Sheikah

Exactly, if you saw a trailer for Majora's Mask you'd be like...WTF they just reused all the NPCs.

Majora's Mask gameplay was not entirely different at all, it felt like the same game reskinned in terms of how Link moved and controlled, and the general gameplay. The difference in feel came from the different mask forms which you didn't wear all the time anyway. The groundhog Day was a clever mechanic but ultimately a way of resetting things, it wasn't actual new gameplay per se.

The Oracle games are great! Completely disagree with you there.

Majora's Mask looked like DLC/asset flip and that was the best ever Zelda so...that's a good thing!

Hasn't stopped Sony putting up the cost of the PS5 due to inflation though. How so? Inflation makes everything more expensive. Increasing staff salaries 10% to combat inflation comes at a cost, for instance, and means they need to recoup the money however they can (increasing game prices being one option). I'm not singling out just Japan here either when taking about inflation.

Dat inflation since then though.

That's basically it, yeah. Everything costs more and everyone has less to spend. They will have designed and put PSVR2 into production prior to everything going down so it's not even like they "pitched the product wrong". There's really no story or alternative take here - they won't sell as many as they could have done right away but over time I expect it will do quite well.

I'm being completely serious. Why are you so riled up all the time?

With all due respect, what are you talking about? PSVR was well supported and sold 5 million units, the second best selling headset of all time. And now Sony are following up by releasing a sequel, something they never did for the Vita. Being so angry all the time isn't good for your blood pressure, you know.

Hardly a failure, you're writing it off too soon. It will get cheaper down the line and I can see it enjoying reasonable success across the generation. It was clear from the original PSVR that skimping on specs had dire consequences down the line (note that the original PSVR wasn't actually cheap after you bought the necessary camera and recommended controllers, yet it was still a low-fi device). They need a headset that is actually capable and will last the generation. Also consider that this will have been designed a while ago, before world events led to the record levels of inflation we have now. Their options were to either sell at a big loss or charge more, so not really sure how you can say the price tag is a dumb move.

Worked for the PS5 though, that's £480 now and still flying off the shelves. I think VR is facing a few problems right now - it doesn't have the novelty factor it did last generation and it's a "nice to have" supplementary accessory (which is going to be a hard sell in the current climate). In terms of value though you're actually getting a much better deal than you did with the original headset (in terms of specs and the included controllers). Last thing to say - I wouldn't call this top of the line VR at all in terms of price, at least not compared to some of the PC offerings.

Yeah, but like, actually it's not. Not in the slightest. I say that as someone who has played tonnes of Ubisoft open world games. What you just said couldn't be further from the truth.

This looks like the kind of game which will be £25 before long. So no, I won't be playing at launch.

One thing I've noticed is that many people who had become bored by the same old Zelda formula (like me) loved BOTW. Although obviously not everyone. But this board in particular has a number of people who absolutely love game after game that Nintendo produce, regardless of how conserved the games were before. It doesn't matter if there have been several generations of games that play out very similar, some people don't like change, or rather become attached to what the series comprised. Each to their own though, I'm just glad the overwhelming majority thought BOTW was the second coming as it'll no doubt mean this is what main Zelda games will be like now, at least for the foreseeable future.

I bounced off Fenyx Rising. While it's interesting for a while it ultimately is too easy and the story isn't compelling enough. It has the old Ubisoft bloat to it too.

They are major releases though, they're the best selling games every year. The point is that PlayStation and Xbox get these games so there's less of a gap to fill.

I think as well already noted you have big games coming like Spiderman 2, FFXVI and possibly FFVII-2, then you have the usual annual fodder like COD, FIFA (whatever the new series will be called), and so on, as well as PSVR2. I don't think people will think at the end of year that there's been a lack of content by any means.

Luckily Sony don't need to make too much, they have third party support.

This is really good. I was at EGX last year and I had a go on the Microsoft accessibility controller, there's a lot of thought that goes into these controllers and they make them super customisable to cover a range of different needs. You could tell the engineers/developers talking you through it were really passionate about it.

Sealed, revived. Whatever's going on they don't seem to be able to properly kill the bastard.

You're right. Then when Breath of the Wild comes along it's genuinely exciting because it feels fresh and different.

I might be wrong but don't light arrows sort of stun Ganondorf/Ganon in some games, then you slay him with the Master Sword? Either way we can all agree that the constant "sealing away" of Ganon is total bullshit.

I wouldn't say they 'play' vastly differently at all. Most 3D console Zelda games since Ocarina of Time have largely played out the same way, mechanistically. Certainly the whole shtick of how you progress through dungeons, get the keys and then boss key and then fight the boss using the weapon you found in it is very similar. And the way your character locks on and engages in combat is very conserved between 3D console titles. There's also many returning weapons and mechanics too like shooting eyes with arrows, hookshotting targets, etc. There's also usually a requirement of getting a set number of medallions/trinkets as well before the end boss pops out, after you which you usually must twunt it with the master sword. Am I wrong?

It's sort of interesting that the two series that desperately needed a shakeup (Pokémon and Zelda) have alienated the relatively small diehard community, or at least going by this thread. I would say whatever Zelda lost (I'm thinking the linear full size dungeons) was completely dwarfed by the sense of exploration and freedom gained in BOTW. We've also only had one game so we can't draw conclusions that they won't return to a standard dungeon format. And Pokémon was probably the most conserved series of all time, to the point I didn't bother to play them any more. Still won't, because the new games look like crap, but they definitely needed to shake things up (and still do, really). Or at least hire some people capable of making a decent 3D game.

They've still managed to produce and sell a lot of Switches though, haven't they? Also Steam Deck has done well for what it is. A Switch Pro also wouldn't need to sell to too many people what with it being targeted at bigger spenders.