World Exclusive:The Legend Of Zelda

Emastergamers

April 2016

contentsSpecial Zelda Issue

Features

Playstation VrEmerse a new world of unexpected gaming experiences with PlayStation®VR. Redefine your expectations of immersion in gaming with moments so intense your intuition takes over. Step into incredible virtual worlds and overcome new challenges in extraordinary ways.

Uncharted 4

Several years after his last adventure, retired fortune hunter, Nathan Drake, is forced back into the world of thieves in the newly Playstation 4 experience.

The Legend of ZeldaThe Legend of Zelda is an action-adventure game that takes place in a fully connected overworld, similar to the original The Legend of Zelda, with less emphasis on defined entrances and exits to dungeons. The game allows the player to have more freedom over previous titles, allowing them to decide their destination and method of travel.

Zelda Game timeline

Discover a new world of unexpected gaming experiences with PlayStation VR. Redefine your expectations of immersion in gaming with moments so intense your intuition takes over. Step into incredible virtual worlds and over-come new challenges in extraordinary ways. Greatness Awaits with PlayStation VR.

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A Link to the past A step to the future

The Legend of Zelda is an action-adventure game that takes place in a fully connected overworld, similar to the original The Legend of Zelda, with less emphasis on de-fined entrances and exits to dungeons. The game allows

the player to have more freedom over previous titles, allowing them to decide their destination and method of travel. The over-world can be traversed on foot or on Link’s horse, Epona. Epona automatically avoids obstacles, allowing the player to concentrate on other tasks, such as shooting arrows. Link can leap off Epona and enter bullet time to better aim his bow at enemies. The game world, said to be the largest one in any Zelda game, is as large as the Wii U’s hardware can handle. On January 23, 2013, during a Nintendo Direct video stream, producer Eiji Aonuma stated that a new The Legend of Zelda game was in development for the Wii U, and that it would challenge some of the series’ conventions, such as the requirement that players complete dungeons in a set order.

In Nintendo’s Digital Event presented at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014, Aonuma revealed the first in-game footage, featuring high-definition visuals that incorporate cel shading, and said the title was scheduled for release in 2015. On March 27, 2015, Aonuma announced in a video that the game would be delayed, stating our priority is to make it the ulti-mate and most complete Zelda game”, the team was no longer targeting a 2015 release window, and the title would likely not be shown at E3 2015. At the convention in June of that year, Reggie Fils-Aimé, the president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, said in an interview that the game would be released in 2016. Also during E3 2015, former Nintendo Entertainment Analy-sis & Development general manager Shigeru Miyamoto reaffirmed the title is still bound for the Wii U, despite the development of the “new dedicated gaming platform” known by the code name “NX”.

Aonuma has emphasized on numerous occasions the development team’s focus on “rethinking the con-ventions of Zelda”, an idea that first prompted the change in the series’ gameplay style to non-linear, open-world, and objective-based gameplay in 2013’s A Link Between Worlds, reminis-cent of the original The Legend of Zelda. In an interview with Kotaku the week of E3 2014, Aonuma said one of the ways he wanted to alter the norms of Zelda was by reforming dungeons and puzzle solving, two major gameplay elements in the series. Nintendo Direct presentation today, the Wii U pub-lisher reaffirmed that The Legend of Zelda is still targeting a 2016 release. Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aime also debuted a brief snippet of Legend of Zelda Wii U foot-age, which still looks gorgeous. Although Nintendo had already squashed speculation that today’s Nintendo Direct would address future NX or mobile plans, the com-pany brought a few big announcements to the table. Granted, we would have liked to see and hear more about The Leg-end of Zelda Wii U, but that’s typically not Nintendo’s M.O. Assurance seemed to be the message of the day, so those con-cerned Zelda might slip further and further out of reach can breathe easy. Unfortunately, the Legend of Zelda footage was so brief that there isn’t much to analyze or even speculate about. All that was shown was Link riding a horse through a grassy hill area before coming to a full stop. If nothing else, though, the footage proves that Zelda will feature some impressive vistas and a colorful palette. That being said, the recent Wolf Link amiibo announcement has led

