There are only two games that matter this week.
| Playstation 3 | Xbox 360 | Nintendo Wii | •Grand Theft Auto IV
•Iron Man | •Grand Theft Auto IV
•Iron Man | •Iron Man
•Mario Kart Wii | | PSP | Nintendo DS | Playstation 2 | •Chameleon
•Iron Man
•SNK Arcade Classics V.1 | •Brain Voyage
•Corvette Evolution GT
•Iron Man
•Let's Pilates
•Let's Yoga
•River King: Mystic Valley
•Toy Shop
•Winx Club: Mission Enchantix | •Iron Man
•SNK Arcade Classics V.1 |
 Other than the two obvious picks of the week (which you should know about, so I won't explain them in any detail), SNK Arcade Classics V.1 looks pretty damn awesome as well. The game is a compilation of 16 Neo Geo classics which include Art of Fighting, Baseball Stars 2, Burning Fight, Fatal Fury, King of Fighters 94, King of the Monsters, Last Resort, Magician Lord, Metal Slug, Neo Turf Masters, Samurai Shodown, Sengoku, Shock Troopers, Super Sidekicks 3, Top Hunter, and World Heroes. The price is definitely great on it too, only $20 for your choice of the PS2 or the PSP version. I'd pick that up if you don't want the big releases this week or want to buy something a little more "retro".
[img width=300 align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/hardware/U-033/bf/U-033-H-00010-A.jpg[/img]The year was 1987 and the video gaming world was ruled by the Nintendo Famicom, followed by a somewhat strong competitor in the Sega Master System. Atari was still a big player at the time, though their recent releases of their 5200 and 7800 systems could not effectively compete with these newer breeds. A company called Worlds of Wonder decided to enter into the fray with the release of the Action Max. Though they had already established considerable ties to the gaming community during the mid 1980s, this system was already dead on arrival when it hit the store shelves.
Worlds of Wonder was founded by a group of former Atari programmers. Being the original distributor of the Nintendo NES in the United States, they had strong ties to both technological and manufacturing resources. The actions and reasoning behind the development of the Action Max is unknown. Coming off the video game crash of 1984, many hardware manufacturers went bankrupt and new developers shied away from this video game console field (NEC being the main exception). Obviously, this did not deter their efforts in creating a new system built upon possibly the most media formats ever devised – the VHS video cassette tapes.
It is important to first describe how this system works, rather than to describe its physical and technical features as is the norm. The Action Max is one of the few video game consoles that are not able to display graphics on its own – a VCR is required for game play (not included). The system works by attaching directly to a VCR. The VCR in turn transmits the video signal to your television. Sound is delivered through the Action Max system itself – there is no option for external output. The included Light Sensor must be plugged into the console, then 'connected' to the television screen via a suction cup. As mentioned before, games are VCR tapes. Pop in the game into your VCR, power up the Action Max and plug in the controller (light gun) and be prepared to fire away. All games (a total of 5 were released) are the same, whether it is shooting a ghost or a submarine, these are simple point and shoot affairs. What's worse, there is no change/reaction to anything being displayed to you when you score a 'hit' – a small noise is emitted from the console and the score counter increases. There is no way to win or lose at these games – just high score bragging rights among your friends (better right them down since the Action Max doesn’t keep track of them at all for you). Also, remember that this is a dumb VCR tape – replay value is -0-. The tape itself cannot change, and playing a new game repeats the same positions and appearances of all foes. Memorize where they will appear, maximize your score.
[img width=300 align=left]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/hardware/U-033/bb/U-033-H-00010-A.jpg[/img]Now that the basic concept of the working of the Action Max has been described, let’s look at the console itself. The system itself is rather nondescript. The dark grey exterior casing is shaped and has the size of an aluminum container used for the family sized portion of a Stouffer’s pre-made meatloaf dinner. Come to think about it, the weight is about the same as well (about 2 lbs.). A white elongated "S" shaped plastic wedge breaks up the dull, solid colored top facing. Residing here is a combination of three toggle switches and two dials that control the difficulty level and the number of players (supported two player mode). The player's score was displayed here as well in classic, old-school red LED numbering.
