Tuesday, September 05, 2006

´Zelda: Twilight Princess´ to be massive?



Apparently, the land of Hyrule in ´Zelda: Twilight Princess´ will be massive. According to SPOnG, Nintendo announced that it would take Link 45 minutes to ride through the world on horseback. Here is some interesting maths to investigate this claim further:
If it takes 45 minutes, and horses gallop at 40MPH, that makes the distance 30 miles. If the world is square, that would make a 900 square mile playing field. However, we just realised that Nintendo obviously means from one corner to another. This being the case, (...) we estimate you'll be looking at about 441 square miles should the world be square.


Now, GTA: San Andreas has about 17 square miles, True Crime: Streets of LA features around 200. Zelda would be twice as large as that, judging from SPOnG´s conservative estimate. If the world is as big as 900 square miles, it would be roughly equivalent to the land of Azeroth in ´World of Warcraft´. Either way, if true, the size would set a new standard for single player games.

Source: SPOnG
Thanks to: Sickr´s blog

23 comments:

  1. World of Warcraft has 3 million players last I heard.. and I'm sure nothing will force you to run the whole 45 minutes.

    Anyway, neat.

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  2. *cough* *cough*
    Aah, feeling better. just a pussy little lump in my throat ;)

    Hi Rhyhon.

    Sorry, no idea how big the levels in Wind Waker were. Have to admit I never played it much.

    Hi Astrality.

    Good point. The bigger the world, the bigger the challenge to make it interesting. That Wind Waker ocean was quite large and got boring, didn´t it? Let´s see if TP can do better.

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  3. Hi Anonymous. Wow currently has around six million players worldwide.

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  4. Quick, let´s all hide and pretend we´re out. The irrelevant annoying laughing stock is about.

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  5. irrelevant annoying laughing stock... hahaha... i love that. peeeeeeeckle!

    anyway, this is good news! my favorite part about dragon warrior 8 (eeeew... a ps2 game) was the free-roaming and exploring. that world seemed huge, but wasn't even CLOSE to the size of TP. can't wait!

    also looking forward to the big reveals on the 14th-16th ;) any rumors flying around falafelkid?

    also....... did you hear a rumor that nintendo won't be doing wii kiosks down under, and maybe not in the USA either?
    http://gonintendo.com/?p=5311
    that would kinda blow... i don't know if i believe this rumor though. how do they expect to get "believers" if nobody can "play"? (playing = believing)

    what's the word on the street falafelkid?

    -"superfan" tactics.

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  6. Hey Tactics.

    also looking forward to the big reveals on the 14th-16th ;) any rumors flying around falafelkid?

    Well, nothing concrete. All I can say is that this could be Nintendo´s big moment.

    also....... did you hear a rumor that nintendo won't be doing wii kiosks down under, and maybe not in the USA either? (...) how do they expect to get "believers" if nobody can "play"? (playing = believing)

    what's the word on the street falafelkid?


    Well, I wouldn´t know. I have no contacts with retailers, so I won´t find out any earlier than the rest of us. But I would guess that kiosks are the ideal way of getting people to fall in love with that machine. I´d be as surprised as you are to find that there won´t be any.

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  7. Hey Falafelkid thanks for citing my blog.

    I'm extremely excited about this news. Nintendo always said that this addition to the Zelda franchise would be bigger and more adult, but never did I believe that it would be as expansive as the reports suggest.

    Sickr

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  8. Falafelkid, you just frickin' triple-posted.

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  9. Scheisse jetzt check ichs erst verdammt
    I.A.L.S

    Woa du wiiiiiiiiichser!
    Da hast du dir aber mal Mühe gegében!
    Wer hätte gedacht dass der Schlaffi auch mal kreativ sein kann?

    Huhuhuhuuuuu



    -Irrelevant Annoying Laughing Stock

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  10. Schau,ich schlag dich mit deinen eigenen Waffen.
    Ich kann wenigstens auch mal Witze auf eigene Kosten machen im gegensatz zu dir Schlaffi.



    Irrelevant Annoying Laughing Stock

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  11. Hi Fal',

    what's the "big secret" ??

    thanks

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  12. I noticed that Nintendo Centrum is on your Bad Blog List LOL... Why is that. The kids been through some "things" (ie hacks and stealing name) The reason why i ask is because I use your blog as my REAL source of info and he was listed as one of the good guys LOL

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  13. Hey all dayy.

    I noticed that Nintendo Centrum is on your Bad Blog List LOL... Why is that.

    I made an announcement about that in the comments section of the last post. It´s sad to see, since they really are putting together a reliable blog. But, unfortunately, that is all being compromised by the latest addition to their team: Mr. Rebus of ´No End Soon´ infamy.

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  14. Fal'

    you didn't answer me , about the "big secret".


    thanks

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  15. Hi Anonymous.

    Fal'

    you didn't answer me , about the "big secret".


    Well, I don´t know. Nintendo is very, very tight lipped about that. I have reason to believe that something big is going to be announced, above and beyond launch date and price. No word on what it is, though. Just watch that counter on my front page in anticipation ;)

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  16. I beg to differ with your "setting a new standard" comment. Daggerfall had the biggest artificial world I've come across, roughly 16000 square miles.

    This might not be the biggest single player world in existance, but its the biggest I know of. It was also released in 1996. Best RPG I've ever played though! If the new ledgend of zelda game can measure up to that I may have to rethink my "no gaming" policy

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  17. Hey Anonymous.

    Daggerfall had the biggest artificial world I've come across, roughly 16000 square miles.

    Thanks for the link. In fact, you missed out another zero. According to the article, it´s 160.000 square miles. The maps of the place hint at the sheer size of the game. Interesting stuff, thanks for the link again.

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  18. Thanks Fal', I really appreciate your Blog, long time reader by the way !!!

    thanks

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  19. The article states "If it takes 45 minutes, and horses gallop at 40MPH, that makes the distance 30 miles." Unfortunately, it was not indicated by Nintendo on whether or not the horse in game will travel at a comparative 40MPH, so I'm not sure this can be used for a real estimate as of now since that one factor really determines the math afterwards.

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  20. @Anonym: You´re welcome. Thanks for visiting.

    Hi Jayroo:

    Unfortunately, it was not indicated by Nintendo on whether or not the horse in game will travel at a comparative 40MPH, so I'm not sure this can be used for a real estimate as of now since that one factor really determines the math afterwards.

    Very good point. If a horse is not significantly faster than walking speed in that game, the area would be much smaller. Thanks for pointing that out.

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  21. Very interesting!! I wonder how much is that in meters...
    (btw, you have a great blog!!)

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  22. I'm going to assume that there is a way to warp as seen in past Zelda games.

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  23. I spend 15 minutes on go point to point on the ocean of Wind Waker. But the boat is faster than epona.

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