Wii - A Review

Nintendo Wii (aka: Revolution)

Before I begin, there's a lot of reported 'problems' with wrist straps breaking and stuff. Let me be the first to say: In each manual, they tell you to "gently move" the Remote. Not swing at full speed, not throw the damn thing, gently. GENTLY. OK? You can go to court and try to start shit with Nintendo if you want, but it doesn't say "Swing your arms as if you were holding a 50 lb. bowling ball when you play bowling", because if you did, you'd be swinging really fast. Also, hold on to your damn controller, if it slips out of your hand, it's your own damn fault. The wrist strap is a "just in case", in case you let go of the Remote. Quit your bitching and take responsibility for your own mistakes. Wipe off those sweaty hands, stop swinging so hard. Read the Fucking Manual. /rant Whew! OK, on to the review:

The Wii. What can I say? It's everything I hoped it to be, and more. The first day I got it with a friend (we both got one) and we went to his house to play. We picked up a third friend, and we threw down some Wiitastic gaming. Me and my friend each reserved a system, a game, an extra controller, and an extra nunchuk attachment... Well, when my friend reserved the Wiimote with Nunchuk, the guy only reserved a Nunchuk and not a Wiimote, so he had an accessory but not the actual controller, sucks. =( We could have had four players going at it, but we were limited to three. Anyways, onto the actual review.

The system, is sleek, as should all the new systems because they know better, and can afford to. The Wiimotes (Actual name: Wii Remotes) feels comfortable, and though there are very few buttons on it (A, B, 1, 2, +, -, Home, and the D-Pad), it doesn't really make much difference. With the layout, you use A and B, and that's about it. + and - flip through pages or access menus, and Home is the universal menu (exits games and programs). For the most part, you use A, B, and the D-Pad. The wireless remote takes care of most of it, and for other games (Zelda, for instance) has the Nunchuk attachment with a Z and C button.

When you initially bootup the system, it goes to a menu with a bunch of programs. Wii Channel, Wii Forecast, Wii Store, Mii, the CD slot, and other things. This menu also displays games that you've purchased online for the Wii's Virtual Console ($5 to $10 a game). You can arrange the channels and programs to however you want. You can scroll through to see the four pages for each program, each page holding 12 of them (yes, 48 is a ton).

Mii: You make Miis to attach to certain programs, and to personalize your Wii (it's Wii upside down). When you play some games (like Wii sports), you load up your Mii and you will be displayed when you play. Your Mii is a miniature you. My Mii is a Mini Me... Aaaaanyways, mostly what you do is edit your face, and choose your height/size along with favorite color (determines your shirt color, and your hat color if you have one). All the Miis will hang out together (so if you and your whole family make one, all your friends, neighbors etc, they'll all show up on it).

Wiisports
Insane. It comes with your Wii, and it has five games on it: Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf, and Boxing. I'll talk about them in order. But first, something common to all the games. To play any game, you have to first select how many players (1-4) and who's playing (pick your Mii). When you play the game, you'll actually use your Mii (that you designed earlier) when you play these games. You'll be up to bat, you'll be swinging the clubs and throwing the punches.

Tennis (1-4 players) : You can play with up to three friends. The movement of your Mii is automatic (one thing I dislike about the game), so all you focus on is your swinging. What kind of swing, how hard, and where. The game itself isn't very developed (I think you can only play doubles, there's no tournament or anything like that, just doubles), but it's still fun. You can choose 1 game, best of 3, or best of 5, and you can even play against yourself if you wanted! You can choose your Mii to be on both sides... it's kind of retarded to do that, but you could. To play, you swing your 'racket' overhand, underhand, on your left or right side. Speed and timing are crucial. For example: If you do it underhand, it's a lob. If you swing too early or too late, it could go out of bounds (when you hit it determines where it goes, which makes sense. If you swing before the ball gets to you, and you're swinging from right to left, it'll hit the racket near the end of your swing and go to the left).

Baseball (1-2 players) : You have one batter, and one pitcher (and no Pitcher of Batter). To swing, you have to time your swings, or choose your pitches. It's very simple, but very fun. Depending on when you swing, or what kind of pitch is thrown, you have to time it and swing at the right location. Depending on how fast you throw it and what pitch, they'll have to aim accordingly. If you do it the ball, the computer automates the movement for each other player on the field, and each player on a base. If it's a good hit and gets far, you could get a double, or even a triple. If it hits pretty close, they could just get you out at first. The home-run marathon minigame is fun. You get 10 pitches and try to hit as many home runs, and get as many feet as possible (in distance).

Golf (1-4 players) : You aim, take wind into consideration, check what turf you're on, and have to swing it accordingly. Swing too hard, and you can't control where it goes. Swing too short, and you might not get it very far at all. It's actually pretty close to what I would say is a Golf simulator. There's only the main clubs (Driver, Iron, Putter, etc), and it does't have different grades, to keep it simple. There's 9 different courses, and they get much harder, and more extravagevent. There's the map that's just a bunch of islands, and one that's a cliff that's in a \/\/\ shape. There's also a minigame to hit the ball on this big target, and try to get as many points as possible. You get 10 shots, and the winds change direction and speed, and you have to adjust to them.

