This Week @ Shack: 'Switches Get Riches' Edition

Welcome to This Week @ Shack–or TW@S for you millenials. It's our new round-up of our news, commentary, video, guides, and other miscellany over the last seven days.

If there's one thing Shacknews' staff and community loves, it's high-end gaming. If there are two things, they're high-end gaming and dank GIFs. But if there are three things, they're PC gaming, dank GIFs, and Nintendo. Something about Nintendo's weirdo design sensibility makes it the perfect second platform for every brand of gamer. Love PCs? Love PlayStation? Love Xbox? Whatever, get a Nintendo too.

So we were pleased as a Pokey to see that the Nintendo Switch appears to be taking off. At minimum, this appears to take it out of the "another Wii U" danger zone. More optimistically, it could be just what Nintendo needs to invite developers and publishers from the fading Vita and 3DS. Those environments plus Nintendo's first-party offerings could make a killer line-up, even without AAA development on-board. All is going according to plan.

You'll see! You'll all see! 

News of the World:

• A speedrunner has already finished Zelda: Breath of the Wild in under an hour. We'll be updating our review accordingly. $60 for less than an hour of gameplay? Gross, Nintendo.
• The Switch has also been hacked, due to its inclusion of a web browser.
• On another technical Switch note, the framerate issue that cost Zelda a ding in our review may be due to Wi-Fi.
• ZeniMax and Bethesda announced their plans for QuakeCon pre-registration. The general admission is free, but if you want to spend up to $400 for a premium QuakeCon experience, you can.
• PlayStation Now is going to be adding PlayStation 4 games, furthering the Xbox and PlayStation trend of expanding their brands outside their individual black boxes.
• In similar Switch success news, Superdata says it's sold 1.5 million so far. Zelda: BotW has sold 1.499999 million. The one exception is a man named Chad in Tennessee who only got it for Bomberman.
• The creepy-sounding What Remains of Edith Finch will spookify you next month.
• StarCraft Remastered may be coming, but keep in mind we've heard this rumor before. It just keeps respawning.
• The Disney Afternoon Collection is such a perfect nostalgia play I don't even mind that it's preying on my age. Awoo-oo.
• We learned what happens this week if you collect all 900 Korok seeds in Breath of the Wild, and it's pretty incredible trolling on Nintendo's part.
• David Jaffe's video game adapted from his middle school trapper keeper is coming next month, and free on PS Plus.
• Horizon Zero Dawn is doing rather well for itself too, especially for a brand new IP.
• Sega is making another Sonic game, with a militarized logo and the name Sonic Forces. Yeah I don't know.
• Mass Effect: Andromeda has been getting lots of buzz based on early copies, but nothing has caught people's attention quite like these bonkers animations.
• World of Goo on Switch shows that the Joy-Con can actually emulate the Wii remote functionality really well even without a sensor bar. That could make it very possible to port Wii games.

Featured Features:

• Fresh off his trip from GDC, our CEO Asif Khan published an in-depth, three-part interview with Oculus' Jason Rubin. Collect all three! (Part One | Part Two | Part Three)
• The staff and Chatty brainstormed over what other Nintendo franchises could use what we're calling "the Breath of the Wild treatment."
• Nintendo showed off a making-of series for BotW, which was full of interesting tidbits. Jason Faulkner wrapped them up in a nice digestible format for you readers.
• Video games bring people together. David Craddock penned this touching, bittersweet piece about a man in the process of saying goodbye to his mother and how Zelda helped them connect.
• I reviewed Ghost Recon: Wildlands. The verdict? S'okay.
• If you'd like to learn more about that speedrunner who set a record for Zelda: Breath of the Wild, David Craddock interviewed him and got his thoughts on this run as well as speedrunning Zelda games as a whole.

Guides to Life:

• Ghost Recon Wildlands: How to Access The Peruvian Connection DLC
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Guide, Walkthrough, and Collectibles
• Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Divine Beast Vah Ruta Walkthrough
• Ghost Recon Wildlands: How to Get More Resources

Full-Motion Videos: