Tomorrow, we kick off our annual RF Generation Community Donation Drive. Our goal this year is to once again raise at least $1000 by February 29, 2016. This money will be used to pay server costs and site improvements, and any additional funds will also be put toward future hosting expenses. We hope that you will consider contributing to keep RF Generation a free, fun, and useful site for yourself, other members, and those who haven't been fortunate enough to find us yet. We only ask that you donate what you can and even a small amount, like a few bucks, goes a long way and is very appreciated. Donations are accepted via PayPal and you can donate by following this link: http://www.rfgeneration.c...m/index.php?action=paypal. PLEASE be sure to PM me your RF Generation handle and the email address you used to donate so that we can thank you on the front page and determine your number of raffle tickets; only your handle will be used and all donation amounts are private.
For those of you who donate at least $10, you will be entered into a raffle for some fantastic prize lots donated by our generous staff. Rules for this raffle and prize listings are listed below and can also be found on this thread: http://www.rfgeneration.c...m/index.php?topic=16247.0. And don't worry, even through the fund drive officially starts tomorrow, if you donate today, your contribution will still go toward the fundraiser and the raffle.
Thank you for your donations and we hope that RF Generation will remain your #1 choice for tracking your collection for years to come!
Continue reading RF Generation Site Fundraiser 2016 Starts Tomorrow!
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Getting and staying organized is a constant endeavor. As a parent, there seems to be a never ending sea of plastic toys in every room of the house. As a homeowner, there is a never ending list of maintenance and upgrade tasks. As a game collector, there is an accumulation of more and more awesome video games that are added on a regular basis. How do we keep them all organized and why is it important?
Continue reading Getting Organized and Staying Organized
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Sega Rally Championship is one of the best arcade racing games of the mid-1990s. Since Sega's always got something in the pipeline for the arcade, it makes sense that a sequel would eventually follow. Sega Rally Championship was also one of the few bright spots for the company during their years supporting the Saturn. It's one of the most popular and common games for the system in all regions, mainly because Sega was pushing marketing behind their arcade ports. Most of these games were already hits in the arcade, so it's no surprise that they were also hits for home console owners.
Sega Rally Championship 2 was developed and released in the arcade by Sega AM5 in 1998. A year later, gamers received a home console port for the Saturn's follow up, the Sega Dreamcast. This Dreamcast port ended up being a launch title for the European release of the system. A PC version was also released later in the year, and just after the New Year for 2000 in North America.
Continue reading Psychotic Reviews: Sega Rally 2
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It's amazing for me to think that I don't like indie games as much as I "should." When I was growing up, I tended to restrict myself to listening only to bands who were on a short list of only the most exalted independent record labels. Everything else was "sold out" or "too trendy." Yeah, I was one of those kids in high school.
You might think given that kind of holier than thou upbringing I'd be heralding the current indie boom in video gaming, but quite frankly, I'm not really feeling it. Don't get me wrong. I am certainly cheering on smaller teams making games that are touching a select amount of players with whom their work resonates. After all, month after month on the RFGPlaycast it seemed I would try to break down the "problems" with modern triple-A video game design, and the indie movement is providing so many answers to my pleas for innovation. Having said that though, every time I try an indie game, I rarely get into it enough to bother finishing it, despite the fact that they tend to be shorter than mainstream titles. There have been a few exceptions like Limbo, but I haven't gotten deep into an indie game in a while.
I recently sat down with The Unfinished Swan and although I can't say I have changed my tune on indie games, I did enjoy it more than most others.
Continue reading The Unfinished Swan
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As we enter 2016, I thought it would be fun to bring back a favorite series on the RF Generation blogs: The People of RF Generation! My first interview is actually with the former writer of the series, Fleach! I had the pleasure of meeting him when we were at RetroWorld Expo back in October. Continue on through the break to learn more about him!
