In this episode, Shawn (GrayGhost81) and Rich (singlebanana) discuss their playthrough of the dystopian, FPS classic, Bioshock. The guys discuss their favorite dystopian environments in various forms of media, and disclose some films that they've never seen that may call the validity of their "geek cards" into question. If you're interested in philosophy, you won't want to miss their discussion of Ayn Rand and her pillars of Objectivism. Will Bioshock hold up for Shawn on a second playthrough? And will a second attempt to wash the poor FPS taste out of Rich's mouth be an additional success? All of this, in the newest episode of the RF Generation Playcast. Check it out!
As always, we are happy to hear your thoughts on this game on our discussion page (linked below). We will respond to your comments and are always happy to discuss the game more. We hope you enjoy our show. Please be sure to rate and write a review of the show on iTunes to help us increase our listenership. Thanks for the listen!
Posted on Dec 12th 2018 at 01:00:00 PM by (Pam) Posted under video, review
Thanks to companies like Limited Run, some forgotten games have been getting attention lately... whether they deserve it or not. The 25th anniversary remaster of Double Switch was released recently - a release I can't imagine too many people asked for. Originally developed by Digital Pictures, this is the spiritual successor to Night Trap. It contains the same design flaws of Night Trap, plus a few new ones, but lacks the historical controversy to make it interesting. Here are my thoughts on the game.
We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you December 2018's edition of RF Generation's Site News! In this issue, we discuss our December 2018 community playthrough contest, unveil the next game for our site 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!
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=628 height=550]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-061/bf/U-061-S-11800-A.jpg[/img] It's a good thing I bought this game based on the demo, not the cover art.
I have a very strong memory of when I first learned about Syphon Filter. It was probably late summer, or early fall, 1999. I was visiting a friend's house, and he was showing me his relatively new PlayStation console. I had previously played Twisted Metal, and Mortal Kombat Trilogy in college, but at this time, I had only recently acquired my own PlayStation, due to playing Tekken 2 at my cousin's house, and finding that I wanted to get something new, in terms of a game console. My friend showed me a PlayStation demo disc he had, and this cool new "spy action" game called Syphon Filter. I watched him play it for a few minutes, and thought it looked really cool. Then, when he was called downstairs to help finish getting dinner ready, he passed the controller over to me, and I dove in. From that point forward, I knew I had to have this game.
It's that time of year again. People are coming together for food, family, and fun and nothing kills the fun faster than a dead controller or device. When I started building my Game Room I wanted to make sure everything was as pick up and play as possible. This meant if it took longer than two to three minutes to start up and play a game it wasn't going to be worth it. To make sure everything is pick up and play ready I invested in some batteries and chargers that I'll explain here.
Wreck-It Ralph was a wonderful movie that took the concept of Toy Story and applied it to game characters in a small town arcade. In the most Pixar way possible, it was well-written, uniquely respectful of the source material, and had a story underneath it all with so much heart that you genuinely cared for the main characters. There was even a small number of real life Fix-It Felix Jr. arcade machines that were made to promote the film. They're pretty rare to find in person, but the game can be played on Disney's website here.
It's been six years since our feels were charmed by Ralph, Vanellope, Felix, and Calhoun, and as the title suggests, the sequel leaves Litwak's humble arcade behind to focus on the entirety of the interwebs. Does the new film manage to keep the personal feel while expanding the adventure? Read on, my friends, for the latest episode of RF Cinema.
2017 was a very weird year for me. I was in a funk for much of the year and not really enjoying any of the things that I used to love so much. I wasn't happy running my game store, I didn't want to air guitar to my favorite bands, I wasn't exercising or eating healthy like I typically do, I wasn't watching cool sci-fi movies or TV shows, I wasn't reading any new comics, I wasn't socializing much if at all most months, and for the first time I can ever remember I didn't really have a desire to play games when I had the chance. It was a lame year and 2018 started off just as depressing. Early in 2018 though I was able to get control of my mind once again and make some important changes in my life that made me start to appreciate things again and see the joy in all the things I used to love so very much.
