Category: Via IGN.com

If you posted gameplay or fanart – or really, anything at all – about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild over the past six years, congrats: you may have had a small hand in influencing its sequel.

In a long interview published by Nintendo, producer Eiji Aonuma, director Hidemaro Fujibayashi, and designer Satoru Takizawa talked about how the reaction to the previous game guided their approach to Tears of the Kingdom, and how it encouraged them to give players even more freedom.

When asked if they ever watch fan gameplay videos, Aonuma answered, “there was some talk about them among the development team.

Jack Black has created yet another catchy song – and this time, it’s a love letter to video games.

Following up on his song “Peaches” for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, his band Tenacious D released “Video Games” with an accompanying music video that sports more game references than you can count on two hands. You can watch the full video here.

It opens up with an animated version of Jack Black singing about how he doesn’t play video games (we all know that’s not true) with bandmate Kyle Gass playing guitar. As the video goes on, Black begins to name a bunch of video games he’s played… while Gass gets killed by various video game creatures and characters.

If you ever wanted to go fast like Sonic – but in Crocs – now is your chance. SEGA has teamed up with Crocs to release a new line of Sonic-themed Clogs and Jibbitz charms.

The upcoming collaboration takes notes from the world of Sonic, which includes Gold Rings that you can collect throughout the game, Chaos Emeralds, chili dogs, and of course, Sonic’s red shoes. The Jibbitz charms will include fan-favorite characters such as Tails, Amy Rose, Knuckles, and Shadow.

2023 might finally be the year where 2TB PS5 SSDs might actually be worth the upgrade. Last year, prices for 1TB PS5 SSDs averaged around $150, whereas 2TB SSDs hovered closer to $300. This year, we’re seeing 1TB SSDs trickle below the $100 price point and 2TB SSDs are under $200. The reason PS5 SSD upgrades are pricey is that you can’t use any old SSD and expect it to perform well on the PS5 console. You’ll want to pick up an PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid state drive with a rated 5,500MB/s read speed to match the PS5’s internal drive. That means, for better or for worse, picking a top-shelf SSD.

Note that Sony recommends a heatsink attached to your SSD.

While most of the world is still waiting to boot up The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, producer Eiji Aonuma has already finished it 20 times, and he has some advice: “don’t head straight for the ending.”

Breath of the Wild, of course, was praised for its vast open world that encouraged non-linear exploration, and Aonuma says that detours are even more fun this time around.

“I’ve played this game from start to finish about 20 times, and I can say that it’s more fun with detours, even more so than in the previous game,” he said in a recent interview published by Nintendo.

IGN can reveal that Riot Games global president A. Dylan Jadeja will succeed Nicolo Laurent as the company’s CEO later this year.

Jadeja joined Riot in 2011 as Chief Financial Officer and became Chief Operating Officer in 2014 before being named president in 2017. He is credited as being an advocate of several Riot initiatives include the expansion of its global publishing footprint, eSport investment, the creation of Valorant, and the launch of Arcane.

“What drew me to Riot all those years ago was the authenticity of our mission, the enthusiasm of the global player community, and the passion in every corner of the company,” said Jadeja.

“This is still true today.

Tim Cain, one of the original creators of the Fallout series, has revealed on his YouTube channel (watch the full video here) that the vaults initially had a much grander purpose.

They were initially meant to send people to space, he said, hoping they would find a new planet to live on. This, of course, harkens the upcoming Starfield’s plot to mind, where humans have already begun space exploration and colonizing planets.

In the Fallout series, the entire world has been affected by nuclear missiles, leaving some people and creatures to mutate while those lucky enough not to be affected by the radiation fend for themselves.

The nuclear war was something that the Enclave (Fallout faction) and the U.S.

Bandai Namco announced that One Piece: Odyssey’s Reunion of Memories DLC will release on May 25. In this upcoming expansion, the Straw Hats are approached by a girl resembling Lim and they are sent into another world.

Over on the PlayStation Blog, Bandai Namco explained how the Reunion of Memories has a new battle system called Limited Order Battles that emphasizes a more strategic way of fighting. In a battle with Rear Admiral Barricade, the Straw Hats must defeat him while avoiding knocking out his sailor allies. Defeating the sailors isn’t necessary to win the battle, and each sailor knocked out only makes Rear Admiral Barricade stronger.

In what is perhaps the least surprising, but nonetheless exciting new, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom review is gushing. Somehow, Nintendo not only did it again, but they did it better. I’m so unbelievably hyped on this game, and since you’re here right now, I’m thinking I don’t actually need to tell you anything about it. You’re already hyped. I also don’t have to tell you about how the Tears of the Kingdom Switch OLED model is still available pretty much everywhere, but the Tears of the Kingdom Pro Controller and the Tears of the Kindgom Collector’s Edition sold out fast and probably aren’t coming back.

Ask yourself this: what do you want from a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? More enemy variety? Better dungeons? Totally unexpected new ideas? Or is simply more Hyrule to explore enough for you? Thankfully, you don’t have to pick just one, because Nintendo’s response to all of those answers is a casual but confident, “Sure thing.” The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom doesn’t necessarily revolutionize what already made Breath of the Wild one of the greatest games of all time, but it’s not a sequel that’s simply more of the same, either.