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There's pulling the wool over players' eyes and then there's outright LYING. Jess McDonnell presents the times that developers tried to get away with it.
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00:00Whether from making grand announcements at massive gaming events, releasing eye-catching
00:04trailers, or showcasing demos with game-changing technology, developers have a handbook of
00:09methods at their disposal to get titles on the radars of potential players. However,
00:13it's important that audiences take these impressive-looking marketing campaigns with
00:17a large grain of salt, because there's a chance that what's being shown is too good to be true.
00:22Publishers have developed a sneaky habit of not being completely truthful about the games
00:26they're advertising. I'm Jess from WhatCulture, and here are 10 Video Games Sold on Lies.
00:32Number 10. Killzone 2. 2009. Fake E3 trailer.
00:36Game announcements are the developers' chance to show off their game on a massive stage to get
00:41people excited about it. Unfortunately, though, such announcements have a habit of being less than
00:46honest with audiences. One of the most infamous examples of this was the trailer for Killzone 2.
00:51During E3 2005, developers Guerrilla Games unveiled a trailer for their shooter sequel that would
00:56be released on the upcoming PlayStation 3. Made to look like actual gameplay, the footage showed a
01:02group of soldiers fighting their way through enemy forces. It was frantically paced, action-packed,
01:07and looked a little too good to be true, which is because it was. It turned out the footage wasn't
01:13running on the PlayStation 3 as claimed. Instead, it was a pre-rendered CGI trailer designed to look
01:18like a section of gameplay. After the lie was outed, the studio only made matters worse by doubling down
01:24on their misdirection, stating that the trailer was a, quote, target render for what they hoped
01:29the final game would look like. Although Killzone 2 was positively received when it launched in 2009,
01:35its main legacy was teaching audiences to take game reveals with a huge pinch of salt.
01:40Number 9. Brutal Legend. 2009. It was secretly an RTS.
01:45Featuring Jack Black, a selection of face-shredding heavy metal anthems, and a helping of star-studded
01:51cameos, Tim Schafer's Brutal Legend follows talented roadie Eddie Riggs as he's transported
01:56to a heavy metal-inspired fantasy world where he must fight against armies of demons. Publishers
02:01EA went all out on the marketing for this one, including organizing a world record attempt for
02:06most people playing air guitar at Download Music Festival. A demo was likewise released a month
02:12before the game hit shelves to give players a taste of what they could expect. What the demo
02:16and trailers showed was a third-person hack-and-slash game that turned up its metal aesthetic to the
02:21extreme whilst maintaining Double Fine's distinctive charm. Those who picked up Brutal Legend on release,
02:26however, would soon realize that EA wasn't completely clear about what the game was.
02:31After getting past where the demo ended, this title turned into a real-time strategy game,
02:36in which players would command their own forces to fend off the demon hordes to defend certain
02:41locations. Although Brutal Legend turned out to be a wonderful cult gem, it was nevertheless
02:46not what it was advertised to be. Being a gamer, you no doubt spend a lot of time online trying
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03:44Number 8. Rambo the Video Game 2014
03:48It's an on-rails shooter?
03:50Made famous on the big screen by Sylvester Stallone, John Rambo has since become one of the most iconic
03:56action heroes in cinema history. Given the explosive action of the Rambo franchise, it's strange to realise
04:01that the headband-wearing Muscle Man hasn't starred in many video games, aside from a handful of movie
04:07tie-ins. That seemed about to change when a trailer was released for Rambo the Video Game in 2013.
04:13Showing clips of the titular heroes stealthily taking out enemies with knives and arrows,
04:17in addition to bombastic action scenes, this looked like the Rambo game that everyone was waiting for.
