When the first real information hit, everyone thought the Big N had lost their marbles. The 2DS, which was for all intents and purposes the whipping boy of the internet, was far from a success, and when the novelty of having a handheld game system shaped like a door wedge wore off it was almost never mentioned, save for Youtube personalities living with a two or three video a week release schedule, and during sales updates with an ever decreasing MSRP.
So, what happened when Nintendo announced they would release an "XL" version of the 2DS? Disbelief for one, at least from this writer, but soon replaced by curiosity. Could Nintendo actually take something that is almost universally regarded as a kid's toy and a bit of a failure and make it respectable?
"Collections collect collectors. It doesn't work the other way around. A certain object misses its own kind and communicates that to some person who surrounds it with rhyming items; these become at first a quorum, then a selective, addictive madness."
-Allan Gurganus
iPhones are less than a dozen years old. A type of device that is now ubiquitous to modern civilization is so young that the speed of its transformative power marks a definitive "before and after." Indeed, now it is impossible to imagine a world without smartphones, yet those of us old enough to remember a world before them have watched how quickly and completely they entrenched upon daily life.
Similarly, folks who grew up on Atari and the NES often now have PS4s and Switches, and video games are so culturally embedded that it is a challenge to find someone who doesn't spend some of their time playing a form of one. Culture critics and historians are in a race to reflect upon transitions that happen so fast, they are hardly known (and certainly not fully understood) before the next one stacks on top of it.
The Dreamcast is a console I never really got into. I was more of a PlayStation girl. So this review is the first Dreamcast game I've ever finished. At only 25 minutes long, it wasn't too much of an effort.
Dynamite Cop is the follow-up to Die Hard Arcade. It's a very silly arcade beat'em up. Does it improve on the first game? Is it worth playing? Watch to find out.
Here's a Game Boy conversion of a true arcade classic - Asteroids! Atari hit it big with this game, and it became their biggest arcade title ever. When it came time to bring it to the small screen, how was this vector graphics game going to fare? And would it be fun? Watch and see my take on the game! What do you think? Is Asteroids on the Game Boy fun? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
The hunt for a Candy Cab. For a while now I have lived in Japan but acquiring one of these seemed nearly impossible. Most modern arcades no longer carry these vintage machines let alone trying to maintain them. I did reach out to a friend who spoke to a local arcade owner whos business primarly consisted of these but that seemed to get knowwhere. Well fast forward a few months and we tried again and this time I was successful.
Was not sure how this day was going to go but decided to bring the camera and have a little fun with it. The results turned out much better then I expected. Hopefully you guys enjoy.
I play a lot of games these days and it takes a special game for me to spend more than a couple hours on. I hadn't followed any media on Kingdom Come Deliverance so I didn't know anything about it going in. What I found was a historically grounded first-person RPG whose gameplay loop is akin to the Elder Scrolls series. Join me as I take a look at the good, the bad, and the buggy in Kingdom Come Deliverance.
This month I wanted to take a look at one of the movies that got a lot of positive response the first time I bought it up. The Thirteenth Floor was pretty overshadowed when it first came out, seeing as it was released the same year as The Matrix. And it's a shame too, because while the latter movie became a huge scifi jauggernaut for its philosophizing about people living in a simulation (and rightly so), the former takes this concept to an arguably more realistic and grounded level. Looking at it now, in a post-Oculus and Amazon Alexa world, and without the threat of humanity being wiped out, it's much more of a detective story with a scifi twist.
I've reviewed games casually on and off for the better part of the past 15 years. It's something I enjoy doing and I feel like I've got a relatively decent handle on objectively looking at the whole package of what a particular game consists of. What I don't have a lot of experience doing is comparing a game directly to another game, as I usually just look at what is in front of me and for the most part ignore any past or future releases. Can games even be, or should they even be, directly compared to one another?
My first experience with Firewatch was not a pleasant one. I initially found the story and gameplay to be rather dull, the dialog felt unrealistic and forced, and navigation felt like a tedious chore. After spending about an hour with the game, I promptly uninstalled it, declaring that it simply "wasn't for me." However, after dwelling on it for a while, I decided that maybe I was a little hasty to dismiss the game so quickly. I went through the trouble of downloading and installing the game again just so I could give it another shot, and I'm really glad I did.
[img width=576 height=396]https://i.imgur.com/ZBOvEKR.jpg[/img] Source is CyberEagleWarrior on DeviantArt
One of the most beautiful aspects of gaming is the sheer magnitude of ideas that have been tried. At this point it would be rather difficult to find ideas for games that have not been at least attempted. The PC market is especially rich in these ideas, given its long history and how many games can be made that just do not work too well on consoles. Simulators are ones that are especially deep in this regard. Everything from goats to the insanity of dwarves in various styles of fortresses has been tried. Few of these simulators have the raw humor and character that the Tropico series has. Tropico is more of a hybrid type of game, where the bulk of the gameplay involves the city building aspect. There are plenty of tools for a more sadistic player to keep control of their communist island paradise. Management of a banana republic has, and maybe never will be, as fun as the Tropico series has made it.
Hey everyone! I tried something new with this review, especially since the game is so new. If you like this format of blog post, please be sure to let me know in the comments!
P.S: I realize things look a little "washed out" in places. My brightness is up, since my TV is a little dark. I'll be sure to fix that for next time.
World War I has recently piqued my interest in a major way. I've been studying the events of the "war to end all wars" for past few months as I honestly knew nothing about it previously. Recently reading All Quiet on the Western Front and A Farewell to Arms made me want to dig deeper into this historical catastrophe. After much reading, and watching countless Youtube videos, I sought out a copy of EA and DICE's WWI shooter Battlefield 1. I played through the campaign recently and I thought the game was very interesting and enjoyable. However, I was left scratching my head at some incredible omissions by the developers, namely the countries involved in the playable campaign.
[img width=200 height=313]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/E-050/bf/E-050-S-01070-A.jpg&sizex=200[/img] Well, this Dragon 32/64 game is certainly off everyone's radar, but I don't have a Dragon 32. Or the Cassette Drive. Or British.
Being in video game retail for so many years now, I can easily say one of my favorite parts of the job is finding and recommending obscure titles to customers who had no idea such games existed. I love digging up and collecting gaming oddities myself, and every time I find a list of such titles I bookmark them to compile and search for later. When I thought I'd have the time to keep it up, I originally started a forum to track these, but it turns out I can't get to it nearly often enough to keep it relevant. (Sorry!)
Hopefully I'm not alone here on this, so in that spirit here's another list for those interested:
It's been a little while since the guys got together, and while Crabby couldn't make it, Bil and Duke catch up on the last year. As usual, we also tackle your questions, which always prove to be... interesting. Also, big thanks to our new mystery editor. While they prefer to remain nameless, we are deeply grateful.
Castlevania is a series I never really got into. I didn't play it any on the NES or SNES when I was a kid, and it wasn't until Symphony of the Night on PS1 that I finally gave it a try. In an attempt to fill this gap in my gaming experience, I played through Super Castlevania IV. My initial impressions weren't great, since Simon felt very heavy to control, but... did it grow on me?
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.
