gshc2020.com

Because Link's uncle didn't master using it

Image: Devin Berko via Unsplash

Many of today’s most avid players might not think about it often, but the video game industry has been going strong for a long time now. Major releases might have been sparse in the earliest years, as the medium found its footing. But by 1991, a full 35 years ago, important new releases that would have lasting impact had begun to arrive every few weeks.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was one of those early titles of note. Launched on Nov. 21, 1991 in Japan, the game was a must-have gem in the Super Nintendo’s developing library. The minute I saw my first screenshot in the pages of Nintendo Power (depicting Link descending some steps near the Eastern Palace toward waiting Armos statues), I knew I had to own both the game and the hardware to run it. Happily, I managed to make both of those things happen within a year. And I’ve since played A Link to the Past many times, including recently. Despite being 35 years old, the game is somehow more fun than ever.

The developers at Nintendo knew how to kick things off the right way, which counted for a lot then — and still does. Link wakes in the middle of the night to find his uncle preparing to head to the castle. The princess has begun sending out telepathic distress calls. She urgently needs someone to rescue her from the local castle dungeon, where she has been imprisoned, and Link’s uncle is just the man for the job.

The portly hero heads out into the rainy night, leaving his concerned nephew to worry that things might not go well. Playing as Link, you soon decide to follow your elder. The two of you live in a shack improbably placed right near the castle drawbridge. It has been raised, so you sneak around the wall and access an underground passage beneath a conspicuously placed shrub. There, you come across your wounded uncle. He hands over his trusty sword so you can finish what he started.

Before long, you manage to find and rescue the princess. It all happens in the first few minutes, right near the start of the game. No credits roll. Fighting rats and other hazards, you lead your royal companion away from the castle grounds to a place of sanctuary. But the adventure is only just beginning, despite that one early triumph.

Over the coming hours, you’ll explore a beautiful world featuring several dangerous dungeons as you seek out three magical pendants, which you must find to prove you are worthy of claiming the Master Sword. Only with that legendary weapon in hand can you face off against the wizard, Agahnim, who is working to bring back a great evil. However, even that quest is only a part of the larger whole. A Link to the Past breaks its adventure into a couple of major pieces. The first piece is the familiar world of light. The second piece is the Dark World.

When the player first gets the chance to properly explore the Dark World, that’s when the game really hits its stride. By looking through a magical mirror, Link leaves behind the sunny fields, mountains, and deserts he has always known. In their place, he finds a decaying alternate reality where thieves roam the streets, warm sand has become fetid swamp water, and an ominous pyramid stands in the space Hyrule Castle once occupied. To restore order and hold off the encroaching threat, the young hero must travel between both realms before finally putting an end to the true enemy who was behind the trouble all along.

In 1991, that hero’s journey was a real kick in the pants. It remains effective to this day. There are many moments I would happily go back to experience for the first time, if only I could. Modern players don’t have to wish, though; they can fire up the game in the Super Nintendo channel on Nintendo Switch Online, where it waits to be enjoyed on current hardware, and with perks such as save states and rewind.

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The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past isn’t a difficult game by 2026 standards, especially compared to the likes of Dark Souls. Link finds bottles scattered around Hyrule, which he uses to store potions that refill his life, or fairies that revive him when he falls in battle. There are many heart containers to discover that also extend his life meter, as well. A blacksmith refines his sword to deal more damage. But it’s still possible to mess up, to lose precious minutes or perhaps even an hour of progress thanks to poor preparation. Not every problem is fatal, either. If Link steps wrong and falls to a lower floor (or gets knocked down by a rampaging boss), it’s convenient to avoid frustration by rewinding the action a few seconds to try again.

Similarly, it’s nice to know that if you’re in the middle of a dungeon run and suddenly you have to dash off to school or tend to your child or job, you can create a quick save and pick things up later, right where you left off. In the 16-bit days, we had to leave the hardware running and hope it didn’t melt. “Let me reach a save point first,” we would plead, when our parents told us it was time to go to bed or surrender the TV.

Not every old game from 1991 holds up well in 2026. A Link to the Past absolutely does. Not only that, but newcomers have an excellent chance to experience the early game that inspired some of the best elements of Ocarina of Time, years before its eventual release. And with the Ocarina of Time remake due to launch on Nov. 5, 2026, there has never been a better time to have fun in the past. Hyrule awaits. %!s()

Spain do control, not chaos. And this is why they are serial winners and England remain a nearly team without a major men's success since the 1966 World Cup.

England delivered moments to admire in the 3-2 defeat, even embracing those chaotic spells in an enthralling encounter, but ultimately they came up short once more against this summer's World Cup winners, who are now unbeaten in 39 games.

Once Tuchel's England stopped playing themselves into trouble by mimicking Spain's passing style without having anywhere near the quality of their opponents and followed their own "DNA", to use the buzz-phrase of the moment, they actually threatened with power and pace.

