‘Breath of the Wild’ is the best ‘Zelda’ game in years

I replayed the first 30 minutes of Rise of the Tomb Raider the other day. In it, I scaled a mountain, leaping from platform to platform while the environment around me crumbled. I then headed into a tomb, worked through a few puzzles, and triggered a high-octane escape sequence. A year ago, I enjoyed those opening moments immensely. After playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, though, they felt lifeless and stale.

From Tomb Raider to Uncharted, the modern adventure game is a tightly choreographed charade, a 20-hour quick time event (QTE) with a clearly defined path. When I jumped to evade an avalanche, Lara landed exactly where the game’s developers wanted her to. When I needed to solve a puzzle, the game began pointing, beckoning me to do what the developers wanted me to do. In Breath of the Wild, I had heart-stopping, adrenaline-filled moments, I solved complex puzzles, but through it all, I walked my own path.

Devindra Hardawar gives his own take on the game.

New beginnings

The Zelda series has long followed a simple pattern: You awaken as Link, the silent protagonist, and find a sword and shield. Then you discover that a mysterious antagonist is messing up the fictional land of Hyrule. You must, of course, save the kingdom and its Princess Zelda, so you travel to a number of dungeons, each holding a key item that will aid you on your quest, and defeat the bosses within, before facing off against the big bad. Day saved. Roll credits.

While there’s still a lot of that DNA in this game, the development team has thrown out some old ideas completely. And those tropes that do remain have been disguised and evolved, leaving a game that feels fresher than I’d ever imagined a 31-year-old franchise could.

Take our hero, Link. He begins as a silent soul, almost devoid of life, but through the course of the game he uncovers facts about his past that build him out as a character. The narrative is structured around him, and the journey it sends you on feels natural and logical. Sure, there’s a lot of talk of destiny and heroics, but when on the main quest, I felt a sense of purpose, a notion that I wasn’t striding down a well-trodden road, but finding my way on a Tolkienesque journey.

The world of Breath of the Wild is enormous. Link begins his adventure on a plateau — a kind of tutorial area, but without the tutorial. You very quickly meet an old man who recalls the first NPC Link ever met, in the original NES classic. He sends you on a mission to find Shrines — essentially single-room puzzles littered throughout the world — promising you a glider in return, and with it a safe way off the plateau.

The first Shrines you come across are very simple, serving more as a conduit to grant you a set of powers that you’ll use throughout your quest. These come in the form of Runes, and the important ones let you set bombs, manipulate metal objects, turn water into ice or temporarily freeze an object in time. They’re useful in combat, and essential to beating the other Shrines (there are 120, and completing them gives you additional life and stamina) and the more complex challenges that lie ahead.

Rather than hand you specific items at the right time and tell you what to do with them, as past Zelda titles did, Breath of the Wild dumps a lot of skills on your lap at the start of the game. It’s up to you to work out which tool works in which situation. Because of this lack of linearity, finally cracking a puzzle brings a sense of accomplishment that’s been missing from almost every Zelda game in recent memory.

Aaron Souppouris / Nintendo

Into the wild

Horses are common throughout most of Hyrule. To catch one, you need to sneak up on it from behind, or above. You can then register them at a stable, where you’ll be able to board and retrieve them, give them a haircut or switch saddles.

From the moment you receive your first quest, it’s clear that something’s different here: You’re not given waypoints. To aid your search, Link has a tablet (called a “Sheikah Slate”) that can act as a map. You start the game with that map entirely blanked out, save for the boundaries between regions, but if you can see a place in the distance, you can mark its location with the slate. Your task, then, is to head for high ground, try to spot the Shrines, and find a way to get to them.

Eventually, you’re given a simple warmer/colder tool to help you track down Shrines, but wayfinding still forms a huge part of Breath of the Wild. By being vague about locations, and the paths thereto, the game asks you to explore, and to adapt.

Upon leaving the plateau, I headed, as instructed, to Kakariko Village to talk to the next quest giver. It was on that walk that I allowed myself time to slow down and really take the world in. While there are clearly more technically proficient games out there, the art direction in Breath of the Wild surpasses anything I’ve played before. The Switch’s screenshot tool doesn’t quite do the game justice, but the presentation here is pristine, with gorgeous character and location modeling, smooth animations and dazzling particle effects.

That journey to Kakariko sticks in my mind almost as much as entering the village itself. Perhaps the biggest leap forward over past Zelda games is the lighting. The way the mood changes with the weather and time of day is stunning, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget the first time I got caught in a thunderstorm. But even now, some 45 hours later, I find myself stopping and pausing to take in a sunset, or even just the shadow of a cloud rolling across a field.

While that initial trail followed a fairly straight road, it would be the last time I was handed such a simple objective. Missions sometimes place a waypoint on your map, but they give you little indication of how to get there. Instead, I found myself reading signposts to find my way. Even then, the world is full of environmental obstacles, from rivers and mountains, which simply need traversing, to lava and snow, which require special clothes or elixirs to deal with.

