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The above Ad/Promo was used for the 3DO in Japan. If you watch the beginning of it, you'll notice it says "BIG HIT IN THE USA!", which leads us to today's topic: Lying through Advertisements.
While it is true that the 3DO has it's fans (I'm one of them), the general gaming public was not ready to welcome the thing with open arms, partly due to it's high price tag, which even the PS3 couldn't match. It's a known fact that the thing didn't exactly sell all that well. That being said, why do the people who make Ads call what they are advertising the best thing ever, when all it takes is word of mouth/a little research to reveal the truth?
What I'm getting at here, is why do they lie about it in the first place, knowing that it's just going to come back and bite them later? Are the Advertisement People just doing they're jobs to put bread on the table, or are they truly dedicated to what they are doing? If I had to guess, I'd say the former applies here. That being said, I'm honestly not sure what the real reason is, I'm just guessing.
Don't get me wrong though, I really do enjoy the 3DO, but I'm also not an idiot. It doesn't take a Rocket Scientist to see that the thing didn't make it.
If you have any thoughts on this, feel free to shout them out in the comments. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go play Samurai Shodown RPG.
It isn't every day that you get a change to buy a huge amount of Atari 8 bit items ask any A8 collector. With that said when you see a group like that forsale you jump on it before it gets away. That is the case here and I was more than lucky to get ahold of it. I hope you enjoy this recap video. ( I do apologize for the video quality Ive been working on my computer and the new Video editing software that got auto upgraded is now saving everything as a MP4/ H264 file which I see when I upload or view it as a Audio only file ( I dont get it )..) Anywho heres the video recap. Grab some popcorn and enjoy.
PS There will be alot of extras going up forsale down the road on Atariage.com so feel free to check out the marketplace.
Whew...how long has it been since I actually posted a Blog Entry? What? It was September 1st? It feels like it's been longer. No matter.
I suppose some of you have been wondering just where the hell I've been. Well, life has been hard lately. Lots of unwarranted stress and stupid crap. Thankfully, it's going away, slowly but surely. That being said, here's some updates for you:
1. I finally got that Atari Jaguar sometime back.
2. My Power Glove Sensors are still broken.
3. I'm actually focusing on the Documentary I promised ages ago.
4. The ending to Nightmare on Elm Street is stupid. (Yes, I did finally get to see it. Don't judge me!)
5. I now own this badass TV: http://i10.photobucket.co...REDQ60_57_zps6f8d2ed9.jpg
6. The PSP Go is a GREAT portable console.
7. Does anyone know if the Neo-Geo Portable's Analog Stick clicking is a feature or an annoyance?
Whew...That's about it. Anyway, I'll hopefully return to actively posting entries soon. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go play Skyrim.
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Posted on Oct 26th 2013 at 03:56:18 PM by ( slackur) Posted under Comfort Games, scary, stress, Etrian Odyssey, Contra III, Castlevania IV, Axelay, TMNT IV, Game of Thunder, Legend of Zelda, we spend t |
It's the right season to talk about scary things, right?
So this week, my Beloved ended up in the hospital ER, and needless to say it was a difficult time. Second scariest time of my life thus far. Once we were home, safe, and returning to 'normal,' the brain and nerves didn't exactly get the message to calm down. One of the many wind-downs I've adopted over the years to cope with stress is, naturally, video games.
Certainly there are nostalgic games that many of us occasionally return to in order to relax and feel better. Despite growing up on mainly C64 and the NES, my teens were mostly spent with the SNES, and that's the 'comfort' game system to which I most often return.
Though its no longer annual (it once was), I still periodically go through Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Contra III, Castlevania IV, TMNT IV: Turtles in Time, Axelay, Starfox, Gradius III, Super Mario World, and F-Zero. These and about a dozen others are comfort blankets, warm milk, a soothing Calgon for my mood.
Calgon? What, you don't remember this?
Anyway.
I still return to those old favorites from time to time, though the pool has since expanded. In college it grew by way of Tempest 2000/X3, Unreal Tournament, and Soul Calibur. Once meeting and dating my beloved, de-stressing via gaming became an occasional co-op affair. Until then I was unaware it was possible to zone out and decompress so well with someone else; previously the purposeful isolationism was assumed to be a necessary part of the therapy, but somehow sharing the experience with an understanding partner helped in a fresh, new way.
