New Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway Trailer
The latest trailer for Gearbox Software's upcoming World War II shooter Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (PC, PS3, 360) discusses the game's emotional slant, said to come from its focus on individual soldiers instead of the overall war.
Hell's Highway is expected to arrive at some point in September.
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soggybagel
replyInsert obligatory "Soggybagel hates Brothers in Arms" post. Actually I'm going to give this game a shot, but something that I have always thought was completely ham-fisted, trite, and so fucking cheesy and fake was the "emotional" slant to the Brothers in Arms games. I mean its been a fucking joke. The slow motion cut scenes that focus on the "horror" of war where some guy you don't give two shits about starts freaking out about his dead comrade. Its all bunk.
The problem is in particular the emotional attatchment they try to create with the characters is not good. The game is not particularly good at making you care about the characters especially in previous editions where they could "die" but then next cut scene they are alive and well.
Now this game could be different, this could be a whole new experience that takes it to the next level. Just going off of old games at this point.-
Another problem that stunted the emotional levels of the game was the fact that every scenario in the game felt very controlled in the sense that environments had clear boundaries and it all felt very restricted thus killing some of the immersion factor.
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Fact of the matter is that it is a game. It is really hard for their core demographic (males 18-35ish) to get emotional about anything, let alone something that doesn't look or seem real.
The opening scene in Saving Private Ryan was extremely emotional because you see real human beings reenacting something that did happen. Real humans can convey real emotion.
When you read a book you create characters in your mind's eye and they can seem real to you. Through your imagination you are connected to them.
Video games such as this can try to convey emotion, but with lackluster voice acting, unrealistic animations (watch their mouths when they speak), lifeless eyes, etc. it makes it really easy to throw your squad in front of enemy bullet fire without thinking twice about it.
I applaud their attempt at adding emotion into a video game, but it is no easy task. One thing they do well where most other games fail is character development and story telling, even though a lot of it is kind of cheesy and predictable.
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I think you're full of it if you say males 18-35 can't get emotional. Have you seen the number of Help me with my girl problems posts here? Seriously though, I disagree completely. There are many games that have made me feel attached to the characters or been sad or dissapointed when one of them is killed.
I applaud their attempt at adding emotion, but I give them a wag of the finger because their attempt is terrible. Metal Gear Solid 4 has shown what you can do and do I expect that level of production on every game?? No, but I know a lot of people here also thought ICO was very beautiful/emotional.
I'm looking for more than the generic war is hell hammy ass shit. -
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Very fucking agreed. I tried playing the first one, but the ramming-down-your-throat sentimental post-Spielberg Hollywood war treatment made me puke. Just the intro background, the font and the accompanying score were too much to stand.
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Of course, it didn't help that I didn't like the gameplay either.
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