During Halloween, it is very easy to find games to play to celebrate the season. Any title with a spooky theme is fair game, and there are certainly no shortage of those these days. But what about the Christmas season? There aren't many games that carry an explicit Christmas theme, so finding an enjoyable title to ring in the holidays isn't always an easy task. Now that the holiday season is upon us, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some games that many may not know are set during the Christmas season to put us in the holiday spirit. Bear in mind that most of these titles have very little to do with Christmas, but don't let that stop you from giving them a try!
In 1997, Squaresoft was starting to toy around with developing games that were not role playing games. For the first time since the 8-bit era, they were looking to expand their portfolio beyond a single genre. They had published and released two vastly different fighting games in 1997, Tobal No. 1 and Bushido Blade. Outside of fighting games, Square had created a subsidiary called Aques (only missing an 'R' to be an anagram of Square), who primarily published sports and mahjong games. Most of these forays were in the realm of publishing, but internally Square was developing their own game that broke their traditional RPG mold. A team was using the technology Square had bought and developed for Final Fantasy VII to create a 2D arcade style scrolling shooter with 3D elements. Final Fantasy VII was released in Japan in January 1997, while a shooter called Einhander, released in November. Einhander was released in North America in 1998. The title of the game is German and translates to English as 'one-handed sword.' Despite the German influence, the game never saw a European release.
While I remember VHS board games from the 1980s, I'm pretty sure I never played one. I remember a Wheel of Fortune game that was supposed to be played with the TV but instead of doing that, my family would just type phrases and proper titles into the game's handheld device and have another person try to solve the puzzle. I still have no idea how the VHS game was supposed to be played, and although there are playthroughs of it on YouTube, part of me doesn't want to know! The 2016 indie film Beyond the Gates explores the nostalgic world of VHS in general and VHS games in particular. Based on a fictional VHS board game which shares the title of the film, this gory horror movie will take its viewers to a new domain, but will it give them a good movie watching experience?
I've charged my Vita for the third and final time today, though I should mention that I rarely drain my Vita battery to (what appears to be) 40%. Nonetheless, this represents about five and a half hours of gaming, and to this forty-one year-old full-time IT scrub/husband/father, that is rather significant, especially since this is only on one day. Not only is this the most I've played a game in a year, but years, perhaps even decades. So won't you join me, my friends, as we delve head-first at full tilt into Dragon Quest Builders for the Vita. But first we need to let my Vita charge up a bit more.
Lately, even the mighty pull of an incredible new version of my favorite game of all time (Tetris Effect) can't sit me in front of a console for very long. Oh, I want to plop on our comfy recliner and put in a few long hours into the ever-growing stack of excellent games next to the various gaming systems connected to our best gaming TV. I really really do. However with so many daily tasks, back-and-forth travel, and emergency situations happening I just can't block out the time. (I'd say 'lately,' but when topsy-turvy is more common than normal, topsy-turvy becomes the new normal.)
As in the past, Nintendo has swooped in to save the day with a game machine full of stuff I want to play on a system that can ride along with me. As I was combing through the library of games to take along, I looked through the excellent popular titles that bring out the best of the system; Super Mario Odyssey, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 2, Arms, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, etc. Unexpectedly, those have stayed on the shelf lately; the majority of what I want to play these days is a compilation of arcade and retro classics that perfectly fit the few minutes at a time I have to spend. I thought it might be fun to share my current carousel of cartridge cavorting!
Posted on Nov 18th 2018 at 01:00:00 PM by (Pam) Posted under video, scary, horror
Halloween is over, but scary video games never go out of season. Through the years, games have scared me in many ways - there are creepy atmospheres, horrifying monsters, existential dread, and jump scares. Here's a look at 7 moments in video games that have scared, startled, or terrified me the most.
What are some of the moments that have scared you the most?
Christmas is almost upon us and so we invite you, once again, to join us in Secretly being a Santa to a fellow RFGen member. In this years old RFGen tradition, you will be tasked with assembling a box of video games for your Secret Santa match and mailing it to them to their great delight so that will have some cool video games to play during the season of Die Hard.
The RFGen Secret Santa is ALWAYS a good time and we invite you to join in the festivities by signing up on the official thread. Don't wait long, the deadline to sign up is Tuesday, November 20th, we want to give everyone plenty of time to shop, pack, and ship.
