The hardest part of snapping this pic was avoiding eye contact with Katie, who was on the couch laughing at me. Tradition is tradition.
As I was preparing the shot, I noticed that my phone was picking up the infrared LEDs from the Wii sensor bar… infrared-y
I had pegged the Wii bar as a passive unit…a la IR receivers only. I guess I was wrong, and now have an urge to rip one apart. But I digress.
This game took me ages to complete…feels good to be done with this one. Not quite as fun as Ocarina, but Twilight was a good time. Rumor has it that the new Zelda for Wii is borderline unreal…look for me to post a ‘conquered it’ picture on this site in 2016.
Black Friday is right around the corner. Not to offend anyone, but going to brick and mortar stores for sales is sort of ridiculous. Getting up in the middle of the night, standing in giant lines, jockeying for position, standing in more giant lines…all for the sake of saving money on a set amount of big ticket items. The marketing is blatant…’while supplies last’ is likely to mean that there will be roughly a dozen of the cheap LED LCD TVs that look so attractive on paper. You probably got up and did all of that for nothing.
Take a note from my book: avoid the giant hassle and shop online. I popped over to my perennial favorite http://www.savings.com for a few ideas. As usual, they didn’t let me down.
I am a pretty simple nerd. I have to buy my components on a per-project basis, so my small ticket items are taken care of. I really only have three items on my list, and savings.com has screaming deals on two of three.
Item one…Android Tablet
tempting
For development and general coolness, I want a tab. Badly.
Item two…new Android Mobile Device want
Read: phone. I want a new one…also for development purposes and general coolness.
Item three is the new Zelda game for Wii. I have a feeling Katie will get me that…but chances are good that she could save some loot by checking savings.com first.
Lego Star Wars on Wii: Success
Lego Indiana Jones on Wii: Success
Lego Batman on Wii: Success
Lego Wiimote: Excuse me? Come again…
hmm
I’m confused as to why this product exists. That said, it does. That and that said, if you shell out $40, you can incorporate a working Wiimote into your Lego houses. For the loss.
At the risk of sounding like a grumpy (thirty year) old codger and really dating myself, I’m going to go ahead and wax sentimental for a second. We had an Atari way back in the day. Way back, as in I thought it was called a “Natari.” It was awesome. My two favorite games… Frogger, maybe of course, and an obscure game called Gopher. Gopher involved whacking gophers on the head with a shovel as they tried to eat your carrots, which you planted as a stork dropped seeds. No way to win…just hold off the gophers until you go insane.
Aah, the good old days.
anyone? anyone?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about my Wii. Every once in a while, it is good to take a step back from the buzz and take a look at the state of things. I’m going to wager that *most of the games thrown out to the market are not even slightly as rewarding to the player as Frogger, Gopher, or Pong for that matter. It is easy to get wrapped up in new things…super easy. It is often hard to qualify, when everything is marketed to its quantified value.
The same exact thing holds true for my dear computers. I always want a new one. If not a new one completely, I want more RAM, a better video card, a meaty hard drive, etc. Even though I spend most of my time hammering out paid posts such as this, for some odd reason I think I need something that can store the Library of Congress and play two first person shooters simultaneously. It is a problem. Let’s focus on computer video cards for a moment, to illustrate my point.
I could, without a doubt, get by with a budget video card. Like this little guy: the price is right
However, my tech ego dictates that I look at things like this monstrosity: the price is wrong
…and, I’m drooling a little.
I don’t need that…if you do, hit that link up there and check them out. I’m going to play some Wii.
Sony has finally made a solid attempt to bridge the gap between the BluRay/Media Center/FPS beast that is the PS3 and the Wii’s uber-user-friendly-out-of-the-box gaming experience. Introducing the PlayStation Move —>
looks a lot like...
From CNET:
San Francisco, California (CNET) — On Wednesday, Sony unveiled Move, its motion-sensitive controller.
A small device that looks like a microphone — but with something on top of it that looks like a ping pong ball with an LED inside — Move is Sony’s bid to gain control over the motion controller wars that are currently led by Nintendo, with its Wii controller, and which many think will be dominated by Microsoft and its Project Natal controller system.
Among the types of games Move will work with include those that involve swords, bows and arrows, guns, punching and much more. The idea is that Move will provide players with a realistic and precise feeling of holding whatever kind of thing the game calls for, be it a sword or a gun.
Further, the controller comes with its own accessory, known as a sub-controller, which will accentuate what’s possible with Move. And later this year, the forthcoming game SOCOM 4 will incorporate both Move and the sub-controller
I’ve let it be known that I am a Wii dude. A Wii-tard, if you will. With my recent PS3 purchase, I have, for the first time, a real ‘live’ gaming unit. This has set me on a search, so to speak, for easy access to this world. I stumbled across these guys, offering xbox live 1 month code promotions on the cheap.
I chose a wood backdrop, and sure am glad that I did
Pretty slick site. In addition to the 1 month xbox live code mentioned above, they offer Wii card points, Playstation Network credits, and any sort of console access you could possibly want.
I feel that the marble-ing adds an air of sophistication
I understand that not all gamers are going to be looking for xbox live 1 month offers, but the good folks at pcgamesupply have you covered with instant access to even the most non-console offerings…you guessed it, WoW and CoD Modern Warefare 2.
Hit one of those links to check them out…I know you have the time.
