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A while back (if you define a while back as one week ago), my older brother and I went on a social camp with some friends. Now, I won't be going into specifics, but during that time we played a lot of the classic game Mafia. We played a custom-made offshoot of it, which included five roles. We had Sheriff, which could tell if one of the players was a Mafia or not. We had Doctor, which could heal players that would be killed. And we had Cat, (I don't even know how the name came about) which could mute players. This information will be important later.
Back in 2020, a small indie game titled "Among Us" blew up.
The gameplay structure makes for an extremely fun game, in my opinion. I love the social deduction aspect of Among Us, even if I am bad at playing as an Impostor.
I mostly play Among Us online, but I have played it person before a couple times. I have also played it over voice chat, which in my opinion is the most fun way to play, even if it does cause a few issues. It's my favorite way to play Among Us, but it's incredibly hard to get enough people in a voice chat to play, in my opinion. I mostly play in voice chats in small groups. I've even done with RFGeneration before!
What in my opinion, causes Among Us to fall flat, however, is the changes to this formula. Near the end of 2021, Innersloth released an update to Among Us that added multiple roles. I dislike this feature heavily because it messes with the already established formula. My experience with Among Us was mostly only in late 2020 and recently, so I'm basing it off of my experience recently. The extra roles we added in Mafia made sense to go with the formula, but the new roles in Among Us make the game 10x more complicated and feel worse, in my opinion.
If you do turn off the extra roles, however, Among Us feels nice to play and is a great game in my opinion.
I've been koola, and please STOP saying "sus". It was funny back when when it was only used for YTPs.
(I wrote a whole text block about the gameplay structure that I just removed because everybody know how Among Us plays.)
A while ago I received Paper Mario: the Origami King as a gift from my parents. I have played the game a bit, but as I was getting used to the controls, I noticed something. The D-Pad has no functions at all! This is the type of game you would expect the D-Pad to fully work with. Ever since then, I've been noticing the same problem in various other games.
The D-Pad issue has two sides to it: either a) the D-Pad just isn't connected to any keybind at all, or b) it's connected to a set of inputs that makes little to no sense for it to go to. It seems many new games fall into category "a", while games from 2-4 years ago fall into category "b".
I have a theory that this is part of the "technology evolution" we all have been just getting used to lately. Sometimes, things that you don't notice but function perfectly fine are removed. And then, when you actually want to use those things, you realize what happened. (Apple users know this all too well.)
I said that I first noticed this with Paper Mario: the Origami King, but I also noticed it in Scribblenauts Mega Pack before I started really thinking about it. (For reference, in the original PC and Wii U build these versions seem to be based off, the D-Pad will function as expected. It moves you.) But in Scribblenauts Mega Pack, the D-Pad is assigned to a group of buttons that used to be on the top of the screen at all times as part of the HUD. (The originals were touchscreen games.)
My point being that the D-Pad in Scribblenauts Mega Pack is assigned to a menu that makes no sense to me. It's not even explained how the D-Pad functions in-game. I just kinda figured it out myself. What is explained in-game is the ability of pausing the game to get to these actions.
The original "b" case I brought up can be useful at times. I just wish that they would assign it to some other but ton that doesn't get used very often, like Select.
And it is for this very reason that modern controllers (like the DualSense and Xbox Series controllers) still keep the D-Pad in the first place.
In most modern games, however, you will usually get nothing for seemingly no reason. There might be some people who are disabled in a way that they can't use the control stick and use the D-Pad instead; but modern games not accepting any movement options other than stick or even having a way to rebind your controls really makes me worry about accessibility.
I've been koola, and it's called a Directional Pad, not a "Directions Pad".
(What even is the Xbox 360 controller's D-Pad anyway?)
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Posted on Jun 20th 2022 at 08:00:00 AM by ( MetalFRO) Posted under G Darius, Shoot the Corecast, podcast, Shmup Club, Taito, Zuntata, PlayStation, arcade, shooting game, shoot em up, STG, shooter |
[img width=500 height=500]http://rfgeneration.com/podcasts/shmupclub/images/2022-06-19_stcc_ep_047_g-darius.jpg[/img]
In Episode 047, MetalFRO and Addicted recruit another copilot to join us for the ride that is talking about Taito's arcade classic shooter G-Darius! We go in depth about the game mechanics and really try to get at the heart of what makes this shooting game such a winner.
