vism.net

The Wii has had its fair share of ridicule for its name. But it’s funny sometimes how it comes out unintentionally. “Wanna play with my Wii?” “You haven’t even touched my Wii yet.” “Everyone’s playing with my Wii.” “The Wii is so small.”

So the next day after getting it, my brother had a big party so they all played it alot. Everyone seemed to be having a good time with just Wii Sports. I guess that’s a testament to what Nintendo has been trying to achieve. I also rented Trauma Center which is okay. I like the new gameplay style of the Wii, but so many other things Nintendo does really annoys me. The fact the games look like crap is one thing. I’m sure with even the reduced processing power the Wii has compared to other systems, it can afford to at least apply anti-aliasing to Wii Sports. I’m sure the game hardly pushes the system to its limit, please do something about the jaggies at least. If you can get component cables for the Wii, the best it would give you is 480p, and even then it’s not enforced. Some games may even be 480i, so it’s no difference playing it on a standard TV or a HDTV. Lack of features is something else the Wii and Nintendo in general have been guilty of. Even though it already has a DVD drive, it doesn’t play DVD movies. Nintendo fans say it’s a gaming console so it should only play games. But Nintendo is going to release a version later that plays DVDs? wtf. I’m sure they will color gouge people with different color consoles and accessories like they always do.

Nonetheless, the games are fun so far. I’m enjoying Zelda, although I don’t think the new control scheme adds that much to it. It’s still the same game to me. And it looks great, if it was a Gamecube game. It looks like a direct port. They didn’t try to increase texture sizes or add orchestrated music or anything. I’m really wondering what the Wii is really capable of graphic wise. Right now it doesn’t look like much of an improvement over the Gamecube.

Honestly, I didn’t try that hard to get a Wii. I really was on the fence about getting one. I’d decide I want one, but I wouldn’t wake up early to get one. I had a chance to get it at Target at launch. I had a chance to get it at Gamestop on Black Friday. I kinda wanted one, but not bad enough to wake up early for it.

Matt and Keith decided to check out Toys R Us on Black Friday for a Wii. They didn’t have any in but they said they expect some in a few hours. They hung around waiting for it. It only took two minutes before a cart of Wiis came rolling in. Keith got his, and Matt called me and asked if I wanted one. I didn’t answer right away and was still debating. But the opportunity was too good to pass up. So now I have one. I also got Zelda. Now it’s going to be another hunt for another controller and component cables. Not that I think the component cables will improve the graphics much. I must admit, they suck. But I also must admit, the new style of gameplay is really fun. Especially with friends. Now I need some friends to come play with my Wii. Um yeah.

I woke up today to try to get a Nintendo Wii. Apparently, I didn’t wake up early enough. I got up at 8:45 am and got to Target and they were sold out. Drove to Toys r Us and they were forming a line but already sold out. Came back with just mii. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna keep it or sell it. I was just gonna get it and decide later. But after seeing the demand for this, I probably would sell it. Despite having more than double the amount of units of the PS3 launch, the Wiis are selling out. I didn’t expect it to, but I shoulda got up an hour earlier. It’s not going for four times the MSRP like the PS3 is on eBay. But it’s going for at least double, and should steadily climb as it becomes harder to get. Or… it could drop because they are replenishing Wiis pretty quickly. It’s really a surprise to me, I thought most people hadn’t even heard of the Wii. Or maybe they are all the disgruntled gamers that couldn’t get a PS3.

Last Monday, I went to a Anaheim Ducks game per free tickets acquired from work. One of the founders and CTO of the company I work for owns the Ducks as well as the managing company of the arena they play in. I got there during the second period and as we walked in to our seats, our section won free tickets to Aerosmith/Motley Crue. The Ducks game was awesome, they beat the Penguins in overtime.

The concert was even more awesome. The venue was out in the middle of nowhere. It was at the Hyundai Pavillion in Devore, CA, which is somewhere in San Bernardino. By the time we parked the concert already started. We missed some of Motley Crue. There were so many people. We had lawn area, so we managed to shuffle our way through to try to get a good view. Motley Crue was alright, Vince Neil was drunk and slurred some of the words. And Tommy Lee called us San Diego. Aerosmith was awesome. They performed perfectly and sounded great. They played my favorite song Dream On, which was enough to make me happy. Steven Tyler was pretty spry for an old guy. Joe Parish still rocks. Like the Aerosmith song, the concert was ‘Amazing’. Getting out of the parking lot was also amazing… ly bad. The concert ended around 11:30, we didn’t get home until 2. This was due to heavy traffic in the parking lots that didn’t move forever, and freeway detours. Makes me rethink going to concerts, but it was fun.

In the last few weeks, I purchased (with trade-in credits) Final Fantasy XII, Gears of War, and Guitar Hero 2. I’ve been juggling my play between the three, but Gears of War got most of my attention. Gears is great. Nothing particularly innovative, but looks great and plays great. Online co-op is a blast. I finished it in about 3 nights, while short, it felt about right. Now I shift my attention to Guitar Hero 2 which has a great selection of songs, a lot of which I heard for the first time and became an instant fan. It’s awesome when a video game can introduce you to great music classics. The game is definitely an improvement over the first in terms of visuals and difficulty. Being able to pick it up anytime and riff a couple tunes, this will be a favorite of mine for a long time. I haven’t got too far into Final Fantasy XII. I like the story. I’m not sure if I like the gambit/battle system. I think it’ll grow on me, but time will tell.