Star Wars: The Old Republic
Star Wars: The Old Republic’s cinematic trailer, called Deceived, is so good that it’s easy to forget you’re watching a trailer. While it doesn’t show off actual gameplay in any way, it’s still incredibly satisfying to watch, Star Wars fan or not. BioWare has always made compelling trailers for their games but Deceived just may the company’s best. It also has arguably the coolest lightsaber battle in all of Star Wars. Yeah, we said it!
Dead Island
The bar was set pretty high for all video game trailers when Dead Island made its announcement in 2011. It is, without question, one of the finest and most emotional trailers we’ve ever seen across any medium. The music is especially moving, and the slow realization of the little girl’s fate is haunting and tragic. The trailer was so successful that talks about a Dead Island movie started rolling out the very next day. Fans will most likely remember the trailer more than the actual game itself though. The game wasn’t bad by any means, but this was a case of a game not living up to the trailer’s hype.
Prey 2
It’s hard to look at this trailer and not wonder what things would’ve been like had Prey 2 never been tragically cancelled. While we did get a new Prey in 2017 from Arkane Studios, it wasn’t originally designed to be a Prey game until much later in its development. Even still, this trailer for Prey 2 — from original series developer Human Head Studios — that debuted at E3 in 2011 is an exciting slice of where the series was headed and what it could’ve been.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
A new Elder Scrolls game is an event celebrated all throughout the gaming industry. The reveal trailer for Skyrim is memorable in all the best ways: it’s legendary, epic, and incredibly hype-inducing. Even though it was expected, we still didn’t understand the scope of that game yet, as well as the unbelievable journeys and stories we were in store for. The 11/11/11 reveal at the very end is also memorable, just one of those release dates that perfectly lines up that adds to the hype.