Tonight the new broke that legendary comedic actor Robin Williams was found dead in his apartment of what's being speculated as an apparent suicide from asphyxiation. Rumors have circulated about Robin Williams struggles with sobriety as recent as within the last month including a return to a rehabilitation center. The world truly lost a great and talented artist and comedian. Having had roles in both film and TV dating back to the late 70's with Mork and Mindy, 1987's Good Morning Vietnam, 1989's Dead Poets Society, as well as Hook, Jumanji, Good Will Hunting, Alladin and Mrs. Doubtfire through the 90's, he also appeared in the smash hit franchise Night as the Museum and even alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar in the short lived sitcom, The Crazy Ones and these are just to name a small selection of his work. In short, the world of comedy has certainly lost a light and, to keep in theme with the blog, I also think it's important to acknowledge that Mr. Williams was a fan of a very famous and well known video game franchise, so much so in fact that he named his daughter, Zelda Williams, after it's princess. Take a look at this father and daughter duo promoting the Legend of Zelda: the Skyward Sword and the admittedly tougher to watch, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D.

Since it's release in 1998, Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time has given us some of gaming most memorable characters and one that has, or at least was, always debated on it's gender was Shiek. Now, to be frank, seeing as Shieks description reads as, "Princess Zelda's alter ego in the game...Zelda passes herself off as a male Sheikah known as shiek," I thought it was pretty common knowledge that Shiek had always been a female but as the years passed, it created what became an over a decade long debate, until now. As reported through Polygon, Bill Trinnen, the senior product marketing manager from Nintendo, responded with, "The definitive answer is that Sheik is a woman, simply Zelda in a different outfit" While I'm certainly not surprised, this does put a lid on one of gaming longest arguments but regardless, Shiek will always be one of the best characters to come from the Legend of Zelda franchise.

Unfortunately, due to my lack of internet connection last night, this is coming a bit later than planned so sorry for the delay but lets talk the Nintendo Direct from last night! While there was a great handful of new footage from the characters, we did get a handful of new confirmations from the Skyward sword series. Fi, the master sword spirit, and bosses Zant and Ghirahim were also confirmed for playable characters as well as the demon king himself, Ganondorf. We also saw a lot of awesome new items like the moon from Majoras Mask and even a chain chomp from the Mario series that made an appearance in one of the older Legend of Zelda titles. On top of all this awesome information, the announcement of pre-order exclusives was also announced which is, well, not the best news. Nintendo has plans to release that information at a later date so we'll have to wait and see when and where you'll be able to get the best sets although I'm sure the rest will be made available for download on the Nintendo shop at a later date. Check out the whole direct below!

It's a big year for Link and fans of the Legend of Zelda series and it looks like Nintendo is mapping out more plans to give us even more of our timeless hero in the future. Aside from Hyrule Warriors and the next Legend of Zelda Wii U title, producer Eiji Aonuma has spoken a bit about the "evolving" the series and options for the 3DS. While I doubt this is the remake of the one N64 title that I so desperately want remade, it would be interesting to see where they want to head with the series. Maybe more multiplayer options? Maybe more compatibility with the Wii U and it's game pad? Only time can tell but feel free to read through the Q&A here. 

The next Zelda title is adding more than a few surprising characters to the mix. Agitha from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight princess is has been added to the Hyrule Warriors roster. This news comes from the Japanese gaming magazine, Famitsu, along side the announcement of a character named "lana: the white witch," a brand new character created for Hyrule Warriors who uses a spell book to create walls to push enemies and can cause them to explode as well. Zant and Argorok will also appear in the game in some fashion, most likely NPC's. While it hasn't been officially announced, the rumor is that Hyrule Warriors multiplayer with make use of the game pad as well as the television screen but there is speculation that you may only be able to play as one character on the game pad while in co-op mode. Hopefully not since this would force one player to miss out on a great game play experience with all of the character options available. Look forward to more Hyrule Warriors news as the games release date of September 26th, 2014 approaches.

In an interview with Gameinformer, Zelda developer Eiji Aonuma spoke in more detail about what we can expect from Hyrule Warriors and the up-coming Zelda title for the Wii U console in 2015. Among the things mentioned, one that caught a lot of gamers attention is the possibility of the next Zelda title offering multi-player functionality.

    "The two-player functionality of Hyrule Warriors is actually something that has traditionally been done in the Dynasty Warriors series, but they’ve changed because of the hardware and the second screen on your GamePad. Instead of having a splitscreen on the television, you have one-player playing on the television and one on the GamePad. When I was talking back about making Zelda more than just a single-player experience? That’s something you will see in the future, maybe next year" - Eiji Aonuma

Utilizing the game pad is very smart move, one that Nintendo has already used for some of their other titles and can add a lot of new features to whats being described as an "open world" Zelda title.. It will be interesting to see what kind of role will be added with the possible multi-player experience. Feel free to read the rest of Aonuma's interview with Game Informer here.

While Game of Thrones may have just ended, we'll still have plenty to enjoy. Check out this awesome Legend of Zelda mash up with the intro the HBO's hit series!

To be honest, I'm just lost at this point. Eiji Aonuma continues to fuel discussions regarding the main character of next years Zelda Wii U title and it's, well, it's confusing. In an interview with IGN, they managed to get him to admit that he never said it wasn't Link, but at the same time, no one said it was link either? A lot of people are speculating that this game might serve as a sequel to Wind Waker based on the art style as well as the character model. Maybe we'll see the possibility of playing as a link with various gender options in the net title? Click here to see the comments and see if you can work it out.

One of the big surprises came today at E3 and I couldn't be more excited. In a small development video showing off the future of the franchise, a much more open world Zelda was announced for 2015. No title has been given as of yet but it's nice to see that Hyrule will be as large and expansive as it should be! The Wii U is really shaping up to have a strong 2015. Check out the must see video right now!

As all of you know, we're just under half a day away from the next big E3 conference, Nintendo, and once again following last years tradition, it will be streamed online while they will have some titles on the showroom floor. Lets have a look at what I hope we might see.

- Super Smash Bros for the 3DS is planned to be released ahead of it's Wii U counterpart and hopefully we'll see some more footage as well as get a release date on these titles, we might even get a new 3ds or 2DS bundle with these titles (I wouldnt be shocked if the Wii U got a similar treatment)

- Hyrule Warriors has slowly, but surely, been building its own hype and we'll certainly see more of that

- Which leads me on to the next thing, in a perfect world, an announcement for a new Zelda title would come (but dont count your hens)

- Hopefully some localized titles like Shin Megami x Fire Emblem

- I'm expecting a little bit of talk on the Wii U's "skylander-esque" gaming platform

- More Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire news

- we'll hopefully get some clarification on that level building mario title teased in the image

This is my short list and I have heard rumors of a few other things that may or may not happen and I don't want to ruin the fun! Stay tuned tomorrow and make sure to look for the direct at 1pm!