411 Games Fact or Fiction 11.22.11 NPDs, Skyrim, Metal Gear Solid and More

Posted by Adam Larck on 11.22.2011

Should Arkham City have topped Battlefield 3 in NPD numbers? WIll Metal Gear Solid 5 release before Metal Gear Solid: Rising? Will next year’s CoD beat Modern Warfare 3? 411’s Stewart Lange and Stephen Randle debate these topics and more in this week’s 411 Fact or Fiction: Games!

Happy Thanksgiving Week readers. I'm Adam Larck bringing you another week of 411 Games Fact or Fiction. I'm not going to touch much on my gaming, as you already know it's all about Skyrim.

This week, we have Stephen Randle and Stewart Lange going head-to-head. Let's see how these two do. Time for banner!





1.) Arkham City should have topped Battlefield 3 in NPDs.

Stewart Lange - Fact: I'll say it should have, at least on merit since it's a pretty original game, but it was never going to beat Battlefield really, was it? It's a shame that the NPD's are going to be dominated by FPS games for the next while, but it's supposed to reflect the gaming habits of the masses rather than quality of game like, say Metacritic, so it has proven that the (in my opinion, obviously) better game is not gaining as much play as Battlefield. But, how couldn't have guessed that, right?

Stephen Randle - Fiction: Arkham City may be (and is, in my opinion) overall a better game, but it's still a game that is more niche than something like Battlefield. Yeah, Batman's cool and everyone saw The Dark Knight, but comic books still aren't entirely mainstream, and the game itself is a very unique style that may not appeal to everyone. Put that up against an FPS, a genre which has always grabbed the casual gamer from the days of Doom and Wolfenstein 3D, and the fact that it's even a close race is a testament to the quality of Arkham City .

Score: 0 for 1 - It doesn't surprise me, as FPS gamers are just more abundant anymore. It's just a tad disappointing. Oh well, get ready for MW3 to start its domination next month.



2.) It's surprising Dark Souls beat out four games on the top 10 in NPDs.

Stewart Lange - Fact: Considering what those games were, I'm pretty surprised. Between FIFA 12 and the newest installment of Madden, who'd have thought that an insanely difficult single player game would have beaten the two sporting juggernauts? Between them were Forza 4 and Gears 3. Gears has no doubt lost a number of players to COD and Battlefield, while I think Forza is a little bit lost in the shuffle. No, fair play to Dark Souls, it's obviously got a lot of fans!

Stephen Randle - Fiction: No, not really, it had good word-of-mouth coming out and appealed to hardcore gamers, and came out just before MW3, Uncharted 3, Assassin's Creed Revolution, Skyrim, and all those other games that hit at the start of November/very end of October. The fact that it was released at the very beginning of October probably didn't hurt its position, as many of the games above it (especially the top two) were released very late in the month, skewing the numbers. Also, a couple of the games it beat out had been out for multiple months at this point (i.e. Madden).

Score: 0 for 2 - I'm a bit surprised that many people bought it due to the difficulty the game offers. It goes to show gamers still like a challenge.



3.) Considering the legal battle between Notch and Bethesda, you're surprised to see a Minecraft Easter Egg in Skyrim.

Stewart Lange - Fiction: I may be missing the point here, but I'm not that shocked by it. Regardless of whether or not the companies are having issues, the Skyrim developers are still potentially a)fans of Minecraft or b)friends with developers over at Mojang, so why not? Plus, if anyone gets really upset, the can just patch it out. No harm there, it's not like it's a glaring advert.

Stephen Randle - Fiction: The legal issues are coming from a completely different place than where this Easter Egg came from. Actually, as lawsuits go, this one's been pretty civil all around. The programmers of Skyrim probably even have a lot of sympathy for Notch, and I'd bet most of them play Minecraft and thought it'd be funny. Doesn't everyone play Minecraft? Hell, I'd be playing it right now if I didn't have like six other things to play instead.

Score: 1 for 3 - The egg is a good little tribute to Minecraft. On a side note Stephen, I still don't have Minecraft. However, I do accept gift codes (hint).

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4.) With Metal Gear Solid: Rising on its third producer, things aren't looking good for the game.

Stephen Randle - Fact: Well, I don't pretend to be an expert on game design, but changing to your third producer seems to be similar to changing directors on movies. It means a lot of things are going to change, stuff is going to get thrown out completely, and it could even be a total re-do. All of that means one thing: more time. I'll continue this line of thought in the next, completely related, question.

Stewart Lange - Fact: Although I'm now officially confused about which Metal Gear Solid game is which these days. The main thing here though, is that they have a new producer and they can get back to it, but it could end up being a case of too many cooks spoiling the Snake, which won't be good for the final product.

Score: 2 for 4 - The long this goes on, the more it looks like the game will be a flop.



5.) Metal Gear Solid 5 will release before Metal Gear Rising does.

Stephen Randle - Fact: Although at this point, you'd imagine that they've brought in the new producer to get the game finished, come hell or high water. Which means that they've poured so much money into development that they're going to set a date and the game has to be out by then, no matter how crappy it may be, just so they can recoup something on the development costs. Whether that date is before or after MGS 5 depends on a lot of things, but I'm going to err on the side of caution.

Stewart Lange - Fiction: Definitely not if there are storyline elements involved. I'll be frank, I couldn't give a monkeys about MGS so I have no idea what the big differences are between the two, but I'd expect them to push 5 back if there is anything relevant to the storyline in Rising. I know I could check and give a definitive answer, but I'm really that disinterested in these games.

Score: 2 for 5 - If Rising is non-canon, I could see Kojima getting this out the gate before Rising with its problems.



6.) Next year's Call of Duty will shatter Modern Warfare 3's records.

Stephen Randle - Fact: Of course it will. Just like this year's shattered last year's records. We are nowhere near the upper bound of people who will buy Call of Duty games, so barring something going massively wrong, I can't imagine they won't be shooting to sell even more copies than MW3.

Stewart Lange - Fiction: I have three friends who all rushed out and got MW3, two of them at the midnight launch. Of those three, one of them has traded it in, another is back on Battlefield 3 and the third is wanting to trade it in but being moronically stubborn about wanting his entire money back (obviously has no idea how the second hand market works). My point is, and I understand that my three friends are a tiny cross-section of the MW3 player base, I think this is the year that the bubble bursts. By all accounts the multiplayer is sadly lacking and the campaign is rinse and repeat. People are finally pissed off that they are being so merrily exploited so I honestly don't think as many people will bite next time out.

Score: 2 for 6 - I think MW3 sold huge because of the MW subtitle. Next year's I just don't see matching those numbers.



Bonus Question) You'll be checking out Spike's Video Game Awards show this year.

Stephen Randle - Fiction: Those would be the awards show that once gave Game of the Year to Madden, right? Well, at least they're honest about their votes being for sale. Anyway, I'm sure I'll be able to find something better to watch that night. Anything else.

Stewart Lange - Fiction: No, because they won't be broadcast in the UK. To be fair though, I'd probably not bother anyway. I finally got Skyrim and I'm still polishing off the riddles in Arkham, plus I'm replaying Dead Island so I only have time to work, eat sleep, write and Skyrim. I have to find time to watch UFC too, or Larry whips me, but no, I'll read the results and watch a "highlights" package on YouTube.

Adam Larck - Fact: Only because I have to see what new trailers are being revealed to show the readers. I could care less about them otherwise. But, considering a game like Skyrim was announced last year, I have to see what will be shown off this year. However, I'll probably multitask and still game in the meantime.

The pair finish this week going 2-for-6. What do you think? Agree or disagree with their answers? Let us know. See you in seven!