For the average player, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will take upwards of 50 hours to beat--that is, complete the game's main storyline and save Hyrule. For regular players, conquering Tears of the Kingdom is all about diligence, patience, and creative crafting. For speedrunners, it's about using every tool at their disposal to push the limits of what the latest Zelda will allow. Theirs is a game of strategy, where each player is competing against themselves to work faster and smarter. The first to claim victory, Carl Wernicke, who goes by Gymnast86 online, hails from the US and set the record for his community with a time of 1:34:33.

Making a follow-up to Breath of the Wild (BoTW) is an almost impossible task. Not only was the first Zelda game on the Nintendo Switch an instant classic, it's also one of the best games in an incredibly storied franchise. To make things even more difficult, Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom features the same basic graphics, map layout and general mechanics as its predecessor, which can sometimes make follow-ups feel more like an expansion pack instead of a true sequel. But after getting a chance to play a hands-on preview build of Tears of the Kingdom, I think Nintendo might have just pulled it off by making a game that expands upon the original and then blasting it into the sky (literally) with a new world of creation. Now before we get into the preview itself, I should mention that this build didn't touch on any of Tears of the Kingdom's (ToTK) story. The demo strictly focused on showing off Link's new abilities in a small area that had me battling through a Bokoblin camp before exploring some of the game's new sky islands.

It was after a particularly grueling session with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that I started to wonder: When did developers stop putting cheats into their games to help the less talented among us get through the tricky bits? When I was a kid, a little bit of Up Down Left Right A and Start together, and a little older, a little / noclip saved me no end of bother. These days, if you look for cheats for any modern game online, the best you'll get is to be sassily told to "git gud." Sorry, a little context: I play games, but I'm not a Gamer, or a Nintendo Person, so in 2023 I resolved to remedy this. So many discussions at work fly past me because while I've heard of Cliff Bleszinski and Hironobu Sakaguchi, I couldn't tell you their oeuvre without Googling.

Nintendo shared one last trailer of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom before it launches on May 12th. It teases the whole Hyrule world – including the floating island – as well as Link's allies, who will fight alongside him. The plot is typical Zelda fare: You have to find the princess and defeat Ganon. But the fused weapons and vehicles both seem to be major parts of how the game will play. You can even build a robot to take on enemies that have their own battle platform.

Nintendo has shared one last trailer before The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom arrives on May 12th, and this one is worth watching if you're looking for some insight into the story. The rather lengthy clip showcases not only a large and varied world (including the floating islands above Hyrule), but Link's allies. As Zelda makes clear, "you are not alone." There's even a moment where Link offers a wagon ride. The plot appears familiar -- surprise, you'll have to find Zelda and defeat Ganon.

The very first Zelda game to let players catch fish was "The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening," released for the original Game Boy in 1993. The minigame was devised by Kazuaki Morita, an avid fisher, who would also work on 1998's "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time," a game that ushered in a new level of quality for fishing minigames. In a secluded lagoon, Link is able to paddle out on his canoe and cast out using the Z-targeting system, a mechanic for locking onto enemies that Morita transposed to fish. As Links casts his float, the camera swoops overhead before diving below the water as the fish takes the bait. Link's rod bends under the strain of the fish, the camera zooming out to the regular third-person perspective until the fish is eventually caught.

Modern video games can be so perceptibly realistic – grass rippling in a gentle breeze, non-player characters going about their daily routines, faces and gestures that look so close to those of real humans – that they've started to call to mind Plato's old chin-stroker about the cave (reimagined in 1999's trench coat-flapping classic The Matrix.) What if we are all trapped inside a shockingly realistic illusion? Would we really know if we were inside a video game? If you're looking for reassurance that we haven't yet reached the singularity, boot up the ropey Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. In this second Pokémon outing of the year, developer Game Freak abandons February's Legends: Arceus's intriguing feudal-era setting, but otherwise picks up where it left off.

The impact of Japanese RPGs on pop and gaming culture cannot be overstated. From Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star to Chrono Trigger, NieR, and Fire Emblem -- JRPGs have spanned console generations, bridged the Japanese and North American markets, spawned entire universes of IP and delivered critical commercial hits for nearly four decades. Modern gaming simply wouldn't exist as it does today if not for the influence of JRPGs. In his newest book, Fight, Magic, Items: The History of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and the Rise of Japanese RPGs, Aidan Moher takes a wondrous in-depth look at the history of Japanese role playing games, their initial rise in the East, the long road to acceptance in the West and ultimate cultural impact the world over. In the excerpt below, Moher explores how Pokemon grew from Gameboy screens to become a multi-billion dollar entertainment juggernaut.

K'Sante's launch was complicated by some of Riot's marketing efforts. Lil Nas X is this year's "League of Legends" World Championship performer, after the annual esports event "hosted" a group of virtual Korean pop stars called K/DA (a group invented by Riot) in years prior. Lil Nas X's collaboration came with a big marketing rollout: The singer debuted a new theme song, and starred in several advertisements where he pretended to be the so-called president of Riot Games. The collaboration will also help Riot sell in-game merchandise: Lil Nas X designed a cosmetic skin for K'Sante that will be sold for real money via in-game currency.

Watching "League of Legends" live for the first time in person, after years of following along while the tournament was held in Paris or Chinese cities, was a wild experience. I brought a friend with me, one who only casually plays "League." Sitting down in Hulu Theater at New York's Madison Square Garden this past weekend, I immediately felt a rush from seeing thousands in the crowd screaming, booing and cheering over things as small as an enemy stealing a red buff with smite, or a few players trying to return to base but getting stopped by an enemy spell. At first, it was blood-pumping. Feeling the crowd's nail-biting trepidation only added to a broader sense of communal joy.