Month: March 2022

Enlarge / The lord of all he surveys… in terms of sales, that is. (credit: FromSoftware)

If you’ve even talked to someone who plays a lot of video games lately, you shouldn’t be surprised that Elden Ring—with its combination of open-world exploration and punishing Souls-like difficulty—is a huge hit. Still, we were taken aback when developer FromSoftware announced last night just how big of a hit the new IP has been already: 12 million worldwide sales as of March 14, just 17 days after the game launched.

That’s obviously a huge number, and FromSoftware is already promising to expand the new franchise “beyond the realm of games.” But just how big is 12 million sales for a game like Elden Ring? And what does it mean for a company that’s been slowly building up a dedicated audience for its Souls-like games for over a decade now?

We crunched the numbers to put those 12 million sales into context, as you can see in the graphs below. The comparisons make clear that Elden Ring is more than just a massive hit for FromSoftware. Elden Ring is already one of the most popular open-world games in recent memory.

Enlarge / Tunic looks and feels a lot like 8-bit Legend of Zelda. But I assure you, more is going on here. (credit: Andrew Shouldice / Finji)

When I reviewed The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening on Switch in 2019, I lamented its stubborn adherence to the past. I don’t necessarily blame Nintendo for reproducing the Game Boy classic’s elements wholesale, but the remaster’s gorgeous, modern aesthetic, complete with 3D models replacing the original 2D sprites, started turning gears in my head.

Could a modern game have classic-yet-fresh gameplay that feels as good as this remaster looks? I asked myself. What if a beautiful, top-down adventure could both evoke 8-bit Zelda nostalgia and implement more modern mechanics and ideas? In the modern gaming era, we’ve seen all manner of games borrow liberally from Nintendo’s classic adventuring series, but they’ve mostly been on the 3D side.

A great adventure begins. (Any image in this review with a “60” in its top-left corner was captured by Sam Machkovech on a Steam Deck.) (credit: Andrew Shouldice / Finji)

This week’s Tunic, a six-years-in-the-making indie adventure made primarily by sole developer Andrew Shouldice, is a rare example of a truly worthy 2D Zelda homage. It even surpasses other recommended modern titles like Death’s Door, Hob, and, yes, Nintendo’s own Link Between Worlds.

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

It’s time for another Dealmaster. Our latest roundup of the best tech deals from around the web includes the best prices we’ve tracked for Apple’s 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops. A configuration of the former with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is down to $1,749 at multiple retailers, which is more than $200 off the typical street price we’ve seen in recent months, while a similar config for the latter is currently available for $2,299, a roughly $150 drop.

While Apple’s new Mac Studio desktop and Studio Display monitor are garnering most of the Mac-related attention this month, the latest MacBook Pro remains a fantastic laptop for power users who prefer macOS. In fact, our review last October called the Pro the best laptop you can buy for heavy-duty content creation and software development. The M1 Pro chip found in these SKUs is still superbly quick, the mini-LED display is gorgeous, and the battery can genuinely last a full workday. The hardware itself is fairly bulky to accommodate this performance, but it still comes off as premium, with a reliable touchpad and keyboard. The port selection, meanwhile, should be ample enough to prevent you from needing a dreaded dongle all of the time. Plus, there’s no Touch Bar.

You’ll have to make peace with the iPhone-esque notch at the top of the screen, and even with these discounts, the laptops are undeniably expensive. But if you can afford it, the new Pros give little to complain about. It’s worth noting that a refreshed 13-inch MacBook Pro is expected to arrive in the coming months, but there has been little to suggest that these 14- and 16-inch models will be replaced any time soon.

Enlarge / A VW employee assembles an ID.3 electric vehicle at the VW factory in Dresden in 2021. (credit: Volkswagen)

Any hopes that the auto industry’s supply chain shortages were easing up appear to be comprehensively dashed this week. In Europe, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused BMW and Volkswagen to halt production at a number of their factories. And an outbreak of COVID-19 in China has shuttered plants belonging to Toyota, VW, and now Tesla.

VW was one of the first to be affected. In late February, it announced that it was stopping production for four days at its factory in Zwickau, Germany, where the electric ID.4 crossover is built, as well as a three-day halt at another factory in Dresden.

By early March, a leaked internal memo from Porsche revealed that it, too, was affected and that production of all Porsche models would be delayed as a consequence.