Quite how England reached the 36th minute only one goal down was a mystery to everyone inside Wembley, Marc Guehi's inexplicable turn into trouble gifting Lamine Yamal an opener inside two minutes.

Ferran Torres saw a goal ruled out for offside, was denied by a fine stop by England goalkeeper James Trafford, then rolled an effort wide of the post when clean through.

England took advantage of those reprieves to somehow be ahead by the break, through star performer Anthony Gordon's composed finish and Harry Kane's deflected header.

Kane's penalty miss just after the break was a turning point, hitting the bar after slipping and touching the ball twice, before England once again paid the price for errors.

Nico O'Reilly coughed up possession in the build-up to Alex Baena's equaliser before another substitute in Mikel Oyarzabal, who scored the winner in the Euro 2024 final against England in Berlin, settled matters after 74 minutes.

If it was a bad night for Manchester City defensive duo Guehi and O'Reilly, it was not much better for Jarell Quansah, who was given the nod ahead of the recalled Trent Alexander-Arnold. He was uncertain throughout and does not look a natural right-back - perhaps because he is not a natural right-back.

Of course, it could have been different had Kane scored his penalty. He did not and it was not.

Kane said: "On another day we could have won." This was not another day and England did not win.

England's bolder approach after a shaky opening 25 minutes offered up the prospect of a landmark victory, but shambolic defending saw Guehi and O'Reilly present gifts Spain were happy to accept.

As against Argentina in the World Cup semi-final in Atlanta, England led by a Gordon goal and lost, but at least here they went down swinging and not by going into cowering retreat.

It was a small mercy appreciated by the home support, but the gulf in class when it mattered was still evident as Spain's smooth, unhurried style cut a sharp contrast to England's often frantic efforts.

Tuchel's defence looked horribly vulnerable and easy to slice through, although keeper Trafford – given two games before first-choice Jordan Pickford returns – was blameless and will have created a good impression as he tries to create greater competition in that department.

They have now shipped 13 goals in their last six matches in all competitions, after conceding only seven in their first 17 games under Tuchel.

Ironically, it was two players now plying their trade in Spain, Gordon at Barcelona and Jude Bellingham at Real Madrid, who were England's standout performers.

Gordon was in electrifying form, while Bellingham was relentless in driving England forward, even in a losing cause.

As for the chaos, Tuchel begged to differ.

He told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I'm not sure there was a lot of chaos. We had an incredible amount of high-ball recoveries in the opponent's half. I think 15 more than Spain. Overall, I think 15 in total in the first half. That only goes against a team like Spain if we play man to man, so we were very brave."

Tuchel added: "The defending and the deep block were excellent, except for the third goal where we got cut open through the middle. This normally should not happen.

"Offensively, I think we played in a clear structure. We tried to switch sides a lot. We tried to put the full-backs up to make the difference and they did. A lot of good stuff but unfortunately not the result."

On the gap between the sides, Tuchel said: "We saw no gap except for the technical execution. In the last 20 metres, they were superior than us."

Tuchel's comments are questionable here, ignoring the fact that if Spain's own technical execution was better they could easily have been four goals up before England scored, but he was correct to point out the improvement after Gordon drew them level.

England captain Kane said: "I spoke before that we reached good levels at the World Cup but didn't quite put a full 90 minutes together. It was probably similar again here. We had a couple of good moments though, that period was as good as we've played in a long, long time and that's the standard we know we can reach.

"We're playing against the world champions, the European champions, and we went toe-to-toe. On another day for sure we'd have won that game."

England certainly embrace the chaos, as Tuchel suggested, but chaos alone does not claim big prizes and never has.

At least this is a lesson Tuchel did not have to wait too long to learn after the World Cup. %!s()

This rule doesn't necessarily apply to certain speaker types, like subwoofers or upward-firing speakers designed to bounce sound off the ceiling. Usually, the front, right and center channels are forward-firing and high-frequency, which is more directional than bass. If these speakers fire over your head, some of the dialogue detail, cymbals and positional effects are lost. 

For example, a bookshelf speaker placed at the highest point will produce plenty of sound, but the rich details will sound less clear or muted. Shifting the speakers down to seated ear height will rectify the problem. This may require some creative renovations in your soon-to-be home theater setup, but if you want the best out of your shiny new speaker system, it's worth the effort.

High placement depends on the speaker's role

Front speakers do most of the heavy lifting with dialogue, music and on-screen action, so they produce the best results at seated ear level. But this same height rule doesn't apply to every speaker. The center-channel should be as close to the height of the front and left as possible, but doesn't have to be perfect. For instance, if you have to place it at the bottom of the TV, tilt it upward a bit so it's aimed at the listener.

Surround speakers are a little more flexible because you can place them above seated ear level, as much as 2 or 3 feet. You shouldn't place them so high that the effects seem to roll off the ceiling, like a height/upward-firing speaker. Installing them too high will blur the separation between sounds from behind or beside you and sounds from overhead.

