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Once again, we demand a recount with our army of paid pundits!

It's here! It's finally here...an end to all the commercials, robo-calls, and street teams knocking on our doors! Today we choose the leader of the free world! At last, the democratic process upon which we founded our beautiful country will leave us the hell alone. And whether we canonize Mitt Romney or extend Barack Obama's contract (with America), you know one lucky winner will strive make our lives better and run the entire country into the ground. Well, that's what my TV tells me, anyway.

What say you, panel of experts? Any plans or predictions for election day?

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"I'm busy today."

- The Master Chief, Halo 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I'm voting for the Peace and Freedom Party's one-two ticket punch of Rosanne Barr and Cindy Sheehan. It's like the best Saturday Night Live sketch ever!"

- Isaac Clarke, Dead Space 3

 

 

 

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Fans love the epic, emotionally charged music from The Legend of Zelda role-playing franchise. I recently chatted with Jason Michael Paul, creator of The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses live-concert series, to ask him what makes Zelda's music so special, what his dream project would be, and what the future might hold for video game music concerts.

Louis Garcia: Why do a show focused on Zelda?

Jason Michael Paul: I just think that with a 25, now 26-year, history, Zelda is one of the most [storied] franchises. We saw the success of those concerts [Paul previously created Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy and Play! A Video Game Symphony], and it was kind of [a] necessity that we do a concert to continue on. It’s more or less a natural progression. There’s only two franchises worthy of getting their own concerts: Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda.

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Recently on Bitmob, the integrity of games journalism has come into question. I found this amusing because, frankly, there’s no such thing. Now, who am I to talk about this subject? Well, I’m a journalist in Canada. I’ve covered elections, city council, tragedies, triumphs, and sports games.

I’ve also written reviews on my own time and hosted a current affairs web series. So I have some knowledge and experience to back up my claims.

There’s journalism and video games, but the two don’t go hand in hand in the way some may think. These “games journalists” are actually reviewers, commentators, columnists, and (at the end of the day) entertainers. 

I don’t think anyone confuses Daily Show host Jon Stewart for a journalist.

Just to be clear, reviewing a game isn’t journalism. That’s an opinion. Being critical is fine, but it isn’t what makes you a journalist.

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The current generation of consoles (that being the seventh) currently holds the record for the longest running life span of consoles to date. Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, and Nintendo's Wii have been the dominant video game consoles for seven years -- much longer than most people expected and longer than many have hoped.

With year 2012 finally reaching its end, gamers have been anxiously awaiting any sign of eighth generation consoles to ease their minds of any further speculation.

So far, Nintendo’s Wii U remains the only confirmed entry, slated for release this November. As for Sony’s next PlayStation and Microsoft’s successor to the Xbox 360, rumors floating through cyberspace are about all any of us have read, with no confirmed release dates of any sort. 

Commentators, however, have predicted that these two elusive consoles will show up some time around 2013 or 2014.

As we're talking about the eighth generation of video game consoles, it's logical to assume that they both will feature some of the most capable processors the gaming universe has seen thus far, allowing for the usual advancements in graphics and sound that we experience with every new generation. But the few actual mentions of a new PlayStation and Xbox, from various sources, have not exactly been the most reassuring.

In fact, two of the most vigorously spread rumors have been instilling a sense of anxiety in gamers more than anything else and have us asking: "Why the hell would they even think about doing that?"

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I played Metro 2033 to completion for the first time more than a year ago. It had been on my radar (and my Steam list) for quite some time, and I finally got around to actually playing it. I’d heard so many great things and was very excited to play.

It didn’t quite grab me in the way I wanted. The voice acting was laughably bad in spots. Character models have some of the deadest eyes I have ever seen. The shooting was stiff and didn’t give me the control I wanted during intense moments.

By the time I reached the end, I wasn’t having much fun. I even downloaded an FAQ to help me power through the last few levels in peace. Quickly, I moved to the next game, not really thinking about the experience I'd just had. I had more games in my backlog to "slog" through.

Recently, I had an itch to play the game again. Part of me still wanted that experience I was expecting the first time through. I decided to try a few things to hopefully strengthen the game.

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The Games Media Awards held in London last month caused quite a stir when the public found out journalists were tweeting PR-prompted hashtags in return for a chance to win free gear.

