Bitmob.com

This should be the last front-page post on Bitmob.

I just emailed the Bitmob staff to tell them that we're shutting down activity over here and officially bringing it all over to GamesBeat -- we're finally live there with the new community tools that we've been working on all year.

It was a strange letter to write. I felt like I was saying goodbye in some small way, yet all we're doing is packing up and moving down the street. Most of the Bitmob staff are already actively writing over there. This was nearly a formality, announcing a change of scenery. So I didn't really say farewell to anyone -- more a "thanks for everything, now get back to work!"

I won't say goodbye to any Bitmob community members, either. My hope is that you'll follow us over to GamesBeat. We're doing the exact same thing there: mixing professionally produced articles with carefully curated and edited community content. Except on GamesBeat, you'll have a much, much, much larger audience to write for and many more seasoned writers to be published next to.

Are you in? Here's what you need to do:

Head over to GamesBeat and hit the "log in" button in the red bar up top. Then register a new account but use your current Bitmob username. This will ensure that, later, when we finish the full migration, we can merge your old Bitmob stories into your new GamesBeat profile. Until then (timing is TBD), the two accounts will be separate. 

So don't worry. Your current Bitmob stories are still live and around, and we'll eventually connect them to your new GamesBeat page, so they will all live in one place.

(NOTE: If you have any current, outstanding stories that are still in draft mode, you will have to re-create them on GamesBeat. We don't have any method to move them over. If you wrote a story to the Mobfeed within the last two weeks that hasn't been pushed to the front page of Bitmob, you're welcome to resubmit them as a new post on GamesBeat.)

The new GamesBeat is only in beta. It's been tough getting Bitmob to work over there, and we're not completely done yet. Over the next few weeks, we'll be fixing any problems that pop up, plus adding new features and working on that final and full migration. But all our testing shows the system works just fine -- and in several ways, it's even better than ever (we have much more control over spam stories, for example). We have much more planned, so we hope you'll stick with us.

If you have any general questions, feel free to comment here. I'll check back regularly and answer what I can. If you have any technical issues or bugs to report, please let us know at webmaster@venturebeat.com.

Thanks for all your support over the last three years. We'll see you on the other side.

P.S. Special thanks to co-founders Demian Linn and Rich McGrath. Bitmob wouldn't have happened without their hard work.

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If you’ve been following Wii U launch coverage, you’ve probably read a sentence like this:

The Wii U, successor to Nintendo’s blockbuster Wii console, presents several intriguing possibilities for interactive entertainment, thanks to a tablet-style controller, the GamePad.

Reviewers are extremely intrigued by the thrilling potential of this tablet. They shouldn’t be. We actually already know what game developers will do with it -- not much.

Since the days of the NES Power Glove, gimmick controllers have promised new frontiers of immersion and interactivity they could not possibly deliver. The mighty 8-bit mitt purported to “track the position of your hand in space” with “3D sensors.”  “Now you don’t just guide the action. You’re in the action,” the ads hilariously lied.

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What? What!? You require further explanation!? I already told you in the headline! This is a video where Captain Falcon from F-Zero gives Mega Man X's Zero a driving test. Why should you bother watching it? Because I'm telling you that you have to! You'll see! You'll thank me! You. Will. Laugh.

Watch the video after the break and fulfill your destiny.

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Developer Double Fine's "Amnesia Fortnight" program is an interesting process, which stops work on existing projects and lets anybody in the company pitch a game, with the most liked ones being prototyped with the possibility of become Double Fine's next retail release.

Past Amnesia Fortnights have seen the birth and growth of many success stories, such as the quirky adventure role-playing game Costume Quest. It's a bold and wonderful concept in an industry beset by big budget brands and precious little new ideas, giving the time and resources to what are essentially passion projects.

One of the most intriguing things to come out of this year's Amnesia  Fortnight is last year's pitch, Brazen. After spending some time with the protoype, I contacted project lead Brad Muir. Below are some of my own thoughts on Brazen along with some insight from Muir himself.

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So I sat in a chair ... a lot.

I couldn't wait to play through the second disc of Xenogears. The main characters already survived a series of tragic losses. I just had to see how the story ended.

Then the entire narrative slowly started falling apart.

I really tried to stay engaged in this sci-fi drama. I didn't mind the first scenes in the second disc where Fei and Elly sat in chairs, talking about some event in the past. After all, I'd seen a similar type of narration in anime shows such as Neon Genesis Evangelion.

