Blogger Archive: TraderJake 
See, we have this chat room on quakenet. It's a lovely chat, and if you dare you should really consider joining it. I mean, generally there is a level of absurdity that exists in our forum, but our chat takes that absurdity and trumps it in Spades. Don't believe me? Why not check out this discusison:
21:03] TraderShake: FAIL
[21:03] TraderCake: TraderMonkey doesn't fit the formula
[21:03] Traderflake: OH YOU BASTARD
[21:03] TraderQuake: i'm original
[21:03] *** Malygris is now known as TraderBake.
[21:03] TraderSnake: lul
[21:03] Thunderstruck: woohoo!
[21:03] TraderBake: hey guys, wuzzup
[21:03] TraderCake: a lot of shit rhymes with Jake
[21:03] TraderSnake: I am updating the chat log
[21:03] TraderQuake: Hello
[21:04] TraderQuake: how?
[21:04] TraderSnake: Cause I'm special
[21:04] *** Sunfireman is now known as TraderFake.
[21:04] *** TraderBob is now known as TraderNake.
[21:04] TraderQuake: nothing ryhmes with Aaron
[21:04] TraderSnake: Caron
[21:04] Thunderstruck: Baron
[21:04] TraderSnake: pwnd
[21:04] TraderBake: Sharon
[21:04] TraderShake: I will change TraderMonkey
Does that make sense to you? Sure as hell doesn't make sense to me, but that's okay because it really isn't meant to make sense. We're having fun, and chances are you'd be having fun if you were in the chat. So, why the heck aren't you in the chat? I mean the all the cool kids are doing it! JOIN US, WON'T YOU?
Click Here for our Chat Page
As many of you know and experienced last year, RF Generation went from a shared hosting solution to a dedicated solution over the course of two months. It certainly was a tumultuous two month period which rather cruelly began on April 1, which for those of you that are new is a high holy day at RF Generation. Needless to say, we've been on a dedicated solution since June and with such a solution comes significant costs.
In case you're wondering, RF Generation costs 90 dollars per month to operate currently. The site, as you may have noticed, does not currently have any ads on it, and well, we'd like to keep it that way. So, you might be wondering how this site is funded.
To say that RF Generation is nonprofit is a huge understatement. While the fact that RF Generation is a nonprofit site (after all, it's your site) is true, it's also true that RF Generation relies solely on donations to keep the site running. Sure, we have the store, but to get that revenue you need to have a certain number of sales and frankly we don't have that many sales to sustain the site or even cash out a check.
Every month that we do not receive enough donations to cover the cost of the site the remaining cost is split between two people, St0rmTK421 and myself. While the first few months had been okay for server costs, towards the end of 2008 our donations were rather few, and we found that more often than not the two of us were footing most of the bill for the site.
So, why am I writing this? Well, I just want to let you guys know how revenue generation is going with the site. I also want to write this to make a personal plea to all of you to consider donating to keep the site running. Ninety dollars a month is not cheap, especially when one of the two people on the hook for the tab was smacked with a four day furlough, which while he appreciates the time off, hates the pay deduction. God bless America. So, please, please, consider donating. Every little bit helps. I mean, if the entire site donated a dollar we'd be good for about two years. That won't happen, but please, consider donating. RF Generation is great, we want to keep RF Generation ad free for as long as possible. Donations allow us to do that. While I can't guarantee any snazzy features for donating right now we would be forever grateful and you might get to see somethings in advance of their release, but then no guarantees there. Donating is a noble cause that keeps the community's site going. Please, consider donating.
At least one of you is running in this contest, and well, I wish them luck. Chances are more of you could be running in the contest, and well I wish you all the best of luck. Oh, and did I mention that we have some sort of tracking software for those collections on that website, and our tracking tools are free? FREE I SAY! Always will be, too. I mean, we're not whores or anything. It's just that when you have tracking tools as awesome as ours, you really want to get the word out.
Again, good luck to those of you running in that contest.
2008 is over, and has been now for almost three days. Is it sad? Nah, sure the economy hit the dump and many developers went belly up but that does not mean that there were not some great moments in gaming over the year. Sadly, there were also bound to be some disappointments as well. Being now 2009, it seems like the perfect opportunity to reflect on the previous year as it pertains to games. Let's all do that, shall we? I'll start.
