RF Generation.  The Classic and Modern Gaming Databases.RF Generation.  The Classic and Modern Gaming Databases.




Posted on Jan 18th 2009 at 03:44:48 AM by (NES_Rules)
Posted under Random Review, Review, Dead Rising, Modern Gaming, Xbox 360, Microsoft

Random Review: Dead Rising


My last review was a Famicom game, this one is 20 years newer and a totally different experience, but still a blast. Dead Rising was released August 8th 2006 for the Xbox 360 and at the time, was an exclusive for that system. It has since been announced that it will be coming to the Wii as "Dead Rising: Chop 'til You Drop". This game is huge and as my reviewing skills are not top notch yet, I probably will be excluding portions, but I'm trying more for a overall experience review anyway.
[img align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/PHP/watermark.php?type=bf;ID=U-115-S-00550-A&sizex=200[/img]
The Plot:
The plot of the game is essentially: you (an independent photojournalist, Frank West) come to a small isolated town via helicopter and after the US military forces your pilot to drop you off on the roof of the mall, you soon realize the town is infested with zombies. All you know is that you want to cover the story and the helicopter will return in 3 days. Through the game, you will uncover the mystery of the zombie outbreak if you do everything correctly, but if you don't finish a mission in time, the facts will be lost to you (and the rest of the world) forever. But, you can still finish the game and get a sub-par ending that inevitably ends in the destruction of the world. In addition to the regular missions, you can embark on numerous "side quests" rescuing survivors and killing psychopaths.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is simple; finish the missions and kill as many of the seemingly infinite zombies as you can before your 72 hours is up. But, there are a few aspects of the game that make it unique. The first is the RPG elements the game uses. As you gain "Prestige Points" in the game (by killing zombies, taking photos, killing psychopaths, rescuing survivors, or the other numerous ways) you gain abilities like increased health capacity, increased storage capacity and new fighting moves. These gained abilities are kept once you finish the game and start again, so you can go through the 72 hour mode as many times as you need to get the abilities to finish with the best ending.
The second feature that sets Dead Rising apart, is the weapons. Of course, there is the standard handgun, rifle and shotgun of any good zombie game, but there are also items like Molotov cocktails, katanas, swords and battle axes. But, that's not all, basically anything you can pick up is a weapon, whether it's a trash can, potted plant, 2' x 4', lead pipe or one of the other 250 items in the mall. Using everyday items to kill zombies is a blast, there's nothing like slicing a zombie down the middle with one fell swoop of your Katana or using a hole digger to skewer and zombie and use his spinning body to kill more zombies. This is definitely the best part of the game for me, on my first playthrough I didn't bother with the missions, I was having too much fun slamming faucets into zombies and watching them bleed out through it and cutting up hoards of them with chainsaws and lawn mowers.
[img align=left]http://www.rfgeneration.com/PHP/watermark.php?type=bf;ID=E-115-S-00180-A&sizex=200[/img]
Sound and Graphics:
The sound effects of the game are top notch. Zombies groans and moans seem to be all around you and the screams of distant survivors make it seem more real. The weapons all have their own sounds and they all sound pretty realistic.

This was my first Xbox 360 game, so the graphics blew me away at first, but after playing more games on the system, the graphics are pretty standard. Nothing super awesome, but everything is smooth and I didn't notice any kind of glitches in the game. There are numerous zombies which is nice (especially if you compare it to a game like RE4 where it seems there are only 5 different "zombies") and at first you may think they are all unique, but after a few hours into the game you'll start recognizing zombies by their appearance.

In conclusion, this is a very, very fun game and is definitely worth a pick up. I got my copy for $20 and it was well worth it. For me, it got a little boring and redundant after my 2nd playthrough, but I can see myself coming back to the game after a while.
I'm giving this game a 95% as it really is worth the money and if you've got a 360, you really do need this game. It's not a game you'll devote your life to playing, but it's good for many hours of play time.



Posted on Dec 31st 2008 at 10:49:31 PM by (NES_Rules)
Posted under Collecting, Classic Gaming, Modern Gaming, Collection

Another awesome year has passed, another 12 hours or so and it will be 2009. This year, I obtained a ton of games, somewhere between 600-800 games. Not bad, not bad at all. But as most of you know, buying that many games isn't cheap, so I thought I would share what I've spent this year.


