New Iron Man trailer is creeping us out

by Justin McElroy { Apr 9th 2008 at 10:00AM }

After watching the above trailer we were thrilled, because we figured a hilarious joke about Iron Man and the Un-can-ny Valley was well within our grasp. You know, because cans are metal and Iron Man, he's ... well, the short version is that we stared at the keyboard for minutes and nothing came. Honestly, looking at it now, we're not all that surprised.

But hey, we figured, we already had it embedded and everything, so we might as well pass it along with our (not as hilarious) response. This old video: Good. This new video: Creepy.

Tags: Iron-Man, sega

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

theturtle363 @ Apr 9th 2008 10:04AM

The faces look good but the clothes still look too fake to say that we've taken a dive into the valley

Ghen @ Apr 9th 2008 1:32PM

Not for me, I'm part of the camp that thinks the uncanny valley doesn't exist and everyone who says it does is either 1) looking at poor examples or 2) fooling themselves to perpetuate a meme.

This video looks like a great next step in facial and body structure realism in a video game cutscene. Maybe, just maybe this will be as good a movie tie-in as Escape from Butcher Bay was.

bigsofty @ Apr 9th 2008 5:16PM

GAMETRAILERS LAG OUTSIDE THE US

Sir Fidlious Wong (Zeon Defense Force) @ Apr 9th 2008 10:06AM

If you can't say something nice....

set a hobo on fire and dance around his flailing body.

theturtle363 @ Apr 9th 2008 10:19AM

I like that idea, i like it a lot

brandon_r87 : Brawl : 4897-5857-5091 @ Apr 9th 2008 10:06AM

Yeah, honestly the faces look fine to me except once a guy looks a bit off. The problem I saw was that many gestures didn't look natural. Really though, I wouldn't say they are in Uncanny Valley.

knight666 @ Apr 9th 2008 11:25AM

It's their eyes man.

THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME.

fischju @ Apr 9th 2008 1:23PM

It looks a lot like Mass Effect to me, but finally we have the next generation graphics that we were promised.

brandon_r87 : Brawl : 4897-5857-5091 @ Apr 9th 2008 4:25PM

While the people aren't in Uncanny Valley, in my opinion anyway, they're not perfect. I'm waiting on that new mocap method for faces shown here a while back. That looked amazing.

Grumpyzrp @ Apr 9th 2008 10:15AM

the games looks pretty fun... :D thats all that matters

Darren Tilley @ Apr 9th 2008 10:20AM

It's bad enough that gamers have adopted the term Uncanny Valley to describe video game graphics instead of robots. But are we now bastardizing the term to describe just plain crappy graphics and animation?

NATO_Duke @ Apr 9th 2008 10:42AM

The Uncanny Valley hypo is pretty interesting, and I think that it does apply in situations like this.

The game characters are rathere robotic in appearance, and instead of looking life-like, they are right at that point where they bring about discomfort. I don't think its an issue of bad graphics - but rather an issue of digital robotics that just doesn't quite hit the mark as being human looking.

In gaming they say the holy grail is the character that can give emotional cues that can gain emotional responses from users. To do that you have to make them as near human as you can. So, the Uncanny Valley effect seems to be something that would happen when you fail to reach the mark, but edge closer to it.

Darren Tilley @ Apr 9th 2008 10:50AM

NATO_Duke, I totally agree with what you are saying. I'm not as opposed to using the term to describe gaming as I may have implied, but this particular game approaches nowhere near the valley. It looks like they were trying to find the valley, but took a wrong turn somewhere around blandville.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Zeon Defense Force) @ Apr 9th 2008 12:35PM

No.... THIS is beyond uncanny valley...

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=121&t=532817&highlight=human+skin

Ghen @ Apr 9th 2008 1:40PM

Sir Fidlious Wong:

Holy
Shit

Shmil (Brawl Code 2621-2310-1994) @ Apr 9th 2008 10:21AM

The cut-scenes remind me of every other movie-to-game game but with the standard generation's graphics, so that has me scared. The quick bits of gameplay footage is what entices me. This will have to be a rental.

Double J @ Apr 9th 2008 10:32AM

T for Teen with an alcohol reference? In Iron Man?! Consider me floored.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Zeon Defense Force) @ Apr 9th 2008 10:41AM

I was personally offended when I played a Daredevil game long ago with graphics....

ThePremierAssassin @ Apr 9th 2008 11:24AM

Oh God I thought it was just me...was it just a misspelling or something?

I thought I was in a James Bond preview...Pussy Galore's cousin or something...

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ Apr 9th 2008 10:33AM

They should really change the font: I just read "Virginia" as "Vagina".

Shmil (Brawl Code 2621-2310-1994) @ Apr 9th 2008 11:06AM

I'm glad i wasn't the only one

GRT @ Apr 9th 2008 12:18PM

Me too.

PojoMofo @ Apr 9th 2008 10:41AM

Man, C3PO 2.0 is a BIG upgrade

Kassu @ Apr 9th 2008 10:58AM

They all sure move like they were made of iron...

LongshotX @ Apr 9th 2008 11:18AM

When I saw the girl named Virginia I immediately thought it said Vagina.

PojoMofo @ Apr 9th 2008 11:21AM

Which is a WAY better name IMO

chaos3346 @ Apr 9th 2008 11:26AM

It's not uncanny.

Just... awkward.

Mr.ESC @ Apr 9th 2008 11:38AM

The graphics are okay but the gameplay is what matters.

ScallionN @ Apr 9th 2008 11:47AM

The only thing that freaked me out was the black military guy...he looked way too much like Cuba Gooding Jr.

