Julian, we Nintendo fans were crushed when you decided to jump ship to the PS3, and release the motion sensitive Wii. You delighted us with Rogue Squadron, but you just had to crush our hearts with the jumping ship to the PS3 front. Well, how did Lair end up doing, huh? I hear it was pretty bad, Julian. So, today we hear that you are officially developing at least one non Virtual Console game for the Wii? Given your last release, I don't know if I should be excited, but none the less here you are, back at the doorstep of Nintendo, developing some unnamed game. Hope it is better than Lair, but hey, that should be easy, right?
Well, I am sort of excited. Factor 5's games were, and are, visually stunning. Factor 5 also was a provider of middleware solutions for the Nintendo 64 and GameCube. Knowing this, I hope that Factor 5 puts other developers to shame with graphics. If anyone can push the envelope, it is them.
At the same time, they might be, like many other developers, in for the quick cash in. I certainly hope such is not the case, but I guess we'll find out for sure once we know what exactly it is that they are developing for the Wii.
Julian, please do not disappoint us. You've already done that once before.
[img align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/1905459161478ababbd43edPS3360.jpg[/img] People have been sneering at the price of the PS3. They say it is expensive. You know, this statement is correct. However, I find it troubling that many of these people that say the Playstation 3 is overly expensive have no problem laying down the money for Microsoft's 360. I find such actions humorous. Let's analyze what I perceive as the true costs of these two systems, in terms of what they have to offer and what hidden costs lie with the system. Perhaps, we'll be enlightened after this discussion. Perhaps you'll be enraged. Chances are though that my arguments are pretty decent, and perhaps it will make take a second look at which system you ultimately end up purchasing.
[img width=400 align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/16635149954789349d7b290SonicMassEffect.jpg[/img] So, it has been known for some time that Bioware was going to be working on a Sonic RPG. Today, we have more news about the Sonic RPG that is sure to make fans of Sonic and Bioware squeal with excitement. A couple of highlights are as follows:
Watercolor Style of Animation
4 Members in you Party at once, 11 party members total.
No random battles, in a definite homage to Chrono Trigger
Turn Based Fighting
Special Moves play like Elite Beat Agents
If you wish to see more than a few highlights, perhaps scans hosted at Jeux France will tickle your fancy. Those scans are bright, colorful, and look as good as graphics seen in Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. I'm certainly impressed by the graphics... are you?
Certainly, this game has the potential to rock one's socks off. I am predicting pure awesome. We'll find out for sure when this game is released later in 2008.
[img align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-027/ss/ex/U-027-S-00510-A_05.jpg&sizex=174[/img] As I sit hear, listening to the Future of Rock and Roll, I was pondering what my next article should be. I sit hear, enjoying the music, listening to the smooth melodies of the indie rock scene. Feel the emotion, the magic, the rhythm. Music is a powerful medium. Music can be one of the best ways to convey emotion and mood without saying a word. Truly, music is an important part of games. From the 8-bit era to today, music has been an integral part of games. Think of the classics. The Mario Theme. The Zelda Theme, and many more, they're all great. Let's take the time to reminisce on the past, and identify the history of game music as it is today.
Well, it seems as though the format wars are possibly reaching a conclusion, with Sony's Blu Ray format beating out HD DVD. Depending on how you look at it, either this conclusion is vindication for Betamax or something that you wish mirrored Betamax. So, after years of fighting, bickering, and backhanded deals, the future is looking rather bleak for HD DVD. I guess the question then is- was the future ever looking bright for HD DVD? I don't know if I can say yes. It seems as though one of its principal proponents (Microsoft) seems to be rather preoccupied with its own download service. Do they really care about HD DVD? Perhaps we'll find out soon at CES with their rumored Ultimate Xbox announcement. But, I bet that even if the Ultimate 360 has a built-in HD DVD drive Microsoft will still have its agenda entirely on its download service. I wonder if it even matters any more. Let me tell you why.
You may remember a previous post about a cool hack called Extra Mario Bros. In case you missed that post, here is the video again.
[youtube=425,350]AbPbvl6g4rc[/youtube]
So, I have received confirmation that this game does in fact exist. Since I wish not to be sued, all I can say is yeah, look in the right spot and you might find it, and that's all I got to say about that.
