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The original Playstation is one of the most important video game consoles in the history of electronics. Many changes to the way video game development was conducted took place during these years. While big budget 3D blockbusters were marketed to the sky and back, some other companies realized they could target lower price points. Before the Playstation, most lower priced games were re-releases of older, successful games, but the cheaper manufacturing and shipping costs of CDs and jewel cases persuaded some companies to just develop and release lower priced games, which would come to be known as a budget title. The PC gaming market had been doing this since its inception, but consoles could finally get in on the small priced release train. Lower the scope of the game, don't add too many features, and focus like a laser on what will be in the game, and these developers and publishers could release a rather competent game for $20. BursTrick Wake Boarding!! is one such game.
Continue reading BursTrick Wake Boarding!!
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Posted on Feb 13th 2021 at 01:00:00 PM by ( EZ Racer) Posted under top 20, nes, snes, genesis, pc, n64, playstation, nintendo, ps1, mario, zelda |
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So after taking much of 2020 to look at some of the best games for several different home console systems of the 70's, 80's, and 90's, it only seemed natural to kick off 2021 with a list of the best of the best.
The results are based off of 5 participants:
Crabmaster2000
EZ Racer
DisposedHero
Fokakis79
Wempster
Voters were encouraged to list all their best games if they couldn't get it cut to 20, and a few lists took advantage of that. Games from all systems released as 5th generation consoles (N64, Playstation 1, Sega Saturn) and prior were eligible. Japan exclusives were also eligible, along with PC titles released in 1999 or earlier.
In all, there were 89 games that were considered among the best of the early video game generations, and rather than list the also-rans separately, I thought it woulld be fun to list every game in order. My thought is that all these games are considered exceptional by at least one person, so if your looking for ideas for something to try, it might be for you as well.
Before getting to it, thanks to those who participated this month, and all who made lists in 2020. It's been a lot of fun, and look forward to a lot more in '21! If you're a GameCube fan, check out the link for the next list coming up- http://www.rfgeneration.c...m/index.php?topic=19495.0
So here are your Top 20...er top 89 games as voted on by RFGen members!
Continue reading RFGen Top 20 plus? Games of the Early Years
In this episode Chris is the Atreus to Kelsy's Kratos as we discuss the much loved God of War (2018) in depth. Also a bonus at the end where we talk about the HBO sci-fi series Raised by Wolves first season.
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Intro song by:
Steven Davis - Twitter = @TheDisposedHero, Youtube = DisposedHeroVGM
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During the early years of Sony's first Playstation console the company was throwing all kinds of money around to get exclusive development deals. In order to make sure the Japanese launch era and early years went well they invested heavily into the development of role playing games. Sony's investment would lead to three early RPGs for the Playstation, Arc the Lad, PoPoLoCrois Monogatari, and Wild ARMs. Wild ARMs was developed by Media.Vision and would release in Japan in 1996, followed by a North American release in 1997, and Europe in 1998. Much later this first Wild ARMs game would be remade for the Playstation 2 in 2005. It has many changes compared to the original, however this review will focus solely on the original release.
Continue reading Wild ARMs
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By now the Mana series is one of the longest running, actively developed series in video gaming. This series has a few threads that bind each game together, but for the most part each game is its own, separate entity from the rest of them. However, like most works of media the series has had its ups, and then mostly downs. The first three games in the series, Sword of Mana, Secret of Mana, and Trials of Mana, all pushed the series further upwards in both quality and scope with each game release, with Trials adding multiple character points of view for a nonlinear narrative. In 1999 Squaresoft released the fourth game in the Mana series for the Playstation, Legend of Mana. A North American release would come the following year. Its not immediately obvious, but Legend of Mana is easily a candidate for the best game in this series, and it tends to be woefully overlooked.
Continue reading Legend of Mana
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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.