Heading in a straight line toward an mission will rarely work out well, and as roads frequently diverge, it’s tough to stay on the right path. To aid in your travels, there are various towers dotted around the landscape (one for each of the game’s regions). Finding a way to the top of these structures is not always simple, but when you finally reach the summit you’ll be rewarded with a map of the corresponding area.

A new fight

By default, ‘Breath of the Wild’ puts a lot of information in the corner of your screen. You can turn this off in the settings, however, and I thoroughly recommend it.

The changes continue into combat and inventory management, both of which have been thoroughly revamped. The basic combat controls will be familiar, but the biggest change is that weapons slowly degrade as you use them, before eventually breaking.

This mechanic adds a new dimension to encounters: You could certainly attack every foe with your best weaponry, but what happens when it falls apart and a difficult enemy appears? Invariably, you die. As such, you’ll want to approach each battle with careful thought. There are Rune skills that could dispatch a beast or two; you could use stealth to sneak up on a watchman, or take someone out from afar with a well-placed arrow to the head. And you’ll want to check every weapon an enemy dropped to see if it’s of use.

Weapons also handle fairly uniquely. Obviously, swords are different from spears, and boomerangs are different from bows, but there’s a sense of weight, and a real physics engine driving combat here. Heavy swords swing slower than light ones, making them tricky to wield successfully against a fast opponent; arrows travel in an arc, making aiming at a distance hard; and the boomerang, although difficult to master, is extremely satisfying when you get it right.

There isn’t a huge range of enemy types in the game, but what variety is there is augmented in some intelligent ways. There’s a real sense of dynamism from the combat, and environment plays a key part in every battle. Enemies can be intelligent, and adapt quickly. The addition of a stamina meter also brings something new to combat. In a typical encounter, it doesn’t come into play; unlike in Dark Souls, it’s virtually impossible to tire yourself out just by swinging your sword around. But running, gliding and climbing will all have Link gasping for breath.

In one moment, I was fighting a group of three Lizalfos (twitchy, bouncy, lizard-like enemies). I approached from the air, gliding over before shooting an arrow at one of their heads. I then descended quickly, smashing that enemy with an ax as I touched down. From there, I switched to a boomerang. I hit the second Lizalfos, but I mistimed the button press to catch the weapon on its return. As I raced over to retrieve it, I ran out of stamina. One of my foes quickly grabbed my boomerang and began attacking me with it. I did not survive the encounter.

As with all good games, every time I died I knew it was my fault. At least at first, though, some battles felt unfairly weighted against me. Roaming the land are Guardians, dangerous mechanical sentries that you’ll certainly bump into. They move faster than Link can on feet, their attacks have a longer range than yours and, honestly, they’re kind of terrifying, even with the necessary equipment to fight them. I’ve been killed by them countless times, and I’ve died in this game maybe 30 times total. That’s probably more deaths than my combined count across all Zelda games in the past 15 years.

So staying alive is hard, and I get used to seeing “Game Over” fairly frequently. While it doesn’t come close to testing you in the way that, say, a From Software game would, Breath of the Wild is not an easy game. Like in Dark Souls, simple enemies can quickly overwhelm you if you approach them incorrectly. Because of this, maintaining and managing your inventory is key.

There’s a bona fide in-game economy now, along with a fairly robust crafting system. There aren’t many rupees lying around on the floor, so you’ll need to do more to make your way through Hyrule. Upon death, enemies “drop” various “items” (i.e., you pick up a few of their body parts), which can either be used to craft elixirs or sold to stores and traveling salespeople. You can also harvest vegetables and fungi, and hunt fish and mammals for meat. Oh, and there are various critters around the world that make an excellent addition to an elixir.

Crafting is done at campfires: You combine ingredients to create dishes that not only recover health but increase your attack power, stamina, defense, or environmental resistances. The crafting system is a welcome addition, but it’s not without issues. Cooking up one of these meals takes no time at all, but preparing 30 dishes can be a slog. You have to manually head to your inventory, pick up a steak, back out of the menu, and drop the steak into the pan. Over and over again. Nonetheless, it became something of a ritual for me to cook up various meals before sending Link to sleep, ready for a long journey in the morning.

The joy of exploration

From fishing to bowling, ‘Zelda’ has always offered countless mini games, and ‘Breath of the Wild’ is no different. I’ve played through three, and they’re all a lot of fun, but there’s something special about happening upon them by yourself.

It took me around 45 hours to beat Skyward Sword, the last home console game in the series. I’ve put almost exactly that much time into Breath of the Wild and, so far as I can tell, I’m barely past halfway. That’s partly because this is the biggest game Nintendo has ever made, but it’s also because Zelda just begs you to explore.

The game’s real genius lies in its map. It’s vast — more akin to The Witcher 3’s than Skyrim’s in size — and it’s full of life. Even its quieter sports are crafted in such a way that they feel connected to the overall world. Heading from one location to another, you invariably see points of interest in your peripheral vision.

