7 Best Video Game Trailers of 2008

List of the Day

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4. Fallout 3

This teaser trailer damn near made me weep, mainly because I first saw it over a year before the game was scheduled for release. The contextual irony of the Ink Spots song lyrics made me chuckle and the slow reveal gave me goosebumps. Then when the Brotherhood of Steel solider turns and looks at you in the final moment, I almost wet my pants. Almost wetting your pants means the trailer has done its job with ruthless efficiency.

3. Dead Space

The trailer for a survival-horror game should leave you rummaging for your childhood blanky and a night light to plug in before you climb into bed. While Dead Space's Lullaby Teaser Trailer was incredibly effective with its spooky child-singing, the extra gameplay in the standard trailer packs extra punch. This game had atmosphere to spare. And you can feel it spilling over in the trailer.

2. Gears of War 2

The Ian McKellen-style voiceover reciting Alan Seeger's poem "I Have A Rendezvous With Death" combined with the drama of the subterranean battlefield—beautiful, grim, straightforward, effective. For a few brief seconds, this funner-than-fun action blockbuster feels like it has brains to match its brawn.

1. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

If I didn't have such an addictive gaming personality and trusted myself to dabble in MMORPGs, this trailer would have me asking, "World of Whatcraft?" Epic, sexy, stylish, exciting. I had so much fun watching the trailer, I found myself secretly pining for a feature-length version of this animated short. Instead the world will get another installment of Shrek. Burnish your Elven mythril chestplate and savor the fantasy flavor!