Look at them. Cute kids, huh? Look at the one holding the Wiimote. An angel, I bet he is? Right? Maybe not. Maybe so. But look at the other one, the older brother. He looks angry. Not quite HULK SMASH angry, but pretty peeved. Note the Wii. Such an elegant system. Absolutely no scent of urine... whaaaaat???
Turns out the older brother was being a jerk. That's strange, normally older brothers are nothing but a ray of sunshine. I should know, as I am the oldest of my brothers, and I am nothing but a ray of sunshine. Somehow, that kid must not have gotten the memo about being a good brother. See, his parents got he and his little brother a Wii for Christmas for 250 pounds. Grats to the parents for finding a Wii for their beloved kids for Christmas. Months searching, according to the article. Really, months to find a Wii? In Britain? I thought you guys were Sony Fanboys. Guess the exorbitant price of the PS3 has converted you from that path. Anyways, the older brother was being a jerk once they finally got the Wii from Santa. Seems he was hogging the Wii. Not letting his brother playing the Wii, apparently. Certainly the little brother didn't like that, and by golly, he had to do something about that. Tell his parents? Nah, that's to mature for his age. What he did was more classic.
And that's were the headline for this article comes into play. Hilarious. Wee on the Wii. Genius. One hell of a way to get back at your brother. Certainly, if my little brother did that to my Wii, he'd be dead. Figuratively, of course. But the truth of the matter is that my Wii is not broken thanks to urine, while that pissed off older brother's Wii is. Ha!
After being gone for over a year, the image search now works like it did prior to our switch to mySQL. Hopefully you guys will enjoy its return... it's been a long time coming.
Additionally, we've created a less crappy watermark for our images. It now includes transparency. It may or may not be tweaked a bit in the future, but for now enjoy the less intrusive nature of our watermark. We hope you enjoy it.
2007 was a big year for RFGen. Hundreds of new members, new staff, new features, new scripts, new tools, new designs and banners (thanks Dennis!), a new store to help fund the server costs and an increased level of community participation!
Along the way we broke records, raised the bar, improved the site in so many ways your brain would melt trying to remember it all. The Admins, Editors, Staff and most importantly the Members, have helped mold and shape RFGen into the site it is today. So first off, let me quote a few 2007 database statistics for you:
41358 game submissions of all types 5956 hardware submissions of all types ====== equaling 47314 total submissions for 2007 alone!
Meanwhile behind the scenes, our three Administrators: Eddie (St0rmTK421), David (TraderJake) and Scott (Tynstar) have worked tirelessly fixing errors and bugs, making new policies and scripts, adding new features to the site for all of us to use, guiding us with their leadership and all of this despite busy schedules, jobs, school and real life in general that can eat away at your time even in the most ideal of circumstances.
One of these new features that really hit it's stride in 2007 is the ability to log submissions and submission approvals. It's handy because we can thank each and every one of you for your contributions. So for 2007, we'd like to thank the following members:
Also a big thanks go out to the staff who besides their own submissions and contributions, review and approve member submissions on an almost daily basis. Here are the top staff approvers for 2007:
As you can see it takes a tremendous amount of community support and staff to make RFGen the success it is. From the staff who have specific departments and areas of expertise, the members who spend hours scanning, submitting and discussing, to the weekly polls & chats (thanks Norville!) and forums that make this a second home for many of our over 1500 registered members. It's great to see that after three and a half years this site is still moving forward at such a fast pace. Here's to 2008 becoming another banner year for this site and it's members!
2007 is dead. Long live 2007. Looking back, there were some nice games. Bioshock, The Orange Box, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Mass Effect, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters- certainly, there were some good games that came out. But yeah, such things are now in the past. The question now becomes what are you looking forward to in 2008? I've got a few games that I am looking forward to, read about them after the jump.
I'm sure you've seen the classic video of the kid who gets way too excited over his new Nintendo 64 he got for Christmas. If you haven't, what the hell are you doing on the internet? <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/rKapP-A7VIc&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/rKapP-A7VIc&rel=0</a>!
Anyways, the excited kid getting a video game console for Christmas video has finally made the next gen leap to the Playstation 3. Or as they might say: OH MY GAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWD PLAYSTATION THREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! Watch the video below...
Now, I don't know which excited kid is better. The N64 kid getting excited over an old system with arguably few great games or the PS3 kid getting excited over a new system with arguably few great games. Regardless, this calls for a comparison. CUE UP THE HTML TABLES PLEASE... (After the break...)