Round two of the PS3 piece-meal review: First Person Shooters
After horsing around with the PS3 for a few weeks, I think I can finally pen a review of the ‘game’ portion of the damn thing. I have two games at this point, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and Uncharted, Drake’s Fortune. Both of these games were gen 1 drops on the PS3, and both have sequels, so to say, with both CoD5 and the new Uncharted receiving great reviews. For our purposes here, the 2nd /vs/ 1st generation doesn’t make a ton of difference.
yeah it's blurry, big whoop. wanna fight about it
~~~~~~~~my SmackBerry is in need of a replacement…photos are blurry, so I Van Gough-ed the shit out of that pic. The Gimp rules, but I’ve already spent a ton of time on that soapbox. ~~~~~~~~~
Anyhow, here is the deal. Dual analogue sticks are fucking retarded. I make no effort to hide the fact that I am a Wii fanboi to some extent. Re-learning the dual analogue control scheme using the PS3 controller is more than an issue of fighting up the colloquial learning curve, it is an antiquated means of engaging in gameplay. CoD, World at War for Wii soundly beats CoD4 on PS3 in terms of accuracy, speed, camera control, and whatever else by which one could gauge a FPS. Uncharted, too, feels awkward. Not only in the controls/camera, but the graphics render block-ily in some levels.
I suppose the long and short of the deal is that even with it’s far superior graphics, the PS3 is still lagging behind the Wii as far as controller interface is concerned. For games (that I don’t care for) such as Madden or a traditional console fighter, dual analogue might be the bee’s knees. A well-designed Wii game, like Galaxy, Boom Blox, CoD, or Okami will smoke the shit out of anything on the PS3 to this point.
With a new Zelda and the sequel to Super Mario Galaxy slated to drop in 2010, pretty sure I’m going to be plugging AAs in my Wii-motes for some time to come.
Round two of the PS3 piece-meal review: First Person Shooters
After horsing around with the PS3 for a few weeks, I think I can finally pen a review of the ‘game’ portion of the damn thing. I have two games at this point, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and Uncharted, Drake’s Fortune. Both of these games were gen 1 drops on the PS3, and both have sequels, so to say, with both CoD5 and the new Uncharted receiving great reviews. For our purposes here, the 2nd /vs/ 1st generation doesn’t make a ton of difference.
yeah it's blurry, big whoop. wanna fight about it
~~~~~~~~my SmackBerry is in need of a replacement…photos are blurry, so I Van Gough-ed the shit out of that pic. The Gimp rules, but I’ve already spent a ton of time on that soapbox. ~~~~~~~~~
Anyhow, here is the deal. Dual analogue sticks are fucking retarded. I make no effort to hide the fact that I am a Wii fanboi to some extent. Re-learning the dual analogue control scheme using the PS3 controller is more than an issue of fighting up the colloquial learning curve, it is an antiquated means of engaging in gameplay. CoD, World at War for Wii soundly beats CoD4 on PS3 in terms of accuracy, speed, camera control, and whatever else by which one could gauge a FPS. Uncharted, too, feels awkward. Not only in the controls/camera, but the graphics render block-ily in some levels.
I suppose the long and short of the deal is that even with it’s far superior graphics, the PS3 is still lagging behind the Wii as far as controller interface is concerned. For games (that I don’t care for) such as Madden or a traditional console fighter, dual analogue might be the bee’s knees. A well-designed Wii game, like Galaxy, Boom Blox, CoD, or Okami will smoke the shit out of anything on the PS3 to this point.
With a new Zelda and the sequel to Super Mario Galaxy slated to drop in 2010, pretty sure I’m going to be plugging AAs in my Wii-motes for some time to come.
Well, Netflix streaming is finally coming to the Wii. In one fell swoop, there goes one of my two reasons for getting a PS3.
boo.
Live streaming will hit Nintendo’s console this spring, according to a today’s joint announcement between the two companies. The setup will be nearly identical to that of the PS3, with a free disc available from Netflix needed to stream…no additional charges, however.
I’m not sure how the Wii will compare to the PS3, since it’s 720 output seems like a stretch. I do like some HDMI…not really excited to fire up the RCAs again. I’ll give it a shot when it drops.
Instead of doing one gigantic review, I’m going to tackle a review of my new nerd toy piecemeal…up first: the browser. Slim, Sexy, and Somewhat Clunky
The good:
🙂 Setup was effortless. No issues getting my wireless connection up and running.
🙂 Speedier than Opera on my Wii. Page loads are fast…no issue with Java.
🙂 Pandora support! Pretty much rules. Sounds great; no lag.
The bad:
🙁 Screen navigation clunky. Dual analog controls are definately not ideal, but the zoom and scroll feature leaves much to be desired
🙁 Clumbsy menu structure. Address entry is a chore.
The fugly:
😡 On-screen keyboard is a fucking joke. No excuse for this, whatsoever.
😡 Multiple browser window function. Audio dies when window is not in the foreground. Why?
All-in-all…not a netbook replacement for the couch. Yet. This might be a more viable option with the addition of a wireless keyboard, but until the window configuration is improved, I’ll have my Mini 9 on the davenport. Sony dropped the ball on the browser…seems like a little bit of market research would have made the PS3 a serious alternative to the quickly expanding netbook market.
In related news…sources are reporting that a new Zelda game for Wii is on the horizon in 2010. Looks like I’m still a Wii guy.
