Gaming The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild review

I don't think I was expecting this game to be as good as it is

https://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2017/03/13/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild/1

 

Oh **** off, with nonsense comments like it being worth £300, it isn't, no game is worth the buying a console off the back of, especially a console that'll probably get little future use. Expect crap like this from Eurogamer or IGN.

 

absolutely agree


then i remember a decade ago I splurged £2k on a pc specifically for the release of Crysis

 

I am seriously considering purchasing a Switch purely for Zelda..

 

I'd expect the console probably would get a fair bit of future use though. Afterall, you can't play PC/PS4/XBOne on the toilet. Plus you at least have the prospect of other 1st party Nintendo titles.

I think usually when someone says a game is worth buying a console for it's that a game is worthy of being the driving force behind choosing to buy a console. Not that the game alone is worth £300.

 

You can do that with a 3DSXL though which already has a huge library of games.

 

It looks disgraceful.
Haven't we moved on past these kids games yet?

 

I bought a Nintendo 64 to play Mario 64 and Lylat Wars.
I bought a PS1 for Gran Turismo, a PS2 for Metal Gear Solid 2 (oops, redeemed by MGS3).
I spent nearly a thousand pounds on a PC for Battlefield 2, then spent almost that much again upgrading it for Crysis. Then I spent well over £1000 three and a half years later to max out Battlefield 3 (and sold the 7970 from that build to The Mad Dutch Dude five months ago).

Mt 3DSlite never had a single game on it, I bought it for the Colors homebrew.

For some of us weirdos buying hardware for one specific title is a reality, if the game is good enough. Of course more than one game worth playing would be nice, waiting for a first revision to sort all those little niggling production issues with the Switch is a more pressing reason not to buy one right now.

 

I've picked it up for the Wii U but haven't started it yet; I need to finish Horizon Zero Dawn first.

 

Just wanted to swing by and further explain my comments in case people couldn't infer it. When you buy a console you're never buying it for a single game. When BigC bought £2k PC for Crysis, he didn't play Crysis and then benchmark it.

I'm referring to the fact that this is the product that's going to get you to buy a Switch, after which you'll presumably play some other games on it, which are admittedly an unknown quantity. I'm saying Zelda makes taking the risky plunge much more appetising.

Although, perhaps I'm biased. I spent £275 just to play this a few years back, only to get bored and donate it to the National Videogame Arcade within a few weeks.

If you're discounting every game that looks like it was made for kids, you're going to miss out on some quite games. Mechanically this is a very mature game, I'd encourage you to watch some gameplay and see if it's your sort of thing (I doubt I would have played it unless I got paid to review it because I like games where you shoot people, so)

Thing is, I can get why people would be nervous about playing it. You don't have to, I'm just enjoying it a lot, more than I expected, and my job is just to give you my recommendations. You don't have to follow them, and I don't think any of us are going to worry too much about it either way.

 

The one thing that bothers me is that it seems like already excuses are being made for the wimpy hardware inside the Switch. "Oh, there are some slowdowns when there's a lot going on" or "Well, every now and then there are textures popping up when you're moving (fast)"...I mean, this is a closed system for ***** sake. Optimize your games! It was Nintendo's decision to build the system like this and it was Nintendo's decision to build the game like this. Now make it perfect.

[/rant]

 

Just one thing...



...is our hero confused about his sexuality?

 

This. I can't believe we're talking about acceptable levels of stuttering and LoD problems/pop-in on a game that looks like it was made for the PS2.

And let's be honest - as mature as the game mechanics might be, Zelda, like Pokemon, is for kids.

 

If you ask me, it's games like this that make me angry with Nintendo. Just imagine what he devs could do with a proper console? We have a big open world title, could there be a more appropriate game to run on beefier hardware? Smooth gameplay and vistas that stretch further, look more luscious and bring the world to life.

People obsess over how this makes nintendo's developers smarter, well I believe that's a load of tosh. In my eyes, the in house devs are simply talented, they would make good use of whatever you throw at them.

So yes, I would prefer a beefier console with all those "annoying" media features people like to rail on. As an adult, having something that no performs lots of different roles is nice, makes use of space and expense better. Not to mention, we all grew up with Nintendo games being around. Adults aren't afraid of buying Zelda, Mario and Pokémon, they parts of our childhood and one piece of being an adult is being able to buy what we want (within reason haha).

Perhaps the switch will sell buckets for a few games and the low price, but we all think it's a gimmick. People would still buy a better console, especially if the titles reflected that improvement. Nintendo's niche is carved out by their first party games, not by their crappy hardware, but it feels like they don't know that...

 

You're basing this wonderful insight on?

 

Now imagine how bad that'd look if those stems were facing forward...

 

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword costs more than the used Wii it runs on
So in this case, you could alway buy a used Wii U and play on that if the Switch is too expensive

This...
Buying extra controllers is dear enough, I doubt anybody would care if the console were a bit more expensive but beefier.

 

That's a really narrow minded view. So in your book simplistic visuals = designed for children?

Hmmmm not sure I agree:

http://www.thatdragoncancer.com
http://papersplea.se
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/

Or is it that it looks a little 'cartoony' that bugs you?

It's an interesting discussion point. But I'd put out there a question : 'Is there a market for AAA games with cut-back visuals that can run on a big screen & on mobile?'. Nintendo hopes there is. I applaud them for taking this route.

The best bit of us having so many competing platforms to choose from (Switch, PS4, XBOne, PC, iOS, Android etc etc) is that it gives us more choice now than at any time in the past!

If your main complaint of the Switch is that it's taking a different approach to PC,XBone, PS4 then what good would another AAA platform do anyone? There's already three.

Well done Nintendo for aiming for something different.

And seriously... You want to talk about childish imagery? How about the gratuitous melon pic!

 

Oh bless... you need to play the game

no, they aren't though. They may not be for you, but they are no more kids games than video games in general (which I know is some people's view).

I do agree that as it's a Nintendo game on a new Nintendo console, you'd expect it to run better. But my friend's been playing it on his Wii U and it's had a couple of frame rate dips in certain areas, but it's easier to accept that on an older gen console. So this game may actually end up selling more Wii Us than switches!

 

I don't think I subscribe to this.

At the end of the day what people want is the best choice of games, not hardware alternatives.

Having yet another locked down piece of hardware doesn't help on that front. It just means that if you wish to play those games, you now need to invest in that system to do so, which to me feels like limiting the choices if anything. The game isn't multi-platform, you don't get to choose to play it on PC, Xbox or Playstation.

A true example of what you mean would be having a console that can be mobile, but also offering you the chance to play it on a more robust setup for a smoother experience. I have literally zero interest in playing it on the go, too many distractions and other things getting in the way, not to mention the terrible battery life. I'd rather play a simple casual game on my phone, but now I've basically been told I have to subscribe to this inferior method should I wish to play the game.

I have the same issue with other exclusives now, I would rather first party titles from Microsoft come out on PC for instance (and not be terrible thanks to the windows store...). Thankfully they've just noticed that they control the PC platform for the most part and as such this is actually becoming a reality it seems. But, even then I can stomach having an xbox or playstation around as they're genuinely decent for other uses.