Continue reading People of RF Generation: Fleach
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The old world has passed away with the death of Mondain, Minax, and Exodus (the villians from Ultimas I-III) and the world has seen great upheaval, literally transforming the very land mass of Sosaria. The Age of Darkness is over. In the wake of this geological event, Lord British has united and consolidated the surviving kingdoms, towns, and villages under his own rule, setting forth with a new vision for law, order, and morality. Gone are the old ways of holding princesses captive and knighting random warriors for slaughtering guards. A new system of governance would be created, utilizing eight virtues, but for it to be fully realized there needs to be a champion, an avatar who could learn and eight virtues to show his kingdom the way.
Continue reading A Brief Tour of Ultima: Part 2 - Ultima IV: Quest for the Avatar
[img width=640 height=360]http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/dk-quarter.jpg[/img]
As we do every year, it's once again time to support a good cause and give back to RF Generation. RF Generation is a free, no advertising or pop-ups, non-profit site in which all database contributions come from member submissions. Our unpaid staff works hard to update and improve database content, keep front page articles fresh and informative, and work tirelessly on podcasts for your listening pleasure. However, the costs associated with running this site are not free (...or cheap) and we need YOUR help to keep our servers running into 2017. All donations will go directly to our server account and our goal is to raise at least $1000 by the end of February 29, 2016, which combined with donations from the previous year, will keep us going through 2017. I will provide updates on the front page throughout February to help monitor how close we are to obtaining our goal and thank all donors by name for their contributions.
Starting February 1st, we ask that you donate any amount you can, if you are able. As an added incentive, our generous staff has once again donated some very nice items to raffle off to donors who contribute at least $10. An explanation of the raffle rules are below. Raffle prize lots will be announced a few days prior to the beginning of the fund drive, since we are still getting those together. However, I can say without a doubt that the donations this year are fantastic and include systems, video games, board games, and video game memorabilia, among other things!
Continue reading RF Generation Site Fundraiser 2016
Episode 38 discussion thread: http://www.rfgeneration.c...rum/index.php?topic=16225
It's time again for our top games that we played in 2015. There are sure to be a few surprises inside, as well as a few that you'd expect. How does our list stack up to yours? Let us know!
Get the show at http://www.collectorcast.com
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Show Notes
Music: Salamander (PC Engine)
Topic - 14:34
Outro - 3:31:41
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And now I want a Mega Man vs. Fallout game. Pic from Fallout4.com.
In an interesting sequencing of events, I was planning on writing an article on role playing and Fallout 4 when our own SirPsycho wrote a well-thought out and researched article of his own.
http://www.rfgeneration.c...-of-Role-Playing-3202.php
And first, let me say I like the article and it has many points with which I agree, and my own article is not to argue or counter-point. Rather, I'd like to explore my own thoughts on the matter, some of which parallels SirPsycho and some that go in another direction.
But first please allow me to drone on for a bit in the name of context. 
Continue reading A Reflection On The Roles We Play
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Broken Age is a beautiful game. Sometimes you just want to enjoy a piece of art. I'm not going to open up the "Are Games Art?" can of worms argument, but I can say without a doubt that THIS GAME is a brilliant work of art.
Everyone knows the story of this game, but here's a quick recap if you aren't a part of "everyone": Tim Schafer and Doublefine started a Kickstarter asking for $300,000 to make an adventure game. The project exploded and they received over $3.3 Million. The game took a lot longer to make than anticipated, partially because they decided to make a much bigger game than they had originally planned now that they had way more funds than they thought they would. Instead of a delivery date of October 2012, the first half of Broken Age was available for backers to play in January of 2014, with the second half arriving in April of the same year. Along with the game, backers were given access to an episodic documentary of the making of the project. Now that that's all out of the way, let's talk about the game.
Continue reading Broken Age is a Beautiful Game
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One of the biggest reasons I got into role playing games on PC is because of how open they were. Many of them are so open, that you might never get around to playing the entirety of the main story. Having these games really come of age in the third dimension was one of the best things about having a decent PC in the early-mid 2000s. Now I can't help but feel they've stagnated nearly to the point of being the opposite of fun and rewarding. I believe one of the biggest reasons for this is the industry's total shift to fully-voiced scripts, especially in the AAA development scene. This staunches writing freedom and limits player options--effects that game designers should be against! I can only hope this is a AAA trend that dies out, and seeing all these conflicting opinions could lead to Fallout 4 being the landmark title that starts the reversal of this trend.
