The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom is a big game set on a huge open world, and its codebase must be straining at all times to keep track of everything that’s going on. Which probably explains why it doesn’t matter how many times Nintendo patches the game to remove a resource glitch, people just keep on finding new ones.
The Week In Games: Return To Hyrule
The latest—which has been confirmed to work on every existing version of the game, from those still clinging by their fingertips to 1.0 to those running the latest update—revolves around the idea that you can trick the game into giving you loads of valuable resources by turning big hunks of meat into a weapon, then taking that weapon with you to the snow.
That’s the concise version of what you need to do, of course. The full process is a bit more involved than that, as you can see in this nine-minute video by Austin John Plays below:
How to get reach real quick selling frozen meat
Or, for a much quicker version, here’s the text. Essentially, you need to make two meat weapons by attaching raw produce to sticks—ideally gourmet meat given its value—then glue two of those weapons together using ultrahand. Once you’ve done that, you can use autobuild to ctrl+c, ctrl+v until you’ve built 21 meat clubs (the most the game can remember and place at any one time) and fused them all together.
Once you’ve built that 21-meat salute, it’ll be stored in your autobuild. You then need to equip another meat club as your primary weapon, travel somewhere cold and wait/sleep at a fire until your weather forecast is all snow. Once it is, you need to watch your equipped meat club; if after walking away from the fire it freezes and drops off, then you’re good to go.
Simply start the process of rebuilding the meat slab from your autobuild, but don’t actually build it, just keep it hovering inside the purple circle; after a second or two all the meat will freeze and drop off onto the ground, and at 40 rupees a pop, the faster you can half-build-freeze-gather, the more money you’ll be able to collect. As Austin says, a full stack will sell for 39960 rupees in as quick as eight minutes, so if you’re short on cash it’s definitely worth your time.
Play it on: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Windows (Steam Deck OK)
My current goal: Conquer every Stronghold
You read that right, on Steam Deck baby! The step-by-step process to get the just-released Diablo IV working on the Deck took me a little over 30 minutes and was relatively painless. However I do highly recommend using a Steam Deck dock and USB mouse, as there’s a decent amount of copy-pasting and the Deck’s touch-screen controls can be finicky.
Since installing, I’ve played nothing else. Partly because I accidentally unmounted my Steam Deck library so it no longer recognizes what I’ve already installed on there through the store (oops) and partially because Diablo IV on the Deck is simply that rad.
It’s impressive how well the Deck’s default controller scheme jells with Diablo IV. Blizzard’s action-RPG is perfect to play while listening to a podcast or catching up on the borderline dispiriting amount of quality spring anime series I have to watch.
How’s performance you may ask? Pretty good, actually. After tweaking some essential settings, and turning off Cross-Network Play (yes that really did make a difference) I consistently get 40-60FPS let’s say…80 percent of the time. However, entering or leaving a major hub (Kyovashad for example) or a hectic world event has my poor base model Deck wheezing and running at single digits. Using an ultimate spell in a large crowd of enemies will also have your audio popping off, and not in a fun way either. And as you can imagine D4 is a battery Greater Evil. I recommend playing with your AC charger plugged in for sessions longer than 30 minutes.
But like cmon, being able to tackle a Stronghold while laying on my couch? That’s objectively awesome and I look forward to parking my ass on aforementioned couch after I send Claire this blurb. Bye! — Eric Schulkin
While rumors that Nintendo is close to closing a deal with animation studio Illumination for a Legend of Zelda film should come as no surprise in the wake of the record-breaking success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, some fans have made it abundantly clear online that they aren’t all that jazzed about this potential pairing.
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In a recent episode of The Hot Mic podcast, reporter Jeff Sneider said he’d received a tip from “a great source” indicating that Universal Pictures, Illumination’s parent company, is close to penning a deal with Nintendo for a future Zelda film.
“Zelda…is looking like the next big Illumination Nintendo franchise, which again, I think we were all sort of expecting, but I’m told that that is happening and it’s costing Universal a pretty penny because of the success of Super Mario, like Nintendo kind of knows its worth at this point, but yeah, I’m told that that is now going to be a reality,” Sneider said.
Kotaku reached out to Nintendo for comment.
Fans think Nintendo should shop around elsewhere for a Zelda movie studio
Despite Illumination having great success with the Mario film, the Despicable Me studio isn’t looking like a first-choice draft pick to adapt the fantasy video-game franchise to some Zelda fans, who perhaps see the studio’s tendency toward glossy, upbeat films as a mismatch for a series whose tales are often poignant and shot through with magical mystery.
Specifically, some fans have expressed fear at the thought of a Legend of Zelda film from Illumination that comes packed with pop song needle drops, a tendency seen not just in the Mario Bros. movie but the studio’s other films as well. (Eminem, anyone?) Zelda fans are also dreading the idea of enduring rounds of glitzy casting announcements packed with Hollywood stars for a film based on the beloved series. Here’s some of what folks are saying about the Zelda movie deal rumor.
“I enjoyed the Mario movie but I can say with full confidence Illumination is NOT the right studio to handle a Zelda movie,” YouTuber Penny Parker wrote on Twitter. “Not saying ‘it will be bad’, but they couldn’t even show the restraint to not put 80 licensed songs in Mario, a franchise already revered for iconic music.”
“Illumination making the Mario movie filled me with so much glee but the thought of them making a Zelda movie stops me in my tracks LOL,” Twitter user velsmells said. “Also I know [animation studio] Fortiche is definitely busy with Arcane S2, but it’d be so cool to see an entire Zelda movie with their style,” they continued, including images from the hit League of Legends tie-in show to support their argument.
“I agree, I don’t think Illumination is the right fit at all for the Zelda IP. I am just saying if it HAS TO BE them, Toon Link is the most fitting route to go with,” Twitter user UltimaShadowX wrote in a separate thread, referencing Link’s cel-shaded look in The Wind Waker. “Imagining DreamWorks doing a Zelda movie with The Last Wish style would be insanely hype and preferable.”
While an animated adaptation of Zelda seemingly comes with challenges that the Mario Movie didn’t, it makes sense that Nintendo might want to throw its sword-wielding hero onto the big screen, considering the fact that the Mario Movie recently surpassed Disney’s Frozen as the second-biggest animated film of all time, according to Variety.