My Beloved's 'comfort' game system is the Dreamcast, with a similar large library of perennials include the Dead or Alive series, Crazy Taxi, House of the Dead II, the You Don't Know Jack series, and the Fable series. (Note most of these can be two player.)
Incidentally, the first night I asked her out on a date (for the next night) and she said yes, for obvious reasons I could not sleep. I crashed on the couch and tried to speedrun through the NES Legend of Zelda. Funneling my nervous energy and tunneling my runaway thought train, my dexterity finally gave out around the seventh dungeon at around 4 a.m. I could finally sleep, and sleep I did, at least until a good friend of mine woke me up because he needed his bathtub, which I happened to be using in my unconscious state.
Fast forward several years later, and I'm sitting next to the same wonderful woman, this time in the hospital as she recovered from giving birth to our newborn. Three times over, each with complications. Three extended hospital stays, each with various stages of no sleep and nervous results. No Super Nintendo or Dreamcast here, a DS and the first two Etrian Odyssey games accompany me through long nights and restless days. Turn-based action means no problem for her IV tapped hand to hold one of mine. The slow, grindy pace fills the odd time lapses. The strategy, loadout customization and map creation give my ravenous mind some bones on which to gnaw. We leave several days later, exhausted, with another member of the family in tow and many, many hours logged on our portables.
For modern consoles, often the steady flow and rhythm of a balanced FPS like Unreal Tournament or Halo fits the mood. Other times the intensity and draining concentration of a polished shmup such as Gate of Thunder or Mars Matrix fits the bill. Any genre that requires fast reflexes can be useful for burning up excess nervous energy. But for me, nothing gives an automatic reflex of comfort like picking up that SNES controller. My friends, family, and of course my Faith pull me through difficult, even scary times. But it is a great blessing to have video games to help. 
This one is interesting, but I have the feeling that I need to explain.
In the late 70's and early 80's, women's wrestling or joshi puroresu was HUGE in Japan, and instrumental in that popularity were the Beauty Pair. The team consisted of Jackie Sato and the above Maki Ueda. Here is a a bit of a historical package on their career (Japanese).
Much of their popularity stemmed from the fact that they sung their own theme music, which became a tradition for many in All Japan Women Pro-Wrestling (AJW). Here is a clip of them performing this very song on TV (Japanese):
As the "Pair" were so popular, it would be a no-brainer to have one of them sing a song that is essentially an advertisement for a video game, especially a huge one like Space Invaders. As I earlier touched on this particular game's popularity in these here United States, I feel it is also important to mention that this game was also hugely popular in its home country of Japan as well.
What is YOUR favorite celebrity participation or endorsement of a video game???
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For More on Japanese Women's Wrestling:
- A Trip to the Eagle Sawai Retirement Show, from May 2007
Fore More on Pro-Wrestling Video Games:
- WWF Superstars - Arcade Review
For More on Space Invaders:
- VINTAGE VIDEO GAME DOCUMENTARY! - Valley of the Space Invaders
[img width=624 height=351]http://i1340.photobucket.com/albums/o736/Fleach/maxpayneabesworld_zps730a3349.jpg[/img]
Wasn't October spooky? Did shivers run down your spins while searching Dracula's castles? Did danger lurk in the darkness of the shadows surrounding Seto?
Techwizard, singlebanana, GrayGhost81, and I hope those who took part in October's Playthroughs had loads of fun.
Currently, Dezorian is in the lead for Simon's Quest with 42 Achievement Points for RFGen's inaugural Retro Playthrough. Still some time left to overtake him and earn singlebanana's super secret, coveted achievement prize. Over in the Modern Playthrough thread all those who found the Silver Haired Girl and helped Seto make new friends along the way deserve a salute for their accomplishments.
If you thought things were ominous last month, November's games will surely provide some great thrills.
Open your eyes to a bitter truth because things are much more sinister than they seem. Join Abe and Max in their journeys to overcome worlds bent on their downfalls.
Oddworld: Abe's Odysee (PS1) tells the dark fantasy story of a gremlin-like creature named Abe who is an unsuspecting factory janitor who learns that the fate of his race lies in the sadistic hands of his sinister captors. Guide Abe in his escape to salvation during techwizard's inaugural Retro Community Playthrough.
Max Payne 3 (PS3, X360) is the broken New York cop's vengeful return to video games. Max is a broken man seeking respite in Brazil as a bodyguard for a high profile corporate figure. Unfortunately, trouble has a way of finding Max. Fight through the seedy underbelly of Brazil as a man who, with nothing left to live for, puts his life on the line to uphold his duty. Things will quickly spiral out of control in Modern Community Playthrough.
