We've got lots of good stuff from the Bitmob community this week, as usual! Read on after the break for a reimagining of Braid in text and music, more than one post about franchises Bitmobbers would like to see revived (including multiple Sega classics, and the unexpected Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels), humor articles by Luke McKinney, Chukwuma Morah, and Max Besong, and much more.
Video Game Celebrity Autographed Cards are the Next Big Thing By Juan Martinez Juan's got kind of a crazy idea for the baseball card-ification of video game industry heaveyweights. I dunno. A signed Miyamoto rookie card, maybe, but I think he should axe the video game journalists from his hit-list. Now if he can get the whole Twin Galaxies Superstar Players line-up on board, I'm there. I will not sell you my gem mint former Gorf champ Todd Rogers at any price.
20th Century Spud: The Case Against Digital Distribution By Daniel Feit This is actually less of an anti-digital distribution rant and more a love letter to Japanese game store Super Potato. Needs pics though! Hot pics of game racks, all on wanton display.
Gaming Made Me By Reed Brown Inspired by the Gaming Made Me series over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Reed makes his own list of games that inspired his love of the medium, and politely requests that you list yours.
Don't Oversimplify Game Stories By Jeffrey Sandlin Jeff if is a strong believer in directed narrative in games, and not a fan of silent protagonists. It's an interesting contrast to Omar Yusuf's post, Between Scripting and Silence, which basically argues the complete opposite point. Stick around for the comments!
Xbox Live Cheating and Controller Mods By Jasmine Maleficent Rea Jasmine considers Microsoft's laissez-faire attitude towards Xbox Live cheaters, and a popular auto-fire controller mod all the young jerks are using these days.
In the grand tradition of Bitmob Giveaways (towels, art books, etc.), we now have in our possession two (2) Shadow Complex t-shirts for the giving away of.
Welcome to the first edition of Origin Stories, our series about the specific influences developers draw on when designing their own games. In this installment, Gaijin Games CEO, Bit.Trip Core designer, and retro game collector Alex Neuse talks about how Atari 2600 title Cosmic Ark helped shape the gameplay fundamentals of Core.
And to offer more insight into the design process, Neuse also opens his notebook to share a sketch of his initial idea for Core, and a more refined design document (after the break).
Alex Neuse: In terms of Cosmic Ark being an inspiration for the game, it actually didn't come about right away. I knew that I wanted to move from one axis (like in Beat) towards two for Core, and mimicking the + control pad [shape] on-screen seemed like a neat idea.
As I started playing around with that idea, I wanted to find some other games that did something similar. I started looking at other rhythm/music games, and remembered the defense sections in Gitaroo Man. I dusted off my copy of that excellent game and started playing around with it.
But I didn't want to get too complex and require players to remember a lot of buttons (which would be more akin to the action in Gitaroo Man). I wanted it to be much simpler. So I started wracking my brains to think of a 2600 game with similar gameplay, and it struck me -- Cosmic Ark. It's one of my favorite 2600 games, too! How could I not have thought of it before?
Our Spotlight series is in catch-up mode again, so expect another edition around midweek. Many more reviews after the break!
Neotokyo By Art Siriwatt This heavily stylized Half-Life 2 mod is a potential Counter-Strike successor. And Art likes it: "Neotokyo is easily one of the best tactical shooters to come out this year; if you want a intense corner-peeking shooter that you are willing to be patient with to learn its rules, Neotokyo is perfect."
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood By Matt Gerardi I'm playing through Call of Juarez right now, so it was especially interesting to read Matt's thoughts on this flawed-but-entertaining take on the Western genre. Sounds like the duel sequences are better on the console version -- I can't stand the duels on PC.
Watchmen: Justice is Coming By Matthew Erazo A Watchmen MMO for iPhone with combat that is almost literally rock-scissors-paper? How could that possibly go wrong? Matthew counts the ways.
