Four Player Co-op 09.01.10: Multiplayer For Portal 2, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, A Red Dead Redemption Movie, More

Posted by Stephen Randle on 09.01.2010

Who should play John Marston in the upcoming Red Dead Redemption movie? Did Valve make the right move by taking competitive multiplayer out of Portal 2? Will we ever see Final Fantasy Versus XIII? The 411 Staff has their thoughts and opinions in the latest 4PC!




Todd Vote has joined the game.
Armando Rodriguez has joined the game.
Mathew Sforcina has joined the game.
Josh Richey has joined the game.
Justin Weinblatt has joined the game.

Quizmaster

Greetings, and welcome to another edition of Four Player Co-op. I am the Quizmaster, and as a special treat for everyone who has had to put up with weeks of three players, this week we feature a special, expanded roster of five 411 Staffers, answering the questions I devise and receiving points for said answers. Yes, it's a special feature, and not at all the result of me screwing up when I sent out the questions and ending up with five sets of responses, then feeling guilty about making everyone work so hard! The Quizmaster is infallible! Anyway, it's Futurama this week to celebrate the end of the first run of the return of the new series, and also to mourn the fact that it was only twelve episodes and now we have to wait some more. Start the game!

QUESTION ONE: Valve has revealed that Portal 2 originally had plans for competitive multiplayer modes. However, during testing, the mode was reportedly "fun for about two seconds" before "devolving into pure chaos", so the final product will not have that feature (co-op multiplayer will exist, however). A game company that refused to include a feature in their game because it wasn't any good? What is the world coming to?

Todd Vote

Though I am infinitely curious about how "pure chaos" would have played out, Valve is one of the developers I trust to bring the best experience they can to the gamers. While I am a bit curious to see what the "pure chaos" would have entailed, the competetive multiplayer didn't really sound all that fun to begin with. Move a ball through portals from one side of the map to the other? Eh, no thanks. I am perfectly happy just being able to enjoy the fun that is the Portal campaign with friends.

Armando Rodriguez

That shows just how smart Valve is. How many games have been released with horrible multiplayer modes that where added just for the sake of saying "hey, we have multiplayer too!". Usually those modes hurt review scores and end up being a real pain to play, something that the great majority of gamers ignore. Kudos to Valve for being smart enough to realize that the game doesn't need multiplayer to be awesome. Still, I would have liked to see this "pure chaos" by myself.

Mathew Sforcina

Yes, this is a legit question, in that a developer not including a crap feature does, on the surface, seem to contradict everything we know about reality and should have caused a black hole, killing everyone. But this is Valve. Valve, along with one or two other companies (the only other major one I know being, oddly, Pop Cap) do not run under the same rules of reality as other game developers. So, they are in an alternate level of existence, and thus the normal rules of causality don't apply.

Plus, you know, it's possible that had they stuck with it, they might have made it really work, and thus they stuffed up by NOT including it. If you're cynical.

Josh Richey

Just another example of Valve being Valve and proving that they're the best in the business when it comes to pleasing their fans -- aside from releasing Episode Three. How many publishers would have been like "who cares if it's a mess, we need to be able to say that this game has competitive multiplayer." Instead Valve says it sucks and we'll all take them for their word. It would be cool if Valve released some footage, though, because now I'm more interested in seeing how the chaos looked.

Justin Weinblatt

I'm reminded of New Super Mario Bros Wii. When me and my little brother play together in coop mode the game is a blast, and we work together really well. When we play the competitive modes, one of us throws the other into a hole. Then, we try our best to avoid reviving the other character (by popping his bubble), for as long as possible. Usually, this causes the still living character to die, and we start at the beginning of the level.

The point of the story is, some games are just not designed to be played competitively. I'm guessing Valve figured this out really quickly, before it cost them very much time or money.

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Quizmaster

I tried to picture how you could even do competitive multiplayer in a game with no true offensive weapons, and "chaos" seems an appropriate description. I suspect most games would end up with at least one person stuck in an infinite falling loop between two portals. Kind of like the chaos you get when you think about a seven-foot, three hundred-pound former Australian wrestling champion talking about "alternate levels of existence" and "rules of causality". 500 points for the champ!

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QUESTION TWO: A PR firm has been charged by the FTC for having employees post favourable reviews of products on the iTunes store despite having working relationships with the companies who developed said products. The case has been settled out-of-court. For the record, the PR firm claims that they've broken no laws and settled rather than waste time with a "frivolous" lawsuit. Are you horribly shocked by this?

