• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

GameTrailers.com Ultimate Game Preview 2016 [69 mins total]

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
Split into 8 categories with a video per two categories.

Racing & Fighting with Daniel Bloodworth & Ben Moore
Featuring for example:
Gran Turismo Sport & Street Fighter V

Shooters & Underdogs (indies) with Michael Huber & Ian Hinck
Featuring for example:
Uncharted 4, Ratchet & Clank & Hyper Lift Drifter

Action & Adventure with Kyle Bosman & Brandon Jones
Featuring for example:
The Legend of Zelda & Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Role-Playing & Strategy with Matt Blair & Ben Moore
Featuring for example:
Dragon Quest VII
 

AAK

Member
For Honor is 2017. Tekken 7 console version does not have a release date or release period yet.

Also, I rarely see Bradley Ellis in these core GT content vids. Only see him in the talk shows.
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
Where the hell is Dark Souls 3?
Well maybe there is a RPG video after all. It's more a Ian Hinck & Huber kind of game.

Strategy + RPG or something as the last video because Dark Souls 3 and XCOM 2 being at least two games they are anticipating in the office, as far as I know.

Why is the dude on the right acting weird in the shooters and indies video?
That's the way he was born
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
I watched the Shooters and Indies video to give this a chance and within a minute it became super clear to me that these are not good videos. To be quick about what doesn't work: the hosts and the voiceover script don't add anything because most of what they're saying is just reading the premise of the game, and the audio isn't very good and it was clearly done in one take (lots of uhs and pauses). The times they weren't reading the premise they largely just mentioned that someone on their staff had played the game at some point. There doesn't seem to be any quality control in terms of the games they covered. Several of the games don't seem like they're actually 2016 releases, just games that got listed on some list somewhere as being 2016 with no connection to reality. Most of the video clips seemed to just be spliced together from trailer footage kinda willy-nilly (so the voiceover doesn't really have anything to do with what we're looking at)--the most notable example was Mafia III, where they were very clearly discussing the CG teaser for the game while we watched gameplay footage which had nothing to do with what they were saying. It seems like the approach a bad GAF poster who was crunked up on hype juice would take.

Kinda seems like the epitome of the YouTube generation of gaming content: just producing crap for the sake of producing crap, no effort into curating or coming up with something interesting to say.

I know this is old man screams at cloud stuff because everyone loves this personality-driven gaming coverage, but that's my honest take on it.
 

Burt

Member
I watched the Shooters and Indies video to give this a chance and within a minute it became super clear to me that these are not good videos. To be quick about what doesn't work: the hosts and the voiceover script don't add anything because most of what they're saying is just reading the premise of the game, and the audio isn't very good and it was clearly done in one take (lots of uhs and pauses). The times they weren't reading the premise they largely just mentioned that someone on their staff had played the game at some point. There doesn't seem to be any quality control in terms of the games they covered. Several of the games don't seem like they're actually 2016 releases, just games that got listed on some list somewhere as being 2016 with no connection to reality. Most of the video clips seemed to just be spliced together from trailer footage kinda willy-nilly (so the voiceover doesn't really have anything to do with what we're looking at)--the most notable example was Mafia III, where they were very clearly discussing the CG teaser for the game while we watched gameplay footage which had nothing to do with what they were saying. It seems like the approach a bad GAF poster who was crunked up on hype juice would take.

Kinda seems like the epitome of the YouTube generation of gaming content: just producing crap for the sake of producing crap, no effort into curating or coming up with something interesting to say.

I know this is old man screams at cloud stuff because everyone loves this personality-driven gaming coverage, but that's my honest take on it.


They usually do exactly what you're talking about with their reviews, previews, and lists. The overarching banner of "Ultimate Game Preview" can be misleading, I guess. It's more an inverse of that "games that might suck" list, as in these are the games that they're looking forward to and expect to cover, not detailed previews into the games within. If you watch the first one (racing and fighting), the first thing they do is talk about how they did the sort of thing that you're talking about last year and it was 'dry', as you would expect with a scripted video of this length hitting as many games as they cover.

To each his own, but if I'm going to watch video content about games, I'd rather hear a naturalistic conversation with all that entails than a dispassionate book report masquerading as a video. I'm with you about 98% of the time on personality-based video content, but Gametrailers is my one exception because they do a mix of the kind of content that you're talking about with the stuff like this where they don't pretend that what they're covering demands some incredible degree of sanctity.

But yeah, they're not their most finely honed videos, and you certainly picked the worst one to start with as someone who isn't familiar with them. 'Racing and Fighting' sounds closer to what you're looking for.

*ducks under flaming Mafia 3 car spinning into a mid-air explosion after being t-boned*
 
I'm just gonna say it, Ian Hinck gets on my nerves a bit. I like pretty much everyone else in the GT crew, but I don't get Ian's sense of humour and he looks stoned out of his gourd half the time.