Trine By James DeRosa While Trine, a physics-based PC platformer (coming soon to PS3) with a fantasy setting, technically came from Finland by way of developer Frozenbyte, it also came out of nowhere. James takes a pretty thorough look at the game, and has a lot to say about its final level.
And Game Twits returns with a selection of interesting/funny/distressing Twitter communiqués from the gaming industry, as per usual.... (More after the break.)
John Romero, co-founder of Gazillion, with an important safety announcement. Good to know someone's taking the time to imagine the horrific transit accidents of tomorrow.
Game designer/programmer Soren Johnson (Spore, Civ3/4) responds to Denis Dyack's claim that game narrative may eventually supersede gameplay, which in turn spawned this huge discussion among the game design twitterati.
Microsoft's Major Nelson alerts all 48,498 followers (more than two Madison Square Gardens-worth!) to BREAKING NEWS about his airport Internet connection situation!
Indie game designer Petri Purho admits to not only a pro-unicycle stance, but also that he owns multiple unicycles.
Yuna plus Bahamut plus Cloud vs. Kasumi plus a clone army, who would win? Find out, and find more videos of Mafia 2, Shadow Complex, and The Beatles: Rock Band after the break.
Dead Fantasy 4 -- The fourth installment of Monty Oum's 'what if Final Fantasy chicks fought Dead or Alive chicks?' series features Yuna vs. Kasumi, and an ending that has no doubt already inspired a legion of Yuna/Cloud fan fiction authors.
Petri Purho of Crayon Physics Deluxe and Kloonigames.com recently released Post I.T. Shooter (download it here), a game created according to the Experimental Gameplay Project rules. One of those rules is that the game should be completed within seven days, so Post I.T. isn't exactly Ikaruga, but it does have space invaders and some damn cool explosions.
In the spirit of the game (short, sweet, made of Post-it notes), I interviewed Purho according to Experimental Interview Project guidelines (full interview after the break):
Our latest community spotlight post covers such diverse topics as why we choose particular character types in fighting games, how Left 4 Dead simulates an aspect of World War 2 combat better than any WW2 game, and the surprisingly good Buzz! HQ quiz game in Sony's Home. Read on after the jump for more entries!
How Multiple Endings Can Ruin a Game By Derek Amundson It's not that Derek doesn't like all games with multiple endings -- just most of the ones we have now. BioShock, Infamous, and Fallout 3 get a lambasting for gameplay choices that sometimes aren't actually much of a choice at all.
Why Left 4 Dead is Secretly the Best WW2 Shooter Ever By Jim Savannah Jim makes the somewhat unsuspected argument (assuming you don't read the title of his post) that L4D's sense of camaraderie is something that no dedicated World War 2 game has ever equaled.
Intermissions: Citizen Kane Mobile By Brett Bates Have you been waiting and waiting for the Citizen Kane of videogames to show up? Well, it's finally here!
We've got some good stuff this week, as always. Check out the Bitmob community's take on OnLive and Gaikai, freelancing tips from the pros, one man's ode to Burnout Paradise, and many more after the break.
Learning About Freelancing By Bill Strait Like a good freelancer, Bill did some old-fashioned research and came up with this great post about how to break into the game writing freelance market. Robert Ashley, 1UP's Sam Kennedy, and Joystiq's Chris Grant all lend quotes and advice.
The Curse of the Breasted McGuffin By Jeffrey Sandlin "Here's a clue for you, fiction writers. Women can do stuff besides make men want to protect and/or bone them, they have brains and limbs and often times have meaningful opinions and goals in life." It's at this point that someone brings up the counter-example of Jade in Beyond Good and Evil, but that's about all anyone's got.
Flying in the F.A.S.T. Lane By Matthew Erazo I think this is the first developer interview conducted by a Bitmob community member! Matthew chats with Eric Lindstrom, one of the guys behind iPhone jet-fighting game F.A.S.T. You can also find Matthew's review here.
Depth and Substance By Brandon Van Haren Alternate title: Deep Thoughts on BioShock. Brandon goes beyond Atlas Shrugged in this examination of historical influences on the world and story of BioShock. We're talking Atlantis, the Mayan calendar, polar shifts, through the looking glass stuff.
