Community MetaSteam | May 2023 - Bloody hell!

[curi0usBystander]

I don't really want to do the [I don't like current popular thing], but I've never been big on Zelda I've only really (as in play more than a few minutes) played 1 and that's because a friend told me to try it (Majora's Mask), I liked it but I've never felt the urge to try another one.

Maybe I'll play another one some day or maybe not.

 

[Ge0force]

Zelda, Zelda everywhere!!!

Am I the only one that doesn't care about Zelda at all? XD

I like the old 2D Zelda games, but Breath of the Wild was just mediocre for me. Replacing well designed dungeons with single-puzzle shrines ruined much of the experience for me.

 

[C-Dub]

I’ve bought Tears of the Kingdom (sadly several months ago, before my “fuck Nintendo” attitude) but I won’t start it until I’ve finished my replay of Cyberpunk 2077, and I’m not gonna rush it.

Been a great game to test out my 4080, plus it’s also been putting my Steam Deck through its paces whenever my girlfriend is hogging the TV.

As for TotK - it’ll probably be my last Switch game. And I think this’ll be me done with Nintendo stuff too. Gotta draw a line somewhere and I’m sick of Nintendo’s shit.

 

[Durante]

Well, I'll go against the grain and say that I've been a Zelda fan for decades and I also absolutely loved BotW.

However, I played BotW quite a while after its release at 4k resolution and 60 FPS, so I guess I'll still have to wait a few months weeks days before I can get a comparable experience in TotK.

 

[Ascheroth]

Alright, I'm done with the current main story that's in Star Rail and did the majority of side stuff (still a few quests to do and probably a bunch of secrets/hidden quests that I haven't encountered yet).

I had a fantastic time with it so far and am definitely inclined to stick around for the long-term if they keep this quality up. There's a easily a solid 50+ hours of quality JRPG stuff in there and it will only get bigger from now on.
If I had to put a number on it right now I'd probably give it a solid 8/10 that has a good chance of growing into a 9/10 by the end of the year.

The 2 main "issues" I have that stop it from being a 9/10 now is that 1) the story is literally unfinished and it ends at a very unsatisfying spot which stops it from being a "you can just play all that is there right now and walk away fully satisfed " recommendation and 2) the long-term appeal of the combat still has to be proven so it's also hard to say "even if you run out of story, the gameplay will carry it while waiting".
I'm confident that 1) will stop being an issue soon with the next couple updates but 2) I don't really know about yet. I think in the long-term it's just gonna be "fine". Fun enough, but not a main selling point but also not actively getting in the way of enjoying the story and world.


The main appeal I'd say is definitely the story and world-building. The universe Hoyoverse has created seems massive and fascinating and there's already tons of interesting lore in the game.
The main story itself is good. Right now it has a prologue, one finished story chapter and one unfinished story chapter.
The prologue is fairly perfunctional. It throws you into the world and sets you up for the journey, but there's nothing crazy going on.
The first story chapter is a good classic JRPG romp that is very well executed and coupled with the high production values and stellar music has some really hype moments.
The second story chapter is where things are getting a lot more complex and interesting. Many different factions and motives collide, there is a very interesting take on the concept of "immortality" at play and the overall world-building and lore gets increasingly richer and unique. However it's literally unfinished. Since this is a live-service game this is obviously by design and conceptually I'm totally fine with that, but still, there are ways to end with a "to be continued" that are satisfying. The current ending here is not satisfying.

Outside of the main story the game is chock-full with side quests, mini-puzzles, secrets and interesting things to encounter everywhere, that give the areas you travel through and characters you meet a lot of color. In general the writing and localization are very high quality across the board and there is a lot of it.

Production values are very good. It's a pretty game with pretty animations, great music and stellar voice acting. Though weirdly enough I don't think it's as good looking as Genshin overall despite this not being an open-world and the current areas could have been a bit more diverse. Still, overall it looks good and I'm hoping we'll get progressively cooler stuff over time.

Combat is solid. It's snappy, fast and fun but also most of the depth is in the team-building phase. They shake things up by giving enemies interesting abilities that you need to properly react to and there's a rogue-like side mode where you can get different passive buffs that create fun synergies.
For now it's good fun but I can't say how I'll feel about it in a couple weeks/months. I don't really think it's the main selling point of the game though.


So yeah, overall definitely worth checking out if you're interested in some JRPG goodness.

 

[Gelf]

Zelda, Zelda everywhere!!!

Am I the only one that doesn't care about Zelda at all? XD

If it was on Steam I might try it several years from now at deep discount.

My experience with Zelda has nearly always been ok enough but well below the level you'd expect from the wall to wall glowing reviews which they always get. I just don't trust reviews of this series to match my own taste.

