In Episode 023, Addicted and MetalFRO explore the Western release of a game from prolific Japanese doujin developer Akiragoya. Steel Vampire, known originally in Japan as Metal Mosquito, is a unique shooter that does its own thing, while bringing in familiar elements from other games in the genre. But is that mix enough to warrant giving this game a serious look? Have a listen, and find out!
One aspect of criticizing artistic forms of media that is frequently brought up is the idea of recency bias. The main problem with recency bias is that when a work is new, the fresh coat of paint can sometimes successfully hide the pocks of rust hidden by the frame. This idea is true for all forms of media, books, movies, shows, and perhaps it's strongest for video games. Games are heavily reliant on the technology of the era, and as that technology advances, the inherent weaknesses of previous works comes to light even more powerfully than before. In other cases, it's simply a question of project scope.
Xenogears was once touted as one of the greatest Japanese role playing games ever created, but over time, that opinion has softened and any discussion about it inevitably leads to the game's biggest flaws. Pinpointing the source of this slowly decreasing opinion of this once highly touted classic relies on knowing what the game's major flaws truly are, an understanding of everything that happened during and after its development, and speculation on how the gaming public itself has shifted. Xenogears is over 20 years old by this point, having released on the first Playstation all the way back in 1998, so there has been plenty of time for reflection.
After hearing much praise for Ori and the Blind Forest over the last few years, it has been on my radar as a game that I should eventually play. Knowing that a sequel was releasing soon and would be freely available to anyone with Xbox Game Pass, I felt like the time was right to finally dive in. After finishing the game, I came away with mixed feelings and had lost interest in playing the sequel. However, after seeing some gameplay for Ori and the Will of the Wisps, I was intrigued to check out the sequel and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
I'm fortunate enough to still be at work, but my movie viewing has still had a major uptick since quarantine started. Here are few of the films I've seen with my wife in the past two months or so.
Westworld and Futureworld - I haven't read the novel or seen the recent tv show, but I quite enjoyed this duology from the 1970s, which centers on amusement parks for rich adults where robots play npcs in real life. Both of these films hold up quite well and to this day are recommended by many as sci-fi classics.
Pacific Rim - Yes, I'm a massive Kaiju fan, but I couldn't care less for American Kaiju productions in general. It was my wife who convinced me to watch this movie and I thought it was pretty darned good. Pacific Rim succeeds where the American Godzilla film from 2014 failed: it leans into the action and doesn't hide its main attraction, the monsters and mechs. I wish I had watched this movie sooner. It's the best western interpretation of a giant monster movie that I have ever seen.
In this month's episode of the Playcast, Rich (singlebanana) and Shawn (GrayGhost81) work to crack the mystery of Remedy Entertainment's newest release in their altered world universe, Control. The guys discuss their thoughts on the game's story, the combat and other forms of gameplay, the graphics, sounds, and whether or not this may be the game for you. Shawn is a self-proclaimed fan of Remedy games, and Rich is a newcomer, so you'll find out how this experience appealed and put-off both of them.
While last month's episode of the ConcertCast was a bit of a downer due to all of the show cancellations due to COVID-19. The guys spirits are uplifted as they are joined by a very special guest, Marisa Dabice of the band Mannequin P@#%y. She and her bandmates' 2019 release, "Patience," was honored as one of Pitchfork Music's 2019 Best Rock Albums of the Year. Not only is Marisa a talented musician, but an avid gamer as well. She and the guys discuss the current and future perils of 2020 for musicians and concert attendees, her newest album and what's she's working toward, and of course, her history with video games and what she's playing now. We're breaking new ground on our show with this interview and we hope that you enjoy it.
As always, we are happy to hear your thoughts on the games we play on our discussion page (linked below). We will respond to your comments and are always happy to discuss these games more. Please be sure to rate and write a review of the show on iTunes and/or Podbean to help us increase our listenership. Thanks for the listen, we hope you enjoy the show!
We interrupt your regularly scheduled COVID-19 boredom to bring you the May 2020 edition of RF Generation's Site News! In this issue, we announce an awesome June Community Playthrough game for our monthly playthrough group...and our shoot 'em up club??, and of course, thank those members who sent in submissions to our site and registered approvals last month. Thanks for keeping it on Channel 3 and please keep you and your loved ones SAFE!
REMEMBER: If you have any news about upcoming events or topics that you think the site needs to hear about, please PM singlebanana and put "RFG Site News" in the subject line. Who knows, maybe your news will make our front page!
