The final trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom finally gave us a proper look at the King of Evil: Ganondorf.
The three-minute look at the Breath of the Wild sequel was packed with new enemies, bosses, returning characters, and hints at some of the changes Hyrule has undergone in the time since the original.
While he hasn’t been named yet, the character we can only assume is Ganondorf shows up in this trailer. There’s also a character with flowing red hair that stares directly into a blood moon early on in the trailer, but this character bears closer resemblance to Skyward Sword’s Demise rather than Ganondorf.
The final trailer began in the sky, keeping in line with much of Tears of the Kingdom’s marketing so far. We saw some establishing shots of the Sky Islands before seeing Link skydive onto the land of Hyrule below. Very quickly, we see Link running through Hateno Village, a returning location from Breath of the Wild that was previously host to the Ancient Tech Lab.
Interestingly, the trailer then cuts to a shot of the fountain just outside of Hyrule Castle. There’s a settlement of new tents here, indicating that the rebuild effort mentioned at the end of Breath of the Wild is in full swing.
Next, we see some sort of structure rising from the sand in the Gerudo area of the map. It’s still too early to call for sure, but this could be the classic dungeon many Zelda fans have been hoping for.
We’re officially less than a month away from the next mainline Zelda game. Tears of the Kingdom will be released on May 12, 2023, alongside a ton of Zelda-themed products. In addition to the game, Nintendo is releasing a special edition Switch OLED, Collector’s Edition, pro controller, case, and amiibo.
Developing…
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over seven years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
As I was pleased to let you know earlier this week, the next free game for RPS premium supporters is roguelite citybuilder Against The Storm. This is your reminder that you can log on to claim your copy today, April 13th, from 4pm BST/8am PT. That should be around the same time as Against The Storm gets is new free update, Sentinels Of The Forest, which adds Foxes as a playable species, along with new buildings, abilities, and porridge – the most sensible of all the breakfast foods
We don’t have infinite codes, so this key drop, kindly provided by publishers Hooded Horse, is on a first come, first served basis until we run out.
Well, that was a heck of a trailer, wasn’t it, folks? The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is out in just under a month, and series producer Eiji Aonuma joined us to share the very last trailer we’ll be getting before the game launches on 12th May.
Featuring tons of shots of Hyrule, characters, and some story hints, Tears of the Kingdom’s seamless sky and land open-world looks to be an utter delight to explore, packed full of references from previous games. We’re gawking a little bit.
It’s go time! Take up arms in Season 4 – Ballista, now available for Gundam Evolution! This newest season celebrates the half year anniversary of the game and includes a new mode, character, and map.
New Mobile Suit: Gundam Dynames
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 fans may recognize this notable mobile suit from Season 1 of the anime. Gundam Dynames, piloted by none other than Gundam Meister Lockon Stratos, is joining the Gundam Evolution roster! Just like in the anime, Gundam Dynames will utilize its excellent marksmanship skills using both the GN Sniper Rifle and GN Beam Pistol on the battlefield. You’ll be able to provide your team cover from a variety of ranges – perfect for a shifting battlefield!
Let’s go over the skills of the newest addition to the team:
Weapon Swap – Swap between your GN Sniper Rifle and GN Beam Pistol – with the weapon in reserve reloading automatically!
GN Missile – Fire a missile that explodes for damage and pulls nearby enemies towards the impact point – even pulling them out of cover!
Recovery Gun – Inject repairs directly into your allies from a distance and ensure they don’t fall!
G Maneuver: Trans Am – Activate your GN Drive’s hidden potential to hyper-charge your next few shots!
You’ll be able to unlock Gundam Dynames by purchasing Evo Coins or completing challenges to earn Capital in-game.
New Game Mode: Headquarters
A new game mode just dropped with Season 4 – Ballista. Headquarters is a fully dynamic, multi-stage game mode that truly tests your team’s coordination and abilities. Teams who can do this and keep up the momentum will be rewarded with sweet, sweet victory. Check it out!
New Map: Buried City
A new area to hone and show off your skills is here! This new map will be in rotation for both Casual and Ranked matches. Buried City has a variety of corridors and pathways for you to intercept your opponent and surprise them with an attack! It also has sections for your team to take advantage of the high ground and relentlessly assault the enemy with a barrage of projectiles.
We’re excited to see how you play on this new map!
Prepare for success!
With such a huge roster of Mobile suits you may be asking, what’s the best start? While we can’t give you the win, here are a few pointers to give you the edge on this new battlefield.
The first point has multiple routes.
