Official Videos
Official videos produced by the development team are a major contribution to the mod's disclosure. Since its original release that trailers, gameplay videos and other promotional audiovisual content is shared through websites such as YouTube and ModDB. Since 2012 that Pirates, Vikings and Knights II has its own official YouTube channel which, aside from uploading official videos it also uploads the streams from PVKBeta Live.
Official Trailers
The first official trailer of the Half-Life 2 mod, as well the first gameplay footage of the mod to ever been shown to the public. Released in CrazyTalk's YouTube Channel on December 27th 2006, four days before the first release, the trailer gives an initial impression of the explosive nature of the original GoldSrc mod brought onto the then new Source Engine. Most of its footage was recorded in Island, although the other official maps released in the package received respectable showcases. The trailer is notable for having one of the few footage of the map Cloud which, to this day is one of the most obscure unreleased maps in the mod's history. The YouTube version, due to the website's limitations at the time, it can only stream the video in 240p; on January 12th 2007 the trailer was uploaded on ModDB, being played in widescreen 720p.[1]
The trailer was likely to be originally distributed by Hyperdrive, a video game trailer and machinima website, and not much is known about this website, presumably defunct.
Beta 2.0 Trailer
On February 3rd 2008, on the eve of Beta 2.0's release, another trailer was shown to the public, showcasing the three new classes, as well the new maps, most namely Forgotten. The trailer also uses Bob Thomas' Pirares, Vikings and Knights II theme. As opposed to the first teaser trailer, the video was recorded in fullscreen.
Sharpshooter Preview
The trailer was released in December 14th 2011, revealing for the first time footage of Sharpshooter, the long-waited Tortuga and Town, among other things. It's the first trailer to use music from long-time contributor Bergan Mencarini. It is also the last trailer to be uploaded on CrazyTalk's channel, due to the creation of the official PVKII YouTube channel.
Map Update 2.6
Released on October 25th 2013, six days before the release of Beta 2.6, the first and so far only live-action trailer was released, showcasing the new features in the package. The video and acting was provided by Kyle Carter, and music by Bergan Mencarini.
Also known as The Return of tw_Fort, it's notable for being the first official trailer of the mod built in Valve's Source Filmmaker, making use of the mod's assets and maps to pose the characters. The voice actors also provided new voice lines for this trailer in particular. The trailer was released in Halloween's eve of 2013. It and the live-action trailers are the first ones to be released in 1080p.
Man-at-Arms Trailer
The trailer was released on September 15th 2014, a month and a half before the release of Beta 3.0, and it showcases several new features, such as the highly awaited Man-at-Arms, the new and improved Sandstorm, Cara, and several other features listed in the end of the video. Similar to official gameplay videos, the music is provided by a third-party band, Jaldaboath, with the song "Hark the Herald".
No Time to Waste
Released shortly after the release of Beta 3.3, No Time to Waste is the second official trailer produced in Source Filmmaker, as well the first official trailer to be produced by an authorized creator. The trailer is unique due to its "frozen in time" aspect, parodying trailers such as Halo 3's "Believe" and the trailer for the movie Jabberwocky, by Terry Gilliam. Unlike other trailers using third-party music, this one doesn't come from a band but from a composer, La Gazza Ladra, by Gioacchino Rossini, which was also used for the trailer of Jabberwocky.
Ferhod, the author of the video, was authorized to publish the trailer for Valve's annual Saxxy Awards. On November 18th it was revealed that the trailer received an honorable mention from Valve.
No Time to Waste is the first official video to run at 60 frames per second.
3.4 Public Gameplay Trailer
Also known as Mundo Canibal, this trailer was first shown in PVKLive, streamed on September 18th 2016 and uploaded on YouTube a day later. The video mixes gameplay footage taken from the launch day of the Beta 3.4 update, provided by beta testers and members of the dev team, and Source Filmmaker clips. This trailer was produced by beta tester AGSMA rather than CrazyTalk, who worked on almost every official video to date. The music was provided by the gipsy folk band The Freak Fandango Orchestra, from Barcelona, Spain, and their song, Mundo Caníbal, was chosen by AGSMA for he considered it "the perfect song that fits in the mod's presentation, and also pretty intuitive for video editing".
The trailer was planned to be released shortly after the release of Beta 3.4, but because of AGSMA's busy schedule and issues on video editing and uncompressed video files, the dev team decided to move the video's release to the latest live streaming session.
This is, to date, the only official PVKII video with the Octoshark Studios logo, which animated intro was designed by AGSMA as well.
Gameplay Videos
Unlike the official trailers and previews, the gameplay videos have little to no post-production editing with the purpose of showing gameplay of the mod in its raw form.
2.0 Fun
Also known as Archer Fun, it's one ofthe earlist known footage of the Archer, published a month before the release of Beta 2.0. The entire video takes place in Saints.
Pirate Captain
Released on January 17th 2008, the video shows the Captain and two of his prominent features: the parrot and his special attack. The entire video takes place in Temple.
Beta 2.2 Gameplay
Released first on ModDB and later on YouTube around the release date of Beta 2.2, it's the first of several official videos that use third-party music, in this particular case, the medieval poem O Fortuna and Drunken Lullabies by Flogging Molly. Footage of the video takes place in Arena, Frostbite, Temple and Cathedral.
Beta 2.3 Gestir Gameplay
The video was released in November 17th 2009, three months before the eventual release of Beta 2.3. It shows first-person footage of the then upcoming Gestir in several maps. The musics used in this video are Wonderlust King by Gogol Bordello and Just Dropped In by Kenny Rogers.
Development Videos
These videos show the evolution of the mod's features, as minor they look.
Beta 2.3 Particle Effects
The video, released in March 7th 2009, shows particle effects from Arena and Cathedral's Sudden Death mode, as well other particle effects seen in Forgotten and Berserker's berserking special. The music used in the video is Promontory, by Trevor Jones.
Beta 2.3 Facial Animation
Released on the same day as the particle effects video, the footage shows classes like the Captain and Berserker showing facial expressions and vocal movements whenever they say a word. The video is barely edited and has no background music.
Captain Dismemberment Speed Paint
Released on February 21st 2015, this video is a timelapse of model and texture artist JuicyFruit on the upcoming dismemberment feature, from the creation of the gory texture to the modeling of Captain without the left arm.
Misc.
The video was released in January 19th 2009 in order to promote the Custom Map Pack 2, showcasing maps such as Falls, Museum and specially Dragon Havoc, which wasn't included in the package, although a link to the forum thread was placed in the video description. The songs used in this video are Attack and Tentative from System of Down.
Trivia
- Almost every trailer and official video was edited in post-production by CrazyTalk;
- Lord Jaldaboath, the lead member of the band Jaldaboath, which provided the music for the Man-at-Arms trailer, also voiced the Knight announcer. The announcers were released on the Beta 3.0 update;
- A small sample of Jaldaboath's Hark the Heralds can be played in Slammin Butt Pirates servers by typing the word "hark" in the chat box;
- The "frozen in time" aspect of the trailer No Time to Waste was chosen by its author Ferhod, due to most of the classes' skeleton rigs not being very user-friendly in Source Filmmaker, proving very difficult to animate them in real-time;
- Bondi appears for a couple of seconds in the 3.4 Public Gameplay Trailer, both as easter egg and as a gag, replying to those who are constantly wondering when will the class be released. It's not the first time the dev team teases Bondi in a humorous fashion; in official artwork of the Beta 3.4 update Bondi appears in the background with twisted eyes;[2]