411 Games Fact or Fiction 02.23.10: Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Black Sequel, Xbox Live

Posted by Mark Salmela on 02.23.2010

It’s a battle of the filthy Canadians in 411 Fact or Fiction Games: International Edition! Will Battlefield: Bad Company 2 become a serious competitor to Modern Warfare 2’s reign of terror? Is it fair to remove content from Xbox Live? Do you want a sequel to Black? Do companies intentionally leak footage of their games onto the internet? These questions and more answered inside.



Welcome back to another stupendous edition of Fact or Fiction Games. I'm your host Mark Salmela, and I hate this job! But it's alright, because this week it's the battle of the filthy Canadians in 411Games Fact or Fiction: International Edition! We've got our slightly overrated boss man Christopher Lansdell taking on that syrup-loving bastard from the wrestling zone, Mr. Stephen Randle! Oh, I guess he does that 4 player co-op thing. Wait, that goes live the same day as this? Well screw him; I'm not promoting the competition. Let's get it on!



1.) Battlefield Bad Company 2 will be a serious competitor to Modern Warfare 2's dominance.



Stephen Randle - Fiction: Bad Company may be good, it may even be great. It might actually take a chunk of Modern Warfare's sales right after release. But MW2 is so dominant, and has such a big head start, that I don't see Bad Company being anything but second best. Hell, Activision has even said publicly that they're not worried about competition until the next CoD release at the end of the year.

Chris Lansdell - Fiction: It doesn't have the following that the CoD series has, for one. Second, MW2 is still selling like crazy and has a huge online community playing regularly. In fact I think it's growing, based on personal experience. Oh, and Bad Company 2 is not as good. I've played the demo (briefly) and I just could not get into it...and I LOVED the original. I expect the game will do well, maybe even top the March NPDs, but it won't do what Modern Warfare 2 did. Not even close.

Score: 1 for 1 - Top the March NPDs with Final Fantasy 13, Pokemon, and God of War 3 coming out? I'll eat my shoe if that happens.



2.) This week a bunch of Midway's downloadable titles on XBLA were taken down. Once content is up for purchase on XBLA, it should never be taken down.



Stephen Randle - Fiction: I believe PSN operates under the same directive, as some of their early DLC is no longer available. Face it, some DLC just doesn't sell, and when push comes to shove, it's all in Microsoft's court over what gets to stay and what goes, and if they don't want to waste time and space keeping something live that only the odd random person might be interested in, when they could use that space for newer software that more people may want. I know, it's Microsoft, they have more money than most small countries, but they didn't get rich by being inefficient.

Chris Lansdell - Fiction: I hate agreeing with Randle, so I'll say he's right for the wrong reasons. Midway's content wasn't taken down to keep things fresh; it was taken down because there is no longer a Midway. Who gets the revenue for game sales? Who is responsible for tech support and product support? With no obvious answer to these questions, why keep the games up? I reckon you won't find any Acclaim games up there either, though I am open to correction on that one. Of course it DOES free up room in the store for newer content, and if it brings me Tecmo World Wrestling Remix, I'm happy.

Score: 2 for 2 - I have to disagree here. Someone had to have bought the rights to those games. My only fear is that these games will re-appear in the future for people to have to buy again. I know you don't lose the games if you already bought them, but you know they're going to be pushing for people to buy the "new" versions of the old classics.



3.) Activision's CEO recently stated they had the opportunity to buy out Harmonix before they made Rock Band. The music game genre would have been much worse off without Harmonix joining up with EA and MTV to make Rock Band.



Stephen Randle - Fact: Without competition, things stagnate, and nobody knows that better than someone who writes for the Wrestling Zone. If we only had Guitar Hero games, I have to say there'd be some debate if they'd have gotten to the extra band peripherals as quickly as they did, or put out as many big "single band" expansions. Of course, GH might not have oversaturated their product as quickly, either, but simply put, Rock Band 2 set a benchmark for the music game genre, and forced Guitar Hero to scramble to keep up. How could that be a bad thing, from a gamer's perspective?

Chris Lansdell - Fiction: Could it be much worse? In typical capitalist over-indulgence, EA and Activision flooded the market with music games to the point that Viacom is now looking to recoup some of the performance bonuses they paid out to Harmonix, and Activision is firing the entire Guitar Hero team. If Harmonix had come on board with the GH crew, how do we know they wouldn't have come up with Band Hero sooner? We wouldn't be buying peripherals that almost duplicate the functionality of the last set, but work slightly differently. We wouldn't be buying games with 6 or 7 songs duplicated on the other franchise's version. One franchise would have made my wallet a little healthier, my man-cave a little less cramped and would have saved me from 3 frigging games with I Love Rock & Roll on the soundtrack.

