411 Games Fact or Fiction 05.24.11 NPD, Gears of War III, Angry Birds and More

Posted by Adam Larck on 05.24.2011

Will Gears of War III hold its own against Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3? Is there interest in checking out the Duke Nukem Forever demo? Is it surprising that Mortal Kombat outsold Portal 2? 411’s Jimmy Chavez and Jeremy Thomas debate questions and 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 just finished up my Divinity II: Dragon Knight Saga review. Now, onto trying to finish L.A. Noire, then to start on my ever growing backlog.

This week, we have Jimmy Chavez going up against Jeremy Thomas. Let's see how these two do. Time for banner!





1.) It doesn't surprise you that Mortal Kombat did better than Portal 2 in NPD sales.

Jimmy Chavez - Fact: As a casual gamer, I saw all the advertisements for the new MK game. I only knew about Portal 2 through (WARNING cheap plug) the best video game review site, 411Mania. So from my own experience, it made sense.

Jeremy Thomas - Fact: It's a matter of name recognition. Portal has a very high esteem among gamers, and deservedly so. However, if you go out to the average person and ask them what Portal is and what Mortal Kombat is, people will invariably recognize the fighting game first. This is why the console and game companies cater to casual gamers…because casual gamers buy a hell of a lot of video games. There are plenty of casual gamers out there who bought Mortal Kombat and they may not play it for as long or with as much dedication as the Portal players do…and then again, they may. Either way, it's the generally positive reviews added in with name recognition that pushed MK to the top. And that isn't surprising at all.

Score: 1 for 1 - After the past few titles, I honestly figured MK would take the backseat to Portal 2. Still, I wonder how the two did if you factor Steam sales in.



2.) You're disappointed with the game choices for the PSN Welcome Back program.

Jimmy Chavez - Fiction: Well considering that I don't own a PS3 and therefore didn't have to suffer through the crap that good for nothing hackers brought upon the entire PS3 community, it's still nice to see that Sony is at least offering something to make up for that. They could of just been lazy and said screw you to their gaming community. You have to remember, they lost a ton of money for having to rebuild PSN, then make sure the security is good enough to keep it secure, and then offer every PSN member some form of compensation. With however many members there are on PSN, that's a lot to just give away.

Jeremy Thomas - Fiction: I'm not disappointed because I don't have a Playstation. However, even if I did, I probably wouldn't be particularly annoyed by the choice of games. You've got some strong companies and some strong games from those companies in the mix. Infamous, LittleBigPlanet, Wipeout HD…these aren't chinzy half-assed knockoffs. Granted, many people will already have one or more of these games. But by no means does everyone and hey…free games! Plus, it's not like you don't have other offers to supplement this. This selection of games is just fine to me.

Score: 2 for 2 - Personally, I'll be getting Infamous and Dead Nation, but a few more recent titles would have been nice as well.



3.) Gears of War III will be able to hold its own against Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3.

Jimmy Chavez - Fact: Finally an easy one. Gears is an established IP with a solid following already. Just look at the pre-sale numbers. It's going to be just fine. Is it the best game out there? No, but it is enjoyable to a great number of gamers out there. It'll be alright.

Jeremy Thomas - Fact: I was torn on this, as Modern Warfare and Battlefield are obviously huge games that (like Mortal Kombat) have much higher name recognition. But I think Gears of War will do just fine. It may not top those games, but it'll be competitive and that's all I need to consider a game "holding its own" against those behemoths. People love the Gears of War franchise and they're looking forward to this one. The only way that GoW will be considered a failure is if people set their expectations too high, and if they do that's their own fault, not that of the game.

Score: 3 for 3 - With the multiple shooters coming this fall, the saving point for Gears may be that it's releasing before most of the other titles.

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4.) You're going to check out the Duke Nukem Forever demo in a few weeks.

Jeremy Thomas - Fiction: I know everyone's looking forward to this, and I'm intrigued, but I don't do a lot of betas. If it was a truly "must-have" project for me I'd probably check it out, but it's not quite at that level. I'll let other people get all the bugs sorted out on this one and give their impressions before I put my computer through the ringer giving it a whirl.

Jimmy Chavez - Fact: More out of curiosity than anything else. Here is the game that has been in development for the last hundred (I'm exaggerating of course) years and is just now coming out with a demo. I'm going to get in on that one. Whether it ends up being good or bad, I want in just to find out for myself.

Score: 3 for 4 - Even though I'm interested in this, I'll probably let this one pass me by so I can focus on other titles.



5.) It's impressive that Angry Birds has sold over 200 million copies.

Jeremy Thomas - Fact: 200 million copies is huge no matter who you are. Sure, it's a cheap little game and it's easy to get, but the fact remains that most games would be lucky to sell 1 percent of that number, even if they are cheap little mobile games. I'm not ashamed to say I have it and it makes for a fun little time waster when I'm chilling somewhere. Rovio found themselves a gold mine and they've done well with it…kudos to them.

Jimmy Chavez - Fact: Uh, yeah. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it's impressive when anything is able to sell over 200 million copies.

Score: 4 for 5 - I'm amazed at this number. It goes to show how addicting and popular a simple title can be, even for something like a phone.



6.) You still don't think that Smurfs Dance Party is a real game

Jeremy Thomas - Fact: Well, by "not a real game" I mean that it's like Barbie's Fabulous Closet or whatever other cheap crap knockoff they've got out there. It's an actual game, but that doesn't mean it's a REAL game. Frankly, it's one of the dumbest ideas I've heard of for a game in a long time, but then, no one says that taste is a requirement to get a job making entertainment for the masses. Look at reality television, after all. Anyway, I won't know anyone who owns it and I won't be playing it, so it might as well not be a real game as far as my experience will be concerned.

Jimmy Chavez - Fact: It's just one of those things, I'll believe it when I see it. Am I excited about that idea, you bet your ass I am!!!

Score: 5 for 6 - I still want to believe that it's an April Fool's Joke a month and a half late.



Bonus Question.) No one besides Nintendo will announce a new system at this year's E3.

Jeremy Thomas - Fact: I think that no other company likely had plans for a console this year. They may well have those plans underway now, but I don't think any of them will try to rush anything out for E3. Besides the fact that they'll be rushing their plans, the R2Wii2 is going to be the highlight of the show. This is why you don't see the Warner Bros. scheduling Green Lantern on the same weekend paramount scheduled Thor. You want the most solo exposure that you can. Thus, no other new system.

Jimmy Chavez - Fact: Sony is a little busy at the moment and Microsoft unleashed a huge selling new console version and add on for it not too long ago. Unless some other company decides to get in to the video game wars, I don't see that happening though.

On a side note: R.I.P. Macho Man Randy Savage. I will always have fond memories of you and your work. I will snap into a Slim Jim one last time for ya!

Adam Larck - Fact: I think the Microsoft rumors we've heard about a new system is just that: rumors. Microsoft is still trying to tout the Kinect, and will probably focus most of their conference on it and new games for it and for the core market. Sony, meanwhile, will probably be trying to do collateral from the resent PSN outage, and will also be promoting the NGP. Wii should have center stage this year on a new console, and will probably use it as best as they can.

The pair finish this week 5-for-6, disagreeing only on Duke Nukem. What do you think? Agree or disagree with their answers? Let us know. See you in seven!