The front of the unit has jacks for a headphone and the controller, along with a toggle switch to mute the volume. The back of the unit is more of the same – a jack for the power (external, not included but the unit can run off of C batteries), two mini-RCA jacks for the light sensors. The controller is a more of the same - a simple dark grey light gun that feels rather fragile and does not have any girth to it, though it does fit OK in one’s hand. 'Shooting' the 'gun' emits a rather satisfying mechanical clicking noise – nothing like cap guns of the era, but still, with this console, it is all about the small pleasures.
Worlds of Wonder entered into bankruptcy in 1988, less than a year after the release of the Action Max. The company is more noted for the development and production of various children’s product, including the Teddy Ruxpin interactive bear. Many of the associates of Worlds of Wonder went on to join Nintendo in various capacities.
[img width=150 align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-033/bf/U-033-S-00040-A.jpg.jpg[/img]The Action Max was a short-lived system, and rightly so. Compared to it's contemporaries, the static game play and poorly acted video VCR games did not stand a chance. Think of the worst Sega CD FMV game released and multiple your disdain for it by 1000% - that would not accurately define an experience with the Action Max, but it would come close.
This system is only recommended for collectors – there is no value here at all for among gamers of any level. The unit is light, but the box is HUGE for this system – the packing alone is around 10" in depth. I am not sure why the packaging was so extensive for this system – perhaps the marketing gurus at Worlds of Wonder thought that 'bigger was better' when seen on a store shelve. It is certainly not needed for what it was designed to protect. Though not seen a great deal for sale, these systems are pretty cheap to acquire through eBay. Expect to pay no more than $50 USD for a complete system. Games are not too rare either – they will run you around $10 USD a piece.
The link to the full review of this system (including ratings, pictures and video):
http://www.videogameconso...ry.com/pg80-actionmax.htm
Thanks all.
Terry (a.k.a. Marriott_Guy)
The Video Game Console Library
http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com
 In a completely unprecedented (but unsurprising) move, notorious Florida "attorney" Jack Thompson has set his sights on the mother of Strauss Zelnick (chairman of Take-2 Interactive, the parent company of Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games).
We all know Jack Thompson is an utter douchebag, but this takes it to levels I've never seen, even from him. It's actually the first Jack Thompson story in a long time that has completely shocked me.
The letter, posted in Kotaku's comment section by Jack himself, includes some wonderful statements about Mr. Zelnick and his mother. Some of the "highlights" of the letter include...
I would encourage you either to play this game or have an adroit video gamer play it for you. Some of the latter gamers are on death row, so try to find one out in the civilian population who hasn't killed someone yet.
The pornography and violence that your son trafficks in is the kind of stuff that most mothers would be ashamed to see their son putting into the hands of other mothers' children, but, hey, your son Strauss has recently assured the world that he is "a Boy Scout, everybody knows that." I'd love to see the merit badges that Scout Troop handed out. Is there a Ted Bundy merit badge? If so, your loving son deserves one now. It should be red and green, for obvious reasons
Mrs. Zelnick, did you train up your son, Strauss, to make millions of dollars by pushing Mature-rated video games to children?
Maybe you, Mrs. Zelnick, were so taken by your handsome son that you spared the rod and spoiled the child. That would explain why he has brought you, by the way he presently acts, "to shame."
And perhaps worst of all...
Your son, this very moment, is doing everything he possibly can to sell as many copies of GTA IV to teen boys in the United States, a country in which your son claims you raised him to be "a Boy Scout." More like the Hitler Youth, I would say.
He then closes out the letter with this wonderful little quip...
Happy Mother's day, Mrs. Zelnick, which this year is May 11, two weeks after your son unleashes porn and violence upon other mothers' boys. I'm sure you're very proud.