 

[dex3108]

Well, I'll go against the grain and say that I've been a Zelda fan for decades and I also absolutely loved BotW.

However, I played BotW quite a while after its release at 4k resolution and 60 FPS, so I guess I'll still have to wait a few months weeks days before I can get a comparable experience in TotK.

Filthy pirate!!!

I have nothing against Zelda it just never felt urge to play it. Every gameplay I saw from both BotW and TotK kinda looks boring to me. I am more story driven type of gamer and newer Zelda games more gameplay driven ones.

 

[Line]

I love Zelda!
It's too bad we haven't had a new Zelda game since 2013 and A Link Between Worlds.
Maybe in the future the franchise will come back.

 

[Le Pertti]

Valve, operator of the video game distribution platform Steam, was hit with a patent infringement lawsuit on Monday in Washington Western District Court. The suit, filed by Ramey LLP and the Puget Law Group on behalf of AML IP, alleges that the use of electronic payments for in-game products and services like game passes, weapons and character attire infringes the plaintiff's patent. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendant. The case is 2:23-cv-00668, AML IP LLC v. Valve Corp.

You know what, I'll be rooting for the patent troll on this one, get that shit out of our games!

 

[Kyougar]

You know what, I'll be rooting for the patent troll on this one, get that shit out of our games!

Spoiler alert: They are not doing it so that it will disappear.
They want a part of the pie instead.

 

[Mivey]

Well, I'll go against the grain and say that I've been a Zelda fan for decades and I also absolutely loved BotW.

However, I played BotW quite a while after its release at 4k resolution and 60 FPS, so I guess I'll still have to wait a few months weeks days before I can get a comparable experience in TotK.

Played BOTW on the Switch, and close to finishing it now (though I decided to skip on the DLC). I think for Tears I'll wait a bit longer for emulation support to mature a bit and play it on PC for once.

For the debate about how BOTW fits in to the rest of the series, I'll say that I found most older Zelda games to be "ok", with Windwaker to be my favourite of the pre-BOTW ones, mostly because it allows the kind of exploration that I like about BOTW, even if it's not truly as free and unscripted in Windwaker as I would want.
I can also understand that fans of the old ones aren't happy with BOTW. It doesn't have the same linear, heavily item-based progression that the old ones had. I just never cared one bit about it, since the games assume you are brain-dead and need every little thing spoonfed to you. BOTW does this too, way more than I would want, but there's at least hints of actual player freedom in BOTW that I find sorely lacking in every other title.

 

[lashman]

 

[Dragon1893]

Zelda, Zelda everywhere!!!

Am I the only one that doesn't care about Zelda at all? XD

I don't either.

 

[ezodagrom]

I never played any Zelda game, but I can always appreciate when a great polished game releases, even if it's one that I won't play (at least not anytime soon, maybe I'll consider the switch successor if it's backwards compatible).

 

[lashman]

and in other news:

UK regulator adds further restrictions against Microsoft, Activision Blizzard

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox

www.gamesindustry.biz

 

[Stone Ocean]

One of the grimier KMMOs getting even grimier? Mild shock

 

[lashman]

 

[「Echo」]

I don't think is Zelda that great as a franchise... it has it's ups and downs. Personally I still think the high-point of Zelda is OOT and MM on the N64. The next one I enjoyed most after that was Twilight Princess, but it also launched in my edgy teenage years. I consider BotW to be very.... middle of the road? There are things i love and things I absolutely loathe about it. It's honestly at times just a slightly better Ubisoft collectathon.

I do love the new super androgynous Link tho, I'm really quite downbad for him haha.
I've no personal hype for Tears of the Kingdom, my switch is a dust collector unfortunately. But I think I would like to play it down the road on an emulator or Switch 2 if it's BC and get's upgrade patches? (Like PS4 Pro Patches?) I bought the limited edition guide book set to launch in June anyway.
======

My hubby is actually considering getting the ROG handheld just because Steam Deck hasn't launched in Australia STILL (Wtf is Valve doing??). I told him i didn't like the lack of trackpad or the RGB, but he says he likes that it runs windows and he plans to multitask with it as a result.

 

[Lashley]

Zelda, Zelda everywhere!!!

Am I the only one that doesn't care about Zelda at all? XD

No, I couldn't care less.

 

[Deku]

Only Zelda game I care is A Link to the Past

 

[thekeats1999]

A Link to the Past and Links Awakening are 2 of my favourites.

 

[Parsnip]

I don't think the Ally will sell too well, even the cheap version is going to be too expensive. Valve being able to hit $399 with the cheapest model was pretty important I think.

