Wii tour

Post by **Devin** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 8:05 pm

I've never been to one of these promotional events before but it's right on the door step so I thought I'd make myself known at the Wii tour. I shall try my best to look like a complete 'KNOB' with the wiimote as well!

Maybe I can take a few snapshots of the event

Post by **Bas** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 8:09 pm

Great! I hope they'll do us too! I'm definately going to buy a Wii next week

Post by **Devin** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 8:25 pm

It's tempting but I'm going to wait this one out until the 360 comes down in price. Then I'll grab a HDTV with the 360 and Gears of War not forgetting Dead Rising! The Wii could probably replace my training time with some quality entertainment considering all the YouTUBE videos of Wii Sports.

Post by **Bas** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 8:43 pm

I also want the 360 to be cheaper, and I'll wait until GTA4 hits the shelves! For now, I think the Wii offers the most fun for me, I love Zelda, and I love Nintendo.

Post by **Devin** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 10:02 pm

People we're going nuts over the Wii in stores today!

Should have seen the crowd gathered around the demo pod. In anothe retail store I even overheard a woman aged 60 talking to her daughter aged around 35 discussing how good it looked to play. I think Nintendo just might crack 'mainstream' acceptance in this console. Although the traditional news reports were typically outdated in their mode of commentary with the typcial 'kids must have toy for christmas' story!

Post by **Bas** » Sun Dec 10, 2006 10:29 pm

I would buy one if they would have one in stock

All of them were sold out even before the launch day it seems!

Post by **Bas** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 7:43 pm

bloody Wii, it's amazing everybody asks about it, it's a hype! I want one, but every store is out of stock!

Nintendo sure knows how to sell their stuff, there's no doubt about that!

DefunctGamer · Post by **DefunctGamer** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 6:12 pm

Bas wrote:I also want the 360 to be cheaper, and I'll wait until GTA4 hits the shelves! For now, I think the Wii offers the most fun for me, I love Zelda, and I love Nintendo.

Not sure about where you live, but here in the States the X360 isn't that expensive. Perhaps I'm only saying that now that the PlayStation 3 has defined expensive. Sigh. I am the proud owner of both the X360 and Wii and generally enjoy both. At this point I have to say that I'm way more impressed with the X360's line-up, though this may change in a year.

But even though the Wii has only been out for a short time, there are a few problems that are starting to become apparent. I'm not particularly thrilled by the crummy third party support. It's starting to look like this is going to be another system (like the N64 and GameCube) where the only great exclusive games for the system were from Nintendo itself. And so far they have yet to really produce. Zelda and Wario Ware is good, but how long am I going to have to wait for Mario, Metroid and Smash Bros.? And if those are my choices, what am I going to do the rest of the year when every other system has four or five AAA games coming out every month?

I am also concerned about Nintendo's online strategy. I find myself playing the Xbox 360 more because of the Xbox Live, so it's discouraging to not be able to find that kind of experience on the Wii.

The X360 certainly had a great year in 2006, there were a ton of games that made the system a must-own. And 2007 looks to be much of the same. Not sure about you, but after getting my hands on Bio Shock I can't wait to dig into that. And Mass Effect. And Halo 3. I am currently logging some major time into Crackdown (due next month), and that's a whole lot of fun, too. And like you said, Grand Theft Auto IV.

I don't know, to me it seems like there's no way of getting around owning more than one system. The Wii has some great games, but will it have enough to warrant being an only system? I say go with both the Wii and the Xbox 360, with those two you will have pretty much every base covered.

Post by **Devin** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:06 pm

DefunctGamer wrote:Not sure about where you live, but here in the States the X360 isn't that expensive.

In Europe and especially the UK we get inflated prices compared to the US. If you hold down a decent job then the PS3 is equivalent to a weeks wages whilst the XBOX 360 would be around four days and Wii about two and a half! Really I'm just waiting for the improved fabrication technology and the true HDMI connection to be incorporated then I'll definately be getting a 360.

DefunctGamer · Post by **DefunctGamer** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:12 pm

Devin wrote:
DefunctGamer wrote:Not sure about where you live, but here in the States the X360 isn't that expensive.
In Europe and especially the UK we get inflated prices compared to the US. If you hold down a decent job then the PS3 is equivalent to a weeks wages whilst the XBOX 360 would be around four days and Wii about two and a half! Really I'm just waiting for the improved fabrication technology and the true HDMI connection to be incorporated then I'll definately be getting a 360.

Yeah, I can certainly understand that. I picked up an Xbox 360 at launch (much like the Wii), and I'm somewhat disappointed that the system didn't come with an HDMI out from the get-go. However, many believe that once the revision comes out (which might not be until late this year) the original Xbox 360 will go down in price while the HDMI version will be more expensive. I'm curious to see how they go about dealing with this, but then again, by that time there will be so many amazing games that it's going to be almost impossible to hold off from buying the system. Hopefully the same will be true with the PS3 and Wii.

Post by **Devin** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:19 pm

It's gonna be an interesting marketing problem as you pointed out!