I really don't have much to say about this freedom oppressor and abuser of the Justice system of these United States of America. I'm sure we all have a common stance on this guy and his BS accusations and threats.
Reactions? Post them in the comments.
[Kotaku, via The Escapist]
Hello all.
Work has been a bit brutal as of late and has required me to travel quite a bit. Though I work in the hospitality industry (hotels), I hate all aspects of traveling myself – packing for a trip, wading through the lines at the airport, cab rides to the hotel, having to iron every item for a meeting the next morning (of course I use the bath room shower ‘steam’ method to reduce ironing times). Most everyone has experienced these types of annoyances at one some point and gets the picture.
On my most recent trip, I had to buy some coffee at the airport instead of the ‘Cup of Joe’ dealer I usually frequent (a Shell gas station). Upon receiving my 10 oz coffee from the bagel peddler just in front of Gate 32, the clerk mildly informed me that it would be $3.15. “For a cup of coffee??” I said to myself. In my field, I am fully aware of the both the simple and complex supply and demand scenarios. This simple coffee purchase of mine was the best example of this theory as any other lesson learned within an economics class. Yes – I was running late that morning and probably should not have hit the snooze button that third time. It would have saved me $2.50. Not allot of money, but viewed in a different way I paid over 500% more for the same product I would have received from Sally at my local Shell station.
The telling of this most recent frustration of mine provides an appropriate segue to this article - Buying Decision Do's & Don'ts. To make this a little easier to read, I decided to bullet point a few main thoughts I have on this subject.
- [img width=291 align=right]http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/images/articles/mg-blogs/40yo-3a-star.jpg[/img]Don’t Buy a New Video Game System the Same Day It Is Released
This is a cardinal rule (as seen with the Xbox 360 and it’s failure rate). I admit that I was the first one in line in 1993 at my local Electronics Boutique (there were very few dedicated video games at the time) to purchase the 3DO for $699. Learn from my mistake - it will save you allot of money, not too mention letting others test out the system for you and avoiding the ‘ring of death’ scenario for a respective system.
- Don’t Become a New Technology Addict
I grew up in a different time, when the operating system of a PC had to be booted from a 5.25” disk (DOS). As technology improved (PCs and video game systems), my need to have this new hardware mirrored this growth. I made many particularly bad decisions (especially in PCs) to try and keep up with the 'valley'. This is the same thing as buying a new car – the minute you drive out of the show room with it, it is instantly worth $7,000 less than what you paid for it.
- Don’t Purchase From an Unknown Source
You will have to do this at some point, but ensure to get as much reference information as you can, especially on those high-end purchases. A great resource in this area is the public selling forums (like we have here at RFG). Vice versa, you have to establish yourself as a trusted buyer. Always ensure to leave comments on all transactions.
- Don’t get into a bidding war on an eBay auction at 2 AM on a Friday Night
This does not warrant an explanation at all. I always joke with my brother and say that there should be one of those breathalyser car starter apparatuses attached to your computer whenever your fire up eBay or like web sites. A reading over .20 – access denied.
- Don’t Get Emotional
Leave all of your emotions at the door, especially when bidding on an online auction. Be prepared to walk away and not obtain an item. Getting all hyped up will only cloud matters for you and your decision making ability.
- Do Have Patience and Educate Yourself
This is a tough one to manage since the passion runs high on a number of items we are considering to procure. I have made some purchases to just complete a certain collection where I over paid for an item, sometimes grossly. There are times to pull the trigger, other moments when it is best to wait for the next possible transaction (which is most of the time). Do not get into bidding wars – determine a price that are willing to pay and be willing to walk. Do you research – this is key. Know what the value of an item is today as well as what was it's worth last year and the demand for it in the future.