Continue reading Xenogears: A Tale of Two Discs
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In 1996 a legendary game designer left Capcom to form his own game development company. Tokuro Fujiwara founded Whoopee Camp after an insane career as a video game director and producer that spanned over a decade at Capcom. Fujiwara's credits listings while working at Capcom easily rank him amongst the greatest game designers of the 8 and 16 bit arcade and console era. He is credited with creating Ghosts 'n Goblins, directing and producing multiple games including Sweet Home, Breath of Fire, DuckTales and many other Capcom licensed games from the era, Final Fight 2 and Final Fight 3, and multiple Mega Man games. What would be Fujiwara and Whoopee Camp's first game after Fujiwara left this legacy behind and forged his own path?
Continue reading Tomba!
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2B holding 9S with a 3rd character you don't need to know about yet.
The year is 2003. The PlayStation 2 is lighting up sales charts the likes of which no console had ever seen before. It was now a few years into the console's lifecycle, so games were starting to really flood the market. Square Enix released a game called Drakengard, the first game directed by a now well known eccentric, Yoko Taro. One of the design elements of the game included multiple endings, one of which seems rather nonsensical at first. (The following will include heavy spoilers to one of Drakengard's endings, and the reason for this detailed description will follow soon after.)
Continue reading NieR: Automata
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If you've paid attention to my gaming tastes over the years, it would likely be easy to peg me as a guy who loves old school, action games. I'm super comfortable with platformers, fighters, shmups, run 'n guns, and I've also got a soft spot for JRPGs. I tend to talk about these types of games the most, but there are some extremely modern genres that I enjoy just as much as those I grew up with. In this case, it's a the decision based, cinematic, story driven game Detroit Become Human. I have yet to play Indigo Prophecy, but have drawn a great deal of enjoyment out of Quantic Dreams previous titles, Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls. Based on my past experience with these two titles, as well as the intriguing setting of a near-future, pre-sci-fi world in which Androids have become common place in the homes and work forces around the U.S., I had no hesitation picking this one up day one to dig into.
Continue reading Detroit Become Human: Review
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2018 is now upon us! That means a whole new year of games to look forward to! Here's a few that I can't wait to dig into this coming year in no particular order
Spider-Man
I said no particular order, but Spider-Man is the exception. I am more excited for Spider-Man than any other game on this list by a significant amount. I have high hopes for this game as well as licensed franchise games in general. My hope is that Insomniac is able to tell a new unique Spider-Man story as they see fit and build the game they want to build around that story. Batman Arkham Asylum was so special and I believe this game can have a similar impact. I don't necessarily want it to become a franchise or even have a sequel. I just want Insomniac to put out a great game and get rewarded with great sales to match. Hopefully it's significant enough that other companies take notice of what Batman and Spider-Man have done and see that if they put their licensed properties in the hands of caring studios and don't require them to tie it to an upcoming movie (or other property), they can be rewarded with critical and commercial success that helps their brand overall. I want to see better Star Wars games, Ninja Turtle Games, Transformer Games, and of course, better superhero games in general. I believe this game is the next stepping stone on that path.
Continue reading A Lot To Look Forward To
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This October included some more back-to-back love for the PS4 as hosts, Rich (singlebanana) and Shawn (GrayGhost81), once again fired up their newly acquired systems and played through Supermassive Games interactive, survival horror title, Until Dawn. In this episode, the guys discuss the gameplay, the story, the characters, the game's graphics and environments, and whether this game truly offers the player as much freedom of "choice" as it seems to advertise. Which endings did the guys get and were they able to save the characters they liked most? What did they think about the game's ending(s)? Would they recommend this game to others? And what's with their love of snarky women? The answers to these questions and many more in this month's episode of the RF Generation Playcast. You won't want to miss it!
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!
