The Worst Trailers of E3
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
The iconic Tomb Raider franchise got a makeover in 2013 and it worked out really well for gaming’s favorite adventurer. That, and 2015’s Rise of the Tomb Raider are both fun adventures filling the Uncharted shaped hole in our hearts with a heavier focus on action in a semi-open world. But Shadow of the Tomb Raider sort of just feels like more of the same, with a bit of polish. Where the Uncharted series had strong characters whose relationships felt integral to the story, everyone in the recent Tomb Raider games, including Lara herself, is just kinda…there, seemingly out of obligation. The studios have really been leaning on this idea of “watching Lara become who she’s destined to be,” but it’s just not very interesting, and the marketing for this sequel is no different. If Lara was destined to become Charlie Sheen in Platoon, then maybe it would translate better, but as it stands, it doesn’t feel like people are particularly interested in her adventures this time around.
Starfield
Hear me out! I know Bethesda fans are very protective of the publisher/developer, and understandably, they put on a great show this year and their games are second lives that a lot of people sink enough time into to master an instrument. I get it. But this trailer was super uninteresting, and doesn’t seem to have generated the hype that our boy Todd may have expected. The difference between this teaser and the one for Elder Scrolls VI, is that Elder Scrolls is a long-running, well-established, iconic franchise, and Todd has even gone on record saying that there’s some stuff to pick apart in the trailer, which fans were already doing anyways. Starfield’s teaser has….nothing, really. I’m sure the game will be great whenever we learn more about what it actually is, but until then, it’s hard to believe that this would really pique people’s interest too much.
The Quiet Man
I know I said “no particular order,” but this one is the worst, by far. Like, by lightyears. Square Enix’s entire presentation this year has been the laughing stock of E3, which is super unfortunate as fans were hoping to see Crystal Dynamic’s Avengers game, the Final Fantasy VII remake, or even the game they’re working on with People Can Fly. Instead, we got the most generic and uninteresting trailer in recent memory. Sure, it’ll be cool to see how a game where you play as a hearing-impaired protagonist plays out, but if the developer can’t raise interest in the title when it drops more info this August as promised at the end of the snoozefest trailer, it’ll be safe to assume this title will be cancelled sooner rather than later. Watch at your own risk, you can’t get this minute and seventeen seconds of your life back.
Did your picks make the list? Let us know in the comments and be sure to keep it locked to COGconnected for all the latest news and gameplay impressions coming out of the convention!