[img align=right width=350]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/792620377477c87120f933WiiWii.jpg[/img]Look at them. Cute kids, huh? Look at the one holding the Wiimote. An angel, I bet he is? Right? Maybe not. Maybe so. But look at the other one, the older brother. He looks angry. Not quite HULK SMASH angry, but pretty peeved. Note the Wii. Such an elegant system. Absolutely no scent of urine... whaaaaat???
Turns out the older brother was being a jerk. That's strange, normally older brothers are nothing but a ray of sunshine. I should know, as I am the oldest of my brothers, and I am nothing but a ray of sunshine. Somehow, that kid must not have gotten the memo about being a good brother. See, his parents got he and his little brother a Wii for Christmas for 250 pounds. Grats to the parents for finding a Wii for their beloved kids for Christmas. Months searching, according to the article. Really, months to find a Wii? In Britain? I thought you guys were Sony Fanboys. Guess the exorbitant price of the PS3 has converted you from that path. Anyways, the older brother was being a jerk once they finally got the Wii from Santa. Seems he was hogging the Wii. Not letting his brother playing the Wii, apparently. Certainly the little brother didn't like that, and by golly, he had to do something about that. Tell his parents? Nah, that's to mature for his age. What he did was more classic.
And that's were the headline for this article comes into play. Hilarious. Wee on the Wii. Genius. One hell of a way to get back at your brother. Certainly, if my little brother did that to my Wii, he'd be dead. Figuratively, of course. But the truth of the matter is that my Wii is not broken thanks to urine, while that pissed off older brother's Wii is. Ha!
2007 is dead. Long live 2007. Looking back, there were some nice games. Bioshock, The Orange Box, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Mass Effect, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters- certainly, there were some good games that came out. But yeah, such things are now in the past. The question now becomes what are you looking forward to in 2008? I've got a few games that I am looking forward to, read about them after the jump.
December 31, 2007, 4:57:30 PM, Eastern. That is the date and time that will go down as the date we hit 100000 posts in our forum - our community. From 0 posts on June 8, 2004 to 100000 posts today, certainly, today is a day of celebration. Check out the stats bar as captured for this momentous occasion:
Certainly, I am humbled by the mark, and by the success of our forum. I am humbled by the community that we have. Without our community, there is no way that we could have hit this mark. We are nothing without you guys. Thank you all for fostering our community, and we hope that our community remains vibrant for years to come.
I'd like to specifically congratulate the person who made the 100000th post, Bad Enough Dude. I can confidently say that Bad Enough Dude is the oldest member (with respect to join date) on the site that is not or has not been on staff and still actively posts. That's really cool. He even joined before me, at 4AM on the date that the site launched. How cool is that? Check out the post that made 100000:
Congrats, and congrats to everyone! May the forum continue to be a success and a place for interesting musings and thoughts!
[img width=250 align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/4466831574777f6c17f667MVC-020S-17.jpg[/img]So, back in the day there was the SNES CD Add-on under development by Sony and Phillips. Clearly, it didn't work out. Phillips decided to release the add-on as the CD-i, the system with amazing games like The Legend of Zelda: Wand of Gamelon. Certainly, we are blessed that system and it's amazing games. Thankfully Nintendo has learned a thing or two about whoring out franchises, haven't they?. Anyways, yeah, there was Sony's prototype as well, and we all know what happened with that prototype.
Well, a piece of development history is currently up for auction. Someone is auctioning a dev controller for the SNES CD. Talk about of piece of history, it could be yours if you win the auction, and also have a large sum of money. It could be yours for the cool price of $2999.99. Personally, I don't have that type of money, and I am not a hardware collector. But for those of you who love to collect rare, and I mean REALLY RARE pieces of hardware, now is your chance. Happy Bidding!
We programmers at RF Generation like to add new things. Tonight, we give you our Christmas Gift. Sure, it is not Christmas, but think of us as the side of the family you do not see on Christmas - the side who has no problem giving you that fruitcake for Christmas. In addition, similar to those gifts of old with the classic disclaimer "some assembly required", there may be some bugs. We're working hard to fix them, but if you see any let us know. Anyways, you probably would like to know what is new. Here is the short list:
Submissions System Improvements, as told by me:
Revamped Variations: We no longer discriminate variations. In addition, if you make a variation on one page it will make it also a variation on the other page.