Score: 2 for 3 - I still hate music games regardless of who makes them.






4.) It was revealed this week that Criterion Games is working on a new shooter. You'd love for this project to become a sequel to Black.



Chris Lansdell - Fact: I played Black very sparingly, but it felt like a different sort of FPS. The game did a lot of little, unique things (like try and add realism to guns) that made it stand out, but a tacked-on plot and the fact that the game didn't quite accomplish what it tried to do ended up hurting it. I think if Criterion can fix some of those problems and not change the positives that made the first Black feel different, then it's worth a sequel.

Stephen Randle - Fiction: I wasn't that impressed with the original Black, so I wasn't that invested in a sequel. Of course, since Wikipedia already says that this is supposed to be a sequel titled Black: Second Mission, I guess I should give up any shred of hope that my opinion actually means something.

Score: 2 for 4 - Screw Black, I want Road Rash god dammit!



5.) You would buy a Jimi Hendrix Rock Band.



Chris Lansdell - Fiction: This might be considered sacrilege, but the only Hendrix song I want is Hey Joe. I think that's already on one of the Guitar Hero games, so I have had my fill of Jimi. Guitar God he may be, but his music does little for me. Does he even have a big enough catalog to have a game in the vein of The Beatles: Rock band? Tell you what: I'd buy U2 Rock Band. Now there's an idea.

Stephen Randle - Fiction: There are only 3 legendary bands that I would buy Rock Band expansions for, and two of them already exist: Beatles and ACDC. The third? Guns 'n' Fucking Roses, baby. Of course, a bunch of GnR is already DLC (go acronyms!), so I don't see that happening soon. Anyway, Hendrix is a legend, but I'm not particularly interested in paying for a Rock Band of his music.

Score: 3 for 5 - I'm still holding out for Guitar Hero: O-Town.



6.) Footage of Sonic 4 was "leaked" onto the internet this week. No one should be fooled by this, as it's the companies themselves who intentionally "leak" information onto the internet to create hype for their games.



Chris Lansdell - Fiction: Ah, I love me a good conspiracy theory. I won't pretend that this never happens, but I think by and large these leaks are legit. With this particular leak, SEGA had the information removed from all sites within an hour of it going up. If this were an intentional leak, there'd be no reason for SEGA to have the clip taken down. And it's not like Sonic 4 needs any more hype.

Stephen Randle - Fact: Well, intentional or not, all leaks have to come from someone in the company. Realistically, though, I'm fairly sure that if a gaming company didn't want footage of their latest high-profile project out for public consumption, it wouldn't be available. Look at a company like Blizzard, if they don't want you to know something, you only find out about it when they tell you. Some companies leak footage, some prefer the hype that comes with massive speculation. Whatever gets the fans into a frenzy, I say.

Score: 3 for 6 - In the case of Sonic 4 I feel this was an intentional leak. Sonic 4 is still in the alpha phase of development, which means changes can be made. I feel this was a way for them to show off the game to the internet without officially putting out press materials. That way casual Joe doesn't get a hold of it, yet the message boards can be filled with tips such as "Sonic's jump is awkward", giving the development team free feedback.



Bonus Question: Let's be honest with ourselves, Randle is the superior Canuck.



Stephen Randle - Fact I've got it all, and anyone who says differently is lying to themselves out of barely concealed jealousy. I'm tall, thin, and pretty, and I live in the far superior province as well. Plus, I once heard Lansdell say that he hates Target: Terror.

Chris Lansdell - Fiction Please. I am taller than Randle, and what man refers to themselves as thin and pretty? Oh right, Adam Lambert. Ontario is superior only in that the lake is in it. However, I am secure enough in my superiority that I don't need to brag about it. At least I've PLAYED Target: Terror. Have YOU, Randle?

Mark Salmela - Fact: This question had nothing to do with Target Terror, yet in the end it ended up being the point these two bicker over. It just warms my little heart.

Oh, and Lansdell, I've made a RELIGION around Target Terror. Your attempts to suck up to me are futile until you renounce your faith and start taking your children to my church of Terror. Oh and Spectral Force 3 still sucks.



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Discounting the bonus question these two ended up with a solid 3 for 6. For a couple of guys who supposedly don't get along, they agreed with each other more than I thought. Come on guys, can't we all just be friends? You know what we could do? We could have a 411Games bonding session. That'd be awesome. I'd bring Target Terror, and flapjacks,… and hookers! You know what, forget the flapjacks, and the hookers too. Let your opinions be know below, I'll be back next week with new suckers. Cya in 7!