Typically, this is achieved by elevation. Say you’re heading along the side of a canyon, when suddenly the mist parts to reveal an oasis below — who wouldn’t want to glide down and take a look? Other times you’ll see a distant spec moving on the horizon (draw distances are stellar), or a Shrine nestled on a hilltop. Remember: Anything you can see, you can mark as a waypoint on your map, which made finding my way around the world feel like a much more personal effort.

I’ve spent days of in-game time carving a path through the game’s various areas, just on the whim that I might find something worth doing at the end of my journey. Almost without exception, the game rewarded my exploratory instincts with items, characters, new locations, or, occasionally, just a beautiful vista.

The consistency of these reward loops encouraged me to explore more, to find high ground, to head to the farthest point I could see. It’s at these moments, when I’m scaling a sheer rock face in the hope of discovering something at its peak, that the game is at its best. Throughout it all, music is sparse, which lends a real sense of isolation. Occasionally, you’ll hear some incidental piano playing in the background, while combat also triggers some light music, but the rich orchestral scores of Ocarina of Time are nowhere to be found here. It’s mostly just silence, or the sounds of nature.

A different kind of dungeon

In addition to Shrines dotted all around the landscape, Breath of the Wild has some larger set-piece dungeons, more in the style of the classic Temples of Zelda past. But, like everything in this game, these dungeons are dramatically different from what you’ve seen before.

The larger dungeons are typically introduced by memorable gameplay moments. In one case I found myself firing arrows in midair at a giant beast in bullet time; in another I had to stealthily guide a dumb companion past deadly sentries. Once those set pieces are over, though, you’re essentially dropped in the middle of a giant puzzle and asked to work your way out.

Once inside, you’ll discover there are no keys, no new items and no labyrinthine layout. Instead, they’re a single environment, which you manipulate in order to achieve your goal. Rather than handing you, say, a grappling hook and asking you to use it to navigate around a space, the game expects you to use all your Rune skills to proceed to the flashy boss fight that awaits.

The second layer of complexity comes from points of articulation within the dungeon. Once you’ve downloaded its map onto your tablet, you’re able to transform the layout slightly with the press of a key. In one example, this might be to change the flow of water to get wheels spinning in motion, while in others, you’re able to rotate the entire dungeon on its side. The level of challenge offered isn’t off the charts — although I did get stuck for an hour by missing something blindingly obvious — but the puzzles really encourage lateral thinking, and required me to use all the tools at my disposal to progress.

For Nintendo to have reworked so much without losing what makes ‘Zelda’ so special is an achievement in itself.

An evolution, borrowed

There has never been this big a change in direction since The Legend of Zelda first graced the NES 31 years ago. Despite rightly being lauded as one of the best games ever, Ocarina of Time was not the sea change that Breath of the Wild represents. Yes, it realized the world of Zelda in three dimensions, and provided memories that will last many gamers a lifetime, but it did not drastically mess with the formula laid down by A Link to the Past in the early ’90s. Breath of the Wild does.

Nintendo has challenged the very notion of what a Zelda game can be. It’s torn out parts I would’ve considered key to the franchise and swapped in the very best ideas from other titles. Breath of the Wild borrows liberally from games that, in fairness, all owe the Zelda series a little piece of their existence. It takes Far Cry’s scouting out locations and hunting animals. It has Monster Hunter’s meticulous journey preparation. It distills the sense of wonder you get in Skyrim when you spot a speck on the horizon and resolve to one day see it. There’s even a little of Just Cause’s physics-based mayhem wrapped in there somewhere.

Yet, despite all of this change, I never once questioned that I was playing a Zelda game. It’s not just the characters, or the shared world. There’s a quality beyond the tangible that makes Breath of the Wild feel like an entirely natural evolution of a beloved franchise. This is a blueprint for a new kind of Zelda game — one that can undoubtedly evolve and improve beyond our imaginations in the future. For Nintendo to have reworked so much without losing what makes this series so special is an achievement in itself. For it to have created something that, after 45 hours or so, is shaping up to be one of the best games ever made is something else entirely.

The Morning After: Thursday, March 2 2017

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

The Nintendo Switch goes on sale tomorrow, but our review of the dockable console is here today. Plus: a price drop for Oculus Rift and a status update on Windows phones.

Revolutionary, but it still needs workNintendo Switch review

It’s time to find out how the newest Nintendo console stacks up, and Devindra Hardawar came up with plenty of positives. With the Switch, Nintendo fixed its big mistakes from the Wii U and doubled down on that system’s best feature by making the entire thing a playable mobile device. There are some issues, including the extra cost for accessories like a Grip Charge for its controllers or the $70 Pro controller gamepad.

Two and a half hours of battery life playing Zelda means gamers on the go could be looking for an extra battery pack too. Still, the Switch brings Nintendo’s flair for innovation, and we’re expecting a steady flow of indie titles for you to play once the launch games get a bit stale.

