Editor's Note: I generally agree with Trevor that game sequels are better than movie sequels...though I think you'll find plenty of quickie cash-ins in both industries. I won't argue that game sequels are usually technically superior, though. What do you think? -Greg

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Take a moment to think about every good movie that resulted in a sequel. Were any of those sequels as good as the original? Heck, no. Movies sequels often fall into the trap of trying to completely copy the original movie but adding an aspect to the movie that didn't need to be there.

A good example is the sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which was called Dead Man's Chest. Dead Man's Chest tried to completely copy The Curse of the Black Pearl, which just milked the original concept and made it well-worn.

The aspect that was added to the original idea was comedy, which while being sort of funny, didn't fit with the rest of the movie. There are some exceptions to this rule, though. For example, The Dark Knight was leaps and bounds above Batman Begins.

Well this is an epic pirate tale.

Now think about all the sequels to good games you've ever played. Have they been generally better than the original?

I feel pretty proud of my writing on Bitmob. Only one of my stories has been promoted, but I expected it. I am actually a very good writer (in my opinion) for my age. But I am sure that if you double my age, you would get the average age of a Bitmobber. I am 14 and a half years old, going into high school. Am I the youngest Bitmobber? I don't know, so I'm challenging you all to find a Bitmobber younger than me. If you can, you win 10,000,000 Trevor Hinkle achievement points (now you have to do it Shoe). Without further ado, let the games begin!

When Left 4 Dead 2 was announced at E3, there was a lot of backlash from the fans who thought that this game didn't have enough in it to be a sequel. From what I've seen, I would think otherwise. But this event does raise an important question:  Where do we draw the line between content that could be an add-on and content that could be a sequel?

After reading many intelligent articles on Bitmob, one might want to take a break and read some dumb stuff, right? Well here I am to deliver a less thought-provoking conversation about Infamous that me and my friend Lucas had over email. This starts after I had asked him how far he was in Infamous. People who are playing the game will get the most out of this conversation. Enjoy the amazing grammar!

Lucas: im pretty far for 2 days Ive got 89% of the territory in neon district and im on trish reaches out,  i choose hero what about u?

Recently, I was playing the bus-riding mission in Infamous (if you have got to around the 26th mission of the game, you probably will know what I'm talking about) when I felt a feeling I haven't felt in a long time in a game. My brain was saying "Holy crap! Look at what I'm doing in the game!". I was climbing as fast as I could up the side of a building while a massive shootout was happening below me, with more than a few of those guns pointed in my direction. I had to get to the top to save a busload of innocent people and my girlfriend. This was the first time in a long time that I felt like I was really transcending into the world of video games. Many people state the reason that they play games as that they want to do things that they can't do in real life. These "holy crap moments" are some of the best examples of that.

Now that both of the eerily similar-looking open-world blockbusters of the early summer have come out, who won the fans over, Infamous or Prototype?

When Sony announced sixaxis control for the PS3 controller, people were psyched. They thought that Sony had a Wii-killer: good graphics and motion control. They weren't exactly correct. Here are a few examples of the best and worst implementations of sixaxis in games so far.

Sixaxis Failures

It's a new podcast that I just found with an all-star cast. Not only is Shawn Elliot steering the virtual ship, but Jeff Green, Luke Smith, N'Gai Croal, and Robert Ashley back him up with podcast awesomeness. I can't believe I just heard about this! The whole idea of the podcast is to talk about things other than videogames. This leads to some hilarious conversations (Wife Swap) and some smart and serious ones (Like how people make split-second decisions). Definitely check it out on iTunes!

On last week's PC Gamer podcast, Logan Decker announced that PC Gamer would have a world-exclusive first look at a game that is "OM Double G" in the upcoming August 2009 issue. Later in the episode, they started talking about what Blizzard's new MMO might be about out of the blue. Because of this, I am predicting that this announcement is the new Blizzard MMO. In the past, PC Gamer has gotten the exclusives for several Blizzard games, including the review of Diablo 2 and the announcement of Starcraft 2. This is definitely a feasible guess. What do you guys think? Do you have a different idea about this mystery game?

Basically, the way this podcast would work is that anyone from the community would send a segment to me (or anyone else who wants to host and/or edit the show) and we would piece all of the segments that were sent in together and make a show. The segments have no real criteria, they could be about games or off topic (like talking about the Lost finale or new Batman movie). They could be you sitting around with a couple of buddies or just you by yourself. You could even do some Shawn Elliot style social experiments (see GFW Radio for the week of 6/26/08, it's still archived on 1up). Please let me know what you think!

One of my favorite multiplayer games ever is 007 Nightfire. Not becuase of the amazing gameplay or great weapons. Not becuase of fantastic balance. But becuase of who I played it with. Nightfire is a mediocre, last-generation James Bond shooter with terrible single player and okay multiplayer. My fanatical friends and I would invent games within the game when we played it together, like only being able to use fists (almost impossible to use) and Odjob's Hat (a one-hit kill if you are amazingly lucky enough to hit someone with it). It is full of chaotic fun and a lot of trash-talking. One part of the game that is pretty fun in multiplayer is the Sentinel gun. This is a player-guided missile launcher that is hard to control, but has a satisfying effect. Many games were just a race to get to the Sentinel and then take potshots at the rest of us.

"Metal Rang against metal a dozen times, two dozen, as Drizzt impossibly defeated each attack. Then the second drow joined the melee and Drizzt, as skilled as he was, found himself sorely pressed. Twinkle snapped across to block the short sword, darting farther ahead and low to knock down the tip of the thrusting broadsword, then rifled back the other way, barely deflecting the darting dirk."

Greatest. Viral. Video. Ever. This is an ad for the new Popcap game Plants vs. Zombies. You aren't human if you don't get this song stuck in your head after you watch this:

No, this isn't a rant. I have definitely had my fair share of blogs that I gave up on (A Guide to Gaming, Flashbang, Brain-Dead Empire, Guild Fans: A Guild Wars fan blog and Gaming Godzilla, to name just a few). I finally turned to an easier way to blog, on 1up.com and now on Bitmob. My blogs on other sites never had any hits, which always discouraged me. Whenever I tried to blatantly advertise my blogs on forum posts, I was ridiculed (though I probably deserved it). How do you advertise a blog? Good question. Do you need some sort of external media like a podcast or video show to make your blog worth checking out? Some people think just writing is too vanilla and they want something more.  So this is my question to you, the readers: What do you think makes a blog marketable and notable, besides good writing? Is good writing enough? Do you need to have carved out your own niche with no competition to have a popular blog?

I thought that it would be a cool idea to start a backlog for Bitmob, and I am conveniently playing Call of Duty 3, a great backlog game, right now. Here are my impressions so far: