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Geeks, what is YOUR profession?!!!
Collecting movies, video games, and other pop culture crap people with lives don't have time to worry about.
That said, 300 comes out on DVD this Tuesday (7/31/07) in North America. I'll be buying the 2-disc special edition. Anyone who hasn't seen this movie should go buy it as well. You'll see first hand just how much of a man you can never be.
The Simpsons movie came out this week, as I'm sure you all know. I haven't seen it yet. I heard it was okay. Maybe after this, they can finally cancel the series and let it rest in peace. Seriously, when did The Simpsons jump the shark? Everyone stopped watching like 58 seasons ago.
The San Diego Comic Con has been running for the last 3 days and is sorta kinda wrapping up a little. There was a teaser for The Dark Knight which is reportedly about 45 seconds long and doesn't show any actual footage of the movie, just some artwork.
There was some Iron Man footage shown, but nothing really serious.
Of course, the biggest buzz is over the mysterious Cloverfield project, which still remains unnamed. There were four posters given away at the ComicCon, which bear the same image with 1 of 4 possible words scrawled across the top. This is what the poster looks like.
http://www.uploadhouse.co...c3fd185962d90e8c0181e.jpg
The rumor mills are spinning hard about an XBOX 360 price drop to compete with PS3. My psychic powers tell me it will happen. They also tell me Microsoft will deny the price drop up until the moment the tags are changed in the stores and possibly for some time after. Microsoft will also vehemently deny that the price drop has anything at all to do with the PS3's pricing, citing that they just wanted to make the console more affordable for purely humanitarian reasons, as they are dedicated solely to helping people world-wide.
Speaking of socialist lies, Kotaku is running a story about Chinese government regulations to limit the amount of time citizens play MMORPGs. Games that allow workers to simulate capitalist ideals? We can't have that! Chairman Mao would be proud.
http://kotaku.com/gaming/...ng-so-smoothly-283559.php
Next they'll make everyone use the same average green gear.
They probably execute players who roll Paladins.
I could go on all day with this.
To Hell with it. I'm going to the McDonald's drive-thru. Eat that, you poor commie bastards.
 The big announcement David made is that he is leaving Sony Santa Monica/Sony to form a new independent studio with Scott Campbell of Incognito. Color me not surprised.
Eat Sleep Play will consist of David, Scott, and a bunch of key players from Incognito/Singletrac. Don't get all excited Nintendo and Microsoft fans, because Eat Sleep Play has a contract with Sony to publish 3 games exclusively for them. After that, however, who knows. I bet they extend that contract even further because everyone at that company is comfortable with how Sony handles their work. As David said in his blog entry on this subject:
Again, we are working with Sony and that just feels great. We met with some other interested parties but at the end of the day, Sony is our home, our family, and we're really thrilled and honored they wanted to work with us and continue the relationship we've spent almost 15 years cultivating. So in many ways, it's like very little has changed, other than the pay cut.
So I don't think they will be making stuff for Microsoft/Nintendo in the future. I'm sure they'll be exactly like Insomniac, a totally independent company that likes working with Sony.
The company's first project is an enhanced port of the PSP game Twisted Metal: Head-On for PS2. The game will also include 5-7 levels from the unreleased Twisted Metal Black: Part 2, and a documentary on the history of the series. Their first original game will be out sometime in 2008.
So, from all of RFGen, best of luck to David, Scott, and co with Eat Sleep Play, and we can't wait to see what you do in the future!
July 26, 2007. On this day the RF Generation database passed 30000 games. Don't believe me? Look at the stats to the right of this post. Isn't that number large? Truly this number is a milestone to be marked and celebrated. From a database of about ten thousand games in 2004 to the 30000 game behemoth we are today, truly this milestone is a great one, and it couldn't have been done without you guys, our community.
Without our community this milestone would be insignificant, and with you guys we will celebrate the occasion. With your help, we certainly are becoming the classic and modern video games database that Michael Collins, Laurel Settee, Mark Hartholt, Mike Leon, Eddie Herrmann, and Rick Kuethe set out to create. Thank all of you, from staff to regular member to programmers to editors to directors, certainly we could not have gotten to this point without your help, and we are truly grateful.
Now is the time to celebrate, but it is also a time to look to the future! Help us get to 40000 games in the database. With your help, I am sure we'll make that milestone someday soon.
David Jaffe, the outspoken creator of the smash hits God Of War and Twisted Metal, has some kind of announcement planned for tomorrow. He will be posting it on his blog right after the press release comes out around 9 AM or so tomorrow morning (probably Pacific Time).
In his latest blog post, Jaffe says...
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT COMING FRIDAY...well big announcement for ME. It's not like I'll be revealing what game we've been working on, stuff like that. Well actually, I will be able to talk a little bit about ONE of the games for the first time... [middle cut since he's talking about how he saw some family in Alabama and ate at Cracker Barrel.] c- Friday-at 9am (PR wants to send the press release out before I post...so no 12:01 update)...but at 9am, I will post news of my future. Again, it's a big deal for me personally and it does deal with my work. So this week I'll be able to spill SOME of the beans...and I'll prob. spew about how I'm dealing with this very, very big change in my work life. Hope to see ya'll soon! David ps. Just FYI, the game alot of you guys seems to think we are working on, we are not. Sorry to dissapoint 
So, he says it isn't what we think he's working on, so that rules out Twisted Metal 5 or Black 2 or whatever they're going to call it. David most likely isn't going to take on the directorial role in God of War 3, because he doesn't really want to make huge epics any more (though he'll probably maintain a supervisor role with Cory Barlog directing, like he did with God of War 2). The other possibility I'm hearing a lot is that he's leaving Sony, which is most likely not the case because David has stated many times that he has no intentions to leave Sony since they have been so good to him for the past 10 years or so.
Here's what I think will happen:
He's going to open up a new studio that will make games for Sony, and more specifically, the Playstation Network.
Here's my reasoning. After taking a month off from the blog in May (maybe due to his tirade against Gamespot and Joystiq), he posted this entry which consists of 2 pictures of an empty office space. In some of the next entries, he mentions having some big design tasks for his next game, but it's nothing too important to my argument. However on his July 1 blog entry, he posts a picture of some beer (...and weed) on a table and captions it with "How else do you expect us to celebrate signing a big, important, life changing contract?!?" That contract, probably with Sony and us meaning someone from Incognito (probably the head, Scott Campbell), since he's worked with them on many projects (including his most recent, Calling All Cars!).
That and David is pretty much one of Sony's biggest star developers, and I bet that they would be willing to listen to what he wants to do.
Anyways, now that my silly speculation is over, remember to keep it tuned on RFGen for all the news that matters.
Another week means another week of features! This week, we will take a look at a small part of the handheld market. The featured game this month is Pinball. This is a very quirky game where you get to play Pinball anywhere you want! Well, in 1987, it was an awesome idea. There have been many times that this game had kept me busy. Okay, it still does sometimes!
The featured image of the week is from the Nintendo DS game Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I figured that since the new movie was released and the last book hit the shelves, it'd be a good time to feature one of the Harry Potter games. The game is based off of the fourth book. Although a tad easy in gameplay, it is a fun game to play through, especially if you like the Harry Potter series.
Our featured hardware is the poor Neo Geo Pocket Color. The Neo Geo Pocket Color was a much maligned system that either came out too early or too late. No one really seems to know. It had some great games, like Bust-a-Move and Baseball Stars. I think the biggest thing that hurt it was the price point of the parallel console system. Many people equated Neo Geo with expensive. That is why I have dubbed this system poor.
The featured collection this week goes to epv39. Epv39 has quite a handheld collection, not to mention one of the cleanest and most organized collections on the site. Take a look!
I think you all would agree that this is a very special week for the features. I think this is the first time a game was featured that wasn't plugged into a console. Make sure to check out the forums and keep it tuned in to channel 3!
Well, Boys and Girls, Harry Potter 7 is here. I know I'm pumped. Not. Of course you all know the big story in the nerd world this week was the leaking of the book onto teh intarnetz via BitTorrent. The hoopla surrounding this thing is absurd. There were actually people writing fake books, in some cases hundreds of pages long, and distributing them in place of the real thing. Almost equally disturbing, the proper bootleg copy was actually a set of JPEG photos taken via digital camera of each and every page of the book. Unholy Satan! Someone needs to get a job. You can have one of mine. I don't like them.