Revamped Rating Systems: Does a game have more than one rating? Is the rating only valid for a few consoles? Well, we can accommodate both of those now.
Intelligent Submission: We figure out the region for you now. Of course, if something is realized regionwide, do let us know. We have also made the script intelligent so that selecting the country brings up corresponding countries and regions. You can now add variations across regions... because we want you to and we love you. In a platonic sense, of course.
Animated Flags: Game or Hardware released in more than one country? Now, the flag shows those countries, rather than the overall region
Collections System Improvements, as told by Eddie "The Black Perl" Herrmann:
You can now mark folders as "for sale" or "owned"
Trade Search feature now checks all folders marked "for sale"
All Collections page shows owned game totals
Statistics page updated with total owned game stats and QTY/BOX/MAN totals
Settings page added - can choose default region and ignore duplicates
Profile page added for profile stats and management
Simplified country/regions selection
Tools Page added - has links for random game selection, missing image search, collecton links, and trade match features
As a personal plea, please submit variation ties for games across regions. Adding it for one entry adds it for all. So please, please submit! You'll be my favorite member! Just kidding, you're all my favorite members. But seriously, do submit. It's fun.
If you find any bugs, let us know. From us to you, enjoy the new features, and stay tuned, you never know when that next new feature set will launch. It may be sooner than you think.
So yeah, some homebrew is too damn cool to ignore. Take for instance Extra Mario Bros. I only hope that it is real. Someone thought it would be pretty neat to take Mario and place him in a Metroid Type Universe, complete with remixed Metroid Music. All I can say is -- Pure Awesome. Check for yourself:
[youtube=425,350]AbPbvl6g4rc[/youtube]
Again, damn, DO WANT!. Awesomeness of Mario... awesomeness of Super Metroid... combined, wow. Someone find me that game.
From our family to yours - Merry Christmas. May this joyous day be spent with friends and family, and may you find happiness in the day. May the holiday season continue to be a joyous and festive time, and from the staff of RF Generation - Merry Christmas.
So, yeah, Ben Eberle, if that is his real name, has done it again, publicly shaming us with his awesomeness. How the hell do you get 95% on Through the Fire and Flames on expert mode, anyways? Someone should buy that kid a real guitar and hookers, so he can live the real rock life. Okay, maybe not, but yeah, perhaps he can be recruited into a Rock Band? Time shall tell. All I know is damn...
[IMG align=right width=250]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/2028517727476d6aab3bee7pope_looks_like_palpatine_02.jpg[/img] I'm horribly confused. At a time where the Catholic Church is falling apart amid scandal, Tony Blair has converted to the faith. I can't help but ask myself why? No before you call me a hater of Catholics, do know that I myself am Catholic. I also went to twelve years of Catholic school, of which four were taught by Jesuits. The Jesuits are the wonderful sect of Catholicism that has no problem showing its students Dogma as a way to point out what is wrong with the Church. Did I mention that Pope Benedict looks like Emperor Palpatine? Must I also mention that Benedict is the last Pope before Peter the II, who is supposed to be the last reigning pope of Catholicism? Read into that how you want. But, yeah, there is one thing that I find deeply profound about Catholicism that is said in Dogma, "You people mourn your faith, as though it is a burden." It's true, check out a Catholic mass. Chances are it will be rather dreary and sad. Sure there are the bright, cheery contemporary masses, but those are in the minority.
So, Tony Blair, why the conversion? I am proud that you have found "your faith", but why Catholicism? Was it the recent reinterpretation of Vatican II that said that only Catholics can receive true salvation? Yeah, it's true that Benedict said that. Never mind the fact that prior to his reinterpretation it was Dogma that God revealed himself to every civilization in the way that best works for that civilization, and everyone could receive true salvation. So yeah, please, the world wants to know. I want to know. Trying to mend bridges? Whatever it is... we would love to know.
This is where my thoughts go and are never heard from again.
Well, maybe not, but this is the repository for all of my published thoughts and rantings. It'll make my day if you find at least 10% of it amusing and enjoyable to read.
