Teaser Trailer Tuesday — Mirror’s Edge, Metal Gear Solid 4

Tue, May 6, 2008

We don’t normally show off trailers, though that’s something we’re planning to change in the weeks to come. But after witnessing the jaw-droppingly gorgeous first footage of Mirror’s Edge, and confronted with official Konami confirmation of Metal Gear Solid 4’s recent video bombshells, we just couldn’t bear to wait another minute before sharing them with you.

Hideo Kojima and his team are renowned for their incredibly cinematic games — the term “interactive movie” is carted about left and right — but in this writer’s honest opinion it is their trailers that are most masterful. Kojima has a history of teasing Metal Gear Solid series fans with trailers full of foreshadowing but with plenty of red herring as well… but even so we’d never seen anything quite like what was unveiled on the first of the month — a flashback, or a dream, of a simpler time.

It’s kind of like the “Assassin’s Solid” April Fools joke from a month ago — it even has the same smiling Kojima waiting at the end. But now, quotes from a Konami representative at the official PlayStation Blog indicate these ‘mysterious trailers’ aren’t to be taken lightly. Speaking first of Assassin’s Solid (bolding ours):

As many now know, this is in fact a trailer for MGS4, and reveals some of the incredible first few gameplay moments of the MGS4 itself.

If you had missed either, we thought we’d point them out here, as they both show off some substantial teasers for what awaits.

As a diehard MGS fan, I’d normally be pouring over HD copies of both videos with a fine-toothed comb to find out what… but I just can’t, because today I saw the Mirror’s Edge trailer, and I haven’t been able to look at anything else the same way since. I think I’m in love.

The film is so sleek, clean and refreshing that I feel like I’m writing a soap commercial every time I try to describe the way it has captured my heart. Through every word of Edge Magazine’s conceptual preview, I kept myself rational, reminding myself that plenty of games promise to be the next big thing, but few succeed. When the fansite On Mirror’s Edge released the first screenshots, I stayed skeptical… perhaps they were clever CG. But one “THE FOLLOWING IS ALL IN-GAME FOOTAGE” later, my skepticism fell away — and as the trailer brought those screenshots so vividly to life, all of the foolish hopes I’d locked away so carefully came rushing out.

I’d call the trailer “a breath of fresh air,” but somehow that just doesn’t cut it.