411 Games Fact or Fiction 01.19.09: DSi Pricing, Good Movie Tie-Ins, the End of FMV and More...

Posted by Jacob Lopez on 01.19.2009

This week Adam Larck and Jeffrey Harris square it off in 411Games Fact or Fiction. Do live actors kill cutscenes? Is the rumored price point for the DSi reasonable? Will Street Fighter IV's training mode make you a worthy competitor? That and more in this edition of Fact or Fiction.

Hello readers, and welcome to another edition of 411Games Fact or Fiction.

First we have Adam Larck, an all around cool guy who covers games and is always ready to give us his thoughts joins us again.

Going up against him is Jeffrey Harris, a jack of all trades here at 411mania who covers a little bit of wrestling, a little bit of games and our Movies and TV section. Jeff is a busy man. Thanks for joining us today, Jeffrey!


1) Last week IGN posted a DSi rumor stating that the system will launch in April in North America.  Likely on the 4th, and will retail for $179.99.  The rumor also says that Nintendo will continue to sell the DS Lite at its regular price.  For the sake of discussion, let's assume that these rumors turn out to be spot on.  Is an asking price of $179.99 for the DSi appealing, especially when compared to the Lite and the $169.99 MSRP of the PSP?


 
Adam Larck: Fact. I'm going to go with fact here mainly based on the fact that it is Nintendo. When Sony gave the PSP a high pricetag [$249.99 at launch] , it wasn't selling, I believe this was because it was a new system. With the DSi, it's still a Nintendo system that has been around (in different forms) for years. Each time a new one comes out, it comes out at a higher price than the last before eventually dropping and it sells huge each time.  Look for the DSi to be no exception here, high price or not.

Jeffrey Harris:  Fact.  But I say fact with conditions.  It's Nintendo and you can always have faith they will bust out with the best and most fun portable system.  The DS Lite is pure awesomeness in your hands.  $179.99 isn't too bad of a price, but Nintendo should still lower the price of the Lite since it is an older system.

Score: 1 for 1





2) We are only about halfway into the first month of the year, and we already know of two movie-licensed games.  Terminator Salvation in development by GRIN and X-Men Origins: Wolverine by Raven Entertainment.  Both are accomplished studios with great titles under their belt.  Is it likely that these two titles, both of which seem to be headed for a May 2009 release, be prime examples of how a movie tie-in should be made?
 
Adam Larck: Fiction. How many times have we seen this before, where a game starts off looking good and sounding good in production, only to be released and be found to be mediocre? I'm hoping I'm wrong on this, and that X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a good game. I've been following it for a while, and it's shaping up nice. But, I then think back to the last X-Men tie-in game for Xbox 360, and I know better than to get my hopes up.
 
Jeffrey Harris:  Fiction.  I pretty much agree with Larck here.  While I've liked some X-men and movie videogames before, the trend seems to always be how awesome they look and that they will be great while they end up being mediocre.  There are some exceptions.  The Two Towers and The Return of The King were great games on PS2.  X2: Wolverine's Revenge was a ton of fun, though it was more of a comic-verse Wolverine game than a movie-verse version. Spider-Man movie games peaked with Spider-man 2.  More often than not when you see a movie game on the shelves it's just a quick, cheap cash-in while not truly striving for something that's incredibly exceptional like a Spider-man or Spider-Man 2 movie game. Wolverine and Terminator: Salvation also aren't showing me why they will be truly revolutionary and be exceptions to the norm.
 
Score: 2 for 2




3)  Capcom wants to put start players off on the right foot with SFIV.  They are working on a 6-part tutorial mode that they hope will teach players old and new everything from basic punches and throws to fireballs and advanced combo strings.  They say that 4 or 5 levels in, even the advanced players will find it challenging to complete the training.  Capcom also says that after players complete this mode, they will be at the very least, a tough opponent to deal with.  Is a tutorial mode such as this one an ideal way for you to get better at Street Fighter IV?



 
Adam Larck: Fact. I think this mode will be able to help players that are just starting the series to be able to get better and at least learn the basic moves. I don't see this allowing players to be able to hold their own against some of the tougher players that will be online, but against the computer this should be able to give new players a better chance to win than without it. I'll be interested to try it out to see if they've changed anything in this game compared to the others, and to see what ways it gives to deal with changes.
 
Jeffrey Harris:  Fiction.  I like game controls with easy learning curves that you really can just pick up and start playing.  I get in fighting games you want to master the special moves and combos and come up with technique, but in Capcom's better Devil May Cry you have the combos and special moves and what not, but they are very fun and easy to learn and try out.  If they make it so it's mandatory that you need a training or tutorial mode to bone up on SF IV, that's a little annoying.

 
Score: 2 for 3


Switch!