to some speculation about the new game’s story and themes. According to Nintendo, although the amiibo is designed to

work with the recently announced Twilight Princess HD, the toys-to-life figure will also have some Zelda Wii U functionality as well. Could this be confirmation that Midna and or Wolf Link will ap-pear in the upcoming game? Or is this simply a way for amiibo owners to get a little extra bang for their buck? Whatever the case may be, it’s clear Nintendo

is trying to keep the focus on The Legend of Zelda as an upcoming triple-A release

and not necessarily on its associat-ed platforms.Many havespeculat-ed that, like with Twilight Princess, the new Zelda will be a cross plat-form release for Nintendo, hitting both the Wii U and the NX. That’s assuming the NX releases by the end of 2016, which is a possibility but is by no means set in stone. While Nintendo Directs are typi-cally good for major announce-ments like Twilight Princess HD and Star Fox Zero’s release date, we’re more inclined to be-lieve the big Zelda Wii U news is being saved for E3 2016. When it comes to Zelda, Nintendo loves to keep the fan base speculating and waiting.

Nintendo announced that the game is now expected to launch in 2017 alongside a newly announced NX version of the game. With no forthcoming details about the next-generation “NX” console, re-leasing globally in March 2017, The Legend of Zelda will be the main focus for the company at this year’s E3 event, Nintendo of America. The company had previously delayed the game beyond 2015, skip-ping last year’s E3 event entirely. Series producer Eiji Aonuma said at the time that “the team has experienced firsthand the freedom of exploration that hasn’t existed in any Zelda game to date, we have discovered several new possibilities for this game”. The last time the company shared footage of The Legend of Zelda for Wii U was at The Game Awards in December 2014.Pre-release reception was positive after the game’s reveal. Before the announce-ment of the delay, GameTrailers ranked the new Zelda title number one in its countdown of most-anticipated upcoming video games, citing its freedom of exploration and “design philosophy that both reinvents what a Zelda game can be while simultaneously bringing it back to its roots.” In the website’s community poll, released a week later, The Legend of Zelda was the second most-anticipated game, beaten only by The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. After the title’s delay into 2016, GameTrailers ranked the game at number ten on the 2016 edi-tion of the list. However, The Legend of Zelda was the third most-an-ticipated game of the year in the website’s 2016 community poll, be-hind Persona 5 and Final Fantasy XV. The Legend of Zelda (working title) was originally scheduled to launch for Wii U in 2015. The title was initially delayed to give its development team more time to realise “several new possibilities” for the game. A 2016 re-lease window was confirmed in November 2015, after Nintendo had it listed as “TBD” for a period of time. Nintendo’s announcement on Wednesday confirms reports which surfaced earlier this year that the game would be launching simultaneously across the NX and Wii U. Nintendo has not shown much of the game yet, besides a few short trailers and a screenshot. Here’s all the footage that has been released thus far.

Uncharted 4: A Theif End

Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is an upcoming action-adventure third-person shooter platform vid-eo game developed by Naughty

Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4 video game console. It is the sequel to Unchart-ed 3: Drake’s Deception, and is the fourth and final installment in the Uncharted series starring Nathan Drake, as well as the last in the series to be developed by Naughty Dog. The game will be released worldwide on May 10, 2016. Critically, the game universally praised, with applause

given to the narrative, graphics and game-play, among others. Uncharted 4 is set several years after the events of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception with Nathan “Nate” Drake, now retired as a fortune hunter, settled into a normal life with his wife Elena Fisher. His world is then turned upside down when his older brother Sam, long believed to be dead, suddenly reappears seeking Drake’s help. Together they embark on a globe-trotting journey in pursuit of a conspiracy behind Libertalia, a long lost pirate colony, and its fabled pooled pirate treasure. Naughty Dog outlined the

