As our staff looked back at this week's comments, we found some incredibly thoughtful dialog. You guys and gals are the best, we hope you know that.
This week we had some interesting stories to share. We spoke about our experiment in Universe Simulator 2 where we sent a black hole through the Solar System, resulting in complete disaster. A celebration of Final Fantasy XI's 15th anniversary was in order, as was discussion about how Breath of the Wild broke the Zelda cycle (in a good way).
We also had reviewed Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valencia, likely to be the last 3DS game we ever cover, in addition to NBA Playgrounds. Keeping up with our push to cover more hardware, we also did a full review of the SteelSeries Rival 700.
Oh, and if you're starting to think about E3 2017, we had you covered with a speculative piece.
If you've been keeping up with our imminent relaunch and rebranding, you might have expected the new website to arrive before today. Unfortunately, last minute technical challenges have delayed it, but only for a few days. On the plus side, our development team has been able to add an extra layer of polish to make sure it's as spiffy and fast as possible—seriously, page load times are so much better on the new website.
As a final note, we will be moving The People Speak to Friday in the near future as it makes more sense in terms of a logistics standpoint. This will be particularly beneficial during E3 week.
And with that, we'll jump right into the top 10 comments of this week.
Jrodsmrs51
Article: Did Breath of the Wild Manage To Break The Zelda Cycle?
Comment: This was a good read!
Obviously, this is one my favorite series…. and I legitimately can't pick a favorite. I go through phases where I'm super excited to replay a certain game in the series, but that's the closest I get to "favorite". It comes down to which game I'm most in the mood to play.
Before Breath of the Wild, Wind Waker was the last Zelda game that I absolutely loved from beginning to end (this fits perfectly into the cycle depicted in the picture. I even enjoyed traveling by boat at the original games' speed and searching for ALL of the triforce shards.
Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword were both amazing, but they had parts that I found tedious and annoying. I didn't love playing as wolf link, and I didn't love the spirit realm stuff. These games also lacked the charm of the towns seen in previous Zelda Games. This is something that I think that Breath of the Wild brought back: Charming towns.
The story in Botw on the surface may seem shallow to people. I found that on my first watch of all the memories, I wasn't fully satisfied with it being a Zelda story. BUT THEN a week after I beat the story, I decided to watch all the memories in sequence order and then fight my way through hyrule castle town and all the way to calamity Ganon. I enjoyed the story sooooo much more and although I don't love all the voice acting, I really like the character depth that they gave to Zelda.
I'm sorry guys haha I just went on such a rant, but this series just gets me so passionate!
/rant
oblivion437
Article: I Sent A Black Hole Through The Solar System In Universe Sandbox 2 And This Is What Happened
Comment: A black hole wouldn't so much enter the solar system as the solar system would start feeding matter into its accretion disc. Black holes aren't vacuum cleaners; they don't 'suck up' matter. They just don't let anything (other than Hawking radiation) go. It's also why they're so durable – Black Holes can live for spans of time that are utterly incomprehensible in human terms. Long after nearly everything else is gone, the black holes will just be entering their middle age. What happens after they die is a real mystery depending on a number of unsolved problems.
For reference, the largest black hole ever witnessed is S5 0014+81. To get a sense of scale, imagine you were standing on Pluto right now, and S5 0014+81 were exactly where our sun is now. You'd still be inside the event horizon.
Chunibrow
Article: Mass Effect: Andromeda's Latest Update Has Made A World Of Difference
Comment: By the time I get the GOTY edition this game will be really good it sounds like
Trendkill88
Article: What Are You Playing? May 11th, 2017
Comment: Still working on Knights of the Old Republic. I'm about 16 hours in, joined the Jedi, and have a couple of lightsabers. The downside is that my lightsaber skills were about on par with Michael Jordan's bating average when I finally got one. Lots of swings and misses. After a level up and some upgrading my character is a little more effective with the ancient weapon of the Jedi. Using the baseball bat analogy, my goal is to go from Michael Jordan to Joe Pesci.
Starling
Comment: These guys have to be careful! If Zenimax catches wind that these guys named their game Wild West Online, they may get sued because the name (Wi)ld West ONLINE has couple of similarities to the name of Elder Scrolls ONLINE Morro(wi)nd. ;P
oneshotstop
Article: Xbox Statistics: 42% Of Xbox Owners Are Female, 23% Live At Home With Parents, And More
Comment: I used to play Red Alert 2 online with a girl all the time. Why do people care so much if a girl plays video games? I'll admit, the first time I heard a girl talk on Xbox live, I was surprised, but I didn't give it another thought. I was immediately overwhelmed by the little 12 year olds that started hitting on her and, essentially, sexually harassing her until she left…BEFORE THE GAME HAD EVEN STARTED.
It got old fast. Girls are people, too. Imagine that!
sliverstorm
Article: Report: Up To 30% Of eSports Fans Don't Even Play The Game They Watch
Comment: I watch Dota 2 all the time, and I've never played the game once–decided a while ago that I don't have the time to invest in ARTS/MOBAs.
I'll watch a few fighting game tournaments a year (used to be really big into them), and I've never played fighting games.
I watch CS:GO all the time with very little game playtime, but I've played thousands of hours of 1.6 and Source, so part of the majority there.
