Saturday, October 06, 2007

Since We Last Talked...

It's been a long, long time indeed! And since KuriNeko's last article, I've been there and back again in terms of gaming, visited Japan for a month and drooled over their game selection, and delivered Jimmy John's (but that's another story for another blog). I'll be more than happy to give you my story thus far- followed by some actual gaming industry goings-on.

Let's get started... after the jump, of course.

You might recall me covering the Wii. Quite a lot. I even sat outside a Toys 'R Us overnight after scouring tipster websites to get my hands on one.

Well, now my Wii has found itself a new home via eBay. Looking back on that little bugger, I realize how entertaining theory doesn't translate into extreme fun. After logging countless hours with Wii Sports, Super Monkey Ball, Wario Ware: Touched, and dabbling a bit into Zelda: Twilight Princess (never really did find the time to play this allegedly-awesome game, but there's always the Gamecube version), and flushing away some Wii Points on Ristar and Super Mario 64, I realized something.

I realized I wasn't playing the Wii. Heck, I realized I was avoiding the Wii.

I grew up on the controller and the couch-sitting that came with it. I also grew up on deep, complex games that entertained for more than 6 hours of fun, and had more depth than 3 repetitive hand motions.

Having to set up a sensor with line-of-sight to my couch? I can't just turn this thing on- I need to learn the art of "laser adjustment"?

Where were the beefy, console-defining Wii games? Mini-game inspired releases? That's what the online store is for. Spare me the ping pong simulators.

Eventual promises of Mario, Samus, and Leon? What about now? What's keeping me with you, Wii, while XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 get these revolutionary titles that not only look beautiful, but contain the whole package?

What about online connectivity? Friend codes- 16-digit codes that need to be traded person-to-person (unless you use some online communities which act as code mediums) are hardly my idea of "playing online with everyone, everywhere, on a revolutionary system"? I was expecting XBOX Live, and I got the equivalent of trading my driver's license information to even interact with others.

I was monumentally let down by my purchase, yet consistently impressed by the next-gen news bits that XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 were generating.

Long story short, I wanted a hardcore and cutting-edge gaming experience, and Wii positioned itself in the casual/low-tech market. It just wasn't meant to be.

A few weeks after Microsoft announced the XBOX 360's price drop, I jumped ship and shelled out $400 for a used XBOX 360 Elite. It's sexy, it's a powerhouse, and it's gaming I'm used to. I cannot recall how long it's been since I got "sweaty palm" while unloading machine gun rounds into clone armies- but man did I miss it.

Now, I have a (relatively tiny) game library that was the same size as my Wii's back last Christmas, and I log at least an hour a day on my sleek, black Box. I won't even guess how much that'll increase once Halo 3 arrives. It's going to be good times.

And, as expected, I've been playing my fair share of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. I've been cutting back lately due to burn-out and real-life reasons, but the game's still a staple in my gaming diet, and I have no intentions of stopping. I probably should, but it's just too dang fun.

And so ends the catch-up. Now let's move on to better, and juicier, goodies. I say we start with... Sony. Big Bang, anyone?

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