During a Mario movie press junket interview with Japanese news publication Nikkei (translated by Video Games Chronicle), Zelda and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto expressed interest in future movie projects so long as they’re centered around “characters that are suitable for film and characters that are well known.” When asked about the possibility of a Zelda movie in a recent interview with Polygon, Tears of the Kingdom producer Eiji Aonuma expressed his enthusiasm for the idea, saying “I am interested for sure. But it’s not just me being interested in something that makes things happen, unfortunately.”
I don’t think I’m alone in wanting a Mario Maker-like game focused on another Nintendo property, specifically The Legend of Zelda. Sadly, a theoretical “Zelda Maker” is probably never going to happen. But a newly announced game, Quest Master, seems to be the next best thing by letting you and your friends build the ultimate Zelda dungeon of your dreams.
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I played a lot of Super Mario Maker 2 on the Switch and loved how it let anyone build and play their own Mario platforming levels. The mix of classic items, easy-to-use controls, and online level sharing made it (and the original Mario Maker) an amazing game that felt unlike anything Nintendo had released before. So it always seemed obvious to me and others that Nintendo should take this basic setup and spin it off into other franchises, like a “Metroid Maker” or “Zelda Maker.” That never happened, but don’t worry, Quest Master is coming to provide what seems to basically be that game, minus all the Zelda characters and monsters.
Announced on June 7 during the Guerrilla Collective showcase, Quest Master is an upcoming game that will let players plan, build, share, and play “retro top-down dungeons” on PC or Switch. Here’s the first trailer for the game:
Apogee / Gematsu
Publisher Apogee says players will be able to create their own pixel art dungeons using an “intuitive level creator” that will support both top-down dungeons and “overworld-connected quests.” Some of the biomes included with Quest Master will include “lava-filled caverns”, mountain-covered overworlds, grassy forests, and deserts. Players will also be able to include in-game instructions, quests, and even NPCs with their own dialogue.
Quest Master dungeons will support side quests, bosses, multiple biomes, complex puzzles, invisible chests, and loads of traps and enemies. Dungeons can also be shared online and you can play through user-created levels with up to three other players.
I’m already excited to pull out some paper and start designing my first horrible dungeons. And I won’t have to wait long, as Apogee announced that a demo for Quest Master is coming to Steam “soon.” Eventually, the game will release via early access in “Q3 2023” and then launch on Switch once the game hits version 1.0.
Fox Business, the subsidiary of Fox News Media, has discovered that some gamers are discovering their queerness thanks to Link, calling the Legend of Zelda hero a “nonbinary or trans icon.” Some, to the shock and horror of Fox, are even calling Link an “egg-cracker,” aka someone or something that helps a person realize they are trans. As you can imagine, the Fox journalist doesn’t seem happy about any of this.
Skyward Sword HD Revisits The Stumble That Led To Breath Of The Wild
Tears of the Kingdom, the latest game in the iconic Legend of Zelda franchise, launched on May 12 to rave reviews from critics and players alike. Many are already calling it the best game in the series, and some are even suggesting it’s one of the best games ever made. In the weeks since release, players have mastered multiple duplication glitches, learned how to build incredible machines, and all sorts of other fun hijinx. All in all, Tears of the Kingdom has enjoyed a mostly positive reaction from the gaming community. Even so, Fox Business has now decided to step in to point out how bad it is that so many of the game’s trans and nonbinary players identify with and feel inspired by Link.
In an article posted by Fox Business on May 31, writer Jon Brown seems to have discovered that Link is seen by many—including his own creators—as a relatively gender-neutral hero who anyone can relate to. The article links to a few stories about this topic, including this excellent one from Gizmodo, and seems surprised that an article like this exists alongside the site’s other Zelda stories.
Breaking: Fox continues to be horrible
Then we, inevitably, get to the point where the Fox writer calls The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom a “children’s game” and suggests that outlets like PBS are trying “to make a children’s video game about gender identity.” Which would be a very bad thing, apparently. Don’t you know, kids might accidentally read an article about the game and…turn gay? Trans? Whichever is the worst thing right now in the right-wing outrage machine.
The article then decides to include a tweet from the awful propagandist Libs of TikTok and yell about The Sims 4 including chest binders and top-surgery scars. Again, Fox Business seems to think that all video games are designed and sold exclusively for children. And kids can’t be exposed to real-world concepts like gender, sex, trans people, scars, or anything like that!
Fox Business’s article ends with an odd paragraph pointing out how much controversy surrounded the release of Hogwarts Legacy, but that it still sold great on… uh…Twitch? You mean the streaming website that briefly sold games but then stopped years ago? Hmmm, you folks over there at Fox might want to take another pass at this article. Or just delete it. I’d go with that option.
Grand Theft Auto Online might be close to a decade old, but it’s still popular and getting big updates from developer Rockstar. In fact, its next big, free expansion is out later this month with a focus on aerial warfare and smuggling. But it’s also adding some nice quality-of-life changes that’ll make it easier to run around Los Santos.
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Since its initial launch in October 2013, GTA Online has continued to be updated, expanded, and ported as millions of players keep returning to the game’s large open world to commit more crimes alongside (or against) other players and NPCs. At this point, GTA Online has been around so long it has had to leap across three different console generations to keep up with players and the ever-changing video game industry. It also keeps receiving updates every year, like the just announced June 13 update: San Andreas Mercenaries.
On Friday, Rockstar shared the first details about GTA Online’s next big expansion on the company’s official website. This time around players will be teaming up with vets and military pilots to take on Merryweather Security, a large PMC that has been in the game for years, but is now apparently expanding its operations and interfering with criminal operations. To combat the evil private security force, players will join a new mercs group known only as the Los Santos Angels and take on new jobs, including stealing data from server farms, launching raids against the PMC, and dropping bombs on valuable targets spread across the state.
According to Rockstar, this new update will expand the functionality of the aircraft hangar added in the Smuggler’s update back in 2017. That’s nice, as that piece of the game had long felt abandoned and old. The publisher is also promising changes to improve the already-existing Avenger, a large aircraft added in a previous update.
GTA Online’s next free update adds more quality-of-life changes
As has become the norm in recent updates, Rockstar isn’t just adding big new missions and business opportunities to GTA Online with June 13’s update. It’s also once again adding some long-requested features in its continued effort to make the game less of a hassle to play.
