Bitmob.com

We've taken the video game preview back.

The Bitmob community waited in the bushes and ambushed the video game press. On pain of death, we took our prize, and like Robin Hood and his merry men, we're giving it all back.

We asked you to write about your most-anticipated games of 2010, and the results are in! (More after the break.)

Red Dead Redemption -- Scheduled Release: May 18
"He's wanted: dead or alive. I say dead. Nothin' worse than hauling a bounty back, slung over the back of my horse, kicking and hollering the entire way. I prefer them quiet and dead and soon to make me temporarily rich. The way it should be. Let this be quick. I long for the cold steel of that rifle. The burning of whiskey in my gut. The brief companionship of a scarlet lady." -- Michael Bradley (read the full article)

"I am a product of watching TV in the 80s. When nothing was on television, I watched syndicated western left-overs from previous decades. The reason Red Dead Redemption is my most anticipated game of the year is that it fulfills my childhood fantasies with an adult story line." -- Nick Berger (read the full article)

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I'm a pretty big Mega Man nut, so believe me when I tell you that it's hard to find decent Blue Bomber plushie. The solution? Make your own! That's what ShinyGirafarig did, and she made a tutorial on the process for others [via Capcom Unity]:

Scissors required. Heh. I made a funny. ShinyGirafarig also made plushies of some of the Mega Man 9 and 10 Robot Masters. You can see those after the jump.

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Roger Ebert, just what have you wrought? Several Bitmobbers had something to say on the subject of games as art (and Ebert's rejection of them as such). I've collected all of their articles here.

Ready to give them thumbs up or thumbs down? Then start reading!

The Importance of Video Games to the Human Condition
By Antonio Byrd
If games are indeed art, Antonio asks the next logical question: What should games do as art? His argument stems from cultural examples and the evolution of artistic debate.

Why Games Being Art Doesn't Matter or Shouldn't
By Matt McMillan
I am in the camp of gamers who don't care if the medium is considered artistic or not. Matt makes the case that this question doesn't matter as long as we enjoy playing games. I wouldn't go that far, but this certainly a refreshing take on the debate.

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Editor's note: Read on for an illuminating discussion vis-a-vis the gender politics of Mario and -- oh, wait, that's not what this post is about. -Demian

Disclaimer: This is all for fun, don't take it more serious than it should be. And yes, I consider it a failure of my writing that I have to post this disclaimer.

By now you've heard about film critic Rober Ebert's ranting about why games can "never be art" (never!), and you've probably either read or ignored about two dozen "open letter" responses that each out-reason Ebert in just about every way. The debate almost immediately spilled over onto Twitter, where the film-critic-turned-video-game-disliker spends a majority of his time. I've been paying stupid-close attention to the fracas, and I've noticed three distinct personalities that pop up over and over again in response to Ebert.

I'm not going to try to deconstruct Ebert's silly arguments here. His lame points are painful to read, especially when contrasted with the well-thought-out arguments you can find on websites like Bitmob. No, with this article I'm going to shine a light on three personality types that Ebert and Ebert-related arguing brought to the fore. Please find enclosed the Roger Ebert Personality Test.

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Twitter: Your number-one source for confusing statements from video game designers in 140 characters or less.

News Blips:

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Click to enlarge.

On my way home from work the other day, I discovered that the long tunnel I walk through at San Francisco's Powell Street subway station had been completely transformed into a Monster Hunter Tri advertisement. We're talking floor-to-ceiling, 50-foot-long murals depicting four heroes (helpfully named "Hunter 1," "Hunter 2," etc.) slaying a massive dragon.

Even though such a gigantic promotion for a video game in one of San Francisco's busiest stations made my jaw drop a little, it didn't faze the World's Most Inept Street Juggler, the subway mainstay seen attempting to juggle three balls at once in the picture above.

Hit the jump for more evidence of Capcom's paean to monster hunting on the Wii.

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Last week we asked two questions via our Twitter account and Facebook page. They were very different questions, and we received a wide variety of answers! Follow us off-site to chime in on issues of the day, and you may be featured in our weekly Tweetbook Q&A.

We also had a little contest running. If you answered last week's second question on Bitmob, Twitter, or Facebook, you were entered into a drawing for the PSN title Kick-Ass: The Game. Winners can be found at the end of this post.

And here's what we asked you last week:

Will Monster Hunter Tri finally be the game that gets the very popular Japanese franchise to break through in North America? Why or why not?

Via Facebook:

Shawn Wedick, short and to the point: "Probably not. It's kind of boring."