To start, you can slip around or underneath the first objective to take your enemy from behind or hit them on an exposed flank. This is great for fast units who can quickly cause confusion, such as Zaku Ranged or Heavarms Custom. Maybe you’re more of a ranged player who wants to make the most of the distance. On one side of the first objective is a lift with a window that gives you the height advantage, which is perfect for preventing a capture or holding down the line. Sounds perfect for a unit like Gundam Dynames that just released as part of Season 4.
Use your full armaments.
When you eventually reach the core, take note of the multiple entry points to keep your enemy on their toes. Certain Mobile Suits like Asshimar have Active Skills with an area of effect that can also harm the core while keeping the enemy at bay. Guntank has a cannon that can be used to deal extra damage to the core. Make use of each Mobile Suits’ strengths to chip away and get yourself those extra points.
As always, support your team!
After dealing enough damage, a mobile suit will be in a broken state before it eventually destructs. The walk back to the objectives can mean the difference between getting that last percentage of damage, so do your best to provide your team with a quick pick-me-up so they can get back into the fight and win the round.
Time to Jump In, Pilots!
Gundam Evolution is an immersive, fast-paced 6v6 team shooter where you’re able to pilot iconic Mobile Suits from the smash hit “Mobile Suit Gundam” anime series. Jump into combat as Gundam Dynames, Heavyarms, and more from this expanding roster.
Gundam Evolution now has four different game modes that allow you to show off your teamwork and tactical skills: Point Capture, Domination, Destruction, and Headquarters. Coordinate with your team and align your G-Maneuvers to come out on top!
Season 4 is out now! Can’t wait to start piloting your own Mobile Suit? Download Gundam Evolution for free on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S now and experience these exciting Mobile Suit battles firsthand.
GUNDAM EVOLUTION is an online FPS title in which players take control of mobile suits from the hit Gundam anime and fight other online players in six-versus-six battles. Features fast-paced action and immersive controls. Switch between mobile suits with their own unique characteristics and cooperate with teammates to win matches.
*This title features random in-game items in exchange for in-game currency.
PlayStation Plus gets a dose of colorful 3D-platforming fun this month in the form of Sackboy: A Big Adventure.
Originally released in 2020 and created by Sumo Digital, the UK-based developer tapped into its previous experiences across platformer and multiplayer genres (LittleBigPlanet 3, Team Sonic Racing) to craft a captivating yarn. Levels are imaginative and reward exploration, and occasionally stray into musically-led stages backed by pop hits. Collectibles are many and worth discovering – offering secret pathways and increasingly dazzling costumes to deck out your character. Co-op (up to four players local or online) is joyful in its continuous tandem of cooperative and competitive.
To mark its launch on PlayStation Plus, we talked about the game’s origins with XDEV Producer Mark O’Connor. O’Connor shares some early concept sketches and gives his insights into how the core gameplay pillars came to be.
A highly interactive 3D world
“The concept for Sackboy: A Big Adventure started way back in 2017. The original pitch was simple (to say the least): Sackboy: A Big Adventure at its heart was to be a brand-new platforming experience set in Sackboy’s familiar home of Craftworld; complete levels, battle bosses and save the world!
“We wanted to reimagine the LittleBigPlanet franchise within a vibrant, (and for the very first time) fully 3D environment, that had that familiar feel of physicality woven into the game’s DNA. Everything is physical, from the gameplay, to the world, through to the UI and beyond. Advanced real-time physical behaviors create a highly interactive 3D world: cloth stretches and tears, sponges squash and absorb, balloons inflate and burst, fluids ebb and flow.
Caption: These early concept sketches show how real world materials influenced the look and feel of the levels and their inhabitants. At the top, a Himalaya-like area built with carved foam and metallic paper, below, an enemy with a cardboard cylinder halo.
“We wanted to make certain that each level had a unique twist ensuring there’s something new and fresh around every corner. All whilst making sure it was responsive, had accessible controls and took advantage of what the PlayStation 5 had to offer.”
Levels tailored for both solo and multiplayer…
“The LittleBigPlanet titles were always designed as games that could be played solo or co-op and this is something that we didn’t want to change for Sackboy: A Big Adventure. It was always important to us that Sackboy’s very first 3D platforming adventure could still be played solo or with family and friends, with every player still being able to create and control their very own Sackperson.
“So, Sackboy: A Big Adventure was built from the ground up as a four-player co-op adventure with fun, physical character interactions that give players loads of ways to cooperate (and target each other). We wanted to encourage players to join forces to push, pull, slap and roll into objects (and each other).