The news got out of hand quickly, and video-game journalists and fans are still talking about it. The image above, of journalist Geoff Keighley forcibly surrounded by junk food as part of an interview, became emblematic of the issue (though not Keighley's fault).

Well, Bitmob is all about games writing. It's in our blood, and it's the purpose of our site. So when an issue like this grabs the attention of our community, we want to hear what you have to say.

We've already front-paged a couple of your articles on this topic, and our own Jason Lomberg has shared his opinion as well. But we thought it made sense to round all your thoughts up into one hub. So check out the article summaries below, and see what you think.

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Filmmaker Devin Graham -- whose YouTube channel is worth a browse even if you're not a giant nerd -- has struck again.

You might remember his first real-life Assassin's Creed video from September, and this morning, he released another installment. This one takes place in the woodsy, cliffsy setting of developer Ubisoft's just-released Assassin's Creed III, and it features a flip-happy Assassin taking out a couple of hapless Redcoats.

The video, which you can see after the break, has a little bit of Tag and a lot of Hide and Seek, but its main draw is obviously watching a real dude dressed up as a member of the fictional Assassins flipping over things. Seriously, the number of flips in this video is almost gratuitous, but the thing is so awesome that you probably won't care.

Just try to resist the urge to yell "Parkour!" after every stunt.

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Now that we finally have an official release date -- April 26, 2013 -- for Dead Island: Riptide, I can finally begin to worry less about if, or when for that matter, my favorite zombie slasher will return.

According to publisher Deep Silver, Dead Island Riptide adds “additional gameplay mechanics, all-new gorgeous locales to explore, more types of zombies to provide constant threats, an additional character class and the best co-operative zombie action experience in gaming.”

But this is what I want from the upcoming sequel.

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Developer Giant Sparrow's PlayStation 3-exclusive downloadable game, The Unfinished Swan, is one of those titles that hits all the "games as art" buttons: It's colorful, it promotes exploration, and at no point in the entire story does your character blow an enemy to bloody chunks.

Swan also pounds (literally) on the "quirky/innovative gameplay mechanic" button. Like Flower's "You are the wind" and Canabalt's "Just jump, man" dynamics, the first level of Giant Sparrow's game has you throwing blobs of paint around to reveal the contents of a uniformly white world. Later on, you throw balls of water around to make vines grow, lob nondescript spheres at lanterns to create light, and toss some round things to determine the dimensions of a 3D object.

Basically, The Unfinished Swan has a lot of balls. And that's pretty much where the problem is.

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Let me guess. You like video games, and you hate your day job?

You’re not alone. I think everyone would rather get paid to play big-time titles all day than do anything else.

A dangerous misconception exists regarding these dream jobs, however. They're not an excuse to play all day. They're work.

And life is about doing something meaningful.

Does that make sense?

Work makes life worthwhile. To throw your body, mind, and soul at a meaningful task is a human being's source of satisfaction.

To be utterly spent, exhausted, and bloodied while knowing that you’ve accomplished something great is the sweetest feeling.

Now let’s examine the dream of being a games journalist.

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Once again, games journalism has been having an internal spat over the integrity of some of its fraternity. The issue circles around a handful of opportunistic souls who took the opportunity to earn themselves a free PlayStation 3 for using a particular hashtag on Twitter while at the Games Media Awards a couple of weeks ago.

Most of the journalists who received PS3s did something constructive with them (either donating them to charity or using them as competition prizes), but they were still criticized for taking the opportunity that was presented to them.

Now, winning a PS3 was not particularly wrong. The irony comes in the fact that those doing the criticizing were doing so on the grounds that these people were making material gain for providing advertising.

The actual argument was pretty trivial, but it does bring up some interesting questions about the relationship between games journalists and the industry they report on.

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I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable Sonic the Hedgehog fan (at least of everything before the horrible 2006 game), but I have to shamefully admit to not knowing a single one of the interesting facts in Did You Know Gaming's newest video.

For instance, apparently Sega originally designed Dr. Robotnik (I refuse to call him Dr. Eggman) as a hero for another game. Also, Sonic originally had a human love interest called Madonna. That idea was thankfully scrapped by Sega of America for being too "Japanese."

You can learn more bizarre Sonic trivia by watching the video after the break.

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