- [img width=291 align=right]http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/images/articles/mg-blogs/40yo-3-shell.gif[/img]Do Keep All ItemsBoxes – Ensure CIB
As a pure collector, performing this action is of paramount importance. Having a CIB unit is worth as much as 1000% of one that is not when reselling (obviously depends on the item). Do keep everything in pristine condition – collectors know what came with the system and will pay you for it when the time comes. Also, if you do not have to rip open the plastic baggy that contains the manual, et al, then don’t. This will further increase your investment through time. Take the greatest care of your boxes and manuals – these are non-replaceable and the truly LN (Like New) games/systems command high dollars.
- Do Consider Shipping Charges Locations
Especially important for console/hardware collectors, this can add up to $150 in additional costs for some of the heavier units. Many times, the price of the shipping will not be able to be recovered when reselling a system in your country of origin. Again, do your research on both the seller and the country it is coming from.
- Do Keep Financial Priorities In Tact
Short and sweet here – you do need to pay the mortgage/rent. Don’t allow your passionate pursuit of an item to interfere with your everyday financial responsibilities. Give yourself a budget – save up for that special item – track your expenses and investment. Remember – no electricity, no video gaming.
- Do visit your local garage sales and flea markets
This is a dieing avenue for good purchases, but you can still land some pretty good deals from time to time. The local pawn shop is another semi-good avenue. Be prepared to sift through a great deal of crap to find that diamond in the rough. At the same time, establish strong relationships with these vendors (might have to make some bad, low money purchases at first to gain credibility) and then you can have them call you with their new finds (before they go on sale at their market/store).
These are just some of the things that I have learned from both great buying transactions as well as the ones I got buried upon. Today is a different day than it was 30 years ago, but a great many of the same lessons can be learned, and more importantly financially avoided. Exuding financial prowess with an aptitude in employing keen negotiation techniques will not only save you money, but will earn you respect.
I do hope this article assists and allows you to avoid some of the potholes that I have driven directly into in the past and still struggle to circumvent presently. I am sure that you have some other great tips to add - please share them and your comments!
My description of my current life at the moment that lead off this article will also be used to segue to my next piece – Balancing Life & Video Gaming. Just another something that I have yet to fully master. 
Until next time, happy gaming all!
Terry
PS. The "Noob" referral in the top pic was aimed at me, since I have made many bone head decisions in my time in this area (as well as in many others  )
This week is just preparation for next week which has two megaton releases. However, there is still some pretty neat stuff coming out this week. Take a look:
| Playstation 3 | Xbox 360 | Nintendo Wii | •Call of Duty 4: Game of the Year Edition
•NBA Ballers: Chosen One | •NBA Ballers: Chosen One | •Battle of the Bands
•Heavenly Guardian
•Target Terror
•Wild Earth: African Safari | | PSP | Nintendo DS | Playstation 2 | | •Chameleon | Dream Pinball 3D
•Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness
•Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time
•River King: Mystic Valley
•The World Ends With You | •Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES |
Looks like a good week if you're an RPG fan. You have a rerelease of one of the most critically acclaimed (and hard to find) games of last year, two new Pokemon games, and a game from RPG powerhouse Square Enix.
 What is my pick of the week? I'll say Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES. I'm not an RPG fan, but this looks like a great rerelease of Persona 3. It will include an additional chapter and additional storyline/gameplay elements for a total of 30 additional hours of gameplay. If you're at all interested in this game, I recommend you get it right away since it is an Atlus game and will probably be impossible to find in 3 months.
Next week will be a huge one because we have both Mario Kart Wii and Grand Theft Auto 4 coming out. So, start saving because next week is going to be a good one! Until then, happy gaming!
I found a ton of great stuff last garage sale/flea market season and I'm really hoping my luck continues this season. So, I'm going to keep a log on my weekly finds, I'll either update on Sunday afternoons or on Monday, depending on how much stuff I get.
I was going to start this a couple weeks ago, but it's still early in the season to be finding a bunch of stuff each week, so this will include the past 3 weekends of garage sales and flea markets. And if some of this stuff looks familiar, it's because I posted some in the Small Scores Thread.
