Shia LaBeouf plays a sexy, sharpshooting stranger in the new live-action trailer for “Black Friday IV,” due out Nov. 7 for PlayStation and XBox.
The minute-long trailer, set in the post-Thanksgiving Day ruins of a large retail outlet, features a group of disheveled women battling to escape with their purchases intact as Frank Sinatra’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” plays over a background of gunfire and explosions.
RIGHT: LaBeouf Black Friday IV promo. (Graphics appear courtesy of Michael J. Carlucci.) CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE.
LaBeouf appears near the 35-second mark as a handsome gun-toting stranger who saves the day for one lucky young shopper who nearly gets Tased by store security. He is the first male celebrity to get a shot at a coveted “Black Friday” spot.
Warner Bros. made the decision to use LaBeouf in a live-action ad to help “bring the game to life.” The video game’s creators pride themselves on player immersion, and “Black Friday IV” is intense. The game offers several new gameplay features including Pepper Spray, 4 Player Tag-Team, Blue Light Challenge Mode, and Queen of the Clearance Rack.
“Random Shooter,” notably absent from “Black Friday III” last November, marks his return to the game, but he will be even more emotionally unstable than in previous versions. Mel Gibson will continue to voice the Shooter character.
“It’s a more immersive experience to play the game now, thanks to advanced audio and video animation that really pulls the gamer in,” said senior producer John Price.
“For example, we’ve introduced aggressive new security guards armed with Tasers, and a cool new Scope Move that gives players a close-up look at damages they’ve inflicted on other shoppers. There’s full combat with a realism that we can do now in a way we just couldn’t before; now, it feels like you’re really fighting right there in the store — it’s just amazing!”
“Black Friday IV” marks a triumphant return for Price’s company, which faced a serious setback last year after lagging sales forced the discontinuation of their latest model gaming console.
The PlayStation 360 promised to take immersion to a new level, featuring 360 wired electrodes that would allow gamers to actually feel the pain inflicted on them by their video antagonists. Most gamers agreed that, while it was great to know they could still feel anything at all, even if it was only pain, attaching all those electrodes was just way too much trouble.