04:22Those who picked up the game expecting an action game with stealth elements like the trailer advertised,
04:27however, would be massively disappointed on every level. Unlike what was marketed,
04:32Rambo the Video Game was an on-rails shooter, and a lousy one at that. What made this trailer
04:37that extra bit more deceptive was that it was edited in a misleading way. While the trailer did
04:42contain actual game footage, QuickTime prompts were removed from shots of stealth takedowns to
04:47hide the game's true nature. One day, 80s movie fans might get the Rambo game they deserve.
04:527. Grand Theft Auto The Trilogy Definitive Edition 2023 A Misleading Remaster
04:59The Grand Theft Auto series is the undisputed juggernaut of open-world games. Even before
05:05Rockstar all but overtook the industry with the unstoppable money-making machine that was GTA 5,
05:11the series cemented itself as one of the best thanks to GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas. Deeply
05:17cherished classics held highly by all who played them in the early 2000s, fans were eager to revisit
05:22these titles when Rockstar announced they'd be releasing this Holy Trinity in one complete
05:27package set to give each title a shiny new coat of paint alongside updated gameplay mechanics.
05:32Although the trilogy was never sold as a Resident Evil 2-style remake, the short trailer advertised
05:37that it would get an impressive visual makeover. However, while this was technically the case,
05:43with each game receiving a new lighting system and higher resolution, the release was far from
05:48being the definitive versions of these games. Alongside the dozens of glitches, typos,
05:53and atrocious rain effects, these revamped ports of the mobile versions lost a distinctive style
05:58of the originals because of the shoddy technical upgrades. San Andreas doesn't feel like the original
06:04game without the atmospheric orange haze covering the city.
06:076. Redfall Not the arcane experience that was promised
06:13Coming from the developers behind Dishonored, Prey, and Deathloop, there was no shortage of
06:17excitement surrounding the announcement of Arcane Austin's Redfall, even if it was unlike anything
06:22they'd done before. Much like their other games, Redfall was promised to put a focus on improvisation,
06:28by giving players the means to approach objectives from any angle they saw fit.
06:32This mission statement was reinforced by allowing press to get their hands on a mission which saw
06:37them infiltrating a creepy mansion and uncovering its secrets. From what fans saw, Redfall looked like
06:43it could deliver on its word, but the reality turned out to be completely different. In addition to the
06:48monstrous list of bugs that made the game borderline unplayable upon launch, the arcane style simply
06:54wasn't there. Aside from a handful of set-piece moments, the world and how players could navigate
06:58it was extremely one-note. Likewise, the promise of a 60fps performance mode was noticeably absent from
07:05the game upon launch. Number 5, Halo 5 Guardians, 2015. The campaign was nothing like the trailers.
07:12After the lackluster sequel that was Halo 4, fans of Microsoft's flagship shooter were hoping the
07:18series could get back on its feet for the next outing. And from the trailers for Halo 5 Guardians,
07:23it looked like that was exactly what was going to happen. The iconic Master Chief was being labeled
07:27as a traitor for unknown reasons, and it would be up to new character Spartan Locke to hunt him down.
07:32From the marketing, Halo 5 looked like it was going to turn the franchise on its head,
07:37by giving fans a vastly different portrayal of the series' protagonist, all of which would culminate
07:42in an epic showdown between the two Spartans. There was even the Hunt the Truth podcast,
07:46which suggested that the Chief's background was shadier than fans thought. Those who played the game,
07:51however, would soon learn that Guardians was nothing like what the marketing suggested. Chief's
07:56treachery was little more than him going AWOL, whereas Locke was tasked with just finding him.
08:00The pair's highly-anticipated climactic showdown was likewise a massive disappointment,
08:05with the battle itself lasting the length of a short cutscene.