At first, this really seemed like a dream sequence. The two lead characters, Fei and Elly, soon woke up in a life support tub of water. I just assumed that their musical chairs routine was a momentary head trip.

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Imagine that all of your gaming systems talked to each other and were like a family. Buying a new console would be like the arrival of a new baby for them. This hilarious video brings this awesome premise to life, complete with a Wii oblivious to the fact that he's about to become obsolete. You'll also see an old, crusty NES and the black sheep of the family, the Virtual Boy. I think I could watch a whole movie of this.

You can watch the clever short for yourself after the break.

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This article contains spoilers for Beyond Good & Evil.

Beyond Good & Evil is a game that no player should go without enjoying at some point. I think it is an absolute essential piece of gaming history, and it's one of my absolute favorite titles of all time. I do not say this lightly, but it's a goddamn masterpiece.

That being said, the ending is really rather a let down. This might have to do with the game originally being planned as part of trilogy, but the sales scrapped that hope. I feel, though, that this can not be the whole reason. The ending does the most foolish thing it possibly could. It goes against the very ideals of the rest of the game.

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Finally, we have a Game Boy Color a giant can use, if he doesn't mind that it's made entirely out of cardboard. DeviantArt member MaboroshiTira lovingly constructed not only a massive Game Boy but also a removable cartridge for it. The level of detail even in the little speaker hole is mind-blowing. 

Jamie, the artist behind this project, built the Game Boy as part of her schoolwork as an art student at the University of Delaware. All the moving parts from the actual handheld, like the buttons and volume wheel, also move in this massive cardboard reproduction. 

I think Jamie deserves a great grade for this labor-intensive project. You can check out the step-by-step build on her Tumblr. 

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The Community Spotlight features some of the best unedited articles that didn't quite make the front page. This week, we check out the demo of a long-awaited Japanese RPG, complain about hidden post-credits scenes, and specify games that do both single- and multiplayer modes right.

Ni No Kuni demo impressions
By Bryant "B" Chambers

The demo for Level-5 and Studio Ghibli's new role-playing game, coming next year, released last week. Here, Bryant gives us his thoughts: "If this demo is any indication of how the full game will play, I think we've definitely got a future winner to look forward to."

Stop hiding scenes in the credits
By Justin Davis

It's become more popular, in games as well as movies, to stick an Easter egg or two in or after the final credits. Justin says that blunts the effectiveness of these scenes: "Why can’t they just work these into the last few moments of the game and then roll the credits?  It feels much more unified that way."

Single-player games can have good multiplayer
By Michael Kyle

Michael describes the recent trend that dictates all single-player games need a multiplayer component to sell well. While that often leads to sloppy, incomplete modes, Michael says that often a good single-player campaign is an indication that multiplayer will be successful, too.

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December 7th means a lot to me. My brother's birthday is today, for one thing. It's just 10 days before my own, too. But mostly I remember December 7th because it's the day that an attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, drew the United States into World War II.

In 2001, my high school band traveled to Honolulu to represent both our state and our namesake vessel, the USS Utah, as part of the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day. Some of those experiences -- visiting the Punchbowl National Cemetery, marching in a parade in downtown Honolulu, and especially playing a concert on the dock just feet away from the sunken wreckage of the Utah -- will stay fresh in my mind forever.

Days like today make me miss the bygone era of World War II shooters, especially Medal of Honor, the progenitor of the Call of Duty series. And one of the biggest things I miss is the music, largely provided by composer Michael Giacchino.

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The stereotype is "Only guys play video games," and the stereotype is wrong.

Women do play video games. They always have. We can't and shouldn't wave off a woman honing skills in a so-called “men’s territory," real or virtual, and it’s an awesome thing that gamers can now easily showcase their hobby as something familiar to both genders.

But then we go and stick them all under the label "gamer girl." Is that right?

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I actually finished a game last night, and it feels really weird. It was Borderlands 2 (and yes, I completed it with my good friend Breaky still equipped). I'm not really sure how to handle this.

See, I haven't seen credits roll on a game in a while; I'm always picking up something new or abandoning the stuff I'm playing for various reasons. I took a break from Assassin's Creed III to play through Borderlands 2, and I put down Darksiders II to play Assassin's Creed III. I've stopped playing Resident Evil 6 while I'm waiting for it to get better, and I hung up Demon's Souls because I was tired of editor Rob Savillo's constant requests for progress reports.

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