Shifty Geezer said:
I can see where he's coming from. It's another FPS. It's another WW game. Maybe it plays a zillion times better than all other war games and FPS, but on the pics and movies, there's nothing there to differentiate it. Which there wouldn't be.
People say this about RPGs as well. And Nintendo games. If your not a fan of a genre it is easy to say, "Meh! More of the same!" Outside very distinctive titles, either in regards to art or significant technological leaps that are a big step in quality (e.g. when a game like Doom 3 or Half Life 2 were first shown), in general games are fairly hard to distinguish from graphics alone.
But looking at the short BiA3 trailer, there are some similarities with CoD2. WWII FPS (which I consider a sub-genre of FPS), similar combat and combat setting, nice particles, etc Of course the scripting, audio, the AI, squad focused gameplay and directing of your squads stick out. But if you are not a FPS player you may just gloss over these completely.
I think what we are seeing is that people are almost demanding "cinematics" to sell them on the game. See: 1995 and FMV. Cinematics and FMV are nice, but they don't tell us about the elements in the game you play and control (but they are effective marketing tools). Then again 40 seconds of game footage doesn't either. It is a LOSE-LOSE situation for developers, but it seems even among informed gamers they are more easily impressed/excited by the former than the later. And I think the pedulem is swinging that way. The reaction to BiA3 among some furthers that.
The only good ways to get a good handle on a game is long gameplay movies, hands on reviews and press coverage, or better yet demos and personal hands on testing. But few console gamers can do that latter.
But in general, most games wont stick out, in their respective genres, with 40 seconds of gameplay. As a non-RPG fan I would have a hard time distinguishing between many RPG franchises, and I know why people make these sort of statements about Nintendo games (when in regards to content and gameplay they could not be more wrong). All perspective. I would not expect a non-FPS fan to get too excited about minor refinements and evolutionary steps in a long standing/fully evolved genre. I don't own BiA/2 or CoD/2, but I have played them and can see the differences. Just depends what your eye is drawn to.
Anyhow, BiA3 if it has great AI like the first two should be very, very good.