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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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Pic from Kotaku and about a million bookmarks
Approximately a million years ago in Internet time, I wrote an article intended as a sort of clarion call about losing our gaming history. You can dust off the electrons and find it here.
This weekend, two events reminded me of that article. The first was reading about how Alan Wake, the Remedy developed atmospheric action game, was about to be delisted from digital sale from Steam and Xbox Live storefront due to music licensing issues. When smaller titles are released in only the digital format, they occasionally disappear and the lost content may be lamented on an equally small scale. (Not to claim irrelevance, just the level of awareness.) To have a decently successful IP such as Alan Wake become unavailable for purchase seven years after release may still seem pretty reasonable in our gaming economy. Every game goes out of print eventually, right?
Continue reading Saving Games...Continue?
[img width=700 height=393]https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OVMyz1T295o/maxresdefault.jpg[/img]
I have never considered myself to be primarily a PC gamer, but there was a time back in the late '90s and early 2000s when I did a considerable amount of gaming on the PC. During this time, I played such revered classics as Half-Life, Max Payne, and Deus Ex, all of which I would consider to be among my all-time favorites. Many excellent games were being released exclusively on PC, and when these titles were later ported to consoles, the results were often lackluster.
One such game from this era that I have always remembered fondly is Mafia. Releasing less than a year after the immensely popular Grand Theft Auto III, it may be easy to dismiss Mafia as a cheap knockoff. While Mafia may resemble the Grand Theft Auto series at first glance, I have always felt that it was the "anti-GTA" game. Although both games share similarities with their open-world environments, crime-based stories, and emphasis on driving and shooting gameplay mechanics, Mafia's more serious and less satirical tone, focus on realism, and larger emphasis on narrative rather than free roaming sandbox gameplay sets it apart from Rockstar's juggernaut.
Continue reading Mafia
[img width=427 height=600]http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/dragonquest/dq5ps2.jpg[/img]
Dragon Quest V is one of the most important role playing games to ever be released. Despite this, it has been a near unknown outside of Japan. Enix struggled to establish any sort of long term foothold in the North American gaming market. They were a bit more successful in Europe, enough to keep the doors open through the mid-90s. Translating RPGs is a long, expensive process, and Dragon Quest was the company's flagship series. The first four games on NES were all localized and released, but the process likely started too late. Japan got to see the full, natural evolution of these early Famicom RPGs, while the Western games were jumbled. They released a few years after their initial release as well. Japan originally saw the first Final Fantasy releasing two short months before Dragon Quest III. In the timeline of Western releases, Final Fantasy actually beat Dragon Quest II to market. Being a full game behind made Enix's games look that much weaker once they released internationally.
A big promotion with Nintendo Power got a lot of copies of the first Dragon Quest game circulated in North America, but the sales of each subsequent game in the series just fell. The later games in the series were also hurt, since they were released after the Super Nintendo's release. The early games in the series were like building blocks, introducing more core mechanics with each subsequent game. By the time that Dragon Quest V was getting ready for release, all these pieces were in place, and the focus on telling the personal story of the heroes became even more prevalent.
Continue reading Dragon Quest V: The Lost Masterpiece
[img width=700 height=437]http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y359/necrom99/Podcast/PlayCast_zpsmi6bsclk.jpg[/img]
Join RF Generation Playcast hosts, Rich (singlebanana), Shawn (GrayGhost81), Floyd (Fleach), and returning special guest Pam, as they discuss the October playthrough, Shadow of Destiny. In this episode, we discuss some of our favorite Halloween memories, our thoughts on the Nintendo Switch, the new Godzilla flick, recent pickups, Kishi Bashi, and oh yeah.......our game of the month! We dig deep into Shadow of Destiny by discussing its intricate plot and game specific time travel mechanics. What was our overall impression of this game, which some PS2 enthusiats dubbed a hidden gem? You'll have to listen to this episode of the Playcast to find out!
