The Geekbox — Episode 81 (2010-09-02)
Wherein we discuss cactus-related incidents, finally playing through Red Dead Redemption, the verdict on Metroid: Other M, more Dragon Quest 9, League of Legends, exploding game consoles, cell phone batteries, Xbox Live price hikes, the stupid Emmys, Lost: The New Man in Charge (spoiler warning!), The Office (and a favorite candidate for its new lead), Burn Notice’s season 4 finale (more spoilers!), half-empty glasses, Doctor Who, and Penny Arcade Expo activities. Starring Ryan Scott, Karen Chu, Ryan Higgins, Alice Liang, and Brock Sager.
Running Time: 1h 22m

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The rocket jump is a great technique for quickly hopping across maps in multiplayer shooters like Team Fortress 2, but I had no idea it would work so well in the real world. Don't believe me? Just check out this video:

It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: Don't try that at home, folks.

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Editor's note: While the Halo series never really captured me, I do understand getting sucked in and completely consumed by video games. My weakness was always World of Warcraft. While I've successfully kicked that habit for about a year and a half, that new expansion is looming on the horizon and is already starting to whisper to me in the dark recesses of my brain. -Jay

I haven't played it yet, but I can already tell you that Halo: Reach will be the scariest game ever made. 

Sure, other games have scary elements: Silent Hill 2 has Pyramid Head, Alan Wake has psychological terror, and the Resident Evil series has its voice acting. But Halo: Reach has something way more frightening than a mannequin-raping monster and awkward dialogue delivery -- it has online multiplayer.

No, I'm not scared of the new Halo's multiplayer because of the homophobic meat-heads on Xbox Live that toss around pejorative terms related to sexual orientation. I'm not even frightened of the squeaky-voiced 13 year olds that'll tell me that I suck and call into question my mother's chosen profession. What I'm scared of is -- despite the aforementioned assholes -- becoming addicted to the series' multiplayer ... for the third time.

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You might notice something a little different about Bitmob today. It's called Bitmob 2.0 -- and it wasn't supposed to go live for another week!

Due to some mix-up, what you're seeing now is an unfinished, only partially tested update to our site with a much cooler profile section (login and click on the Profile tab to see for yourself!), improvements (we hope...like I said, we weren't quite done yet) all over the place, and most importantly: the ability for you to add your own advertising to your posts.

At this point, it'd be way more of a hassle to revert back to Bitmob 1.1, and things seem pretty stable so far (oh please oh please oh please -- fingers quadruple crossed). So we decided to roll with this unfinished 2.0 for the time being.

Two important notes:

1. If you find any problems, can you do us a huge favor and let us know in the comments below? Our developers will be watching this thread closely and tackling any major issues as they come up.

2. We are working on making this new advertising system more intuitive, but for now, you can follow the instructions below (after the jump). AGAIN: We're not finished here, so you guys are essentially our beta testers now! Let us know if everything's working for you, please.

Thanks very much,

A very nervous Bitmob staff

p.s. If you need a primer on how to post stories here, check out our guided tour.

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Role-playing games and trading cards rule in this edition of the Community Spotlight.

Sport: The RPG
By Alex Martin
Sports are a mess of statistics and seasonal averages that can put even the most intelligent passing observer in a daze. Those stats come from the player's in-game performance. But what if athletes were graded on actual physical ability, like attributes in RPGs? Under Armour, a leading developer of sports equipment, intends to do just that with their new athlete rating system called Combine360.

ESRB Game Rating Tips for Parents
By Louis Garcia
Louis brings up several good and beneficial points in this article aimed toward haggard parents and their gaming children. I've worked in game stores for many years, and whenever a child insists that an M-rated title is not as bad as Grand Theft Auto, I try very hard to convince the parents that they should do a little more research before buying it. Louis wants parents to be more aware of what they buy their children, and that is the real purpose of ESRB ratings.

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Here's an easy trivia question for you: What do Contra, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game, and Golden Axe have in common? Correct, each is an Xbox Live Arcade rerelease with cooperative online  multiplayer. I would have also accepted "each game has aged like a 25-year-old jar of mayonnaise."

