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As a fan of story based games, I have to say that I love a game that takes you on a ride. Catherine is the kind of game that you can sit back with, relax, and watch an incredibly compelling social dilemma unfold before the protagonist's eyes. Lately, I've been thinking about companies from Japan. So many people have been crying out about the doom and gloom of the market and how Japanese development has been lagging behind while the Western world advances. This couldn't be further from the truth, as Atlus is one of Japanese gaming's oldest surviving names, but fastest risers in the global market. Persona 3 got the name out, Persona 4 kicked the door open, and Catherine broke the door's frame. Persona 5 is currently one of the most anticipated Japanese developed games since Atlus presented its masterfully crafted initial trailer.
Catherine was released in Japan and North American in 2011, with Europe and Australia getting a release in early 2012. The plot revolves around infidelity and is one that many of us have likely heard about, if not experienced first hand. Vincent, the games protagonist, gets caught up with a blonde-haired, blue-eyed young beauty named Catherine one night after all of his friends leave him alone at the bar. From here, the player chooses whether he wants to court her for the long run or remain faithful to his girlfriend, Katherine. The girls represent the ideologies of "Law" and "Chaos." Law is doing the right thing no matter how much it might hurt; Katherine is a structured being in complete charge of her life and represents Law. On the other hand, Catherine is more of a loose cannon that Vincent can't seem to get rid of no matter what decisions you make; she represents Chaos. Which one of these ladies will you choose, or will you choose the single life?
Continue reading Psychotic Reviews: Catherine
I am a bit of a dichotomy, as a gamer. I consider myself to be reasonably knowledgeable with regards to video games, gaming history, and in general, gaming culture. I will fully admit that I'm not up on the latest thing in today's gaming scene, but from the standpoint of "retro" games, I have a pretty broad base of information. That said, I know that I don't know everything, and there are definitely some gaps in my knowledge. There are consoles I've never seen or played, games I've not heard of, and experiences I lack as a whole, that prevent me from being the "be all, end all" of video game know-how. I'm a student of life, like anyone else, and I'm always learning.
Bearing that in mind, why would anyone who admittedly doesn't know everything call themselves a "guru?" Why would I want to subject myself to the level of scrutiny that comes from identifying oneself as a "guru?" What is my motive for elevating myself so much, other than to draw attention to myself? Am I crazy enough to think that I know enough to even refer to myself with such distinction? Do I deserve to even be calling myself by such a title?
Continue reading The Guru Inside: A Clarification on the Use of the Term
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Join RFGeneration Playcast hosts, Rich (singlebanana), Floyd (Fleach), Shawn (GrayGhost81), and Steven (Disposed Hero) as we discuss July's retro and modern playthroughs. On the retro side, Rich, Floyd, and Steven dig deep into the Golden Axe series and are joined by RF Generation 2015 Donation Drive Playthrough Lot winner, Fokakis79 and Cameron Johnson, guitarist from the progressive metal band, Atma Weapon. For the modern segment, Shawn and Steven manage to drag Rich over to the "darkside" to discuss the brutal and oh so action-packed space adventure, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine. We hope you enjoy the show and please leave us some feedback on our discussion thread.
Episode 16 discussion thread: http://www.rfgeneration.c...m/index.php?topic=15885.0
Get the show on Podomatic: http://rfgenplaythroughs.podomatic.com/
On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/...playcast/id874327459?mt=2
On YouTube:
On Stitcher: http://app.stitcher.com/browse/feed/55943/episodes
And follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rfgenplaythroughs
And Twitter: https://twitter.com/RFGPlayCast
Continue reading Episode 16 - RF Generation Playcast
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Summer is hot and this July was a scorcher in terms of submissions! During last month alone, we more than doubled our production in June (2,207) with an amazing 5,408 total submissions!!!! The submissions for July included 5,272 game submissions (3,360 of which were images) and 136 hardware submissions. Top contributors for the month of July include:
Our top submitters (those with a minimum of 100) for July were:
FatherJack 3,455 (Super Awesome!)
Schlibby 541
Sauza12 448
Shadow Kisuragi 387
Amazing effort guys!!!
Top approvers for the month included:
Tynstar 3,102
Shadow Kisuragi 1,781
It looks like we had another very impressive month from some of our newer members. Fantastic work, and please, keep the submissions coming! Thanks to everyone who submitted or approved submissions this month. We couldn't have the best video gaming database on the internet without all of you.
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With the Northern Fan Convention setup all behind us, it was nearly time to kick open the doors and let the public in. A public that was still largely unaware that we existed. Even the ones that knew about us didn't know that we were getting into tabletop games. This was our chance to get people excited about us all over again and at the same time, get some feedback about our new merchandise before rolling it out in our store.
Continue reading Blog Quest: Un"Convention"al Appearance - Part II
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For this year's RetroWorld Expo, we wanted to have a good mix of games for our first year of tournaments. We wanted to choose games that anyone could walk up and play, but also those that have a good enough following that we could see some really heated final matches. We came up with 4 games from the 16 bit era that everyone can play but only few have mastered.
Continue reading RetroWorld Expo: The Tournaments
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I'm a fan of the British author, Nick Hornby. His style is very approachable for all readers, it's humorous and has a nice way of making the reader reflect upon his/her own life. If you're not a reader, you may still be familiar with his works through their screenplays. Some of Hornby's more well-known adaptations include About a Boy, Fever Pitch (sadly Americanized to replace soccer with baseball...), and my personal favorite, High Fidelity. High Fidelity tracks the diminishing relationship of record store owner, Rob and his girlfriend Laura. After they separate, he reflects on his past relationships to get a better understanding of "what is wrong with him," even going so far as to meet with his old girlfriends to grill them on his hang-ups. What ensues is quite comical and is really worth a viewing if you haven't already seen it. So what does this have to do with gaming you ask? Well, stick with me here a little while longer if you haven't veered from the page already.
