Editor's Note: I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of the JRPG genre myself, but Sarah's point about the Catch-22 developers face, especially when creating new IPs, is interesting. - DemianÂ

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Now is not a good time to be a developer of Japanese role-playing games. JRPGs face an increasingly bewildering double standard: If a game sticks too closely to the norms established by series like Final Fantasy, it's labeled as derivative and uninspired. However, if a game ventures outside those boundaries, then it's criticized for straying too far from what games like Final Fantasy have conditioned us to expect from "good" RPGs. So, even if you're a reasonably established Japanese developer trying to create an original IP in the current console generation, you just can't win. Case in point: Infinite Undiscovery.

My experience playing this game strongly reinforced the fact that game criticism, in its current incarnation, should largely be ignored. Or taken with a grain of salt, at least. A quick search of Metacritic or Gamerankings reveals that Infinite Undiscovery's average review score is 68%. While the law of averages dictates that there are some positive reviews, the majority fell into the abyss of mediocrity. While I don't trust individual scores too much, seeing a trend can be more telling. Since so many reviews labeled it as formulaic and unoriginal, I resigned myself to the idea that there must be at least some grain of truth to their criticisms. Being a fan of developer Tri-Ace's earlier works, such as Valkyrie Profile, I wanted to give Infinite Undiscovery a shot. It was one of the reasons I wanted a 360, actually. I managed to get a brand new copy from Amazon Marketplace for $20, figuring that was a fair price to pay for a game that the majority had dubbed mediocre. Turns out that the majority can be totally, totally wrong.

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I can't decide if I love or hate Twitter, or if I love to hate it. But I definitely hate people who can't stop talking about it. Which is why Rick Sanchez is my most-hated person in the world right now. That's also why I want to concentrate all Twitter references of my own to this semi-regular Game Twits series.

(Note: I'm 'borrowing' this whole concept from Valleywag. I don't know of any other site that does this for game industry people though, so it's open season as far as I'm concerned.)

 

EA's Jeff Green links to an IGN article and subconsciously forgets how to spell. Coincidence?

 Q Games boss Dylan Cuthbert and his team apparently has five non-PixelJunk projects in the works!

Area 5's Jason Bertrand preps for a delicious heart attack.

Booyah, the iPhone games developer started by a bunch of ex-Blizzard folks, moves in on Facebook's territory.

Insomniac reminds the world why it was ranked among California's best places to work for like the last ten years or something. 

 

Game Informer's Andy MacNamara had his year defined twice in one magical day. That he can't tell you about. But he can tell you that he can't tell you.

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Howdy, folks! Below you'll find the first episode of my new weekly series. Hope you enjoy it. And mad props to Jason Bertrand and the Area 5 (creators of the CO-OP show) folks for helping to make this possible. You guys kinda rock. A lot.

Aight -- hope y'all enjoy it.

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Hey, so it turns out game developers are...like, normal people. They like to drink and party and...well, that's where most of the similarities end, but throughout the week of the 2009 Game Developers Conference, I got to witness them in shaggy-hair-down mode, away from the hypnotic glow of their work computer monitors.

And just why was I allowed to mingle freely with these creatures, who are normally well-protected by their overprotective public-relations handlers? It seems GDC -- although still filled with mind-numbing tech-speak seminars -- is becoming more and more consumer focused, probably picking up the fun slack that previous Electronic Entertainment Expos (E3) have left behind. Each year, we see more and more game announcements, game demos, and game parties at this show...ironically, all stuff geared more toward consumers and gamers than your typical developer.

Cool by me -- I like fun. And to show you how mind-numbing-tech-speak-free this GDC was for me, here is my behind-the-scenes diary of the week, which was unfortunately cut short due to last-minute surgery. Sure, this story's a bit late, but, hey, better late than...well, never mind that. How about if I just bribe you (free games!) into reading this post? (Read on for details....)

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Editor's Note: I was a fan of the show when it was on the air, so I've secretly been looking forward to this game. Thomas' live-diary-style coverage of the Canadian beta does a nice job of explaining how the game works while getting his opinions and concerns across. -Greg

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I'm playing 1 vs 100 right now. Well...that is to say, I'm watching 1 vs 100 right now.

Let me start again.

The Canadian beta of Microsoft's new Xbox Live "Primetime" program, 1 vs. 100, is presently ongoing, and I am...participating, after a fashion.