One big one is that players will finally be able to choose a new option for sprinting. Currently, players have to continually mash the X or A button to sprint in GTA Online. The faster you mash, the faster your character runs. It’s a neat idea but has long been considered annoying and possibly a barrier for some players who don’t have the dexterity to repeatedly and quickly mash buttons. Now, Rockstar is adding a “hold to sprint” option to the game, which is greatly appreciated.
Another nice quality-of-life change is that, after June 13, players will be able to replace all their destroyed vehicles via Mors Mutual Insurance at once. Another nice change that makes me wonder “Why wasn’t it like this to begin with?” Rockstar is also expanding the content creation tools by adding more props and snow options.
All told, it’s a solid update that isn’t the most exciting in the game’s history, but one that will be appreciated by folks who have spent the past decade tapping X for hundreds of hours just to run faster. Finally, we are free.
Players have spent the last couple of weeks doing all kinds of wild stuff in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, from stacking weapons to amassing small fortunes off glitched items. And the whole time many wondered if Nintendo would take notice or let it slide. Now we know the answer: The company went berserk in the latest update and patched out all of the most powerful exploits.
Type S: Chiaki’s Journey II Volume 2
Pushed live on May 25, version 1.1.2 is light on patch notes but heavy on bug fixes. Tears of the Kingdom’s array of duplication glitches were the first to be fixed, but players soon realized the update hadn’t stopped there. Fan-favorite techniques like the “Autobuild Cancel Slide,” “Weapon State Transfer” and “Zuggling” had also been patched. What the heck were these tricks? I’m glad you asked.
“Zuggling” referred to standing next to a wall and continually dropping and picking up bows to stack glitched attack power onto weapons. The incredibly powerful trick made it possible to one-hit Gleeoks, Tears of the Kingdom’s challenging three-headed dragon mini-bosses.
Autobuild Cancel Slide, meanwhile, requires the Autobuild ability. Players simply attached two items together using the Ultrahand ability, separated them again, and then tapped the Y and B buttons back-to-back very quickly to jam up the build menu and let Link fly around on wooden boards like they were magic carpets.
Another very popular glitch was called “Master Sword Smuggling.” It required players to go to a precise location on the map and essentially transfer the Master Sword between save files. It’s an absolutely wild bug that makes the weapon unbreakable. It definitely broke the game but was also not the simplest exploit in the world to pull off. A super Master Sword seemed like an appropriate reward for those who discovered the trick and shared it around.
Many of the glitches centered around dropping items and messing with menus, it’s possible Nintendo was able to patch them all by addressing a few specific ways the underlying game worked. “Darn, sad to see them go, but honestly I can’t blame the devs, they were way too OP,” tweeted one player.
Fortunately, the developers didn’t nuke all of Tears of the Kingdom’s glitches yet. Traversal techniques like the infinite jump and Tulin paraglider speed glitch are still operational. So too is the spear recall trick where players used loose planks of wood and spears to launch Link into orbit. It seems to be the result of the underlying way the game’s objects and physics systems interact, so hopefully it will be harder to patch out.
And even if it does get nuked, Tears of the Kingdom players are an industrious lot. If Breath of the Wild is any indication, glitch hunters will have their hands full for years to come.
Online vehicular shooter War Thunder made some changes to the way its economy works recently, and players of the game are so upset that not only have they review-bombed the game to hell and back, but the developers have been forced to take extremely apologetic actions in response.
Type S: Chiaki’s Journey II Volume 4
Basically, a game that has over the years become increasingly pay-to-win—as well as becoming a dumping ground for state secrets—recently implemented economy changes that made it even harder to get anything out of the game—especially progression—unless you were regularly spending actual money.
Players, fed up with the exploitation, did one of the few things available to them: they took to Steam to leave negative feedback, posting thousands of messages protesting the changes and attacking developers Gaijin. At time of publishing the game’s Steam review section looked like this:
The most popular negative review sums up the situation nicely:
I didn’t want to leave a negative review, but Gaijin’s blatant contempt for their own players has forced my hand.
War Thunder is a game like no other, with a comprehensive damage system, combined arms, and variety of beautifully modeled tanks, aircraft and ships.
Unfortunately, this “uniqueness” has left Gaijin with little real competition over the years. What started off as a “free to play” title has over time become less and less free. Gaijin keeps adding nations and vehicles, while at the same time increasing repair costs and lowering RP/SL gain. A premium account isn’t enough to comfortably progress anymore, now you also have to buy premium vehicles in every nation.
For the new players reading this, Gaijin has recently admitted that they balance free vehicles around a negative SL income for average players. That means they WANT you to lose money by playing, so you’ll be forced to buy a top tier premium vehicle.
In response, Gaijin have cancelled the most recent and punitive economic changes—though this will do little to reverse the gradual trend that had already alienated so many long-time players—and posted one of the sorriest apology statements I have ever seen:
Dear players,
Firstly, we would like to extend our sincerest apologies to each and every one of you. We deeply regret the fact that our actions have let you down, and that we have failed to adequately address the concerns you have voiced over time. We share your passion for the game, and it pains us that our decisions have not lived up to your expectations.
Over the past week, we’ve been diligently analyzing the feedback you’ve provided. We acknowledge and agree with your concerns regarding the balance of the economy (Silver Lions and Research Points), as well as modification research. We have therefore prioritized addressing these issues as our immediate concern.
We are in the process of creating a plan to tackle these problems. While we have made some initial progress in understanding the scope of these issues and potential solutions, we anticipate providing a more detailed roadmap by the 14th of June.
We understand the urgency you feel for changes to be implemented, and we assure you, we share your eagerness. However, given the scale and complexity of a project like War Thunder, some time is required to ensure that any changes we make are both effective and beneficial to the player experience.
We are also continually reviewing the vast array of other feedback and suggestions we receive. Rest assured, these are important to us and will be addressed, but at this moment, our first priority remains the game’s economics and progression.
We are truly sorry for the disappointment and frustration that we have caused. We commit to you that we are doing everything we can to improve the game, and regain your trust.
Thank you for your understanding and patience during this time. We value your continued support and your dedication to the game we all love.
As reported at the time, the commercial’s creators were inspired by, of all things, an Amazon review left under the game’s predecessor, Breath of the Wild. Written by a Japanese user, it told the tale of a “working adult” who spends his days “plainly wondering why I’m still alive”.
