The Hype: Everyone remembers the extraordinarily moving CGI teaser trailer for Dead Island, which showed the unfortunate zombification of a young girl on vacation. Gamers naturally strapped themselves in for a zombie game that was going to defy the norm, delivering the sort of character depth and emotional gravitas the genre isn't really known for. What Happened?: The end result was a passable but hugely underwhelming zombie game, completely bereft of the devastating emotion of the trailer because it didn't invest the player in its characters one bit, and took the typically flippant, cartoonish attitude to zombies that so many games do. Sure, it looked OK, but the missions were repetitive as all hell and there was very little motivation to persevere with the piecemeal mechanics all the way to the finish line some 20-ish hours later. Still, we can all blame ourselves for this one: buying into CGI trailers in the first place, which aren't necessarily at all indicative of the final product, is awfully naive, and hopefully everyone at least learned something from this one.
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.