08:094. Cyberpunk 2077 – 2020 – Fake Gameplay Demo
08:14Although Cyberpunk 2077 has come a long way from the abysmally broken state that it launched in,
08:20Setup Project Red nevertheless indulged in some shady tactics to market the game. First teased back in 2012,
08:26EAGA fans didn't get their first proper look at this dystopian RPG until 2018, when the developers
08:32released a substantial game demo that highlighted a section of gameplay elements in some early
08:37missions. However, the version that players eventually got their hands on omitted several
08:42key features that were highlighted in that demo, along with its accompanying trailer. Night City's
08:47subway couldn't be used, wall running was disappointingly absent, net running wasn't as ambitious in the
08:52final game, and that's only some of the changes that were made. It would come out later in a report
08:57by Jason Schreier that this demo was mostly faked. The developers hadn't finalized the gameplay
09:02systems for many of the showcased features, which is why they never made it into the final game.
09:07After years of patches and hot fixes, Cyberpunk is finally in the state it should have been at launch.
09:19Out of all the Star Wars games that have released over the decades, none have captured the hearts
09:24of fans quite like Knights of the Old Republic 2. The game has been released on different systems
09:29over the years, but it finally arrived on Nintendo Switch in June 2022. What was more exciting than the
09:35prospect of playing this classic RPG on the go was the promise that the Switch version would receive
09:39restored content as DLC after launch. This was a big deal because KOTOR 2 infamously launched
09:46Unfinished after its development was rushed, causing developers Obsidian to cut tons of content from
09:51the game. While fan mods have since restored this content on PC, having the complete game on console
09:57was something to get excited about. However, Aspyr, the studio in charge of the port, extinguished
10:02all hopes when they announced on social media that they were scrapping their plans for DLC a year
10:07after the game's launch. As a way of apologizing, the studio offered players their choice of a free
10:11Star Wars game from a list, including KOTOR 2 on PC. However, no free game was big enough to fill
10:17the disappointment of being left with an unfinished game… again.
10:212. No Man's Sky
10:24Everything Hello Games Said
10:26First revealed at the 2013 VGX Awards, No Man's Sky was touted as an unimaginably large space
10:33exploration game. Audiences quickly gravitated towards developers Hello Games' vision,
10:38consequently making the game one of the most anticipated releases at the time. A large reason
10:43for excitement surrounding the game was that it was pitched as infinite exploration within an
10:48infinite galaxy that'd be made up of over 18 quadrillion procedurally generated planets.
10:54In short, No Man's Sky was supposed to be a galactic-sized sandbox that would allow players to fully
10:59immerse themselves in the role of explorer. However, it didn't take long for it to become clear that No
11:04Man's Sky wasn't the feature-rich revolution in exploration games audiences were led to believe.
11:10For starters, footage from a leaked copy of the game revealed that reaching the center of the galaxy
11:14was not the epic quest it was supposed to be. Tales of encountering other players in the wild also
11:19proved to be nothing more than a complete fabrication on behalf of the studio to drive up hype.
11:24Despite its catastrophic start, Hello Games eventually realized their vision,
11:28following a series of massive updates. Now, many years later, No Man's Sky is a phenomenal game.
11:34Number 1. Warcraft 3 Reforged. 2020. So many missing features.
11:40Originally released in 2002, Warcraft 3 is regarded as one of the best strategy games ever made. It's
11:47therefore easy to understand why there was a tremendous amount of excitement when Blizzard announced
11:51that this adored sequel would be getting a fully-fledged remaster in the form of Warcraft 3 Reforged.
11:58With the trailer promising shiny new character models and animations, enhanced visuals for maps,
12:03and improved UI and world editors, this was said to be the definitive way to experience this title.
12:08Upon launch, however, it became clear that Blizzard weren't being fully honest about what Reforged would
12:13be. Accompanying the various glitches and bugs that plagued its launch, this remaster simply didn't
12:19include a lot of what it said it would. There were no improvements to cutscenes, no new voice acting,
12:24no dynamic camera, no new campaign, and the gameplay didn't receive any modern enhancements.
12:29Adding further insult to injury was an extensive list of features from the original game that were
12:34nowhere to be seen. While Reforged has received a handful of updates in the years since its disastrous
12:39launch that added some of the highly requested features, the game is still a long way from being what
12:44Blizzard promised fans.