rohlfinator

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About rohlfinator

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  1. Super Mario Odyssey (One D, Two Ss)

    Yeah, this game does a really impressive job of splitting the difference between the exploration of 64/Sunshine and the more linear design of the later 3D Marios. If you want a more directed experience, you can kind of just beeline through the "story" missions and do that, but there's tons of opportunity to veer off and explore at your leisure. And I love how unlike Sunshine, which mostly rewarded exploration with trash blue coins, Odyssey usually gives you a mini platforming challenge, or at least a few purple coins which can be spent on some cool clothes.
  2. RetroThumbs

    Yeah, I hear you on the space issue. The NT Mini custom firmware allowed for dumping/loading ROMs, so that would be ideal if they could do that on the Super NT. To me, the most intriguing thing about this is the idea of it being a perfect clone with theoretically no lag or inaccuracies. I know there's been ways to do digital output in the past with hardware scalers and such, but this is a much more attractive package. I'm pretty fascinated by the idea of FPGA-based clones -- it's a cool solution to that problem.
  3. RetroThumbs

    Anyone else excited for the Super NT? I never saw myself getting into the "luxury retro console" thing, but the SNES is one of my favorite consoles and this thing manages to hit a pretty appealing price. Plus there's the rumor of it getting custom firmware (like the original NT) that would enable support for other consoles.
  4. Middle-Earth: Shadow of War(dor)

    After watching Jeff Gerstmann run Cheat Engine on this game, I might have to eventually pick it up and cheat my way through the back half of the game if it gets too grindy. It could be a lot of fun (albeit totally game-breaking) to essentially roll your own orcs and pit them against each other.
  5. Middle-Earth: Shadow of War(dor)

    I'm starting to develop a morbid curiosity about this game. The new nemesis system sounds pretty great, but just about everything around it seems mediocre to awful. I really wonder how it would work with a new/different IP -- it seems like the LOTR mythos is an awkward fit for what they're trying to do.
  6. Modest Tech: The NX Generation (Nintendo Switch)

    Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is excellent for local co-op, and from what I've played of it, the Switch port is pretty solid. It might be a little complicated, but there's an easy mode and you can kind of set your own pace if things get too hectic.
  7. Mass Effect Andromeda - Thumb Drive Engaged!

    I picked this up on sale and started digging into the single player the other day. Still pretty early on, but so far I'm pleasantly surprised. I like the idea of a slightly more chill Mass Effect story, rather than the "race against time" aspect of 2 and 3 which felt at odds with doing side content. The vibe feels very different from the original trilogy, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
  8. I'm really impressed with how natural the environment design feels. I've been taking my time exploring, and it feels like there are quite a few big areas you can visit before the story takes you there. There are plenty of sections that are gated off until you get the appropriate MacGuffin, but in this corporate science lab setting it feels pretty believable (as opposed to the BioShocks where the forced detours often felt scripted or arbitrary). And being able to spacewalk outside makes the whole thing feel connected in a cool way. Definitely a "greater than the sum of its parts" game, for me. There are a lot of familiar components, but the whole thing is executed really dang well.
  9. A steaming relationship: where you work for free

    I generally agree with the overall gist of the article, but yeah, telling your readers that they're all puppets of the Gabe meme cult is probably not the best way to make that argument. The "we provide free marketing for Steam Sales" point feels a couple of years too late -- I feel like in 2017 I'm just as likely to see complaints about the sales as excitement.
  10. Yeah, they have a small enough crew that I'd be surprised if Abby does only production stuff. Though she might handle more of it early on, just to give Vinny a well-earned break from being the sole production guy. Ben is fitting in well so far, although from a purely selfish standpoint I'm hoping the DOTA/fighting game talk is kept to a minimum.
  11. Recently completed video games

    After all the hullabaloo about Andromeda, I got the itch to replay Mass Effect (and hopefully play through the rest of the trilogy this time). For being nearly a decade old, I was impressed at how well it holds up, particularly the PC version which smooths over a lot of the technical problems (I remember the framerate being pretty bad on the Xbox 360 version). The voice acting is generally great, and the character animation is solid (especially in light of some of Andromeda's problems). Its combat is often disparaged, but I think it's more weird than bad -- it doesn't control like other third-person shooters, but once I got over that, it was fine. My bigger gripe is with the checkpointing, which can be pretty terrible and sometimes forces you to redo lengthy conversations if you fail an encounter. The other weak spot is the sidequests, which can be pretty repetitive, although I kind of appreciate the way the Mako sections make the galaxy feel big and unexplored. The real winner is the story -- it does a great job of setting up its universe, and the story even surprised me in places with twists that I had forgotten since playing it in 2007. Despite the game doing the "ancient precursor race" trope which has gotten pretty cliche at this point, I really enjoy stuff like the Citadel and the mass relays and how they've shaped the way these different alien races interact. I liked most all the crewmates, both as characters and as vectors for learning more about how these races relate to each other. It's maybe a bit too convenient how many times Shepard stumbles onto the answer to an unsolved galactic mystery, but I guess a little of that is expected in this kind of story. All in all, a good time. I think a remaster with slightly updated combat mechanics would be an easy hit for Bioware.
  12. It's kind of messed up... Korok seeds contribute to the percentage, so that's why most people have relatively low %. Also, I think beating Ganon is what makes the stats show up.
  13. Not sure if I'm thinking of the same shrine, but: Re: music -- I'm really impressed with the way the score calls back to familiar Zelda tunes without being overbearing on the fanservice. Also, I never would have expected so much piano in a Zelda score, but it's an inspired choice.
  14. Yeah, the shrine variety is a little disappointing. I do appreciate that it makes the puzzle elements really readable in a Portal-like way, but a couple other "themes" would have been nice. It's also weird that they all have the same music when the game has specific tracks for everything. (This game's soundtrack is good as hell.)
  15. General Video Game Deals Thread

    PSN is doing a sale on various Playstation-exclusive stuff: https://store.playstation.com/#!/en-us/only-on-playstation-sale/cid=STORE-MSF77008-FRANCHSALEGAMEG I'm kind of a latecomer to the PS4, so this was a good opportunity to snag Journey and Resogun.