What is 1 vs 100, and why should you care? Read on to find out.

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Well, this is odd -- someone besides BioShock 2 developer 2K Marin is working on the multiplayer for the game. Odd, but good -- more time for 2K Marin to keep the single-player from sinking. Because, honestly, does BioShock 2 really need multiplayer? Would you kindly agree with us? Thanks!

News Blips:

• Developer Digital Extremes fishes up BioShock 2 multiplayer duties. The developer of Dark Sector is bringing gamers back to Rapture so they can kill each other repeatedly. Sounds fun. Except for the part where we'll be muting our headset after hearing, "Who's your big daddy?" for the umpteenth time. [Eurogamer]

• Obvious news blip of the day: Nintendo-published games sell well. The unstoppable company recently released all their million-unit sells figures for fanboys to awe at. And third-party publishers to cry at. And us to link to. Top of the list: Wii Sports with 45.7 million sold. Now if only Nintendo made us pay for it. Think of how much money they'd have right now. Actually, let's not -- we're broke. [GameSpot]

• Duke Nukem Forver will forever be remembered by leaked screenshots and concept art. Or at least until next week when it will be forever forgotten. But until that time comes, take a peek at what the game would have looked like if it actually came out. [Shacknews]

• Star Wars game has troopers in it, really. Lots of them, actually. And you can play as them, too. Amazing. BioWare, makers of the upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic, released some details about the class today. Will these troopers ever find the droids they're looking for? It's the question we ask ourselves everyday. [Kotaku]

Hit the jump for some video blips, including a trailer that may or may not be Beyond Good & Evil 2, Prototype's bloody opening cinematic, what Star Trek thinks about the future of videogames, and...more.

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Editor's Note: I have no idea what Kurtis is talking about in the last two paragraphs, but this seems to be something some of y'all may like. -Shoe

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This is a mirror of my blog found on 1UP's The Grind.

Last night was NIS America's "Holy Drunken Shenanigans, Badman!" event. The title is very fitting, as it's no secret that I mainly attend these events simply to gorge myself on food and booze. If you're ever in San Francisco, Zebulon (where the event was hosted) has some fine fried shrimp and beef eggrolls. Hell, I would have completely forgotten about the shenanigans if I hadn't noticed Jeremy, Justin, and Ray forming a salivating man-train out of the office.

As the name of the event implies, NIS was mainly showcasing Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I do to Deserve This? But there were some other titles such as Last Rebellion and A Witch's Tale. However, the one that really caught me off guard was the announcement of bringing Sakura Wars 5 to the States.

For those that aren't familiar with the Sakura Wars series (known as Sakura Taisen in Japan), the games are SRPGs that take place in various countries and cities (Tokyo, Paris, New York) during the 1920s, but with the added twist that everyone seems to pilot a giant robotic mech. When not battling to save the world, you also seduce and date your teammates, all of whom happen to be cute attractive females. The women typically tend to be diverse, unique, and bizarre enough that those of us at the event made comparisons to the members of the Burger King Kids Club.

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Because of yesterday's traffic, we decided to upgrade our server, even though we currently can't afford such luxuries. Stupid us, we didn't ask our server people to make this switch at 3 am, so as many of you noticed today, our site went down for a little while during the transition to our new box and new IPs.

It's slowly coming back online for visitors here and there. By tonight, Bitmob should be 100% back to normal. The good news: Even though our personal menus say nothing but "ramen" for the next year, we're now like the Robocop of small gaming websites. Three times the RAM...10 times the bandwidth.

OK, back to work!

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Editor's Note: We're not big fans of piracy under any circumstances, but we thought Allistair's post was a good conversation starter.... -Demian

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I have something to confess. Yesterday, when I went to the Valero down the block, I did something I probably should feel ashamed of. I pumped a couple tanks of gas into my Honda, paid the obligatory $32, and decided to step inside the store to get something to drink. After taking a bottle of Fuze (green tea always) from the fridge, I eyed a mostly delicious package of Corn Nuts. Feeling I paid enough to the greedy bastards of the Valero corporation, I sneaked the package into my pocket. I paid for the drink and the gas, and got some Corn Nuts for free--although, we all know the price of gas and the overpriced drink would also cover the Corn Nuts if the store had any interest in being fair. Yet, I still feel no remorse for my actions.