December 31, 2007, 4:57:30 PM, Eastern. That is the date and time that will go down as the date we hit 100000 posts in our forum - our community. From 0 posts on June 8, 2004 to 100000 posts today, certainly, today is a day of celebration. Check out the stats bar as captured for this momentous occasion:
Certainly, I am humbled by the mark, and by the success of our forum. I am humbled by the community that we have. Without our community, there is no way that we could have hit this mark. We are nothing without you guys. Thank you all for fostering our community, and we hope that our community remains vibrant for years to come.
I'd like to specifically congratulate the person who made the 100000th post, Bad Enough Dude. I can confidently say that Bad Enough Dude is the oldest member (with respect to join date) on the site that is not or has not been on staff and still actively posts. That's really cool. He even joined before me, at 4AM on the date that the site launched. How cool is that? Check out the post that made 100000:
Congrats, and congrats to everyone! May the forum continue to be a success and a place for interesting musings and thoughts!
Over this holiday season, the Nintendo DS Lite has broken the PS2 lifetime sales over in Japan. The DS racked up at a outstanding 20,954,157, compared to 20,901,468 PS2s Also keep in mind that the PS2 has had a four and a half year head start on are little dual screen. Way to go Nintendo.
So, back in the day there was the SNES CD Add-on under development by Sony and Phillips. Clearly, it didn't work out. Phillips decided to release the add-on as the CD-i, the system with amazing games like The Legend of Zelda: Wand of Gamelon. Certainly, we are blessed that system and it's amazing games. Thankfully Nintendo has learned a thing or two about whoring out franchises, haven't they?. Anyways, yeah, there was Sony's prototype as well, and we all know what happened with that prototype.
Well, a piece of development history is currently up for auction. Someone is auctioning a dev controller for the SNES CD. Talk about of piece of history, it could be yours if you win the auction, and also have a large sum of money. It could be yours for the cool price of $2999.99. Personally, I don't have that type of money, and I am not a hardware collector. But for those of you who love to collect rare, and I mean REALLY RARE pieces of hardware, now is your chance. Happy Bidding!
1up has just posted the world's first glimpse at actual gameplay footage of Street Fighter 4. I can't say anything about this video because I CAN'T FREAKING VIEW IT! Most likely because everyone on the internet is trying to do the same thing as well. Oh well, I've embedded the video below for you to try your luck with. I'll update this article later on with impressions and how I think the game is turning out to be. So, best of luck trying to watch this...
UPDATE: 2:39PM: I've been watching the WMV version as it's downloading from GameVideos, and I just came upon the first gameplay footage. WOW! It looks really sharp. 60 frames per second, very fast paced, and it isn't 3D styled! It's still a traditional 2D fighter. I can't say much else because I only have about 4 out of 20 minutes of the clip downloaded. Oh and be aware, it's 20 minutes long, and most of it is probably made up of developer interviews and the 1up guys acting like morons. I'll update this article again if I find a RapidShare or something with the video on it so you don't have to deal with GameVideos.
It's the end of the year, so that means that every self respecting video game site (or any site in general) must put out top 10 lists. Next-Gen.biz has done one that I thought was a pretty good read for the top 10 blunders of the year, and get this: I actually agree with the list completely! Read on for the list and my comments:
10. The Non-Elite Elite (Microsoft's release of the Xbox 360 Elite):
Makes sense that it's a blunder because Microsoft only painted the 360 black, put an HDMI port on it, and threw a larger hard drive in there for the Elite. The did nothing else with it really. No HD DVD playback or built in wireless. Far from "Elite" in my book.
9. This Heading Guaranteed 100% Free of Wii Puns (Nintendo not producing enough Wii systems to meet consumer demand)
This is definitely a bad move on Nintendo's part. It's been one year and I've only seen a Wii in stock at a store only a few times since the launch. Come on Nintendo, step your game up.
8. We've Got A SKU Just For You! (Sony's new models)
I don't know that it was exactly a blunder, but it was a boneheaded move on Sony's part. All those PS3 models confuse the consumer. Especially considering they criticiczed Microsoft for the same thing when the 360 came out two years ago (dang, has it really been that long). I also had to laugh at this quote in the article: "Given the current rate of hardware revisions and Sony's stated goal of a 10-year console cycle, there will be no fewer than 40 PlayStation 3 models by the time the platform retires. As each model cuts features, analysts expect the final version to be just a stylish, shiny black box that does nothing more than take tens and twenties in through the disc slot." Now you all know I'm a Sony fan, but that is undeniably hilarious. I also laughed at the comparison chart's bottom row.
7. Surprise! Zombies! (The VP of Microsoft Game Studios' big secret is not so secret.)
As with the article I linked to, I just need to reprint the whole exchange between Microsoft's Shane Kim and Game Informer magazine. There's really no other way to explain it:
Kim: I think one of the most important, subtle announcements at the Xbox 360 briefing is that Resident Evil is coming to Xbox 360. Yes, it's from Capcom, who's been a great supporter of us.