[img width=640 height=360]https://s2.content.video.llnw.net/lovs/images-prod/81d5fd2a308b4f5c981628b17e9fcadd/media/2357df202d554a98bbdc4e54ffaba250/OvA.640x360.jpeg[/img] Insert obvious Nintendon't and Genesisn't joke here
The Switch keeps taking my attention. I play other systems, I really do! Yes, there are other fantastic games not on the Switch to play right now, such as Persona 5 Royal, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Doom Eternal. Our current situation requires a person to sit inside with a lot of free time, and this is a pretty great gaming season to do so! There are some epic (and incredibly time consuming) titles out right now, but personally I've found myself drawn to the Sega properties on Nintendo's excellent machine. As a gamer who fondly remembers the "console wars" between Nintendo and Sega, I still shake my head at being able to both write that sentence and mean it. It didn't even occur to me until this week that most of what I've played lately on my Switch were originally from Sega, but sure enough here we are:
Posted on May 14th 2020 at 12:00:00 PM by (russlyman) Posted under atari
I take the Toony Terrors figures Micahel Myers (Halloween) and Leather face (Teaxs Chainsaw Massacre) Series 2 Toony Terros by NECA and rePaint them to look more like their Atari 2600 counter parts. Both had games on the Atari system, so with the limited graphics of the system, the color palette will also be limited
Nintendo in 3D! Some games took advantage of the new graphic capabilities, many of which you'll find below. Like all systems, it had its clunkers (hello Superman), but it was interesting to put this list together because it was similar to the Super NES; at the top were some mainstays that received near universal praise.
Speaking of the top, the ranks definitely came into play, which you'll see when we hit the top 2...
Posted on May 10th 2020 at 12:00:00 PM by (Pam) Posted under review, video, ps1
Rayman is an amazingly bright and beautiful platformer than I remember loving as a kid. Re-playing it now, I'm unsure I ever got very far into the game because once you get past the first world, it is incredibly difficult! In this video I take a look at the best and worst parts of the game.
There are times when we, as collectors, have too much choice. Times when, despite curating a highly respectable library of games, our shelves are full to the brim. One might say too full, in fact. In those moments, we can be struck by choice paralysis. We have so many games, it becomes harder to decide what to play. Last month, I wrote an article about "evergreen games" that I can go back to at any time. Those are my "go to" games to play, when I otherwise can't decide. What do you do when you've either exhausted those, or you pop a couple of them in, and you're just not feeling it?
Like many of us in these crazy times, I've spent a lot of time over the past couple of months trying to make sense of things. Between the constantly stressful/upsetting news, fear of contagion every time I go out, and the push-pull of being thankful I'm able to work from home while also feeling guilty that I'm so busy at work while others are struggling, it's been a really strange experience for me. I'm an extroverted introvert, so while I definitely miss hanging out with friends, eating at restaurants, and small personal niceties with people I used to take for granted, my life hasn't changed too drastically. But while I'm adapting to a new normal, some things have changed, and some things are continuing to change. One of the things that have continued to evolve has been my gaming habits.
In Episode 022, Addicted and MetalFRO cover a shooting game from a company that published several, but only ever developed one. The company was Telenet, the shmup was Gaiares. This well-loved classic has its supporters, and its detractors, but frequently comes into the conversation when discussions about the best shooters from the 16-bit era are had. We pick apart the game, and determine why it's still worth playing today.
When I first started collecting games for older consoles in a serious manner and came to the decision that I'd "get a full set," this was in the early 2000s. My young, optimistically naive self always had it in my mind that I would have that done in the matter of a year or two and then I'd "beat them all" and then simply move onto the SNES and repeat the process. The harsh reality quickly set in that this wasn't a feasible goal, but the idea never left my mind. In 2011, I was still hunting for NES carts to complete my set and had only dabbled in a small chunk of the library, which were both far cries from my original intentions, but that "beat them all" concept was still gnawing at me. So finally in October 2011, I decided to start keeping track of my journey for my personal posterity. I kept a google doc and recorded each game as I completed them. I started off with a 100 NES games in 100 days challenge to get the momentum really amped up. This is a lot easier than it may sound when you have the entire library to choose from. I could knock out games I was immensely familiar with in a single day and do some cursory research or pick games from genres I was comfortable with. I had so much fun with those first 100 games, it was honestly one of the most fun gaming experiences I've ever had.
The Yakuza series has been around for quite some time. The first game dates back to the later years of the Playstation 2, and the 7th main game in the series recently released in Japan and is set to come to the West soon. All the regular releases, plus the spinoffs, prequel, and slowly releasing remakes and upcoming remasters make Yakuza one of the most actively developed video games series to date. [iYakuza 6[/i] was developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega for Sony's Playstation 4. It was originally released in 2016 in Japan. A worldwide release followed two years later in 2018. This long running series has quickly been gaining popularity in the West, which has mostly been propelled by the prequel Yakuza 0. Sega's been spacing out the timing of their Yakuza releases, so the market does not become overwhelmed by constant releases as the West gets caught up with the main story on top of the remakes.
