A short episode this week — forty minutes of Bitmob’s Shoe and Demian, joined by Area 5′s Matt Chandronait and GameXplain’s Andre Segers.
The first topic is a serious one — the treatment of modern warfare in games. Medal of Honor has caught flack for featuring the Taliban, and Six Days in Fallujah was dropped by publisher Konami for daring to deal with a war that isn’t over yet.
Next, they talk about what makes games immersive. Although Andre and Matt like cohesive universes and good stories, they spend as much...
Active Time Babble host and freelancer Kat Bailey guests this week, hosted by Shoe, Demian, and Brett.
First up, they choose their desert-island games from fall’s lineup. This is an excuse to talk about upcoming games like, Civilization 5, Fallout: New Vegas, Rock Band 3, and Halo Reach.
Speaking of Halo Reach, Shoe’s almost as excited for that as he would be for a Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow remake. He tries to enthuse his mostly unenthusiastic guests and reads some responses to his tweet for opinions on Bungie’s last Halo...
Bitmob editors Aaron and Demian host Micah Seff and Andre Segers, both of GameXplain. First, they discuss Activision’s aversion to female lead characters. Apart from the possible reasons for this, they talk about some of their favorite lead ladies.
Aaron, whose house is apparently an arcade, asks what past consoles they regret not owning. They talk about what Nintendon’t and whether or not it’s worth picking up the consoles they missed.
If you could travel back in time to the dawn of the video game era, what would you take with...
Aaron hosts freelance writer Bethany Massimillia, Slide.com community manager Don Francis, and software developer Shanker Srinivasan on this week’s Mobcast.
StarCraft 2 can be intimidating to newcomers like Aaron, so he asks if that intimidation is valid. Shanker doesn’t think the story is that special — but it does train you for the multiplayer, where dwells a host of newbies. They move on to other intimidating games, like World of Warcraft, which Shanker compares to smoking.
As there are so many different gamers with different...
Robert Ashley (A Life Well Wasted), and Andrew Fitch (1UP) join the Aaron Thomas-Greg Ford hosting team this week. Robert and Greg are leaving California soon, so might be off the airwaves for a while.
Robert, out of the games press for a while, asks how reviewing games affects their enjoyment of them. This segues into Fitch’s topic, asking for a unique voice in the games press. A Life Well Wasted approaches games culture from a unique angle, and Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw (Zero Punctuation) has his unique review style, but they can’t...
Shoe and Aaron host returning guests Jeff Reitman and Adam McLaughlin. Despite their comedian background, Shoe starts by asking them a question with distinct Ebertian undertones — would they prefer a great movie or a great game? This turns into a discussion of Star Wars and Indiana Jones and the merits of the different media.
Adam has the group pitching advergames and Jeff asks which game adverts misrepresented their products the most. Publishers don’t help buyers when their trailers are full of pre-rendered footage. As Shoe points out,...
Jake Kazdal (Haunted Temple Studios) brings a game designer’s perspective to this episode of the Mobcast with Dan Hsu, Demian Linn, and Matt Chandronait.
Jake’s topic is favorite turn-based strategy games. His game Skulls of the Shogun is inspired by his pick — Advance Wars. Demian shares his love of the addictive hand-held strategy series. Shoe describes Heroes of Might and Magic 3 as a brightly-colored game that focuses on building, rather than combat. Someone had to mention Civilization, and Matt brings up Civ 4.
To wrap up...
E3 provided an opportunity for Bitmob’s writers from around the US to meet up. Editor Aaron Thomas hosts writers Mike Minotti, Jasmine Rea, Alejandro Quan-Madrid, and Rob Savillo.
The Nintendo 3DS is a piece of radical new hardware, but will it be worth re-buying all the re-made classics it should launch with? The Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake will have a less sadistic water temple, but some announced titles will just be graphically enhanced.
Next, they talk about franchises that produce the most annoying fans. Final Fantasy fans always find...
Although last week’s episode was released after E3, this Mobcast is the true E3 wrap-up with staff members Dan “Shoe” Hsu, Demian Linn, Brett Bates, and Omri Petitte.
First, they ask each other about the games they missed. Omri tells the group about Portal 2′s wisecracking sidekick and new environments. Shoe didn’t think much of Rage but liked Vanquish — a Japanese shooter that speeds up the Gears of War formula. Demian also fields some questions about Deus Ex 3.
Next, they name some games they saw but aren’t...
The Mobcast took a week off for some small indie trade show called the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Host Shoe has brought back old friends Shane Bettenhausen (Ignition Entertainment), Mark MacDonald (8-4, Ltd.), and John Ricciardi (also of 8-4) to talk about the show.
They start with pleasant surprises, including Twisted Metal and the 3DS line-up in general. Mark talks about Battle Tag — Ubisoft’s laser-tag, not-a-video-game thing — although this may have been sarcasm.
Next, they shine a light on some of the under-covered games...
Jay Frechette (Community Manager at Visceral Games) guests on the show this week and gives a brief update of what he’s been doing since leaving Area 5 before he, Shoe, Demian, and Brett dive into their first topic.
Demian starts by asking the table for their thoughts on microtransactions, which turn out to be mostly negative. Madden 11 charges for opponents statistics and Modern Warfare 2′s expensive maps segregate online players.
Next, they talk about whether 2D games are viable at full price. Brett wants stylish, unique games and,...
Destructoid and GamePro freelancer Ben PerLee debuts on the Mobcast, alongside hosts Shoe, Aaron, and Brett. The episode goes up a day late because of Memorial Day.
Coincidentally similar to an article on Bitmob from earlier in the week, their first topic is locations for open-world games. The crew suggest settings ranging from pre-colonial North America to the Moon. With Red Dead Redemption still fresh in their minds, they discuss what made the Old West a fun sandbox.
Shoe manages to mention Splinter Cell again, as their next topic is multiplayer...
Aaron takes the reins of the Mobcast this week with Bitmob editors Brett and Demian joining the bandwagon. Writer Omri Petitte also makes his debut.
First, Aaron asks the table if there is a correct way to play a game. The consensus is that so long as you’re having fun then you’re doing it right, but Aaron’s problem of how to approach reviewing a game remains.
Demian asks what franchises could benefit from a free-to-play model. A lot of the suggestions are of RPG franchises — as Demian says, there’s a tonne of potential...
Ryan O’Donnell and Cesar Quintero of Area 5 media, producers of CO-OP, are hosted by Bitmobbers Demian and Brett. Appropriately, the theme for this episode is co-operative gaming and Demian starts with his topic — games the panel only plays co-operatively. Some games are just better when you have friends there with you, like Phantasy Star Online, which Ryan seems to think is the same offline as on, but is transformed when your friends are there to check out your loot.
Ryan has a cool idea — more games should have two-part weapons...
It’s a fighting game special this week and in the four corners of the podcast are Bitmob Co-Founder Dan Hsu, Capcom Senior Community Manager Seth Killian, Playstation Community and Social Network Manager Sid Shuman, and Game Videos Executive Producer Richard Li.
There’s plenty of nostalgia for leaking quarters at the arcade this episode, which starts with Shoe’s request for the table’s favorite games and characters.
Moving to the present though, Richard talks about how the internet has allowed players unprecedented access...
