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To keep in the tradition of Classics Week, (Which has gone by so fast I've failed to actually write any nostalgia reviews.) I bring you my own personal review of Nintendo's masterpiece, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Ocarina of Time could be described as amazing, perfect, fantastic, or any other number of positive adjectives. But, to me, I believe Ocarina of Time is, in a word, revolutionary: It is one of the great stepping stones of gaming. The greatest, really.

Though there have been a number of influential games through the years, Ocarina of Time set a new standard for stories. At the time, many games, both on the Nintendo 64 and abroad, didn't have the kind of storyline Ocarina of Time had. Most games were straightforward, and many even lacked a plot.

While this may not necessarily be a bad thing to many gamers, Ocarina of Time brought something new to the industry and created a world where the player could do more than just run to the right and save the princess.

Though not as necessarily open as Majora's Mask, the next game in the Legend of Zelda series and practically the nearest relative of Ocarina of Time, Ocarina of Time created a three-dimensional world where the player could travel and find things to do other than dungeons. Sidequests, some larger than others, (And even one that had you running all across Hyrule in search of a ridiculous amount of items to get a giant badass sword.) were spread across nicely through the game so that the player never got bored with going from one temple to the next.

Ocarina of Time's world is large, and brings diverse beauty to a game of its time. (And still today, in my opinion.) The variety of areas to be explored and seen throughout the course of the game are fascinating, and how they change across seven years is fun to see.

The gameplay mechanics of Ocarina of Time still shine, and the unique characteristic of integrated time travel between the youth and adult form of the protagonist had yet to be seen executed in video gaming.

How the game tied in the ideas of time and destiny fascinated me, and wrapped the story in an awesome narrative that still drives me to find my copy of it and play through it all over again. The memories of the mysterious Forest Temple, the dark (And, for the time, grisly for a video game.) Shadow Temple, and the mind-fucking Water Temple are shared by almost all gamers of our generation, as well as the generation before us and surely in the generations to come.

Ocarina of Time will, in my opinion, live on as a great legend. I know, when I grow up, I'll have a preserved copy of the game for my children to play, so that they can appreciate the wonders of its story and its adventure.

As I said, Ocarina of Time, in a word, is truly revolutionary. Even those who don't enjoy playing through old games can still appreciate what Ocarina of Time has done to influence so many games that we play today.

Ocarina of Time is fantastic, and any who have not played it should hang their head in shame. Overall, I give Ocarina of Time a 9.7/10 (Calculations and all.), solely because the game is near perfect in every way and still provides me with hours of enjoyment over a decade since it was released.

Ocarina of Time will live on forever, and rightfully so, in its own place in gaming history.

First of all, the reason there was a no-show of Weekly What's Up last week was due to the circumstances that we were making the transition to vBulletin.

By the way, if you haven't noticed yet, that's the most prominent thing that's happened since the last time we had a Weekly What's Up: We finally got vBulletin.

But of course no paradise is without its flaws, and vBulletin has some things that need fixing. But those issues are all being attended to, some more quickly than many others, and for the most part, we're very glad to finally have the kickass forum software we needed.

A lot has been going on in the gaming world, as you've probably noticed if you regularly read the homepage. I've been trying to keep up a regular flow of gaming news, sometimes posting up to three articles a day, to keep you guys informed.

If you ever have any suggestions for news, like I've said before, let me know somehow and I'll look into it. I'm always willing to accept news or contests.

And speaking of contests, the Goose Gagglin' contest, hosted by Masterguy, has concluded just recently. KoolAidBeans was the victor, quickly slogging through Mythic (After what I'm sure was many moments of rage, despair, and self inflicted damage.) and taking the lead for a short twenty-four hours, in which no lesser man could rise up to the challenge of out-Goosin' him.

But here's the news I've been waiting to announce for a lot longer than any of you would think. Some of you have been asking me about why there are a few who have been changing their avatars to something Zelda-themed or other old gaming pieces of gold. Some were preparing, others were just trying to fit in, (And we know who you are, and you failed for it. Though the effort was appreciated.) and even more flooded my visitor messages with questions about what was going on.

My overall reaction for this had to be something a bit like this.


But your constant messages were in vain. No one figured it out, but now I'll reveal it to you in all its might... That's right, it's...


Now, Classics Week will be a bit different than Penguin Week and the other themed weeks you're used to. Rather than just making signatures (Hahaha... Signatures.) and avatars, we're asking you guys to get involved and get with the old times in this week full of nostalgia.

Discuss your favorite "old but gold" games, write a review for a game on the NES, or do any other number of crazy things to help us party like it's 1999... In 8-bit.

Expect a podcast to come out this week with a whole load of nostalgia in honor of the celebration, just as a little treat for you all.

That's all we've got for this week. Stay classy, DTH.

ArenaNet finally has let the public get their hands on Guild Wars 2. While they're still keeping a lot of things under lock and key, they let a good number of people try out the game at Gamescom, and will be having another demo at the Penny Arcade Expo.

They've dumbed down character creation, so as to allow people to jump right into the action, and ArenaNet (For some reason.) still doesn't think the game is picture perfect. Why do I feel like this game is going to be amazing solely based off ArenaNet's modest perfectionism?

Check out the videos yourself for a good twenty minute helping of online gaming win.

For those of you who have been dying to see a glimpse of what Portal 2's cooperative mode will look like, Valve has taken the opportunity to tease you and leave you begging for more with their recent teaser trailer.

The developers of Alien Swarm have recently announced that they've added an AI director to their game, so that every mission is never the same twice. This director is similar to Left 4 Dead's famous AI director, where the game evaluates how your team is doing, based on many factors (Such as team stress levels.) and adjusts the game's progress accordingly. (Meaning right when you think you're doing good, a swarm of aliens is going to devour your face.) The developers have nicknamed this "Onslaught" mode, and I believe this is a pretty accurate depiction of the game.

Along with this, developers have been listening to the words of their community and have acknowledged that some people just think Insane just isn't insane enough. Because of this, they've developed a new difficulty setting they call "Brutal." And you may be curious as to how brutal Brutal really is, right? The developers say they have yet to have anyone on their team complete a single mission on Brutal.

And if you're even too pro for Brutal, (In which case: Holy fucking shit.) there is now a "Hardcore Friendly Fire" option. When friendly fire is turned on, full damage will be dealt by teammate's weaponry immediately, as well as flamethrowers lighting teammates in a fiery blaze and turrets ripping through you if misfortune falls upon you and you manage to get in the way of its deadly volley of bullets.

As a little bonus, they've also added three new promotional ranks for the truly dedicated warriors: Platinum Star, Osmium Star, and the much sought after Iridium Medallion.

... Oh, and facehuggers spawn on Onslaught mode. You're walking into a living nightmare, friends.

Masterguy is putting on a competitive Goosin' contest to win 1,600 Microsoft points. Think you've got what it takes to defeat his insane Mongoose mania map?

If you think you've got what it takes, head on over to the forums to see how to enter and what you're up against.

Contest thread.