Listen to the episode right here at RF Generation:
https://www.rfgeneration.com/podcasts/shmupclub/?name=2022-06-19_stcc_ep_047_g-darius.mp3
Or find the feed for your preferred podcast service here:
https://linktr.ee/shootthecorecast
Check out the original discussion thread for the game here:
http://www.rfgeneration.com/forum/index.php?topic=19664.0
Thanks for listening!
Ports are a fun subject to talk about. It's interesting to see a game ported from one console to another. Sometimes, it makes perfect sense, like New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, (even if the name is a bit iffy), but sometimes they don't.
A curious case is Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS. (Even more iffy names). Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS, as easily guessed, is a version of the game Super Mario Maker, originally released on the Wii U. At first this makes sense. The Wii U was a failure in the sales department. Super Mario Maker basically was the only thing holding it by the fringes of complete financial failure during 2015.
I bring this up because with Super Mario Maker's financial success, it would make clear sense to bring it to Nintendo's other console at the time: the very successful 3DS. A portable version of this game that people could enjoy on a console small enough to fit in one's pocket sounds amazing! Nintendo was biting a bit more than they could chew, however.
How do you take a game as complex as Super Mario Maker and fit it on something with a 268 MHz processor? Nintendo's answer was, well, you directly put it on there.
That was their first mistake.
Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS's code is basically the same as the Wii U original. Which, again, for a clock speed of 268 MHz is not a very wise decision. It has very poor performance when many objects are moving, as expected. But the extent to which this is treated is... not very good. It even occasionally lags on the menus. It lags during some of the game's built-in story mode, which I'll get back to soon.
I think that most of this could be fixed with some performance patches. But the game never got any. All of the patches were bug fixes; I'm not Ceave Gaming on this topic, but it still hurts a little bit.
On the other hand, most of the built-in levels are actually really good. They preform well (usually) and are actually really fun. For a portable console, you would need to have a good category of offline levels to play on a road trip or something, which I think this port really excels at. The massive amount of quality offline levels included in this port is amazing and I think that this deserves some talk in the debate of this game.
One thing I've been leaving out in this article is the online functionality, and that's because this is basically what everything brings up when they talk about this version of the game. A game maker, if it has a level-sharing system, needs to have a good one, right? The original Super Mario Maker had a relatively nice level-sharing system. You could search for a level by its popularity or difficulty. You could also do a "100-Mario Challenge" where your goal was to clear as many uploaded courses as possible with 100 lives. You could also sort this by difficulty. In Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS, you get a randomly selected batch of levels to scroll through. You also can get "Recommended Courses" based on what levels you played. For a game creator tool, this is a really bad way of handling online levels.
Additionally, something the community gets flared up about for this game is the fact that you could not upload the levels you created to Course World. This causes a lot of disco--wait. No. Basically every single party of the debate hates this choice. You can only share your levels to people you created in Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS to people over StreetPass.
Overall, Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS is a badly preforming version of the Wii U original, with loads of great offline content and lackluster online support.
I've been koola, and I'm done ranting for today.
(Expect some more Omnifate stuff soon, because I'm getting into getting a demo out by the end of summer.)
Something a little different this time. I decided to enter the annual Soundole Chill Out Competition this year, and this laid back track from Octopath Traveler is my entry. This was definitely an interesting one to work on since it's such a departure from my usual heavier sound. I hope you all enjoy it! If you feel like listening to the rest of the covers and participating in the community vote, check out the full playlist of tracks here: https://www.youtube.com/p...3xE8g3R9dxp3qeoxrR69a2f4O
Then click the following link and vote for your favorites (wink wink): https://t.co/dz5VwVaPgf
So I was lingering around RFGeneration not really doing anything, and I realized that I had not shared anything about Omnifate with RFGeneration since August. A lot has happened since then.
Let's start with some of the more influential stuff. I switched to making Omnifate an RPG, as I noticed that most of the story elements I wanted to have would fit better in one. I've been composing music as I come up with the story, and just overall composing for fun sometimes.