Sega Nomad with 2 Sega rechargeable battery packs (neither holds a charge) $5
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/Game%20Collection/2008%20Scores/DSCN9316.jpg[/img]
2 Mario's Cement Factory keychains, sealed, $0.25 each.
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/Game%20Collection/2008%20Scores/DSCN9315.jpg[/img]
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 and Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec, both CIB, $0.25 each.
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/Game%20Collection/2008%20Scores/DSCN9336.jpg[/img]
New stuff from this weekend, sadly it's raining so no flea market today. I was pretty mad yesterday, as I walk up to the first garage sale, I realize I forgot my wallet at home. Luckily I grabbed a wad of $1's before leaving and had my pocket of change, so I had enough to buy stuff I needed. But I had to pass on a nice variable power supply I could have used and other PS1 games I already had for $1 each. My dad was with me so I could have borrowed some cash if I really needed it, but he won't let me forget for a second that I borrowed money from him.
6 CIB PS1 games at a garage sale for $1 each:
Test Drive 4 (GH)
Moto Racer 2
Jet Moto 2
Cyber Tiger
Medal Of Honor
Intelligent Qube (That's one I never thought I'd find)
[img width=700 height=524]http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j22/Mike_2_0_0_6/Game%20Collection/2008%20Scores/DSCN9335.jpg[/img]
In non-gaming related finds, I found a variety of wires/cables/adapters. There's a few computer power cords, but what I was interested in the most was several different audio cable connectors and extension cords, definitely stuff I love to find, $1 for the whole box.
So, not much stuff for three weeks, but hopefully it'll get better as the season progresses.
 Attention all you PS3 owners with Metal Gear Solid 4 pre ordered (which should be all of you), Konami has posted the beta version of Metal Gear Online to the Playstation Store and is ready for you to download. The actual beta of the game does not start until Monday, but you can download it (and the update) now in preparation for Monday's big event.
How do you partake in this Snaky goodness? First of all, you have to pre-order Metal Gear Solid 4 from a participating retailer. Second, you need to obtain a copy of the Metal Gear Saga Vol. 2 DVD which should be free with your pre-order. This DVD contains a refresher course on the MGS franchise and a collection of trailers for MGS4, but most importantly it comes with your ticket to participate the beta. Now that you have your code to get into the beta, boot up your PS3. On the XMB, go to the Playstation Network menu and choose Account Management. Then on the next page that comes up, choose Transaction Management, and Redeem Playstation Network Card or Promotion Code. Next, enter in the code found on your ticket into the text boxes on the page. If all goes well, it should accept your code and give you access to download the Beta...
If it doesn't work, make sure you entered the code in all capital letters. Still no luck? Well, you're probably like me and effected by Konami's royal screwing up of this beta program. According to IGN, some of the codes given out in the Metal Gear Saga DVD are invalid. How do you tell if you have an invalid code? It all has to do with the length of your key. If you have less than 12 characters in your beta code, then you need to get a new one in order to download the beta. To get a new code, try emailing Konami at mgobetasupport@konami.com, or try going back to where you pre-ordered the game and see if they'll give you a new Metal Gear Saga DVD. Or you can try downloading the beta from the European Playstaion Store, because they are lucky and can download it without using this beta code nonsense.
However, the other area in which Konami totally screwed up this beta is that you have to sign up for a Konami ID AND a "Game ID" in order to play. But guess what? The website to do that is down. However, I was smart and registered as soon as I heard it required for the beta.
I just hope Konami fixes this beta soon. I can't wait to get into the game and face off against others online with the man cannon.
If you're participating in the beta, post a comment in the article here and let me know your PSN ID and Game ID so we can have some kind of an RFG MGO night.
[Image]
[img align=right width=225]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/5591257414803e11b6edd7cynical_atari.jpg[/img]There are many big developers out there. Such Behemoths as Activision, Nintendo, and the evil empire we know as EA. Love or hate, these behemoths tend shape the future of the gaming world, for better or worse. On the other end of the spectrum, we’ll have the fallen angels, where certain companies have just fallen out of favor. Such is the story for Atari. No, not the old Atari that was cool and caused the video game collapse in the 80s, but the current, sad, sorry Atari that was originally Infogrames / Hasbro Interactive. What went wrong, and what the hell are you doing?