Bowling (1-4 players) : You set where you stand, you choose the direction, and you hold up the ball, pull back, and roll! You choose direction and depending on when, and how you let go of the ball, there'll be a twist and spin on it. It plays quite well, and it's pretty fun to throw down on. You don't choose the weight of your ball, everyone just has a 'ball'. There's a lot of fun minigames like the one where they just add more rows after each roll (5 rows, then 6, 7, etc, each adding another line of pins), or the one with walls that you have to roll around and avoid, and still try to hit the one pin at the end of each lane.

Boxing (1-2 players) (Nunchuk attachment required) : With the Wiimote in your right hand, and a Nunchuk in your left, you're all set up to start throwing some punches. Grab a friend, (not literally) and start hurling punches (almost literally). You have to jab, uppercut, dodge left and right, block with your fists, and make sure there's nothing near you to damage (lamps, walls, friends, etc). It'll get you to work up a sweat too, definately a plus. There's not too much to say about this, except that it's the only game on the CD that requires you to use the Nunchuk attachment. It plays great, though the controls take a while to get use to.

Trauma Center: Second Opinion - (1 player) (Nunchuk Required)
It's a remake (and upgrade) of the DS title Trauma Center. Before you used the touch screen to choose your tools and do your work, but now you use the Analog on the Nunchuk to choose your devices and your Remote to do all your actions. It translates extremely well, and plays great too. It's a graphical upgrade, but still plays out the same. In Trauma Center, you play an Surgeon who's pretty fresh out of school. As the game progresses, you discover a strange virus, and find out that they're man-made. It's an adventure game with surgery in it. Get use to a lot of talking, and having a very story driven game. It doesn't have a lot of flashy graphics outside of surgery, get use to still frames and text boxes. It's not really necessary to go beyond that though, that's not the game's focus. It's fun, and though I haven't gotten that far (I go far in the DS version twice, and I'm not so willing to replay a lot of the game again just yet) it seems to be an excellent upgraded-port.

Red Steel - (1-4 players) (Nunchuk Required)
Ugh, I really don't like this game. In it, you're a man who's caught between a gang war between Japanse gangs. Your fiance was kidnapped during this whole scuffle and you're trying to save her. It's a FPS that's not so great, and the wiimote seems clunky and doesn't add too much to the game. One major selling point was using the Wiimote to aim and you can also sword fight in it. It's true, but sword fighting is more like a mini-game rather than something you do as a part of combat. It only happens when you meet an enemy with a sword, and you have to duel. It's not complicated or hard at all either, very dissapointing. The FPS aspect isn't anything special, but the Voice Acting is horrendous. They're suppose to be Japanese, but the accents are laughable (if not painful to listen to), and the Japanese itself isn't very good. Also, you hear 'thugs' from the 'hood' talking 'gangsta', and it's a joke. The multiplayer seems very whatever too, the story seems uninspired, and the gameplay feels clunky. All in all, very dissapointing.

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (1 player) (Nunchuk Required)

It's great. The game was to be released on the Gamecube, but was pushed back to be released on the Wii as well, and was released on the Wii first. The controls are pretty easy to get use to. If you've played the N64 Zelda Games (Ocarana of Time or Majora's Mask) or the Gamecube one (Windwaker), then the Z-targeting and the rest of the controls will feel great. The Wii motion sensor aspect of the game feels nice and very natural, but it doesn't feel like it has to be there. The story, as it goes, is... well, you're Link, you gotta save the Princess. Need I say more? I do?.. well it does get to a bit of spoilers, but ok. As you enter the Twilight Realm, you find yourself a wolf, and let me tell you, Link is one badass wolf. It's similar to light/dark world, or past/future in previous installments. The controls are nice, really nice, They don't feel forced, but rather intergrated quite well. Instead of having instruments, you find yourself going the natural way, using leaves and plants as pseudo-wind instruments to call upon nature's allies such as Epona, or a Hawk (yeah, Link is definately more Elvish [or Elfish] than previous installments, turning into animals, getting closer to nature, having animal friends, etc). I've only gone through most of the first dungeon, but it's already struck me with many "Whoa, that's cool" and "Wow, that's pretty cleaver" comments. The game is said to clock in at 60-70 hours, and that's a lot. A whole lot of hours. I'm 2 hours into it I think, and I've got a ton more ahead of me. I can't wait. Defiantely the best game out of the bunch (other than Wiisports, an awesome party game).

Wait a minute...

