games that use fake (and usually better) graphics for ads

[pragmatic insanester]

i was scanning penny arcade today, and i noticed the bit on the madden '06 title. that's a pretty bullshit campaign right there. how often have these kind of things happened? i remember people talking about the NES Kid Nikki using the arcade's screenshots on the back, but that is about all i can recall. any other games that boasted screenshots or other types of insincere graphical advertisement?

[Emily]

Im pretty sure the "screenshots"on one of my INTV boxes are just illistrations....but I cant remember if thats the case.

[eightbitonline]

EA's been doing that for the last 3 "battlefield" games. not in print ads, but rather in teaser trailers. they'll use game engine to stage a sort of movie. usually it's from 3rd person (the game's an FPS) the camera's smooth (i.e.- obviously not taken from a player's perspective with the HUD off), and there are like 15 helicoptors in the sky (or some other processor-heavy gimmick that couldn't and doesn't ever happen in actual gameplay).

[Cav]

Those Fantastic Four and X-Men Legends commercials made them look like PlayStation 5 games.

I had to explain to my rather excited non-gaming/comic book reading friend that the actual X-Men game looked nothing like the commercial.

[fishsandwich]

I don't notice this much, but I've heard it happens a lot... I do recall many, many times where a multi-platform game will feature screenshots from the PC version (which are usually the best) and say in tiny, tiny letters "PC version pictured."

Got that all the time WAY back in the day... screenshots for the Colecovision of a game for everybody, including 2600, Intellivision, etc.

[davidbrit2]

Gran Turismo 4. Who's with me?

[Flack]

I don't notice this much, but I've heard it happens a lot... I do recall many, many times where a multi-platform game will feature screenshots from the PC version (which are usually the best) and say in tiny, tiny letters "PC version pictured."

Got that all the time WAY back in the day... screenshots for the Colecovision of a game for everybody, including 2600, Intellivision, etc.

Early games always used either the Commodore 64 or the arcade version of games. Later ones often used the Amiga. I don't think you could come up with a list because there were literally hundreds of them.

[rayearthknight]

i remember people talking about the NES Kid Nikki using the arcade's screenshots on the back,


Data East did that on ALL of thier NES games...I recall feeling aghast at the picture used for Breakthru!

FCI did the same thing for Dr. Chaos and Ultima: Exodus (they used screenshots from the FDS for Dr. C and the PC version for Ultima.

SNK for Athena and Victory Road

[Garry Silljo]

What about games where the ads made the game worse? I remember the print ad for the Genesis game "Deadly Moves". The graphics in the ad looked better than Atari but worse than NES. What were they thinking?

[davepesc]

I always loved the "Activision Speed Lines" on 2600 boxes.

[Cauterize]

Didnt FF8 advertise the game as if the FMVs were real gameplay or such!?

[Leroy]

NES Ghosts & Goblins used artcade screenshots. I think Gun.Smoke did too.

[Wavelflack]

Most (if not all) US Games / Vidtec titles have hand drawn "screenshots". I think some also incorporate the Activision speed blur as well.


I wonder if Activision Checkers has speed blur? You know they wanted to do it...

[njiska]

Didnt FF8 advertise the game as if the FMVs were real gameplay or such!?

Didn't every ad for a Final Fantasy game from VII and up use only CG in their commercials and print ads? With the possible exception of X-2 which did have one ad with a few breif clips of gameplay. Baten Kaitos also has the same problem. Even the box doesn't show gameplay. It's all CG.

At least with Madden '06 it was pretty obvious that it was a target video. In fact did EA ever claim that it was realtime? <insert cheap shot about Killzone>

Oh and here's hoping that PGR3 is real-time. We know they can do the backgrounds in real-time because they use a nifty trick of mapping photos and then adding virtual lighting surfaces in maya, but can they do it in realtime with the cars? Dear god i hope so.

[boatofcar]

NES Jaws.

On the flipside, there was a boxing game that came out for Colecovision that had graphics so good, the ad states "Real graphics-not artist's rendering!

[Brian_Provinciano]

Nowadays, they generally take high res digital caps, then scale them down and anti-alias them... making PS2 games look really damn good ;)

As for older games though, we can all remember how they would use the nice Amiga and Atari ST screen shots to show off dull EGA DOS games! The games were still fun, but I remember seeing how incredible the graphics looked in ads and on the box, only to be disappointed when I booted up the floppies!

[Yamazaki]

Command and Conquer 3 LOL

[rayearthknight]

NES Jaws.

Actually, that applies for ALL of LJN's games...including thier print ads. Anyone else remember the fluid look of The Karate Kid and T&C Surf Designs on the bullshot print ads (yes, I just read Penny-Arcade) only to end up with...with...well, TKK wasn't that bad...just not what was advertised.

[jajaja]

I remember when I bought a GBA way back. I looked at the screenshots back at the package and they looked really bright and colorful. When I first started playing I was disapointed because it didnt look like the screenshots (due to the poor background lighting). But now I got used to it and I love GBA :)

[robotriot]

The original Command & Conquer had some strange screenshots on the back, with graphics that couldn't be found in the game, although it looked pretty close to what the game was like ...

[Sosage]

Anyone remember the small controversy Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding caused? Here is a small mention.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amped

I can't find the screenshot (going to bed...kind of lazy). All I remember right now is everyone dissecting the cheesy placement of the lens flare in the preview shots.

[rbudrick]

The Legend of Kage for NES...damn, was I sourly disappointed it didn't look like the back of the box (arcade pics) when I got it home as a kid. I was so f'ing pissed.

-Rob

[Mr Mort]

Sega did that with VF2 on the Saturn.
The back of the box had screenshots from the arcade version, but as amazing as the Saturn version was, it was not arcade perfect...

[theoakwoody]

Well, since there was some mention of PC games I've got a perfect example. King's Quest V for PC has this picture of one of the islands in the game with a picture of Graham, the main character, who's about 6 times the size of the character in the game. He looks hand drawn and so I always wondered what the options I had to screw with to get that version of the game to run. Well, it just so happens that the founders of Sierra have a website where you can ask them questions. Well, here's the response I got.

http://www.sierragamers.com/bbs/BBSTopicPage.asp/t/4127

[junglehunter]

Anyone remember the small controversy Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding caused? Here is a small mention.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amped

I can't find the screenshot (going to bed...kind of lazy). All I remember right now is everyone dissecting the cheesy placement of the lens flare in the preview shots.
That was also done to a few of the racing titles that were released early on for the Xbox. I read a pretty funny article in Next Gen magazine about it. LOL

[Lord Contaminous]

Bionic Commando for NES is another example of that. In what looks like to be Area 1 there are enemies that carry shields but in reality don't show up til 3/4 of the game.

[Sosage]

I'm fairly confident this is one of the doctored screenshots:

http://www.clubic.com/actualite-2502-jeux-xbox-le-plein-de-nouvelles-photos-.html


Bionic Commando...

God damn it. You had to go and use the freakiest frame out of Suspiria as an avatar. I can't even look at your post without having the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.