Living TilesThe hunt for Windows Phone

Microsoft says it’s still committed to Windows phones, so it should be easy to find one at the world’s largest mobile event right? This is the idea that sent Mat Smith on the search for Windows Phone at MWC 2017, but what he found probably won’t surprise you

Say hello to Season 4‘Overwatch’ adds a server browser

Blizzard continues to tweak Overwatch and now its online shooter has a server browser on all platforms. That means players can create (or find) almost any game type they can imagine, instead of just sticking to ones the developers pick. It’s also time for the competitive bracket’s fourth season, with some new play tweaks and changes to make tanking to the bottom a less attractive option.

O.T. Genasis approvesThe Oculus Rift headset and Touch controller each get a $100 price drop

If you’ve been considering a VR upgrade, now could be the time. Oculus announced during GDC 2017 that it’s dropping prices. The Rift headset now sells for $499, while the Touch controllers are down to $99. Extra sensors are cheaper too, dropping $20 to $59. After a year on the market, it’s about time for a price cut, and recent buyers (within the last 30 days) can check in for a $50 credit.

But wait, there’s more…

• Prisma’s newest option encourages users to create their own filters
• Microsoft plans to bring mixed reality to the Xbox in 2018
• Tech CEO tweets 1-800-EAT-DICK number at reporter
• Nokia is quickly getting better at making Android phones
• Spotify Hi-Fi is coming to compete with Tidal’s high quality audio
• Google unveils ‘Meet,’ a Hangouts app for businesses

Gmail now lets you receive 50MB attachments

“Sending and receiving attachments is an important part of email exchanges,” quoth the announcement on the official Google blog. The only downside is that the search engine is quite heavy-handed with attachment sizes, capping both incoming and outgoing messages at 25MB. At least, that was the case since, from today, Gmail now allows you to receive mails with attachments up to 50MB in size.

Unfortunately, sending mails remain capped at the same limit as before, with larger files only transmissible via Google Drive. The fact that the company has altered the size at all means that, hopefully, the rules will be relaxed even further in the future. Then again, it may also be a clever way to fill up your inbox space even faster as a nice lever to get you to pay for extra storage.

Source: Google

Lego is making a ‘Women of NASA’ set

You’ll soon have five new characters to place near your space-inspired Lego structures. The toymaker is developing a new set featuring five history-making women who made great contributions to NASA’s space program. “Women of NASA” was created by MIT News editor Maia Weinstock, who submitted it to the Lego Ideas competition. Weinstock’s entry garnered the 10,000 votes needed for Lego to consider manufacturing it, and the company has recently announced that it has already begun taking steps to make it a real set people can buy.

The five women are (from left to right in the image above):

• Margaret Hamilton: a computer scientist who developed the on-board flight software used for the Apollo missions to the moon. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom last year for being a coding pioneer.
• Katherine Johnson: a physicist and mathematician who manually calculated trajectories and launch windows for many early NASA missions, including the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the moon. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 and was portrayed by Taraji P. Henson in the movie Hidden Figures.
• Sally Ride: an astronaut and physics professor who became the first American woman in space and the third overall, meaning she had to endure questions like: “Will the flight affect your reproductive organs?” She also remains the youngest American astronaut to ever travel to space at age 32. In 2001, she founded a company that created entertaining science programs and publications for elementary and middle school girls.
• Nancy Grace Roman: is known as the “Mother of Hubble” for her work on the telescope and one of the first female NASA executives. She developed NASA’s astronomy research program and was involved in the development and launch of six other space observatories and satellites
• Mae Jemison: a medically-trained astronaut who became the first African-American woman to travel to space and orbit the planet. After a brief NASA career, she founded her own tech company and became a professor.

Weinstock told BBC that her purpose is to inspire girls to pursue careers in STEM: “I hope it sets a new example for both girls and boys,” she said. “Girls, in that they can and should be engineers, scientists, and mathematicians, and boys, in that they internalise at an early age that these careers are for everyone, not only men.”

Lego is now finalizing the characters’ design. The company has no exact release date yet, but it expects to start selling the “Women of NASA” set in late 2017 or early 2018.

Thrilled to finally share: @LegoNASAWomen has passed the @LEGOIdeas Review and will soon be a real LEGO set! https://t.co/rcyjANsVD9 pic.twitter.com/b9OVx5UBaL

— Maia Weinstock (@20tauri) February 28, 2017

Source: Lego, The Washington Post, BBC, NBC News

Chevy is the first major car company with unlimited LTE data

Chevrolet’s latest OnStar LTE plan would be every smartphone user’s dream, if it wasn’t confined to cars. Starting March 3rd, Chevy owners can get unlimited 4G data, including an OnStar WiFi hotspot, for $20 a month, prepaid. It’s apparently economies of scale that are helping Chevy lower costs. It has sold 3.1 million OnStar LTE-equipped cars, more than any other automaker, and customers streamed 4 million GB of hotspot WiFi data in 2016, double the year before.

Chevy said last year that Silverado, Suburban and Tahoe drivers consumed the most data using their hotspots for work. After that, it’s families amusing their little ones with movies and videos, followed by Spotify and other music streamers. In 14 of Chevy’s 2016 models, its MyLink infotainment system is compatible with both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, making it fairly easy for nearly anyone to connect their smartphone.

Chevy gets its data from AT&T, which rolled out its own unlimited plan last month, then tweaked it with free tethering and video streaming options after a storm of criticism. That follows a new carrier trend to unlimited data, as Verizon and T-Mobile both added new unlimited plans. As car-based LTE is a more niche product, it’s hard to say whether Chevy rivals like Ford, with its Verizon-powered SmartLink system, will follow suit.

Source: Chevrolet

LG’s SteamVR headset is a bulky yet promising HTC Vive alternative

For the past year, the only two contenders in the PC virtual reality space were the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. Not anymore. A few days ago, LG announced its own PC-driven VR headset, which was made in collaboration with Valve. That means that there are now two headsets — the Vive and the LG — that utilizes Valve’s SteamVR tracking technology. We took a closer look at a prototype of the LG headset here at GDC 2017, and though it could certainly use some improvement, we think it has a lot of potential.

LG’s SteamVR headset is not small by any stretch of the imagination. From some angles, it almost looks like a helmet rather than a headset. Its design is not unlike the PSVR, with an all-plastic build that encompasses everything from the eyepiece to the headband that holds it in place. There’s a nice smooth surface on the front of the goggles, which is a stark contrast to the HTC Vive’s pockmarked face. But if you hold the LG headset to the light, you’ll be able to see the various sensors underneath the smooth veneer. Also on the front is a camera lens, which LG says would be used for passthru view eventually.

You put on the LG headset by wearing it as if it were a backwards baseball cap, with the rear band wrapping around the back of the head and the front piece pointing upward. You can then tighten it around your head by ratcheting the sides in, and by adjusting a scroll wheel on the back. It all feels really comfy and snug, like it’s giving your skull a big bear hug. It did loosen a little bit during gameplay, however, which could be due to the headset’s rather hefty weight shifting slightly as you move around.

LG’s Steam #VR headset #gdc #gdc17 #gdc2017 #virtualreality

A post shared by Engadget (@engadget) on Mar 1, 2017 at 3:47pm PST

One particular design detail that I really like, is that you can extend the eyepiece, flip it up and then bring it back down over your eyes again without much effort. This makes jumping in and out of virtual reality that much easier, which could be useful if you have kids and pets running around, or if you just need a quick sip of water in between killing alien invaders.

The wand controllers look very similar to the ones with the Vive, but instead of circular ends, they’re angular and blockier. They also feel better thanks to a textured grip on the sides that make them easier to hold. Another similarity to the Vive is that the LG headset uses the same Lighthouse tracking tech that Valve developed — LG even made its own base stations. Seeing that both hardware was made to Valve’s specifications, the similarities aren’t too surprising.

According to LG, the headset has a 3.64-inch display with a 1440 x 1280 resolutin for each lens, a refresh rate of 90Hz, plus a 110-degree field of view. Right now, the IPD can’t be adjusted, there’s no built-in headphones and, as we said, it’s a little heavy. But it’s only just a prototype after all. LG has said it’s open to changing the design as it gets more and more user feedback.

I only tried the LG SteamVR headset out for about 15 minutes, but I was suitably impressed. I batted an electric racquetball around, played a longbow mini game and watched an abstract ballerina twirl its way around me. The display quality is great, and the screen door effect (visible pixels) was minimal enough that I forgot it was there after awhile. The reaction times from me flailing around the controllers were on point as well.

On the whole, I had a pretty positive first impression. The overall design is surprisingly solid for just a prototype, and the performance was good as well. A lot could change between now and when it comes to market, of course, so we’ll have to wait and see if the final LG headset can take on its VR predecessors. Unfortunately, that might take awhile, as LG won’t say how much it is nor when it’s set to make its consumer debut.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from GDC 2017!

Prisma Photo App Update Adds Filter Store, User-Created Filters Coming Soon

Popular photo filter app Prisma has been updated with an in-app store for users to download additional filters for free.

The photo app uses the predictive analyses of neural network technology to achieve its stylistic interpretations, which typically makes them more unique than standard photo filters.

Prisma says the new store will bring even more originality to users’ pictures, with the promise of new styles being added to the store every week, and possibly every day further down the line.

Users will also be able to rate and share individual filter styles in the near future, according to Prisma. In addition, users can now delete filters they don’t like from the 44 styles that come with the app.

Meanwhile, Prisma has developed a desktop app that allows users to create their own unique styles by adjusting a series of parameters. The company is still refining the tool, which takes a while to process images and doesn’t yet say what each slider control adjusts, but a preview is offered before the image is uploaded and processed.

Currently the filter creator is only available to the most active users, but Prisma plans on bringing it to mobile and more users soon.

Prisma is a free download on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. [Direct Link]

Tag: Prisma
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Google Has No Plans For More Pixel Notebooks

Google has ended production of its Pixel laptop, which originally aimed to compete with Apple’s MacBook Air.

During a small meeting with journalists today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Google’s senior vice president for hardware Rick Osterlohthe responded to a question about future Pixel notebooks, saying the company has “no plans to do one right now”.