Fantastic head of hair though.
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
I think all that criticism is fair. It's more a problem in general with doing videos before games are out but there hasn't been any new hands-on or even new footage that would generate new opinions.

This video is the equivalent of our "Most anticipated games" list. I've read many posts in the voting thread to get a general feel about what people thought and I don't think that would make for a great video in those cases either.

There is only so much anyone can say about upcoming games where the viewers had as much access as the presenter, especially in the case of GT where the deeper thoughts for the games were already shot around E3, GC, TGS or PGW.
 
I watched the Shooters and Indies video to give this a chance and within a minute it became super clear to me that these are not good videos. To be quick about what doesn't work: the hosts and the voiceover script don't add anything because most of what they're saying is just reading the premise of the game, and the audio isn't very good and it was clearly done in one take (lots of uhs and pauses). The times they weren't reading the premise they largely just mentioned that someone on their staff had played the game at some point. There doesn't seem to be any quality control in terms of the games they covered. Several of the games don't seem like they're actually 2016 releases, just games that got listed on some list somewhere as being 2016 with no connection to reality. Most of the video clips seemed to just be spliced together from trailer footage kinda willy-nilly (so the voiceover doesn't really have anything to do with what we're looking at)--the most notable example was Mafia III, where they were very clearly discussing the CG teaser for the game while we watched gameplay footage which had nothing to do with what they were saying. It seems like the approach a bad GAF poster who was crunked up on hype juice would take.

Kinda seems like the epitome of the YouTube generation of gaming content: just producing crap for the sake of producing crap, no effort into curating or coming up with something interesting to say.

I know this is old man screams at cloud stuff because everyone loves this personality-driven gaming coverage, but that's my honest take on it.

The answer to these perfectly valid criticism's? Time and money, something GT doesn't really have right now.
 

Mesoian

Member
I watched the Shooters and Indies video to give this a chance and within a minute it became super clear to me that these are not good videos. To be quick about what doesn't work: the hosts and the voiceover script don't add anything because most of what they're saying is just reading the premise of the game, and the audio isn't very good and it was clearly done in one take (lots of uhs and pauses). The times they weren't reading the premise they largely just mentioned that someone on their staff had played the game at some point. There doesn't seem to be any quality control in terms of the games they covered. Several of the games don't seem like they're actually 2016 releases, just games that got listed on some list somewhere as being 2016 with no connection to reality. Most of the video clips seemed to just be spliced together from trailer footage kinda willy-nilly (so the voiceover doesn't really have anything to do with what we're looking at)--the most notable example was Mafia III, where they were very clearly discussing the CG teaser for the game while we watched gameplay footage which had nothing to do with what they were saying. It seems like the approach a bad GAF poster who was crunked up on hype juice would take.

Kinda seems like the epitome of the YouTube generation of gaming content: just producing crap for the sake of producing crap, no effort into curating or coming up with something interesting to say.

I know this is old man screams at cloud stuff because everyone loves this personality-driven gaming coverage, but that's my honest take on it.

As someone who really likes most of GT's output, I agree with you fully.
 

Sesha

Member
I watched the Shooters and Indies video to give this a chance and within a minute it became super clear to me that these are not good videos. To be quick about what doesn't work: the hosts and the voiceover script don't add anything because most of what they're saying is just reading the premise of the game, and the audio isn't very good and it was clearly done in one take (lots of uhs and pauses). The times they weren't reading the premise they largely just mentioned that someone on their staff had played the game at some point. There doesn't seem to be any quality control in terms of the games they covered. Several of the games don't seem like they're actually 2016 releases, just games that got listed on some list somewhere as being 2016 with no connection to reality. Most of the video clips seemed to just be spliced together from trailer footage kinda willy-nilly (so the voiceover doesn't really have anything to do with what we're looking at)--the most notable example was Mafia III, where they were very clearly discussing the CG teaser for the game while we watched gameplay footage which had nothing to do with what they were saying. It seems like the approach a bad GAF poster who was crunked up on hype juice would take.

Kinda seems like the epitome of the YouTube generation of gaming content: just producing crap for the sake of producing crap, no effort into curating or coming up with something interesting to say.

I know this is old man screams at cloud stuff because everyone loves this personality-driven gaming coverage, but that's my honest take on it.

I've never watched this segment from GT before, but they mention in the first video that they usually script these but none of them wanted to do that this year. Seems to me none of them are passionate about this segment and that it might be something Defy Media has them do and that they're trying to kill it off, because usually their output is more focused than this.
 
I interpreted the beginning of the Action & Adventure video that this is the ultimate game preview video. (Meaning there isn't anything left.)