Continue reading 2008 games. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
 In Cincinnati, Cornhole has an entirely different meaning than the one you are probably thinking of. See, in Cincinnati Cornhole is the name of Bean Bag Toss, a game where you throw bean bags towards a slanted board with a hole in top center. This game is great with friends and alcohol, and on Cincinnati's West Side where they watch grass grow to pass time this game is certainly a fun diversion. Some people say the game was created in the West Side, while others claim it came to be elsewhere. Either way, the game is stupidly popular, almost as popular as the mom and pop sports bars that dot the White Oak neighborhood in Cincinnati.
Well, knowing how stupidly popular the game is in Cincinnati and surrounding areas, some shovelware developer created Target Toss Pro, a game that was certain to get a few sales in the metro area. The game can be found in sports bars around Cincinnati, and, if you so desire, you can buy it off of the Wii Shop Channel, and that's where things get precious.
See, my Aunt and Uncle have a Wii, and prior to Christmas Eve had an impressive tie-in ratio of two. The question though is since Wii Sports is bundled with the Wii does that go into the Tie-In ratio? Anyways, I digress. During December, it generally is too cold to really enjoy playing Cornhole outside, and lots of Cincinnatians enjoy that activity, so they'd love to have some comparable activity to keep them occupied during the warm months.
Well, luckily for them, some shovelware developer released Target Toss Pro: Bags for the Wii, which means that they can play a really shitty game during the cold months. Clearly Cincinnatians are an intelligent bunch and wouldn't waste their money on a shoddy game? Right? RIGHT? Well, Christmas Eve has shown me otherwise. My Aunt and Uncle are proud owners of the WiiWare Version of Target Toss Pro: Bags, courtesy of a relative.
Congratulations Incredible Technologies, you've hit a localized gold mine. Thank god the production value of the game is about nil, you might have lost money otherwise. What obscure game that only appeals to a single city will they release next? Chunkin': Pumpkins? Whatever it is, I am sure it will be wonderful.
Today is known around the world to many as Christmas Day, and many people of many creeds celebrate the day. From all of us at RF Generation, we wish you the very merriest of Christmases and hope that you all find happiness on this holiday.
Now, generally I do not like to review something until I have completely beat the game, and as such, this post is going to be impressions of the game, which to a certain extent is probably a review.
For those of you not in the know, I got the first disbursement of my sign-on bonus this week, and promptly splurged it on a PlayStation 3. Of course, the very first game that I bought was LittleBigPlanet. Why wouldn't I have bought that game first? Everything I've seen about it on the internet suggests that it oozes creativity. To a certain extent, it shows that this generation Sony and not Nintendo has the creativity wand when it comes to games. I had to buy this game, and by golly I did.
LittleBigPlanet is based around the concept that this world managed by Creator Curators is created by the combined imagination of the world and you, as Sackboy, get to explore it. On the surface of playing the game, LittleBigPlanet is a semi 2D platformer. You can only move left, right, or back and forth in the background. But, see, just because the game is in essence a 2D platformer does not take away from the fact that it oozes with creativity and fun.
This game is customizable, and not just a little customizable, but "HAVE AT IT WON'T YOU?" customizable. As you progress through the game you are gifted and obtain lots of stickers, objects, and doodads to fool around with. In story mode, these stickers can be placed wherever, and sometimes these stickers serve as triggers. But, the real beauty of collecting these customizations is the fact that the game allows you to create your own levels. These aren't some corny shallow level but often full fledged levels limited only by the imagination of the creator, and that's really neat. Theoretically you could never run out of levels to play because the community keeps pumping them out. It's really truly amazing.
That said, the Media Molecule (developer) levels are also very cool. Basically, each creator curator has a theme and mini storyline that ties in with the other curators, and levels get harder and harder as you progress through the story. Of course, once you beat a level there are plenty of reasons to go back. See, chances are you won't be able to get all 100% of the items on your first go, so there will always be that reason to come back to the level. Secondly, you could play the level by yourself, or you could play the level with someone online. The neat thing about that is that you sometimes have to have another Sackboy with you to get certain items and cause certain events to occur. Thing is though that I am so addicted to the game that I just want to beat it through before playing with someone online, so I don't know for sure how that works, but I imagine it's pretty cool.
From customizing your own levels to customizing your Sackboy, you have a lot of freedom in this game, and this freedom makes the game so damn enjoyable. I'd say I am about 70ish% through the story mode, and this game keeps calling me back. If you have a PS3 I don't think you have to buy the game, but you'd be doing yourself a great disservice if you didn't at least try it out. After all, Sackboy is so damn lovable. Forget Home's avatars, Sackboy should be our official Sony avatars. He's just so damn precious.
