This is my first jump into the Bitmob waters, and just wanted to give a quick background. I used to write at a small gaming website, but since it started having problems a few months back, the time I devote to writing has gone downhill significantly. I’m giving this a shot to get myself back in the action, and I decided to focus – at least for the time being – on DSiWare games because I love the growing downloadable market (plus, when you can get a decent title for $2, you can’t go wrong!). Thanks for reading.
Please find enclosed the second installment in our (and your) Best of 2009 Non-Awards. Part three is on the way, followed by our Best Game(s) of 2009, then...the Best Worst ofs. And in case you missed it:
While many developers and publishers try to save some cash (or
show how "smart" they are) by going with an unknown actor for their
voice-acting needs, Rocksteady Studios and Eidos wisely opted for an actor who
long ago had proven he could play Joker's unique brand of crazy on Batman: The Animated Series.Hamill's commitment to make the
Joker sound like an absolute raving lunatic is what makes his performance so
great. If you swap Hamill for a half-assed actor, neither the Joker nor the
game as a whole would be as interesting.
Words alone don't Hamill's
performance justice, so sit back, watch this video, and admire the madness.
Let's pretend you're the president of Afghanistan for a second: You govern a nation which still struggles with the insurgency movement of the Taliban. Your citizens have begged you for reform and foreign leaders have labeled your nation as a "breeding ground for terrorist activity." Needless to say, it's high time you whip your country into shape. But how do you de-radicalize extremists? Well, if you're Hamid Karzai, you give them video games.
On Monday, I'm attending an event for a little game you may have heard of: Final Fantasy 13. I'll be interviewing producer Yoshinori Kitase, director Motumu Toriyama, art director Isamu Kamikukuryo, and battle director Yuji Abe while I'm there, and because Bitmob feeds on community interaction (and, to be honest, because I'm not the JRPG nut some of you are), I thought I'd throw the Q portion of the Q&A to you guys.
So let me know your burning Final Fantasy questions in the comments. Want to know the ins and outs of the new battle system? Which of your favorite spells will be returning? Or maybe you simply want to know how a baby chocobo can subsist in an afro?
In other words, I want questions ranging from the serious and the frivolous. I'll gather up the best of them to ask the developers on Monday, and you'll all be credited in the forthcoming story.
What are you waiting for? Hit the comments button and ask away!
Maybe BioWare should just send out magnifying glasses to gamers who're having difficulty reading the text in Mass Effect 2 on their standard-definition TVs.
The Bitmob Mailbag is back and ready for your questions. If you want to be a part of the fun, submit a query to
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subject: “Mailbag” and we’ll blow your mind with our insightful answers.*
*Bitmob is not responsible for any minds blown while reading the Mailbag. Consult your physician if the Mailbag lasts longer then eight hours. Mailbag not valid in Iowa. Mailbag good while supplies last. Read at your own risk.
Hey Bitmob,
I've noticed that different editors on the site are free to make their own stylistic choices in regards to editing our pieces. Sometimes, the edited article sounds like the editor wrote it, not the author, and some basic tenets of AP Style seem very flexible, even from one article to the next. Are there any plans to implement universal editing guidelines to maintain consistency between pieces while retaining the author's voice?
- Michael Rousseau
Jason: While it's important to maintain an author's voice, if that voice is stilted, awkward, unwieldy while presenting its ideas, and full of cliché, it's an editor's job to help the author refine that voice so that it's easy to read and understand.
In a climactic commemoration of Halo 2's stellar performance on the original Xbox platform, developer Bungie plans to host one final multiplayer get-together on Xbox Live before the service is discontinued for the aged console.
Who knows what Heavy Rain's gameplay will be like. What we do know is there's a woman in her underwear; and that, my friends, is enough for some guys to go out and buy the game.
Video Blips:
• Buried somewhere in all this "real-time in-game footage" is an actual game (supposedly). If you have any clue as to what you can control and what you have to watch, please fill me in. [GameVideos]
In case you missed (or forgot about) the original announcement, here's a reminder: The Bitmob community and staff plans on getting together tonight for a few games of Fat Princess on the PlayStation 3.
Editor's note: A community-driven monthly guide for new RPGs? Sign me up! Jeremy plans on giving us the scoop on what's coming out each month on the RPG scene. February looks to be an especially promising (and expensive) month. I'm having a grand time with Star Trek Online and am eager to pop White Knight Chronicles into my PS3 this afternoon. Are you eager for any of these games? And if you already have one or more of them, let us know if they're worth our hard-earned treasure. -Jason
Role-playing-game fans live in a wealth of riches these days. The genre receives entries from all corners of the world and with different styles. This can make it hard for gamers to makes sense of the multitude of releases. But take heart! This monthly column breaks down each month's RPG releases, including gameplay descriptions and word on the street about a game's equality.
We’ve got lots of console releases this month, though most of them don’t strictly fit their own genres. That often makes for more interesting gameplay experiences, but let’s see how these fare.
Scoff if you want, but the 2008 U.S. release of Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer, a remake of the original Super Famicom game, was both an incredibly overlooked and incredibly satisfying RPG. Roguelikes don’t get a lot of love outside of niche audiences, but the Shiren series stands out for its well-designed mechanics and its persistent worlds. Think turn-based dungeon crawler but with a Mario-like progression thanks to the fact that you lose all your items and levels and must start at the beginning when you die. Creative thinking and use of resources can get you out of an impossible situation with some chess-like planning. And since you lose all your items and levels when you die, your experiences and cunning are core to you surviving the game.
The Battlefield Bad Company 2 Multiplayer beta has been out for a while on Xbox 360 and PC, and it was just released recently on PS3. I for one have been playing tons of it, and I've been loving it so far. It got me thinking, though, is it as good as the current multiplayer game in my life?
You just saved the princess after slaying hordes of monsters that stood in your path. The princess requests one last deed to end the evil forever and save the kingdom. You pack up your belongings, your mighty sword, and mount on to your trusty steed to take off on one last quest to kill the final boss. The drums are beating, the gongs are chiming, and the horns are roaring. Epic has never sounded better. But what makes it epic?
More than one benefactor plays in to role when exploring a hidden temple, experiencing a moving cutscene, or going toe-to-toe with that final boss in the end -- and it's not just the story. It's the power of music alongside storytelling.
I think fighting games have been turned into movies more than any other genre. This baffles me. The plot of every fighter is never much more than an excuse to get an unlikely cast of characters involved in some tournament. Do these stories really need big-screen adaptations? Luckily, I love bad movies.
Editor's note: Figuring out episodic content is definitely one of the industry's greatest conundrums. Stephen uses the format of older games to explain how stuttered story dissemination isn't so strange. And while I'm not sure that Square titles would work as meted content, I do agree that game makers should take a lesson from the development cycle of TV production. -James
An episode of a good television show needs to contain three
things: First of all, it should tell an interesting singular story
that's accessible to someone who hasn't seen the show before. Second,
it should develop the concerned characters in a way that leaves room
for growth in latter episodes. Third, it should reinforce the theme
that the program is exploring. Many top-tier video games already follow
this structure, but we still have very few truly episodic games.
In
this article, I hope to show how I would chop some previously published titles into bite-sized nuggets. Also, I'd like to offer some suggestions as
to how a developer can build an episodic game from the ground up.
Best Character: The Joker, Batman: Arkham Asylum
Hey Bitmob,
Role-playing-game fans live in a wealth of riches these days. The genre receives entries from all corners of the world and with different styles. This can make it hard for gamers to makes sense of the multitude of releases. But take heart! This monthly column breaks down each month's RPG releases, including gameplay descriptions and word on the street about a game's equality.
