I’m a bit disappointed. I’ve just got the game Prototype for my Xbox. And I’m disappointed. Not in the game, the actual game rocks like nothing I’ve played in a long time. No, I’m annoyed because according to Eurogamer, there were some real adverts for Nokia in the game (sort of like real world advertising, similar to GTA IV’s fake phones, only with real, actual handsets), and after playing it solidly for about 8 hours, I haven’t seen one.
What I have seen, though, is an advert for something called Dualize, which I suspect isn’t a real product in the slightest, and this is the bit that’s annoyed me even more.
There’s a phone on those fake billboards.
And I can’t work out exactly what phone it reminds me of.
That is annoying…
It looks a bit like it’s based on a Nokia (but one of their early slidy ones, not something like the Nokia N97), but I have a radical theory. The banner is for something called Dualize (and I wish I could’ve screenshotted it), which, if you stretch your imagination a bit, could be a reference to the network Three. And then it hit me, where I reckon I’ve seen the design before. It’s almost a dead ringer for the INQ1 Facebook phone that they sell, with a bit of Nokia glued on around the nav-keys.
However, for anyone who’s played Prototype (yes, I know it wasn’t supposed to be out till today, but the place I bought it from sent my copy early)… if you can pinpoint what you reckon the phone in the Dualize banner’s based on, then leave us a comment.
Now, on to the game itself. It’s had a smattering of reviews, and some of them have been a bit mediocre. Yes, I can see why reviewers are saying the graphics aren’t up to speed, because some of the textures are a bit drab and lifeless. But that’s not the point. The point of Prototype isn’t to be relentlessly pretty, the point is to let you brutally mangle everything that you come up against. Set in the middle of some kind of massive zombie flu outbreak on Manhattan island, you play Alex Mercer, a man who’s lost his memory but somehow gained shapeshifting abilities, the ability to turn yourself in lots of pointy or bludgeony weapons, and generally eat everyone around you.
The point, then, isn’t about having super-slick, top-end graphics, it’s about mincing everyone around you, military, zombie, mutant and innocent bystander alike, into tiny, itty, bitty chunks. Oh, and punching tanks to death. If ever there was a game destined to have an 18 rating it’s this’n…
And it rocks, most assuredly. The only downside? It’s made finding a picture of it for this blog post (i.e. one without lots of graphic violence) really hard to find…
It’s just a shame there’s no real phone advertising in there. Especially on PS3. That would’ve been a great way to push the new Sony Ericsson Aino, ‘cos, like, you can use that phone to control your PS3.
Imagine watching footage from Prototype on your Aino, where the character is looking at something on his Aino.
That’s enough post-modernism to break anyone’s brain…
[EDIT: Damn. I should've played through more of the game before I wrote this post, since there is a real phone in it, handled by Alex Mercer himself, and when he slings it towards the camera in disgust, you can clearly see it's supposed to be a Nokia 6120. So, turns out Nokia maybe did get a bit of actual product placement in there! Of course, Sony may get a bit peeved seeing a Nokia phone in a game on their system, but that's their own fault, they should've got Sony Ericsson in there quicker.]
Can you pinpoint exactly what the phone adverts in Prototype are based on? Leave us a comment and have your say!
June 26th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
I’ve seen Alex using a phone – later in the game when the missions start by a phone booth Alex uses a Nokia 6120 – I recognized the design when Alex dropped the phone on the ground in the cutscene…
June 26th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Yep, you’re absolutely right. Like I say, that’ll teach me to write blog post before I’ve played the whole game!
Good game, though, innit!