411 Games Fact or Fiction 09.13.11 Slavery the Game, Fox News, Call of Duty Elite and More

Posted by Adam Larck on 09.13.2011

Should Halo 4's creative director have stayed on until the game was finished? Will New Game Plus will make people come back to Arkham City? Is it smart of GameStop to start buying and selling iOS devices? 411's Trace Aber and Jordan Williams debate these topics 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'm playing Deus Ex still, along with Catherine. May also try to check out Dead Island soon as well.

Also, as a quick side note, make sure to check out 411Mania on Mondays for the next few weeks to see our Top 50 heroes special. You can check out the latest one here.

This week, we have Jordan Williams and Trace Aber going head-to-head. Let's see how these two do. Time for banner!





1.) It was in poor taste to use the Slavery the Game trailer for a TV series.

Trace Aber - Fiction: I'm not sure what the popular opinion on it is, but I personally don't find anything wrong with it. Yes, it is a bit shocking, but that's the point. Slavery isn't a pretty thing, and considering the topic of the series, there's no reason for it to be portrayed as anything but shocking and terrible. Now, this may lead to a variety of actual games made based off this, but that's another issue. It was provocative and caught people's attention, which was the point.

Jordan Williams - Fact: Of course it was in poor taste, but that is probably exactly what they wanted to go for. Pretty much anytime there is something in bad taste put into the media of course they will backpedal and play the route of "Oh, we're so sorry and we didn't mean to offend anyone" but the whole time they are laughing at all of the website headlines and word of mouth (negative as it is) they are getting. So it's in bad taste...but good business. Shitty as that sounds.

Score: 0 for 1 - I don't think I would have even noticed it if they had just came out and said what it was for from the start.



2.) Call of Duty Elite will really make over $50 million in its first year of use.

Trace Aber - Fact: They're obviously pushing Elite extremely hard, to the point where it's almost illogical not to subscribe if you plan on playing the game online. Luckily for Activision, most people play CoD for the online experience. Given the game's ridiculous fanbase over three separate platforms, I see Elite becoming a super-hot item that leads to many more subscription-based services for some games.

Jordan Williams - Fact: Although I don't think this is set in stone, but I am inclined to side with anything that involves the CoD franchise making a ton of money hand over fist. While everyone else is experiencing a level of burnout with the CoD franchise there is still no question that they are still going to sell like a fucking cocaine laced pancake. and I think the fanbase is big enough for something like Elite to take off and support itself with that projection. But anything can happen, for all we know this could be a bomb of epic proportions...but you just don't bet against CoD nowadays.

Score: 1 for 2 - I'm sure people will join for the map pack discounts alone, but I'm still staying away from this.



3.) Former Halo 4 creative director Ryan Payton should have stayed on with the game until it was done before forming his own company.

Trace Aber - Fact: While I don't follow much about Halo except what I have to report in the Living Live News Report (cheap plug!), I always feel that if you're playing a major part in the development of a game you should try your best to see it through. There's likely to be some radical changes stemming from his departure, and while they might be better or worse, we'll likely not getting the same game we were before.

Jordan Williams - Fiction: We don't know all of the details regarding Payton's leave, but if he was really unhappy that would've negatively affected the project had he stayed on. He would've been more prone to half ass it and more prone to just not care if it turned out good one way or another. It gives them a little more negative buzz to have him leave right in the middle of the project like this, but as we have learned from Red Dead Redemptions and L.A Noire, if you are unhappy during the making of a game and you stay on and finished it...the news is going to come out one way or another and runs the risk of tarnishing the game even more. At least now it's nipped in the bud and they can go on from here.

Score: 1 for 3 - I could understand if he was a seasoned veteran, but to leave a big name project that could solidify your place in the industry seems surprising.

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4.) It's smart of GameStop to start buying and selling iOS devices.

Jordan Williams - Fiction: Not where there are tons of other better and more reputable places to trade it in at. I don't hate GameStop nearly as much as the media tends to but while places like the Apple Store, Best Buy, and Amazon exist that allow you to buy and sell iOS devices at a better rate? I don't see it taking off.

Trace Aber - Fiction: I get that iOS devices can be used to play games, and I get that GameStop is a company that sells games. But GameStop can only sell the hardware and accessories, but nothing else. They can't sell games individually, the best they can do is sell cash cards. So many places sell iOS devices that I can't see this amount to a whole lot. I doubt they'll lose on it, but the gains won't be significant.

Score: 2 for 4 - I see some people getting rid of old devices, but I just can't see huge sales for this.



5.) You can't believe that Fox News is stupid enough to suggest that "Green" games have a liberal agenda.

Jordan Williams - Fact: Yes. Yes, I can. Just...just paste the video here. There really isn't any response I can make that the video doesn't make for me.

Trace Aber - Fiction: I have absolutely no problem believing that.

Score: 2 for 5 - I don't have much to say besides watch the video above.



6.) Reitinger will help Sony's online security.

Jordan Williams - Fact: At this point it's not like it could hurt anything. While I don't see that Sony will have another outage the style that we had earlier this year, I do think at this point Sony can put any type of security ever and it's better than what they had before. So it really doesn't hurt at this point. Well...as long as they don't use Punkbuster. Fuck Punkbuster.

Trace Aber - Fact: Not only will this move help the online security, it'll improve their public image as well. Sony's name took a huge hit in April, and they've seen a 55% drop in shares since then. Reitinger has quite the impressive résumé and should do nothing but good for Sony...assuming they don't get hacked again.

Score: 3 for 6 - At least Sony is showing that they are making an attempt to focus on security now.



Bonus Question) New Game Plus will entice you to play Batman: Arkham City twice.

Jordan Williams - Fact: NG+ works really well on games of this style because a lot of the unlockables and/or achievements are something that you usually need to get on a harder difficulty level which actually makes New Game Plus a bit more fun because now along with the increased challenge comes increased skills to use it with. So yeah, I'll replay it again.

It's the least they could make up for not putting Condiment King in as a main villain this time. Assholes.

Trace Aber - Fact: Perhaps I'm spoiled by American RPGs, but I hate when there's not a New Game Plus in games that have such variety. If you're going to be a Superhero there's no reason for a video game not to let you be the most badass superhero possible. In all fairness though, I'd still be interested in the game regardless of this mode being in or not.

Adam Larck - Fiction: Don't get me wrong. I would love to check out this game again to see what changes happen. However, with the release schedule that's set up this year, I think I will have way too much to keep me busy to play a game through twice. Maybe I'll get back to it eventually, but I don't expect to anytime soon.

The pair finish this week going 3-for-6. What do you think? Agree or disagree with their answers? Let us know. See you in seven!