Retro Playthrough discussion thread
Modern Playthrough discussion thread
Episode # 41 recaps this great homebrew cut down in the prime of its life. My look back at this great title called Princess Rescue on the Atari 2600
[img width=324 height=490]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c6/We're_Back!_Movie_Poster.jpg[/img]
Drive swap was successful. Server stats seem to be much better as well.
So, after reading this article: http://www.gamespot.com/a...uction-ends/1100-6415683/ I have been thinking about what games I have enjoyed most and what are my favorites. I have around 30 games for the Wii so it is hard to pick my favorites but I am going to talk about 3 because I could talk all day on the subject. One of my favorites is Metroid Prime 3, the game is an absolute masterpiece. It is a perfect ending to the trilogy. I was first very weary of getting the game because I didn't want to get it home hoping for something great and then not being able to play it because of frusterating motion controls. Honestly the game doesn't utilize the motion control that much and I found it to be very responsive and fluent, I would highly recommend this game. The second game that I want to talk about is Kirby's Dream Collection. How can you go wrong with all of the Dream Land games on one disc?! And with Crystal Shards thrown in for a bonus, given that I do not really enjoy Crystal Shards much because an find it much to easy and not super creative with its level design. I have the special edition and am completely happy with that purchase. The last game that I will talk about is Mad World. My god this game is awesome. It can be had for just 3 dollars and I would buy it all day long. The game uses comic book style graphics and they are totally in black and white, the only thing that really has color is the blood and there is no shortage of it. The Wii is definitely one of my favorite systems of all time due to the amount of great games for it that are often overlooked. GameStop is running a B2G1 sale on all Wii games right now so it is a great time to pick up some of the best games at rock bottom prices. I also have a video going up later today showcasing every Wii game that I own, check the out over on my YouTube channel (YouTube.com/thesegasaturnguy). So what games do you hold highly on the Wii? It is truly a great system and should not be forgotten.
So, we have some word from the web host. After my investigation, I found that one of our drives had some bad sectors. After unmounting it, the site seems to be running much better. Good news is that it was our backup drive, so none of the site data should be damaged. They will be replacing the drive, but in order to do so, they will need to power down our server to swap out the drive.
We have this planned for Wednesday during the day. Most of you will probably be at work or school, so there shouldn't be many that this will affect. We will be making solid backups ahead of time, just in case.
So, to sum it up, site is having planned downtime to resolve a hardware issue that should help our performance once it is resolved. It'll be down Wednesday during the day and hopefully back up by that night. I don't have a time as of right now, but we'll redirect somewhere.
Go ahead, kick it over to channel 4 for a little bit on Wednesday, but be sure to bring it back over to channel 3 soon!
After finishing Remember Me, I mentally placed it on the shelf in my mind labeled "glad I finished, also glad I'm done playing it." On that imaginary row also sits El Shaddai, Enslaved, and even Walking Dead Season One. (That last one mainly due to how poorly it ran/played on PS3, and I read the 360 version played even worse.) Games I wanted to experience, mainly due to the art design, story, or experience of the game's world.
Games I kept plodding through, often despite not really enjoying the gameplay much of the time.
That can seem counter-intuitive to people not as easily enraptured with the medium of video games as I can be. Much like a audiophile closing out everything but a sublime piece of music, a movie lover watching the same film dozens of times, or a sports team fan painting their bodies and making it to every game, I have a passion for my specific pastime, a deeply-rooted affection for the hobby I've enjoyed since my youth.
That doesn't really explain why I sometimes play through games I don't necessarily enjoy playing. It may lead assumptions to the opposite; having quite the knowledge base of available interactive entertainments (and a decently-sized pool from which to choose from at home) why would I stick with something not so fun, instead of booting up the next game in my backlog or replaying a favorite? In an admittedly somewhat laughable (and pretentious-sounding) response, I sometimes do it for art.
To those who do not perceive video games as art, I'm not writing to convince otherwise. There is a different manner to frame the concept though, one to which I've always gravitated to by default. Let's start with some components; A graphic artist, using different mediums, constructs the design assets to be used in-game. A musician, some using circuit boards, others using symphony orchestras, writes and conducts the pieces of music for the game. Sometimes, a writer develops a story the game is to tell. Each of these components, when removed (or even completely divorced from) the wholly constructed video game, could be judged and critiqued for artistic merit, and would in general be considered pieces of 'art' themselves.