Alex Cronk-Young on previous failed attempts: "It certainly has a better chance than the PSP versions had, but I'll assume it's going to fail like all the rest. The first PSP release was my first attempt at playing a Monster Hunter game, and honestly I had no clue what the hell I was doing. They'd have to make some drastic changes to the gameplay for Tri to catch on on the Wii."

Michael Rousseau on the key ingredient: "With the way the online on the Wii works, no. I think it would have a better chance as a DS title or as an XBLA game."

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Don't worry, this Halo: Reach "Birth of a Spartan" video is nothing like those detailed miracle-of-childbirth videos you might have watched in school.

 Video Blips:

• It turns out that if you want to be a Spartan, you'll need to have a hole drilled into your head and get a family-sized steroid injection. Oh, and it helps if you live in the Halo universe as well.

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Editor's note: As a former vegetarian who is dating a vegan, I am sympathetic to PETA's cause. But when you name your blog the PETA Files, it's really difficult to take you seriously -- I'll toss that joke to the reader. Either way, Alex's pro-animal article is a great, candid look at the silliness of criticizing virtual pet abuse. -James

As it does many vegetarians, PETA frequently embarrasses me. The animal rights advocacy group recently complained about Zynga adding pit bulls to Mafia Wars. In a letter to Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, they said:

"Bully breeds" like your beloved late American bulldog, Zinga, are also the breeds of choice for dogfighters and thugs who want a "macho" animal to intimidate others, guard their property, or make them money by winning fights. Every day, PETA staffers meet dogs who have been trapped for years at the end of heavy tractor-trailer chains with nothing but bare patches of dirt and plastic barrels for shelter. These dogs are usually full of heartworms, emaciated, and scarred all over. They are often physically abused and starved, sometimes to death, for losing in illegal dogfights or for being "bad guards" or "not mean enough." The people who acquire them do so because they have been taught that having one of these dogs is "cool" and "tough," but they have no idea about the care and feelings of the animal they have enslaved.

While I'm prepared to believe all of that and agree that dog fighting needs to stop, PETA's pursuit of Zynga bemuses me. Mafia Wars is a game in which you play a mobster -- not a model citizen. Players know from the outset that the game involves some dirty deeds -- concrete shoes, seedy contracts, and now, attack dogs. No reasonable person will come away from Mafia Wars thinking that dog fights -- or any other mob-related activities -- are morally acceptable.

I would say that not including pit bulls would be a disservice to the breed and the victims of dog attacks, but Mafia Wars isn't exactly the serious venue of discussion this issue requires. Perhaps games that portray real events in a realistic manner are.

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Recently in GamePro, Julian Murdoch examined the reviews aggregator site Metacritic. His story opens with a rather startling observation from Activision Vice President of Marketing Robin Kaminsky at the 2008 Design, Innovate, Communicate, and Entertain (DICE) Summit. The opening slide to her presentation read: "For every additional five points over an 80 percent average review score, sales may as much double."

Incredible! If true, game sales must increase exponentially as they score above an aggregate of 80 on the website. Surely, an employee of Activision -- let alone a VP of marketing -- must have solid data to back up such a bold declaration.

But I'm the skeptical type, so I did a little of my own research. I’m here to tell you that Kaminsky's statement is a load of horse shit, and that publishers' insistence on a correlation between scores and sales is unfounded.

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Michael Ryan Kime is a long-time Street Fighter fan. His favorite character from Street Fighter 2 is Guile, and that translates into this meticulous, 3D recreation of the flat-toped commando [via The Retroist]:

Doesn't his hair look amazing yet absurd at once? This shows real and surprising dedication. If you're interested in the rest of the gallery -- and the beer can hanging from the back of Guile's belt --  check out Kime's website for the full spread. 

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Editor's note: Mark gives us a broad view of the current landscape of digital distribution. What will the future hold for everyone from consumers to the Blockbusters of the world? -Shoe

Penny-Arcade's take on GameStop and digital distribution.

The idea, which is nothing new, seems to be a popular topic these days as more online distributors rise up and vie for your gaming and entertainment dollars. While companies like Netflix and Gamefly have been around for years (Netflix was founded in 1997 while Gamefly started up in 2002), many more companies and even publishers have recently begun to toss their hats into the digital distribution arena.

This means that, while we lose physical media, we have a faster and more readily available resource for our gaming purchases. But what does that mean for us, the consumers? As physical, real-life competition begins to drop and all we’re left with is a computer screen and a “buy it now!” button, to what extent will it affect us? Will this cause the industry to collapse in on itself?

Let’s look at a few major concerns that have cropped up around the industry:

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