As always, we are happy to hear your thoughts on this games on our discussion page (linked below). We will respond to your comments and are always happy to discuss these games 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 31 discussion thread: http://www.rfgeneration.c...m/index.php?topic=17504.0
Get the show on Podbean: http://rfgenplaycast.podbean.com/
On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/...ion-playcast/id1038953364
On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/w...UyD-PNvg&feature=youtu.be
On Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/p...ation-playcast?refid=stpr
And follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rfgenplaythroughs
And Twitter: https://twitter.com/RFGPlayCast
Continue reading Episode 31 - RF Generation Playcast
[img width=500 height=375]http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y359/necrom99/RFGen%20Blog/square_peg_in_round_hole_2_zpsey9eusdh.jpg[/img]
It's been quite a while since I gave any love to my actual collection, either in real life or on RF Generation. In fact, after recently moving my entire collection for the second time in just under a year, I noted it to be quite burdensome, and I found myself wondering: "Why?" However, in organizing, setting up, and alphabetizing everything after the move, I realized I truly still love the hobby. Holding items in my hands, which I forgot I even had, renewed the sense that I am in fact curating a library of games and items that reflects my personal tastes and curiosities. The room I'm using in our new place is actually smaller than any I've put my games in before, but I actually think this is the best iteration of my game room yet for exactly that reason. The cozy, intimate setting takes me back to huddling around a garbage-picked CRT dinosaur in my parents' basement playing Super Nintendo with my friends and siblings. Let's be honest, the reason we collect is largely to chase that feeling.
As much as we try to organize, there are always odds and ends that fail classification and confound even the most obsessive collectors. Sure enough, after the move I discovered and took a second look at some of the eccentricities in my game library. I imagine we all have odds and ends like this, and they should be celebrated. They make our collections unique. Here's what I have.
Continue reading Collection Odds and Ends
[img width=700 height=437]http://i1029.photobucket.com/albums/y359/necrom99/Podcast/PlayCast_zpsmi6bsclk.jpg[/img]
Join RF Generation Playcast hosts, Rich (singlebanana), Shawn (GrayGhost81), and Steven (Disposed Hero), as we discuss our May playthrough of Bully, a Rockstar title original released on the PS2. In this episode, we discuss some of our favorite features and mechanics in the game, differences we noted between the PS2 and 360 versions, the story, music, and give our takes on how this title compares to Rockstar's other releases. If you played Bully with us last month, or if you are interested in possibly adding this title to your collection, this podcast is a must listen. And who knows, if you happened to post on our discussion thread last month, it's possible that some of your thoughts on the game were mentioned! As always, we are happy to hear any additional points of emphasis on this game, and any critiques on or accolades for the podcast 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 26 discussion thread: http://www.rfgeneration.c...m/index.php?topic=17001.0
Get the show on Podbean: http://rfgenplaycast.podbean.com/
On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/...ion-playcast/id1038953364
On YouTube: https://youtu.be/CCXyL2x04e4
On Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/p...ation-playcast?refid=stpr
And follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rfgenplaythroughs
And Twitter: https://twitter.com/RFGPlayCast
Continue reading Episode 26 - RF Generation Playcast
[img width=250 height=362]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-072/bf/U-072-S-11170-A.jpg[/img]
Steambot Chronicles, or Ponkotsu Roman Daikatsugeki: Bumpy Trot as it was originally named in Japan, is a Playstation 2 game developed and published by Irem in Japan, Atlus in North America, and 505 Gamestreet in a few countries in Europe. There is also a spin off on PSP named Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament, and an odd tie-in puzzle game on PS2 and PSP named Blokus Portable: Steambot Championship (one of only four games published by Majesco on the PSP in the USA).