For those of you who don't already know, Harry dies. Hermione marries Malfoy. Ron is the last Horcrux and Snape is really Dumbledore in disguise.
Warning: there were spoilers in that last part. If you don't want to read them, skip it.
Next week the San Diego ComicCon is coming up. Interestingly, most of the comic related movies that were scheduled to be screened at the convention were pulled by Fox studios earlier this week. They apparently claimed the films weren't finished yet and refused to say anything further. It's fishy as hell and no one can even speculate about their real reasoning at the moment. One way or another, if you got tickets to ComiCon so you could see Aliens vs. Predator or Hitman early, you got screwed.
Also, for those of you who saw that bizarre, nameless movie preview before transformers (I mentioned it in this column a few weeks ago). Producer J.J. Abrams will be revealing the title of the film and possibly some more information at the ComiCon.
Until next week, I'll be crossing my fingers that great Cthulhu awakens from his death sleep to swallow the whole of civilization into his giant gaping maw.
A picture has surfaced online recently...
Look at the "mushroom cloud". It looks more like a Sweet Tooth cloud to me!
Twisted Metal coming to PS3 makes perfect sense. The last game came out more than 5 years ago, and David Jaffe recently mentioned on his blog that they are working on a Twisted Metal documentary for something he can't talk about.
If it's true, that will make Tony very happy as Twisted Metal Black is one of his favorite games on the PS2.
We've heard Hideo Kojima compare the PS3 to a movie theater while the 360 is like watching a movie on DVD and the Wii is like watching the movie on a TV channel. We've also heard him liken the PS3 to an expensive steak dinner at a formal restaurant, the Xbox 360 to a steak dinner at a casual restaurant, and the Wii to a steak dinner that you cook at home. Now, Jack Tretton has stolen Kojima's analogy bit and tried his hand at making one of his own*.
I think the PS3 is the Surf 'n Turf. You want the lobster and steak and you're going to give yourself the treat of getting the best thing on the menu. The PS2 is your favorite burger restaurant -- you go there for comfort food and it's just always good and is a good value.
[As for the other two consoles], one [Wii] is a lollipop, and I'm too old for lollipops. The other one [Xbox 360] I get sick from once in a while because the cook isn't always reliable.
Wow Jack! You make one Kojima-esque analogy, and you already shoot yourself up to being on his level! I applaud you. I especially love the bit about 360 being an unreliable cook. Not quite up to Kojima's previous analogies, but you're definitely getting there. Keep up the good work.
Man, all this talk of food makes me hungry for some steak smothered in PS3 Steak Sauce.
*WARNING: DO NOT SCROLL DOWN TO THE COMMENTS SECTION IN THIS ARTICLE! 360fanboy will give your brain MASSIVE DAMAGE with his constant "gaystation" remarks written in all caps.
[img align=right width=200]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/1607324664469d4fb7c9fb7P1010034-2.jpg[/img]
Earlier in the day, a vicious rumor began to surface regarding Peter Moore, the head honcho over at X-Box station. It was rumored that Mr. Moore would be resigning his position in order to take over the helm at EA sports. Well, after about 4 hours speculation this nasty rumor has been confirmed -- Peter Moore is leaving Microsoft for the publishing giant known as EA.
Of course, you may be wondering who will be taking over Peter's previous job. That person would be Don Mattrick. Previously he was an outside adviser for Microsoft, and oddly enough before that he was President of EA. Strange isn't it?
We here at RF Generation wish the best for Mr. Moore, and we certainly hope he finds himself at home at EA Sports. Somehow, I think he'll be rather quick to adjust from one monster of a company to another, but certainly we can't wait to see what Peter Moore does in his new job, or if he has any insightful comments he'd like to say about Microsoft's X-Box business.
Source: Kotaku
 E3 2007 has come and gone, and this year was certainly different. One thing that got me was the lack of laser weapons being used to blast other-worldly beings into green bits. Aren't aliens, zombies, and ninjas the stock villains of video gaming? Either way, we can supplement your yearning for malicious contact.
