13 Flat Out Lies We Were Told Just To Sell A Video Game

10. Dead Island Is Emotional & Intelligent

The Lie: How could anyone forget that incredible teaser trailer for Dead Island, which depicts a non-linear sequence of a young girl being bitten by a zombie and hurled out of a window by her father? The use of intense music and superb visuals implied anything but an ordinary zombie game: it would be one with intelligence and characters who players would become attached to and feel for. The Truth: As Wired magazine commented upon the trailer's release, "everyone is hyped up about a short film, not the game itself", which turned out to be totally on the money, because in fact, Dead Island is an incredibly generic sandbox game with absolutely no emotional investment or critical thought required on the part of the player. The characters are hollow husks, the story is paper-thin, and it's just a very, very silly and dumb game. Tone is important when marketing any video game, and the ridiculous thing is that Dead Island would still have sold bucket-loads even if a trailer had been released which played fair and admitted it was just a zombie-bludgeoning simulator. Lesson learned: always be wary of CGI trailers for video games, because when have they ever been indicative of actual gameplay?