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ort888 · Dec 19, 2005, 01:25 PM

The TV commercial for Call of Duty 2 for the Xbox 360 contains nothing but 30 seconds of computer generated cut-scene quality graphics showing people talking, getting blown up and the firefight that ensues.

I know a lot of game ads only feature scenes that appear in the cinematic cut scenes... but the problem here is that this exact scene does not appear in the game anywhere, It's not a cut-scene from the game, rather it is a 100% computer generated scenario that has nothing to do with the game and looks a lot better then the actual game.

Is this false advertising? Does anyone know how they are getting away with this? Is there a loophole I don't know about?

Dark Helmet · Dec 19, 2005, 01:27 PM

Do they write "not actual gameplay footage" on the bottom?

At any rate Sony was the master of this with Final Fantasy 10 years ago, I think it has just become the norm. To be fair at least what Sony showed were actual cut scenes.

starman · Dec 19, 2005, 01:38 PM

Yeah, I was going to say - Square did this with FF VII, just showed cutscenes and then you play the game and it's nothing but a bunch of text and polygons.

wallinbl · Dec 19, 2005, 01:41 PM

Is this your first game purchase? They've been doing this since the very beginning. Most boxes have screenshots of cut scenes. Print ads are the same way.

At least with the CoD2 ad, you can tell from watching it that there would be no practical way to control the action in the scene shown, so you can easily assume it to be a cut scene.

SpaceMonkey · Dec 19, 2005, 01:41 PM

Imagine the cutscenes they could have fabricated for Pong. Then you'd really feel ripped off!

Dark Helmet · Dec 19, 2005, 01:44 PM

Originally Posted by wallinbl

Most boxes have screenshots of cut scenes.

At one point, Nintendo told the truth...almost. I can't remember a motion blur.

ort888 · Dec 19, 2005, 01:51 PM

But it's not a cut-scene. The scene in the commercial NEVER appears in the game at all.

greenamp · Dec 19, 2005, 02:34 PM

Every game company advertises their games like this now.

starman · Dec 19, 2005, 02:40 PM

I don't think that Crash Bandicoot is actually a 6' guy dressed up in a bandicoot suit. /shrug

macaddict0001 · Dec 19, 2005, 03:09 PM

Originally Posted by Dark Helmet

Do they write "not actual gameplay footage" on the bottom?

Yeah but it gets cut off in the overscan/same colour as the background/so small that you would need an lcd tv to get the sharpness required to see it.

ghporter · Dec 19, 2005, 03:15 PM

I can remember a number of movies I've seen that had scenes in the trailers that didn't make the final cut of the movie. That's not considered false advertising, and I don't think a TV commercial with a cutscene that's not in the final game is either.

rjenkinson · Dec 19, 2005, 04:47 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

I can remember a number of movies I've seen that had scenes in the trailers that didn't make the final cut of the movie. That's not considered false advertising, and I don't think a TV commercial with a cutscene that's not in the final game is either.

or they'll show scenes that are in the movie out of order to market the film to different demographics.

-r.

ort888 · Dec 19, 2005, 05:02 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

I can remember a number of movies I've seen that had scenes in the trailers that didn't make the final cut of the movie. That's not considered false advertising, and I don't think a TV commercial with a cutscene that's not in the final game is either.

Well, there are some differences. The game in question, has no cut scenes at all. So what you have, is a fully animated near-pixar quality CGI render movie featuring spectacular action and visuals never seen in the game. You don't see anything even close in the final game. Cut-scene or in-game.

In a movie advertising, they don't make spectacular effects sequences just for trailers in order to make the movie look more interesting. If there are scenes in the trailers that are different, it's because trailers are cut much earlier then the final films, so stuff changes. The stuff that gets added isn't to make the movie look better then it actually is... it's usually just a matter of the scene being edited differently later. It's not deceptive so much as it just happens.

These game commercials would be more comparable to someone making a cheesy sci-fi flick with crappy effects and then hiring ILM to make the most spectacular trailer ever for the movie. A trailer full of giant explosions, millions of ships flying around and giant bugs and what not... when in reality, the movie features run of the mill, basic cable quality effects for the entire film and never has any of the scenes shown in the trailer.

It's the exact same thing.

ghporter · Dec 19, 2005, 05:32 PM

Originally Posted by ort888

Well, there are some differences. The game in question, has no cut scenes at all. So what you have, is a fully animated near-pixar quality CGI render movie featuring spectacular action and visuals never seen in the game. You don't see anything even close in the final game. Cut-scene or in-game.

In a movie advertising, they don't make spectacular effects sequences just for trailers in order to make the movie look more interesting. If there are scenes in the trailers that are different, it's because trailers are cut much earlier then the final films, so stuff changes. The stuff that gets added isn't to make the movie look better then it actually is... it's usually just a matter of the scene being edited differently later. It's not deceptive so much as it just happens.

These game commercials would be more comparable to someone making a cheesy sci-fi flick with crappy effects and then hiring ILM to make the most spectacular trailer ever for the movie. A trailer full of giant explosions, millions of ships flying around and giant bugs and what not... when in reality, the movie features run of the mill, basic cable quality effects for the entire film and never has any of the scenes shown in the trailer.

It's the exact same thing.

Are you saying that, on an XBox 360 (supposedly the wizard of game video) the game isn't rendered as well as the commercial's graphics? That's not the same thing I thought you were saying at all.

Hawkeye_a · Dec 19, 2005, 05:40 PM

Im sure there mustive been a disclaimer in super-tiny print "not actual game footage.....and actually has absolutely nothing to do with the final shipping product". if not, its false adertizing imo.