Say what you want about The Quiet Man (and we've already said plenty here at 12DOVE), but it knows how to take a punch. After being critically lambasted by press and players alike last month, Square Enix has released an accolades trailer for its action-adventure trainwreck, starring a deaf protagonist who talks with his hands in more ways than one.
Normally, an accolades trailer is reserved for the games who have earned, well, accolades, such as this recently released one for Red Dead Redemption 2. But, true to Square's bizarre PR strategy for the game, The Quiet Man happily welcomes the worst, most damning quotes from its reviews and internet comments, slapping them across the screen as though they're a point of pride.
We can assume one of two things about the purpose behind this trailer. Either Square Enix is finally willing to recognise it messed up with The Quiet Man, and is now heartily joining in on the joke. Or, and I'm hoping this isn't the case, the developer is retroactively pretending as though it always intended to make a game this dumbfounding and controversial, and the negative response is exactly what it expected from the launch.
There are actually a few positive quotes hidden among the overwhelming amount of bad ones in the trailer, after all, so it's not impossible that Square Enix is still trying to dig itself out of a hole. Good luck with that. In any case, the trailer is pretty entertaining viewing regardless of the underlying intentions, so we recommend giving it a watch even if you never want anything to do with The Quiet Man ever again.
Now that we can stop talking about one of this year's worst releases, let's lighten things up a bit with the best games of 2018.
