As I'm up too early this Sunday, I thought it was an appropriate time for another Sunday OT post. Earlier this week I was thinking about my favorite video game commercials so I thought I'd share a few. As always, feel free to disagree and suggest your own. (But I'm right - don't forget.) So far I'm pretty unimpressed with what I've seen for the XBox One and I don't even remember if I've seen a PS4 commercial.
Let's start with one of my favorite - the Gears of War "Mad World" commercial. This was so unexpected for me and I can remember thinking at the time that I couldn't believe Microsoft would approve it. Gears of War is a great series, although I didn't get around to playing Judgement. If you really like the song, you can hear the entire thing here.
Next up is one that is so bat shit insane I can't believe it got approved as well. Sony had quite a few off the wall commercials, but this one pushes the limit. I suppose it succeeded in that I still remember it nearly twenty years later, but I can't see a parent watching this and thinking, "Yeah, I'll go buy my kid a PS2!"
Next up is the slightly NSWF (audio) commercial for Battlefield 3. This was the second Battlefield game I picked up and the one that got me hooked to the series. Unfortunately 4 fell flat for me a bit (I'm going to review it once I finish COD), but I absolutely love the imagery of this commercial.
As for funny commercials, the "Kevin Butler" series for Sony was incredible. I wanted to pick just one but I found this 8 minute montage of all his commercials and just sat through the entire thing. I can't do that for TED videos so that just tells you how great this campaign was. (Actually, this is not every commercial as I just remembered a few not in this collection.) Jerry Lambert (the actor behind Kevin Butler) is now in a Wendy's commercial which is just plain sad.
And finally - my number one - most favorite video game commercial of all time - Dead Island. The game was nowhere near as emotional as this commercial (see my review) but that doesn't make me like this commercial any less. The music, the shots, the emotional aspect of using a child, and the way it plays with time just makes this commercial brilliant.