GI: But we knew that two years ago.
Kim: What?
GI: Resident Evil. It was shown at TGS two years ago.
Kim: No, but coming to Xbox 360.
GI: Yeah. It was at the press event.
Kim: I don't think so.
GI: I'm positive. I was there.
Kim: Really?
GI: It was shown at both press conferences.
Kim: That RE5 was coming to…?
GI: Yep.
Kim: I'm going to have to confirm that. That was supposed to be the big announcement.
Comedic GOLD! What an announcement there Shane!
6. Sony Exec Offers to Buy PS3s (Jack Tretton offers $1200 for unbought PS3s)
Basically, the story goes that current president of SCEA, Jack Tretton, said in a January interview with EGM that he would offer $1200 to anyone who can find a PS3 that has been on store shelves for more than 5 minutes. Well, the guys behind the popular webcomic Penny Arcade (in b4 WHY AM I SO BALD?!) did a little investigating and found that Sony now owes them $13,200 since they found 11 units unsold. Great move Jack, great move. The article also mentions some of his other quotes this year, in specific comparing the Wii to a lollipop, the 360 to a bad chef who you might get sick from, and the PS3 to a steak dinner. But my favorite Tretton quote has to be: "I would like my car to fly and make me breakfast, but that's an unrealistic expectation." which was referring to the backwards compatibility of the PS3. I think that Jack Tretton has become the new Ken Kutaragi as far as ridiculous comparisons go.
5. Alone Against The Empire (Sony blackballs Kotaku)
Right before the Game Developer's Conference Kotaku, a gaming blog, posted an article on a rumor that Sony had a new online service (the then unannounced Home) that they would reveal at GDC. When asking Sony for comments on the rumor, they offered no comment and demanded Kotaku take down the story. When Kotaku refused to do so, Sony gave them the middle finger and blackballed them via email (which Kotaku published as well). This was definitely a blunder on Sony's part and perhaps one of the most moronic PR decisions I've seen in my life, but at least Sony made nice with Kotaku later on that day and invited them back to all their GDC events.
4. Game Over Gerstmann (Gamespot fires Jeff Gerstmann)
I think this one could be higher, because it is perhaps the most significant blunder of the year since it exposes what is wrong with the mainstream gaming media. As we reported a few weeks ago, Gamespot fired Jeff Gerstmann over alleged pressure from Eidos over the review of their game, Kane and Lynch: Dead Men. Since the firing, Gamespot Complete subscriptions have been cancelled in mass and more importantly, their credibility has suffered <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/2g1fr5vk72M&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/2g1fr5vk72M&rel=0</a>.
3. It's Just a Toy Guitar and Some Music (Guitar Hero and Rock Band's many problems)
Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band launched with issues. Mono sound on the Wii and failing Rock Band guitars in specific. The first one is really odd because I can't believe QA didn't pick that up! How in the heck does one not notice that unless they're playing on a tv with one speaker? I'd be disappointed to get GH3 home and see it just showing up as a mono signal on my receiver. Heck, I'm disappointed Orange Box on PS3 is just in stereo. And as far as the failing Rock Band controllers go, remember that you can get a free game from EA (aka: GET SKATE DAMMIT!) if your controller breaks...
2. We Already Bought All the Good Ones, Right? (EA buys Bioware and Pandemic, gets cocky)
I don't know about this one being on the list but it's pretty funny. So, John Riccitiello, the CEO of EA said that the industry has largely been picked for mergers after they bought Bioware and Pandemic, but then two days after he says that Activision and Vivendi Universal (publisher of World of Warcraft and owner of Blizzard) form to make Activision Blizzard. Funny ain't it? Not really.
This is definitely the blunder of the year. Why? It's made many people uncomfortable getting a 360 due to the enormous failure rate and made the 360's reputation into an unreliable piece of hardware. For Peter Moore to ignore it and brush it off when it was really a huge problem that would eventually cost the company a ton of money, not a good idea...
So, what do you think? Good list? Bad list? Let your thoughts be heard in the comments!
We programmers at RF Generation like to add new things. Tonight, we give you our Christmas Gift. Sure, it is not Christmas, but think of us as the side of the family you do not see on Christmas - the side who has no problem giving you that fruitcake for Christmas. In addition, similar to those gifts of old with the classic disclaimer "some assembly required", there may be some bugs. We're working hard to fix them, but if you see any let us know. Anyways, you probably would like to know what is new. Here is the short list:
Submissions System Improvements, as told by me:
Revamped Variations: We no longer discriminate variations. In addition, if you make a variation on one page it will make it also a variation on the other page.
Revamped Rating Systems: Does a game have more than one rating? Is the rating only valid for a few consoles? Well, we can accommodate both of those now.
