If you sign up for Project Fi, which no longer requires an invite, you can get a Nexus 5x for $199 (or $249 for the 32GB version). A bunch of tech news sites are saying you can just cancel Project Fi after a month and keep the phone with no penalty since there is no contract required. I tried Project Fi about 6 months ago and found that the coverage around me sucked so I switched back to Verizon. I was thinking about buying the Nexus 5x at full price anyway.

https://fi.google.com/

Fi?

FI?

Great deal but I'll stick with my OnePlus One for now.

I'd be all over this if it the discount was available in France. I'd love to have either a 5X or a 6P.

Argh, that video is killing me.

What's worse -- she actually helped me in a part I was stuck at in the game. The shame. v_v

She rewrites the game to correctly debounce the accelerometers???!

That would be something.

Seriously, though, there was only one point in the game where the motion controls worked against me, and that was some mine-cart riding part of the game and sometimes the 'bomb bowling' mechanic. Otherwise, I recall it being fine, and particularly had fun with the sword fighting. Granted, they really dropped the ball design-wise on 2 of the boss fights (one required bomb bowling that's barely taught, the other requires vertical skyward sword strikes never taught or required up to that point), and apart from the shame of Fi actually helping me in the one part, I found her part of the annoying over-textualized hand-holding tutorial trends in modern games. With that said, the game also had some of the most enjoyable things I've found in the series too, so at least it's not the mediocrity that is Minish Cap.

Harp playing also didn't work at all, especially the pub minigame. You can tell they wanted to do something much bigger but their hardware/intern wasn't up to doing it. It was way too easy to swing your sword in the wrong direction, or just have it go unresponsive. This is a problem in a game that is built around enemies that absolutely require you to attack them quickly and precisely. Horrible controls aside, the whole game was extremely light on content with major areas repeated several times each, at least twice with some minor gameplay changes, and then 1-2 more times while searching for a pile of widgets. The story was terrible too, prominently featuring time travel for no gameplay reason. Definitely also the dumbest Historia entry so far, because they pulled the trigger on turning their beloved inoffensive high fantasy into boring also-ran post-technological post-apocalypse where it turns out that Ganon is Literal Satan who emerged from a mineshaft that was dug too greedily and too deep. Also Nintendo seems set on gradually explaining all of this in reverse, like tedious anime Memento only I don't think anybody is going to give this one an academy award for editing.

But yeah, other than the hardware, controllers, gameplay, design, story, and scenario, it was a pretty good game.

I read Nexus 5x as Nexus Six

Skyward Sword was the only Zelda game I bought that I didn't bother to finish. It's true that Collect-o-Thons are a part of this series' DNA, but SS grandly showcased how dated and unforgivably bad that gameplay concept really is now. I can't wait to see the next game where Nintendo takes a concept like "open-world gameplay" and fist in their self-validated design sensibilities.

Even the art style bored me; an artistic cross between x and y usually leaves the product stuck in the bland middle. It reminded me of TF2's art style, with the paint-like look, but that game looks so much better. Best I can describe SS's visuals is if you took one of Edward Hopper's paintings, sent it through Photoshop and reduced the contrast until everything looks washed out and muddled.

The best (and only?) Nintendo game that used the Wii controls well was Metroid Prime 3, and that's because the core gameplay was solid. The Wiimote complemented MP3's game mechanics whereas in SS, the game was built around the thing. It's so apparent. Like when you fight those countless red goblin guys with Down Syndrome, they walk up to you making gestures with their arms as if asking you (in their obtuse form of sign language) to take the time to orientate your Wiimote in some fashion to slap them.

I didn't play skyward sword. I think I have it still in the wrapper I played probably about half of the previous one (with the wolf) and I got super bored of all the collect-o-thons as you put it. I never finished majora's mask and I never finished the cartoony one on a boat. I have enjoyed all the gameboy/ds ones I have played (although I lost one before I could finish it -- something about ship pieces maybe?). I wish they'd make one that focuses on the combat, exploration, collecting meaningful items, and well designed dungeons. Skip the endless intros, too long cutscenes, cutesy (but nauseating) dialog, and the stupid fairies that constantly yell HEY at me. My favorite zelda game is still zelda III.

It's called Skyrim.

Ugh are you sure? I watched some gameplay video and it didn't look like any fun at all. What am I missing?

You probably want to keep that in the wrapper, then.

I think, in any other case, I would say that "I matured out of their game's intended audience" (which I honestly hope I did) and no longer in this company's target demographic. But looking back at Nintendo's recent nostalgia-driven, going-backwards-minded company direction, I kinda feel, in this twisted weird way, I'm still in that target. It's surprisingly unsettling, but games like their Mario Marker title show how they try to appeal to folks who played SMB ... sometime in the last 30 years.

Don't think about it too hard. Nintendo has simply reached the point in their lifespan that reducing attrition is more effective than creating new markets. The same thing happened to Square and Sega.

So what's the target demographic for the games then? Certainly not adults. My son is 9 and he's not interested in the zelda games at all. Is it teenagers? I can go back and play Zelda I, III, Minish Cap, Phantom Hourglass, and enjoy them as an adult, but when I try to play the 3d ones they're just doing nothing for me anymore Oh well.

The target demographic for Nintendo games is "Nintendo fans".

Fans are a minority of unconventional consumers who have a large amount of consumer surplus to capture, but whose demand decreases in response to change. Normal people are the exact opposite, they are relatively unresponsive to price discrimination and they demand genuine innovation and the perception of agency. The revenue maximizing decision means you're always weighting the unconventional consumer just slightly higher than the general consumer, which over a long time concentrates their share of total revenue. Eventually they become such an important stakeholder that you can't even pretend to make products focused on a general audience, and then the wheels fall off and you've got were hogs.

I had the most wonderful dream. Nintendo was making a new, dark Zelda game!

That's not a dream, gbk. Actually, they're really doing that.

Really? Wow. Because right after that, I dreamed that our world had been conquered by malevolent, spacefaring dog-men, known as the Canid.

Oh. Yeah. That.

I was just going to tell you about it.

You're pretty much two for two.