Have the game? Want the game? What are your impressions of LittleBigPlanet? Is it everything you thought it would be, or is it something that you hope it will be?
So, it's come to my attention that those of you that were using our chat client (known as mibbit) to get to our chat room may have found yourself more often than not with the wonderful welcoming sight of glined. What does that mean? Well, it appears quakenet places a temporary ban on connections via mibbit when too many users connect to the network via the program. In this case, it was almost always happening, and as such I view mibbit no longer as a viable option for our chat program.
What does that mean? Well, in short terms, we're back to using our old Java Client. Same chat room, same network, new webchat client. All the links should have been updated, and you should be able to get on easily, provided you have Java installed. Here is a link below to the new client. Again, sincerest apologies about the previous webclient dropping the ball, especially when I've been whoring out the chat in recent times. Do join, won't you?
Click Here for our Chat Page
 Tomb Raider: Underworld. This game has a 78% rating on gamerankings, but the PS3 version of the game has a special designation here. See, Tomb Raider: Underworld happens to be the forty-thousandth game in our database, and well, that means we have 40000 games in our database. Talk about a milestone! When we started we had about 15000 or so entries, if not less than that. Flash forward to today and we have 40000 entries and growing. What an accomplishment.
You guys absolutely rock, and no one person and be credited for the growth we've experienced. Rather, everyone on this site is to be commended, as so many of you have made submissions to the site and kept this site as the best independent video games database on the internet!
We're all very proud of this milestone, and as the Site Director I am very proud of you guys. I am sure if Mike was still around he'd be just as proud as me. Hell, I bet he's proud up in the big pie in the sky. We couldn't have done it without you, and we really look forward to the submission that gets us to 50000 games. We know that you guys will hit that milestone someday, and when that day comes we'll celebrate the moment just like we celebrate today! Here's to the past, present and future of RF Generation!
Congrats to Tynstar for adding the 40000th game! You deserve the designation and honor! This milestone is so huge that our old RF Generation spokesman has temporarily come out of retirement!
Wow, 2000 members. That's a big number, and it's touching. I don't think any of us expected RFG to be as successful as it has been, and we could not have done it without all 2000 of you, in addition to all you lurkers that visit the site and just browse. It's you guys that make the site what it is, and for that we're truly grateful.
Of course, we want to see us continue to grow, and over the time we hope to do so. I certainly hope that over time you'll see more new things here. Of course, there are new database additions every day, but who knows, maybe you'll see a new feature or two to play around with. Maybe, someday. Of course, those of us that do the programming now have full time jobs, but who's to say we won't work on the site in our free time? See, I am writing this post right now!
What a milestone. Here's to 3000, 4000, the future! To MrMatthews, congrats on being the 2000th member. You get a big imaginary cookie. We could give you a real cookie, but we'd rather spend that money keeping the site running. You know how it is. But YES! Congrats on being the 2000th member! Here's to you, and here's to our future!
Can you hear them? Why, it's the faint sound of crickets in the distance? Is it a summer night? Nah, it's the RF Generation chat room, and it's so quiet in there that you can hear the chirp of crickets in the vast emptiness of our chat room.
Of course, chances are that you can't hear the crickets because you're not in the chat room. The question is why wouldn't you be in the chat room? The chat room loves you, and is greatly sad that you're not in the room. It's not as though we have a vendetta against anyone in the chat room. We'll talk about most anything as long as it does not violate any US laws. We're really a fun bunch, and it'd probably be a lot more fun if you were there as well?
So, why aren't you in the chat room yet? I mean, the link to join is right below? Don't want to use our applet? Well, the room is #rfgeneration on quakenet. If you're IRC saavy you'll know what that means, otherwise, we hope you'll use the applet below. See you in chat!
Click Here for our Chat Page
You know, normally we'd let other fine establishments waste your time with posts on game cakes. But, sometimes exceptional cakes deserve exceptional credit.
In this case, this Super Mario Galaxy cake was made for a daughter's 4 year old birthday party. As you can tell from the photo, it looks pretty damn awesome. I personally like the glass pill from the Good Egg galaxy or whatever special Galaxy it was from. Well, I know the Good Egg Galaxy had a pill, but it might not have been that exact pill, but still it's pretty damn cool.