Intelligent Submission: We figure out the region for you now. Of course, if something is realized regionwide, do let us know. We have also made the script intelligent so that selecting the country brings up corresponding countries and regions. You can now add variations across regions... because we want you to and we love you. In a platonic sense, of course.
Animated Flags: Game or Hardware released in more than one country? Now, the flag shows those countries, rather than the overall region
Collections System Improvements, as told by Eddie "The Black Perl" Herrmann:
You can now mark folders as "for sale" or "owned"
Trade Search feature now checks all folders marked "for sale"
All Collections page shows owned game totals
Statistics page updated with total owned game stats and QTY/BOX/MAN totals
Settings page added - can choose default region and ignore duplicates
Profile page added for profile stats and management
Simplified country/regions selection
Tools Page added - has links for random game selection, missing image search, collecton links, and trade match features
As a personal plea, please submit variation ties for games across regions. Adding it for one entry adds it for all. So please, please submit! You'll be my favorite member! Just kidding, you're all my favorite members. But seriously, do submit. It's fun.
If you find any bugs, let us know. From us to you, enjoy the new features, and stay tuned, you never know when that next new feature set will launch. It may be sooner than you think.
So yeah, some homebrew is too damn cool to ignore. Take for instance Extra Mario Bros. I only hope that it is real. Someone thought it would be pretty neat to take Mario and place him in a Metroid Type Universe, complete with remixed Metroid Music. All I can say is -- Pure Awesome. Check for yourself:
Again, damn, DO WANT!. Awesomeness of Mario... awesomeness of Super Metroid... combined, wow. Someone find me that game.
From our family to yours - Merry Christmas. May this joyous day be spent with friends and family, and may you find happiness in the day. May the holiday season continue to be a joyous and festive time, and from the staff of RF Generation - Merry Christmas.
I don't know about the rest you, but I tend to be dragged down around this time of year. Being home from school, the cold, the snow, and being around family a little too much drains the life from me. Fortunately I always find the time to get a lot of gaming in, and that, my friends, is what shines this geeks soul. I've been playing a lot of Ridge Racer 6 alone, Halo 3 and Gears of War when I'm with my brother, and some Wii Sports bowling with my parents. Since I haven't gotten my dad to play a game with me since NHL '96 was new, I consider this a breakthrough.
Since it is the holidays, I'll try and keep this short so y'all can get back to your lives. Ridge Racer 6 is the featured game this week. Lots of drifting, and simple gameplay keep the disc spinning in my 360. It can be had for a bargain price now, and is worth a try if you're a fan of the series.
My brother was kind enough to give me an early present, NYKO's Charge Station 360. Rechageable batteries, and battery packs are a must in this new generation of wireless gaming. 3rd party? It doesn't seem to matter much. These batteries fit snugly and do the job. Remember playing with remote control cars and airplanes when you were a kid. Well you can play with them again in Toy Commander. There's even a Chrismas themed level if you are interested in that sort of thing.
Wrapping it up today is a real WINNER collection. Tondog is a good friend of mine and a good member of the RF Generation family. He's a long-time Playstation fan, but isn't against showing the Dreamcast and Nintendo DS some lovin'. His true interests also include overlooked and underappreciated games.
I hope you get to play something fun this week. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from your own channel 3.
So, yeah, Ben Eberle, if that is his real name, has done it again, publicly shaming us with his awesomeness. How the hell do you get 95% on Through the Fire and Flames on expert mode, anyways? Someone should buy that kid a real guitar and hookers, so he can live the real rock life. Okay, maybe not, but yeah, perhaps he can be recruited into a Rock Band? Time shall tell. All I know is damn...
Look at them. Cute kids, huh? Look at the one holding the Wiimote. An angel, I bet he is? Right? Maybe not. Maybe so. But look at the other one, the older brother. He looks angry. Not quite HULK SMASH angry, but pretty peeved. Note the Wii. Such an elegant system. Absolutely no scent of urine... whaaaaat???
2007 was a big year for RFGen. Hundreds of new members, new staff, new features, new scripts, new tools, new designs and banners (thanks Dennis!), a new store to help fund the server costs and an increased level of community participation! 
So, back in the day there was the SNES CD Add-on under development by Sony and Phillips. Clearly, it didn't work out. Phillips decided to release the add-on as the CD-i, the system with amazing games like The Legend of Zelda: Wand of Gamelon. Certainly, we are blessed that system and it's amazing games. Thankfully Nintendo has learned a thing or two about whoring out franchises, 
It's the end of the year, so that means that every self respecting video game site (or any site in general) must put out top 10 lists. 
![[Image]](http://www.joesherlock.com/07-Hom.gif){kind=link}