Nintendo Wii Launch

Today, November 19th 2006, was the launch of the Wii. We all saw the PS3 launch 2 days ago, and all of its juicy storylines, including, but not limited to, people being robbed at gunpoint for their PS3 cash, one man being shot twice when he would not forfeit his cash. Hoardes of people trampling each other in an effort to get ahold of one of the 10 PS3's the store probably had. And of course the ridiculous prices people are paying on online auction sites.

One person I know was offered $4k, and there was also a PS3 with no software(games) that went for $9k on Ebay. $9,000. It costs about $640 with tax.

The Wii was quite a bit different thus far. No absolute horror stories. I picked mine up around 10:15am, store opened at 10. There were 4 others outside before opening with me, and about 5 or 6 came as I was paying. One had been waiting for a few hours, the others showed up around the same time as me. One was a serviceman, and had just returned for a nice boat ride. Last night there were about 15 people outside of a Best Buy in Visalia at about 7pm, all seemed to be having a good time through the cool temps and the fog.

My first impressions of the Wii and the controller..... Are pretty good. I have played all of the Wii Sports lineup, which includes baseball boxing tennis golf and bowling. If you can get past the Mii's(little people you create in your own likeness and can plug into certain games) then the games are pretty fun.

Hold the controller facing down, pull arm back, and swing forward.... I just drove the ball to the Green on Golf. Hold nunchuck on left and wii-mote in right, lean side to side, and punch forward to do boxing. It is all pretty interesting, and would definately be fun to play with someone else.

I will keep everybody updated on my thoughts, I have Call of Duty 3, and Red Steel to play.

Also, there was no review given of Fifa 07 as I promised, because I was extremely disappointed. Graphics were great, gameplay went backwards. And also, highly acclaimed game Gears of War. I purchased it, played it, and just was not into it. So I guess I am in a huge minority, but I disliked the game. Again, sweet graphics, best of pretty much any game I have ever seen, but not my type of game.