Continue reading My End Of Year Collection Stats



Posted on Dec 19th 2008 at 09:58:54 PM by (NES_Rules)
Posted under Club Nintendo, Modern Gaming, Collecting, News

[img align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/treasure_chronicles/Club_Nintendo.png[/img]
Japan has know the sweet loyalty program known as "Club Nintendo" for years, Europe has had "Nintendo VIP 24:7" since the Gamecube launched over 6 years ago and "Club Nintendo" since the launch of the Wii. But, Nintendo wasn't nice enough to give North America a Club Nintendo just yet. In fact, even South Africa has had a Club Nintendo for six months already.

But, in October 2008, it was revealed that Club Nintendo was coming to North America. And to the instant relief of millions of Nintendo fans, was launched December 15. But, as anyone who tried to sign up already knows, the site was rather buggy, in fact it didn't really work at all. Many who tried to sign up for the first time couldn't get it to work and nearly everyone who tried transferring their "My Nintendo" information found that the system just wouldn't let them log in.

I know I was one of the first to be elated and aggravated with the system in the same 5 minutes. I tried at least twice a day to log in, but was always met with a "your username or password are incorrect" message. Finally, today I tried and was instantly logged in, and was given the opportunity for my first survey. I promptly gave "World of Goo" a glowing review and received my 10 coins.

So, now that I've mentioned "coins" you may be wondering what they are. Well, they're points that you use to "buy" stuff from Club Nintendo. Many people out there feel the prizes right now are terrible, but I think there are some very nice things to be had.
For 800 coins, you get the Game & Watch Collection for DS.
For 600, you get a White Nintendo DS Game Card Case.
For 800, you get Hanafuda Cards. The picture shows a huge stack, but it doesn't say how many you actually get.
500 coins get you Mario Party Playing Cards or Animal Crossing Playing Cards.
600 gets you a Mario Nintendo DS Game Rack.
600 gets you either a Black, Super Mario Bros. Theme, or Animal Crossing Theme Nintendo DS Game Card and Stylus Set.
400 gets you a Nintendo DS Lite Case (Silver).
And 300 will get you a Wii Remote Holder.

As you can see, the prizes are heavily geared towards the DS, with only one item for the Wii. Many users are complaining that Club Nintendo isn't giving North America the same awesome prizes that Japan gives away, such as a Super Famicom style Classic Controller for the Wii and unreleased games such as Tingle's Balloon Fight DS and Exclamation Warriors Sakeburein. But I feel the prizes they are offering are very good, for a program that has just started up. I know I really want three of the available items, and I'm confident Nintendo will be adding new stuff after not too long.

The only major drawback to the system I see is that only first party Nintendo games can be registered, and only new ones at that. So all the GameCube games you have won't get you any points.  I think that is a big mistake for Nintendo because they should give their loyal customers something for their years of money, not just people jumping on the Wii/DS bandwagon. Wouldn't is be amazing if we could register our hundreds of NES, SNES, and N64 games drool

So Nintendo fans, head on over to https://club.nintendo.com/ and sign up to start receiving your free stuff. A word of advice I noticed with the site, before you register games, it looks like you can add games to a "Intend to Buy" list first and then register them to receive 10 extra coins.




Posted on Dec 19th 2008 at 01:19:50 AM by (NES_Rules)
Posted under RFG Chat, Chat, Site News

[img align=right]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/UncleSamForChat.jpg[/img]

OK, maybe the US needs more than a bunch of collectors, but what does need you is the RFGeneration Chat. You see for the past few days, the chat has been inhabited primarily by Canadians. Yes, our cousins to the North who we pretend to hate, but are really just jealous of.
Right now 4 out of the 5 users in the chat are Canadian, and since Alfador must have made it through the snow to get to work, I'll probably be the only American in there for a couple more hours.

So, Americans, help your country turn the tables and join in on the chat. You can use the wonderful chat applet provided by Dave or your own IRC program to get there, but just make sure you join in.