Atari, you have some decent franchises. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the Rollercoaster Tycoon series. Chris Sawyer was a genius, and the fact that the first game was the number one seller the year it came out proved it. Too bad then that you took the series and combined it with shit in Rollercoaster Tycoon 2. A sequel, nah, that was a castration. You tried to make better with the third game in the series, but while it was fun it was a resource hog that slowed to a crawl when your park became too large. Good job destroying that franchise.
Recently, you almost lost your license for Dragonball Games. For you, that certainly would have sucked, as your Budokai games are actually pretty fun. They are perhaps the only gems that are not tarnished in your crown by pieces of shit like My Horse and Me. Is that even proper English? I believe that it should be “My Horse and I”. Great job promoting the further castration of the English Language, in a world where the internet is destroying the written language you’re doing your part by influencing little girls who are too small to use the internet. In time, they’ll join the rest of us on the internet, creating some hideous MySpace page with the welcome statement “Like O My Gawd I am liek so Happy that u r here!” What a sick sad world it is. Thankfully, the economy has collapsed, so these bubblegum girls aren’t going to be able to hide in McMansions anymore. Thank God, perhaps they’ll learn what their poor English will get them in terms of a job. Do you think “Would you like Fries with that?” is hard for them to learn? I don’t think so, but I digress.
Atari, you’re a lost cause. Try as you might, but you’ll never be a behemoth in the gaming world. It’s funny though, because you do try. You took Phil Harrison from Sony. What the hell? You’re supposed to go out in a blaze of glory, taking the Infogrames stock price with you! But you must not realize that, or perhaps you do, and you just want to ruin poor ol’ Phil. Phil seems to be such a nice guy though, it isn’t as though he’s the one known for “RIIIIIIIDGGEEEE RAAACCER!” No, that’d be Kaz Hirai. What? You say you wanted that guy? I am sure that with enough money you can get him. I am sure Sony wouldn’t mind to have Phil back, and we’d be happy to see you go down in flames without him.
It’s time for you to smell the roses, Atari. Your time is over, and it’s time for new companies to grow out of your decomposed remains.
It is noted that a lot of thought came about regarding the structure of the English language from just writing this article. We really wish our resident grammar Nazi, known to the RFG Community as Arrrhaloymnn was around to give his perspective. There’s nothing quite like a native Dutch Speaker giving a native English speaker his perspective on English grammar. Oh well.
Taxes are due Tuesday...did you get them done? If so, it's time to start thinking about how to spend that refund. Maybe this week's release list will help you.
| Playstation 3 | Xbox 360 | Nintendo Wii | | •Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (Also available as a download from the Playstation Store) | ... | •Okami
•Summer Sports: Paradise Island | | PSP | Nintendo DS | Playstation 2 | | ... | •Cory in the House
•High School Musical 2: Work It Out
•MLB 2K8 Fantasy All-Stars
•Rondo of Swords | ... |
Yeah, it's a light week number wise but game wise, it's an extremely heavy hitter.
 My pick of the week depends on what category you fall in to. If you have a Wii, but don't own Okami on the Playstation 2, then I demand that you buy Okami for the Wii this week. Okami was a PS2 adventure game in the style of Zelda, but got severely underlooked by most people because of the release of Twilight Princess. Now that the hype of Twilight Princess has settled down, it's time for you to revisit the game that was far superior to the vastly overrated Wii launch game. There, I said it. Okami is better than Twilight Princess. I'm not the only one to feel this way either. Zelda fanboy flaming aside, Okami on the Wii looks to be a fantastic port of the PS2 classic. The port will feature the same great game you never played on the PS2, however the team at Ready At Dawn (the same team behind the excellent Daxter and God of War: Chains of Olympus for the PSP) have taken the liberty to do some enhancements to the Wii edition including 16:9 widescreen visuals running at 480p and some wagglan controls (sadly). However, you can paint with the Wii Remote, which is awesome and hopefully inspires Nintendo to make Mario Paint for the Wii.
