10 Insane Lies Told On Video Game Box Art

These video game covers were lying to your face.

Mass Effect 3 Cover Lies
EA

At its best, video game marketing finds artful and intelligent ways to convince customers that an upcoming new game is worth spending their hard-earned money on.

But publishers and marketing firms often resort to more nefarious tactics to drive sales targets, such as straight-up lying to players in both trailers and gameplay footage.

And sometimes this deceit will extend even to the game's cover art itself.

While on one hand this upfront subterfuge makes a certain amount of sense - after all, it's what people will see when they enter a video game store - it also serves as a permanent record of publishers telling barefaced lies.

These 10 video games, most of them ultimately well received by critics and players alike, nevertheless came to market with some flat-out bulls**t on their covers.

Often this artwork was otherwise gorgeous and eye-catching, but somebody somewhere felt that they also needed to dispense with some blatant misinformation to try and shift a few more units.

In some instances the game was worth being fooled, while in others those at the top were clearly trying to polish a turd...

10. This Isn't What Booker Looks Like - BioShock Infinite

Mass Effect 3 Cover Lies
2K

The front cover for BioShock Infinite may look pretty neat on its own merits, focusing on seemingly badass, chisel-jawed, gun-totting protagonist Booker DeWitt.

However, once you play the game and get to see what Booker really looks like, it's clear something far more cynical was at play behind-the-scenes.

In the game itself, Booker looks considerably more "normal" - a pretty typical-looking man rather than the comparatively heightened hunk of testosterone that he appears to be on the front cover.

Though the cover doesn't fundamentally misrepresent the actual gameplay, it nevertheless feels like 2K wanted to appeal to edgy teens by making Booker look as tough and stylised as possible, while blatantly misrepresenting his actual design.

While it wasn't uncommon in decades past for cover art to be commissioned and completed before a game even went into full production, that excuse doesn't hold much water today.

Bioshock Infinite Booker
2K Games
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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.