A quick look at the back of the case of Steambot Chronicles shows the game being marketed as an open world RPG, and that is correct in a way. The game starts off as linear as any other RPG that's been made and then opens up. It's similar to the opening dungeon in Elder Scrolls, but drags on much longer. In this long opening sequence, you'll visit all three of the main towns, many of the back areas, and explore most of the world by the time it's completely opened up. Once an area is open, it may be visited at any time afterwards, and as a result, money can be hoarded this way.
Continue reading Psychotic Reviews: Steambot Chronicles
[img width=300 height=300]http://i.imgur.com/AiV4Gl.jpg[/img]
April's Together Retro game club pick at http://Racketboy.com was Deja Vu, a classic adventure game that goes back to the early Mac gaming days, and found a bit of a cult-following on the NES. It was later ported to the Game Boy Color, which is arguably the best version of the game out there. Not only are the graphics bright and the command interface refined, but the cartridge also features the lesser-known sequel as well.
[img width=200 height=200]http://i.imgur.com/JQXPt.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://i.imgur.com/yesrw.jpg[/img]
As a fan of adventure games, I was really looking forward to playing my way through this one. The game borrows heavily from film noire, as you a hard boiled detective who wakes up in a bathroom stall with amnesia. And you don't know that you're a detective, but you feel like you've been drugged. It's up to you to piece this case together and figure out who you are. Sounds like fun, right? Well, not so much.
The problem is the utterly frustrating puzzle element of the game. Much of the puzzle solving in this game is completely infuriatingly unfair. So while the game isn't actually incredibly long, it can last much longer because you'll often need to start over due to some game-breaking situation. For instance in my first playthrough I was going from location to location via taxi cab. Each trip cost me 3 of my 20 coins. Eventually I got to a point where I was out of coins and couldn't leave the location I was at. I was stuck and irritated by the time a fellow forum member told me I could get more coins by gambing in the casino (back in the building I had started in). With this new knowledge I restarted my game. I went to the casino and gambled away all 20 of my coins in a slot machine. Turns out the slot machine on the left is a winner, but the one on the right is a loser. So I had to restart my game again.
So how much trial and error is too much? For me, Deja Vu was far too brutal. Too demanding. Too unfair. I think it's easy to write this off as a matter of "games were just harder back then," but I don't think that's the case. I tend to think that making the game so unfair was an attemt at making it last longer. I've played my way through some excellent adventure games like The Secret Of Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion, and although I may have found myself stumped at times, I never thought that the solution was completely arbitrary either.
But sadly I couldn't even finish Deja Vu, a relatively short game even when I used a FAQ. You see at the very end of the game you must ditch all of your incriminating evidence in a sewer before bringing your proof of innocense to the police department. But the computer wouldn't let me dispose of my gun. After days of trial and error and scouring the internet it came down to the fact that I had never shot open a certain cabinet. I had collected all of the proof I was supposed to, but I couldn't complete this game without shooting open a stupid cabinet. How exactly would anyone be expected to figure this out? Had they made it as far as I had, and seemed to have solved all of the amnesiac puzzles, how would they know they missed a cabinet that had to be shot open?
I was so disgusted that I just stopped playing. I didn't even care if I beat the game or not. And I was certainly not motivated to start up the second.
[img width=300 height=350]http://i.imgur.com/k825wl.jpg[/img]
The picture above is my personal Darkstalkers collection. It's a series that I have in the past several months become completely addicted to. My first introduction to the world of Darkstalkers was through Capcom Vs. SNK 2 where I started using Morrigan and realized that her move-set was so intuitive to me that I was just as good with her (or better) than I was with Chun-Li, who had been my standard fighter since Street Fighter II was released all those many years ago. After doing a bit of research (namely on http://HardCoreGaming101.net) I learned that Darkstalkers was essentially the coolest thing ever: a combination of Street Fighter style fighting and a horror movie theme. I was sold.