Click Here for our Chat Page






Posted on Dec 16th 2008 at 12:06:02 AM by (NES_Rules)
Posted under Review, NES, Famicom, Classic Gaming, Random Review

Reviewing is something completely new to me, so this will be a learning process for me, so feel free to critique my reviewing style. My reviews are based on what I like and dislike about the games, not what I think the general public will like or dislike about the game. Since I'm not a big gamer as most other reviewers, my reviews will be based on the first few levels of games instead of the entire game, so keep that in mind when reading. I'm going to try and start reviewing games that are a little less talked about and maybe even games that you've never heard of.  I'm going to start with some NES and Famicom games because I've got this really cool 76-in-1 pirate cart that is full of great (and not so great) NES and Famicom games.

B-Wings
[img align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/J-027/ss/ts/J-027-S-02780-A.jpg[/img]

The first game I'm going to review is B-Wings for the Nintendo Famicom. B-Wings was released in 1986 and is a Japan only game, so good luck finding it if you're in the US or Europe, there isn't even a copy of it on eBay right now, but there was one on GameGavel not too long ago, so they are out there, it just may be a bit pricey.

Gameplay: The game plays about the same as any generic vertical shooter, but it does have one thing that sets it apart from others that I have played. At the start of the game, you have your choice of weapons. There are ten different weapons for you to choose from. The cannon fires three shots that shoot straight in front of you, they are quite powerful, but lack any ability to shoot in other directions. "Wide" fires 5 shots that progressively spread further from each other, they are powerful and the path of destruction is great. "Multi" fires three shots, sometimes they all go straight ahead, other times one goes straight, one goes to the left and one goes to the right, and other times they fire at an angle so they all go forward, but progressively get further form each other.  "Van" fires six very powerful shots that go a very short distance, but spread around you in a fan shape. "Side" fires seven shots, one that goes straight ahead, and three on each side that fire to the sides in a fan shape. "Anti" fires two shots straight ahead and two shots straight behind. "Hammer" is my personal favorite weapon and fires two very powerful shots straight ahead and also has two "orbs" that circle your ship for extra protection. "Jump" is essentially the same as Cannon, but one of the shots explodes, but it doesn't really seem to help things much. "Dyna" is an extremely power single shot that is very wide and can destroy several smaller enemies in the one shot. "Fire" is the last weapon option and is a wave of energy that is quite powerful but has a small range, and it allows you to almost continuously fire.

Once you have selected your weapon, your ship attaches to it and you're sent into space to destroy anything that comes at you. There are several different types of flying enemies to destroy as well as stationary objects to destroy. If an enemy drives into you or hits you with a weapon, you lose your main weapon and have to rely on a very small, weak cannon. If you drive into one of the stationary objects, your ship explodes and you're dead.

Throughout the game, you have the option to pick up another weapon, you can pick it up by simply driving into it if you have already lost your main weapon or you drop your current weapon and then pick up the new one. The weapons all have a different shape, but with 8-bit graphics, it's quite hard trying to distinguish and memorize what each weapon looks like.

There is also the option for 2 players, which sadly isn't co-op, but you alternate turns when one person dies the other picks up where that person dies. It's better than no second player support, but co-op would have been even better.

Graphics & Sound:
The graphics aren't bad for 1986, but nothing spectacular either. I've only played through the first two levels, but the enemies all seem to be unique, so it's not as repetitive as some games in this genre are.

The sound effects and music are very nice. The sound effects are basically your average 8-bit sound effects, but the music is great. Though it is hard to hear when you're constantly blasting away.


In conclusion, this game is great, if you like vertical shooters at least. I could definitely see myself playing this game for hours on end if I had the time. If you're looking for a deep game to lose yourself in the story, well, this isn't for you then. It's more of a pick up play when you've got some spare time type game.
I gave this game a 90% because it is a blast to play, but there really isn't anything memorable about it.





Posted on Dec 9th 2008 at 11:01:49 PM by (NES_Rules)
Posted under Collecting, Buying, Selling, Trading, Opinions

For my entire collecting "career" I've only bought stuff locally. I've never purchased anything from the internet, including eBay. I've always been very proud of this fact, because there are so few collectors out there that do it the "old school" way.