Online co-op not only makes these beloved classics playable again, but completely enjoyable. Nostalgia plays a huge role, sure. But it's sharing this sensation with friends -- in my case, many of which live too far from my couch for that kind of co-op -- that makes the experience great again.

So tell me, modern-day developer: Why are you removing the option to share anything at all with these friends? As I see it, you're not only neglecting cooperative multiplayer, but you're aggressively ignoring it as well.

Are you ready for some shocking news? This sucks.

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Editor's note: Is the Mass Effect movie adaption dead in the water? Paul thinks so, and he makes a pretty convincing case why it is. Do you agree with him? -Brett

The Internet went nuts back in May, when The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Legendary Pictures (producers of 300, Where the Wild Things Are, and The Dark Knight) had secured the film rights to the hit BioWare series Mass Effect. Less exciting -- at least to me -- was the news that Ari Arad, who produced stinkers like Ghost Rider and Punisher, will executive produce alongside his pops, Avi Arad. To make matters worse, the story revealed that Mark Protosevich, who bored me to tears with his scripts for The Cell and Poseidon, is on board to write the screenplay.

Not exactly a promising start. Nonetheless, on video-game message boards and movie blogs alike, excitement abounds.

This wave of frenzied excitement is the first phase of a now-familiar pattern in the gestation of any Uwe Boll-less video-game movie. The initial announcement is always delivered to much fanfare, and the producers make a point to assure fans that they’ve learned from the mistakes of the approximately 8,000 horrible video-game movies and bring moviegoers a film that will magically entertain the masses without snubbing fans of the source material.

Soon enough, however, several people shuffle in and out of the production line-up, two or three scripts are summarily rejected, someone with legitimate acting chops (usually Ben Kingsley) mysteriously signs on, and then...we hear nothing. A couple of years and numerous video-game sequels later, out pops a movie so lackluster that people wonder what possessed them to get excited in the first place.

Maybe someday, some happy accident will result in an enjoyable video-game film being made. But the Mass Effect movie project is proof that it’s not worth all the time, money, and popcorn butter-related stomach cramps, and here’s why.

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Now we can add Apple to the list of companies with free online-gaming services while Microsoft raises the price of Xbox Live subscriptions. I'm just sayin'....

At an Apple keynote speech today, company CEO Steve Jobs revealed that they plan to release the Game Center app for the iPhone "next week" and the iPad in November. Game Center -- similar to Microsoft's Xbox Live service -- sports a friend system, leaderboards, and achievements. Also at the event, Epic Games president Mike Capps showed off his studio's new Unreal Engine 3-powered iPhone et al. game, Project Sword (codename), which features a medieval setting. If you listen close enough, you can hear the cries of thousands of new-born iPhone-gaming fanboys. [Joystiq]

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Editor's note: I don't know what else to say other than Tobias' comparison is really astute. -James

Monday saw an announcement that the price of an Xbox Live Gold membership is going up. The new pricing schedule takes effect November 1st, with a one-year membership increasing from $50 to $60. Nerd rage quickly bubbled up across the Net, and some of it's totatlly justified

Larry Hryb, Director of Programming for Xbox Live, justified the price hike stating, "Since launching Xbox Live in 2002, we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences for our members, while keeping the price the same."

This is all true. When I first started on Xbox Live in 2005 it was specifically because I wanted to play games online. Since then, the advantages of Gold have grown. I get early access to game demos; I can use Netflix, Last.fm, Facebook, and Twitter in my living room; and I recieve weekly discounts on downloadable content. Moreoever, at this year's E3, Microsoft announced a partnership with ESPN in addition to Hulu Plus and AT&T U-verse support.

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The developers of LittleBigPlanet 2 are introducing a grappling hook into the series. Despite the tool's ubiquity in games, have any of you ever tried to use one of those things in real life? Not easy.

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Editor's note: I have not played Mafia 2, so I can't speak as to what the developers' intentions were with regards as to how different races were portrayed. I think that it's possible that they were trying to illustrate the way things were in those times. The fact that Errol was uncomfortable treating people in a racist manner indicates to me that perhaps the developers succeeded in illustrating just how bad things were for minorities back then.

On the other hand, sometimes games are downright racist.

