411 Games Fact or Fiction 10.16.07: EA Going Too Far With Simpsons Game, Sony's Bold Move, Giving Out Perfect Review Scores, Upgrading for Crysis, & More!
Posted by Tommy Coloma on 10.16.2007
411's Damian Sarcuni and Sean Garmer tell us what they think about Electronic Arts' parody of the Grand Theft Auto series in their new Simpsons game, Sony's latest PS3 downgrades, the relevance of E for All, giving out perfect scores to non-perfect games, upgrading one's computer to play the latest and greatest power-hungry titles, and Insomniac's contention that Miyamoto was inspired by their games in this edition of Fact or Fiction Games.
It's time for another BC-equipped edition of Fact or Fiction. This week Sean Garmer and Damian Sarcuni return to tell us what's what in the world of video games. Before getting to the good stuff, let's take a look at what they do at 411mania -
For the Games section, Sean puts the 411 Games Roundtable together every month. October's roundtable should go up this Monday. He also does reviews. His latest is for Turn It Around for the Nintendo DS and he is currently working on a review for FIFA 08 for the Xbox 360. Sean also writes America's Football for the Sports section for all the soccer fans out there.
Every Monday Damian brings us Angry Gaming. This week he gave us his tribute to Super Mario. Check it out to see how the Super Mario games have progressed over the years through the eyes of the hate master himself! Damian has also done Ask 411 for the MMA Section. If you have any MMA-related questions, you can be sure that he'll find the answers.
Let's go -
1. Electronic Arts was wrong to assume that it was OK to parody games such as Grand Theft Auto in their new Simpsons game.
Damian Sarcuni: Fiction
I've said it about Rockstar dozens of times and I'll say it yet again: they will do ANYTHING to make a new story. I refuse to believe that the corporate heads at Rockstar are such babies that they can dish it out but can't take it. And brother, they can dish it out!! Grand Theft Auto IS a parody game, asshole! Didn't anyone notice the Scarface soundtrack in GTAIII? Or the Miami Vice references in Vice City? Or the combined plots of movies such as New Jack City, Juice, and Boyz N the Hood in San Andreas? Never mind that TV shows such as Robot Chicken and the Chappelle show have parodied GTA dozens of times. This is the ultimate case of the pot calling the kettle black (no offense CJ). I will bet my soul that no legal action will follow from this. It's just another publicity stunt.
Sean Garmer: Fiction
If there is legal action following this, Rockstar must really be in need of some advertisement. Does anyone not remember that the best game ever made with the Simpsons' license to date - Hit & Run - was a complete parody of GTA? As Damian already pointed out, GTA already does many parodies in its own games, so they have no room to talk. This is just stupid and nothing but a way to get attention.
Score: 1 for 1
2. Sacrificing backwards compatibility and hard drive space in order to bring the PS3's price down is one of the best moves Sony has made since the release of the PS3.
Damian Sarcuni: Fact
This is a tough one, but ultimately if this is the best Sony can do then at the very least it proves to be a better marketing move. The PS3's price tag has handicapped it from day one. Asking gamers to pay an exorbitant amount for a system is asking too much even if the PS3 WAS worth that price tag. If gamers could afford that, we'd probably all own Alienware desktops and be done with Sony in the first place. But this is one of Sony's best moves in comparison to every move they've made before. Plenty of gamers (including myself) bought a standard Xbox 360 and picked up the extra peripherals when they had the extra cash a month or two later. It eases the blow on the wallet, and that is never a bad thing. As for the loss in backwards compatibility... well... it's not like Sony was doing too great on that front in the first place.
Sean Garmer: Fact
I'm a big fan of backwards compatibility. In this day and age, you need to have it in some form or fashion, and Sony and Nintendo had the best case of it, except for the small technical issues. Now, without it, people are just gonna have to hold on to their PS2's, which may not be a bad thing. The hard drive deal - that's how they are able to lower the price. They just keep lowering the amount of space by 20 and slap a new price tag on it. This was the main problem with the PS3 from the start, and at this point they are gonna have to do whatever is possible to keep that price reasonable. Either way, people should expect that with a lower price comes less stuff. It makes sense - if you want everything, buy the bigger system.
Score: 2 for 2
3. Next week's E for All convention is something that gamers should look forward to.
Damian Sarcuni: Fact
But this is more for American gamers than anyone else, and we all know American gamers are the only ones that matter. (Haha suck it McCabe!) But I digress. The fact is that E3, though surprisingly successful, was a bit of a mixed bag this year in that a lot of developers had to hold off on their releases and completed projects, opting instead to save them for the Tokyo Games Show. The problem with that is that the Tokyo Games Show is halfway around the world in an unofficially isolationist country and this even dumbed down a lot of the press coverage available. Now, it all comes to a head. Gamers will not only get to experience all the crap they saw at E3 for themselves, but they'll also get to take a closer look at the stuff they missed from the Tokyo Games show. The best part is that the holiday season is right around the corner so the stuff gamers play today will literally be available tomorrow.
