411 Games Fact or Fiction 05.12.08: New Gears of War 2 Footage, PC Piracy, Best 3rd-Party Wii Game This Year, Vocal EarthBound Fans, & More!

Posted by Tommy Coloma on 05.12.2008

411's Mark Salmela and Joe Roche set aside their differences to tell us what they think about the new things Gears of War 2 will bring to the plate, the idea that piracy is the PC's biggest problem, Boom Blox as the Wii's best 3rd party game this year, whether or not hardcore gamers should look forward to Home, the cost of downloadable games, and the number of gamers that actually care about EarthBound in this edition of Fact or Fiction Games.

Welcome no another edition of Fact or Fiction. This week we were able to get Mark Salmela and Joe Roche together to tell us what they think about some of today's most important video game news and issues. Before we get started, let's see what they do here at 411mania -

Mark Salmela writes B3yond the Report, 411's Sony-centric news column, for the Games section. He also writes reviews, his latest is one for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.

Like Mark, Joe Roche also has his own news report. However, his column, The Full Circle, revolves around the Xbox 360. Joe also does reviews as well. His latest review is for Switchball.

Let's go -


1. The recently released Gears of War 2 footage shows that, with the exception of a few new moves, the sequel will just be more of the same.

Mark Salmela: Fact

I honestly don't see what's so special about Gears of War. Sure, the co-op mode in the first game was really cool. The covering system was also well done and the idea of chain sawing through enemies is plain cool. But otherwise, the game is piss poor. Gears of War's multiplayer is terrible in my opinion, and it seems as if Gears of War 2 will make no improvements to it. Sure, Gears 2 will have more enemies on screen, and will probably add a couple of new and interesting features, but Gears of War is one of the most overrated franchises ever. Add in the fact that Epic has been stretched extremely thin due to all of the Unreal Tournament 3 problems they've been having, and I doubt Gears of War 2 will get the development time it needs to make substantial improvements. Just ask the Rainbow Six team what happens when you're scratched for time.

Joe Roche: Fact

No matter how many times someone tells me that there have been vast improvements and advancements made with Gears of War 2, I just don't believe it. I get the feeling that this is a case of "if it ain't broke don't fix it." Of course, there is a valid argument (and Mark made it pretty well) that Gears wasn't that good to begin with, and I don't think I'd totally disagree with that. But there are a lot of people who loved the original Gears (just look at the number still playing the multiplayer online), so they might as well give that huge audience exactly what they loved the first time around. Unfortunately, I think that's the truth behind Gears of War 2 - lather, rinse, repeat.

Score: 1 for 1


2. Piracy is PC gaming's biggest problem.

Mark Salmela: Fiction

PC's biggest problem is the fact that it's a PC. There's no universal standard like the consoles have. And because PCs are constantly improving and updating, it's impossible for people to keep up with the cost. I don't want to buy a new graphics card every 6 months so I can play the 1 or 2 high profile PC games that come out. PC developers are also extremely lazy and basically release betas as full disc games. What I mean is that almost every PC game that comes out nowadays is extremely buggy, and developers think this is ok because they can just release a patch days or sometimes weeks later. Well, I won't put up with that crap, and I refuse to spend hundreds of dollars to constantly update my PC so I can play betas of games that usually end up coming out on consoles sooner or later. You're only fooling yourself if you think Crysis won't eventually come out on consoles. PC is a sinking ship, and pretty much every developer except Blizzard now makes their titles multiplatform.

Joe Roche: Fiction

The PC's bigger problem is the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Lets face it - PC gaming is just a dying breed. The computer that you need to play the games that are released these days becomes obsolete twenty minutes after you purchase it. I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I'd rather pay $500 for a console than $4500 for a computer when the console can basically do the same things. I think once the 360 and PS3 came out with their advanced online capabilities, we saw the beginning of the end for PC games. There are still people out there playing World of Warcraft, but it won't be long until that genre gets absorbed by the consoles as well (remember first-person shooters?). Piracy is an issue, but it's not the main reason that PC gaming is dying.

Score: 2 for 2


3. Boom Blox will be the best 3rd party game on the Wii this year.

Mark Salmela: Fiction

I've already played the best 3rd party Wii game this year. It's called Target Terror. I've already gone in detail about how awesome this game is in my column before, but Target Terror is a must play for anyone who's ever played a light-gun game or has ever played a video game with the intention of having fun. Sure, technically, this game is ass, but in reality, this is the best party game I've played in years. I have yet to have 1 person over at my house to play it who hasn't found this game hysterical. Take the best parts of Area 51 and multiply it by 100 and you have Target Terror. Also, while Boom Blox is fun, I don't consider it that awesome. I think there's too big of a risk in swinging as hard as you can towards you TV, and I can guarantee you right now a lot of TVs will be broken and people will be hurt from playing Boom Blox. The single player in my opinion is also lame, and I think some of the Balance Board games from 3rd party developers will be better. Skate, for example, will be using the balance board, and I have a feeling that will be pretty awesome.