According to TechCrunch, he added that versions already on the market have totally sold out and there are no plans to make any more of them. However, Osterlohthe was quick to clarify that he was not referring to the notebooks’ operating system, ChromeOS.

“Chrome OS is a huge initiative in the company,” Osterloh said. “Google hasn’t backed away from laptops. We have the number two market share in the U.S. and U.K. — but we have no plans for Google-branded laptops.”

Google’s Chromebook was the first device to carry the Pixel name, which has since been adopted by the tech giant’s latest range of branded smartphones. The original Pixel laptops were launched in 2013 and were notable for their integrated hardware – which included a touchscreen – and their premium design appeal, but the web-only operating system only ran Chrome browser and a handful of other cloud-based apps, and prices started at $1,299.

The second version of the Pixel Chromebook launched in 2015 and cost $999. It was one of the first laptops to feature USB-C along with Apple’s 12-inch Retina MacBook, but saw limited uptake due to the restrictive OS and prohibitive cost. Other third-party Chromebooks sell for as little as $250.

There’s no cast-iron guarantee that Google won’t launch any more branded laptops, but it seems the company wants to keep the Pixel name for its phones going forward, the only caveat being Google’s Pixel C tablet, which it still sells.

Tag: Google Pixel
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Renault Scenic (2017) review: More SUV than MPV

Reinventing any vehicle represents a challenge. Change the name and you’ll lose customers, keep the same name and you create certain expectations. And with the Scenic, Renault has one of the most distinctive names in the business – the car that started the small MPV craze.

The new Scenic keeps the same name as the car it replaces, but whatever you do, don’t call the new Scenic an MPV. Instead Renault has gone for reinvention and recast its small family people carrier as a crossover/SUV.

Why? Despite their intrinsic usefulness, the MPV has fallen from favour in the sales charts. No one wants to drive a van with windows these days. People want useful, but with some “life at the weekends” image, and in that statement lies the kernel of both the Scenic’s change of attitude and the reason why the roads are full of cars like the Nissan Qashqai and Range Rover Evoque. Such cars provide nearly the same utility as a small MPV, but their image is altogether sportier and cooler – and you don’t feel quite so much of a fool if you’re driving it alone, as you do with an MPV.

So can the car that set the trend for small people carriers 20 years ago still find favour in a crowded market?

Renault Scenic review: With looks like these

On looks alone, the answer to the previous question is probably yes. The Scenic represents the conclusion of Renault’s range renewal, and the design is striking. It picks up from the 2011 R-Space concept car – which served notice that Renault was out to reinvent the small MPV and was the first time we saw that unusual Renault window line, which dips down and then kinks back up in the rear door.

Pocket-lint

The “Honey” yellow/orange paint might have been what got the Scenic attention on the roads when we drove it, but it’s the standard fit 20-inch wheels (you get them even on the base spec) that really lead the design.

The ride height is a few centimetres higher than the old car – which helps with the SUV vibe – and the lower body is black clad, which seals the deal as far as that image is concerned.

The lamps feature Renault’s distinctive edge lighting (think long, flowing LED light pipes) and our model came with the black contrast roof line and panoramic roof, which means the whole upper body section is rendered in black – a look usually reserved for cars like the Mini and Range Rover. This isn’t your parents’ dowdy old Scenic.

Renault Scenic review: Interior space play

The Scenic has traditionally been a car that’s been bought for its versatility and interior space. The deal was simple: for the same road space usage as the Megane family hatch, you got a much bigger boot, rear seats that could accommodate gangly teenagers (and stop them having a row) and a sense of real panorama and space in the front.

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As far as the new model is concerned, there’s mixed news in this regard. Renault has carefully gone through and tried to work out what matters to people and what doesn’t. So what stays is the Scenic’s myriad of peek-a-boo storage spaces, fold down tray tables, four USB ports (and the ability to slide forward to connect with the dash, or push right back to divide the two outer rear seat footwells (assuming there’s no one sat in the middle seat)), and le piece-de-resistance: a huge, between-the-front-seats sliding unit with three massive storage spaces (one accessed from the front, one on top and one from the rear seats).

As the centre point of the cabin it’s a nice, easy-to-use setup, which provides genuinely useful space (you can fit four 500ml Evian bottles in the front bin, for example) and allows you to really change how the cabin feels divided up.

Other Scenic mainstays that remain are the integrated rear door blinds (a boon for parents with young kids), and the rear seats which slide. Plus a variable height boot floor.

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What you lose, compared to before, is any useful storage on the dashboard (the glovebox is tiny), the secondary convex rear view mirror (which was great for keeping an eye on kids in the back), and the ability to move the rear three seats independently – they’re now conventionally split 30/70 like a normal car, so the middle seat and outer passenger side are joined together. This means that you don’t get an Isofix fitting on the centre rear seat, one area the Scenic loses real-world ground in the family life stakes to competition from Citroen and Volkswagen.

Renault Scenic review: A nice place to be, a slightly less useful one

What has also noticeably changed is the perceived quality. In the Dynamique S Nav trim of our review car, the Scenic takes a leap in quality – the large captain’s chairs are partially finished in leather, as are the upper door cards, which neatly integrate with the dashboard design.