When I started collection PlayStation games again this year one of the first games I picked up was Darkstalkers 3 due to a deal I couldn't pass up. The game seemed totally brilliant to me. Using Morrigan, I zipped right through it -- continuing only once. I was now officially hooked. I picked up a copy of Darkstalkers Chronicles on PSP soon thereafter, and same thing. One sitting, one continue. Yes, this was definitely a series that I could connect to in a big way. I quickly started collecting all the releases for Sony consoles. As such, let's take a look at them all.
[img width=250 height=400]http://i.imgur.com/jxUoql.jpg[/img]
[img width=300 height=250]http://i.imgur.com/3YTvol.jpg[/img] [img width=300 height=250]http://i.imgur.com/Numdel.jpg[/img]
Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors was released for the original PlayStation pretty early in the console's lifetime. Note the longbox. Although there's some frustrating load times, the game is a pretty great arcade conversion. It looks fantastic with its huge 2D sprites, especially considering Sony's early plan to hype 3D as much as they could with their new system. Of note however is the insane difficulty of this one. The AI is incredibly brutal -- something that separates it from the other Darkstalkers releases. It's also worth noting that the Japanese version (titled Vampire) is worth considering as it features bonus music videos not present in the US release.
[img width=300 height=400]http://i.imgur.com/d5rrpl.jpg[/img]
Sadly the second Darkstalkers game wasn't released on the PlayStation. Though in 2005 Japan received a PS2 collection of all five of the Darkstalkers arcade games. Unfortunately for we import collectors, this game has a strange glitch that causes it to freeze up whenever a game is selected at the title screen. So unless you've got a Japanese console, the disc is entirely unplayable via normal import-loading methods.
[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/6/197056_50240_front.jpg[/img]
[img width=300 height=250]http://i.imgur.com/gQQ24l.jpg[/img] [img width=300 height=250]http://i.imgur.com/Gk8Snl.jpg[/img]
Darkstalkers 3 is pretty much the finest example of the Darkstalkers experience on a home console. Though loading times are present, they're not game-killing. The graphics are gorgeous. The controls are flawless. Since first playing this one, it has become one of my all time favorite 2D fighting games ever. So certainly I've got a level of bias. But considering the fact that it can be had at a reasonable price on the aftermarket (as opposed to even the inferior first game) there's no reason that fans of the genre should overlook this one.
[img width=200 height=350]http://i.imgur.com/UjdoIl.jpg[/img]
[img width=300 height=200]http://i.imgur.com/I89hWl.jpg[/img] [img width=300 height=200]http://i.imgur.com/LLCWol.jpg[/img]
Darkstalkers Chronicles: The Chaos Tower was actually a launch-title for the PSP. Odd considering the lack of mainstream popularity for the series. The game is basically a mega-mix of the first three games. It incorporates all of the characters, moves and styles of each game into one big collection. Though the PSP interface isn't exactly meant for fighting games, this is actually a pretty great release for fans of the series. It looks great, and is certainly playable. An online option would have been a welcome addition though, and sadly the game wasn't exactly a big seller so a PSP sequel is unlikely.
[img width=200 height=350]http://i.imgur.com/dCD55.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=350]http://i.imgur.com/6ArmN.jpg[/img]
Capcom released two UMD Videos exclusively through GameStop known as Night Warriors Darkstalkers Alpha and Omega. These are actually collections of the anime series that had originally been released on VHS. They look great, and add a bit of background to the characters. And considering their exclusivity through GameStop, they are actually a bit tricky to find these days. Definitely a cool collectible.
Although the Darkstalkers series seems slightly forgotten these days, many of the characters live on in other Capcom fighting games. The Capcom Vs. series has featured many of them (and this blog may touch upon that in the nearish future as well). But Darkstalkers still maintains a cult audience as well. There's a bounty of comic books, cartoons, soundtracks and figurines out there for collectors to delve into. Further proof of what a unique series it really was.
[img width=352 height=500]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/Lamentcover.jpg[/img]
Continue reading Unloved #19: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
Extermination
It's October again! And that means horror gaming! While noiseredux is really going above and beyond the call of duty with his excellent blog, with an ongoing featurette for this month covering the console and handheld world of horror, I figured I'd offer him some backup with another entry on that most terrifying of genres.