Todd Vote

I've lost all faith in Corporate America after reading this... I am absolutely shocked and appalled at this... Okay, I'm lying. This is no different than the GamePro thing we heard about before, and if you get right down to thinking about it, it's no different than a company putting an embargo on a review copy of a game to prevent negative reviews before the game is released. This might be a bit more straight forward on the sneak-o-meter than embargoes, but it's the same thing basically. You have a company trying to make something look better, or at least stop bad things from getting out about the product. I do love how they call the lawsuit frivolous, yet settled out of court. Yeah, that's the way to put a stop to frivolous lawsuits in our country... Thumbs up dude!!

Armando Rodriguez

Sadly, I am not shocked. I believe this practice is far more common than most companies would admit. Not only employees write favorable reviews for their own products, but quite possibly journalists agreeing to give favorable reviews for money or free stuff. We already know what happened with Gamespot and Jeff Gertsman over the Kane & Lynch review a few years ago. That to me is the biggest example that there is something shady going on. Not only on Gamespot, but in many major sites as well. With Facebook and "word of social site" (which was replaced word of mouth since, you know, you are not actually speaking) it is easy to come up with a quick 3 sentence review that thousands of people will read and pass along and suddenly you have a significant amount of people talking about how awesome this thing is, even when they haven't played it.

Mathew Sforcina

No. No I am not. That's the thing about being a cynical pessimistic bastard, you're either proved right or pleasantly surprised.

Josh Richey

It's amazing to me that these violations were discovered in the first place. This isn't a PR agency posting good scores on Meta Critic, no, this is just a small time PR firm posting some favorable scores to a little iPhone app. Fake reviews are a norm on programs like iTunes. Hell, if not for fake reviews on iTunes then bands like Nickelback, Breaking Benjamin and One Republic wouldn't have anything nice written about them at all.

Justin Weinblatt

No, I'm not shocked at all. You see this on any website that allows customer reviews. We've heard tons of stories about the gaming industry doing shady things, such as offering exclusive first review rights in exchange for a certain score, so why not just skip the middle man, and write the review yourself?

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Quizmaster

I was hoping at least one of us was innocent enough to be shocked, but since that's not the case, I'll have to give everyone 1200 points. Richey gets an extra 30 points for discovering the latest Canadian revenge plot against American music. That's right, Celine, Alanis, Nickelback, Avril Lavigne, they were all created just to annoy Americans! Up in Canada, we don't even listen to ‘em!

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QUESTION THREE: One of the developers for Final Fantasy Versus XIII (which was initially supposed to be released around the same time as, you know, Final Fantasy XIII) has said that they can't commit to a 2011 release date yet. Will this game manage to see the light of day before Final Fantasy XIV? Or, god forbid, Final Fantasy XV?

Todd Vote

It would almost have to, wouldn't it? Look, it's no secret that I don't follow the Final Fantasy games, but at this rate, what are the fans of the series wanting more? The new FFXIV, or Versus XIII? I think Square needs to take a serious look at those numbers, then decide if finishing Versus XIII is even worth it at this point. Make it the next Duke Nukem, us gamers need something that we can wait on for 13 years... Oh, the marketing writes itself for that one. Versus XIII 13 years later!

Armando Rodriguez

I have a feeling one of two things will happen: the game will be released at some point in the next two years and it will be a total disappointment, or it will be cancelled and something new will come along. I have lost all hope of actually seeing this game released, but hey, it seems we are getting Duke Nukem Forever after what felt like a thousand years, so maybe this thing still has a chance. At this point, this could end up being a launch title for the Playstation 4 and Xbox 720 in 2018!

Mathew Sforcina

Maybe, maybe not. Not that it matters. You could slap the Final Fantasy name on a fricking... Football Manager Simulator, and some people will still love it and buy it and claim it's the best game ever.

Josh Richey

I'm not the Final Fantasy nerd of this bunch, so how about some filler? Let's read the Wikipedia entry for Jonathan Taylor Thomas...
Thomas was born Jonathan Taylor Weiss in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the son of Claudine Weiss (née Gonsalves), a personal manager and social worker, and Stephen Weiss, an industrial sales manager; the two divorced in 1989. His uncle is playwright and actor Jeff Weiss. Thomas is of Portuguese and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry.

Justin Weinblatt

The bigger issue here is that FFvsXIII is standing in the way of Kingdom Hearts 3. Kingdom Heart 3's developer apparently can't work on the game until they finish FFvsXIII. DAMN IT SQUARE FINISH THIS GAME ALREADY! I NEED MY NEW KINGDOM HEARTS?! HOW CAN I LIVE WITHOUT A NEW GAME FOCUSING ON THE HORMONES OF PRETEENS, WITH HOMOSEXUAL OVERTONES?!

*Ahem* As for the question, there is clearly something wrong with FFXIII's development cycle. So far, we've heard next to nothing about the project, which is unusual for something that has been in development for so long. FFXIV could easily come out before this one.