I have acquired the services of an artist. Her pen name is Raini, so that's what I'll call her for the rest of this. Raini is very helpful for Omnifate and makes anything I draw look 10x better. She draws in this anime art style that just oozes joy out of me when I see it. Seriously, I hope she pursues this as more of a career.
Next, I'm working on getting a demo with at least the first bit of the game in it in the summer months.
Coming up with a good story is a really hard thing to do. I don't want to plagiarize, but I also don't want to include no standard RPG tropes, so I've just been working out the story in my head as I go.
Overall, development is coming along better.
I've been koola, and Omnifate is coming as soon as I can finish it. Please stay tuned.
(I really have to fight procrastination.)
To define a favorite game is a intensely loaded question. "Should I include the story in the discussion?", "The music?", "The humor?", "The gameplay loop?" "The in-game tutorials?"
There is probably never going to be a right answer to this question. My personal belief is that you should judge games by their gameplay and story.
If you gleamed the article before you read it, (or even looked at the tags), then you'll notice that my article is about a rhythm game. Obviously, rhythm games can't have stories, right?
Yes, and I think that this one's humor does it enough.
F.I.S.H. is a game by a content creator I have been following for a good few years now, Timotainment. His content and sense of humor is top-notch, and in my opinion, flows directly into this game. You are to stop fish from entering potentially unsafe areas where CLASSIFIED is happening, and your tool to stop these fish is a stop sign.
The gameplay feels very fast-paced and intense in some parts, and that's a good thing for a rhythm game from my point of view. The difficulty curve does take some getting used to but that is probably just a product from my overall lack of experience with rhythm games.
Overall, F.I.S.H. is a very fun, humorous, intense and amazing rhythm game. I love it, and would highly recommend it to most.
I've been koola, and some of my recent articles have been filled with mostly pessimism and cons.
(I hope this suffices.)
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Posted on May 19th 2022 at 08:00:00 AM by ( MetalFRO) Posted under Viewpoint, Shoot the Corecast, podcast, Shmup Club, Aicom, Sammy, Neo Geo, arcade, shooting game, shoot em up, STG, shooter |
[img width=500 height=500]http://rfgeneration.com/podcasts/shmupclub/images/2022-05-17_stcc_ep_046_viewpoint.jpg[/img]
In Episode 046, MetalFRO and Addicted dive into the world of Neo Geo and look at one of the more unsung shooters in the library. From developer Aicom and publisher Sammy, we get the unique isometric shoot-em-up Viewpoint, complete with pre-rendered 3D graphics and a smoking hot 90s house soundtrack.
Listen to the episode right here on RF Generation:
https://www.rfgeneration.com/podcasts/shmupclub/?name=2022-05-17_stcc_ep_046_viewpoint.mp3
Or find your preferred podcast platform on our Linktree page:
https://linktr.ee/shootthecorecast
Check out the original discussion thread for the game here:
http://www.rfgeneration.com/forum/index.php?topic=19648.0
Thanks for listening!
So a Decisive Battle / Boss Theme cover from Final Fantasy VI was going to be an inevitability, I suppose. Definitely a track that I knew I would get to eventually, but for the longest time I didn't have any inspiration to do it. Then the inspiration hit me all of a sudden and I didn't wait to get started on this one. I hope you all enjoy it!
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Posted on May 7th 2022 at 08:00:00 AM by ( MetalFRO) Posted under Shoot the Corecast, Salamander, Life Force, Konami, shmup, shooter, STG, shoot em up, shooting game, arcade game, classic game |
[img width=500 height=499]http://rfgeneration.com/podcasts/shmupclub/images/2022-04-17_stcc_ep_045_salamander_life_force.jpg[/img]
In Episode 045, Addicted and MetalFRO dig into the Konami vault once more and take a close look at Salamander, the non-sequel follow up to the wildly popular Gradius. Salamander and its counterpart Life Force have a storied history of revisions and ports that we dive into in more detail, and discuss the differences between them.
You can listen to the episode right here on RF Generation:
https://www.rfgeneration.com/podcasts/shmupclub/?name=2022-04-17_stcc_ep_045_salamander_life_force.mp3
Or check out our Linktree page to find our feed on your favorite podcast service:
https://linktr.ee/shootthecorecast
Check out the original discussion thread for the game here:
http://www.rfgeneration.com/forum/index.php?topic=19644.0
Thanks for listening!