For example, sometimes a game's art assets are published as a book, displaying mediums such as watercolor, pencil, and CG. Albums of instrumental music written for a video games are sometimes compared to other moving, emotional works of audio expression. And while video game stories are often (and honestly, probably deservedly so) lambasted as being of little relevance compared to great literary works, occasional gems of worth arise, as in any literary genre.
In other words, once taken apart, a video game's individual components could easily be judged as art. And yet once compiled, with the added layer of interaction, such a thing is seen by some to reduce the parts to less than a whole in terms of artistic merit. Yet the interactivity, the 'gameplay' as it were, is yet another delicate component of creativity, balance, and experience; an art. Make these components serve a game, and the interactivity becomes the trunk of a tree that, to some critics, makes all of the beautiful leaves uselessly fall off. Even the roots of history, technology, and innovation that fed the entire construct is somehow automatically irrelevant.
As a gamer, I've always felt that a video game's gameplay should be the core, and ideally all other components serve that end. But sometimes like a painting that just never comes together, or a song that just doesn't hit that sweet spot between the ears, gameplay is not as fun as a player wants it to be. Perhaps the genre just doesn't connect. (I'm not much of a modern sports game player.) Maybe there are technical problems. (Hello, terrible frame rate and input lag on Walking Dead.) Perhaps despite everything coming together, it just doesn't feel 'fun.' (I've really, really tried to enjoy the latest Gran Turismo, the Killzone series, and even the earliest Tony Hawk games, but they never 'clicked' with me.)
However, sometimes the rest of the game is so compelling, that the gameplay takes a backseat to the desire to see the entire experience through. Such was the case with Remember Me. While I appreciated the intended design of the customizable combo melee combat, and how the rhythm of button presses integrated into gameplay and even music, it just felt 'off' to me the whole time. Maybe I was so used to the superlative design of Batman: Arkham Asylum, maybe I just never got the 'flow' of the game engine, maybe I just really really wanted a 'counter' mechanic, either way I didn't enjoy the combat. Or the platforming. Or the level design.
Why on earth did I keep playing?
I adored the gameworld. The Neo-Paris, cyberpunk art design. The interesting, high concept ideas such as memories-as-currency. The music, animation, setting, and sound design sold the experience very well. I wanted to explore every nook and cranny I was given; here was something interesting, and while I couldn't explore where I wanted to go, the glimpses were worth it.
I bought the art book before I got the game; I think that may have automatically put me in some form of hipster territory.
Anyway, I treated Remember Me as I have many other games that showed me an enthralling place. I toured it like a museum, absorbing the art displayed all around, taking in this strange, interesting place. Sure, I got frustrated when I was shown something inaccessible that piqued my interest and it sometimes felt like I was tripping as much as walking, but it was fascinating, different, and most importantly, worthwhile. Like any good museum.
A friend of mine once visited and stood staring at our huge bookshelves full of video game strategy guides almost all night long. He'd take one down, thumb through it for awhile, and then replace it with another. After a few hours (!) I joked that he could just walk a few feet over and play most of those games instead of looking at pictures of them. He gave a slight frown and shook his head; he said that, anymore, just looking through guides and remembering them, looking at the art, seeing all the little nuances recorded in the guide, was as fun as going back and playing them.
I can't say that's entirely true for me, but I think I get what he's saying. Sometimes I don't have several hours to pour into a game, but I want to revisit it. This fellow showed me I have a gigantic stack of old tour guides right in the next room.
Next time I want to revisit Remember Me, I'll probably do so through the beautiful hardcover art book instead of firing up the game, but you never know. I have a lot of virtual Art museums I hope to peruse one day.
Genesis Does What Nintendon't! Does it really? I never noticed...
Did you battle with your friends over which console was better? Or were you oblivious to the "raging war"?
Here is the link to the 4 Atari 8 Bit Prototypes I got in the mail this past week.
They include : River Raid, Mega Mania, QBert and James Bond 007
Episode # 39
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Posted on Oct 18th 2013 at 12:58:31 AM by ( A8scooter) Posted under Atari |
This is the first box of goodies from Atari 181. Alot of nice stuff came in 54 items in all. Too bad the lighting just sucked but I think these were very nice finds and some hidden Gems.