4)  Need for Speed Undercover has been criticized for the poorly-acted live-action cinematics.  In theory, live action is great (the first 3 minutes of MGS4 show us that) but in most cases it actually detracts from the game.  Soap opera quality acting, bad dialogue and special effects on par with made for TV movies usually pull you out of the game.  Meanwhile, many games with CG cut scenes seem to do things right (part of which is due to the voice actors and their acting skills).  Should FMV cut scenes just be forgotten altogether?
 
Jeffrey Harris: FACT.  Do you mean live action FMV?  I agree that games should generally just stick with fully rendered CG cinematics.  I mean when the Jedi Knight series went to fully CG cut scenes, it was much better than the cheesy looking live action ones.  Games rarely even use anything live action anymore.  However, I'll say if there's an interesting, creative use for live action in a videogame, do it.  
 
Adam Larck: FICTION. Like stated in the question, MGS4 did do live action good, and I've seen other games do it well also. My main example is Command and Conquer 3. Were they cheesy? Oh hell yes, but I liked them and thought they added to the story, or at least gave players a bit of a change in between missions. I believe FMV can and should be used, but only in the right games and right situations. Need for Speed Undercover definitely didn't fit either of those categories, and would have been much better as a CG I think.
 

We are not afraid to use live actors!

Score: 2 for 4 
 



5)  Building off of question number 4, over the years, games have become more and more like cinema.  Many do it well, and you connect with the characters (MGS4, GTAIV).  Other games (I hate to pick on you Need for Speed Undercover) try to use cinematics to drive the story and give the game a Hollywood feel, but fail on some levels with irrelevant cut scenes that deliver one or two lines like, "Show them, wheelman".  Many games just have not yet figured out how to drive a narrative while still making the gameplay fun.  Maybe games will merge more and more with movies until we can't tell them apart.  My question is this: do you think games will instead strive to find their own identity? Maybe somehow taking new directions in storytelling that are far different from film (aside from interactivity of course). 
 
Jeffrey Harris:  FACT.  Well, the thing is, I feel games have already done this.  And is also why videogames in the last several years have been outselling movies and DVD's on an astronomical level.  Resident Evil 5 was like watching an awesome action, horror, and badass comic book movie all rolled into one.  But if you made RE5 into a movie it would probably be garbage.  You can't do all the really cool things in a movie that you can do RE5, like the in-game cinematics.  That's another thing, games like RE5 and the God of War series mix cinematics with gameplay in a way that's totally fun and feasible.  I mean you sort of had these really flawed and weird games that mixed cinematics or cut scenes with gameplay on like say the 3DO or even the animated game Dragon's Lair.  But GOW and the RE series have already taken cinematics and games into a new direction I feel you are talking about above.  
 
Adam Larck: FACT. I agree fully with Jeffrey here. Many of the better games out there do have a lot of cinematics that may make it seem like they're getting closer to movies, but the one thing that will always set them apart is being able to alter the actual game to change the events. In games like GTAIV, you can choose to kill a main person that will alter a whole storyline or to save them. Doing either one can offer a big difference in the way the game plays out. In movies, however, there's one set plot. Nothing can alter or change that once it's been finished.
 
 
 Score: 3 for 5





6) Based on release lists so far, and games already on your waiting list, do you expect 2009 be a better year than 2008 for videogames: For PS3 owners?  For Wii owners? For 360 owners? 
 
Jeffrey Harris:  PS3 - FACT.  Tough call, but I'll say PS3 even though I like Wii the best.  Uncharted looks pretty tight.  RE5.  GOW 3.  UFC Undisputed.  Yes some of these games are going onto 360 as well, but . . . GOW 3.  Kratos baby.

 
Adam Larck: PS3-FACT, Xbox 360-FACT, Wii-FACT Playstation 3 is easy to say fact right now. Not only do they have a strong 3rd party line-up coming out with SF IV, RE 5, Tekken 6, and other big things throughout the year, but their 1st party line-up is also great with Killzone 2, inFAMOUS, Uncharted 2, and, of course, God of War 3. 

Going off of 3rd party games, 360 will share some of the success that PS3 owners will have. Considering one of the only big first party titles last year was Gears of War 2, having two Halo titles drop in one year, along with content for GTA IV, will give owners something to look forward to throught the year. Plus, exclusives like Alan Wake and others that have been in production for a while may also finally see the light of day with releases this year. 

And finally, the Wii. This is an obvious fact for me, because, honestly, what came out for the Wii last year? SSBB? Animal Crossing? The two big exclusives they have, No More Heroes 2 and Madworld, along with the Sega exclusive shooter coming for the system this year will easliy make this year better for the more mainstream owners of the system who want actual games.

Final Score: 4 for 6.



Well, the final score is 4 for 5. They don't quite agree on having live-actors driving your game's story, or SFIV's training mode. Other than that, things are A-OK.

'Till next time!

Keep on gaming!