Subwoofers are the exception to the rule. Since they produce low-frequency sound effects, their drivers don't have to be aimed right at your ears and are much less sensitive to vertical height. Subwoofers placed on the floor are fine and typical of most setups. Just keep in mind that a subwoofer's position in the room still has a substantial impact on the bass, so not every placement position is equal.

What is the 38 percent rule for speaker placement?

Aliaksandr Litviniuk/Getty Images

Think of the 38 percent rule as a starting point for positioning the primary listening seat in a rectangular room. Measure the room from the front wall (where your front speakers and TV sit) to the back wall, and place your primary seat about 38 percent of the room's length away from the front wall. For instance, if your measurement is 20 feet, the primary listening seat will sit roughly 7.6 feet from the front wall. The idea is fairly simple: The 38 percent rule avoids sitting directly in the center of the room, where the bass buildup and dips are more noticeable. There's no guarantee that it will be absolutely perfect, however, and that's especially true in an irregularly shaped room.

Once you have your primary listening seat in place, it's time to switch the rules. The 83 percent rule is a speaker placement check, and the distance between the front speakers should be about 83 percent of the distance from the listening seat to the midpoint between them. If your primary seat is 10 feet from the midpoint between the left and right front speakers, start by placing the two speakers about 8.3 feet apart from each other.

Keep in mind that the 38 percent and 83 percent rules apply to distances, not speaker height. After you establish the distances, make sure the primary speakers are placed so their high-frequency drivers are close to your seated ear level and aimed toward the main listening seat. Again, since every room and furniture arrangement is different, consider these general height and distance rules as a baseline. You can always shift them around incrementally until the sound is as close to perfection as it gets. %!s()

Coming after semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama Armageddon Time, the crime thriller, Gray says, is not a sequel and doesn’t hew as closely to his own experience.

“This one is much different. I think that one was much more close to the facts of the case,” Gray said after Paper Tiger‘s North American premiere at the 2026 New York Film Festival of the differences between his latest film and Armageddon Time. “There are many things that my brother, I’m sure, will recognize as from our life, but it’s not a documentary. And I didn’t think it was a sequel. I wanted to make something kind of a little bit … Hitchcockian. … Pulpier is the wrong word, but a little bit more dramatically intense.”

In addition to the thrills, Gray told THR before the Paper Tiger premiere that he’s hopeful audiences recognize the power of interpersonal relationships in the domestic drama.

“I was trying to make a film in which the personal connection is everything, that love is everything,” Gray said. “Through that of course you want people to feel suspense and intensity and things that we love in a good drama, you hope. But then in the end, dare I use the word catharsis, what connects us is what matters. It’s almost a cautionary tale.”

That broader human resonance is also reflected in the guidance Gray gave actor Roman Engel who plays the youngest of Irwin’s two sons, serving as somewhat of a stand-in for the director himself.

“He would mostly just try to tell me to be myself on set and don’t try to live someone else’s experience, try to live your own and do the actions you would do while whatever’s happening to you,” Engel told THR of Gray’s direction.

The film ends as Gary, Irwin and wife Hester (Scarlett Johansson) are each dealing with their own personal issues and before they learn of each other’s fates, but Gray hopes that that lack of resolution allows the story to continue on beyond the bounds of the film.

“I love the idea that the life of the movie goes on past the movie,” he said in a post-screening Q&A at the NY Film Festival Friday night. “I love the open ending. I love the idea that the film exists past the boundaries of the screen and the time. … With all of the characters, I wanted to make sure that there was a completion to their openness in a way, how open their characters were, and that nobody has the whole picture, because that’s like life, and it’s very untraditional actually for movies. Usually, in a movie somebody has the whole story.”

Neon is set to release Paper Tiger in select U.S. theaters on Nov. 13, with a wider release on Nov. 20. %!s()

TALON TOWERS is the next game from Jan Malitschek, the dev behind brutalist first-person climbing platformer BETON BRUTAL, this time getting some help from Blanksword's Quinn K. and If Found's Hyphinett. The Uedaness of it all comes from the setting, these towers look old, as if there's a storied history to them. A history, I might add, that perplexes as much as it impresses; why are there so many criss-crossing parts to parkour across? I don't know the answer, but I'm not fussed about it because the platforming looks grand.

You've got a lot of movement tools at your disposal. You can run, climb, swing across monkeybars, wallrun and -kick, walk across tightropes, crouch and crawl, it looks incredibly expressive and tricky to get a handle on. A lot of those platforms are mighty narrow, and the way down looks… well, I don't know, there could be a bunch of pillows down there, but I assume it's not great. You can check all of it above in a nice and lengthy showcase for a game that only just got announced.

It's not just navigating tough platforms either, one particular section in the showcase sees the player character being chased by some such figure that calls Celeste's second chapter to mind, where you get chased by Madeline. There's a bit of an Ico vibe there too, like when the shadowy creatures try to nab Yorda. You can even play as a bird at some points! Neat! You can wishlist TALON TOWERS on Steam, and it'll come when it's done. %!s()