I'm 21. I'm a couple hours away from Vegas. My girlfriend lives in Vegas. What am I doing in LA still? ... ... You're right, I'm not. I'll be somewhat gone from ye olde bloggre for a few days. Seems like this happens a lot eh? ;P

Someone's PS3 Story (True or not, I don't know)

"Please read the amazing story of how i got this ps3

i went out Wednesday afternoon to the local wal-mart to start camping out. when i got there, there were already 12 people there so i got in line being number 13. i talked around and found out the first 6 people there had been there since Monday, total hardcore nerds all planning to keep them. bragging about how only they should get the system since they've been there the longest. how they are so dedicated and how if you don't want to do the time, you shouldn't get a system. generally being complete assholes. good for them. we had a hours to pass so we became friends and played some cards and whatnot. the 6 guys in front kept to themselves and didn't associate with the rest of us. we were cool with each other leaving the line to get food, bathroom, smoke, etc since we all knew each other and as long as they were back in 30 minutes. i was about to leave to go buy some KFC for a good number of us and when i stepped out of line, one of the nerds shouted that if i left, i would lose my spot. the other guys told him that they were vouching for me and that i was just getting food but those 6 assholes didn't care. they said i leave, i lose my spot and that was the rules and they would call the manager (they had his number) to come out and enforce it. i said whatever and stayed in line.

a few hours later, the manager came out and told everyone that there were only going to be SEVEN available. they have them in their store and theyre not getting anymore. he told the people after # 7 they should leave if they wanted to not waste their time. me being number 13 should have left but i didnt, i wanted to stick around for a little bit more. everyone else left except me and the 7 other people that were getting it for sure. so the day goes on and i try to make friends with the nerds. i play mario kart on the ds with them and talk to them about the games they were getting. about an hour or 2 later, i tell im gonnna head home since im 8 in line and theres only 7 ps3s. one of them made some stupid joke about if i leave the line then i aint getting back in!! har har. so as im about to leave, i tell them im going to the vons next door and if any of them wanted any food or coffee and id bring it back to them. one of them said yea and all the rest like sheep followed and said yes too. they were gonna give me money but i told them it was on me since theyve been out here since monday. the 7th guy in line wanted some food and coffee and i told him id buy some for him also.

so i go to vons and buy 8 coffees, some food, and some x-lax laxatives. i bring it to my car and put some laxatives in 6 of the coffees and separate them from mine and #7s. i pull back to walmart and bring all the drinks and food upfront. i give #7 his stuff and then the coffees with laxatives to the 6 nerds and wish them good luck and go back to my car. i park it around the corner so i can still see them.

about 30 minutes later, #2 and 3 in line get up and it seemed like they were yelling to the other nerds. they both ran into walmart. seconds later (i guess all nerds have the same biology) #5 gets up and runs across the parking lot and into the trees and bushes somewhere. #1 is scrounging for this porta potty type thing he'd brought with him but he is squirting everywhere and all over his pants and their sleeping bags. he runs into walmart. at this time, i start my car and drive back to the walmart to claim my spot in line. when i get there #4 and 6 are gone but i dont know where. #7 is laughing his ass off so hard and i just smile at him. i call up 5 of the other people that i had made friends with that were in line with me ( i had their phone numbers cause i was going to buy food for everyone) and told them to get back to the walmart ASAP and get in line. Meanwhile, me and #7 threw all their shit into the parking lot and i claimed my spot as #1, him as #2. 4 and the people i had called arrived and got in line just as 1 of the nerds came running back and got #7. he started yelling saying they need their spots back. we all told them to fuck off, out of spot, out of line. it was all of us against him so he didn't say shit. the nerds came back and tried to start some shit but we just laughed, we told them it was their rule and to go fuck themselves and clean the shit off their pants. the called security and security came. security man was like WTF is that fuckin smell and looked at the nerds with shit all of them and kicked them off the grounds screaming LMAO. so that is how i got my ps3."

No Job

It's official. Yesterday was my first day of unemployment, by my own terms. How did I celebrate it? By replacing my last fillings at the dentist. I was hopped up on drugs, and slept a few too many extra hours. The previous night, I went to sleep at 1am, and woke up at 9am (that's 8 hours of sleep), then, I had to take these drugs for the dentist, then slept from 3:30pm until 9:30pm. Ouch So I got 14 hours of sleep, and it's now 3:30am and I can't get to sleep at ALL.

Here's my schedule as of right now.

Thursday: Attempt to get my sleeping schedule out of whack.
Friday: I might go out with friends, but probably not.
Saturday: I might go out with friends, but for sure, will do the midnight launch for my Wii <3
Sunday: I turn 21. Wii... nothing really planned.
Monday: Game Empire is suppose to be open, but from the sound of it, they're not opening until December. If this is the case, I'll see if I can bump up my Vegas Vacation by a day. ^_^

Other than that, I'm trying to get a job at the game store that's suppose to open soon, and if not, it looks like I'll try to get a job with my friends at gamestop. If not... well shit, I don't know then haha, I'll figure something out.

Work is frustrating

Mike + Jack R:
Blog: push people to buy weekend tickets; advantages are: See all films as many times as you want. You will be able to attend parties as VIP, get a one year membership to Horrorfest and recieve many goodies. More info will be posted on main website eventually. Films can be seen individually if fans choose to see only a few of the entire selection.

Posted on: 10/6/06
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That was my job for the past month (to the exact day). Last week:

Hey, the weekend tickets aren't happening. Spin it, talk about the posative.
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Grrrrrrrrrrrr Don't see Horrorfest, or any of the movies. They're subpar, and coming out on DVD anyways, just netflix it. I hate this place. 2 weeks or less until I'm out. No income, no job, but I don't care.