 

[thekeats1999]

Also The Bunker has been delayed to June 6th, but will have a Demo on Steam soon.

 

[Mor]

 

[Mivey]

My hubby is actually considering getting the ROG handheld just because Steam Deck hasn't launched in Australia STILL (Wtf is Valve doing??). I told him i didn't like the lack of trackpad or the RGB, but he says he likes that it runs windows and he plans to multitask with it as a result.

They are working on setting up warehouses in Australia, but they get invaded by all kinds of snakes, spiders and other crawly things, plus the drop bears make it impossible to safely get in and out. Once they get the survival rate of their package drivers up to 30% or more, they will go ahead, I would assume.

 

[Paul]

Last (and only) Zelda I played was Link's Awakening on original black and white gameboy some 27 years ago.
I liked it (I was 8). Especially the music theme in the menu which I still remember.
But when I was 10 I got a PC, installed Fallout and never looked back. Why would I play childish games like Zelda and Mario when I can play Fallout or Diablo? Come on.

That said, I am curious what the insane hype is about, so maybe I will force myself to emulate Tears someday to give it a change. Fuck playing it on original decade old hardware though.

 

[Kyougar]

My hubby is actually considering getting the ROG handheld just because Steam Deck hasn't launched in Australia STILL (Wtf is Valve doing??). I told him i didn't like the lack of trackpad or the RGB, but he says he likes that it runs windows and he plans to multitask with it as a result.

Valve 399 - not in Australia
ROG 799 - available in Australia

that's 400 more worldwide just because they ship it to Australia!!!!1111

 

[Durante]

Played BOTW on the Switch, and close to finishing it now (though I decided to skip on the DLC). I think for Tears I'll wait a bit longer for emulation support to mature a bit and play it on PC for once.

For the debate about how BOTW fits in to the rest of the series, I'll say that I found most older Zelda games to be "ok", with Windwaker to be my favourite of the pre-BOTW ones, mostly because it allows the kind of exploration that I like about BOTW, even if it's not truly as free and unscripted in Windwaker as I would want.
I can also understand that fans of the old ones aren't happy with BOTW. It doesn't have the same linear, heavily item-based progression that the old ones had. I just never cared one bit about it, since the games assume you are brain-dead and need every little thing spoonfed to you. BOTW does this too, way more than I would want, but there's at least hints of actual player freedom in BOTW that I find sorely lacking in every other title.

I wouldn't say every other title. E.g. the early 2D Zeldas had a pretty outstanding amount of player freedom for their time (particularly compared to console contemporaries of course). The more recent pre-BotW entries became more formulaic I would say (though still with good game design sprinkled throughout).

One could well argue that BotW is closer to a "natural" development from "The Legend of Zelda" after a few decades of tech advancement than something like Twilight Princess would be.

Edit: Talking about the months it will take to run TotK at great fidelity, apparently a variable/dynamic framerate mod was just released.

 

[fokkusu]

Went to local shop for weekly food refill and was ready to buy Zelda, but it wasn't available. Keep your game then Nintendo. I'll buy it second hand

 

[Lashley]

Storm DLC finished in Midnight Suns.

Shame it sold like shit, I loved it.

 

[Sobatronix]

Was anybody else able to play Far Cry 6? Useless Ubisoft Connect says it can't connect to the server effectively locking me out of the single player game I just bought

 

[fantomena]

Picked up Zelda. Between that and Midnight Suns, good gaming times ahead.

 

[Alexandros]

Storm DLC finished in Midnight Suns.

Shame it sold like shit, I loved it.

It has its issues but at its core Midnight Suns is a really, really great game.

 

[ExistentialThought]

They are working on setting up warehouses in Australia, but they get invaded by all kinds of snakes, spiders and other crawly things, plus the drop bears make it impossible to safely get in and out. Once they get the survival rate of their package drivers up to 30% or more, they will go ahead, I would assume.

When the world needed him the most, he was nowhere to be found

 

[toxicitizen]

Storm DLC finished in Midnight Suns.

Shame it sold like shit, I loved it.

I really need to go back to it and finish the main story. Currently trying to finish P5R before Street Fighter 6 comes out. Hopefully I'll have ennough time to do Midnight Suns as well. I think I was pretty far into it.

 

[Arc]

I've only played Zelda a few hours, but I can confidently say Nintendo has embarrassed every AAA publisher that pushes out an underbaked, buggy game to meet a deadline. The entire game oozes polish and quality.

 

[MonthOLDpickle]

I can say that I am not into Zelda or ever was so when I tried botw I was pretty underwhelmed. Not for me.

The new game can't really be a buggy mess since they already had a foundation through.

 

[lashman]

and this trash is getting 10s across the board? HERESY!!!

