad.
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I can’t see that many obvious spoilers in there, other than a good portion of the intro and a clip of a cutscene with the isimura’s captain. Loads of action and a few potentially scary moments, which could still make me wee a little bit when they happen to me.
All fairly standard sci-fi plot stuff. This vid won’t spoil my enjoyment or stop me getting this game on release day.
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The trailer makes it look quite good. Shame it’s the Alien Resurrection of space shooters.
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I just wanna know if the PC controls were good. Tell us, please, Jim :D
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I long ago stopped reading a damned thing about a game once I had made a decision to buy it, for this very reason.
It’s insane. I mean, I appreciate the desire to hook your audience, and the need to show some interesting bits, but find a way to do it without ruining the experience for the viewer in the process!
And when it’s not the PR department cramming all the surprises down your throat, it’s some brain-dead excuse for a reviewer doing it!
The most retarded forms of reviewer spoilage are the ones which follow the form of “I don’t want to give anything away here, but let’s just say that (INSERT ENORMOUS AND ABSOLUTELY UNAMBIGUOUS ‘HINT’ HERE).”
Obviously you can’t not say anything about the game, and everyone has a different tolerance threshold for these things, but if something makes you go “oh my god, that was awesome”, then you might at least consider how much less awesome it would have been if you already knew about it before it happened, before you go ahead and tell everyone about it.
So on that note, thank you to the game reviewers who understand how to write, and who treat their readers (and subject matter) with respect.
The rest of you I hate.
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That was a bit confusing. The advert before the trailer was also for Dead Space, and I couldn’t help but wonder what was so spoilerrific about 30 seconds of creaky space corridors, twinkle-twinkle-little-star and a couple of “shock” cutaways to some alien beastie.
I have no intention of playing this game, anyway. First-person space shooter horror things are so 2006. Good trailer, though – was that Martin Grech they used for the music?
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The value of a spoiler warning clearly outweighs the negative effects of a post-spoiler warning image significance association spoiling.
Sigh. Okay I concede that. But I had already seen the above trailer on a website with no spoiler warning, so coming here with “ZOMG SPOILERS!” attached made the footage I’d already seen suddenly feel very significant.
Which isn’t your fault. I just crave pre-release narrative ignorance for anything more detailed than “Its good!” or “Its pap!”.
/hugs Rossignol
Lets never fight again.
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On an unrelated note:
Am I mad if being disappointed by the specific art direction of the rather uninspired swirly hyperspace effect shown in that trailer makes me want to buy the product less?
Why minor details like this tarnish science fiction universes for me I don’t know.
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Having already played through the opening sections at the PCG Showdown, as well as watching the animated comics, the only really spoilerific thing (well, for me) in that trailer was the boss thing. And even that was to be expected (An electronic video game! With a boss! Shock!).
Still, a suitably epic trailer for a game I am looking forward too immensely (as members of the RPS chatroom/readers of my blog will know).
As for the music, the internet tells me it is “Track 7 in Sigur Ros new Album”. Yay for the internet’s bad grammar.
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What’s up with trailers using Sigur Ros music lately? The upcoming Prince of Persia used these in one of its trailers as well O_o
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The music is indeed Icelandic band Sigur Ros, although I believe it’s a track from the first album.
Klugman: Yes, Dead Space’s art oscillates between the terribly obvious and the rather good. Shame really.
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Oh and the EU release date for the PC version is the 24th, not the 20th.
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Yep, Sigur Ros, Track 7, Album ().
I wasn’t expecting Sigur Ros, that was a nice surprise :)
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4th album out of 6
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WOW that trailer was awesome! My interest went from 0-~80% in the space of 2 minutes. The music sounded like Sigur Ros. Did I mention I that tralier was awesome?!
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Snape kills Isaac…dor
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This gives every indication of being meh, but yet each trailer make me want it more anyway.
I await reviews. Lots of them.
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Sneaky bastards. The Sigur Rós makes me now want this game which I was otherwise uninterested in, just by evoking positive associations.
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@MeestaNob! There are 21 reviews right here. That enough for you?
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UNCANNY VALLEY!
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cooo, its event horizon * the thing as a game – kinda. Well for me that was a perfectly okay trailer (no real spoilers) in terms of explaining what has gone on with bit of storyline explanation + teasers of beasties (bar one quick image in the middle that made me go “ahhh, that’s why it says only the dead will live”) but slightly agreeing that if you hadn’t said it contained spoilers aplenty people would have viewed it as just a trailer and gone woo – looks quite good. Perhaps even looking better than previously angry men had lambasted it as such. Still, I am looking forward to this far more now and may even consider pre-ordering… Dark nights with surround sound and a commode! Perhaps a beer hat and snack dispenser too.