“One great example of this is being able to stack Sackboys and Sackgirls to create a precarious “Sack Totem” and get to hard-to-reach places. These different ways to play make the game truly co-op. Players now have more meaningful interactions and are no longer just running through the same level side-by-side.
“Players of all abilities can join in the fun! Simple catch-up mechanics make sure that no one gets left behind. If one player can navigate an obstacle, then everyone can!”
…and enjoyably competitive co-op
“Players of all skill levels can enjoy the adventure together, as we wanted the co-op and competitive mechanics to create a rich social experience.
“Playful interactions and scoring mechanics introduce loads of opportunities for friendly competition. Trigger a flash event and be the first to grab the shower of prize bubbles. Slap their hard-earned Collectabells currency out of your friend’s pockets. Score the highest on a level to earn bragging rights and the winner’s trophy at the end of the level.
“We decided early on that we wanted to showcase the character customisation options that allow the player to express themselves and make their Sackperson their own… So what better way than adding a photo finish at the end of the level? This way you can bask in the glory and focus on what pose you want to display.
“Besides, have you really played a Sackboy game… if you have never slapped or thrown your friends off of some high platform? We know that you all do it!”
High-level play with rewards for exploration
“We wanted a level of difficulty which is welcoming to new players and scales as you progress and gain experience.
Having desirable unlockables and rewards encourages you to keep on playing. Some are on the general gameplay path, but others you must seek out, which means there are always new areas to explore and new experiences to enjoy with Sackboy and your friends.
“These are all brought together within a rich narrative that provides a sense of purpose and gives context to the gameplay.”
Music-themed levels
“The franchise has a history of using music in creative ways and we wanted to make sure that a range of music from upcoming, leftfield and world music artists soundtracked the many worlds in Sackboy: A Big Adventure.
“However, massive internationally-known pop hits had never really featured before – the challenge was what could we do with these well-known songs that would bring surprise and delight to the players. The answer was to design the levels around the songs – something the team at Sumo did brilliantly.
“There were some design considerations – the songs had to ideally run at a set tempo and have contained sections (verse, chorus, bridge etc). We would also look at where each level was set, to see if there might be some appropriate lyrical or thematic content – ‘Jungle Boogie’ in the jungle just made a whole lot of sense!
“Ultimately, the designers went to town synchronising the track to events in these levels. Every stage in Sackboy has a different approach to music design, with each track developing over the course of the level. For us, every level is a music level but these stand out as a wonderfully harmonious example.
It’s taken a few GPUs, but Nvidia’s RTX 40 series is finally veering away from ludicrous luxuries and heading back in the right direction: that of graphics cards you can, and maybe even should buy, even if you’re not the heir to an Emirati property conglomerate. The GeForce RTX 4070 launches with a heavier price tag than the RTX 3070, and doesn’t make the shin-splintering performance leap forward that its predecessor did, but between its high speeds, low power usage, and DLSS 3 advantage, it’s a potent upgrade regardless.
Fans of Amplitude Studio’s ever-evolving ENDLESS series might be sad to hear that Endless Dungeon has been delayed by five months, pushing its May release date back to October 19th. The extra time will be spent “to better incorporate community feedback,” by improving the balancing, meta-progression, and onboarding, and giving the roguelike a few more layers of polish.
Success Corporation, the developer most well-known for the Cotton series of cute ’em ups, is bringing its take on the farm sim to the west on Switch in June 2023. Shepherd’s Crossing originally launched on PS2 in 2008, before receiving a PSP port in 2010 (thanks, @gosokkyu!).
Known as Hakoniwa Bokujou Hitsuji Mura in Japan, the Switch version launched in Japan last November, but we’ll be getting it on Switch, PS4, and PC here in the west — the PC version is out on 28th April, even! A PS4 version will also be launching in Japan at the same time.
Summer Games Done Quick is coming back for its annual speedrunning charity event. Like previous years, SGDQ will be raising money for Doctors Without Borders, an NGO that provides medical care to those affected by disease, disasters, and conflicts. An Elden Ring double bill closed last year’s event – which managed to raise more than $3 million for charity – and FromSoftware’s juggernaut is once again featured at 2023’s SGDQ.
Since the arrival of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet late last year, the limited-time events and promotions in the game have been non-stop. The next one coming up is the ‘Global Challenge 2023 II’ (the second phase of the Global Challenge 2023 competition).
Serebii.net notes how registration is open from 13th April until 20th April, and battles will run from 21st April until 23rd April. Participants will receive 10,000 League Points, and a ‘Great Ball Canvas Backpack’ for all players connected to Pokémon HOME that participate in three or more battles. Codes for the backpack will be distributed to HOME after the conclusion of the comp.