 

[Mivey]

and this trash is getting 10s across the board? HERESY!!!

Are you surprised? Clearly this is game made by darned cat lovers

See more

 

[Le Pertti]

 

[Alextended]

I've only played Zelda a few hours, but I can confidently say Nintendo has embarrassed every AAA publisher that pushes out an underbaked, buggy game to meet a deadline. The entire game oozes polish and quality.

Anyone saying otherwise wouldn't know good game/gameplay/level design if it hit them in the face. That's regardless of a genre/style of play being to one's liking. The same was true for BOTW and is true for tons of their flagship titles. Devs like From Software or pretty much any dev one wants to say is superior because they prefer x or feel it should be praised instead of rather than alongside Zelda would do well to take notes (and most likely did/do anyway, trolls trying to diminish such achievements or go against popular thing while previously playing meh, lackluster, gacha or otherwise knock off games be damned). Retrospectively trashing amazing, pioneering games and experiences like Ocarina of Time or Super Mario 64 and all they did for games as a whole is silly too. But sure, let's pretend the best designed open worlds in video games are just heightmaps with generic crap thrown at them a la Ubisoft, that works too I guess.

 

[Line]

No matter what you think about the new Zelda games, if we're talking polish... shouldn't we also consider the absolute garbage state of the framerate and frame pacing (and draw distance and etc etc)?
Because anyone gets crucified for that (rightfully so), but it gets easily forgotten in the celebration for a new Ubis-Nintendo game.

 

[Alextended]

No matter what you think about the new Zelda games, if we're talking polish... shouldn't we also consider the absolute garbage state of the framerate and frame pacing (and draw distance and etc etc)?
Because anyone gets crucified for that (rightfully so), but it gets easily forgotten in the celebration for a new Ubis-Nintendo game.

Seems like it's solid on Switch, even if you can still bring it down, more or less easily depending on the area/task at hand.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - the Digital Foundry verdict

Technical analysis, image quality testing and performance numbers on Nintendo's next big game.

www.eurogamer.net

That some like ignoring the whole (or think Switch should have gotten magically more powerful since 2017 to match PS5) and focus on the 20fps instances doesn't change it. Never found huge issue with From's games myself (past Durante's necessary fixes for Dark Souls). Only a few loud people harped on them anyway, given their games' success, so it's not really that different to such titles (and definitely different to disasters like Callisto Protocol or Bethesda bugfests).

Did you forget to pirate the patch available days before the official launch, are you judging unmodded emulator performance or maybe you haven't even played it since 3D Zelda is not your thing so you're going by said vocal online complaints that could be on those conditions (and is against the nobody complains deal)?

Why are we talking about this in the Steam thread anyway?

 

[lashman]

 

[thekeats1999]

So the latest live letter for FFXIV was today. For those waiting to be able to play the game entirely solo you are almost there *. With the 6.4 patch all of Stormblood is now playable. The only bits left to do is the patch content for Stormblood, which I would expect to be released in about 4 months time.

* The only issue is the Crystal Tower. This content needs to be done as a 24 man raid and is part of the MSQ. Without spoilers, this content is kind off critical to the overall story.

 

[yuraya]

No matter what you think about the new Zelda games, if we're talking polish... shouldn't we also consider the absolute garbage state of the framerate and frame pacing (and draw distance and etc etc)?
Because anyone gets crucified for that (rightfully so), but it gets easily forgotten in the celebration for a new Ubis-Nintendo game.

Sadly console gamers and the gaming media have very low standards when it comes to those things.

Also Nintendo is a big media darling dev too so nobody goes after them like they do others. Some devs always have bullseye on their backs. Just wait until something like Starfield comes out people lose their shit over FPS and draw distance on Xbox. Every little glitch will be turned into compilation video. Youtubers screaming in anger. Execs called to be fired. Xbox is doomed. New engine is needed etc etc.

 

[madjoki]

You know what, I'll be rooting for the patent troll on this one, get that shit out of our games!

On unlikely situation they'd win, patent will have expired.

 

[Joe Spangle]

I'm into Zelda. First one was an early gaming memory for me so it has a nostalgic place in my heart. Link to the Past was an amazing game and Ocarina of Time was one of those next level games. Played a few others but those three stand out for me. I loved Breath of the Wild - on cemu at 60fps and 1080p. Was a joy to play that game so i'll def get the new one at some point once emulation is spot on.

 

[Kyougar]

its scrap

 

[SaberVS7]

Well, for all the talk I heard about Amazon being unreliable for Day 1 releases, my copy of THE "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom" GAME FOR "Nintendo Switch" SYSTEM arrived just a few minutes ago. Guess I'll give my poor PC the rest it deserves for a bit.