The game of the week is Alien Syndrome. Ricky and Mary run and gun their way to rescue their comrades from aliens. Formerly a Tengen cart, Sega is about to release a sequel of sorts under the same title for Wii and PSP in these coming weeks.
The featured image of the week is the cover art for Alien Hominid. This game started out as a freebie flash game and has since been ported to most home consoles and is currently on the move to download services. Alien Hominid is colourful and fascinating as it is entirely hand drawn. Also, the flash version is available for free play in RF Generation's own online arcade! You can't beat free.
Now for a name that could only come from science fiction, the Amstrad GX4000. Its appearance and name look like they could fly you to Mars, or at least to the nearest filling station. This rarely seen 8-bit console took a swift beating as the Mega Drive launched less than a year later with a 16-bit colour pallet.
When missile defense fails to break the UFO shields, there's only enough time for one thing. Thats right, admire James' collection, this weeks feature. Neatly displayed rows of Mega Drive and SMS boxes with one rare and outstanding shooter proudly displayed in the center. If you're curious as to what the title is, you must see for yourself. Suspenseful.
[img width=350 height=357]http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/fucking_blue_shells.png[/img]
I always hated the blue shells. Stupid #$^% blue shells.
Source: xkcd.com
This week we've heard cliché muggle pun after muggle pun from thousands of clueless TV news anchors around the globe. That can only mean one thing: I'll be sleeping through yet another Harry Potter installment. That's right. The pubescent wizard returned in the fifth franchise film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Sadly, Emma Watson does not show her muggles at any point during the film. That girl can wave my magic wand any time she likes.
The 5th Harry Potter movie will be followed in two weeks by the 7th Harry Potter book, which analysts speculate will place J.K. Rowlings on the Forbes list somewhere between Bill Gates and God. God declined to comment.
As I predicted last week, the PS3 is now $100 cheaper, despite Sony's previous delusional claims to the opposite. Now a few more people on the aforementioned Forbes list will be able to afford one.
Aside from those things, this has been a really slow week for geeks. There hasn't been any huge gaming news, and North America's largest video game convention certainly isn't going on or anything...
Which brings me to E3. Bring back the booth babes. Really. I mean it. Guys who are into this stuff don't get to see beautiful half naked girls anywhere else. You've all seen the charts showing how the number of hours spent playing World of Warcraft is inversely proportional to the amount of sex you have. Please, developers, have pity on your loyal neck-bearded followers. Give them something to remember. Especially since nothing else you're doing seems to be catching anyone's interest.
Seriously, what is up with these games? A new Nights? The main selling point is that you can fly? Is that really the best they could come up with? Really? You could fly in the first Nights and nobody cared. Let me give you perspective: It was the mid nineties. All we had were 2D games. Sega made a game that was in full 3D in which you could fly with 360 degrees of freedom and no one cared then. What marketing genius green-lighted this newest debacle? I hope it was the same people who came up with the 32X.
Speaking of 32X, Nintendo sure is showing off some neat-o stuff. How about this steering wheel? They've literally just made a plastic holder for the Wii-mote. This is almost as dumb as the horizontal stand for the PS2 (I could write a ten page article on that stupidity, but I'll spare you). Peripherals like that are for people who refer to their games as "tapes". As in, "I have nine tapes for my Nintendo Wii."
There are a few promising games showing at the convention. The idea of online Mario Kart has potential. Assassin's Creed could be fun.
We'll see as E3 continues. Keep checking back with RFgeneration.com for the latest news.
Who else is pumped about the new Contra for the NDS? I know I am. I watched the gameplay footage earlier this week and when it started I thought I was looking at a port of Super C for a second. When I realized I wasn't, I got really excited. Games like this and Dawn of Sorrow are really tempting me to go out and buy a DS, which would be way better than the hole in my left pants pocket that serves as my current "portable system", if you know what I mean. There need to be a lot more old school games like this out in the current market. I don't know why there aren't. They can't possibly cost much to produce, and hardcore gamers (and scrub posers) eat them up like candy.
Transformers came out this week and, as with any major nerd event, The Evil Leon was on it. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's even more fun than shooting at your neighbor's cat. If you live in Ohio like me, that's A LOT of fun. Also, there is a trailer running before the film for a movie that has no name yet and, according to internet speculation, might involve Cthulhu.....or the Master Chief....or Gears of War....Godzilla...or something. Anyway, the trailer is pretty neat and you can stay and watch Transformers afterward.