Continue reading Your Video Game Collecting Autobiography
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In the mid-90s, it seemed that every company that had not already done so built a 3-D engine to enter the new world of gaming. With 3-D arcade games wowing audiences worldwide, it was natural that everyone was excited to see this new dimension ported to the next generation of home consoles. Gungriffon started off as one such project at Game Arts, and began its development with the vague working title 3-D Polygon. The game released exclusively on Sega's Saturn worldwide in 1996. The game's events take place in 2015 (what???); so when you play it, make sure the right side wins this mech war!
Continue reading Psychotic Reviews: Gungriffon
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*From Wallpaperup.com*
Two genre defining games were released within a year of each other, separated by a platform and the first letter of the genre descriptor. One is famous for showing the world a whole new way of presenting visualization and sound in RPGs, the other for forcing a genre twist onto a conservative group of gamers while still keeping both feet rooted firmly in the past. One is a prime example of a JRPG, and the other is a near textbook entry of a CRPG. But we are all gamers, yes? So please put down your tape measures and rulers, and join me for a gentle evening of Baldur's Gate and Final Fantasy VII.
Continue reading A Gentle Evening with Baldur's Gate and Final Fantasy VII
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So, you finally picked up an arcade machine and you are trying to figure out what to do first. Let me take you through some of the things you should check and some of the options that you have.
Continue reading So You Picked Up an Arcade Cabinet
[img width=320 height=320]http://img.gamefaqs.net/box/7/3/6/1736_front.jpg[/img] Image shamelessly linked from GameFAQs.
"Take me out to the ballgame, take me out to the crowd..."
I'm not a sports guy. Truth be told, I never really have been, though I did have some relative interest in sports as a kid. I was sort of into football, I was sort of into basketball, and I had a passing interest in a couple other sports. The sport I was most interested in, like many other red-blooded American youth, was Baseball. Yes, America's pastime was my preferred sport, in part because of the strategy, and in part because that's what my dad was into. My team was the Kansas City Royals, in part because of their proximity to where we lived, and my favorite player was the pine tar king himself, George Brett. Needless to say, as a chubby nerd of a kid, I played exactly one summer of little league and played poorly enough that I didn't feel like playing a 2nd year. Once the player strike happened, I quit collecting baseball cards and pretty much lost all interest in the sport. I guess I had no sympathy for guys who made more money in a month than my dad made all year, and them whining about not getting paid enough.
Continue reading Baseball, 1989
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**photo courtesy of portlandmercury.com**
I have recently returned from a much needed retreat. We trekked halfway across the continent of North America to visit the fabled land of Oregon. Its good to be home, but at the same time, I wish I did not have to leave so quickly. I got the chance to visit two arcades on my trip, some nice places to game that are severely lacking where I live. Close to where I stayed is a fairly big tourist town near the beach, and there's a pizza place that has a big arcade attached to it. Sounds just like the pizza place on the corner we all grew up with doesn't it? The difference is that this one had a lot of cabinets, with a lot of newer games! The second arcade I visited was the well-known downtown Portland locale called Ground Kontrol.
Continue reading Ground Kontrol: To Funland
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If you thought July was action-packed, wait until you see what we have in store for you in August. Get ready for another great month of community adventure as the RF Generation Playthrough Group takes you to Slumberland and Dubai, two once peaceful areas that are now stricken with unrest. Join us as Fleach moves over to the retro side and hosts a very unique, action-platformer on the NES, Little Nemo: The Dream Master. This title was voted on by the community and we hope that you will join us in playing this classic. Disposed Hero hops over to the modern side this upcoming month to host Spec Ops: The Line, a 3rd person shooter with an emphasis on squad tactics and cover. While the game is little talked about, it has an extremely compelling story and won several industry awards, including Best Narrative at Machinima's Inside Gaming Awards.
Continue reading Community Playthrough Announcement: August 2015
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The Rainbow apparently tastes like Master Sword and waaaay too much Green Apple. Bring back Lime.
Source: thatsnerdalicious.com, artist: mattmcmanis-d34vqd8
As Hobbes' young companion once noted, mothers are the necessity of invention. And in the gaming industry (and by industry I of course mean business), innovation means something fresh for the gamer and risk for the publisher. We gamers are known to clamor for something new, different, interesting, and creative. Ours is a tech-driven hobby, so naturally we want the newest, shiniest, most feature-packed thingee that's plowing ahead, breaking new ground, and showing us something we've never quite seen before. Right?
And it's all those suit-and-ties in board meetings that are stifling and ruining our business (and by business, I of course mean industry.) Their money-grubbing, tight-fisted pea-brains keep them from seeing the vision of artists, and instead they play it safe with brown-colored shooter release #57. So, we just keep getting rehashes and sequels, with the occasional off-chance (often from our here-to-save-the-industry/business from itself indie sector) of shaking things up and giving us a much needed breakthrough in a Minecraft or Angry Birds.
That's our reality, yes?
Continue reading Comfort Food
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Posted on Jul 12th 2015 at 12:00:00 PM by ( noiseredux) Posted under PC |
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Oh to be young again. Remember "school vacation?" That magical time where you could sit and play video games for several months straight, and because you still had a working metabolism you wouldn't even gain any weight. But for some of us those days are long in the rearview. Now we have things like schedules, responsibilities and beer bellies to deal with. And so our downtime is more precious. Of course that doesn't mean we lose our hobby. Instead we find new ways in which the games fill these little cracks. Rather than gaming be all we do, we find that our schedules, responsibilities and beer bellies dictate how our lives flow and somehow the games themselves seem to figure out how they fit into our lives on their own.
Continue reading How Games Fit
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