By John Walker on March 22nd, 2011 at 2:41 pm.
I’m trying to work out exactly what I think about the video below showing the studios at Timegate, as they work on Section 8: Prejudice. It’s certainly uncomfortable. But then it’s trying to be. It’s not exactly endearing toward women, but then it’s not to men either, and they’re obviously taking the piss. It’s certainly a unique approach to the usually excruciatingly boring behind-the-scenes videos we see of development studios. But I’m not convinced it’s the right one. It’s an insecure woman pretending to care about the game so she can flirt with the developers. Er. Oh, whatever they were trying to do, it doesn’t work.
In fact, I think it’s insulting to everyone involved. Funnily enough it quickly just becomes the usual bored developer talking heads despite its efforts. If anything, the misfired attempt to spoof this ends up highlighting how dull it can be to hear a guy talking about his manshoots game.
You can read Jim’s hands-on preview of the game here, and perhaps some slightly more helpful footage here. It’ll only cost $15 on launch, which comes with a five hour single player mode, a co-op mode, and the 32 player multiplayer that made the first game’s name. This is only part one of a series of such videos. Oh good. Cheers to VG247.
22/03/2011 at 14:45 Bilbo says:
Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.
Isn’t it enough to just make a game that works and isn’t boring and like prison ass to look at anymore?
Also, wow. Looks miles faster than the original. This ain’t your daddy’s Section 8. Incidentally, if the original was your Daddy’s section 8, you’re too young to read.
22/03/2011 at 14:49 bob_d says:
Oh dear. It’s immediately painful.
22/03/2011 at 20:10 GoodPatton says:
That was nearly too painful to watch.
22/03/2011 at 14:49 playthatfunkytuba says:
Hideous.
22/03/2011 at 14:50 Cooper says:
Oh dear
22/03/2011 at 14:51 RaveTurned says:
What a shame.
22/03/2011 at 15:26 Teddy Leach says:
What a shame.
22/03/2011 at 15:32 Duality says:
What a shame.
22/03/2011 at 15:41 Cooper says:
Desperate
22/03/2011 at 17:05 lethu says:
What a mustache.
22/03/2011 at 17:40 Serenegoose says:
A bomb!
22/03/2011 at 22:56 strange headache says:
Bam! Tit job… oh wait.
23/03/2011 at 02:06 Wooly says:
Right.
22/03/2011 at 14:52 Jibb Smart says:
I don’t see much “behind the scenes” happening. I mean, we see some guys in a studio, but then all we hear about are gameplay features better demonstrated by the snippets of in-game footage they show — what everyone will find out anyway when they play it.
What about concept art? WIP character models? Wireframes? What tools they’re using? In the end it’s just a narrated trailer hidden in a really bad joke.
Jibb
22/03/2011 at 14:54 HermitUK says:
Well, that was cringeworthy.
22/03/2011 at 14:55 stahlwerk says:
Dear: Oh
While I’m generally in favour of devs not taking themselves too seriously in their promo material, this really didn’t work well. I mean this whole “Who here is single?” just comes across as creepily desperate instead of desperately funny.
22/03/2011 at 15:01 Spatula says:
That’s ‘the office’ level of cringeworthy….
what a shame.
23/03/2011 at 00:23 Lord Byte says:
That… That’s exactly what it felt like… I think they were going for that actually, now that you said it it becomes obvious…
23/03/2011 at 00:59 Starky says:
Agreed they were clearly trying for office level of cringe worthy but funny, but utterly missed the satirical edge that the office contains.
Which is more to do with their amateur acting skills than anything else.
Dry satire in that style is probably the hardest form of comedy (which is probably the hardest form of acting).
22/03/2011 at 15:10 Navagon says:
What a shambles.
22/03/2011 at 15:12 westyfield says:
They managed to make jetpacks and robo-stomp boring.
22/03/2011 at 15:45 RaytraceRat says:
You really need to go so low to make a promo video these days?
If the game is worth talking about, talk about the game, don’t add stuff that is painful to watch…
22/03/2011 at 16:11 TotalBiscuit says:
Oh for the love of
22/03/2011 at 19:34 theleif says:
Cod?
22/03/2011 at 16:51 HeavyStorm says:
I guess that, if the girl was even hotter, then we would be complaining so much. Then again, that’s exactly why it’s offensive.
22/03/2011 at 16:56 4026 says:
Oh, it hurts.
The trouble is, I can picture the kind of pub conversation that led to someone thinking that this was a really good idea. And then volunteering to script it.
“Hey guys, I’ll do it! I mean, I’ve never written anything before, but how hard can it be? I’m funny, right? I have a great sense of humour, right, guys?”
22/03/2011 at 16:58 DJ Phantoon says:
Partway through, someone should’ve just randomly cherry picked a quote from Deus Ex to cause maximum confusion (I suggest “I spill my drink!” instead of “A BOMB!”) and ran.
22/03/2011 at 17:18 Urthman says:
The woman who tells her to get out of the area where people are trying to work: Why do I get the impression this video was not her idea?
22/03/2011 at 18:25 Stephen Roberts says:
If they wanted to do something humourous they should have mocked that Switchblade Razorwank laptop video. By taking themselves far far too seriously. If they wanted to be better than the video they made, they could have just had puppets doing the interviews. Twatbarrage.
22/03/2011 at 19:03 gulag says:
I would. Both of them.
22/03/2011 at 20:43 ZIGS says:
$15 huh? Interesting. Is the SP campaign a proper campaign (albeit short) or is it just MP maps with bots like the first one?
22/03/2011 at 23:59 markishome359 says:
It’s a proper campaign; around 5 hours, legitimate SP maps, etc.
22/03/2011 at 21:27 Makariel says:
“in the next episode”
Oh no, please don’t…
22/03/2011 at 22:12 SuperNashwanPower says:
This has made me actively depressed
22/03/2011 at 22:45 Bowlby says:
Eh, the marketing dept. tried to do something funny and interesting, and it didn’t work. Don’t think it’s trying to be offensive. Reminded me a bit of the Samantha Bee character on The Daily Show, actually.
Anyway, I thought Total Biscuit’s Section 8 preview did more for getting me interested in the game. Maybe more gameplay footage > poor comedy skits?
22/03/2011 at 23:17 Vandelay says:
Agreed. This wasn’t really on my radar prior to watching Total Biscuit’s video, but it looks like a lot of fun. Definitely worth a punt at £10.
I couldn’t even be bothered to watch this much more than a minute though. I don’t think anyone is trying to say this is offensive in anyway, just crap.
23/03/2011 at 01:29 Mephistoau says:
I’m looking forward to Prejudice, but wtf was that o_0
23/03/2011 at 03:18 DOLBYdigital says:
I just hope the game has some players. I liked the first one and played it from beta to release but then *ghost town*. Hoping this one holds some players which at $15 it should. Its nothing amazing but is a good romp with fast action/movement.
23/03/2011 at 07:24 Jambe says:
Ew. Just… ew.