Extermination has the honor of being the first survival horror title released for Sony's PlayStation 2, beating out Silent Hill 2 by several months and Resident Evil: Code Veronica's PS2 port by just two weeks with its March 8, 2001, NTSC-J release date. The title was published by Sony Computer Entertainment and created by a team of developers that included several creators of Resident Evil. Reminiscent of the genre's flagship title and games like Carrier, the game has also drawn comparisons to the films The Thing and The Abyss.
[img width=400 height=300]http://www.vandal.net/previews/images/psx2/extermination/imagen6.jpg[/img]
The story revolves around Dennis Riley, a Sergeant in the USMC Special Forces Recon. Riley is one of a team being sent to infiltrate Fort Stewart, a secret research base in the Antarctic which formerly housed some of the United States' nuclear stockpile. With the end of the Cold War, the installation was converted into a research & development facility. As Riley's team approaches Fort Stewart via airplane in an ice storm, they receive a distress call from the base requesting it be the target of an air strike. But before they can respond, the plane malfunctions and crash lands, spreading the marines across the base. Riley and his combat buddy Roger Grigman are then forced to sneak into the base and meet up with the team.
While the Marines in the game come off as ballsy bad asses, the dialogue ranges from decent to absolutely terrible, and the quality of voice acting fluctuates throughout. Riley's voice is particularly bad, and at times he sounds like a whiny high school kid. The subplot involving his dead friend Andrew and Andrew's girlfriend Cindy also feels tacked on and unnecessary.
Riley must navigate the facility, facing strange mutations and living water puddles with his modular SPR-4, or Special Purpose Rifle. That weapon represents one of the most interesting elements of the entire game: instead of finding new guns to use, the player instead switches out attachments on the fly, so your weapon can always suit your situation if you have the parts. And those parts range from a sniper scope to an underslung grenade launcher, a forward grip with flashlight, enemy detector, night vision scope, and much more. The player can also switch between single round and 3-round-burst firing modes.
The ammunition system is also innovative: an infinite amount of ammo is found in dispensers through the facility, but only a limited amount can be carried, based on the number of magazines Riley happens to be carrying. If you want more ammunition, find more magazines scattered throughout the base. But the dispensers will not give ammunition for the variety of modular weapons to attach to the SPR-4, so once you're out of grenade rounds, shotgun shells, napalm juice, or whatever else you're using, you're out.
[img width=582 height=449]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/screenshots/e3_2001/vg/extermination/extermination_790screen001.jpg[/img]
Adding to the action emphasis, the game features the use of a laser target, four years before Resident Evil 4 would implement its usage. And while The Ring: Terror's Realm predates Extermination with its laser sight by slightly over six months, Extermination offers far better control. Players can aim in third person perspective, moving the pointer around until it passes over a creature, generally auto-aiming at that target. But those that want to go for more precise shots can also enter a first person perspective which doesn't feature auto-aim. Unfortunately Riley can't move when his weapon is raised, and the sensitivity is too low to make it a truly effective tactic in close corners, but it's a great means for popping enemies from far off. The game also features two knife buttons, resulting in a slash or a stab, which don't require the weapon to be raised.
While this sounds like a good design on paper, it does suffer from some serious flaws. First, enemies are bullet sponges. Though that's not so bad considering there's ultimately infinite ammunition, dispensers are few and far between. To make up for this, enemies have glowing weak points that can be hit to drop them faster. Unfortunately they were designed to be hard to hit, and the third-person auto-aim feature does not automatically target them, making it difficult to kill some of the tougher varieties of mutants at close range. Aiming with the knife can also be difficult, so slashing minor enemies at one's heels can be a pain.
