Desperate

I’m sure many of you watched the pre-vis released by Lucas Arts over the last few days, if not check it out here.

The above link also takes you to an interview, ign conducted with the man behind the pre-vis, a few choice excerpts:

IGN: The Pre-vis video hints at a lot of really cool gameplay opportunities. Was that technology created as a result of what you wanted to be able to do in a Star Wars game, or did the game come out of the technology afterward?

Haden Blackman: The technology absolutely came out of what we wanted to achieve. We created that pre-vis awhile ago and it was meant to do several things: to inspire the team and to be able to wrap our heads around the core gameplay concepts that we wanted to explore within the Star Wars mythos. It was something that we showed internally to build excitement, not only to the team, but also to Jim Ward our president and Peter Hirschman the VP of development. Ultimately, we showed it to George Lucas as well.

Once everybody approved the direction we were headed with the force, then we... well, we had an, "Oh Crap" moment. The reason was because we had made such an exciting pre-vis video that we weren't quite sure how to make it a game. At the time, we didn't have the technology or tools to be able to build that game. We spent the many, many months afterward working on our technology base so that we could build that game. Things like our biomechanical AI that we worked on with NaturalMotion and Pixelux's Digital Molecular Matter are things we've invested in to realize that use of the Force.

IGN: Since we're on the subject of the story, are the characters and situations shown in the pre-vis representative of actual characters and locations in a future game, or is this setting for demo purposes only?

Blackman: The characters and locations are not necessarily indicative of our current direction. They're just placeholder.

The situations are again meant to solidify the concept of the Force unleashed. We fully expect you'll be doing everything shown in the pre-vis and more.

Ok, are you still with me? Are you hyped yet? Well you shouldn’t be. What we have here is a “target” video, of what the developers want to achieve. Not what they were able to do with the tools they created after they made this video, not actual working gameplay mechanics or charcters, not even a shred of evidence that this is remotely possible. Yes ladies and gentlemen what we have is exactly what we had before, our wild imaginations. Game companies are resorting to attempting to incite hype through teasing their customers imaginations. In some way’s it reminds me of the hamburger commercials for fast food chains such as McDonalds. Mouth watering images of a perfectly cooked and well girthed cheeseburger constructed with care and concern made just for you! The reality is dismal at best:

Lucas arts is not the first company to do this, or even the worst offender. I’ve picked on EA long enough so I’ll switch gears to one of my favorite publishers, who is guilty of the same tactic (scam?). Before the Xbox 360 launch, a few video’s caught my eye and really sold me on the system, one of which was Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. The video looked like in game footage, and it sure was pretty! The animation was flawless, and I heralded it as the future of gaming! Imagine my surprise when the hands on previews were, less than glowing. As it turns out, that amazing early footage was a “target” video aka a pre-vis. Awesome-town. Although the game did turn out alright,visually it never quite lived up to it’s initial showing. It’s an old tactic really, the bait and switch, but it’s only a matter of time before customers will recognize what’s going on. Budgets for videogames are not going down, and marketing guru’s still have a job to do on limited time, regardless isn’t it high time the industry stopped trying to cook an egg before it’s hatched?