411 Games Fact or Fiction 03.08.11 LG, Mortal Kombat, 3DS and More
Posted by Adam Larck on 03.08.2011
Will Mortal Kombat find its way to Australia regardless of the country's ban? Is it surprising that LG has managed to block Playstation 3 shipments? Will Shenmue 3 will get made? 411’s Todd Vote and Justin Weinblatt debate these questions more in this week’s 411 Fact or Fiction: Games!
Welcome back to another week of 411 Games Fact or Fiction. I'm Adam Larck, and I've finished up Torchlight. Today, though, is Dragon Age II, so expect to see me in that for awhile.
This week we have Todd Vote going up against Justin Weinblatt. Let's see how we'll these two will get along. Time for banner!
1.) LG successfully blocking PS3 shipments in Europe is surprising.
Todd Vote - Fact: I mentioned in a 4PC a couple weeks back that I saw this playing out very differently. I expected a quick out of court settlement that pleased all sides. I was very surprised to hear that LG successfully blocked the shipment into Europe. That's got to be a bit of a blow to Sony.
Justin Weinblatt - Fact: I'm not surprised that LG succeeded, but I am very surprised that Sony's lawyer didn't advise Sony to settle beforehand. It seems that these issues wind up being settled out of court. This legal pissing contest is hurting both companies, and consumers, so they should probably accept the inevitable and just settle.
Score: 1 for 1 - I really thought Sony would just pay them some money. Now, the case is getting interesting.
2.) Mortal Kombat will succeed in eventually getting classified in Australia.
Todd Vote - Fact: They will tone it down to get into Australia if they want into Oz that badly. Part of me wishes they just release the game they want to release and let Australia go without, but I don't see that happening. That's a lot of money out of the pockets of the publishers and developers.
Justin Weinblatt - Fiction: The only way I see this getting classified is by creating a censored version was to be made, like Manhunt 2. The Australian market isn't that large, and a censored version wouldn't sell very well, so I think Australia may wind up getting the shaft.
Score: 1 for 2 - I just hope that the game does get severely toned down just for release in Australia.
3.) It's no surprise the 3DS is sold out in Japan.
Todd Vote - Fact: It is the portable gaming machine that has made me consider getting back into the portable side of things. So no, I'm not surprised it has sold out. I'd expect similar results everywhere it is released. 3D is a hot commodity, and Nintendo looks to have done something really great and original with the technology.
Justin Weinblatt - Fact: Those Japanese love their portables, and Nintendo. If anyone answered fiction to this they deserve to be hit in the face with the "duh" stick.
Score: 2 for 3 - Look for similar results when it releases in North America.
Justin Weinblatt - Fact: Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but I think that Shenmue 3 will eventually get made. These days developers are less creative, and as their well of new ideas runs dry they reach into the past. We've seen tons of revivals lately. Marvel vs Capcom 3, Kid Icarus, Mega Man Legends 3 and even You Don't Know Jack. I mean, if freaking Splatterhouse was revived, surely there has to be a market for Shenmue? Right? Right..?
Todd Vote - Fiction: I think the time of Shenmue has passed. I played the game on Xbox, and when you look at it, all the great things from Shenmue have been borrowed by other franchises now. What could Shenmue do to innovate? Add in the fact that in this day in age a game has to prove that it can be a financial success, and I think Shenmue fans are destined to keep waiting.
Score: 2 for 4 - In may be able to come out as a DLC title, but I think it's time of getting a full release has passed.
5.) It really was a 'perfect storm' that led to Bizarre Creations being shut down.
Justin Weinblatt - Fiction: A perfect storm implies that a series of unlikely events all occurred in unison. That's not what led to Bizarre Creations demise. This was just business as usual. It's incredibly hard to succeed as a new game company, even if you are talented. Even venerable companies like Atari and Sega continually struggle, so it's understandable that Bizarre couldn't stay afloat. Hopefully all of their employees will find gainful employment elsewhere.
Todd Vote - Fiction: I don't discount the fact that the things mentioned were contributing factors, however, I wouldn't call that a perfect storm. Red Dead Redemption is a different genre than Blur was. So while I'm sure it contributed to slow sales, people who were interested in Blur still would have bought it. Blur had some interesting things going for it, but in my time with the demo, I didn't see anything to make it stand out against the Need for Speeds, and the Gran Turismo's of the world.
Score: 3 for 5 - Red Dead pretty much doomed a lot of big titles that month, Blur and Alan Wake included.
6.) It's no shock that Panasonic canceled the Jungle.
Justin Weinblatt - Fact: I'm really not sure what the concept of the Jungle was. Are MMO gamers really looking for a more portable experience? MMOs are designed for hours and hours of isolation, not crowded morning commutes. The idea was dead in the water from the start. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this was some sort of tax write off scam.
Todd Vote - Fact: It's getting to be a crowded hand held market as it is. Panasonic was smart to cancel theirs, and focus their attention on other avenues of electronics. With the already crowded market, a new machine is going to be hard pressed to make a dent in the market.
Score: 4 for 6 -It was better for Panasonic to cut their losses now, then to try and force its release.