Joe Roche: Fact

Frankly, I find myself agreeing with Mark far too often right now so I'm going to go against him on this one. As someone who does not own a Wii, and barely has the opportunity to play one, I can only judge this game on one factor - its name. It's a scientific fact that when you replace CKS with X, things become ten times better. The Boston Red Socks would have never won the World Series last year (and forget about 2004 folks), and absolutely nobody would enjoy secks, but you'll pay top dollar for the X equivalent. The prospect of Skate on the balance board seems cooler to me at this point, but until they extreme up the name a little bit, I'll remain convinced that nothing can compare to Boom Blox.

Score: 2 for 3



4. Hardcore gamers should be looking forward to Home.

Joe Roche: Fiction

Hardcore gamers have no other choice but to be looking forward to Home because until it is actually released, I won't believe that it's ever going to exist. It's already been delayed a full year, and that usually won't happen when you're just working out minor bugs. Look at the GTA IV delay and you'll understand how a release date delay is supposed to work. With Home, it's obvious that PlayStation bit off more then they could chew with the idea that they floated out there in early 2007, and by the time it actually comes out, people will be so tired of the constant delays that I'm not sure anyone will care. So, while I think that the Home concept is cool, I don't think there is a single hardcore, softcore, or bestiality gamer out there who would waste their time looking forward to Home.

Mark Salmela: Fiction

Who you calling a bestiality gamer? And what do you mean you don't believe that Home is ever actually going to exist? There's a closed Beta of it right now. Sony's poured way too much time and effort into this thing to just cancel it now. The problem is the fact that no one will care anymore when the open Beta is released this Fall. I know I won't. I agree with the second half of Joe's statement, but I for one know Home will come out. It's just too bad you won't be able to find me there. I wanted to love Home, I really did, but it's a case of "too little, too late."

Score: 3 for 4


5. Downloadable games should cost less than their disc-based counterparts.

Joe Roche: Fact

One hundred times fact. This is basic economics. As a company, you're saving money on not having to produce the disc, the packaging, the shipping, and the shelf space at retail, and while I know all of those things in the end probably cost $2, it's still less. If you look at a service like iTunes, you pay $9.99 for a full audio album, while it would cost around $14.99 at a store , or at least that's how much it cost five years ago the last time I bought a CD in the store. I know it's not the same thing, but it's tough to justify charging the same amount when you're not expending the same amount of energy.

Mark Salmela: Fact

While I really hate to be agreeing with Joe, maybe he's not quite the imbecile I thought these 360 writers were. While I do agree with Joe on his statement that downloadable games should cost less than their disc-based counterparts, I do want to make a few points for the sake of contradicting him. First off, iTunes sucks. Second off, while the costs of setting up an item for download do cost less than those of putting a game on shelves, it isn't as big of a difference in cost as he thinks. Nowadays, both Microsoft (who charges the most) and Sony charge quite a pretty penny for developers to put up their titles for download on their servers. Servers aren't free, and for titles to be put up for download, developers are not only going to have to pay to put them up there, but Microsoft and Sony are going to take a percentage of their profits (Microsoft 70%, Sony 30%) from every sale in their respective marketplace. WiiWare won't be the answer either, as, at the minimum, it appears Nintendo will take at least 30% like Sony (with heavy rumors claiming they'll be taking 70% like Microsoft). While I do agree with Joe that downloadable games should cost less than disc based games for the fact that collectors are missing out on the box art (to me the box art is like a trophy that I own the game), I don't think developers are saving that much money, if any.

Score: 4 for 5


6. Only the vocal minority really care that EarthBound has been given an ESRB rating.

Joe Roche: Fact

I will admit that this is more of a borderline issue for me. The vocal minority that cares about the Earthbound ESRB rating consists of people who loved the game on the SNES, and are suddenly excited about the possibility of a Wii VC release. Isn't that the only audience that should care about this? I mean, it's not a bad thing that this vocal minority cares about the rating because that's the audience that should care about this. I will say this though - I applaud this move by Nintendo. You release Super Smash Bros. Brawl, let people play around with Ness for a little while, and then, just as the steam starts to run out on SSBB, you drop the dime on EarthBound as a Virtual Console release. That, my friends, is called synergy.

Mark Salmela: Fact

Damn, agreed again. Who wants to start the conspiracy that Joe didn't write these answers? In all seriousness, I feel we have another case of "vocal message board users claim a certain game will sell millions in America, but once it's brought out it'll flop." I think we've got another Elite Beat Agents on our hands again, as while people claim they'll buy it, once it comes out they'll make some sort of excuse as to why no one bought it. Even though some people on a message board will buy Earthbound, I still think the majority of the Nintendo Wii fanbase (which appears to be old people and soccer Moms foaming at the mouth for Wii Fit) will pass on Earthbound, and Nintendo will never bring Mother 3 to America.

Score: 5 for 6



And we finish with a final score of 5 for 6. Don't forget to join us next Friday for more Fact or Fiction!

Now, an annoying mole just appeared and is accusing us of doing bad things. If we can figure out how get the annoying bastard to shut up before we get mad, we'll be back next week.