Parody is a difficult business. The difference between "good-bad" and something that is regular old bad sits on the edge of a knife, and it may be that demos and trailers for Bulletstorm don't always cleave to the correct side. I think the attempt to subvert the medium is fairly clear though: even the female lead pushes the envelope, ironically, because she looks sort of like a person would. I think that's the intent generally, though. There are many jokes at the expense of the industry, we tend to manufacture such jokes, but they rarely get a budget like this. It's interesting.
The notion that it is a boot aimed at gaming's breadbasket in only bolstered by their release of Duty Calls, a game "experience" that is genuinely funny. Work like that rarely holds up long-form, either because it's too one note or because the game which contains this payload suffers. Duty Calls is precisely the right length. I'm not sure when they had time to do this. I guess the game is gold, now; I imagine they're just chewing the walls, waiting for release.
The third noteworthy demo in the space of a week, Killzone is probably the one with the most meat - you could play it all weekend. Indeed, you may be playing it up until the moment it launches. It's a "beta," one of those "betas" that is indistinguishable from a final product. Killzone is too important to be shown at anything less than its advantage. It's a beta mostly so they can wipe your stats.
It still - still! - doesn't have online co-operative play, even though this is the year 2011. But while it may not have it in name, for the official campaign, you won't mind when you drop into a round of Operations mode. You may not even notice. You'll fly in on a landing craft in a non-interactive cinema, just as you would in the game proper, except now the entire squad with you has people's tags over their heads. This theme is maintained from objective to objective, honoring those who perform well with starring roles in cutscenes that maintain the round's momentum. We've seen this trick in marketing materials, clips that emphasize "you;re in the gaem," but somehow these clear manifestations of the system don't break immersion, they refine it. It's such a simple trick, but go get it. Watch how well it works.
(CW)TB out.
