The first thing to remember is that you can't really trust what marketers say. They get paid to make sure that their game is 1) Well-represented in the press, and 2) Given the best face possible, whether or not the game is actually any good. The chances that the PR team -- especially if it's an external company -- has actually played the game are slim. There just isn't enough time for them to do this, and it's unnecessary anyway. They can't say anything other than "This is a great game and you should buy it", so there's no need for hands-on experience.

This isn't to say that there haven't been some memorable advertisements in the past. Perhaps the most infamous was the black-on-red page for Daikatana that read "John Romero's about to make you his bitch." And as an engine to generate hype for his game, it worked almost too well. By the time the thing actually arrived, there was no way it could have actually lived up to its own press. In fact, many gamers took umbrage against the ad, and were ready with brickbats to soundly knock it about and give it a good thrashing, quite apart from the actual gameplay it held. Romero's been conspicuously quiet ever since.

But while the Daikatana debacle served as a great object lesson in how not to advertise a game, that hasn't really affected the process in any significant way. It's all about getting attention, and even negative attention can help shine a light on a product that might otherwise fly beneath the public's radar. Take Too Human, for example.