 However, if you're like me, a snobby bastard that's a part of the hip alternative gaming scene, you'll have Okami already and most likely won't be interested in a Wii port of the same game. What do you do then? You buy Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, that's what. Gran Turismo 5: Prologue is a demo of Gran Turismo 5 fully featured racing game that will give you an early glimpse at what to expect from Gran Turismo 5 when it ships next year (or in 2010, knowing Polyphony Digital). This title follows in the footsteps of previous pre-release GT titles Gran Turismo Concept and Gran Turismo 4 Prologue, but what makes this one different is that it is the first one to receive a worldwide release. The game features 76 cars, 6 tracks, 12 track layouts, 16 player online racing, Full HD 1080p graphics, and uncompressed LPCM 7.1 surround sound. New to the Gran Turismo series with 5 is GT-TV, a video on demand service that will be regularly updated with both free and pay content related to the world of racing and automobiles. However, the game does not include in-game voice chat (dumb move, Sony) nor private racing with your PSN friends, but Taku Imasaki, the producer of the North American release of the game, confirmed that they are working on adding that in a future update. Sepaking of updates, the lead director of the Gran Turismo series at Polyphony Digital, Kazunori Yamauchi, has said that vehicle damage will be coming to Gran Turismo 5 Prologue as an update, and that GT5P will eventually reach the full functionality of Gran Turismo 5, but with fewer tracks and cars. So, maybe buyers of Prologue will get a discount on the full game when it comes out, but probably not knowing Sony. Anyways, demo or not, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue looks quite awesome, but it definitely isn't for everyone. Remember, this game will be released as both a retail Blu-ray and as a download from the all-new Playstation Store. Both versions cost $40 and offer the same content, but the PS Store version will be a 2 GB or so download and will make you download the GT TV videos from the internet to view them. The Blu-ray edition will include all of the GT TV videos available at launch on the disc for instant viewing.
We'd like to apologize for the recent downtime. A combination of events made things turn south here at RF Generation. At this time, most things are back, but we're feverishly going to attempt to bring back most everything. In the process, we're trying very hard to optimize existing processes so that your visit to RF Generation is a pleasant and quickly loading experience.
It's possible that you might find parse errors on occasion while we try to fix things. The site also may become unresponsive late at night, but it might not. We hope to get things running 100% as soon as possible.
Did you know that RF Generation has a chat? If you happened to visit while we were down, you may have seen the giant link to the RF Generation Chat right there on the front page being proudly displayed while the rest of the site was bricked. It appeared to work well, with a healthy group of people showing up in chat. Now that we're back though, that's all been washed out.
If the previous paragraph did not make it clear - RF Generation has a chat. It's hosted on quakenet, a popular IRC Network where we don't have to worry about the chat overloading our server. Don't have an IRC Client? No Problem! Our chat page has a Java IRC Client that will log you in straight to our channel, where you can chat with fellow RF Genners and pay respect to our secret op, Malygris. Certainly, there's fun times to be had, the question though is... why are you not there?
Join the chat! Kill time! Talk about your latest find! Talk about that game you love! Join the Zombie meme! We don't care, but we know one thing - it'd be a lot more exciting with you in the chat!
And we're back from an extended break. In order to celebrate our triumphant return to the internets, here's a list of games that are out this week!
Wait a minute...
| Playstation 3 | Xbox 360 | Nintendo Wii | | ... | ... | •Baroque
•Mini Copter Adventure Flight | | PSP | Nintendo DS | Playstation 2 | | •World Championship Cards | •Fab 5 Soccer (Sorry, this isn't a game with The Beatles, it's a shitty budget title)
•Plushees | •Arcana Heart
•Baroque |
Looks like the release list is taking a break this week too...