But, as my collection has grown, I've not only been having a harder time finding games I don't have, but I've accumulated hundreds of duplicate games. Now, for the past few months I've been trying my hardest to sell those duplicates. But, I've been having trouble doing that, which brings me to the point of this post. I've been considering becoming open to trading. In the past I was against trading over the internet as much as buying over the internet, but I'm not so sure anymore. Trading would essentially mean turning duplicates into new games, but I can't help but feel as though I would be going against my principles.

So, now I'm turning to you my fellow collectors, what do you guys think? Should I be open to trading or should I stick to my local roots only?



Posted on Nov 26th 2008 at 07:58:39 PM by (NES_Rules)
Posted under Collecting, Collectors Dilemma, Collection, Polls, Opinions

Collector's Dilemma: Lending Games

Lending Games

Getting poll results. Please wait...

We've all been there. You've got a friend or two checking out your collection and someone really likes a particular game. They like it so much, they don't want to quit playing. Finally, they just come out and ask if they can borrow it. But since they no longer have that old Atari, they'll need the system as well. Plus some controller, power adapter and those old timey hookups. Maybe an old TV too.

So, what are your thoughts on lending out games/systems to family and friends? Perhaps you'll only lend to those you know very well and  trust with your life. Or maybe you don't even lend out the most common of games. Or maybe you're a really trusting person and will lend anything to anyone as long as they say they will return it eventually.

Also, feel free to share your experiences with lending games, whether they be positive or negative. Did you lend out that super rare game to a friend only to have them move away with it? Or did they return it in deplorable condition? Talk about good experiences as well, maybe you let a friend borrow a game and he was so grateful, he gave you a box of old games he doesn't play anymore.



Posted on Nov 15th 2008 at 10:50:19 PM by (NES_Rules)
Posted under Collecting, Random, Internet, Collection, Thoughts

Collecting without the Internet


Imagine with me if you will, a world without the internet. I'm sure some of you remember this world quite vividly, others could never imagine such a thing. I was fortunate enough to remember what it was like not having the Internet, anyone else remember cutting up old magazine pictures for school reports? Or hand writing everything? Well I'm getting a little off topic now, but you get the idea.

I started writing this to allow you all to imagine game collecting without the use and help of the internet. Some of you rely completely on the Internet to get your games through the usual sites, while others (like myself) buy completely from the "wild" as it's now called. But just from the simple fact that you are reading this people proves that we all use to Internet somewhat in our collecting ways.

Maybe you just use this wonderful site to track your games and occasionally chat with others, or maybe you use the internet to its fullest extent and get every piece of information you can find on a game before you buy it.

This blog doesn't really have a point, I was just thinking of how different my collecting habits would be without the internet. Maybe you would like to explain how your collecting life would be different? Or maybe the thought of not having an Internet makes you want to curl up in a ball in the corner of the room, and you don't want to think about it anymore.



I don't rely on the Internet a whole lot in my collecting ways, I don't buy from the Internet and I still keep offline collection lists. I would probably still be buying a lot of the same stuff, but it just wouldn't be as much fun. Without my printed checklists, I wouldn't know which games I had left to buy, or which ones were considered rare. I would have no idea what a game was worth and without the huge audiences of Internet stores/auctions, a lot of stuff just wouldn't be worth nearly as much. Plus, I would have no idea there are thousands of other people who collect old games and I would never get to show off my awesome collection.



Posted on Nov 11th 2008 at 02:57:43 AM by (NES_Rules)
Posted under Collecting, Treasure, Trophies, Scores, Deals

Well, another season of treasure hunting and bargaining is now over (for the most part anyway). We went to a few garage sales this weekend and didn't find a single thing, and didn't even bother going to the flea market due to cold weather.

Looking back this season was a blast, found some awesome new treasures, met tons of people, and it even got me a staff position on the greatest website ever. It saddens me to think this season is over but after looking back at all the stuff I got, I think I'm ready to take a break from buying games and maybe spending a little more time actually playing them.

And now, a recap of the 2008 Treasure Hunting season with what I thought were my best finds. But, please, if something I bought really impressed you and I didn't put it on my list, feel free to leave a comment.


Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles 2008 - A Farewell and Recap



Posted on Nov 9th 2008 at 09:16:23 PM by (NES_Rules)
Posted under Collecting, Opinions, Playing, Random

I was about to post this in the Collection Diary, but it was getting kind of long and off topic for that, so I decided to make it a blog post instead.

