Sinan Kubba takes a look at six great video game trailers that blew him away - unfortunately the games themselves turned out to be blowouts. Be warned: Actual gameplay may vary.  

Assassin’s Creed

Let’s face it, whether you liked Assassin’s Creed or hated it, you have to applaud the power of the hype machine unleashed upon this title by Ubisoft. Incredibly, to date it’s sold over 8 million copies. That’s mind-blowing, especially considering how average a title it actually was. Remember the crazy spectrum of review scores it received, ranging from the suspiciously high early on to the cruelly low in rebuttal? Well, don’t be fooled; Assassin’s Creed was an okay game, not awful, but certainly nothing special. Yet I can remember watching this trailer and thinking the game was going to be the next coming of Jesus. Altair was the personification of badassery in this video, pulling off the kill with style and panache, before disappearing mystically into the background. Of course, the game turned out instead to be about climbing a lot of buildings, jumping off of them, and legging it from clueless guards ad nauseam. Oh, and flags. And yet it sold 8 million units, and that’s what an amazing trailer and a merciless ad campaign can do. Still, let’s be positive; there’s plenty of potential in the game’s concept and universe, and early trailers for Assassin’s Creed 2 have looked impressive. But fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...

Silent Hill 4: The Room

The above trailer for Silent Hill 4 displayed such superb directorship. It blended the jerky, uncomfortable flitterings of that famous video from The Ring, mixed with the erratic, haunting music, indistinct noises, and disturbing imagery that the series had made its name on. It came as no surprise that the fourth installment in Konami’s horror series received more attention than most from the press on the back of its phenomenal trailers. Expectation was high upon its release. And yet, in the words of our previews director Joseph DeLia, “it squandered its absolutely brilliant promise with repetitive level design and mediocre characters”. For others, it deviated too far from the norm for the series by dropping the trademark puzzles for more focus on combat. Others felt that despite all the creativity on show in the video, the game itself resorted to the cliché touches and features that felt dry by that time. Most would agree, though, that the game failed to live up to the expectations built upon its excellent, unforgettable trailer.