Hello again!
Over the past few days, we have made a lot of progress on the site functionality so I wanted to give an update!
Submissions/Approvals
These are now working as expected! We found some settings that were keeping this from working that have been temporarily changed to allow things to function properly. This has also allowed the "All Collections" list to update as expected as well.
Forum error messages
This has been fixed as well with the changes we made. Again, this is another band-aid fix to the root issue, but it will let things get back to normal while we continue to make the changes.
https
I have heard the question a few times, so I figured I would update here with the status of this. The server is currently already https enabled. The reason why it isn't enabled site-wide at this time is largely due to the forum software being out of date. I have plans to set up a sandbox page at home, run the required forum upgrades, then begin developing a new theme. The new software supports https, so this combined with the other efforts of updating/auditing the code for hardcoded paths should allow us to finally enable https site-wide.
A huge thanks to everyone for reaching out to report issues over email, site PM, or Discord. Having a lot of data points helped to determine what was going on better. Another big thanks to the staff members who were helping me to test the various functions as we made changes to verify functionality.
And, naturally, thank you to everyone for your patience and understanding as we worked through this. I know it took longer than I hoped, certainly, but we're certainly on the road to making a lot of progress in updating the site for the future.
Hey everyone! We recently went through a server migration for several reasons (OS no longer supported, security updates, space, etc), but, as you may have noticed, we have had some issues since the migration. I am trying to correct all of the issues as quickly as possible, but it certainly hasn't been easy.
Thanks to everyone in Discord who helped report the current issues. If you would like to reach out, please join the Discord where we have a site issues channel for people to report the issues. I also plan on posting those issues on a Trello board here so I can more easily track them. You can find the board here: https://trello.com/b/Jxj3...rf-generation-site-issues
Finally, I can't say enough how much I appreciate the patience from all of you while we make the required changes to get the site up and running fully again.
On your marks, get set, and go watch this month's "A Brief Look At" with Neo!
This month, we check out Horizon Chase Turbo for PC and modern platforms!
[img width=700 height=277]https://i0.wp.com/evercade.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/EvercadeVS-Hero500.jpeg?w=1260&ssl=1[/img]
When the Evercade portable first released in 2020, there were many who scratched their heads in bemusement. Surely in this day and age of the Switch, the various cheap emulation portables, and now the Steam deck, a new cart-based budget portable game machine was unnecessary? What was this newfangled British toy, and was it fated to be another nifty but niche Game Gear or Lynx? Or a comical disaster by way of Game.com or N-Gage? Well, now that the Evercade has had a few quality of life updates and almost two years of cartridge releases, a better evaluation may be given. Especially now that the Evercade VS, a home console version of the Evercade ecosystem, has finally arrived here in the US. After spending a few weekends with the VS and the entire current library, here are my thoughts on everything Evercade.
Continue reading Thoughts on the Evercade Ecosystem, Including the VS Console
For those of us who collect games, we all understand that we have a few stinkers in the collection. Looking at the library of releases for any game console or platform, there will always be games that are objectively terrible, a lot of stuff that's just not very good, a lot of middling releases, a fair number of solid titles worth your time, and usually a small number of absolutely outstanding games that are among the best on offer. Unless you're curating a small collection of only games you enjoy, you're bound to have a turd or two on the shelf. Why do we pay money for these things? Let me offer a few ideas as to why there's nothing wrong with owning some bad games.
Continue reading In Defense Of...Games That Suck
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We are a community of collectors, gamers and the likes, and some of us enjoy to let the world know what is on our mind. For those members, we have the community blogs, a place where they can publish their thoughts and feelings regarding life, universe, and everything. Some of those members might even choose to write about gaming and collecting! Whatever they write about, you can find it on their blog. You can either see the latest community blog entries in the feed you see to the left, or you can browse for your favorite blog using the menu above. Interested in having your own blog hosted on RF Generation? It's rather simple, first be a registered member, and then click the "My Blog" link that you see in the navigation above. Following those two steps will certainly get you on your way to blogging.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy our entries, rantings, and completely unrelated series of thoughts. We write for you to read, so we certainly hope that you enjoy our material.
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