The camera also doesn't help as it can't be effectively manipulated, so the player can't swing it quickly to look around the corner or see an enemy right behind him. Instead, the player must turn and then either raise their weapon or press a button to center the camera behind them, wasting precious time.
[img width=582 height=449]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/screenshots/e3_2001/vg/extermination/extermination_790screen004.jpg[/img]
The game's health system is also interesting, though cumbersome. The player has health, based on a 100-point numerical value, and an Infection rate. Every time an enemy hits the player, their infection goes up while their health goes down. And most healing items will not lower one's infection rate. Instead, the player must use vaccines to bring down infection, and the field-use variety aren't very common. If Riley's infection rate hits 100%, his max health decreases from 100 to 60, he takes damage over time, his character model changes, he starts taking damage from sources that previously didn't hurt him, and he can only be cured by using the MTS vaccine, which can only be administered at MTS beds...so if you wander too far from one and become infected, you won't make it back.
Extermination also features an unusual save system, revolving around battery power. Forget the ink ribbons of yesteryear, save stations now require batteries, which can be recharged at special power stations similar to the ammunition dispenser. And larger batteries will be found throughout the facility, so don't sweat saving. It's also a good idea to save often, as the game doesn't allow continues. Die, and you must reload.
[img width=640 height=480]http://ps2media.ign.com/media/previews/image/extermination/extermination05_640w.jpg[/img]
Extermination is a decent game with some solid ideas that never really rises to greatness. Horror fans who enjoy such titles as Resident Evil, Carrier, Dino Crisis, The Thing, or non-horror games like Syphon Filter and Metal Gear Solid will likely appreciate this game more than those looking for experiences similar to Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, or Haunting Ground. It's something I would recommend to players who have experience with the genre's big names and are looking for something more obscure. And while its ideas aren't always successful, they are interesting enough to warrant a look. Another nice perk is the game's low price tag: not including shipping, it can be found on eBay for as little as $2.
For those interested, here's the introduction to the game:
Updated 11/26 @ 12:36AM with Game Crazy deals.
So yeah, I haven't done a blog entry in quite some time, but I figured why not come back with a bang? Here's my yearly Black Friday deals post, a little early this time. As far as I know, everything on this post should be accurate. I used leaked scans from the ads found at blackfriday.info and some info from cheapassgamer.com. However, I did start working on this post about a week and half ago, so deals may have changed last minute. I'll review it on Thanksgiving day to check and see if what I have is correct. If you see any errors, please leave them in the comments.
Items in bold are ones that I think are pretty cool and worth checking out.
First things first: here's some notable deals I want to get out of the way from retailers that don't get a special spot in the listing:
Dualshock 3 for $30 at RadioShack
Lego Rock Band FREE when you buy $20 of stuff at Old Navy
Also, be sure to keep your eye on Amazon's Black Friday week section. They have some great deals going on all week.
For PC gamers, Steam is having day long sales every day for the next five days. They have some GREAT deals right now, like Osmos for only $2 and Batman Arkham Asylum for $25. Check this page every day for new offers.
PS3 owners, Sony is having a sale on various PSN games this week.
$5:
Bomberman Ultra
Comet Crash
Flower
The Last Guy
Prince of Persia Classic
$7.50
Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao
Smash Cars
$15
Fate/Unlimited Codes (PSP)
Killzone 2 DLC sale: Flash and Thunder for $3, DLC Bundle for $10
Anyways, now on to the brick and mortar stores. Click on the link to skip directly to the store you want to see.
Best Buy
Game Crazy
Gamestop
Kmart
Target
Toys R Us
Wal-Mart
Continue reading Black Friday 2009 Spectacular!
 I recently decided to get GameFly because I found that there were so many new games I wanted to try out, but not necessarily buy them. So far, i've been very impressed by the service. So much so that I thought I'd let you all know about my experiences so far. If you don't know, GameFly is a rental service, much like NetFlix, that allows you to rent games by mail.
