It’s been rumoured for a few days now, but after a bit of waiting, LEGO have finally confirmed it: LEGO Dimensions is over. From here on out there will be no more expansion packs for the game, and thus another Toys to Life franchise bites the dust.
Here’s the tweet confirming it from the official LEGO Dimensions account:
From building and rebuilding to the most bricktacular mash-ups, the Multiverse would be nothing without our amazing community. Thank you. pic.twitter.com/NEDbBXqjyZ
As you can tell, there’s no reason given here. Presumably the game just wasn’t selling any more, and the people behind it thought there was no reason to continue releasing packs as a result.
So yeah, it’s done. But what do you think about the news? Are you disappointed that LEGO Dimensions is now dead? Did you hope it’d last a bit longer than Skylanders and Disney Infinity?
Post your opinion on the game and its fate in the comments below or on the Gaming Latest forums today!
Back when Breath of the Wild was in development, there were a few people asking about a female Link. Or at least, the possibility of playing as a female character in general.
Now, this obviously didn’t happen in the actual game. There, not only can Link not be customised in any (real) way, but no other characters like Zelda are unlockable either. It’s not a bad thing, but it’s disappointed a few people none the less.
However, it seems these folks may finally have just the mod for them! Why? Because an all new project in development does exactly what it says on the tin. It replaces Link with Zelda.
Here’s a video showing this mod in action:
As you can obviously see, it’s pretty early in its development. Indeed, it’s so in fact that we don’t actually get to see Zelda do much of anything in the video. Just walk forward in a straight line, as proof the mod has been inserted into the game.
But hey, just because it’s in the early stages doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. It’s got the perfect model for Zelda (the one used in the cutscenes in the game itself), and it’s been implemented in a way that looks absolutely perfect so far.
So, if you’re interested in playing Breath of the Wild with Zelda as a main character, check it out. It may not be official (or released yet), but it’ll be a neat option for anyone wanting to play the game with someone new none the less.
But while that was the case with the MMORPG thing, that’s certainly not the case for Zelda Breath of the Wild mods in general! Oh no, in the last few days, the modding scene for the game has absolutely exploded into life.
Which means there are now numerous mods to change Link into every character you can imagine. For example, have you ever wished to play the game as Steve Minecraft?
No, me neither. But quite a few people probably have, and with this interesting mod that’s now completely possible:
And old Steve is only the tip of the iceberg here. Maybe Toy Story is more your thing? If so, here’s Woody complete with a Buzz Lightyear shaped paraglider!
Goku from Dragonball is entirely possible as a model swap too. Here’s a mod for that one:
As well as a mod which replaces Link with the main character from Grand Theft San Andreas. That certainly looks unusual in the world of Hyrule, doesn’t it?
Yeah, I definitely think so there. However, the crowning achievement for character mods isn’t any of those.
Nope, it’s Waluigi! Yup, everyone’s favourite purple clad trickster is now available as a character for the game too:
The memes almost write themselves there. Especially when you add the neat little Wario shield you can get him to use in the latest update:
Yeah, it’s not quite Spirit Tracks by any means. But it’s pure bliss for social media fanatics none the less, and an amusing way to make it seem like Link’s driving a sentient train across the world of Hyrule. What more can you want from the internet?
As you likely know by this point, the next DLC pack for The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild is being released in the 2017 holiday period. This pack will include new armour, a new storyline, a new dungeon as well as various other additions to keep it interesting.
But it won’t just include that content in game. Oh no, it’ll also be released with special amiibo based on the game’s champions too.
Unfortunately, no release was ever initially given for the amiibo. Well, until now.
That’s because in a very short presentation included in yesterday’s Direct, Nintendo gave the champion amiibo’s release date as November 10th 2017. So, if you’re an amiibo collector (or Zelda fan in general), that’s when they’ll be available.
And that in turns leads to a few other interesting hints too. Why?
Well, think about it. What else don’t we have a release date for?
Answer: The actual DLC pack in question.
However, we do know it’s coming out in late 2017. Which coincidentally, is exactly where the champion amiibo’s November 10th release date lies.
