411 Games Fact or Fiction 12.06.11 Obsidian, The Last Guardian, Dead Space and More

Posted by Adam Larck on 12.06.2011

Does the Dead Space formula need to be left unchanged? Will Team Bondi have a successful game without Rockstar? WIll Obsidian make a successful South Park RPG? 411’s Dan Watson and Jimmy Chavez debate these topics and more in this week’s 411 Fact or Fiction: Games!

Welcome to Fact or Fiction. I'm Adam Larck, and I'm hosting my final Fact or Fiction. I'm not going away; I'm just letting Stewart Lange spearhead the column now to give it a new spin. I'll still be contributing, but I want to try focusing on some different areas on the site.

I recently finished up Sonic Generations, and now am back to Saints Row: The Third and Skyrim. I also have been putting some time in Beyond Good and Evil HD after picking it up on the Cyber Monday sale.

This week, we have Dan Watson and Jimmy Chavez going head-to-head. Let's see how these two do. Time for banner!





1.) You'd play a Smash Bros. style game from Sony.

Jimmy Chavez - Fact: I really like that style of game. It's fast paced crazy action. As long as it's made well I don't really have an issue about who makes it. If it's fun to play then I fail to see how whoever made it is an issue at all.

Dan Watson - Fiction: The difference between Nintendo and Sony is that Nintendo's characters are almost made for the cartoon violence. Sony has actual people as their main characters and the fun factor is just not there. I guess you could have some of the older characters in there but I think overall this would be a failed series. I would rather Sony create a Sony versus Capcom or Sony versus DC type game where their characters are in an actual fighter instead of cartoon nonsense.

Score: 0 for 1 - I'd be interested to see the cast included, but it could be an entertaining game if the rumor is true.



2.) Obsidian can make a successful South Park RPG.

Jimmy Chavez - Fact: Alright, Obsidian has a ton of experience in this area and are widely known for that. South Park has a strong following as well. Bringing both of those together in a way that works for both will undoubtedly be a hit. I'm intrigued to see how it will actually play out.

Dan Watson - Fiction: This is tough. South Park I feel like comes and goes in popularity. For me it's a bit washed up and past its prime but I still hear so many people talking about how funny South Park is. As for a RPG, I don't know what you could really do to make this a RPG. If it was more of an open world action adventure game, I'd say it could be good. You can't really level characters as the South Park characters haven't really evolved since they hit the scene. Could the game be fun and different? Yeah, it could be fun and may even sell a bunch but I am going to say I doubt it.

Score: 0 for 2 - Obsidian has had some highs and lows throughout its years. Hopefully, South Park will be one of its highs.



3.) The Last Guardian may be having more problems than we thought, given that Team Ico head Fumito Ueda reportedly quit.

Jimmy Chavez - Fiction: Without intimate knowledge of the situation I can't say with 100 percent accuracy but I don't think the head of a project quitting means the project itself is in trouble. Maybe the guy was having disagreements with the bosses above him. Maybe he felt like he was allowed total control of his team and got pissed and left. It's hard to say in this situation but I'm going to go with the game is coming along with maybe a few bumps in the road.

Dan Watson - Fact: I have this feeling that this is another case of big company screwing up great product. The creating team is leaving Sony, just one by one; however, many are sticking around as freelancers just until this project is finished. I really hope they can finish this game and make it as much of a classic as their previous two games. This has potential, especially on PS3 because of its ability to be visually stunning without taking away from the game or creating excessively long load times or multiple discs. Let's hope this gets going and finished up before the ground comes out and the game falls to the abyss.

Score: 0 for 3 - I'm interested to know if Sony was trying to overstep some boundaries, as Ueda is still a freelancer on the project now.

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4.) EA just needs to focus on what makes Dead Space successful, instead of reportedly trying all these different spin offs.