Interestingly enough, it's an Italian-American group UNICO that has thus far, been the most vocal about the way they're portrayed in the game. In his response to the charges made by the orginization, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick told GameSpot "At Take-Two, we balance our right to free expression with what we believe is a thoughtful and responsible approach to creating and marketing our products. … We will only release a title that meets our standards: as art, as entertainment and as a socially responsible product... I fully and completely stand behind our creative teams and products, including Mafia 2."

Clearly, this is a sensitive topic, and Errol has a strong opinion on the matter. I promote this piece not for the conclusions drawn by the author, but for the questions it raises. Does Mafia 2 cross the line, or do you think that there's another layer to the way the game addresses racism that has perhaps been overlooked? How do you feel about the way other developers have handled this issue in other games? I look forward to hearing your thoughts. - Aaron

Mafia 2 takes place during a time when segregation was the norm in American society. It is my opinion that the game's developers use this time period to exploit many racist views and ideas throughout the story. I felt uneasy as I was asked to steal a car from what the main character refers to as a "moolie" neighborhood.

I was uncomfortable as I listened to Joe talk about how all blacks do is smoke dope and kill each other, as I drove around Empire City. I had to tell myself "It's the 40's," to rationalize the insensitivity. When I found myself repeating that phrase over and over I knew there was a problem.

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Someday I'll be rich, and I too will have an awesome assortment of gaming paraphernalia. Until then, I'll just watch this video of this kid's giant Mario collection. We can all live vicariously through him.

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Editor's note: The used-games debate is a hot topic this week, and Rachel interestingly takes publishers' primary argument -- that used games "cheat" developers -- to its logical conclusion. I'll just say that I'm pleased the secondhand market bought one of the greatest console games into her home, and that sort of increased participation in the hobby can only mean good things for the industry in the long term. -Rob

A few weeks ago, I was in my local Barnes and Noble agonizing over a purchase. On my way out --already committed to spending quite a bit of money -- I spotted a cookbook. Like most of these, it was expensive. Leafing through the recipes, I couldn’t make up my mind, and after several minutes I put it back. Later, I decided that I would go back and buy the book after my next paycheck.

The next day, I went to my local library. To my delight, the cookbook was front and center in the new arrivals section. Grinning like an idiot, I practically hugged the volume as I removed it. I was immensely proud of myself -- just think of all the money I saved!

I did not, even for a moment, feel guilty.

Then one night, I put the cookbook down next to my used copy of Demon’s Souls. I bought the action-role-player from an independent game store at a price significantly below GameStop’s used offering.

I don’t buy secondhand often. I can truthfully say that the last used game I bought before Demon's Souls was from the now departed chain Babbages. It’s been that long. Seeing the two items side-by-side, I suddenly wondered if I should feel guilty for not supporting the book’s author with a new purchase.

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I always have a bunch of game-related thoughts running through my head. Sometimes one of those thoughts is enough for an entire article, and sometimes it’s not. I feel like I’ve had a lot of little things on my mind lately, so I sat down and typed them out stream-of-consciousness-style.

This week I ponder price hikes, new D-pads, and the game convention that's by the people, for the people.

Xbox Live is getting more expensive. Clearly this is the worst news in history! OK, not really -- only if you read the comments on Major Nelson's blog (Hint: don't).

I don't know if I buy the argument that the addition of stuff like Netflix, LastFM, and other non-gaming features are a good reason for a price hike. I buy the “but the price has been the same since 2002,” rationale even less. I pay for Xbox Live to play games online; this was a feature of the original Xbox Live and it's really the only feature I use. Why should I pay more for bells and whistles I have little interest in? I shouldn't.

There's an easy solution to all of this: Make it so the gold subscription will only let you play games and download demos, and give folks like me a price cut. Then create a “diamond” tier of service that includes Netflix, Facebook, and lame avatars, and charge more for it. Problem solved. You're welcome!

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Last week I attended an event for the just-released Disney Guilty Party on the Wii. It's a minigame collection wrapped up in a Clue-inspired whodunnit, so the event organizers decided to have some fun handing out the review copies to journalists. Instead of handing them out as we left, they handed us a "Sleuth's Notebook" filled with clues that would lead us to the combination of an old-timey safe in the back, where the review copies were securely locked up.