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Plus, with the 8.7-inch, portrait R-Link touchscreen (standard from this trim grade and up) curling up the dashboard, and the huge double A-pillar-flanked windscreen ahead of you, sitting in the front of the Scenic feels really special. Open the blind on the panoramic roof, and it’s light and airy in here in a way that is streets ahead of other cars.

Slip into the back seats, though, and you can see this is where Renault’s made a hedge – and is perhaps expecting some of its previous Scenic buyers to be moved towards the Kadjar SUV or one of the new 7-seat Grand Scenic. Because perceptively there’s much less space in the back seat than before. Part of that’s measurable inches, part of it’s because it feels darker due to that sharply kinking up window line.

Renault has been clever to raise the rear seats’ squab heights, so the view out for little ones is better than you’d think. But for adults, it’s much tighter in here, and despite the back seats sliding we were very disappointed to find that – when driving in our chosen position (and we are 6ft tall) – our new-born infant carrier (Maxi Cosy car seat) wouldn’t fit on its Isofix base behind the driver’s seat.

We got it in, but we had to raise the front seat up, and move it forward two inches which compromised our driving position comfort. This happens because the driver and passenger seat are so thick and luxurious, plus Renault has added the fold-down tray table on the seat back, which eats into the space where the top of the car seat wants to be.

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If you’ve got older kids who are in different car seats (the one for our three-year-old fitted fine) or your kids are older, they’ll likely welcome the tables and not have space issues. But we’re surprised to find a family car struggling to accommodate the baby seat as it did. As usual, try before you buy – as whether this is an issue for you will depend on baby seat and where you sit to drive.

Thankfully, the boot is what Renault say is biggest in the class: deep and square, it accommodated all of our clobber without any issue.

Renault Scenic review: Loaded up with tech

Since the first Scenic’s introduction, Renault has always made a big play of two key qualities in its car: safety and extensive tech features.

Safety-wise the new Scenic aggressively pursues 5-star Euro N-Cap crash ratings and best in class scores (the new Scenic gets 5 stars – 90 percent for adult occupant and 82 percent for children, so it’s close to top-of-class).

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In tech terms, much of what other manufacturers will make you pay extra for is included as standard. For the £25,445 on-the-road price of our Dynamique S Nav model, you get lane departure warning, auto hi-low beam, auto emergency braking, a head-up display (HUD), the 8.7-inch touchscreen with data-connected sat nav, DAB radio, Bluetooth, a rear parking camera and surround parking sensors, 20-inch alloys, panoramic roof, keyless entry and start. That’s a lot of kit.

It’s easier to say what the Scenic hasn’t got: there are no heated seats or electrically powered boot. Some options fitted to our car also cost extra: the LED headlights, auto park, a Bose sound system and a safety park with variable cruise control, safe distance warning and autonomous emergency brake (all priced at £500 each). We’d take the lights and the cruise control/safety system out of that lot.

These key points make the Scenic a decidedly easy thing to live with – especially now Renault seems to have ironed out some of the peculiarities of operation its previous cars have had.

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The R-Link touchscreen system is worthy of specific mention. It’s the same system fitted in the Megane, Kadjar and Espace. Displayed through an 8.7-inch, portrait-orientated touchscreen, the system makes much of personalisation options (offering various coloured skins which key in with the driving mode selected and the interior mood lights) and you can change the way the gauge cluster shows speedo/revs and info.

Because of its size, Renault uses a tiled icon arrangement, and on most screens it’s easy to hit your desired feature even when moving at speed because the buttons are so large. You can get hopelessly lost in the menus because there’s so much to customise, but limit yourself to the primary domains of media, radio, phone and navigation and it works pretty well.

The system has a data connection and taps into the TomTom Live traffic network, too, so it usefully helps you by predicting and offering previous suggestions as you type destination entries, then gets you around traffic jams while you’re using it. We were impressed how it matched Google Maps every step of the way during our Leeds commutes – getting us to office and back home both with impressive speed but also prediction accuracy in terms of arrival time.

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What doesn’t work so well is the heating and ventilation control, which you have to swipe up from the bottom of the screen, in an iPhone-style shortcut menu (it often takes three goes to get it to come up) and we still think that given the amount of digital real estate in the gauge cluster there could be more room made to show sat nav turn-by-turn instruction, or permit detailed scrolling through radio stations here.

Renault Scenic review: On the road

Few who buy a Scenic are going to be looking for the dynamic drive of their life. But you might expect a crossover to be a little bit more sporty than the average MPV.

With the 1.5 dCi engine fitted to our review car producing just 110bhp, this was never going to be a Scenic to set the world alight. It’s not fast, but for most we suspect it will be just fine.

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Peak torque is produced at 1,750 rpm, so the reality is that while the acceleration figures sound slow (0-62mph in 12.4 seconds), on the road you’re usually in the meat of the torque curve so can easily keep up and overtake slow traffic.