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Posted on Oct 17th 2013 at 06:49:36 PM by ( noiseredux) Posted under PC |
[img width=640 height=908]http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/box/7/8/2/655782_243868_front.jpg[/img]
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
2K Games, PC (2012)
If you’re one of the handful of folks who actually read my blog you might be saying to yourself “wait a minute… you already wrote about this game.” And you’d be right. I wrote about the Xbox 360 version a couple months back, but a lot has changed since then. You see I had found myself in a position where I needed a new PC. And once I realized the new PC was able to run some new computer games, I started spending a lot of time (and money) on Steam. Thanks to a particularly handsome sale which got me Enemy Unknown along with five of its predecessors for less than I paid for the 360 version alone, I found myself once again heading a team of troops in an effort to rid the earth of an alien takeover.
[img width=700 height=369]http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/901009552997311086/C5DD084033D60AEB35E55167833BB9F05A412BFA/[/img]
On my seventh attempt at starting a campaign, I finally saw Enemy Unknown to the end. And as great a feeling as that was, there was actually an even bigger milestone here. When I had tallied up the time spent on both versions of the game, I realized I had put in 105 hours. There’s no way for me to go back and add up all the time I’ve spent on something like say Street Fighter II over the years, but this is the first time I’ve knowingly spent triple-digit hours on a single game. Certainly in such a small window of time - about four months.
So what would drive someone with such a poor attention-span to devote so much time to a single game? The obvious answer is obvious. Enemy Unknown is truly one of the most unabashedly fun games I’ve played in a long time. The battle system is just so riveting, it was easy to spend an hour or more on a Mission and still feel that “just one more before bed” feeling when it was over. But there’s also a lot more to it than just this basic answer.
[img width=700 height=369]http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/901009531491243567/F9BC1D9B3E4B798BA8994207177315B5D90A022A/[/img]
The story (aka: something I normally don’t care all that much about in a strategy game) was great fun. The alien-invasion/paranoia vibe and pulp-inspired dialogue between missions really kept me interested. The music was phenomenal and I truly hope we see a soundtrack release. But what ultimately sucked me in the most was the progression. That is, even after 20, 30, 40 hours of gameplay I was finding myself still learning much of the finer nuances of Enemy Unknown. It felt like each new start-up would find me better prepared for a campaign. And once I had wrapped my head around base management (get those satellites up ASAP!) and managing terror levels, I started to feel in much greater control.
I suppose it’s also slightly tough to talk about this game without mentioning the emotional attachments you get to each soldier. This is an element that FireAxis implemented perfectly. To use it to greater effect, I named each new hire after a friend. This made it so much easier to keep track of who everyone was. Instead of having to to try to keep track of which snipers had climbed the ranks, I could easily recall that MrPopo and Fastbilly were my stars because I had that association in my mind.
[img width=700 height=369]http://cloud-3.steampowered.com/ugc/901009552902386872/F566FBBE12F062E0D57FE57786DDD68440B1EF48/[/img]
I’d also like to mention that I really did enjoy the PC port of this game. Although having played it on consoles, I can tell you that they’re not miles apart. I did encounter some slight late-game bugs on PC, which I have no idea if they were present on 360 or not. But I enjoyed the convenience of having the quick-link to the Steam forums right from the launcher, and more importantly the screenshot feature. I can tell you that I spent lots of time madly tapping F12 throughout my playthrough. In fact all the pictures in this very blog post were taken in-game by me personally.
I’m quite certain my last post regarding Enemy Unknown was a glowing one. But after all this time with it I can now proclaim quite positively that this game would rank within my Top 5 games of this entire generation. A bold statement for sure. But even after 100+ hours, I’m looking forward to the Enemy Within expansion that is just around the corner.
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We are a community of collectors, gamers and the likes, and some of us enjoy to let the world know what is on our mind. For those members, we have the community blogs, a place where they can publish their thoughts and feelings regarding life, universe, and everything. Some of those members might even choose to write about gaming and collecting! Whatever they write about, you can find it on their blog. You can either see the latest community blog entries in the feed you see to the left, or you can browse for your favorite blog using the menu above. Interested in having your own blog hosted on RF Generation? It's rather simple, first be a registered member, and then click the "My Blog" link that you see in the navigation above. Following those two steps will certainly get you on your way to blogging.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy our entries, rantings, and completely unrelated series of thoughts. We write for you to read, so we certainly hope that you enjoy our material.
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