Here's another confession: That Corn Nut thing isn't actually true. I don’t steal from stores, I don’t scam eBay users, and I always put back what I borrow from someone. However, there is one unethical thing that I do on a frequent basis: I pirate games. I’m not going to argue that it is objectively right, but I can never feel guilty for taking a product and not giving anything back in return when it comes to media readily available on torrent sites. So much of this has to do with how openly accepted the act of piracy is. I remember when people used the term warez and felt like they actually accomplished something when they finally found a working link to download Final Doom over their 56k modem. When people tell me they have DirectTV, I tell them I have The Pirate Bay as if it’s a no-brainer alternative. When no one except the corporations are condemning your actions, it’s a lot easier to get something for free without a guilty conscience.

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With the news about various websites using Konami's classic cheat code yesterday, it's only fitting that a blip this morning involves the game that made it famous: Contra. If only this code would get some more love. Sigh...

News Blips:

• Wii rebirths old-school frustration. Publisher Konami announced a re-envisioning of its classic Contra series is coming to WiiWare. In Japan. Sorry, masochists! (Note: Inputting the Konami Code on Konami's website does nothing. Um, lame). [Konami via GoNintendo]

• Franchise Fighter: Capcom's best-selling series. Fans of stats and/or lists best check out the all-time sales numbers for Capcom's biggest moneymakers. Can you guess the winner? We'll give you a hint -- it's not Steel Battalion. [Kotaku]

• Gotta catch 'em all...again? Oh, hell. Nintendo announced it's remaking the GameBoy Color versions of Pokémon Gold or Silver for people who still care. Or are 12. Regardless of how stoked you are, you're nowhere near as jazzed as these cats. [GoNintendo]

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Let’s play a game: You’re a graduate student 300 years from now, studying videogame history at, say, the University of Mars, and the object of the game is to write a holopaper on the PlayStation Era and the God of War series in particular. How do you do this?

Sure, you could download the games into your eyeballs for 1,254,493 omnibucks and play them to your heart’s content, but what does that tell you about the people who made the games, or the people that played them back in the day? For that information, you’re out of luck. You can’t pop in the original disc because the data on CD-ROMs has rotted away. You can’t read a FAQ because GameFAQs had their servers shut down in 2065, or read any online reviews since Google closed its doors during the Great Browser Wars. You can’t read any design documents or email exchanges because every time a developer left the company, his hard drive was wiped. You can’t play any early builds of the game, since they were burned on CD-Rs, which rot faster than CD-ROMs, and anyway all the builds were kept in a supply closet that flooded after a particularly rainy day. In short, you’re screwed. No more lives. No more continues.

Okay, maybe that bit was a little silly, but I wrote it to emphasize a point: There is a very real danger that the videogame industry will lose much of its essential history if steps aren’t taken soon.

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Nintendo lives in its own world -- one where everyone loves their games, where they're always making plenty of dough, and where employees get kidnapped by Mario daddy Shigeru Miyamoto...to play games. Think of it as a best-case scenario kidnapping.

You won't find a description of these "random employee kidnappings" in Nintendo's employee handbook or in the "about" section of the company's website. These are impromptu one-person focus groups...er, focus individuals...whom Miyamoto stops in a hallway, pulls aside into an empty room, and sets down with the latest game in development, just so he can observe their gut reactions.

Is this just one ingredient of Nintendo's development magic? Or is this just a horribly inefficient alternative to traditional focus-group testing?

Or maybe it's just pure and fun Nintendo eccentricity, the sort of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory moment that we like to think happens at a place like Nintendo all the time.

Denise Kaigler, Nintendo of America's Vice President, Corporate Affairs, was one of Miyamoto's kidnapping victims when she first started working at the company. She smiled and laughed her way through the process, however. (A bit of Stockholm Syndrome? Or was it the Wii Music she was playing?)

In this not-really Barbara Walters-style exclusive video interview (spoiler: nobody cries), we sit down with Kaigler to discuss her time in captivity, as well as some sales charts, hardcore vs. casual games, and more.

Look for the full transcript of this interview early next week, which will include Q&A; not in the video.

Special thanks to Tracy Peterson of One Two Many Video Production for the camerawork and editing.

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Today's news is dominated by Activision Blizzard. Heard of them? They make games. And sequels. Lots (and lots) of sequels. They recently had an investor call, so that means a lot of stuff was yapped about. Below you'll find some of the more interesting bits.