However I believe/hope that a mid-year launch would be on the agenda for the new 360 HDMI model. The new processor fabrication process kicks in around March so It's likely HDMI will be bundled into the upgrade. I find it difficult to believe that Microsoft will hold off an entire year before releasing this model. Of course they could just let the new processor slip through an initial batch of models without the HDMI connectivity... how confusing!

tgn_rogue · Post by **tgn_rogue** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 4:02 am

Have any of you actually seen the size of the PS3 in person ?? ITS HUGE ... reminds me a bit of a 400 series cd-i player stacked ontop of a 220 in size .. well maybe a lil bigger. Not exactly space saving technology so I think im going to wait for this particular system to drop in size.

And well IF i had the room for using a Wii id get one, just low ceilings geenrally dont help with this from what ive gathered lol, especially as im alreayd hitting it in everyday use of living in my room lol. So I think im going to have to wait even longer before I think about getting one of them, say maybe when I have my own place or flat or something.

As for the 360, I didnt like the fact that a "HD" console didnt have HDMI but seing this has givem ne a new hop for the system. But well Microsoft arent exactly renowed for their forethought so it woudlnt surprise me if there were processor batches without HDMI released.

DefunctGamer · Post by **DefunctGamer** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 4:06 am

tgn_rogue wrote:Have any of you actually seen the size of the PS3 in person ?? ITS HUGE ... reminds me a bit of a 400 series cd-i player stacked ontop of a 220 in size .. well maybe a lil bigger. Not exactly space saving technology so I think im going to wait for this particular system to drop in size.

And well IF i had the room for using a Wii id get one, just low ceilings geenrally dont help with this from what ive gathered lol, especially as im alreayd hitting it in everyday use of living in my room lol. So I think im going to have to wait even longer before I think about getting one of them, say maybe when I have my own place or flat or something.

As for the 360, I didnt like the fact that a "HD" console didnt have HDMI but seing this has givem ne a new hop for the system. But well Microsoft arent exactly renowed for their forethought so it woudlnt surprise me if there were processor batches without HDMI released.

Actually yes, I have seen a PS3 in person. And I agree, it's slightly big, but certainly not the monster some make it out to be. It's about 15% larger than the Xbox 360. My issue is that the design of the system isn't as attractive as the Xbox 360.

As for Microsoft's forethought, I think that the only thing missing from their system was HDMI ... which early on was probably done as a cost cutting measure. I don't know, I'm not going to defend them. This isn't really an issue for most people since you can get HD signal through a number of other cables on the system. It's only now that they have HD movies that the lack of HDMI really makes a big difference.

tgn_rogue · Post by **tgn_rogue** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 4:54 am

Yea just slightly bigger but well I think the 360 is big enough as it is, I preffer tings to me more, slimline or to actually fit in with the rest of the things I have in the unit for the TV so for my tastes im not exagerating as they are huge compared to my space requirements. As for the design it does lack the style and visual appeal the 360 has, but one point in its favour for my books is it comes in black as standard compared to the 360.

And well its Microsoft ... does it surprise you that cost cutting awas involved, as for the connectiviy I would mainly be using it on the tv we have in the frontroom IF I got one and seing as the only spare connections that arent used on it are HDMI that was basically my reason for putting off on buying one untill I read that they were releasing a HDMI version.

DefunctGamer · Post by **DefunctGamer** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 5:08 am

tgn_rogue wrote:Yea just slightly bigger but well I think the 360 is big enough as it is, I preffer tings to me more, slimline or to actually fit in with the rest of the things I have in the unit for the TV so for my tastes im not exagerating as they are huge compared to my space requirements. As for the design it does lack the style and visual appeal the 360 has, but one point in its favour for my books is it comes in black as standard compared to the 360.

And well its Microsoft ... does it surprise you that cost cutting awas involved, as for the connectiviy I would mainly be using it on the tv we have in the frontroom IF I got one and seing as the only spare connections that arent used on it are HDMI that was basically my reason for putting off on buying one untill I read that they were releasing a HDMI version.

I don't think the size is actually that bad. The Xbox 360 isn't really that big when compared to other pieces of electronics, I have a hunch that your DVD player, your old VCR, CD player and other pieces of electronics are probably bigger than the X360. It's also something you don't really need in front of you, since the controls are wireless. The Xbox 360 is pretty much the same size as the original Genesis and Saturn, so it's not like this is something brand new to the gaming world.

It doesn't surprise me that any company would cut corners to make their system as cheap as possible especially when they are losing money on every unit. This is the same thing all companies are guilty of, not just Microsoft. I would also argue that all three of the companies are going to have to do some updating of their system to make them as good as they could be. Thankfully most of this stuff can be done with firmware. Both Sony and Nintendo have a long way to go before their systems can even touch what Microsoft has done with their online community. I suspect Sony will get there, but will Nintendo? (Not with those friend codes they won't.)

Speaking of things that cannot be changed by firmware, I'm curious to see how the Wii fares a few years from now. If we're already noticing how dated the Wii's games look how bad will it be two years from now when the PS3 and Xbox 360 are really showing off their potential? It's already hard to go from Gears of War to Zelda, I can tell you that from experience.