Cool. Now add Artificer.

There are alternatives that are arguably better.
You can play the exact same puzzles as on the NYT site without giving them your traffic. There are archives of their puzzles that you can play for free. If you like connections, go to https://www.connectionsunlimited.org/. For wordles, go to https://wordlearchive.com/. Just Google for archived versions of your favorite games.

Then there’s also other publications that have puzzle games live this. For example, as I like the mini crosswords, there’s a student publication, The Observer, that has these mini crosswords too: https://fordhamobserver.com/category/fun-and-games/daily-mini-crossword/.

Supporting the tech workers at NYT doesn’t mean you have to give up your daily game addiction

You are suggesting that the pandas looked badass and that this Dracthyr looks goofy. I’m not a WoW player, but it really sounds to me like you just have a very strong, but subjective ideal about what is “badass” and what is “goofy”. You are treating that ideal as objective, but I promise you that others have a different opinion.

Also it’s a game that let’s you roleplay fantasy races and factions with a bunch of other nerds around the world (using the term “nerds” lovingly here). Why is it unusual that some things in that style of game gets a bit silly sometimes?

It’s kind of hard to have an incredibly varied and versatile powerset in a video game, simply becuase you have a limited set of inputs. So you would normally have a small set of powers that each serve a purpose. But then doing that and still representing 4 elements means each only gets very limited options.

Thinking about it, I can see two ways to make bending feel powerful, versatile and give a good representation to all elements. 1) maybe the best solution would be to have customizable load outs with various bending powers, and let you switch between those load outs on the fly so you can coordinate a few power sets that work well together but swap them when other sets are more useful to the situation. 2) An interesting idea would be to use situational awareness to execute moves without specific user inputs differentiating the exact power used. For example, you could have a single boost button that uses a different element depending on if the player is on land, water, in the air or dodging (fire rocket!). And you could have a close/melee attack and ranged attack for each element that you can specify, but the exact effect/attack it creates can vary depending on the environment and enemy type of the target. Let it feel a little bit like the character is making decisions, not just you, like Batman in combat in the Arkham games. And of course, there would be a charge up to a special attack that uses the Avatar state and all 4 elements at once.

Would be funnier if only scalpers bought it and couldn’t unload them.

Or my favorite class, artificer. :/

That was pretty clear. The apparent player character was a misdirect. The figure that comes in at the end seems to be the “her” referred to, and potentially the main antagonist of the game. I’m sure, just like in all other iterations, you’ll have a custom built player character of any sex/gender.

Pre-orders when you were buying physical copies of a game was, at the very least, a way to secure a copy that may be our of stock for weeks or months after and avoid scalpers. It only made sense to do it on games that you were really hyped about and you know everyone else is hyped about too. Pre-ordering a digital copy of a game is just asinine.

The problem with the Wii U wasn’t the concept. It was the execution. The idea of a portable handheld console is a sound one, it’s just not a universal need. Making your console dependent on a niche feature and only having like 2 exclusive launch titles and bunch of third party ports is not going to compel people to buy a whole new console, especially when everyone and their grandma already owns your previous console that had hundreds of games available on it. I bought one with my brother mostly so I could play Breath of the Wild when it was impossible to buy a market price Switch. It’s perfectly fine as a console and I used the portable mode on occasion. It just doesn’t have a lot of other reasons to exist.

I recently got the G Cloud for the same reason. I’m sitting in the same room as my playstation, not allowed to exist in the other room all night or my wife feels like I’m mad at her, and don’t always want to sit and binge tv with her. Now I can us PSPlay and Steam Link to play games from my PS5 and gaming PC while sitting on the living room with her. It’s not as nice an experience as playing on a full sized screen with a lighter controller and no occasional connectivity issues, but it beats not being able to play at all. Been using it all the time.

As others said, the game is all about exploration and overcoming the environment as much as it is about hacking and slashing monsters. The weapons break, but they are plentiful and there is a wide variety to try put anyway with different strengths and properties. It encourages you to explore more (both to find cool weapons and to grow your storage capacity), use different types of attacks and prioritize weapons for different types of enemies. But, if all else fails, even a stick off a tree can be used in a pinch. And there are environmental weapons and sheikh slate utilities that never run out.

The dialog with characters is often helpful for learning some of the mechanics. If you are required to do something, guaranteed there is some character, book, or dungeon to teach you how to do it early on. On the plateau, the old man is your guy. Talk to him for tips. Even better for those who enjoy exploration, though, there are usually multiple ways to overcome the same challenges and they let you discover some of those on your own instead of hand holding.

If you want a helpful tip on this specific problem, read on. If not, stop here.

The cold environment will make you freeze to death, but there are multiple ways to overcome this. Warm clothes. Campfires. Even eating spicy food. There are even some fun more subtle ways I’ll let you discover for yourself. You can also always just say “screw it” and just run in naked if you want and keep pounding apples to refill your hearts if that’s your jam. But the simplest way to handle the cold on the mountain at the start is to get a torch and light it on fire at a campfire (you can find a fire where you first saw the old man coming down from the shrine of resurrection, or in bokoblin camps, if you dont yet know how to make one yourself). Unlike other weapons that catch fire, a torch will never burn up or go out until you stow it away. 'Cause it’s a torch. That’s what torches do. The mechanics of the game often hold up to common sense like that. So just carry a lit torch and it’s heat will keep you warm enough to get to the top. Just don’t stow it until you’re back at the bottom. Job done.