Rediscover your sense of adventure with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
I am a working adult, so-called businessmen.I’m jostled by the commuter rush, bowing down to customers and bosses, being forced to train junior staff and doing many things, and I end up working overtime every day.Even the mountain I see on my way to work, which I don’t even know the name of, irritates me.When I get back home I’m dizzy and have no energy to eat food, so I just drink alcohol and sleep.If I have time to play games I should be going to seminars or looking for a marriage partner, which makes me more impatient than I should be.I spend my days plainly wondering why I’m still alive.
I went to buy alcohol because I ran out and saw the Switch on sale in the shops. Then I remembered the day.When I was a child and really into Mario 64, my friend said, “lame to play Mario nowadays! Now it’s the era of PlayStation!” and I felt embarrassed.At the time, I didn’t want my friend to dislike me, so I also remember that I replied, “Yeah, you’re right. Mario is already old-fashioned!”
The beauty of FF7 at that time and the shock of being able to listen to the CD on TV… the recent kids may not understand these feelings.That’s how attractive and innovative it was for kids back then.
I’m still not sure why I picked up the Switch at the time.I just held a beer in one hand and bought the console and Zelda, thinking I could sell it if it was boring.
Yesterday, my work day, I looked out of the train window at a mountain I didn’t even know the name of and thought, “Looks like I can climb that.” At that moment, I burst into tears and couldn’t stop.The businessmen of the same age who were beside me must have thought, “What the hell is this guy.”
I would recommend it to all my fellow businessmen who are pressed for time and scrambling day after day to maintain the status quo, even if everyone hates you.Don’t say it’s just a game. We were born during the golden age of video games.Have you ever seen your family move their entire body when Mario jumps?Do you remember playing Mario Kart or Smash Bros with your friends bringing their own controllers?Have you ever discussed Chrono Trigger or FF7 strategies with your friends?Now I know. When I was a brat, my parents bought me expensive consoles and software for my birthday, Christmas and something.My parents, who were always nagging me, managed to raise money from their living budget to buy expensive games for me.
I’m touched to belatedly realise many things that I didn’t realise due to the busyness of living my own life.I should have been more filial.
The 5-stars reviews are all good ones, so there’s nothing for me to talk about now.This Zelda gives me the “challenge and reward” I forgot about.I can freely explore the world without maps, it’s an exciting adventure experience.People my age are sick every day to overcome tomorrow. But don’t despair of your life.The adventure I wanted was in such a place.
P. S.I feel like thanking this Zelda and I would like to apologise to the Mario 64 development team and Nintendo.I’d like to apologise for the lies I told that day, saying that Mario 64 was old-fashioned, even though I loved it.I am sincerely looking forward to Mario Odyssey being released this winter.
Postscript, 7 May: after 180 hours of play, I got all “recovered memory” and saw the ending.More than anything, I’d like to thank all the people who read my awful, long, cluttered and embarrassing review written emotionally. I’d also like to thank all the people who gave it a “helpful” rating, not only for reading it. I’ve never been appreciated by so many people even in my job.I really enjoyed my 180 hours spent running around Hyrule. I’d like to thank not only Nintendo but also all the Zelda fans who have continued to support Zelda. Thank you for a great adventure.
For all the similarities between this man’s tale and the commercial, the part where he apologises for abandoning Mario in the face of a PlayStation advertising campaign—I did something similar with Sonic 3 when my friends were playing WipeOut—hit hard.
During Take-Two Interactive’s recent earnings call with investors, CEO Strauss Zelnick was asked about other publishers selling AAA games at a discounted price shortly after launch. His company has been one of the many to start charging $70 for games, and at least according to him, he hasn’t seen any “pushback” on the new price point.
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On May 17, Take-Two Interactive—the publisher behind games like NBA 2K, GTA V, Borderlands,and BioShock—released its 2022 earnings report alongside a press release that seemed to hint at GTA VI-levels of success coming in the next year. As part of this process, the company also conducted a call with investors, who asked questions about Take-Two’s plans and past performance. It was here that one person brought up AAA game prices.
“We’re not seeing a pushback on frontline price,” Zelnick said. “What we’re seeing is consumers are seeking to limit their spending by going either to the stuff they really, really care about, blockbusters, or to value, and sometimes it could be both. And the good news is, we have a bunch of blockbusters and we have a wonderful catalog.”
The rise of $70 games
Basically, Zelnick believes that gamers are just buying fewer games and focusing on getting a couple of big, expensive $70 blockbuster titles or are willing to pick up older or smaller games that cost less. As the video game industry continues to struggle with layoffs and big games failing to sell well, it seems odd that Zelnick is fine with people being unable to afford more games and instead having to “limit their spending.” But I’m not a big rich CEO, so what do I know?
The reality is that while gamers are definitely vocally pushing back on $70 games—Zelnick should check out the comments on literally any story about these pricey titles—the reality is that publishers are going to move forward anyway. There’s too much money to be made, and as Tears of the Kingdom’s massive sale numbers have shown, a $70 game can sell like hotcakes if it’s good enough.
While Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are widely beloved, there are some Legend of Zelda fans who miss the more streamlined, non-open-world approach of games like Ocarina of Time. To those of you who fall into that category, I’m sorry to tell you it doesn’t sound like the series is returning to its roots anytime soon.
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In an interview with Game Informer, director Eiji Aonuma admits Ocarina of Time was foundational when it launched on the Nintendo 64, but Nintendo found its closed format “restricting” from a design standpoint. While there were some open areas like Hyrule Field, much of the game was spent in carefully crafted temples that had specific puzzle solutions. Breath of the Wild didn’t have temples, though there were temple-like structures in the Divine Beasts, and the lack of this series staple was, and remains controversial years later. Despite the pushback from some long-time fans,it sounds like Breath of the Wild’s open-world structure and experimental game designis the blueprint moving forward.
“With Ocarina of Time, I think it’s correct to say that it did kind of create a format for a number of titles in the franchise that came after it,” Aonuma tells Game Informer. “But in some ways, that was a little bit restricting for us. While we always aim to give the player freedoms of certain kinds, there were certain things that format didn’t really afford in giving people freedom. Of course, the series continued to evolve after Ocarina of Time, but I think it’s also fair to say now that we’ve arrived at Breath of the Wild and the new type of more open play and freedom that it affords. Yeah, I think it’s correct to say that it has created a new kind of format for the series to proceed from.”
So there you have it, folks. If you were hoping for a Zelda of a smaller scale, it doesn’t sound like that’s in the works. Not to sound too doom and gloom (heh) about it. In all honesty, I’ve actually enjoyed Tears of the Kingdom a lot more than Breath of the Wild. So I’m a bit warmer on the format these days, and if you’ve loved both of these games, then it sounds like you’ve got more to look forward to in the future.
Link, hero of the Legend of Zelda series, has been through many visual changes over the years. We could all rank our favourites there. But have you ever stopped and wondered how the different Links across the timeline smell?
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I’ll be honest here, I have not, so I’m very glad Megan Farokhmanesh, writing for Wired, thought to ask this important question. It’s not often games critics and journalists get interviews with important Japanese developers, so when they do—and having everything go through a translator never helps—interviews tend to end up being about boring, predictable stuff.
Here, though, right off the bat, Tears Of The Kingdom Director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and producer Eiji Aonuma are asked “Which version of Link, across the long-running series’ dozens of titles, would smell the worst?”
Aonuma points to Breath of the Wild’s version of the character, who wears a barbarian-style outfit with a bone cap and furs. “That might be kind of smelly,” he says, noting its “wild animal odor aroma.”
Fujibayashi, who says that “across the many decades” he’s given interviews he’s never been asked to consider which hero is most in need of deodorant, cast his vote for Twilight Princess. Although Link spends much of his time digging through dirt and running through dungeons as a wolf, Fujibayashi is thinking of one specific moment. “There are some scenes in Twilight Princess where Link engages in sumo wrestling with the Goron tribe,” he says. “I imagine he’s pretty smelly in that situation.”
Good answers! Now I’m trying to think of which Link would smell the best, and keep coming back to the freshness of early-game Wind Waker: a lovely blend of sun, sea, sand and coconuts, which is exactly how the whole game smells in my mind.
Please don’t think I’m only posting this here because of the stinky discourse, either, because the interview also gets excellent—and surprisingly blooper-filled—answers to “What are the best—and worst—things you’ve created with Ultrahand and Fuse?” as well, which you can check out over on Wired.
It is May 12, 2023, and on this fine day the much-hyped Nintendo sequel The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is finding its way into the eager hands of players around the world. But you: Maybe you stand apart. Maybe you didn’t end up playing the previous game, 2017’s smash hit Breath of the Wild. Or maybe you dabbled in it and fell off for whatever reason. I won’t judge, I’m right there with you.
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Now here you are, seeing all these cool trailers and…interesting…things popping off in the new Zelda game and you’re wondering, “Do I need to play Breath of the Wild before Tears of the Kingdom? Should I?” Well, that’s what I’m here to help you figure out.
A series purist will always say to go back and play the games in proper order (which when you consider how long Zelda’s been around, you might want to be careful with that line of thinking). But here I’ll lay out some pros and cons for each course of action. There are valid reasons for either approach, so let’s get into them.
By the way, this article is a spoiler-free zone. So feel safe to read on even if you haven’t touched 2017’s Breath of the Wild.
Is Breath of the Wild’s storyline worth experiencing before Tears of the Kingdom?
Breath of the Wild tells a very average fantasy story. Hold your farmer’s pitchforks; I don’t say that to put it down. In general the story’s overall beats are very familiar to almost anyone who’s experienced a Lord of the Rings or Star Wars joint. You’ve got your dark lord, your threat to peace, your amnesiac protagoboy, your magical items of power, rinse and repeat. Watching a quick recap video would be plenty to give you a general sense of BotW’s plot, and you won’t be robbing yourself of a grand-epic-of-all-time if you do.
How Breath of the Wild tells its story, however, is something you may wish to consider experiencing in full form, not just via synopsis. Link’s journey to regain his memories has him meet countless charming and memorable characters along the way, which will get you a lot more emotionally interested in the greater story of Hyrule (simple though it is) and the people who live there than if you just breezed through a summary.
Breath of the Wild’s characters make an otherwise typical fantasy tale worth the trip.Image: Nintendo
If you’re just interested in a quick SparkNotes rundown of Hyrulian history, a wiki or video will do it. But if you value the experience of meeting interesting characters and gaining greater emotional investment in a fictional world, jumping into Breath of the Wild first will be time well spent.
Does Tears of the Kingdom make Breath of the Wild’s gameplay obsolete?
We’ve all been there: You play a sequel first, and then the original just feels ancient by comparison. Some sequels so dramatically improve on their predecessor that it’s tough to go back. Mass Effect 2 is one such example. Skyrim may be another.
First of all, no: Tears of the Kingdom certainly has its share of improved quality-of-life features—such as in fast travel and cooking— but nothing so earth-shattering that Breath of the Wild suddenly feels neolithic in comparison.
Tears of the Kingdom doesn’t obsolete Breath of the Wild’s gameplay. Image: Nintendo
As for whether or not they feel too similar, fear not. While very similar in key ways, Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild are distinct enough that going back to the older game after Tears of the Kingdom would still give you plenty of new experiences to enjoy.
As my colleague Kenneth Shepard told me after his first handful of hours in Tears of the Kingdom, the gameplay in the sequel is “less an evolution and more a sidestep.” Link’s new abilities, specifically the crafting and new Ultrahand ability, make it a distinct enough experience that if you play these in reverse order, you won’t feel like your abilities have been drastically dialed back in scope.
Tears of the Kingdom is a looker—and it won’t melt your Switch to plasticky goop.Image: Nintendo
Tears of the Kingdom looks graphically daunting for the old Switch, so should you wait for future hardware?
It’s no secret that the aging Wii U wasn’t too kind to Breath of the Wild. And basically everyone who saw early footage of Tears of the Kingdom got a little nervous thinking about whether the humble Nintendo Switch, released over six years ago, might be able to keep up.
Well, I have good news. Or, rather, Digital Foundry has good news: Tears of the Kingdom will run pretty damn well on that old Switch of yours. You can expect a very close-to-solid 30 frames per second with some drops here and there, particularly when using Link’s new Ultrahand ability. Fast-travel loading times are also rather quick, around 30 percent quicker than in BotW.
Nintendo / Digital Foundry
I hear you thinking, “surely there’s another console from Nintendo on the way, right?” The Switch has been out for a while, true, but as we reported on Tuesday, May 9, Nintendo has no plans for a hardware refresh or followup to the Switch in 2023.
Say you don’t mind holding off on the game everyone’s chatting about right now and are cool jumping into Breath of the Wild first. Can you expect to knock it out in a weekend? Well, no.
Breath of the Wild is a long game, and every moment is worth it.Image: Nintendo
According to Howlongtobeat.com, the main story of Breath of the Wild is around 50 hours. And if you want to do all the side-quests? You’re looking at just under 100 hours. If you’re a completionist fiend, HLtB estimates 189 hours. Our own experiences bear those numbers out.
Breath of the Wild is a game of sweeping proportions. The world is enormous and there’s so much to do. If you haven’t played it yet and Tears of the Kingdom’s release really has you interested in seeing what all this Link business is about, expect to need to set aside some time for BotW should you jump into that first.
Even if you’re not a completionist, taking in the world of Hyrule in the Switch’s first Zelda title is an experience best enjoyed at a gentle pace, and you won’t feel worse for having taken the time to let it all soak in.
So, yes, BotW is long. Which is good, since it’s a great game.
While some franchises are okay to enter at just about any point, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild offers some compelling reasons to give it a shot first. The plot consists of standard fantasy concepts, but is told very memorably and in a vista-rich open world that’s a joy to explore.
But, if you do decide to jump straight into Tears of the Kingdom, a quick synopsis or two of BotW’s story beats will get you up to speed quickly. And with the gameplay differences, playing the two games in reverse order shouldn’t feel too strange.
Order aside, another question is whether you ought to play the older game at all. You may feel differently, but my personal take is that Breath of the Wild is such a genuinely wonderful experience, from the well-told story, to the satisfying gameplay, and a world that is genuinely full of life and beautiful to explore, that you owe it to yourself to play this modern classic if you haven’t, even if you’ve already logged solid hours in Tears of the Kingdom.
It is May 12, 2023, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom release day, and the temperature in New York City is creeping dangerously close to 90 degrees. In Midtown, bankers are sweating through their Brooks Brothers dress shirts and slacks, while tourists have busted out the cargo shorts. As I make my way out of the subway station near Rockefeller Center, I walk smack into a massive line of people. I sneer, assuming it’s the wildly long Nintendo Store line from more than a block away that our managing editor Carolyn Petit saw earlier this morning (I hate the idea of waiting in lines), but nope, the Jonas Brothers are at Rough Trade.
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Hours later, I head out to sit in the blazing sun for a bit to recharge my battery and notice the front of the Nintendo store looks conspicuously spacious. I hustle over, figuring I’ll snag a copy for someone else at Kotaku who wants to play (I do not). But as soon as I approach the front entrance to the building, which is on the corner of Rockefeller Plaza and 48th street, I realize the line is snaking down the adjacent street. It sits directly in the sun, many of the people waiting are visibly sweating.
At random intervals, a huge gap of bodies indicates the presence of a driveway, a few security guys making sure it remains open for cars passing through. Several future Tears of the Kingdom owners are hunched over playing Nintendo Switch. One woman is sitting on the sidewalk in shorts, a New York City no-no.
“Oh, fuck this,” I mumble before heading back to the dry, frigid air of the G/O Media offices. I may not be a big Zelda fan, but I don’t think there’s anything in the world that could make me wait hours on a line in Midtown Manhattan in the midst of a heatwave.
Zelda Tears of the Kingdom lines feel very nostalgic
Despite my beliefs, I’m fascinated to see people waiting in lines like this across the U.S. for the Breath of the Wild sequel. It feels sort of like a bygone era of gaming has returned—the last time I went to the midnight release of a game was November 2012 for Halo 4 at a Best Buy in Long Island, New York. I was 22 years old, and I was incredibly hyped.
The need to wait in long lines for midnight game releases has disappeared over the years, as more and more gamers turn to digital storefronts and downloads in order to get a new game the moment it releases, and the need for physical media wanes. (Though the side effects of a shift to entirely digital have been felt in the loss of access to so many movies—like sci-fi thriller Strange Days, which for some time was nearly impossible to watch without a physical DVD, only just becoming available to stream this year—and will undoubtedly soon affect games.) In 2012, you couldn’t play Halo 4 in any way other than on the two discs that came in the Master Chief-adorned case, but that’s simply not the case now.
What is it about Tears of the Kingdom that’s brought lines back in such a big way? After all, the Nintendo eShop is open 24/7, you can download the game right now without having to stand up for hours at a time, shuffling every 10 or so minutes a few inches closer to the shining glass Nintendo store doors. You can play Tears of the Kingdom right this second, no long-time exposure to stagnant, exhaust-filled NYC air required. Why, people in line, are you not doing this?
For many, the promise of special swag beckons. The Nintendo store has special-edition pins (and other “surprise giveaways”), many of which will undoubtedly end up on eBay for thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, Target has a fanny pack that people are freaking out over. The allure of impossible-to-get swag will always attract gamers, a group known to be completionists and collectors through and through.
But perhaps, despite my decidedly Grinch-y attitude about waiting in long lines for a video game, people are happily queuing for Tears of the Kingdom for the vibes, y’all. They’ve waited six years for a sequel to Breath of the Wild; what’s a few, sweaty hours more, especially in the company of your fellow die-hard fans?
KANSAS CITY, MO—Allowing for a brief, relaxing respite from an otherwise grueling schedule, Friday’s release of The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom reportedly offered local man Nick Powell a much-needed escape from the monotonous grind of playing other video games. “When you spend eight or nine hours a day with a controller in your hand, slogging away at all these video games, it’s nice to relax and unwind with a different video game,” said Nick Powell, adding that he was looking forward to enjoying the new Zelda after a long, arduous week filled with nothing but Overwatch 2, Elden Ring, and Red Dead Redemption. “Day in, day out, I’m occupied with completing all my deliveries in Death Stranding and running an entire town in Animal Crossing. It gets pretty exhausting, so it’s important that I set aside time to reconnect, recharge, and just be myself—or Link, at least—while saving the land of Hyrule from the forces that seek to destroy it.” Twenty minutes into the game, Powell acknowledged that while he was grateful for the opportunity to escape into a virtual world that was separate from the other virtual worlds he spends time in, he was starting to get bored.
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There have been a lot of buggy blockbuster launches recently, but it doesn’t sound like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be one of them. Nintento’s latest big exclusive for the Switch has impressed many reviewers so far with how it runs on the six-year-old hardware, with even Digital Foundry’s experts marveling at how it performs.
