Upcoming Releases You're Looking Forward To

I watched some streams of it tonight and can confirm... looks better than the modded up version I emulated awhile pack. Texture/resolution wise maybe not, but the new lighting, stable 60FPS, and the controls sound seriously amazing. This looks like the version to play now, even over emulation.

I'm worried they'll skip 2-3, or pull some of that timed crap they did with Galaxy 2 again. Not that Prime 2-3 are as good as the original but still, I hate how a generation or two Capcom and others would give us a whole remastered trilogy for insanely good prices, but now we have to buy some of this stuff piece by piece...

I won't knock on the recent Dead Space remake in this regard though. That was a -substantial- facelift, so I think the full price is warranted. But again, then we have something else from EA like the whole Mass Effect Legendary Edition. 100 some hours worth of content right there.

Well nothing is new... remasters/remakes and fluid pricing continues to be strange as always.

I'm sure Tears of the Kingdom will have good game design and fun gameplay, but man those graphics are paltry for 2023.

I've still gotta get around to playing BotW some year. 🤷‍♂

It’s a darn good game but don’t go into it with 25 years worth of Zelda dungeon design in your expectations. BotW decided that the entire overworld should be the game, essentially, and that more is better. 120 shrines that amount to one or three rooms of any given traditional dungeon and most act as puzzle / escape rooms than mini dungeons. There are four “big shrines” since they lack the qualities of traditional Zelda dungeons. The final dungeon isn’t much of a dungeon as it is possible to skip 90% of it. If you get the DLC, there are four more shrines, one more “big shrine”, and a thing that’s like the gauntlet trials in Windwaker and Twilight Princess. You can beat the game in around fifteen minutes if you’re skilled enough (less if you’re even more skilled). Expect a very big, very open world to explore however. Do not expect dungeon keys.

I think of BotW as a spin off of Zelda. I like both but I was initially harsher on BotW for being very unlike previous Zelda, more so than Skyward Sword (which I liked but missed having an overworld). Imagine A Link Between Worlds but with all the dungeons cut to pieces and scattered about.

My tips for BotW are to smell the roses. I like to go far the towers early on since they fill the map in for you. Don’t stress over rupees and if you do want to buy something, typically clothing, then feel free to sell monster parts and minerals. You can find them again (and you’ll want to find them again since they are used in creating and upgrading clothing somewhere). Get a horse if you can since it’ll help get you places faster than you otherwise could; resist the temptation to just glide everywhere since you’ll miss a lot of stuff this way (but it’s also just as valid a form of transportation). If you want to last longer, visit the Zora first (east); if you want to facilitate exploration, visit the Rito first (west). The game will funnel you towards going east and that’s a good idea at first (you’ll understand why and you’ll understand when it’ll be wise to make the Zora/Rito decision). Learn how to parry early on! This is an incredibly useful skill which will help you take down the most persistent and deadliest of enemies. When confronted with a Guardian, my tactic is stand just at the edge of its move away range so it stays still with me and when I see that it is about to shoot, I start parrying. Don’t stress the side quests too much as they don’t often give much in terms of rewards. Killing enough enemies levels up those enemies; doing the “big shrines” levels up the world and in both cases the items you can find will upgrade. Most importantly, smell the roses in this game. It’s a big world with a lot of little, hidden things. It’s easy to miss things.

Ex I played RDR1 and some GTA before BotW but I still think BotW wowed me. I don’t want to spoil too much but it may be healthy to go in not expecting much after all.

I especially like the colors and the serenity of the world; there isn’t a lot of story and what’s there is brief. It’s to the point; so it’s not like overstays its welcome either.

You may want to cleanse your palate before playing it, though, since you are still getting through RDR2 which I’m sure looks much more impressive than BotW does since RDR2 goes with the “realistic” design approach whereas BotW goes with the “animated” approach. But I do recommend playing BotW however you can! It’s a good portable game, too, if you could get it on Switch or backup your Wii U disc and emulate it on Steam Deck or something.