That was Kyle making a joke. RPG and Strategy coming later today, and THAT will be the final one, followed by Top 10 Anticipated on Friday and then Community Anticipated next Friday.
 

wmlk

Member
I watched the Shooters and Indies video to give this a chance and within a minute it became super clear to me that these are not good videos. To be quick about what doesn't work: the hosts and the voiceover script don't add anything because most of what they're saying is just reading the premise of the game, and the audio isn't very good and it was clearly done in one take (lots of uhs and pauses). The times they weren't reading the premise they largely just mentioned that someone on their staff had played the game at some point. There doesn't seem to be any quality control in terms of the games they covered. Several of the games don't seem like they're actually 2016 releases, just games that got listed on some list somewhere as being 2016 with no connection to reality. Most of the video clips seemed to just be spliced together from trailer footage kinda willy-nilly (so the voiceover doesn't really have anything to do with what we're looking at)--the most notable example was Mafia III, where they were very clearly discussing the CG teaser for the game while we watched gameplay footage which had nothing to do with what they were saying. It seems like the approach a bad GAF poster who was crunked up on hype juice would take.

Kinda seems like the epitome of the YouTube generation of gaming content: just producing crap for the sake of producing crap, no effort into curating or coming up with something interesting to say.

I know this is old man screams at cloud stuff because everyone loves this personality-driven gaming coverage, but that's my honest take on it.

They have a small team and this was rushed. They said this from the very beginning.

Not that it justifies bad content, but it is what it is. Look at their stellar Game of the Year videos and also their own personal takes. Here's Kyle Bosman's favourite games for instance. They don't have a lot of staff anymore. I generally find when GT produces their videos, they're excellent. They just also happen to have personality-driven content as well.
 
Whos in the RPG and Strategy one?

Ben and Matt Blair are doing RPG and Strategy.

And to address the criticisms, no we're not trying to kill it off, and no Defy doesn't tell us what kinds of things we have to make.

We've done Ultimate Game Preview for maybe 5 years now, and as someone mentioned, there's no revelations in the content if you've been following a specific game. They're basically a quick overview of what's to come in the year ahead. Because there's not really anything new to say, yes, some entries could be a chore to write. So this year, we decided it would be more enjoyable for us and for the viewers if we just shared our findings with each other on camera.

Again, we're not covering anything new here, so yeah you're going to hear what you already know and see trailers you've already seen, but it's a good opportunity to prep for the year, be reminded of some games you may have forgotten about, and maybe even hear about some others for the first time. I think you can see our interests and passion come out from time to time too. It sounds like most people prefer this setup, but definitely willing to listen to feedback.
 
For Honor is 2017. Tekken 7 console version does not have a release date or release period yet.

Also, I rarely see Bradley Ellis in these core GT content vids. Only see him in the talk shows.

Are we sure about For Honor?
 
Shooters & Underdogs (indies) with Michael Huber & Ian Hinck
Featuring for example:
Uncharted 4, Ratchet & Clank & Hyper Lift Drifter
How is Ian friends with the Hyper Light Drifter team? That's pretty rad. Also, he knows his indie games, a lot of those I'm also excited for. THUMPER is amazing to play. Kentucky Route Zero is the hypest shit. Can't wait for Quadrilateral Cowboy, will hunt that livestream. I loved NaissanceE and got to play Memory Of A Broken Dimension at EGX last year, so excited for it.

The only shooter from that list I'm super hyped about is Shadow Warrior 2. They really undersold what looks great about the sequel, specifically the open level design.
 
Most of the video clips seemed to just be spliced together from trailer footage kinda willy-nilly (so the voiceover doesn't really have anything to do with what we're looking at)--the most notable example was Mafia III, where they were very clearly discussing the CG teaser for the game while we watched gameplay footage which had nothing to do with what they were saying.

Where were they discussing the CG teaser? The dramatic shift in tone they're referring to is gameplay-oriented. Mafia 1 and 2 were more realistic and weren't about cars blowing up or high speed chases all willy nilly, but this one is more arcadey. And they show that in this video with the cars blowing up.
 
Outlast 2 is a shooter?

Also, interesting that there wasn't even a hint at a next COD or whether to expect a Battlefield game. I guess just because there's nothing to show?
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Dark Souls 3 suffering from the Bloodborne issue in peoples 2015 top picks: "Well I thought YOU were going to mention it?!!"

I also wish Ian wasn't so skittish about actually discussing videogames. Get over those inadequacies, people want to hear your opinion!
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
Updated the OP with that video.

I think this was discussion wise the best, even if it didn't have the most games I'm interested in. But hearing different perspectives on games I didn't think about for 2016 is alright.
 

Tankard

Member
Great videos.
I don't know if it's my lack of interest in the racing genre, but from here them talking about all sorts of games, the racing games seem really bad, i guess it will come down to the usual GT and Forza to move the needle. What about that racing game that made the kickstarter and a Gaffer is involved? That looked cool.
 

Philippo

Member
The RPG(&Strategy) video is great, always cool to see Ben so excited about JRPGs, although wished Bradley was there too.

Also come on Ben tell us your Original Sin
 
Top Bottom