So, it seems quite likely that the DLC pack will be released near the amiibo.
We also found out that each amiibo unlocks a Divine Beast themed helmet for the Ancient Armour too. These pieces will in turn have their own ‘special functionality’ which will be revealed nearer the time.
They also summon materials and weapons related to the champions, with the latter being the ones you get for clearing a Divine Beast dungeon. So if you want a copy of the Boulder Breaker or Lightscale Trident… here’s your chance. It’s certainly useful for anyone who didn’t get to exploit the World Reset glitch!
And that’s pretty much everything we know here. It’s not much, but it’s a decent extra teaser none the less.
Let’s just hope theother stuff coming in DLC pack 2 is worth the wait as well!
Back when the Wii U was announced, Nintendo launched a service called Miiverse. Designed as a sort of Twitter like social media site for console owners, the system was integrated into games in order to give players a way to share messages, screenshots and pictures about them with other fans. It was a pretty big part of Nintendo’s marketing, and ended up being one of the main hooks for the Wii U system.
Unfortunately, Miiverse didn’t make it over to the Switch. And now as Nintendo have announced, it seems the bell has finally tolled for the system at long last. That’s because on November 8th 2017, Miiverse will shut down for good.
Which in turn has various effects on Nintendo’s games. For titles like New Super Mario Bros U, it means that Miiverse messages don’t appear in game while you’re playing, nor can you leave your own after a level. This makes the games feel incredibly quiet for those used to the Miiverse setup.
And the effects don’t end with visual ones either. Oh no, while Super Mario Maker level sharing will still work (since only the comments depend on Miiverse), level sharing for Super Smash Bros for Wii U and Mario vs Donkey Kong will lose the ability for user level uploads in general. A full list of these affects can be seen here on their site:
It’s a pretty big loss for a lot of games really. One that’s going to wipe out a large part of the Wii U’s legacy.
But why is it happening? Why is Nintendo shutting down Miiverse anyway?
Well I think there are multiple reasons here. Firstly, Miiverse is far less popular than other social media platforms. It’s exclusive to people who own the Wii U or 3DS (hence already play the games they’re posting about), it’s not easy to find content from online and generally people visit it far less often than Twitter or Facebook.
Because of this, it doesn’t make sense to focus on it so much. Why advertise your games to a small community of existing fans when you can let your fans advertise them to millions on larger social media sites? And so that’s what Nintendo did. You can see a good illustration of the logic in Arlo’s fantastic video here:
Yet that’s not the only reason for closing it down. Oh no, there’s also the small issue of resources. Put simply, it’s a costly, time consuming process to run and moderate social media website.
Why is this?
In part, because Nintendo didn’t want to run a free for all like Twitter or Facebook. They wanted a heavily moderated experience where offensive content would be few and far between.
Problem is, that requires human moderators. Lots and lots of human moderators.
And given that Nintendo doesn’t trust volunteers to moderate its communities… that means paying people to do the work. Quite a few people actually given Miiverse’s size. Yeah, it’s not Facebook scale, but it’s big enough that a team would need to be working round the clock to monitor reports and remove rule breaking content whenever it pops up.
So, when you add the resources needed to host it and the technical effort needed to keep it up and running… Well, you can see that Nintendo would rather spend their resources elsewhere.
But still, every cloud has a silver lining here. And in Miiverse’s case, it’s that Nintendo is at least kind enough to let you take your work elsewhere.
Yep, just log in before it shuts down and you’ll be able to download an archive of your work. So, if you’ve got a great picture you’re proud of, or have used for various entertaining screenshots of whatever game you’re playing… well you now have the opportunity to host it somewhere else. That’s better than with a lot of social media sites or services. Most usually just close their doors and leave millions of people’s work to the abyss.
It also means Archiveteam may have a slightly easier way to get the content and make a whole archive of the site available too. Cause Miiverse is a site they’re likely going to be backing up too.
Still, what do you think? Are you disappointed that Miiverse is closing down? Do you remember any good times you had with the site?
Or is the site a relic that arguably needed to be replaced for Nintendo to move on?
Post your thoughts on the matter in the comments below!