Sean Garmer: Fact
We should always look forward to any new gaming event, I mean ya never know if they are going to show us something we've never seen. E3 was great, and it was a very good thing they brought the focus back to the video games. TGS is another wonderful event, but it's in Japan and far away for many that don't have G4. E for All should be another event that gives us something new to talk about and information to make gamers even more anxious.
Score: 3 for 3
4. If a reviewer is going to give a game a perfect score, then said game should be perfect.
Sean Garmer: Fiction
A fellow writer, David Redkey, began this discussion and I can understand his point. However, nothing in this world is perfect - everything and everyone has flaws. We as people have flaws, and true people are ones that can deal with those flaws and persevere through it all. Reviews are inherently full of personal opinion. As much as we try to be descriptive, everyone reading around the world wants the reviewer's opinion on whatever it is that's being reviewed. If said reviewer feels that a video game doesn't have flaws that harm the game, and they feel that it is a 10 game, then they are entitled to give it to the game. All games have some kind of issue, but honestly, if it isn't something that is going to bother a majority of the gaming public, why should the score be hindered? Remember - a score is just a score. Every person that plays a game will have a different view of it. It's all subjective. In reality, a reviewer should not have their credibility questioned if they give a game a 10 that in general consensus deserves a rating around that number.
Damian Sarcuni: Fiction
I'm going to assume we're talking specifically about 411 here. One of the things I like about this site is that there is no such thing as a perfect score (a 10 specifically reads "VIRTUALLY Perfect") and another is our independence from big name ownership. Thanks to these things, our writers can feel free to let out their inner fan boy and convey the excitement and passion that made them into gamers in the first place, including issuing top scores for reviews. It's sort of like listening to Joe Rogan or John Madden call a sporting event. They get so excited about some things that you can't help but get into it yourself. Now, there are other sites and magazines that take on the challenge of playing with the idea of perfection, but they tend to be influenced by industry sponsors anyway. If those guys are going to have a "perfect" score to give, then they should only be giving it to perfect games. But all pimping aside, I honestly listen to a 411mania games review before I listen to most other game critics.
Score: 4 for 4
5. It's foolish for a gamer to upgrade his or her computer in order to play a high specs demanding game like Crysis.
Sean Garmer: Fiction
I'll go ahead and start this by saying that I do not play any type of PC games. I think this mainly comes down to "do you want to buy a new computer, or would you rather just upgrade the one you have now?" Mainly, it comes down to price - what costs you the most money? I don't think it's foolish if you save a few bucks just upgrading a computer you already have.
Damian Sarcuni: Fiction
I'm glad Sean agrees because I would have been greatly offended otherwise. I DO play a lot of PC games. I have just recently purchased an upgrade in order to play games like Overlord and BioShock. Now, speaking in raw gaming terms, upgrading one's computer is far less cost effective than getting a new game console. This is because computer parts become more or less obsolete in 2 years, whereas consoles go obsolete in around 6 years. But what people forget is that new computer hardware usually comes with other features that can be used for non-gaming related purposes. For example, my new graphics card, which speeds up my BioShock frame rate, also allows out-of-the-box dual monitor support, so I can have two screens to write my articles quicker and more efficiently. So in the long run, upgrading is a good idea.
Score: 5 for 5
6. Insomniac has every right to be flattered. It is obvious that Miyamoto got his inspiration for spherical worlds from the Ratchet & Clank games.
Sean Garmer: Fiction
This goes back to Mario 128, which was in the thinking process before the Ratchet & Clank games. Honestly, does it really matter whether or not Miyamoto may have gotten some inspiration from R&C? They took some stuff from Mario 64. R&C I guess can feel inspired, but in the end, if this is successful, Mario Galaxy will do something to make those spherical objects its own.
Damian Sarcuni: Fiction
Uh, I guess I'd rather they were flattered than offended. I haven't played enough Ratchet & Clank to know whether Miyamoto got any inspiration from these games at all. (I tried them once when I worked at a game store) If anything, when I saw Super Mario Galaxy, the first thing that came to my mind was that it resembled parts of Katamari Damacy. I guess I should check out more 3D action platformers then...
Score: 6 for 6
And we finish with a score of 6 for 6. That doesn't happen very often, does it? The Creator just informed me that the Stone-Like views inconsistent behavior as a sign that things must start over. If you don't want it to proceed with it's mission, make sure that you come back next week for more Fact or Fiction!