Bonus Question.) Console makers will never limit the amount of game updates a company can do.
Justin Weinblatt - Fact: No. It wouldn't be a bad idea to limit updates, especially bug fixes in the first two months. However, it's simply too late to put that cat back into the bag. Updates are a part of the gaming landscape now, and one we'll have to live with.
Now Capcom, please patch my damn Marvel vs Capcom 3 so that I can actually find matches. Seriously, this shit is ridiculous.
Todd Vote - Fact: Call me crazy, but I would rather do a quick download and play a bug free game, than have to spend the first two months playing a buggy piece of crap. If you do the updates, and fix the problems, your game, and your company is going to look better in the eyes of the gamers. However, if I play a game like Two Worlds, being the buggy crapfest it was. I'm not going to buy the sequel, no matter how much love it is given in reviews.
Adam Larck - Fact: A lot of developers never factor in the various ways that gamers will find to break a game. So, a recent patch after the game comes out can really help make a difference between a multiplayer game living or dying. In the age of updates, David Jaffe has only produced single player games. I want to see if he follows his own rules when the multiplayer Twister Metal releases.
The pair goes 4-for-6 this week. What do you think? Agree or disagree with their answers? Let us know. See you in seven!
Blur doesn't stand out vs. Nfs or gt? That makes no sense, they are all racing games but are totally different. Blur was decent but not good enough. Blood stone didn't help either.
Posted By: R (Guest) on March 07, 2011 at 11:33 PM
Australia doesn't need a watered down version of Mortal Kombat. Fuck that, we can just buy it off Amazon or eBay.
That's what I did with Silent Hill.
It is actually cheaper that way too. If this game was released it would be at around $100, which is the normal price for a new release game. Buying it online means getting it for anywhere between $60-80 including postage.
All the Oz government are doing, by not allowing an R rating, is hurting Australian retailers!
If someone wants the game bad enough, there are ways of getting it!
Posted By: S24-7 (Guest) on March 08, 2011 at 01:04 AM
"The only way I see this getting classified is by creating a censored version, like Manhunt 2."
I don't know about that. Games like Alien vs Predator and F.E.A.R. 2, which were initially refused classification, were later classified without any changes being made.
The reason for this is that the Appeals Board is a different group of people to the Classification Board. A game that is deemed unacceptable by the latter may be perfectly fine to the former. I wouldn't be surprised at all if an unchanged version of MK (which is what they submitted for the appeal) was classified MA15+ by the Appeals Board.
Posted By: Guest#9706 (Guest) on March 08, 2011 at 02:23 AM
I think the Bonus Question misses the point a little bit. A better game out of the box means less need for updates.
There is no excuse for what Obshittian always does. That is why they are a joke of a company and can only survive by making sequels to established IPs using the established engines...while still managing to produce a broken game. I've only played two Obsidian games, and they were both sequels to great games and also were great games themselves except they were buggy pieces of crap on release. I hope Obsidian never gets to make another game again.
Most games don't need that many patches to be playable and relatively bug free. Sure, some bugs get through no matter what, but there is no excuse for Obshittian level lack of testing.
Thankfully I don't think most devs are nearly as bad. Usually you can get away with never patching anything, needing only to patch for balance issues and that's if you play online a lot and would want patches anyway.
Posted By: Guest#0567 (Guest) on March 08, 2011 at 02:34 AM
Q1 - well yes, it was a massive surprise, that's why it was such big news. Fact.
Q2 - Fact but it'll be a ridiculous version.
Q3 - Yeah, I agree with Justin, this was a stupid question.
Q4 - Fiction, too long, too few fans.
Q5 - Fiction.
Q6 - Fact - what's surprising is that they thought it would work in the first place.
Bonus - Er fiction - they already do. If you wanted to do a 60Gb update to a game it wouldn't be allowed. If you wanted to do 500 updates a day it wouldn't be allowed. These seem extreme but there are limits to the maximum size of update you can do and how many you can do. Without defining the question a little more it is fiction.
Adam, I like the column but if you don't think out your questions it ruins the few good ones you do have with answers where even Justin and Todd are being sarcastic as it's such a stupid question. The last week has been full of news like the iPad2 and other great stories, why ask ridiculous ones about the 3DS?
Posted By: Guest#8806 (Guest) on March 08, 2011 at 06:55 AM
Adam, I like the column but if you don't think out your questions it ruins the few good ones you do have with answers where even Justin and Todd are being sarcastic as it's such a stupid question. The last week has been full of news like the iPad2 and other great stories, why ask ridiculous ones about the 3DS?
Posted By: Guest#8806 (Guest) on March 08, 2011 at 06:55 AM
Yeah, it was kind of a dumb question, but when a new system is released it has to be addressed in the column somehow. If you have to come up with new questions each week, some of them will suck. But it's ok Adam, we still love you.
Posted By: Justin (Guest) on March 08, 2011 at 07:40 PM
"Perfect Storm" is such a cop out excuse for failing.
Posted By: G-Walla (Guest) on March 11, 2011 at 03:13 PM
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