TurinAlexander
Article: 15th Anniversary: Why Final Fantasy XI Was One Of My Favorite Games
Comment: Pfft, real FFXI players stuck with DRK to the end. Actually, that's the only job that I reached 75 with. I quit not long before the level cap got raised to 99, so I don't know how it worked out after that. I loved the mix of melee and magic. The only other two jobs to use both were RDM and BLU. Sadly, RDM was more or less either a solo job or a Haste whore, it's melee being too weak to be worth it. I actually did like BLU and considered making it my second 75, but hunting spells was just too damn tedious. I spent over three hours one day letting rabbits beat my ass so I could learn Wild Carrot. After that, I couldn't do it anymore and just stuck with my DRK.
I was there for the lolDRK days, I was there when the two handed update made them hugely overpowered, and I was there when the two handed nerf made them almost just right. Even though it wasn't the most efficient use of my abilities, I loved being able to go DRK/SAM and do a self skill chain with magic burst.
Honestly, as FFXIV has drug on with almost no real change to the content (cookie cutter dungeons, painfully grindy relic weapons, and an endgame scene that revolves around memorizing scripted fights) I've given a lot of thought into trying to play FFXI again. Right now they are doing a two week free login campaign for anyone that has ever had an active account. I'm sorely tempted to download it and give it a go….
Commiebot
Article: Tell GR: What Do You Hope Happens At E3 2017?
Comment: Hope:
-Nintendo teases a new F-Zero game, details of further content with BotW, gameplay trailer of Mario Odyssey, announces Retro is working on something Metroid related. Announces some manner of new RPG from Monolith Soft
-Ubisoft doesn't embarrass itself, declares that UPlay was a mistake. Reveals Beyond Good & Evil 2 with a soft release date, reveals Fractured But Whole with a hard release date, is working with Nintendo on No More Heroes 3.
-EA announces that their pact with Lucifer has expired, while a creature not unlike the Dungeon Keeper walks onstage. Laughs are had until the presenters immolate and only piles of ash remain.Then I dunno, Dead Space reboot announced, taking cues from 1&2 only?
-Rockstar releases more information on Red Dead Redemption 2, but seemingly cuts their presentation short in order to reveal they're working on a new Bully game.
-Norman Reedus explains more about Death Stranding while Kojima and del Toro silently nod along in excitement
-Valve announces Portal 4, which involves time travel to discover the events of a Portal 3 that never was.
-Sony and Microsoft don't embarrass themselves with overblown 'exclusive' games that are actually also released on PC. A few interesting indie games are shown for each, also Bloodborne 2 or a new Armored Core, I guess.
Expect:
-Nintendo ports, Mario teases, Splatoon 2 hype, new Amiibos. Some manner of Fire Emblem tie-in
-Sony and Xbox console exclusives. Impressive trailers with no gameplay and improbable release dates. Last of Us 2: No Hope for Anyone, Anywhere trailer.
-EA reminding us that if you're not a fan of Star Wars, that sports still exist.
-VR being inexplicably pushed, Valve breaks our collective hearts once again.
-Ubisoft making Aisha Tyler do something that makes me question a loving god.
-Unnecessary dancing. Someone is going to do it.
-Montage of indie games that I'll forget about immediately after the video ends, then spend 20 minutes trying to find the 3 seconds of something that looked really cool.
oblivion437
Article: Top 10 Biggest Game And Hardware Rumors Of E3 2017
Comment: A direct sequel to Bloodborne is unlikely. Rumors have been floating on /v/ but they're all incredible at this point. I'd put money on another Obsidian-developed Fallout before I'd put money on Bloodborne 2. From is working on something, and they're not partnered with Bandai Namco anymore, it appears to be some kind of Armored Core game. We'll see what happens.
A western would be an interesting setting for a first person shooter – there aren't a lot of games that have tried. One thing they definitely need to do is take a good, long, hard look at Blood Dragon and Primal and realize that the crafting system in Far Cry only works if it's not there at all, or if the player is generally engaged with it at all times. Far Cry 3 and 4 are halfway between on the issue and that's pretty much the source of those games' mechanical problems. Also the progression system. Something hybridizing Blood Dragon and 3, 4, and Primal might work. A set of dependable 'critical path' upgrades that are dispensed as either plot coupons or enough XP is given to the player to guarantee they'll get them no matter what, thus allowing the developers to build more complex scenarios with the correct assumption that the player can do certain things.
No comment on Resistance.
The SNES classic is a nice idea. Hope it happens.
Smash on Switch is inevitable.
Re: Bethesda – I expect a few things are possible.
-Wolfenstein (if it's close to release)
-Fallout 4 VR (because the overlap of people who own VR headsets and people who still care about Fallout 4 is so large)
-Elder Scrolls VI (Again, if close to release)
-New DOOM or New DOOM content (they know people would gobble up SP DLC, or a new SP experience altogether)
Evil Within 2 (or another project, whatever Mikami and his team are up to right now)
Given that teaser image they've released I'd say, pick 2. Maybe throw F4VR in as a bonus.
Rockstar reveals information on their own schedule. Pretty much nobody can tell them what to do.
If Microsoft is sincere about Windows gaming maybe they'll actually release an omnibus HALO 1-5 for Steam. I'd buy it just to see what the fuss is about.