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Monday 3:53PM
Back when previews dropped for the game, it seemed like there might be some big concerns around framerate drops and handheld mode performance, with anecdotal reports of slow down when crafting complex vehicles or flying between floating islands. Digital Foundry reports, however, that a pre-release patch massively improved things, alleviating those concerns.
“It’s a game changer: nearly every instance of major performance loss has been corrected resulting in a game that now holds very closely to the 30 fps target,” senior staff writer, John Linneman, said in Digital Foundry’s YouTube analysis. “Nearly the entirety of my video capture managed to maintain a solid 30 fps, at least in most instances, which for the Switch, running a game this fast and mergent is downright impressive.”
There are still some dips, mostly around using Link’s new Ultrahand ability to combine objects into useful machines—when first initiated, the game briefly drops to 20 fps—and in busy areas like Kakariko Village. Linneman points out, however, that these moments are few-and-far-between so as not to make it a big issue.
Graphically, Tears of the Kingdom looks very similar to Breath of the Wild, despite the six years separating them. Still, there appear to be slight improvements in draw distance, shadows, and cloud and mist effects. The game also apparently loads around 30 percent faster on average when fast-traveling, according to Digital Foundry’s metrics.
Gif: Nintendo / Digital Foundry / Kotaku
Handheld mode also appears to fair pretty decently, too. While the maximum resolution is capped at 720p, and thus occasionally drops below the HD threshold, it apparently looks great on the OLED Switch screen, as one might expect. The framerate does drop more often, but doesn’t sound like a deal breaker.
Several other reviews have backed up this assessment, pointing out that Tears of the Kingdom’s performance on Switch is a far cry from the bug-ridden launches of other recent Nintendo published games like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. “Nintendo got this extraordinary game running on a 10-year-old chipset, on hardware thinner than a small stack of beer coasters, in a device I can fit in my back pocket, and it only takes up 16GB of hard drive space?” said YouTuber SkillUp in his video. “Tears of the Kingdom is a technological miracle, and that is the story that deserves to be told far more than the occasional frame drop.”
The only disappointment seems to come from the fact that a Switch 2 or Pro model didn’t arrive in time for the game. Digital Foundry points to some of the major visual improvements teased back in Tears of the Kingdom’s first trailer back at E3 2019. The scene of Link and Zelda exploring a dark cave is how the finished game opens, but it doesn’t look nearly as good as in that first glimpse.
Nintendo says new hardware won’t arrive until 2024 at the earliest. Maybe when it does, we’ll get an enhanced version of Tears of the Kingdom. In the meantime, it sounds like it plays just fine on the older console.
With The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom dropping on May 12, Nintendo is looking back and sharing more details about its predecessor, Breath of the Wild. Those details include confirmation that the Wii U console held back the production of and content included in BotW.
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As part of the eighth generation of consoles (alongside the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One), the Wii U was Nintendo’s first attempt at bridging the gap between on-the-go and at-home systems. It wasn’t a success. Yeah, it had some great games, including Bayonetta 2, Splatoon, and Xenoblade Chronicles X, among others. But the confusion around how to actually use the console, coupled with the proximity with which the GamePad had to be to the Wii U itself, made it cumbersome and frustrating. Hell, I remember when it was revealed during E3 2010 and folks (myself included) thought it was some sort of add-on for the Wii.
Despite some heavy-hitter titles like Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Maker, the Wii U was not the success Nintendo hoped it would be—or the success it’s used to. And although some of the better Wii U games are now on Nintendo Switch, the company’s home run handheld-console hybrid, Nintendo has admitted in a recent interview that BotW would have benefitted from being a Switch exclusive all along.
Some BotW features wouldn’t work on Wii U
Five Nintendo developers, including Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma, sat down to answer some questions about Tears of the Kingdom in a multi-part interview. In the latest segment, published on the official Nintendo website on May 10, the group was asked about how TotK has expanded in relation to its predecessor. Technical director Takuhiro Dohta explained that certain design elements couldn’t be implemented due to hardware limitations.
“Actually, the previous title, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, was originally developed for Wii U, so there were restrictions in development,” Dohta said. “There were a lot of ideas we wanted to implement during its development, but we made clear decisions on what we wouldn’t do in that game. For example, we decided that it wouldn’t involve flying. Then Aonuma kept saying, ‘If flying is out of the question, I want to dig underground!’ And we’d respond, ‘Oh no! Please don’t make us develop that too!’”
Now that TotK is a Nintendo Switch exclusive, though, those concepts left on the cutting-room floor—like cliffside caves that should present new exploration opportunities—are making an appearance. This is largely because the team is reusing the BotW map to streamline development.
“For The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, we began by compiling and implementing ideas we couldn’t include in the previous title,” Dohta said. “We wouldn’t have been able to do so had we made a completely new world, so developing in the same setting as the previous game was significant in this sense as well.”
Elsewhere in the interview, art director Satoru Takizawa confirmed that “traditional” Zelda dungeons are coming back as well. Although we learned this from the recent TotK leaks, it seems they will be more expansive than you saw in Link’s last outing.
“Making a ‘wide variety’ was pretty challenging,” Takizawa said. “The four Divine Beasts were the dungeons in [BotW], and they shared similar designs. This time, the dungeons are huge and each carry their own regional look and feel, just like traditional The Legend of Zelda games. We think they will provide a satisfying challenge for players. They were certainly a challenge to develop!”
Kotaku reached out to Nintendo for comment.
Tears of the Kingdom looks to be a huge expansion to Breath of the Wild, and not just because of the sky island you can explore above The Great Plateau. With Link’s plethora of new abilities, such as the Fuse skill that al mostly directly responds to weapon durability, it’ll be interesting to see what other ideas Nintendo has in store when Link’s latest adventure drops on May 12.
Redfall, a vampire shooter out this week on Xbox and PC, was developed by Arkane Studios, the same team behind classics like Dishonored and Prey. It’s one of Microsoft’s first-party exclusives for 2023, a big release for the company’s Game Pass subscription service. And by most accounts, it sucks.
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We’re currently playing the game together for our own impressions, which will be published soon, but in the meantime—because I find the reception so extraordinary given the scale (and price) of the release—I thought I’d roundup some of the impressions and review pieces out there from outlets who managed to receive code ahead of Redfall’s release (we, obviously, did not), or have been updating a review-in-progress piece as they go along.