Instead, the Scenic majors on efficiency and refinement. This is a quiet diesel and the cabin is well insulated – which makes for an easy, refined motorway car. This dCi 110 model also falls into tax band A, because it produces just 100g/km of CO2 – meaning it’s in the 20% BIK take bracket and £0 tax in the first year. Officially it’s 72mpg combined, although we got 48mpg throughout our test week.

As many last generation Scenic buyers bought privately, we’d actually suggest you avoid this, and buy the higher-powered 1.6 dCi diesel (unless you’re company car purchasing or do more than 12,000 miles per year). Personally we would opt for the 130bhp TCe petrol – a nice engine in the other Renault products we’ve tried, perfectly capable of hauling the Scenic around, and it’ll save you £500 on the list price of this diesel.

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The Scenic actually clings on gamely when you are in a hurry – it resists understeer well and the body control is reasonably well managed such that you won’t disturb your passengers too much if you press on. What does let the side down are those 20-inch wheels, which create a quite unsettled ride and some big jolts when they hit larger pot holes. Renault says that the larger tyre wall thickness used to compensate for the big wheels makes up for their size and gives ride comfort similar to cars wearing 17- or 18-inch wheels. We disagree, though by no means is the ride so bad it’s impossible to live with.

Verdict

That the original small MPV Renault Scenic has become another “me-too” crossover could have been an ignominy. The family-friendly Scenic has certainly lost one or two of its most clever touches in the name of becoming a more style-led product. Will that cost it buyers? We can see a few younger families finding a more useful accomplice in a Volkswagen Touran or Citroen C4 Picasso. 

Yet the Scenic’s reinvention as one of the fashionable crowd rarely comes across as marketing-led or cynical. Its design and execution has considerably more pizzazz than either of those aforementioned MPVs.

Despite a few caveats around child seats, feature details and rear seat space, we don’t think too many buyers will feel short-changed by the Scenic’s design changes. Many will appreciate the clever mix of style and utility. Whether prospective buyers judge its image and utility to be preferable to that of an equivalent sized, similar priced SUV such as Renault’s own Kadjar, is the real moot point here. Particularly given an equivalent Kadjar seems to price in at around £2,000 less.

But perception is a funny thing. When we drove the Kadjar, we felt it was a default SUV. It did nothing wrong, but nor did it have much which stood out. Worthy it might be, but ultimately it is just a little dull. By contrast, it’s easy to pick some holes in the way the Scenic goes about things – but a week and 400-miles of driving later, it makes a strong impression as a truly likeable vehicle, with stand-out looks and a cabin that’s got wow factor. It feels special to be in. Once upon a time, those above descriptions of an SUV and an MPV might have been written in reverse.

Renault has always been a master of invention and reinvention when it comes to car types. And the Scenic’s reinvention feels like the latest chapter in a history of the company creating clever cars that have significant appeal, largely because of its stand-out design.

Tough new penalties for U.K. drivers caught using a phone behind the wheel

Why it matters to you

Whether it’s in the U.K. or U.S., the issue of using a phone while driving is a serious one and the authorities are cracking down in a bid to eradicate it.

Tough new penalties came into effect in the U.K. this week for drivers caught using their phone behind the wheel.

The fixed penalty for using a mobile phone while driving doubled from 100 pounds to 200 pounds (about $245), while the number of penalty points imposed increased to six from three. Pick up 12 points from a range of driving mishaps within a three-year period and you’ll likely to receive a six-month driving ban.

In addition, new drivers caught using their phone behind the wheel within two years of passing their test will lose their license and have to retake it.

The change to the law follows pressure from campaigners after a number of high-profile incidents in recent years where deaths were caused by distracted drivers.

A survey by the U.K.’s Royal Automotive Club last year showed that 31 percent of those polled had used a mobile phone while driving, an increase of 8 percent over two years.

Another study, this one carried out by the Automobile Association (AA), revealed that half of young drivers on Britain’s roads can’t bear to hit the off button on their smartphone before setting out in their car.

Perhaps these new penalties will change that.

Social stigma

The update to the law coincides with a new campaign aimed at making the practice of using the phone while driving as socially unacceptable as drunk driving. A video (above) launched as part of the effort aims to drill the message home that texting while driving is even more dangerous than drunk driving. “You’re twice as likely to crash text driving as you are drunk driving,” a message reads at the end of the video, adding, “You wouldn’t drink and drive. Don’t text and drive.”

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling described the video as “powerful and thought-provoking and will help deliver the message — using a phone at the wheel is simply unacceptable and can be as dangerous as drink driving.”

More: The Shellback Safe imprisons your wheel to keep you safe behind the wheel

Using a phone while driving is also a major issue in the U.S. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that distracted driving overall was a factor in almost 3,200 traffic deaths in 2014 and nearly 3,500 in 2015 in the mainland U.S. and Puerto Rico. Of those fatalities, mobile phones were the distracting element in 476 deaths in 2015, up from 406 in 2014.

A couple of years ago the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety studied driving behavior among teens involved in car accidents. It stuck cameras inside thousands of cars and eventually had enough data to compile a video of incidents caused by distracted driving. You can check it out here.