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I don’t see it. It shows people the premise of the game in a cool manner, without giving away any major twists (that I can see). I would go as far as to call it one of the best trailers I’ve seen, period.
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I second ETPC’s question about the PC controls. Saw it at PC Gamer Showdown, on a console, and it looked very pretty but unbearably clunky to control… say it ain’t so and I’ll probably buy it…
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It’s almost as bad as DVD movie menus nowadays: we haven’t seen it all in order yet, stop showing us all the good bits!
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The concept of the “spoiler” is the worst thing to have engaged the masses’ psyche in ages.
Chill out, why don’t you?
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Wow, that trailer was actually damned good.
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I had no intrest in Dead Space but now after watching that trailer… I think I wait until the reviews come out for it. Looks good though.
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eh, if someone’s into the revealing of the story/narrative/whatever, having the reveal revealed tends to reveal a disconnect between the revelation and the related-to. i tend to like a good reveal myself.
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dhex: What.
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Interesting market strategy reveal half of the game to the player and hope they purchase it just to see the other half you haven’t spoiled for them. (i exaggerate a tad).
I’m torn, i don’t know if i should get Far Cry 2 or Dead Space or just wait for Fallout 3. I still need to finish Clear Sky, i just finished helping freedom out in the Dark Valley and i doubt i’ll complete the game before the first 2 are released…
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If you want a genuine surprise read a sci-fi book and don’t read the back cover.
Games have gone the way of Films in that I can’t remember the last time I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into before I started playing/watching.
It’s not like I seek out plot points either, it’s just the PR hype that must be generated to sell games to people.
Imagine how cool it would have been to not expect a Big Daddy to show up, or that you’d have to choose whether or not to kill an infected little girl.
Or further back, what if you didn’t know a resonance cascade was going to occur!
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“…outweighs the negative effects of a post-spoiler warning image significance association spoiling.”
Uh, maybe my English isn’t good enough but I can’t make any sense of that. Can you juxtapose that many nouns? From reading the post above I get what you were trying to say but I’m not sure you did it
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PCZone said that the control system on PC was bad, too the order of Resident Evil 4… Clunky turn/aiming controls to make it more tense and not a single consideration for either the mouse or the other 90-odd keyboard keys that are available.
Otherwise, it’s a pretty good game providing you have a 360 controller.
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I think Log is mad. The mouse controls were totally fine. The aiming system is a little obtuse to begin with, but it only took a couple of fights to understand it.
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@JonFitt and Dracko
I didn’t know a resonance cascade was going to occur. I knew something was likely going to go to shit in the experiment, but I had no idea it was going to be a resonance cascade. It was pretty cool. Similarly I had no idea what chapter 4 of World of Goo was going to entail. Knowing either of those things ahead of time would have lessened my enjoyment of the game.
So yes, for me anyway, there’s value in avoiding spoilers for games.
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JonFitt: “Imagine how cool it would have been to not expect a Big Daddy to show up, or that you’d have to choose whether or not to kill an infected little girl.”
erm.. spoilers!
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YAY! Mouse controls are fine! Now to just wait a week and hope I get my artbook too :D
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ooh, looks nice, may get it if the reviews are good. Especially RPS’s and PCG’s (ofc)
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Hurrah! Thanks for clearing that up. When Log’s review referred to the mouse controls as “dogshit”, I admit that I was getting ready to cross Dead Space off my wanted list. Calamity averted.
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They are playing a similar ad on Hulu.com as well. I didn’t watch this one because I didn’t wan to ruine the game, but you can’t skip the one on the Hulu.com website.
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Makes me think of the let down of Crysis with the massive walker on the carrier being that it was shown in the previous videos well before release. Major letdown. For that reason I will be giving this trailer a miss.
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“First-person space shooter horror things are so 2006. Good trailer, though – was that Martin Grech they used for the music?”
Woah whatnow? Is it FPS as well?
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I’ll be buying this, if only because that helmet with the three glowing turquoise bands is the coolest gaming fashion statement in years.
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Goddamnit man, I don’t know whether to watch the trailer or not. I’m desperate to hit the game on the 360, but I feel, if what’s been said here is anything to go by, that this vid’ll be spoilertastic. Although I have seen basically everything I can on the game… I’ll watch.
Thanks for mentioning el Capitan ‘Vaynes’!
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Whoa I can’t edit. Stopped watching the Vid after about 15 seconds. I knew that’s how the game opened, but I really don’t want to see any of the following dialogue.
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