Say Hi To The WC3 Trailer (June 23, 2005)

ChrisReid

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
Last fall we mentioned a VHS tape with three hours of footage taped on the Wing Commander 3 set. There was a bit of a mix up, and the tape actually contained only a three minute trailer for WC3. The quality on it is quite nice however, so we've prepared a divx for people to check out. The file size of this high quality version is only twice that of the original low quality one, but it looks a whole lot better. Compression sure has improved. You can grab the 37 meg divx here. Today's three minute trailer is actually different from the five minute clip we've posted previously. If you were looking for a good reason to play Wing Commander 3 again, either of these videos should get you in the mood!




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On some computers, the sound will cut out if you fast forward ahead in media player. Just watching the video normally with a recent version of divx should be fine.

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Original update published on June 23, 2005
 
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You know Ive always thought that trailer was terrible, but I realise now even more that the compression was really kind on the graphics too.
Still, it was interesting.

Ed
 
It's gorgeous. If you thought it was terrible before, I don't much count on your ability to see its beauty when it's been cleaned up.
 
ChrisReid said:
It's gorgeous. If you thought it was terrible before, I don't much count on your ability to see its beauty when it's been cleaned up.
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gorgeous? How is it gorgeous? Its cool to see a trailer, but Ive watched many trailers and this one was put together very badly. It just feels like it was done really fast, and they just threw in a bunch of clips. I think the game is excellent, but the trailer makes me cringe.

Ed
 
I'm not some movie snob that can tell the difference between neoclassical cinematography or Augustan screenplay. The trailer starts out with mostly introductory stuff, shows how the war is going, shows a bunch of stuff become dire.. then sets you up as the person who has to make everything better. Works great for me.
 
I with Chris here... Although I'll admit it isn't a "perfect" trailer, It is certainly effective. Plus, it LOOKS freakin amazing compared to what is in the PC version. True that it clarity emphasizes the fakeness of some of it, but it also reeals detail lost in the compression. Plus, seeing some of those scenes half done was really neat, plus full size full color versions of the comm videos was really great too.

Anyone else have it play in a funny ratio? Looked like it was encoded with black bars at 16x9 instead of cropping to the apropriate ratio.
 
Yeah, it's probably a funny ratio since I cropped a bit of blackness off the sides and there was a VCR tracking line across the bottom that I cut out. I would have made it proper 16:9, but the in-game engine bits and the color comms were in 4:3.
 
What I meant was seeing it with high definition was interesting, and because its wing commander its still cool. But as a "trailer", I dont like it.

Ed
 
I understood that at least, but I really don't know what there is to be picky about in trailers. This one seems to do everything you need in a trailer.
 
ChrisReid said:
I understood that at least, but I really don't know what there is to be picky about in trailers. This one seems to do everything you need in a trailer.
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Making a good trailer is more than just putting a few clips next to each other. Watch the Wing 4 trailer. Watch the WCMove trailer. Heck, watch the Star Wars EP III trailer. Would it be the same if Lucas just put the main theme in there from beginning to end, and strung a few clips next to each other? No. There are good trailers and bad trailers, but this one wasnt done very well. It felt rushed. There were good scenes in there that certainly didnt feel as good when I watched them in the trailer - that shouldnt happen.

Ed
 
Edx said:
Making a good trailer is more than just putting a few clips next to each other. Watch the Wing 4 trailer. Watch the WCMove trailer. Heck, watch the Star Wars EP III trailer. Would it be the same if Lucas just put the main theme in there from beginning to end, and strung a few clips next to each other? No. There are good trailers and bad trailers, but this one wasnt done very well. It felt rushed. There were good scenes in there that certainly didnt feel as good when I watched them in the trailer - that shouldnt happen.
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I don't see how those "good" trailers you mention string scenes together and put them to music anybetter than the WC3 one. I already explained how the WC3 trailer has a good beginning, middle, end and leaves the player ready for more. The whole point of the trailer is to just tease around the story. If it actually gave away too much more, it'd be a bad trailer. And it'd be impossible for it to impart all the emotion of the actual scenes without hours of preceding setup.
 
I remember standing outside the Electronic Boutique (now: Gamestop Presents: EBXWorld!) at Lakeforest Mall (now: Gamestop Presents: Lakeforest Extreme Mall) for hours at a time and watching them loop this trailer on a TV set in the window.

Perhaps it doesn't have the cinematic je ne sais quoi of later sequences (or, apparently, *even* of multibillion dollar hypermovies)... but we should remember that it was among the very *first* FMV video game trailers ever.
 
I remember seeing this trailer in a shop(and had to travel 120 km by train just to watch it(14k4 modems and a phone bill plus i like traintrips) and being 100% "i want this"

Wing commander three probably was the biggest innovation in game history, what was before that? mantis?

I had thesame thing with the wc4 trailer, it got me exited, if you do not like it, it is just a matter of differences in taste..
 
Starkey said:
I don´t remember the scene with Thrahkath wearing a helmet... When did that happen in WC3?
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WC3 had character-specific comm VDU's -- so when you were talking to Thrakhath, you got a scene they'd shot of Thrakhath in his helmet.
 
I unfortunately cannot defend the composition of the trailer in regards to aesthetic quality; cutscenes quickly spliced together along with unfinished prelim recordings (Vaquero, Thrakhath, etc.), no real rhyme or reason with the progression of the trailer (what relevance does the Behemoth reference have in the beginning of the trailer?), and, well, a sense of detachment from the thing.
Now, I don't hold the creators of the trailer too responsible; it's obvious they were still selling a video game and not an interactive movie. But in regards to a cinematic trailer, this thing would have been spiked as soon as it came in the door.
 
Fortunately, it's not a cinematic trailer. The Wing Commander 4 trailer, on the other hand, did get played in theaters. The trailer here was used to promote the upcoming interactive movie in video game stores, and as many people have said, it captured them like no other game trailer ever had before.
 
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