earlier this week, i ventured down to nintendo'sbay area heqadquarters to spend an hour of play-time with the the legend of zelda: thewind waker...hd. and that last part is key, because this is still very much the same windwaker you know--and maybe love--only with a fresh coat of paint and some small, butsmart improvements. now while i have tried the game before ate3, i was actually able to play through a section far later in the game, starting fromhyrule castle. but unfortunately, i don't actually have footage or screenshots of everythingi saw, so please just keep in mind that the visuals may not always match up perfectly okay, so let me get it out of the way...i'mnot the biggest wind waker fan...whoa, whoa,
okay, okay...is anyone still watching? i won'tget into all the reasons, but sailing was definitely pretty high up on my list. it wasslow, it broke up the pace of the game, and having to change the wind direction with thethe wind waker constantly annoyed me to no end. basically, sailing felt like the longestloading screen i'd ever experienced in a game which is why i was very happy during my play-timewith the wind waker hd becasause it improves on this in almost every imaginable way...andmore. the biggest change is that you'll now gain access to a swift sail, which true toits name, allows you to sail around the ocean at a far brisker pace. and not only does itincrease your overall top-speed, but the wind's direction will actually change automaticallyto match whichever direction you're heading,
which reduced the amount of times you'll haveto use the wind waker by at least a thousand. okay, so maybe it only felt like a thousand.now for you purists out there, don't worry, you can still access the slower, wind-dependentsail from before too...but why would you so so far, i'm feeling pretty good. but theni noticed that the gamepad can now display your sea chart, instead of having to accessit from the pause screen like in the original. which is a really nice addition, as you cannow chart your course as you're set sail. taken altogether, these small changes greatlyimprove and streamline the sailing process. now i can't say for sure whether i'll actuallyenjoy sailing this time around, but it'll certainly annoy me far less.
now that's not the only benefit the gamepadprovides. in addition to displaying a map of your current area, it's also used for inventorymanagement, allowing you easily equip items in real-time simply by dragging and droppingthem onto 3 any of three button slots. and the gamepad even improves using some ofthose items, allowing you to use the gamepad's gyroscope to quickly--and accurately-aim anyof the first-person perspectiveitems, such as the hookshot. oh, and you can even walkaround and aim while in in the first-person too. then there's link's camera, the pictographbox, which has seen some major improvements. such as how it can now save 12 pictures insteadof just 3, and they're also in glorious full-color
instead of the black & white originals. oh,and you can even now take slfies too--and you can even change link's expression. butwhat good is a selfie if you can't share it, and luckily, you can do just that thanks tomiiverse support. another new feature enabled by miiverse aretingle bottles, which you'll gain access to once ytou rescue tingle--which by the way,is no longer optional. these allow you drop bottled messages into the ocean where they'llthen wash-up on the shore of someone else playing the game. we weren't able to see thisin action, but we imagine it could be useful for providing gameplay tips to whomever mayencounter the bottle. unfortunately, this does come at the expense of the tingle tuneroption from the original game, which is unfortunate
as it would have been a perfect fit for thegamepad. now perhaps one of the biggest gripes peoplehad about wind waker was the infamous triforce hunt. you know, the one where you had to sailaround looking for sea charts that you then had to have deciphered for 300 rupees a popin order to then seek out the 8 different pieces of the triforce? well, that too hasbeen greatly improved. now i wasn't able to try it myself, but according to the nintendorep, you'll still have to hunt down all 8, but this time only 3 of them require sea charts,which should greatly simplify and shorten the amount of time it takes. really, wind waker has received nips and tucksin all kinds of ways. some animations have
been shortened, it's now faster to pull upsunken treasure, and even the using the wind waker has been tweaked, now allowing you tostart conducting at any time. and of course, the entire thing looks gorgous,especially with its improved lightning models all running at 1080p,. now as far as i couldtell, the raw assets themselves--such as the character models--are all identical to before,so you'll still see some blocky polkygons here and there. but the otherwise the fantasticvisuals really make them a non-issue. and there are several ways to play the gametoo, as the game supports the pro controller in addition to the gamepad, as well as off-screenplay. and for you more experienced wind waker fans, there is a new hero mode available fromthe start that not only doubles the amount
of damage you'll take, but also removes allhealth-restoring hearts from the adventure--nasty! but this game has plenty of heart to be foundin all the right places, with some very smart tweaks that improve what many already considerto be link's finest adventure. and you won't have much longer before you can try it foryourself, as it launch in the united states this october at $59.99. thanks for watching and make sure to staytuned to gamexplain.com for more on the legend of zelda: the wind waker hd and other thingsgaming too.
Just got my check for $500
Sometimes people don't believe me when I tell them about how much you can make taking paid surveys online...
So I took a video of myself actually getting paid $500 for paid surveys to finally set the record straight.
Comments
Post a Comment