Prototype (PC, XB360, PS3) By Andrew Josefchak "Prototype is not the kind of game you could call 'an experience' or 'innovative,' due to the complete lack of immersion, story, and anything particularly new. In fact, the story could be described as 'cockamamie,' if you are an 18th-century English gentleman," writes Andrew. The perspective of 18th-century English gentlemen is sadly ignored in most game reviews.
Fallout 3 DLC (PC, XB360, PS3) By Scott Haveman In case you haven't dipped your toe in the Capital Wasteland lately, Scott delivers the run-down on all of Fallout's downloadable content (so far). Timely, what with the recent release of Lookout Point.
Ghostbusters (Wii) By Cory Birdsong Cory couldn't bring himself to actually finish Ghostbusters, so that's probably not a good sign.
Ghostbusters (PC, XB360, PS3) By Rob Thomas Young Rob asked for a Proton Pack and PKE Meter for Christmas, and also, wisely, opted to review a non-Wii version of the game, so don't be surprised if he liked it.
Man, you guys are writing a lot of reviews. Don't stop! Here's a batch that deserves your attention, with another, bumper Reviews Spotlight to come in a day or two. If you wrote a review a week ago and it's not here, it may still appear in the next one. Many more after the jump, too!
The Conduit (Wii) By Allistair Everett "The Conduit [is] an old school shooter in the style of GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, and the original Halo," writes Allistair. Which sounds pretty good, until he gets to this part: "...between the claustrophobic level design, slow health rejuvenation, and Wii controls that make it difficult to move and turn quickly, this can lead to some deaths that feel really unfair."
Black Sigil(DS) By Brian Shirk To be honest, my lack of knowledge about Japanese role-playing games makes me unfit to review this review of Black Sigil. But I think it's good. Brian Shirk usually knows what he's talking about when it comes to RPGs, right? Historically? If this review came in a box, you could imagine that I just reviewed that box.
Topple 2(iPhone) By Matthew Erazo Think your iPhone could benefit from more block stacking? Well, does Matthew have a block stacking opportunity for you! In other block news, this is the beginning of the Matthew Erazo Reviews Block.
Fight Night Round 4 (XB360, PS3) By Matthew Erazo When not stacking blocks, Matthew is also a big-time boxing fan. He breaks down exactly why Fight Night Round 4 is a more accomplished fighter than 3.
This is what you need to know about Alex Neuse and his three-man-development shop, Gaijin Games, a sort of FUBU for serious gamers: They draw inspiration from retro classics such as Pong, they mess around with different control schemes, they like their games hard as hell, and they're pros at creating that rare 'in the zone' feeling.
Bit.Trip Core, the second in the planned six-game Bit.Trip sextilogy, is the 100th WiiWare release, and that's no accident. Nintendo's happy to support more games that appeal to the hardcore crowd -- heck, 'core' is even in the title.
Neuse's explanation is a little different. "I think Nintendo wants the Wiiware service to be this place for experimental or more creatively-free games, and as a developer, I see that as well. The way that Nintendo handles the service is very developer-friendly, so that I can make a game with my crew that we want to make, and Nintendo lets us."
The Spotlight is late this week, but also about twice the usual size, so ultimately it's a net win. Read on for great Bitmob posts you might have missed, covering such topics as Mass Effect 2's spoilerish non-spoiler, terrible console TV ads, the guy from Infamous's previous life as a DC Comics hero, and way more after the jump.
Real-Life Orb Hunting Considering LARPing but not quite sure you have the guts to battle imaginary dragons in public? Bill Strait's got something a little tamer that might be up your alley: Geocaching. You may still get strange looks, but you won't have to carry around a cardboard sword.
Mass Effect 2: Non-Spoiler Warning! Andrew Power manages to avoid spoiling the end of Mass Effect 2 by telling you the ending. Kind of amazing, but it works.