Either way, this is a cake for the ages, and any game geek should be giddy with glee from the sight of this game cake. What? You say you aren't? Well aren't you a heathen? Well, perhaps a video of the cake might change your mind, as seen after the jump.
Continue reading An RFG Aside: Cake of Pure Awesome
 Guess what? This last week or so has just been a plethora of birthdays for gaming related things. Well, 4 years ago from today Blizzard released the behemoth known as World of Warcraft upon the masses, and since that time it's been sucking productive members of society into the realm of the recluses.
Sure, WoW has made lots of money for Blizzard. Wildly successful is a good way to describe it. You know, a lot of people want to be a Nightelf Mohawk, or at least Mr. T wants to be a Nightelf Mohawk. He can be whatever he wants and I pity the fool who says otherwise. The truth is that lots of people play the game, and chances are that you might know someone who has been affected by this game. Maybe you have been affected by this game? Inquiring minds want to know.
Of course it's been successful, but it's because of many people unlike me. See, I refuse to even create an account because I've seen what it can do. Of course, right now I live in Maryland and know no one so it's not like I have a social life to lose, but when I did have a social life I sure as hell did not want it to succumb to WoW addiction. Perhaps you've thought differently.
Well, congrats Blizzard on four successful years of WoW, and for some reason I am sure you'll have at least four more years if not more of the same. Here's to you WoW, and to my friends currently dredging through Azeroth, it's been nice knowing you, but I understand your priorities lie with the Horde. It's cool. Someday the servers will go down, and when they do you'll either have moved on to an MMORPG or reintegrated into society. Here's to you.
 Three years for the 360! On November 22, 2005 the Xbox 360 was released in North America to a gaming mass waiting for the next iteration of Microsoft’s gaming console. Unlike its predecessor, the 360 was a stylish system that when it wasn’t greeting players with a red ring was rather sexy when compared to the black paperweight known as the Xbox. Surely, Microsoft was off to a better start from a design point with its system, and there were plenty of other things for 360 fans to be excited about.
I’d be lying if I told you I owned a 360 or desired one. The truth is that I have no desire for a 360. That said, the 360 does have several things that go great for the masses. If you were to ask me which system appeals most to true gamers right now, it sure as hell would not be the Wii. It depends on the avenue, but if you’re looking for games for adults that will make you say wow then the 360 is the system to have. From Halo to Dead Rising to Bioshock to GTA IV, there have been some heavy hitters for the 360 that would make the most hardcore gamers squeal with delight.
Of course, that’s not the only thing that appeals to true gamers. Of the three console manufacturers, Microsoft really does know how to best do an online product. Sony’s working on creating a good online product and Nintendo is being Nintendo, and while the bar has been set rather low by the competitors Microsoft has delivered a product that quite frankly trounces the competition. It’s really quite amazing and I give Microsoft kudos for their online platform. Their competitors could learn a thing or two from Live... they really could… especially Nintendo.
 Of course, Microsoft is not the market leader anymore this generation. While they were in the beginning, the behemoth known as the Wii has taken the title and ran with it. Is Microsoft going to sit there and just watch that happen? No! They decided they were going to revamp their dashboard and create a new experience that is enjoyable for all. It just launched, and as someone on the outside looking in I have to say that the avatars do look really cool. They offer customization that I only wish Nintendo had for their Miis. Did Rare rip off the Mii concept? Who the hell cares! Rare has created something with much more depth than the Miis of Nintendo, and I give them full credit for creating something much more interesting than the Mii Channel. Good job Microsoft and keep pushing along with the new experience.
Every console has its fair share of issues, and the same can definitely be said for the 360. Probably the most notable of these issues was the Curse of the Red Ring. Chances are you know someone who has suffered from the Red Ring of Death. In fact, you might know someone who has suffered from it multiple times. Truth be told, the initial batches of the 360 had some design issues. No one really knows what is it, but rather than screwing over consumers, Microsoft did a noble thing and extended everyone’s warranties. That’s pretty nice, and it suggests that perhaps Microsoft is not the cold hearted bastard that its Windows operation suggests that it is (and it is).
So sales have been down in recent history for the 360, and one has to wonder what the future holds for the console. I honestly don’t know if the console will see a rebound in sales, but I don’t know if that is necessarily a bad thing. 360 owners like to buy third party titles, so it’s an enticing console for those developers and publishers. So for developers, I don’t see as much as a risk for releasing games on the 360 that I do for releasing non casual games on the Wii. While casual gaming dominates the Wii, real games dominate the 360, and that’s a great selling point for the console. Why not capitalize on that, Microsoft? Push your strengths, and it might help you in the long run.
