Getting Knocked About by Trials Evolution

Whatever you do, don’t fall off. This is the axiom that lies at the heart of Trials Evolution. Ultimately it’s an easy concept to understand: get from one end of the track to the other whilst straddling your fuel-injected bronco, and try not

After Pressing Start: Animal Crossing

Who needs someone telling you what to do all the time? You can do what you want, when you want, where you want. Yeah, living on your own, being free. It feels great. You can’t help but giggle at first.

From Rockband to Monsters and Why These Devs are Happier for It

Bryn Bennett and Steven Kimura started working in the videogame industry around 1998 and have a history with notable companies (Irrational, Harmonix) and big games (Bioshock, Rockband). Now, more than 10 years later they’ve struck out on their own as

Feedback Loop: How Halo Could Improve Democracy Forever

It turns out that the characters we play and the stories they’re in can change our patterns of behavior and our attitude towards others. Armed with better stories, game developers can change the world.

Imagine the latest Halo game with an all new DLC. As Master Chief during election season, it’s your civic duty to get to a voting booth, no matter how many Grunts get in your way. This could be the near future if game writers decide to embrace the responsibilities that come along with the latest research from Tiltfactor’s Geoff Kaufman.

Kaufman’s recent study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, examines the phenomenon of ‘experience-taking.’ The principle is that certain types of fiction, specifically those where the participant can take on the identity of the protagonist, push the participant to merge the character with their selves, “feeling the emotions, thoughts, beliefs and internal responses of one of the characters as if they were their own.”

One particular part of the study shows promise to provide a solution to the political conflict arising from Halo 4’s scheduled release date.

A Strange Tale in the Cracked-dirt Desert, Part I

A Tale in the Desert crossed the nine-year mark and there was no celebration. Rather, its inhabitants seemed unhappy and flustered in a time that should have reminded them of Tale’s solidarity in the MMOG genre. It’s a strange game,

Waiting to Respawn: Don't Take The Story Out of Multiplayer

Last week, Bitmob staff writer Rus McLaughlin pondered the usefulness of narrative elements in multiplayer modes in his piece “Multiplayer Doesn’t Need A Narrative.” You can probably guess his stance from the title. McLaughlin admits that certain games have incorporated

REVIEW TO THE DEATH: Analogue: A Hate Story  vs. Super Deep Throat

    Cut to the chase and call Analogue: A Hate Story and Super Deep Throat companion pieces. The first, Christine Love’s newest femi-techno product o’ praise; the second, a game about having sex with women’s mouths. Yet, despite this

Crysis, The Almost-Sandbox-Style Shooter

  Last week I went skydiving with my friends. We were headed towards the tropical Lingshan Islands, to be specific. After a brief pep-talk on the plane, we took the inevitable leap of faith and plummeted through the night sky.

The Transphobia At Atlus Needs To Stop

Trans characters have little of what could be considered a history in games. There are examples, here and there, but they’re very clearly the exception. They’re obscure cases to be looked for. However, Atlus is fairly unique in being one

That joke isn't funny anymore

Video games aren’t good at making you laugh. They aren’t because, in a video game, you’re supposed to make yourself laugh. Sure, they can have lines that make you chuckle. They can employ absurd sight gags. But the games that