game’s plot as “his greatest adventure yet and will test his physical limits, his resolve, and ultimately, what he’s willing to sacrifice to save the ones he loves” On November 14, 2013, Naughty Dog released a teaser trailer for a new Uncharted game, saying that it will be released for the PlayStation 4. The trailer featured voice over by Todd Stashwick, who was to play Sam, Nathan Drake’s older brother, in the game.The trailer shows an ancient map of the African continent while the voice over can be heard. The map stops at Madagas-car and Île Sainte-Marie is marked, which was part of Francis Drake’s travel route. A Latin sentence is written next to the draw-ing of a skull: Hodie mecum eris in parad-iso (which translates to “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”) a quote from the Book of Luke 23:43. In March 2014, it was announced that Amy Hennig, the series writer and creative director, and Justin Richmond, the game director of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End at the time, had both left the studio, joining Visceral Games and Riot Games, respectively.

Platform: Playstation4 Release Date: March 10,2016

When Sony announced the PS4, we were promised new, powerful hardware, capable of brigning graphics and gameplay to new heights that were simply unimaginable with older technology. For the most part, we’ve gotten that: a few years in and the PS4 is an eminently capable buy, with a deep library of impressive games and it’s first stellar holiday season behind it. But mo-ments after the announcement, I basically only had one question running through my head: “what is Naughty Dog going to do with this?” The developer is the crown jew-el of Sony’s first party studios, and I always had the feeling that we were never really going to see what the PS4 was capable of until Uncharted 4. Sony released a solid 15 minutes of gameplay today featuring Sully, Drake and newcomer Sam Drake traipsing around Madagascar, seeing what there is to see. And yes, it looks amazing: aside from baseline excellent models and lighting, we’ve got truly impressive fluid mechanics, both in terms of water and more viscous mud. But it’s those big, open vistas that re-ally make this game, for me. Uncharted is all about the spirit of an Indiana Jones/40s pulp adventure, and something about that endless blue sky captures that better than anything else. I’m not sure how I feel about those yellow outlines around enemies, though: takes a bit of the immersion away. Probably a custom option, of course. And it’s not just a graphical showcase, either: the video showcases off a slightly more open world than the corridor me-chanics of Uncharted that we’ve seen in the past. Not open open world, mind you, just what appears to be a slightly broader selection in how you approach the level.

We see Drake sneak around back towards a more stealthy entrance, and anything to tamp down the “Nathan Drake is the most charming mass murderer you’ve ever met thing” is good news by me. We’ve had something like these options before, but here’s hoping for more. LOS ANGELES—Delays, departures, and public rumblings are enough to make any game series fan apprehensive about a sequel—especially one like Uncharted 4, whose actual gameplay has been kept at arm’s length ever since a December 2014 reveal. With the game’s May 10 launch looming, Naughty Dog finally put control-lers in hands of the press at a private event last week. While the demo didn’t include much plot or dialogue, it emphasized new ways for series hero Nathan Drake to trot the globe—some stealthier than others—and they all felt pretty fun. Once Drake got

into the car, Naughty Dog unfurled its new favorite buzz phrase: “wide linear.” Un-charted 4 doesn’t have any Grand Theft Auto-level aspirations in terms of sand-boxes or optional mission paths, but its creators want players to feel like their path through this guided, cinematic experience has a mix of path choices and required visual and storytelling beats.One way they’re getting this right is by putting play-ers into more enormous environments, which are met with faster, more capable vehicles. Forget climbing along the edges of a mountain’s cliff. It’s time to scale the entire mountain in a muck-chewing Jeep. The Madagascar mission’s opening moun-tain felt both enormous and approachable thanks to smooth-yet-burly driving me-chanics. It was easy to pull turns but also fun to drift in mud pools and rev the vehicle up steep cliffs.

Next Issue

Emastergamers

World Exclusive:Horizon Zero Dawn

may 2016

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