Dan Watson - Fact: Again, Big company screwing up great product. Who really wants spin-offs compared to a great game with a story that is worth following? I prefer to have the game with the great story that continues over a series of games instead of having characters run off and take place in their own adventure. Let me give an example, Resident Evil. Did I really care about Chris Redfield's sister coming to find him? Not one bit, Leon was pretty solid but really all I cared about is where were Jill and Chris. Hell, even Barry was more interesting to get a spin-off but I would have preferred to find out what was going on with Jill and Chris in the sequel as opposed to a new cop coming to town and a sister coming to visit. EA don't screw this up, it would be very dumb of you to kill such a fun series.

Jimmy Chavez - Fact: If you have something that works, why change it? You have a proven winning formula so all you really need to do is build off of that. Improve where you can and innovate what you can without changing the core gaming experience and people will still love it. Look at Modern Warfare 3, it MW2 all over again with a few new items and customization features. People (certain ones) still love it and play the hell out of it.

Score: 1 for 4 - I'm not sure that the spin-offs are needed. Why not just focus all efforts on the third game?



5.) It's surprising that dancing game sales are up 326 percent from last year.

Dan Watson - Fiction: Have you seen how many more dance games there are this year than last year? Guess what, I could have told you this was going to happen. We had an over-saturated market a few years back with DDR and a few other knock off titles. Then gamers went away from those games until this new set has come up. Smart business people there. If the companies that create and develop the instrument based games followed this business plan we should be seeing a set of games coming in a year or two. The dance games are fun and with Kinect doing much better I would say we are going to continue to see an increase here for a few years.

Jimmy Chavez - Fiction: Are you kidding me? I finally have an outlet for my love of dance. I don't like to make people endure what I do in a public setting so this is perfect for me. How many people out there without any kind of rhythm are with me on that one? Anybody? Fine you may not want to admit it but it's true.

Score: 2 for 5 - This reminds me a lot of the music game genre. I just want to see if it will crash and burn like the music game genre as well.



6.) The next game from Team Bondi will be successful even without Rockstar's backing.

Dan Watson - Fact:When your name is attached to an amazing game such as LA Noire, your next title normally sells pretty well. Now, if they take all this press and piss it away on some waste of a game, well then that is their own fault. If they dedicate the time and energy to create a game as good as or better than LA, then we will all be pleasantly surprised and they will make money hand over fist.

Jimmy Chavez - Fact(ish): Only if they produce something that is worthwhile. I mean if they release a game that just absolutely sucks then yeah it's going to fail. But I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt with this one and saying that they will be just fine. I have been wrong before though.

Score: 3 for 6 - I think a game like LA would have been passed over if not for Rockstar. Bondi will need a big backer for its next game I think.



Bonus Question) The Star Wars MMO will be more profitable to Lucas Arts over EA, like Bobby Kotick said.

Dan Watson - Draw: Both companies are going to make more money than they need and will continue to make tons after. Let's get to the more important question: Has Adam Larck done a pretty damn good job with Fact or Fiction during his term... FACT this man saved the column and has done a great job. He is one of the few contributors that dedicate tons of time and energy to make sure that this section of the site stays up and running. Very few people, myself included, could dedicate the time to post news stories daily as well as columns. Great job Adam.

Jimmy Chavez - Does it really matter? There is going to be a ton of money that is going to be made on this one. Does it really matter how much richer the rich are going to become? I personally don't really care since none of it is coming my way.

Adam Larck - Fiction: They'll both make money off this, but I think EA will come out better. Most players will already have the Star Wars movies, or know what it is. So, they won't be buying more movies. But, they will be buying longer subscriptions and in-game content if it's available.

On a side note, I'd like to thank Dan for his kind words, and thank the readers for sticking with me during my stint on the column. You'll still be able to check out plenty of my news stories daily, and a new column by me may be going up sometime early next year. I have some ideas for one, I'm just not sure which one I want to do yet.

The pair finish this week going 3-for-6. What do you think? Agree or disagree with their answers? Let us know. Make sure to check back next week to see what Lange will do with the column in his hands.