News Blips:

• Obvious news blip of the day: Activision Blizzard is kinda making a lot of money. In the first quarter of 2009, the megapublisher made, oh, only about $981 million. Couldn't top a billion, guys? Pathetic. [Joystiq]

• Activision Blizzard ramping up new Tony Hawk game for E3. An investor call today revealed the everlasting skateboard franchise will be shown at this May's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Pretty obvious, sure, but at least it shows Tony Hawk is still a pro in videogame land. Kelly Slater? Not so much. [Kotaku]

• StarCraft 2 demo strategically hitting this summer. Blizzard head honcho Mike Morhaime confirmed today that you'll soon be able to tryout the eagerly anticipated real-time strategy sequel. You hear that sound? That's Korea exploding. [Shacknews]

• New Zelda DS game is going for a wider audience; narrow audience feels insecure. According to Nintendo's 2009 fiscal year results, the company says the upcoming DS title The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is going for a "wider age group." Lost's Richard Alpert approves of this news. [Kotaku]

Hit the jump for some video blips, including an electrifying demo of the PS3 open-world action game Infamous, Robot Chicken creators fooling around with Spore, boob-touching mini-games on the DS, and...more.

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We have questions. But they're not necessarily easy questions to answer.

They have answers. But do they want to give them up?

Welcome to "21 Random Qs: Getting to Know..." -- a biweekly series of interviews where the norm ("What's it like working on your game? And just how awesome is your game, by the way?") is out of the question. We have way tougher things to ask.

And just who are "they"? Game developers, executives, professional players, journalists...or just plain nice guys in the industry.

David Jaffe does not fall into the latter category. The game director, designer, and co-president of development studio Eat Sleep Play (you may better know him as the creative mind behind God of War and Twisted Metal) is one outspoken SOB.

He's not afraid to tell you that you suck -- he's even got the balls to call out the press on stuff he doesn't agree with. We know. We've been on the receiving end back in our EGM days.

Jaffe has nothing new to promote right now (Sony's not letting him talk about his upcoming PS3 projects yet), but that's OK, because "21 Random Qs" was not designed to be a promotional vehicle for anyone. Instead, we want to get to know Jaffe as a normal human being.

Who's his favorite superhero? What's the best prank he's ever pulled? And -- for you God of War fans out there -- has he ever been in a real-life three way?

Let's get to know...David Jaffe.

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1.  Who's your favorite comic-book superhero?

David Jaffe: Spider-Man.

 

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This is it, the debut episode of the Mobcast, a podcast that is destined to be described by iTunes commentators as "Five guys in a room? Really?" and "No 97.5 the Brodeo."

Our first show was recorded a bit over a month ago, during the Game Developers Conference, so pardon a few out-of-date references to the revolutionary telegraph machine. Aside from Dan 'Shoe' Hsu, who you'll hear on most episodes of Mobcast, special guests on Mobcast 001 include former EGM and 1UPers Mark MacDonald, Che Chou, Chris Johnston, Bryan Intihar, and Shane Bettenhausen. We also have Robert Ashley of A Life Well Wasted adding some additional commentary as the disembodied voice of God. Special thanks to Robert for handling production duties as well.

We could go into detail about the many topics this show actually covers, but we'd rather you stop reading and start listening!

Direct Download (right click save as)

Subscribe via RSS

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We here at Bitmob know it's difficult keeping up with the fast-paced, new-post-every-second videogame blogs. So we're making it easy: Instead of sifting through dozens of posts everyday just to digest your daily dose of news, we decided to compile all the best blips and post them in one easy-to-read post. So, essentially, we're keeping busy so you can stay lazy.

News Blips:

• Duke Nukem Forever is apparently coming out, well, never. Shacknews reports the long-awaited sequel will not be released because developer 3D Realms is shutting down. Guess that's how the bubblegum pops. [Shacknews via Kotaku] Update: BBC News confirms 3D Realms is no more, thus the developer will be officially remembered for creating a 12-year case of videogame blue balls.