The debate blah blah blah Manhunt 2. Blah blah blah blah ESRB. Blah blah "@%&@$%^**!!$*&(*@%*&^&%&@%^," says a representative at Rockstar, adding "!%^&&!%^&**&($^&*^@." We all know this story. Somethingawful had an amazing article about it earlier this week. Personally, I'd like to see what all the fuss is about. I've yet to see any specific content cited as being more offensive than anything in the last Manhunt -from any of the parties involved. Until that news breaks, it's pretty obvious somebody is caving to pressure from watchdog groups. Of course, by "watchdog" I mean "communist" and by "groups" I mean "bastards."
Everyone is talking about the PS3 price drop. Will it happen? Will it not? Well, Sony is denying the Hell out of it. If that means anything, you can be sure the PS3 will be $100 cheaper next month. Now we will only have to pay $500 to play horribly uninspired sports and racing games. I can't wait to get one!
In case you missed the Nintendo montage-filled press conference, allow me to summarize it for you:
1. We're doing very well, as these bar graphs show.
2. The rest of the show won't be relevant to you hardcore gamers, so here's 30 seconds of Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Ghost Squad, Ninja Gaiden DS, Phantom Hourglass, Metroid and Mario Kart for Wii. Oh, and let's make this for casual gamers too by showing off a wheel attachment for Mario Kart and say we're "leveling the playing field" for beginners.
3. We are COMMITTED to online play! We have no more than 5 exciting online games coming! Now let's go on to what really matters!
4. You want minigames?! WE GOT EM RIGHT HERE!
5. Let's lose our minds and announce our new bathroom scale with motion sensors, er wait I mean Wii Fit!
What's sadder is that I am not exaggerating.
 It looks like the rumor is true, PS3 is getting a price cut! PS3 Fanboy has received some reports from around the nation that PS3s have been sold for $499 today. Here's a rundown of the findings from around the country:
1. A reader confirmed to PS3 Fanboy that he was able to buy a PS3 for $499 at a Target in an unspecified location. The site called up the store and they CONFIRMED that the console is listed as $499 in their computer.
2. Two units were sold in an undisclosed Circuit City location for $499.
3. A Rancho Cucamonga, California Target location has the PS3 listed for $499 in their system.
Also, the piece at PS3 Fanboy has been picked up by Digg and one commenter there has stated that he got one from a Target location for $499.
Another article at Kotaku has even more confirmation of a price cut, with Target stores in Bend, Oregon and Beavercreek, Ohio both confirming that the console is $499. However, they also mention that stores in Los Angeles and West Hollywood, CA, Dayton, OH, Orlando, FL, and Littleton, CO have the system for $599. In other words, this price cut is not Target-wide yet, it's just a few renegade stores breaking the rules and implementing the new price before the "official price cut day".
Kotaku commenter SPIKE1856 offers some insight on Target's price change policy:
"I can tell you why some Target stores have the price cut in place and others do not--Target's price change day for the Electronics department is Monday. If a store's price change team gets ahead of pace, they have the ability to start early on the next day's workload. Since Saturday and Sunday are not price change days, this means that Monday's price changes can be activated on Friday, effectively three days early. The price change team at my store, sadly, is definitely not ahead of pace at the moment and so our PS3's are still priced at $599.99."
Could the price effect be taking effect as you read this? Is it real? Am I dreaming? I don't know, but this whole situation is very intriguing. Tomorrow, I plan on doing some investigative journalism (and buying some DVD-R discs) and seeing if the local stores have the PS3 marked down in their systems.
However, when all is said and done, this is the second worst kept secret of the year, next to the Xbox 360 Elite. I bet Sony is wishing they could be more like Paramount Pictures and the trailer for that new J.J. Abrams movie. Seriously, go to that link, it's incredible.
UPDATE:
I went to the local Target in Mankato, Minnesota, and here's what I saw under the PS3s they had...
Sorry for the crappy camera phone photo, it's all I had at the time.
PS3 is now Four Hundred and Ninety Nine US dollars...
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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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