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Trailer Park for the week of July 9th

Trailer Park for the week of July 9th

Written by Randy Kalista on 7/9/2007 for DS   PC   PS2   PS3   PSP   Wii   360  
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Gameplay trailers. Cinematic trailers. TV spot trailers. All are welcome in the Trailer Park. GamingNexus grabbed five game videos from the past week -- ones that caught our attention (be that good or bad) -- and turned a lite analytical lens onto them. We only looked at games with a future release date, and we only gave them letter grades because we're fresh out of scratch n' sniff stickers. This week's haul netted several sci-fi picks, and one embarrassing fantasy spot.

Space Station Tycoon 
Comedy duos are a rare commodity in the video gaming world, despite the measured success of some household pairings: Sam and Max, Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter. But Space Station Tycoon's effete Shawn and snarky Tam don't strike comedy gold together like the other legendary duets mentioned, since the 1950's-style announcer has to craft more than his fair share of the yuks. It's chuckle-worthy, sure, but that whoopee cushion you hear deflating is the sound of punchlines already falling flat. Rating: C

Section 8 Landing Teaser
I'm not sure whether to tighten or take off my Suspension of Disbelief Goggles when these exoskeleton-clad troopers hit the baked Earth at terminal velocity from a full-on stratospheric drop … and still not leave so much as a footprint at the point of impact. But, yes, Section 8 has at least piqued my interest. Rating: B- 

Empire Earth III Eternal Battle Trailer
These segues across the faces of combat accomplish everything that the Civilization Revolution trailers do not. That may be apples to oranges, considering that Sid Meier's is turn-based while Empire Earth III is real-time strategy. But for sheer adrenal potency (and we're just talking trailers here), witnessing how war never changes by spanning thousands of years in a 90-second duration has a stirring way of turning diplomacy into a non-point, and war into daunting but duty-bound path to a stark, gritty conquest. Rating: B+ 

Requital Gameplay Trailer
Dear Requital Developers: This … this was just a mistake. Sometimes a gameplay trailer is all that's needed to hit the spot. And sometimes a laughable narrator is all that's needed to botch everything up. It's not just his fake McGruff the Crime Dog voice. It's not just the warmed-over tripe of a leftover revenge story. Then again … yeah, it is. It's both of those things. Sincerely, GamingNexus. Rating:

BlackSite: Area 51 E3 2007 Trailer
It's turning into a race as to how many modern combat games (even ones with sci-fi spins) will use the words "war" and "home" in the same sentence. World in Conflict's tagline is "War is coming home." BlackSite's summation of this trailer is "This war followed me home." These won't be the last. But I have no qualms with rooting non-fiction into science fiction, as it lends a tentacle of authenticity to what would otherwise be a scene filled with your average soldiers shooting up your average aliens with your average arsenal readout. The memoir-tinged voiceover loans the protagonist a war-journaling, all-American charm. Rating: B- 

Pull in next week as we hitch up another load of videos in the Trailer Park.

* The product in this article was sent to us by the developer/company.


About Author

Randy gravitates toward anything open world, open ended, and open to interpretation. He prefers strategy over shooting, introspection over action, and stealth and survival over looting and grinding. He's been a gamer since 1982 and writing critically about video games for over 15 years. A few of his favorites are Skyrim, Elite Dangerous, and Red Dead Redemption. He lives with his wife and daughter in Oregon.

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