First, let's talk about the main part of the service, renting. Their library of games is extensive. They have almost any game you could want for PS3, 360, Wii, PS2, Xbox, GameCube, DS, PSP, and GBA. So far it seems like most of the games I've wanted to rent are readily available, with the exception of brand new games, which tend to have Low to Very Low availability. But usually they'll be more available in a week or two once the initial renters have returned their copies.
The process of selected what games you want is fairly simple. You simply search the site for the game you want to rent and add it to your GameQ. Once you have titles in your GameQ, you can rearrange them to tell GameFly which you would like to have top priority. When you return a game, they will pick the next available game out of your GameQ and send it. Pretty simple.
You receive the game disc/cart only in an envelope that opens up into a pre-paid return envelope. Inside the envelope you'll find a protective cardboard sleeve with a paper sleeve inside that contains your game. You can keep any game as long as you want. Once you are done with a game, just put it back in the envelope, drop it in the mail and they'll take care of the rest. Once they receive your game, they'll ship out the next available game on your GameQ
In addition to offering rental services, GameFly also has an extensive library of used games for you to buy at a discounted price. Often times, their used game prices beat out GameStop. For example, I bought Prince of Persia for PS3 from them for only $22, whereas GameStop was charging $27 at the time I bought it. Another example: GameStop wants $55 for Red Faction: Guerilla whereas GameFly only wants $43 for it. Another nice thing about GameFly is that if you rent a game and you end up enjoying it, you can opt to keep the game without having to send it back. Oh, and all you CIB whores out there, don't worry, if you decide to keep the game, they will mail you the case and instructions for free. Since the case and instructions haven't been touched by anyone, they're in perfect condition. Oh yeah, I should also mention that all 6 games I've rented from GameFly so far have been in mint condition with no scratches or fingerprints of any kind.
Their shipping times are pretty good too. I live in Minnesota, and it usually takes three days for me to get a game from them or for them to receive a game I send back. However, sometimes when sending a game back, they will use something called fast return, where they ship your next game as soon as they get tracking confirmation from the post office that you put the game in the mail. I haven't figured out how that works yet, however.
Their plans are pretty well-priced too. $15.95 per month for one game out at a time, $22.95 for two games, $29.95 for three games, and $36.95 for four games.
GameFly offers a program called GameFly Rewards to all of its members at no charge. Every three months you are a member, you will get $5 GameFly Dollars to used in their used game store. Also, if you're a member for six months, you will get 5% all purchases from them, and if you're a member for a year, you'll get 10% off. So the longer you remain a member, the better of a deal you'll get if you buy games from them. Add that on top of the $5 they give you every three months, and the savings start to stack up pretty well.
Click here to give it a shot! They have a free trial, and your first month is discounted if you decide to keep going with them.
Welcome to ask-a-blog, where I ask you! The reader! To answer a question posed in the blog. Today's questions comes from a bout of playing Katamari Damacy: What is the most trippy game you have ever played? Make sure to tell us what console the game is on, as well as what makes it so trip inducing. Is it the gameplay, music, visuals, or something else? Tell us all about it!
For me, the award for the trippiest game goes easily to Katamari Damacy on the PS2, pictured on the right. If you have played this game, you know what I am talking about. if you haven't, here's a little summary. You are the son of the King of All Cosmos. The king, your father, has accidentally made all of the stars go away, so he commissions you to roll "Katamari", and help bring the stars back. The Katamari is formed by rolling a ball into things that are smaller than it. This makes the smaller things stick to it. You can pick up anything. ANYTHING. People, cars, buildings, islands, towns, boats. The possibilities are endless. The game is quite short, but it has a high replay value. It is also highly trip inducing, and the music is even weirder. Man is that game odd. I recomend it to anyone wishing to have lots of fun playing a quirky type of game.
So, what do you feel the trippiest game is? Be it a shoot em up, a puzzle game, or a platformer, we want to hear about it! Let's see those comments! 
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