411 Games Fact or Fiction 05.26.08: Prince of Persia's New Look, Removal of Games from Xbox Live Marketplace, Activision's Response to Rock Band, Playing Samba de Amigo with the Wii Remote, & More!

Posted by Tommy Coloma on 05.26.2008

411's Ty Huston and Rod Oracheski give us their thoughts on what Prince of Persia's new cell-shaded look tells us about the franchise, Microsoft's plans to remove underperforming games from the Xbox Live Marketplace, Activision's choice of instruments for the next Guitar Hero, Square Enix's Dragon Quest remakes for the DS, the virtues of Microsoft's XBLA size limits, and the impact the Wii remote will have on Samba de Amigo in this edition of Fact or Fiction Games.

Welcome to another edition of Fact or Fiction. This week Ty Huston and Rod Oracheski dropped by to tell us what they think about some of the week's most important video game news and issues. As usual, let's see what these two do here at 411mania -

Ty Huston does both news and reviews for the Games section. He recently did a review for Imperium Romanum for the PC.

Rod Oracheski writes Achievement Unlocked, his weekly look at the sordid world of Achievements. Rod also does reviews, his latest being one for Grand Theft Auto IV for the Xbox 360.

Let's go -


1. In cel-shading the next Prince of Persia, Ubisoft is essentially showing that it has run out of ideas for the franchise.

Ty Huston: Fiction

Just because they are trying to change the graphics for the better does not mean they are out of ideas. In the most recent installments, they have totally changed the game and revitalized the franchise with the gameplay. Now that the gameplay is there, why not make it prettier? Are they reinventing the wheel again to push the limits of video game awesomeness? No. But a nice looking game is always a good thing.

Rod Oracheski: Fiction

I don't remember hearing this "run out of ideas" complaint for The Wind Waker, though there were a lot of other complaints...

They want to get people talking about PoP again, and what better way to do that than by taking the graphics somewhere new? This also removes it from the "grim and gritty" version quite nicely. If anything, the screens I've seen remind me quite a bit of the 360-exclusive Naruto game that came out a while back, and that game was a lot of fun with great controls, so I think this will work out well in the end.

Score: 1 for 1


2. Microsoft should not remove underperforming Xbox Live Arcade games from the marketplace.

Ty Huston: Fiction

Why would you keep games "in-stock" when they don't sell? Every store that carries any type of retail product (i.e. every single one) will put items on clearance that don't sell. When and if they can unload those, they stop carrying them. It's simple economics.

Rod Oracheski: Fact

One difference between direct-download and a retail store is supposed to be the lack of front-end shelf space. It doesn't matter if there are 40 games or 400 games available on a download service, provided they give us adequate sorting methods.

By all means, move underperforming games off the main stage and into an "older games" area to clear room for newer games so that they have more exposure. Maybe even drop the price of those older games at the same time. But removing them from the service entirely? That seems fairly short-sighted.

Score: 1 for 2


3. The next Guitar Hero will only match Rock Band in the instrument department. This does not surprise you.

Ty Huston: Fact

Well, we knew that when Rock Band was released and people went ape poop over it that Guitar Hero was in jeopardy. Where Guitar Hero was once the undisputed leader in its genre, Rock Band pretty well knocked it off its high horse, hi-jacked it, and rode off into the sunset. They're grasping at straws here and using the only formula that they know works.

Rod Oracheski: Fact

They're going to imitate Rock Band? Really? What a surprise. Next thing you'll tell me is that when Tony Hawk makes a return it'll be more like Skate.

Score: 2 for 3



4. You are excited about the DS remakes of Dragon Quest IV, V, and VI.

Rod Oracheski: Fact

I won't be really "excited" until we hear some more details. Last I heard, all we really knew was that they were coming and would have a bit of a new look, but if the ports are good then I'm going to be picking them up.

Ty Huston: Fact

I agree with Rod. You never know what to think about a game until some real details are revealed. That being said, I enjoy the Dragon Quest franchise and it would be a nice addition to my DS collection.

Score: 3 for 4


5. It is actually good that Microsoft is limiting the size of Xbox Live Arcade games to 350 megabytes.

Rod Oracheski: Fact

Fact, though I wish they'd stick a solid limit on Xbox Live Arcade titles once and for all and let developers deal with that. BUT, and this is the key part, they also need to establish a zone for games of larger sizes. Call it Xbox Live Large or Grande or whatever, but get it done. Worries about space on the HDD are pretty silly, especially when Xbox Originals games are multiple gigs in size. Worries about Core users? Does anyone with a Core really download games?

Keep the Arcade games down in size, though. It gives those indie devs a chance to fight the big guys on the same footing, at least in theory. After all - gameplay is still king at the Arcade level, right?

Ty Huston: Fact

Why wouldn't they keep the games at a limit? Between save games, downloaded media and content, and XBLA games, there's not a whole lot of room on the hard drive when it comes down to it. Rod made some good points on it as well, but overall, it comes down to space. Do you fill your HDD with save games and downloaded XBLA media or do you save space so that you can download the latest demos and give them a spin?

In the end, it just makes more sense to limit the size of the XBLA games. It also increases creativity; when people are pushed against a wall, that's usually when they end up performing very well.

Score: 4 for 5


6. The Wii remote is not precise enough to provide Samba de Amigo players with a satisfactory experience.

Rod Oracheski: Fiction

There are plenty of Wii games that show how well motion controls can work if the development team is careful with their implementation (almost as many as there are that display how terrible motion controls can be if they're just tacked on).

I would think that the developers of any game that is so focused on movement (though Samba de Amigo doesn't really require that much precision) would make sure they get that part right, first and foremost.

Ty Huston: Fiction

Come on now. The Wiimote has been shown to be incredibly effective in the greater portion of the Wii catalog. Then again, there are some games that royally suck using the Wiimote. But is that the hardware's fault or the developer? I agree with Rod on this as well. If the game's controls end up sucking, then it will be SEGA's fault, not the Wiimote.

Score: 5 for 6



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

Now, we were just told to euthanize our favorite companion with an incinerator. Even though it will not feel a thing, we are still hesitant. If we can put our morals aside in order to do what must be done, we'll be back next week.