Three years for the 360. What do you think has been the good, the bad, and the ugly? What do you think the future holds for the 360? Does the four year lifespan still hold true for Microsoft? Well, in a year we might just know. What do you think?
 Two years, has it been that long? I guess it has been. Two years ago today the Wii was released worldwide, because Nintendo loves you… or so we thought. What has the last two years brought Nintendo and it’s Wii? Let’s delve into the past, and see where the future lies for Nintendo.
Nintendo had a cool concept. Motion control in a game, would it be a gimmick or a novel innovation? Well, two years has passed, and honestly, the verdict is still out. There are the games that just tack it on, such as Super Monkey Ball did. Did they even play test their game? Super Monkey Ball should have been great on the Wii. Alas, it was not. Fortunately, there have been games that do make excellent use of the Wii Remote, and these games shine amongst the games that treat motion control like an afterthought. Games like No More Heroes, De Blob, Zack and Wiki, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption all make excellent use of the Wii Remote. Super Mario Galaxy was a refreshing reinvention of the platform genre. Truly there are the gems in what seems more and more like an endless pile of crap, and my, there is crap.
Why is there crap? Well, it might be because the Wii sells like hotcakes from McDonalds. It sold almost 850,000 units in North America alone last month, and quite frankly that’s impressive. It’s enough to make the Wii the clear market leader, and we’ll talk about that later. But now, let’s talk about the effects of being the market leader. See, being number one tends to bring a lot of crap to your console. Games like Target: Terror. What is that game like? Well, you know what Lethal Enforcers is, right? Well, it looks just like that, except with Terrorists. How novel for the Wii, especially when it could probably run on an N64. Great job there, Konami, you really must have been bitter after the sales of Elebits and Dewy’s Adventure. I bought Elebits! Don’t hate me! And don’t think that it’s just the third parties giving us steaming piles of shit. I see that the fourth worst ranked Wii game on Gamerankings is Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast. Now, I am sure that game is full of win, but the score speaks for the masses. And don’t forget about Wii Music! Is that even a game? You decide.
If you would have told me with a straight face that the Wii would be far and beyond the market leader right now prior to its launch I would have laughed. I was a Nintendo fanboy at one point, but just because I was a fanboy does not mean that I am not a realist. C’mon, Nintendo had a good idea, but was there really something as a casual gamer? I sure as hell didn’t think so. I guess I was wrong, because as they say… it prints money. Unfortunately, it only prints money really for Nintendo. See, the Wii third party tie-in ratio is rather poor. It seems as though the real winner in all this is Nintendo and the companies that realize shovelware. It’s sort of sad because it limits creativity. Why be creative when you can make money with a low budget piece of crap? It’s sad, and it’s true.
 Well, the future, what does it hold? Being on top means that Nintendo has the most to lose. It’s quite obvious that Nintendo cares most about the casual gamer these days, and it hurts. Nintendo really, really needs to either invest in games for gamers or encourage third parties to innovate rather than defecate. Maybe it could, you know, do both? Who knows, really? I certainly hope they do, because to a certain extent Nintendo has really tried to see what the breaking point of their fanboys is. Maybe to them that’s okay, but they have to realize that you can have your hardcore faithful in addition to being super trendy. Apple does it, somehow. Isn’t that who Nintendo is trying to emulate anyways? Does that mean that we’ll soon see a super thin Iwata in jeans and a black shirt with a goatee? God I hope so. The truth is though that Nintendo needs to know that some of Nintendo’s biggest fans are becoming some very bitter people, and bitter people can bring some very negative press. Best then to keep the fans happy, I suppose. Might you start with localizing Captain Rainbow and Mother 3? Please? PLEASE?
Nintendo’s console will probably have a bright future. I know I am personally as giddy as a schoolgirl for No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle and Mad World. I guess you could say I’ve become a person to enjoy violence more as I’ve gotten older. I also know that in the future I’ll probably own a PS3 to satisfy other needs. But don’t you worry Nintendo, because you’ve already made more than enough money off of me, and chances are you’ll make more than enough money off of others. Congrats on that.
Well, what do you think? Where has Nintendo been over the last two years for you? Where will they be in the future? I know where I think they’ll be, but it’s always more interesting to find out where you guys think the future lies, so tell us, won’t you?
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