Best Video Game Trailers of 2008

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A good video game trailer leaves you doubled over on the floor, panting with anticipation, chewing nervously on your wallet in hopes that $60 will magically emerge just in time for the game's release. Your pulse quickens, your eyes dilate, you pray that the little YouTube progress bubble doesn't catch up with the end of the red buffering line. Watching game trailers can be a pretty heady experience. A good video game trailer will make bad games look awesome, and awesome games look magnificent. Here are Paste's favorites of 2008.

RAGE
The studio behind Doom is still developing its buggy-racing, mutant-shooting action spectacular. With Fallout 3 having already perfected the Mad Max experience, it's a good thing there's enough post-apocalyptic fun to spread around. And the trailer gets extra points for having a cameo from Goonies character Sloth. If it's not him, it's his brother Quasimodo.

Brütal Legend

Tim Schafer, the lead designer on Psychonauts and Grim Fandango, has teamed up with Jack Black for this heavy-metal, head-rolling odyssey. Cartoon violence has never gone quite so far over the top, which probably has something to do with the corrupting influence of rock 'n' roll. Parents, consider yourself warned: no matter how desperately you beg for a turn, your brat won't turn over the controller. (In case you're slow on the uptake, he's fighting with an axe, which is also a nickname for an electric guitar.)

Mirror's Edge
Maybe I'm just a sucker for the game's theme song "Still Alive" by Lisa Miskovsky (buy the radio edit on iTunes and watch the playcount soar), but the Mirror's Edge trailer rocks me pretty hard.
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.
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.
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.
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!