The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an enormous game with an open world full of places to explore and stuff that will kill you. These kinds of challenges will be familiar if you’ve played recent entries in the Elder Scrolls or Fallout series, but the game might be a bit overwhelming if you’re a casual Nintendo fan. I’m going to help by pointing out ways to increase your power quickly, as well as explain the most efficient ways to get the stuff you need to undertake the game’s challenges. This information could be seen as spoilers if you want to figure everything out for yourself, so this is your warning. The first step is ... Identify your needs It’s best to think about open world games as having two interwoven progression paths. The first is the narrative; following the quests...

Reviews of the Nintendo Switch hardware are often quick to mention that the console’s firmware still seems unfinished, and that’s particularly evident with the system’s online features. As of now you can buy games online, which is nice, and add friends for the purpose of ... well, nothing? We’re not knocking the limited internet capabilities of the Switch, to be clear. Nintendo has been upfront about the console’s still-to-come multiplayer options, some of which will be housed in a mobile app. That situation isn’t optimal, but it wasn’t a surprise. Knowing that something will be unfinished doesn’t make up for the pointless experience that is the friend list itself, however. Allegra Frank/Polygon This is the extremely, painstakingly dull Switch friend list. I...

I was in Savannah, Georgia, the first time I remember almost killing one of my kids. My wife and I were fussing over a map on the sidewalk, and my middle kid had toddled into the street. A stranger grabbed the child’s arm and pulled him back right before a car sped past. I thanked the nice old man, my face pale. Someone else’s attention had saved my kid’s life; it was one of those acts of everyday heroism that is rarely rewarded. I have five children and could tell you a dozen such stories. All good parents remember at least a few times they almost killed their children. In my experience, the parents who could learn the most from those incidents would likely claim it has never happened to them. All the good parents I know are afraid they are terrible parents. All the parents that...

Fox’s X-Men is generally regarded as the movie that began the rise of the modern superhero films, after the 90s damn near killed it. It’s an incorrect claim that honestly should go to the first Blade movie, but the X-film was a first in modern superhero movies in one regard: the inclusion of Wolverine. In doing so, the X-Men and Fox became a powerhouse in the superhero movie genre, and while there are other factors that play into it, it’d be hard to deny that Hugh Jackman wasn’t the biggest of them all. Unless you were into the Australian acting scene at the time, you likely had no idea who Hugh Jackman was in the year 2000. The role of Wolverine was originally intended for Dougray Scott (who had to depart from the film when Mission: Impossible II went over schedule), and Jackman was...

Game critic Jim Sterling and the somewhat infamous game developer James Romine of Digital Homicide have exchanged legal blows since 2014. They fought over damage to Romine’s reputation allegedly inflicted by Sterling’s videos about the studio’s work, otherwise known as libel or defamation. The result was anti-climactic: The parties settled and the case was dismissed with prejudice in federal court on Feb. 21. Many are lauding this as a victory for Sterling and free speech. However, from a legal perspective, a settlement is hardly a conclusive outcome on the merits of the case. There are still pearls of wisdom we can glean from the matter. From the perspective of a video game attorney, going to court is rarely, if ever, the optimal outcome. Settlement, and in turn identifying the...