Continue reading The De-Emphasis of Role Playing
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This February, we are taking a step away from classic platforming to bring you a beautiful and haunting action role-playing game. Folklore, which was developed by the now defunct, independent Game Republic, Inc. and released in 2007, is an RPG that is deeply rooted in the Celtic Otherworld of Irish Mythology. The game centers on two characters, a young lady named Ellen and a journalist named Keats, which are both playable in the game and have different intertwining plots. These two characters also differ in play style; Ellen uses a variety of powers for strategy and favors a defensive stance, while Keats attacks with more brute force and can release built up energy to perform stronger attacks for a period of time. Together, the two of you work to unravel the mystery that the quaint village of Doolin hides. To do this, you must seek out the memories of the dead in the dangerous, Folk-ridden Netherworld. Participants will not only battle the inhabitants of the Netherworld, but also go back and forth between there and Doolin village to solve puzzle-esque quests and advance the story.
While in the Netherwold, participants will utilize attacks called "folk," which are powers absorbed by defeating the various creatures there. You absorb these powers by locking onto the creatures spirit and performing shaking and yanking motions with the Sixaxis motion control, rather than using a conventional button interface. While you can absorb the powers of nearly all of the inhabitants of the Neatherworld that you encounter, you can only map four at a time to the controller's action buttons. This adds an interesting dynamic to the game, since different kinds of "folk" are better suited to certain situations.
Continue reading Community Playthrough Announcement: February 2016
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What if I told you this was a meme about New Years Resolutions?
I need to start my article with a bit of a confession: I'm not a "New Year's Resolutions" kind of guy. I tend to think such things are empty promises people make to themselves without any real intent to follow through, so I generally don't make them myself. I understand why people do so, because they want to make some kind of perceived positive change in their life, and that gives them a goal to strive for. But, without a carefully laid out plan, a well conceived idea, or something/someone to keep one motivated, it can be hard to stick with such things beyond the end of January. Be that as it may, I don't begrudge those who resolve to better themselves. Indeed, we should all aim for such a thing.
Now that I've said that, I'm going to turn the tables and say that I'm making some changes this year, and I hope to stick with them as much as I can. Call them "resolutions" if you wish, but for me, I just need to do some things differently this year. I need to deepen my relationship with my wife, and my God. I need to commit more to my church. I need to lose some weight - a goal which, as I write this, comes after my first workout of the year (go me!). And as for my gaming, there are a number of things I want to do differently. Here's a short list of things that I want to accomplish this year, from a gaming perspective.
Continue reading 2016 Gaming Resolutions
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Join RFGeneration Playcast hosts, Rich (singlebanana), Shawn (GrayGhost81), Floyd (Fleach), and Steven (Disposed Hero) as we discuss December's run n' gun competition games (Contra, Rolling Thunder 2, and Metal Slug 3). Also, be sure to stick around as we also discuss our favorite/least favorite playthrough games of 2015 and even mention a few that surprised us. You really don't want to miss this episode, since it's our favorite to record during the year and a few of us have broken into the "spirits" to celebrate another successful season! Again, we hope you enjoy our show, and please join our discussion on our discussion thread linked below. Also, be sure to rate and write a review of the show on iTunes to help us increase our listenership. Thanks again for the listen all!
Episode 21 discussion thread: http://www.rfgeneration.c...m/index.php?topic=16183.0
Get the show on Podbean: http://rfgenplaycast.podbean.com/
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Continue reading Episode 21 - RF Generation Playcast
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Well, 2015 is behind us, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't take a moment to look back and thank those who make the site great. Each month, I typically publish a list of top approvers and submitters who do a great job in improving the growth and accuracy of our database. However, since it's the end of the year, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank our staff for their fantastic and tireless work in 2015.
Continue reading RF Generation Thanks: December 2015
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