I Want a Wii! Or, How I Lost my Patience and Bought an XBox 360

Title pretty much explains it all!

I’ve been super-pumped for the Wii but it has been nigh impossible to find one in the greater Boston area without tracking shipments and waiting in line for four hours before a store opens. I’ve tried to get a Wii a bunch of times now, but without any luck. My latest attempt was a couple weeks ago when I went to Circuit City three hours before the store was to open on a cold Sunday morning. A website that is supposedly accurate with shipments said that there would be 60 consoles available. I was 54 or 55th in line. Turns out they only had 43 consoles and I missed by about 8 spots (some people were in line with friends who didn’t buy a Wii) and I was out of luck. I went so far as to contact some Craig’s List sellers selling bundles (hoping to return the games) but didn’t get a response from most of them or got treated like dirt. Nice salesmanship, jerkfaces (notice the toned down insult). I didn’t get a Wii.

It has been funny that I’ve had the option to buy both the 60GB and 20GB PS3s but have passed every time I have had the opportunity. That console is really not doing much for me right now. Even eBay prices have gone way down from the astronomical 4-figure prices realized just after launch to some consoles actually selling for less than retail. Hot system you have there Sony!

So amid all the Wii frustration, I came to the realization that I’m not all that excited to play Zelda: Twilight Princess, the one must have game for Nintendo’s baby. Some of the mini-game collections, like Rayman: Raving Rabbids, look like tons of fun to play but I don’t know if it’s worth $50 let alone all the bloody stress or extra cash needed to get the console. All the while, in the background, I keep hearing talk of Gears of War, the must have shooter for the 360. The more I hear about it, the more I want to play. And then comes the bombshell – Microcenter is offering a $100 rebate on new XBox 360 systems. And then I find a coupon for free XBox Live Arcade games and then I hear KMart is putting some XBox Live subscriptions on clearance for about half off.

So I broke and gave in to the Microsoft. I’m now a proud owner of an XBox 360. I’m still super pumped about the Wii but only have so many gaming dollars and gaming hours so I’ll be putting off my purchase until the system is readily available after a price drop. Maybe next Christmas time!

-Bob

MegaMATCH!

Howdy howdy,

So how’s life been for everyone these last two months?  Good?  Good?  I hope so!  I’ve been worked extra hard at the lab to the point of feeling burned out. The good news about work is that I’m getting my name on a patent for all the work I’m doing.  I don’t feel like I’ve really contributed a whole lot of research or new ideas but I’ve been doing a lot of legwork by designing testing methods and then testing device after device after device after… fortunately there’s a break in testing now so I’m free to read papers all day… I need a new job or at least a new project.

Last weekend was lots of fun!  Kate and I went to my cousin Heather’s wedding in Chicago.  The wedding was held at The Catalyst Ranch, the funnest, most eclectic, craziest loft I’ve ever seen.  The wedding was a mix of class and goofiness with Heather’s sister’s husband officiating the ceremony courtesy of his new status as an official Universalist Life Church minister.  The food was catered by someone with a show on the Food Network so it was very tasty though a bit too out there for my picky wife’s tastes.

At the wedding, I was introduced to the husband of Heather’s childhood friend Lisa – a guy named Andy Wachowski (co-writer/director of the Matrix films).  He was a really nice guy and chatted with me on a bunch of technology and entertainment topics.  He thinks the future of entertainment lies in interactive entertainment (i.e. video games) but for it to become the dominant entertainment form it has to win over the housewife crowd.  I joked that he should make a “Days of Our Lives” video game but he wasn’t sure how well he could integrate kung-fu with that world.  All in all, a very cool dude – he even got some beer for my little brother.

In other entertainment news, I’ve been reading a lot of comics lately.  Marvel recently released the Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Volume 1, which contains roughly 40 issues of one of the best runs of X-Men comics of all time.  This $63 volume is a fantastic deal and the reproduction quality is simply fantastic.  So yeah, go buy it!

My goal for this week is to write two more posts.  That’s right, two more posts.  I’ve been having trouble lately diving head first into things (work, comics, world cup) and forgetting about everything else (friends)… something I should change.

And besides, I couldn’t possibly take another Amber Alert!

-Bob

PS3 news reaction

Sony officially announced that the launch of the PS3 is delayed until November.  They didn’t mention a price and blaimed the delay to finalization of the blu-ray AACS standards.  I don’t buy it.  I’m sure that had something to do with it, but why haven’t we seen any games yet?  Copy protection is not going to stop developers from developing.

Still, I feel optimistic about the PS3.  I’m hoping that industry reports are wrong and that its hardware is significantly more powerful than the Xbox 360 as it will now arrive an entire year after the XB360.  I’m certainly glad the PS3 will come with a built in 60gig harddrive – I found the XB360’s 20gig to be very underwhelming.  I don’t think increasing the HD adds significantly to the cost, either.

Of course I’m still most excited about the Revolution.  I grew up with Nintendo and have enjoyed the many years of Nintendo pushing innovation ahead of its competition.  This time around innovation comes in the form of their wacky controller.  That and the low retail price has me sold already.  I’m extremely hesitant to plop down $400 for a XB360 and possibly more for a PS3 but Nintendo has said the Rev will be come in below $250.  I’m sold.

-Bob

Whoop that trick!

Next-Generation reported that the Sex Workers Outreach Project, an organization for prostitutes’ rights, called for a boycot of Grand Theft Auto.  I say if it offends hookers, it offends me.  Boycot GTA!!!

-Bob

Hot Boll!

I read an interesting interview with everybody’s favorite video game movie director Uwe Boll on EuroGamer today.  I saw his first video game adaptation, House of the Dead, and it was one of the most godawful movies I have ever seen.  Nothing about it was original and every standard tenet of decent movie making was thrown out the window with terrible writing, acting, directing…  Yet the guy’s persisted and made two more terribly reviewed game movies, Alone in the Dark and Bloodrayne, and is scheduled to make three more over the next couple years.  I haven’t seen his last two movies but I have to admit to jumping on the Boll hate bandwagon in bashing them.  After reading this interview, I do have some sympathy with the guy, but continuing to adapt games to movies is clearly not the way to gain respect from the industry.  He needs to take a lower profile project like his pre-game work and really craft a decent film.

From what I know about him, it seems like he’s a guy with a genuine passion for making movies.  But maybe, like Ed Wood, he doesn’t have the talent to back up that passion.  Out of curiosity, I’d see a new film of his that he generally thought was good (and isn’t based on a game).  Maybe I should revisit House of the Dead.  I do love some terrible, terrible movies, and maybe now I can appreciate the awfulness of that film.

-Bob