But yeah, I totally agree that good music, dialog, and pvp fights are what really sell the game alot more than some guy in the background saying “the gallente are fighting the amarr, the amarr are fighting the minmatar” etc.. It sounds crummy. Even the dev interviews are more interesting than the in-game graphic scenes they have with non-realistic stuff going on.

However, having said that:

After reading EVE: The Empyrean Age, I was seriously impressed with the trailers for that expansion and to how they tied in with the story. Perhaps they could have been done with in-game footage, but as they were, I found them effective. I understand that was probably a small market segment that they didn’t need to market to.

Some of the Empyrean Age trailers would have been really dull and really hard to execute – if they’d used in-game footage (though I have to say suiciding ships bouncing off the station has a certain feel of slapstick comedy to it).

The 3HQC-6 system is just couple of jumps off what used to be my old home system in OR and I’ve been carebearing there more than I like to think of – I know it doesn’t quite look like it did in the trailer and I’m quite sure Planet 6 is still there as well – but I have to say seeing it explode in the trailer didn’t make me go “hey that’s not possible!” – if anything it made me go “oh cool”

So I’m not especially bothered about the “this is not possible to do in the game”-factor, especially if it’s used to tell a story. However my biggest gripe about this trailer is the very thin (or short) story in it – it didn’t really tell much, it was more of a new feature showcase.

And quite honestly, I find that EVE usually looks better than the CGI renders CCP have been mixing in lately. It’s sharper, and doesn’t suffer from Intensely Creative Camerawork, aka shakyvision.