• Eminem fights brain-eaters on iPhone. The rapper is starring in a zombie-filled iPhone game based on his latest video. Real slim chance we'll play this one. [MTV via Joystiq]

• Piston Honda continues to combat Japanese stereotypes on the Wii. Nintendo confirmed that the bandanna-wearing boxer (now named Piston Hondo) will appear in the upcoming Punch-Out!! sequel. [Kotaku]

• Namco is hungry; registers trademark for God Eater game. Not much is known about what the game will be about, but after using our keen deductive skills, we're assuming it probably involves a god that is a, uh, eater. Yeah. [superannuation via Joystiq]

• Prototype pre-orders net you tons of trinkets. Depending on where you pre-order the upcoming open-world action game, you'll get a variety of cool stuff (art book from Gamecrazy, comic book from Amazon, and an action figure from GameStop). Or you can just buy it at Best Buy and get nothing. Your choice. [Destructoid]

Click that "Read more" button for the morning's video highlights (Bionic Commando high-fives a guy's arm off!), candy Pac-Mans, and the KU (do they call themselves that?) drumline riffing on Mega Man 2, and...more.

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Whether you're here because of Sore Thumbs Blog, because you're a fan of our previous work on 1UP.com and Electronic Gaming Monthly, or because of a series of totally unrelated and random events...welcome! Welcome to super pre-beta Bitmob 1.0.

About Us

We're a bit "off the grid" here at Bitmob. Plenty of other sites do a great job of delivering the same news, previews, and reviews you've been used to for years. We're here to do something a little different...to offer an alternative. Instead of covering games the way we're supposed to, we'll cover them the way we want to. That means finding new angles on traditional stories, having conversations surrounding a game well after it's released, looking more behind the scenes, and exploring gaming culture in interesting new ways.

Stay tuned to Bitmob -- what you see now is only the beginning. We have many fixes and small improvements coming soon (profile pages with bios, a voting system, friending, etc.) and much, much cooler things planned for down the line once we grow big enough, so we hope you'll continue to support us as we evolve.

About You

At Bitmob, we believe in working with the community to create great content. Hell, you understand gaming just as much as we do...perhaps even more. So when you register with us and become active on the site -- whether you write a profile post or create a video show, an audio podcast with your friends, or maybe something we haven't even thought of yet -- if we like it, we'll do our best to make sure people see it.

We want Bitmob to be the best place for great content creators to build a reputation and get noticed -- by their peers, by our staff, and by the big world outside of Bitmob. Which bring us to...

How Bitmob Works

First of all, whenever you post something to Bitmob, a quick teaser of your story will go to the Mobfeed, a catchall for every update from anywhere on this site. Then, if your content grabs our attention, we'll take a closer look. If we feel your stuff is top-notch material, we'll editorially vet your post for quality control, then promote it to the front page to sit alongside our own content.

Of course, all posts (from you or from us) won't be suitable for front-page promotion -- maybe you feel like bitching about how confusing last night's episode of Lost was, for example. Don't worry...they still have a place here. Think of Bitmob as a blog network of sorts, so anyone can stop by and check out whatever it is you have to say.

So you can see why we want you to register with your real name and email address! It would sure suck if we (or some other organization) were to recognize your awesomeness and wanted to hire you for some freelance or full-time work, only to not be able to get a hold of the real you. We also hope that real names will make our users more accountable and less likely to recommend death by fire to those with differing opinions.

Submission Guidelines

We're looking for smart, funny, and insightful content that complements what we're doing on Bitmob. That's about as guideline-y as we're going to get. Explain how 15 minutes of Street Fighter 4 a day can lead to a slimmer, more youthful you, post an interesting video and add your commentary, confront your Peggle addiction, whatever.

Spell check is your friend who really likes you, and we stop reading after the first "teh" or "lol" or lower-case letter used to start off a new sentence. Offensive stuff gets deleted.

What else?

Well, we'd like to thank these few specific folks:

Rich McGrath of GameTopius (our developer)
Derrick Hopkins of Dead Pixel Live (our other developer)
Karen Chu of Chu Chu Rocketeer! and Karen Chu's Twitter (our designer)
Jeff Buczek of...himself (our CSS dude)

...and everyone else who helped us out in any and all capacities -- but seriously, that would take a few hours and a few thousand words...and we're deathly afraid of leaving someone out. So better (and easier) for us to say: Thanks everyone who helped us out in any and all capacities!

We hope you enjoy our site. Leave your constructive feedback in the comments of our posts, or send all your non-porn emails to: letters@bitmob.com. Also, please join us on Facebook and Twitter for bonus fun times.

Dan "Shoe" Hsu and Demian Linn
Co-founders, Bitmob.com

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