I imagine I needn't remind you all of the hilarious non-trailer debacle involving Activision and Terminal Reality'sThe Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. After all, it happened just a week ago. There was a whole thing with the footage looking really terrible, and then we found out the footage came from a demonstration of the game on IGN, but had been edited together by some mysterious "fan." Anyway, the moral of that story was that Survival Instinct really didn't look ready for prime time, regardless of who was doing the trailer editing. Art assets looked plasticky and cheap, screen tearing was everywhere, and the action seemed to shamble along at an utterly unremarkable pace. It looked more pre-alpha than pre-release.

Which makes today's news that The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct will release in late March for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and Wii U somewhat...perplexing? I guess?

The dates do at least hew toward the end of the month (as if that were any comfort). North American players will be able to see just what the hell this thing even is on March 26th, while Europeans will make similarly chilling discoveries on March 29th.

As if in tacit acknowledgement that the Internet at large hated what it saw of the game in that bootleg video, Activision released a new trailer to go alongside the announcement, albeit one that features zero gameplay footage. Instead, game and television show stars Norman Reedus and Michael Rooker find themselves suddenly staring at a camera, tasked with making some off-the-cuff remarks about how excited they are about this game. The results are perhaps as one might predict.

Sigh. I'm going to have to review this, aren't I?

I imagine I needn't remind you all of the hilarious non-trailer debacle involving Activision and Terminal Reality'sThe Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. After all, it happened just a week ago. There was a whole thing with the footage looking really terrible, and then we found out the footage came from a demonstration of the game on IGN, but had been edited together by some mysterious "fan." Anyway, the moral of that story was that Survival Instinct really didn't look ready for prime time, regardless of who was doing the trailer editing. Art assets looked plasticky and cheap, screen tearing was everywhere, and the action seemed to shamble along at an utterly unremarkable pace. It looked more pre-alpha than pre-release.

Which makes today's news that The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct will release in late March for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and Wii U somewhat...perplexing? I guess?

The dates do at least hew toward the end of the month (as if that were any comfort). North American players will be able to see just what the hell this thing even is on March 26th, while Europeans will make similarly chilling discoveries on March 29th.

As if in tacit acknowledgement that the Internet at large hated what it saw of the game in that bootleg video, Activision released a new trailer to go alongside the announcement, albeit one that features zero gameplay footage. Instead, game and television show stars Norman Reedus and Michael Rooker find themselves suddenly staring at a camera, tasked with making some off-the-cuff remarks about how excited they are about this game. The results are perhaps as one might predict.

Sigh. I'm going to have to review this, aren't I?

Really?

really

Just a cash opportunity without any artistic merit whatsoever. Disgraceful to the franchise.

You don't *have* to review it. I don't think there are really any expectations on this game so I'd be totally fine if the GB crew skipped it.

yes you are alex

yes you are

embrace it

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.

That new "trailer" is so desperate.

I sat here for a good two minutes trying to think of something witty to say, but I couldn't come up with anything, this game is going to be shit.

"We should release this as soon as possible in order to create confusion in the marketplace so we might capitalize on the positive buzz surrounding Telltale's Walking Dead game." - Some guy in an Activision marketing meeting

Man you should see their Facebook page. People are JAZZED about it, talking about pre-orders and shit and I'm trying to yell at em like "don't buy it, save your money!" Not getting through to people :(

I look forward to Alex's inevitable review.

Yikes.

Oh jeez. I am morbidly curious as to what the state of this game will be when it comes out. And this will be a 60 dollar release, I wager.

That new "trailer" is even more damning of the product if they can't even give us a five second CG cinematic.

Hahahaha!

"Merle and Daryl in a game. What can be better than that?"

Just about anything, Mr. Rooker.

Minecraft graphics don't look amazing, I guess it's just a cash grab game.

Just because this game has Activision attached to it everyone wants to hate on it. I'll wait until I play it before saying anything about it. I thought that video looked pretty cool gameplay wise.

Giant Bomb's Worst Game of 2013 Presented By Alex Navarro

Excited to see if this turns out worse than season two of the show!

the gameplay still looks better than hotline miami

Oh flip... That sucks.

@Draxyle said:

Oh jeez. I am morbidly curious as to what the state of this game will be when it comes out. And this will be a 60 dollar release, I wager.

According to Amazon.com, yeah, it's a $60 product.

It's still possible that the footage shown was actually very old and that this game is actually ready to be released in March.

And in response to the inevitable quote:

I said possible, not likely.

@RazielCuts said:

Giant Bomb's Worst Game of 2013 Presented By Alex Navarro

Exactly, they're looking like a lock for this category!

Way to capitalize on all the love The Walking Dead property has gotten lately, based on the success of the Telltale games. Just flush all that good will right down the shitter, Activision.

To be fair, Norman Reedus was talking about this game way before this. He seemed actually stoked about it on his twitter like a long while ago.

Oh wow that trailer was even worse than I imagined.

I'm laughing my ass off here

@jdh5153: Fuck that, this is the internet! We hate change yet hate it when things are similar to other things! How dare you wait to make a rational opinion of your own. For shame.

Is activision really so strapped for cash that it cant give the game a few more months for polish.

This just seems like a fire and forget strategy with minimal marketing push.

What a great trailer.

As for the review, you did this to yourself, Alex. Gave 5 stars to Telltale's Walking Dead so now things have to balance out.

Couldn't help but laugh when I saw this.

Compared to even the broken mess that Dead Island was, this looks real bad.

@RobertOrri said:

@Draxyle said:

Oh jeez. I am morbidly curious as to what the state of this game will be when it comes out. And this will be a 60 dollar release, I wager.

According to Amazon.com, yeah, it's a $60 product.

Jeebus. With half the effort of Telltale's 25$ product, I would guarantee.

Then again, this is the publisher that charged 40$ for the Angry Birds console trilogy. Activision has crazy ideas about market value.

Sounds like Activision are just trying to get it out before the end of the financial year to recoup as much cash as possible. Maybe they've written it off already.

Sigh. I'm going to have to review this, aren't I?

@Alex yep, please destroy this game in your review when it comes out. you write the best snarky reviews

Trailer sold me. WTF was this. Ugh.

If this game sells more copies than Talltales Walking Dead, can we all quit video games?

You can tell how much they care about the game when they put out a 15-second clip and can't even get the actors to fake any enthusiasm.

LOL .... yes this is Alex review material alright :P

@PoToSkull: If it does, it'll be a massive success. Telltale recently announced that they sold 8.5 million episodes, which means they almost sold 2 million full seasons.

Not gonna judge anything till the game is out.

But if I was a betting man...

@PoToSkull said:

If this game sells more copies than Talltales Walking Dead, can we all quit video games?

I'm in.

This is going to be TERRIBLE... and so fun to watch.

@Nardak: They just don't give a fuck. I seriously suspect they hope some poor housemother sees this and buys it to her teenage son because she thinks it's that cool zombiegame her son has been talking so much about. Or maybe they're just on drugs, who knows

Of course. Because it doesn't need to be good, it just has to make $$$. The target audience probably isn't 'gamers,' it's more likely 'television viewers who also play some games.' You know they'll advertise it as much as they did that facebook game too. (Which I never quite got around to trying myself. Can anyone tell me their opinion of it?)

Compared to even the broken mess that Dead Island was, this looks real bad.

lmao

@CharAznable said:

Way to capitalize on all the love The Walking Dead property has gotten lately, based on the success of the Telltale games. Just flush all that good will right down the shitter, Activision.

Little late there. This game was announced a bit back.