Episode 43 discussion thread: http://www.rfgeneration.c...m/index.php?topic=18389.0
Get the show on Podbean: http://www.rfgplaycast.com/
On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/...ion-playcast/id1038953364
On Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/p...ation-playcast?refid=stpr
And follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rfgenplaythroughs
And on Twitter: @thesinglebanana, @MrShawnGray & @RFGPlayCast
Continue reading Episode 43 - RF Generation Playcast
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This month, hosts Rich (singlebanana) and Shawn (GrayGhost81) discuss their first playthrough together on the Playstation 4, Team Ico's heavily anticipated effort, The Last Guardian. In this episode, we discuss the game's funky mechanics, its story, the art style, music, and its AI. What are our host's thoughts on the game's ending? Was Shawn able to set aside his snuggly feels for his pets while creating a relationship with Trico? And is Rich the worst father ever for allowing his kids to watch him play this game? The answers to these questions and many more in this month's episode of the RF Generation Playcast. You won't want to miss it!
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!
Episode 42 discussion thread: http://www.rfgeneration.c...m/index.php?topic=18300.0
Get the show on Podbean: http://www.rfgplaycast.com/
On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/...ion-playcast/id1038953364
On Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/p...ation-playcast?refid=stpr
And follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rfgenplaythroughs
And on Twitter: @thesinglebanana, @MrShawnGray & @RFGPlayCast
Continue reading Episode 42 - RF Generation Playcast
[img width=700 height=437]http://i.imgur.com/c87xfce.jpg[/img]
Last month, we joined our friends from the Cartridge Club in a dual site playthrough of Journey on the PS3 and PS4. In this episode of the RF Generation Playcast, hosts Rich (singlebanana), Shawn (GrayGhost81), brothers P1 and P2 (Cartridge Club), and Jake from the Polykill podcast as we discuss this short, but deeply moving effort from thatgamecompany. In this episode, we discuss the game's mechanics (or lack therefore), the story, the game's use of color and music, and what effect our individual playthroughs had on us. What peculiar organ did Rich believe he was tracking towards? How did Shawn's second playthrough compare to his original from years ago? Why would Ghandi have loved playing this game? And out of the five of us, who has the biggest scarf? The answers to these questions and many more in this month's episode of the RF Generation Playcast. You won't want to miss it!
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!
Episode 41 discussion thread: http://www.rfgeneration.c...m/index.php?topic=18180.0
Get the show on Podbean: http://www.rfgplaycast.com/
On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/...ion-playcast/id1038953364
On Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/p...ation-playcast?refid=stpr
And follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rfgenplaythroughs
And on Twitter: @thesinglebanana, @MrShawnGray & @RFGPlayCast
Continue reading Episode 41 - RF Generation Playcast
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Since the beginning of role playing games, many details have been taken into account by everyone from the top tier game designers down to the dungeon or game master building their first campaign. However, few details are thought about as much as the design of the world the players inhabit. For most gamers, it is nothing more than passing scenery made to make you stop and enjoy the beauty before you move two steps forward and completely forget about it.
In modern video gaming, there are a few different kinds of world designs at play. Most Japanese developed RPGs, from the beginning to this day, are the world spanning epics. No stone is left unturned on these worlds as many are developed without the idea of direct sequels in mind. The juggernauts of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest almost always take place in a completely new world with linearity in mind. Dragon Quest I and II are notable exceptions to this, where the world of the first game is revealed to be just one small part of the full world that is revealed to the player in Dragon Quest II. This is the idea that Suikoden takes, as it will likely never will reveal the full world in one game.
Continue reading Summer of Suikoden: A Treatise on World Design
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Galerians is considered a bit of a hidden game for Sony's first Playstation. The game was released in 1999 in Japan, and the following year in Western markets. It was developed by Polygon Magic, published by ASCII Entertainment, and carries the Crave logo for distribution. It seems to have been hidden as a result of the game's late timing on the system, coming just as the hype for Playstation 2 was in full gear. It's also a game that does little to advance the survival horror design formula, other than giving you a different story and weapons that fit the story.
Continue reading Spooky Plays: Galerians
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