Wii + DS = Wiids(weeds)

Ok so I’m not sure who keeps up with the Wii and the DS or who did their homework and paid attention to all the launch time info and rumors but the revolution is upon us at last! Unfortunately it’s coming in the form of Pokemon games and a few components haven’t quite shown up on the scene.  So lets have a look at the latest developments.

The first thing which I commented on here. Has finally come about. The DS does in fact interact with the Wii. The first game to use it is the new Pokemon Wii game. You use the DS to call the shots for your Pokemon in such a way that your opponent won’t be able to see what you are doing. This should make head to head play more interesting. I give it only a few more months before the football games come rolling in with this feature. It does seem ideal.

The second thing that Pokemon is bringing to the table is supposed to be voice chat over wifi in game. I don’t remember where I read that so unfortunately I can’t confirm this one. I have been able to confirm there is a VOIP application on the way that will let you talk to your friends as though the DS is a cell phone.

Finally the stage is set for the return of the light gun in the form of an attachment to the remote control which adds a handle and trigger system to the remote. How long till this peripheral comes out and instead of just watching our character wield the duelies we get to feel the heft in our own hands!?

The parts that are still missing are a DS web browser, Wii mp3/video player and Wii’s online multiplayer games. I think the latter is probably what will seat Nintendo in either first or second spot in the next gen console war and finally put the nail in the coffin for the PS3.

Wii is pretty fly for a white guy!

Wow so here comes the airplane games. Not sure where this is coming from exactly or why they are all hitting right now but Wii developers are unleashing the airplane games. Three in short order. Only one even begins to wad my panties.

Heatseeker: A modern day air combat sim. The game looks ok but not spectacular. Any one(whos a game developer) can throw some airplane models in a game and make them shoot guns and rockets. Other than controls there doesn’t seem to be any innovation or particularly great design qualities. I’m sure the game will be fun and everything but there is no innovation and nothing new.

Wii Sports Airplane: Or what ever they’re going to call it. I’m not really sure what to think about this. A motor sports version of Wii sports just sounds a little goofy. Wii sports was fun for about 10 minutes. It was obviously a pretty clean capabilities and controls demo for the Wii and has some very over simplistic game play to the point of not fun. I’d hate to see this suffer the same fate. Based on what we’ve seen of this that is most likely the case.

Blazing Angels: Here is where you can get excited about flying on the Wii. This game looks amazing graphics wise and the slower action should yeild some very nice close aerial combat action. I’m sure this will nicely make use of the Wii’s novel controls. This is still on it’s way for the Wii dropping on the 20th of this month. I’ve just downloaded the PC version so I may well soon have some game play input some time in the next couple days. I have high hopes for this game. The video looks amazing!

Keep an eye on these games. If you like to fly the Wii will be taking up your time in the near future.

Wii rocks!!! Yes Guitar Hero again!

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6165647.html?q=wii%20guitar%20hero

Because it hasn’t been repeated enough yet. I’m ordering my pink hair band style wig right now! The real question will be if this is going to be the game that will force Nintendo to get things in gear to make the Wii shop channel the all around market place to rival the 360 market place?  Will Wii be buying new music for guitar hero with our Wii Points or is this going to be some what fudged and forgotten about like multiplayer and additonal content is for the current crop of Wii games? Please Nintendo poke and prod game developers to get it together!

Brain Scatter

So today my brain is all over the place. I’m having trouble staying focused. This is pretty typical when I get immersed in such things as Zelda Twilight Princess, Mario Paper and Rampage: Total Destruction. I don’t know to many people who focus particularly well when sleep deprived. Is this a bad thing, I’m not sure. It does mean that I read a lot about many different things and so I’m left with a lot of little chunks of info to share.

The first thing is Linux/Geek related. Linux.com just featured an article on the freeNAS.org project. It’s based on BSD so you know it’s solid. It’s released under the BSD license so it’s free and the best part is that it’s small and fast. I just happened uppon a couple of router boards recently and had been looking at an NSLU2 from linksys. Now I don’t have to pick one up and my NAS can go wireless with easy. I’m sure I’ll post some info on how that project comes together.

Thanks to the InDigital video podcast that pointed me to what will probably become a focal point for my future media center if the Sling doesn’t work out so well. A company named TAVI makes this portable media player that looks a lot like a Gameboy Advance SP but is slightly larger and does a heck of a lot more. The new revision 030 is set to replace the 020 which looks like it all ready does the same thing. I’m sure there is some significant difference I missed but either way these things will play back almost anything and they will do it even at high def resolutions on your TV. Throw in 6 hours of video playback(thats 2.5-3 movies) and the thing isn’t to shabby on the road. How sweet is that?

As if I don’t have enough to play to keep me up nights there are still the likes of Call of Duty 3, Wario Ware Smooth Moves and I’ll probably try something different eventually like Trauma Center. Don’t get me started on DS games or PC games. What’s a guy to do? Oh thats right! Look to the future. Xbox 360 revision 2 is on the way with a new lower price, cooler running and DVI built in. Oh what fun! At the very least I’ll wait till Halo 3 comes out. We’ll see how long I can hold out once that happens. MS is also working on sweetening the deal with IP TV and tivo like features. Jinkys!

Well thats part of the jumble. Unfortunately I don’t have time to sort any other thoughts. I’ll try to come back in later and link things up real nice. Till then Google is your best friend. Peace!

I broke my Wii…

I know it sounds horrible doesn’t it? At least it isn’t something that requires a proctologist. Which is a real possibility considering the nature of controls in games on the Wii. I’ve seen some pretty serious carnage on some big expensive TV’s all ready. Luckily the only issue with mine is the controler. The tilt sensor isnt working and the plus minus home panel of buttons is non-functional. Luckily Nintendo has a 12 month warranty that doesnt require extra green very apple-esque minus the green. They are shooting me a pre-paid UPS package to ship it to them in. Guess I’m stuck playing game cube games with the classic controller till then. Might be time to get a Wavebird.