Ultimately, Redfall is a game that should not have been released yet. Its litany of bugs hampers the gameplay loop of exploring its world with friends, and that loop itself feels compromised by elements that are poorly executed and ill-suited to the team implementing them. I can’t pretend to know whether Arkane chose to make a loot-shooter or was assigned to make a loot-shooter, but I can tell you what it feels like: one of the best game studios in the world suddenly made toothless.
Redfall is ultimately not up to Arkane’s usual standards. It feels rushed, unfinished, and unsatisfying to play. Single-player is hampered by a squad-based open-world shooter structure, multiplayer held back by odd decisions, and decent gunplay is marred by uninspiring mission structures. It’s a confusing game, full of contradictions, and the result is unfulfilling.
With Redfall arriving at IGN just a couple of days ahead of its official release date we haven’t had enough time to complete a final review yet – certainly not without becoming a nocturnal monster myself and staying awake all weekend. However, after several sessions – solo, co-op with a friend, and also in a group of three – I must admit I’m thoroughly underwhelmed by Redfall’s vanilla missions and lifeless world, and very disappointed at its lengthy list of display issues and bugs.
Redfall fails to compel on nearly every level, not just in its uninteresting story, but also its all-too-familiar gameplay. Not only does Redfall feel like a game stuck in yesteryear, even its performance finds a way to disappoint.
Eurogamer’s early impressions are actually quite optimistic, writer Christian Donlan preferring to reserve final judgement until the game was done, but I thought his anecdote at the end here was a pretty good summary of the game’s visuals:
So how is it ugly? It’s technical stuff, I think, and while I’ll leave that to Digital Foundry I’ll say that the edges – technical term – are a little rough. Textures sometimes pop in late or not at all, so those beautiful trees are always bursting into fiery life a little too close by, and at one point the classic immersive sim storytelling graffiti on a wall was weirdly pixellated. Character models are still and oddly lit. I should add here, I’m trying to be objective, which is always a mistake. I think the patchy textures – yes, I’m really about to say this – gives the town a slightly impressionist feel. The waxy characters are wonderfully waxy, the kind of things you might meet on a trip through a haunted Hall of Presidents. Even so, there’s no ducking the fact that my wife came into the room when I was playing, looked at the screen in horror and said, “Jesus! What happened to Fortnite?”
I should note not all reviews and impressions pieces are so down! If you head over to Metacritic you’ll find some outlets—many of which I’ve literally never heard of, but still—have given the game positive scores, like We Got This Covered, who rated it 4.5 stars out of 5, saying:
With rich, beautiful open worlds, a multitude of weapons, and a wide variety of enemies to square off against, Redfall amazes. Players won’t regret staking their claim on Arkane’s latest masterpiece.
OK. Enough with the professional reviews. Let’s see what people who paid for the game—and if you bought this instead of playing on Game Pass it was a full-price $70 release, an important point to remember here—have to say. Here’s a selection of some of the top Steam reviews at time of posting:
Ignoring the performance issues, this game is bad. The AI is pathetic, even on the highest difficulty. The controls are clunky. The graphics are average. The world is empty. I don’t understand why these companies think they can start charging $70 for unfinished garbage. I couldn’t even stomach an hour of this game.
Extremely average and unfinished game. Poor performance on PC and riddled with bugs and glitches.
I’ve heard great things from Arkane, but this is not it. I played with two friends, who also refunded. Going to try and give it a go tonight on the $10 PC Game Pass instead. But that first hour was clear to me: this is not a $70 AAA release.
I’m going to wind up with that last one because, having played it for most of yesterday, it’s actually the closest to my own experiences with the game. This plays like a remaster of a PS3 shooter. It’s an unfinished concept piece, a pitch project that somehow made its way to retail.
It’s tough to explain how raw the whole thing feels without playing it yourself. Even the fonts look like placeholders. Arkane is a studio responsible for some of the most important first-person games of the last decade; to see their name attached to this just…really bums me out.
Anyway! Like I said, our own impressions will be coming soon, so check back to see if a few days of multiplayer madness will have our team (not me, I live on the far side of the moon) thinking any differently to these reviews.
Back in 2015, Grand Theft Auto Online players found a way to spawn a car that is usually only available in Grand Theft Auto V’s single-player campaign. While some developers might simply patch the exploit out of the game, Rockstar decided that wasn’t enough, and that these cheaters deserved a punishment fitting of a Grand Theft Auto game. So instead of removing the car, the studio made it so that whenever a player attempted to get inside it, the vehicle would spontaneously explode, leaving the cheaters with a sudden “Wasted” game over and a jump scare for good measure.
Why was this car so significant? It was the Duke O’ Death, given only to players who upgraded from the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Grand Theft Auto V to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One ports. Rockstar eventually made the car available to all players in 2021, even in Grand Theft Auto Online, but at one point it was a prized possession that Rockstar went the extra mile to keep out of multiplayer.
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This video by a user called Art from the Machine shows “a Skyrim mod which allows for conversations with NPCs via ChatGPT, xVASynth (text-to-speech), and Whisper (speech-to-text). This update introduces Skyrim scripting, which allows for lip syncing of voices and NPC awareness of in-game events.”
That’s the aim, anyway. Here’s what all that looks and sounds like in practice:
It’s a horror show, I know. Particular highlights are the way the video has to be sped up to mask the amount of time it takes the game to respond to questions, the terrible synthesised voice acting and the bland, generic standard of all the “writing”. Oh, and the fact the people running Skyrim’s stores—in a world without watches—will now tell you their opening hours like they were getting a phone call in a mall. Sorry, sir, we close at five pum.
A console staple Because the Xbox Series S is $30 off, you can put that $30 towards storage, an extra controller, or the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
I spent ages writing earlier drafts of this blog where I took this opportunity to launch into a tirade against the idea that machine learning can or should replace human artists, but you know what? This is a Skyrim mod. If this is what a lot of people still playing this game want—and clearly it is, even though what they actually want is to play a tabletop RPG with friends—then have at it. If you’re happy with word soup dialogue written by a machine that was trained on stuff that was already pretty generic in the first place, no amount of me saying “we need to value human art as the only true human experience” will convince you that if this is the future of video games that you want, you’re going to get everything you deserve.