Easo @ Apr 10th 2008 1:33AM

terrence howard

eldee @ Apr 9th 2008 12:08PM

anybody else notice how they always end their trailers with that knee-landing-one-arm-pointing-back thing? heh...

Duke 2 @ Apr 9th 2008 12:16PM

Geez! When are they going to make games that actually use more than 50% of the real potential built into the latest gen consoles?

That's why I simply don't see the next gen consoles coming out anytime soon. Why with all the sloppy, half-ass content being puked out to the masses at $60 a pop? Seems as though the software is either still chasing hardware capabilities or is simply too lazy to invest the development time for content worth getting excited about. Much like the uninspired, risk averse movie studios of late, there's this sweat-shop mentality some of the game developers have taken at the detriment of the overall quality of the stuff we play.

It's really a sad statement. I'm actually really looking forward to Ironman- the movie. But the game? meh...

The day game developer execs take a long term, strategic view on what it REALLY takes to differentiate themselves from the pack, will be the day when budgets aren't the 'end-all', developing a true story line and taking the TIME to really tap the potential of the PS3 / XBox hardware will pay off in spades. The first company who takes that more risky road will find the investment will come back to them exponentially. Until then, they churn out mediocre graphics and blah gameplay hiding behind brilliantly produced embedded FMV eye candy which serves only as sour reminder of what the game could have been if they really went to town and produced a kick-ass game.

I for one, am being much more selective as to which games I'll actually buy these days. Wish more of us would, because right now there's just not the incentive out there to raise the level of gaming in terms of content, storyline and gameplay. They're making millions with the pathetic business model of short budgeted, compressed timeline projects, unapologetically shortened games (a horrible trend) followed by releasing uninspired maps and other DLC at a price.

Come on guys. Take an example of how a game should be developed (like Bioshock), and kick it up a notch or risk having these $600 consoles being kicked aside for the good ole' PC- :)

Sir Fidlious Wong (Zeon Defense Force) @ Apr 9th 2008 12:47PM

Yay!

-Bioshock was the creation of a multiyear project. As in 3 1/2 as far as I've heard. Most license titles have, at most, two. And they have to constantly fix or adjust things on the fly as the license changes through progressions. In other words, the love and car you demand to be put in games is not in the budget for a title like this.

-Many older games were longer because of two things, repitition of content and lack of ability to save or continue. The original Dragon Quest was about an eight hour game. Contra is an 18 minute game. Castlevania? Try 50 minutes. With your game length rant, you're demanding something we've never had.

-David Jaffe said, in regards to God of Wars length (which is double the length of Resident Evil), "I think it's more important to deliver five straight hours of gameplay you enjoy the entire time than 15 straight hours with only five hours you enjoy." This is important to me, because my gaming time is limited and when I'm stuck grinding in sme area or doing boring nonesense, I tend to drop the game rather than go through artificial lengthening bullshit just to keep the 14 year olds from crying. If an eight hour game is fun for that entire eight hours, I see no problem.

-Is that the same citadel? It is?!? Damn... oh well, good thing this game is 100 hours so I can constantly keep seeing the same shit but I have that finite time to play. This isn't boring and repetitious at all. In fact, The Library in Halo was pure pacing genuis. Or the exact opposite. in fact, I'm going with the opposite. Because everytime a developer tries to stretch out a game, it's purely by repeating areas over and over again. So fuck that.

-Maybe you should run back to PC gaming, sweetheart. Because it's just as bad there.

Joe Smith @ Apr 9th 2008 12:16PM

Let's see:
A game based on a super-hero movie -- check.
Being published by Sega -- check.
Lot's of cinematics and strong tie-ins to the movie -- check.

Add them up and you get... a complete turkey of a game.

If anyone gets all excited about this one and then is horribly disappointed, they deserve what they get. Rule of thumb on ALL movie-based games (especially when Sega is involved) RENT FIRST.

Oh yea -- will someone PLEASE make game developers start learning something about acting, movement, and staging of scenes? Most games are about as high quality in those departments as my kid's grade school plays.

GRT @ Apr 9th 2008 12:20PM

Why did the narrator have an accent, but the in-game Tony Stark character didn't? Wasn't Robert Downey (sp?) willing to do the narration too?

Another forgettable game.

AcidMonkey @ Apr 9th 2008 12:34PM

Yup. I'll definitely download the demo if there is one, but the gameplay looks like SO much fun... and if that's the case, I won't be bothered much by the cinematics. If it's good, like the first Spiderman game on PS1, I'll buy it gladly. And now we play the waiting game.

Deaddy @ Apr 9th 2008 1:14PM

Damn, the graphics aren't bad but that wasn't RDJ's voice. That was the worst part. I thought the faces looked close to the real actors, which is great. The old guy yinsen looked particularly good. Maybe because I'm not familiar with the actor.

Freelance @ Apr 9th 2008 1:48PM

Wow, from at first look and th eexpression on his face I was sure old Robbie was cooking himself up a crack rock.

Mike @ Apr 9th 2008 2:21PM

urgh.. that's bad .. real bad. Not surprising.. to easy to pick on movie tie in video games hehe..

nmezib @ Apr 9th 2008 4:23PM

is it just me, or did anyone else read "Virginia 'Pepper' Potts" as "VIAGINIA 'Pepper' Potts?"

Maybe I can't read, maybe it's the font, or the embedded video resolution... or maybe it's because I have a hard-on for a plastic-faced, stiff-walking digitalized Gwenyth Paltrow? The world may never know.