The end result was a cross between a scavenger hunt and an Amazing Race Roadblock -- complete with a guard in character making sure people didn't cheat. And it was definitely the most bizarre way I've ever received a game for review.

Check out scans of the clues after the jump:

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Would a BioShock movie be anything but a letdown? It'd be no different than BioShock 2; you can't really wow us with Rapture the same way you did the first time.

News Blips:

The BioShock movie is still coming. We haven't heard much about the film adaptation of Ken Levine's blockbuster game since we were told that production was halted due to budgetary concerns. I guess filming an entire movie in an underwater city is kind of expensive. Ken Levine recently told a DC radio station that the project is, "...something we are actively discussing, quite actively, and actively working on." [Kotaku]

This collector's edition turns me Tron. See what I did there? It's a play on words...like, turn me on, but with Tron. Ahem. The collector's edition for Disney Interactive's Tron: Evolution comes with a miniature light cycle, plus a case to store it and the game in. This title really surprised me at E3. I might be all over this. It gives me a hard Tron. [1UP]

Final Fantasy 14 beta is late to its own adventuring party. The open beta for Final Fantasy 14 was supposed to start today. Apparently, some last-minute critical bugs have prevented that. This is worrying for a game that's supposed to launch later this month. [Kotaku]

Split/Second gets two DLC packs, one for each piece of that previously whole second. The Elite Vehicle Livery Pack is free and includes liveries for three of the game's old cars. The High Octane Supercar Pack gives you three new vehicles for 160 Microsoft Points ($2). I loved Split/Second, but I think I'm going to wait for the new track before I spend any money on DLC. [Joystiq]

Got any hot news tips? Send 'em over to tips@bitmob.com.

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I get the feeling that not a lot of core gamers played last year's stunningly capricious adventure game Drawn: The Painted Tower. I know I didn't -- at least not until about a month ago when I received a code for the game as part of its sequel's preview package. Because of this, you may well be wondering why I would even bother writing up a rundown of its sequel Drawn: Dark Flight.

The reason is simple: Both Dark Flight and its predecessor easily eclipse any other indie titles I've played in recent months in terms of atmosphere, originality, and overall quality.

Developer Big Fish Studios is positioning the series as “hidden-object game" with a casual bent, but make no mistake, Dark Flight fits the conventional definitions of an adventure game to a T. Throughout the title's five- to six-hour escapade, you can expect to encounter myriad context-sensitive brain teasers and assorted logic puzzles.

At first glance, it seems like pretty standard fare for the genre. Underneath the hood, however, it's a standout experience.

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Some day I will own my own pinball machine. Preferably one based off of a movie. Then I'll be cool and everyone will like me.

Video Blips:

The Xbox 360 controller gets a new directional pad. The new d-pad looks like a big improvement, but I guess we'll have to wait until November 9 before we can get our hands on one.

Continue after the break for a look at Brink's interesting look, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimension's hard sell, and some pinball loving for the Xbox Live Arcade.

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If you get tired of all the crowds and noise at PAX this coming weekend, why not take a break and join the crowd and noise at...a fake local hardware store?

Capcom is erecting a pop-up Greene's Hardware, the fictional shop from the upcoming Dead Rising 2, at a vacant spot about three blocks away from the PAX convention center. If you go this Friday night, you will have a chance to snag some freebie grab bags, play DR2 early, build life-sized versions of the combo weapons from the game, or even buy some stuff (exactly what is to be determined still).

To promote this community event (that means you're all invited), Capcom PR firm Fortyseven Communications distributed these circulars for the "Greene's Hardware Super Sale." Check more of these out, as well as details for the event, after the jump.

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Can you help Mario find his way to the pipe? Normal Super Mario Bros. conventions apply here: the only safe things for Mario to jump on are the Koopas (the green turtles, for you Mario haters.) Mario can jump over the other hazardous enemies, but he can't land on them. Also, for reasons known only to cartoon Italian plumbers, Mario can only jump three spaces horizontally and vertically (no more and no less) and exactly two spaces diagonally within the confines of this puzzle. If you find yourself running short on time, head over to page two for the solution.

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