There have been a lot of things over the years that I would consider come with “pimped up advertising”; a little example of this is something that I saw on Steam this morning when I started it up.

This image basically gives the feel that the game is going to be cool, perhaps almost Tron like. I was expecting first person action or something. I clicked it and it took my to the games page.

The game is quite different from what the advert portrays. It’s a top down strategy game. Very rarely will you ever find me playing a game like this. I think the last one was the original Age of Empires.

As you could imagine I am very disappointed by this. Although I didn’t intend to buy the game, I was expecting much more, something that would whet my appetite for the type of games I prefer; first person shooters.

Unfortunately this is not the only game out there that seems to be employing this tactic. One game that came out not so long ago that really got to me was Kane and Lynch 2. Not a single bit of actual game-play footage was used to make the video. What was the point?

My guess why game developers do this, is because they want to make the game look better than it actually is – to draw potential buyers in on a false pretense! They get the customers money, but the gamer doesn’t get what was advertised!

Another good example of this is Halo 4. There is no actual game-play footage in the trailer what so ever. Check it out for yourself.

If a movie was released with no footage from the movie in question, wouldn’t people start to question this? They would head to cinemas expecting to find one of the best films ever made about to be played, then it starts. It’s a guy talking about sleeping, for 4 hours! Come on!

False advertising or advertising a product by showing something else ( which, essentially is the same thing! ) really annoys me and should be banned. What are your thoughts on the matter?