HOWEVER! There are two big releases this week that fall outside my realm of coverage. The first is Sony's long-awaited US release of the new DualShock 3 controller. The new controller adds rumble back into the controller and makes your PS3 controller not feel like a cheap piece of plastic. I got mine last night and I must say it's a definite improvement over both the Sixaxis and the DualShock 2. I highly recommend any PS3 owner to get one as soon as you can. Also, here's a list of games that have vibration support at the moment. More will be coming in the future with game patches. In addition, the DS3 supports vibration on all PS2 and PS1 games.
 That is not my pick of the week, though. My pick of the week easily goes to Ikaruga on Xbox Live Arcade. That's right, Treasure's classic (and very hard to find) vertical shooter has been ported to Xbox Live Arcade and will be selling for the ultra-low price of $10. If you have an Xbox 360 and don't buy this game, I will be extremely disappointed in you because Ikaruga is one of the greatest games ever created and is something that everyone needs to experience it at least once. Sure, you could be old-fashioned and buy the Dreamcast or Gamecube version, but you'll be paying at least $30 or $40 more for a disc and a case. Not worth it just for that. Come on, you know you want it. Drop your fear of digital distribution and experience one of the greatest games of all time. 
Whew. It's been over a week since we went offline, on April 1st of all days. It's good to be back. You might be wondering why we left. Let us delve into the abbreviated version of what happened... the long version will come later.
RF Generation has grown at a steady rate over the past 4 years. (can you believe we've been here for almost 4 years?) Well, last week, we learned that we had in fact outgrew our host. For that reason, we had to find a new host as quickly as possible. Today, we're on that new host, and we're pleased as punch to be in the realm of not quite dedicated hosting and out of the realm of shared hosting.
That's the short version. We'd like to thank our old host for two years of hosting at an affordable rate, and we look forward to our bright future with our new host!
PS: Everything except for images should be working.
Uh...
| Playstation 3 | Xbox 360 | Nintendo Wii | | ... | •Call of Duty 4: Game of the Year Edition (Includes the original game plus a ticket to download the new map pack coming out this week) | •Octomania | | PSP | Nintendo DS | Playstation 2 | | ... | •Rafa Nadal Tennis
•Toy Shop | •Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis
•RC Mini Chopper |
yeah...
There is nothing good this week. COD4: Game of the Year is the best thing coming out this week, but you should already own that game.
So, this week is a good one to catch up on some of those old games you might have missed.
Check back next week when maybe I can actually give some games for you to buy.
[img align=right width=250]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/116598339947f01bc0747fdwifi_failure.gif[/img]Nintendo. They like making money. They could make so much more money if they had a viable online system. Microtransactions also print money, so it boggles my mind that Nintendo has opted for the castrated Online Plan. To Nintendo, it's better to assume that everyone is 6 than their actual age, and for that reason most people would call the system... subpar. Not exactly a fun experience to play online, especially if you want to try to hook up with your friends.
Slate decided, in its infinite wisdom, that it needed to tell the world that Nintendo's Online Plan is in fact, "a smashing failure." So, yeah, good job there Slate, where have you been for the last 3 years. I could have said that back when the DS was going online. Friend Codes are in fact, absolute rubbish. Poorly executed Smash Bros. with anyone online games is in fact, absolute rubbish. Tantalizing Wii owners with the prospect of only one Wii Friend Code only to find out that every damn game still has its own way of doing online, is rubbish.
So, where have you been, Slate? I conject that you must have been really far away not to realize this cold reality years ago. How was the stay on the third rock from Alpha Centari, Slate, because clearly for the last few years you were nowhere near Earth.
Oh, you say that you were? Perhaps then you just are late to the obvious, or you're just out of touch with gaming in general. The only reason I've heard of you is because Kotaku mentions you. Perhaps you should just... um... keep quiet about games.
Smashing Failure [Slate, via Kotaku]
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