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Quizmaster

Wait, we don't get a Kingdom Hearts 3 until this stupid "Versus" game, whatever the hell it was supposed to be anyway, gets released? Unacceptable! 1426 points for Weinblatt for this ghastly revelation!

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QUESTION FOUR: Sony has let it be known that whenever the next generation of PlayStation is created, it will still include physical discs for games (in fact, it will be "required" to have them), and not be exclusively downloadable content, as many industry pundits seemed to believe it would. What do you think about this future strategy by Sony?

Todd Vote

Brilliant. I think until the majority of the world shows they are willing to take things to an all digital base, any company that tries to offer such is begging for problems. I may be of the old school here, but I absolutely want something I'm paying $60 for to be something I can physically touch and see, and take with me anywhere I want to go without having to take my hard drive. Digital Download has become a viable option, but it will never succeed as the ONLY option.

Armando Rodriguez

I believe this is the right way. Like I said, I am not overly fond of downloadable games because in reality you don't own them. It feels more like an extended rental (years at a time) but at some point those games are going to be taken down from the servers (because the company goes down, the system is discontinued, etc.) and you won't have a way of getting them back if you lose them. Plus, some of these games have "limited" downloads (like two times or so) and at some point you might lose them if you uninstall them too many times. Those problems don't exist with physical discs. They have unlimited installs/uninstalls and they are stored on a disc, in your own house, and not in some server thousands of miles away, where they are at the mercy of the company/developer. Thumbs up for physical discs!

Mathew Sforcina

Well, the Special Edition makers of this would are happy about it, I'm sure. But it's a bit silly to rule out anything at this stage. I mean, by then, we might be on crystals, or Our New Overlord might well have taken control and it's all Matrix style cables into the neck.

Josh Richey

Call me old fashioned, but I love the security and warm feeling that comes with having a hard copy of my games. If I pay $60 then goddammit I want a disc, a case and a motherfucking manual too. When we start downloading all of our games, we start giving the machines too much power over us. That's when Skynet takes over.

Justin Weinblatt

Maybe Sony learned something from the PSP Go? Physical media is going to be the standard for gaming for a while still. A large part of the gaming community is composed of children, who don't usually know how to shop online. Then, you have people in emerging markets, who don't have a strong online infrastructure. Finally, there are hardcore gamers. Most hardcore gamers still prefer physical media for their retail games. Buying a 10 dollar game off X-Box Live is one thing, but when you drop 60 bucks, you want a physical copy.

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Quizmaster

Richey, ixnay on the ynetskay! You're going to get us assimilated!

I don't think a downloadable-only console is ever going to be a reality, just because it's in our nature to prefer physical objects. Hell, weren't we supposed to have "paperless offices" like fifteen years ago? And how many Office documents did you have to print out and have an actual copy of in the last year? That's what I thought. It's the last chance to award points, so we'll give 3475 to Todd for at least attempting to follow through on his "be more positive" directive this week. Good try, anyway.

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BONUS QUESTION: Brad Pitt allegedly has been given right of first refusal to play John Marston in the Red Dead Redemption movie. Got any better ideas?

Todd Vote

Yeah I do actually. Karl Urban, tell me he doesn't look like John Marston? He would be my first choice based on looks. If you want to go with an actor who might not quite have the look, but could play the part realistically, honestly I'd go with Russell Crowe.

Armando Rodriguez

When I first played Red Dead Redemption, one name quickly came to mind: Viggo Mortensen. The guy just looks the part and he would be awesome for the role. Brad Pitt is too much of a pretty boy to play such a bad-ass character.

Mathew Sforcina

Yes I do: DON'T MAKE IT. Video Game Movies either fail horribly, or are so removed from the source you can't tell it was a game originally. So it's better to be safe than sorry and just not make the bloody thing. Although if you must... Given that Eastwood's too old... Honestly? It's so far out of left field as to be stupid as hell but... Billy Ray Cyrus, he of Achy Breaky Heart and Hannah Montana fame... He's a pretty good likeness...

Josh Richey

I must've invested 50+ hours into Red Dead Redemption these last few months and not once did I look at John Marston and think "Brad Pitt should play him in a movie." It no way is that a shot at Pitt as an actor. Fight Club, Inglourious Basterds, Seven, when it comes to actors, Brad Pitt is the bee's knees. But I always pictured Josh Brolin as his character in No Country For Old Men when I was riding around in Red Dead.

Justin Weinblatt

They're seriously doing a Red Dead movie already? Damn, they're not wasting any time. I haven't played RDR yet, so I don't know who should play him. I'd suggest Carrot Top.

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