Anyway, here's the situation: my parents had a "card party" last night, which included 4 of my cousins, two around the age of 10 and two closer to my age. Me and the older ones get along great and we were playing Guitar Hero III, but then the younger ones wanted to play also, and kept "trash talking" us saying they were better and we were playing too slow. So I hooked up a spare PS2 and another guitar with Guitar Hero II on another TV for them. They got bored with it after 5 minutes, and then wanted to play Duck Hunt, so I set up an NES with that. At this point I was tired of listening to them, so I left to play cards with everyone else, but every 5 minutes they were coming to me asking me if they could play the Wii. I told them "No" every time. So a few hours later I go back up to find the youngest playing World of Goo on my Wii  grrr

I don't mind them playing my games, as long as I set them up because I simply don't want them breaking something. It's bad enough when they're tripping over cords and stepping on guitars, but it really irks me when they go against my permission and start playing something I don't want them to.

It seems like every time they come over and play my games, I have bitter feelings about it. On one hand, I know they're just games and they're meant to be played, but on the other hand, they're mine and I don't like others going through them and playing whatever they want. To a very small degree, I have a similar feeling as when someone gets robbed, how they just feel violated that someone touched their stuff without permission.

And I think the worst part of it is, that they have no respect for not only other people's stuff, but for the games themselves. They see most of my collection as "old junk" and think it's worthless and don't care about it whatsoever. They just don't understand how a 20 something year old boxing game is worth more than their precious Rock Band.

So, now I'm thinking of banning them from my game room altogether. I don't really want to, but I really don't want something to break either.

Now, this wasn't supposed to be just a rant, I want to get your opinion on how other collectors feel about other people touching your stuff. So give the world your opinions on how you feel about friends/family members playing your collection.



Posted on Nov 2nd 2008 at 11:26:24 PM by (NES_Rules)
Posted under Collecting, Treasure, Trophies, Scores, Deals

It looks like the end of the season is over. I'm kind of happy that I can start sleeping in on the weekends and that I don't have to rearrange my game room to get stuff to fit each week, but of course I'm sad that I won't be getting many more games until Spring.
Regardless of how I feel however, this season is dead. It was a very nice weekend with temperatures close to 70 but we only went to 4 garage sales all weekend long. The flea market was about half the size it usually is and there wasn't much.
So here's my final finds for this season, this is last week as well as this week.


Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles #27 - The End



Posted on Oct 27th 2008 at 04:45:24 AM by (NES_Rules)
Posted under Collecting, Collectors Dilemma, Collection, Polls, Opinions

Form or Function?

CD: Form or Function?

Getting poll results. Please wait...

Ah, the good old debate of which is better, stuff that looks pretty or stuff that works. Now, you're probably wondering how I'm going to relate this to game collecting. But anyone with a sizable collection of boxed Genesis games or loose Atari 2600 games knows the answer to that.


Continue reading Collector's Dilemma #5



Posted on Oct 20th 2008 at 03:52:27 AM by (NES_Rules)
Posted under Collecting, Treasure, Trophies, Scores, Deals

Absolutely spectacular weekend for treasure hunting. The weather has finally started to get cold this season, which cut down on the number of sales, but the ones that were open seemed to be selling really cheap to counter act the low number of customers. I think we only went to around 20 sales and were home around noon. A good 2-3 hours sooner than usual.

Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles #26



Posted on Oct 13th 2008 at 07:21:54 AM by (NES_Rules)
Posted under Collecting, Treasure, Trophies, Scores, Deals

Once again, the weather has been spectacular, and the deals are flowing. Although I really didn't think it would be a good weekend, judging by how badly it started out.  The garage sales on Saturday were terrible, there were a lot of them, but there just wasn't anything at all. I don't think I saw a single video game the entire day. 

Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles #25



Posted on Oct 6th 2008 at 05:10:53 AM by (NES_Rules)
Posted under Collecting, Treasure, Trophies, Scores, Deals

I can't believe it's October and I'm still able to find enough each weekend to make a post. The weather has been spectacular these past few weekends and I think that has a lot to do with it.
Now, onto the deals.

Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles #24


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
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