I’m by no means a serious gamer — with kids and a busy job and such, free-time comes at a premium. But, that doesn’t mean I don’t get seriously blown away occasionally by the craziness that is the gaming industry, as well as the increasingly amazing art direction. And beyond the actual games, even the whole ad/trailer space has somehow gotten really interesting and short-film-like in the last little while. And yes, the opportunity cost of watching some good trailers is way lower than that of staying up all night playing an actual game. The Xbox360 crowd, especially, has some really great ads. Couple highlights for the folks who live without game culture…

Kind of a classic at this point, here’s a game ad, for a shooter no less, that’s really more of a mood piece. Its all about the music, obviously, but someone over at the ad agency (McCann-Erickson San Francisco) had a pretty inspired idea here — focus on the game, yeah, but in a totally new way. Gears of War is the game.

Another interesting ad, though this time more of an interesting urban set piece with absolutely no connection to video games whatsoever. A good ad nonetheless.

And lastly, a trailer for Bioshock (which doesn’t appear to be at all suitable for playing with my toddler). Holy cow.

So, um, go out and buy yourself some video games and waste a bunch of time. Just tell yourself its “art”.

Lots of folks seem to like/respect it, and gosh darnit they should. Everyone’s great in it. The screenplay is amazing. But let’s be honest here about what puts it over the top — it’s the voice-over. I ain’t no film reviewer, though I have watched a lot of films in my day, so let’s just say Will Lyman is my hero for being in this. He helps it cross the line from being just another suburban dystopia thing (they’re fun, but come on), and makes it into a truly new work. And it ain’t just the irony, it’s the whole package (even though the touch-football sequence is riveting).

Anyhoo, rent it at your friendly local online non-Blockbuster DVD service. You could probably torrent it, but hey, we’re not kids anymore…