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GameSlice Daily Editorial

Week Ending October 25, 1999

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING EDITION
continued...

Unreal Tournament

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One question: What ever happened to that nice silver trophy that is supposed to be the icon for Unreal Tournament? Did Jazz Jackrabbit swipe it when no one was looking? Sure, the old ad for Unreal Tournament was getting pretty stale, but this hack-job of an ad just throws the campaign's cotinuity out the window. Just about the only thing right with this ad is the copious use of positive press quotes, which can never be a bad thing. At the same time, if you're only going to use press quotes, wouldn't it make sense to have some longer quotes which actually go into why Unreal Tournament is going to "shake up the gaming landscape"? Perhaps the worse quote-offense is the choice to rip-off Star Trek by using the PC Accelerator quote ("Resistance is futile.") as the heading. Funny? No. Lame? Yes. But my favorite part of this ad is the first screenshot in the top-left hand corner. It's always great to show a tiny screenshot of the interface where the words "Character Creation" end up being in .25 point Font. Unreal Tournament is a great game, but this ad has "last minute" written all over it. What happened?
Grade: D-
Interstate 82

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Although it seems like Interstate 82 has been in development for years, Activision is finally getting ready to release the sequel to its critically acclaimed 1997 action/adventure game. The final stage of the advertising campaign recently kicked into gear with this effective two-page spread that contains nice large screenshots, informative captions, a consistent theme, and even the neat trick of requiring the reader turn over the page to gander into the mirror. My only complaint? The last screenshot caption sneaks in the statement that Interstate 82 is "the highly anticipated sequel to one of the best PC games of all time." Although Interstate 76 was a great game, Activision's hyperbole in this instance goes just a tad too far, don't you think?
Grade: B
Your Comments?
Agree or disagree? I'd love to hear your opinion.
Next Week...
I'll be back with another Gist List.

Thanks for reading!

Geoff Keighley
Editor-in-Chief
GameSlice