Wii Fit and living with four women

My Fiance has been excited about Wii Fit since she first saw a commercial about it. I figured it would be a good way to continue my plot to make her into a gamer so I played along. I still have a few contacts with Electronics Boutique so we were able to get the device when it was released the other day. We had a softball game that night so we didn't pick it up until later in the evening. We were pretty tired so we decided to just set up our Miis with the system. In case you didn't know Wii Fit uses the Mii you created for the Wii and then asks you your age and height. It weighs you and then calculates your Body Mass Index or BMI. I am the only guy in our household. Our family unit consists of myself, my fiance, my soon-to-be step daughter and two exchange students. One is from Vietnam and the other is from Korea. Anyway, we all got together to calibrate our Miis for the game and I went last. The four women all had a "normal" BMI and then it came to be my turn. I made them all look away because I knew if I was going to be even close to normal it wouldn't be by much. Well, as it turns out I am not even close to what Nintendo considers normal. Great. So to add insult to injury, all of our Miis are calibrated, but mine is now a pudgy little guy running around the screen. Thanks Nintendo, I really needed that.

That got me thinking that they might have a good marketing ploy on their hands here. What if now that my Mii is calibrated and appears pudgy, it was that way for all Wii games that use Miis? That would be a pretty good motivator for geeks like me to get their Miis skinny. Imagine if in Wii Sports your Mii was now pudgy and couldn't run around as fast in Tennis or Baseball. I have heard that Mario Kart takes into account the weight of your Mii when determining how fast your kart can go. The problem is no one ever creates pudgy Miis. Assuming someone gets their head out of their ass and makes a good follow up to Wii Sports or incorporates Miis in a game in a compelling way, this would be an ideal way of getting people in shape.

As for Wii Fit itself, I have to say I am pretty impressed with it. The device is sturdy and easy to hook up. The balance games are fun if simple (kind of the hallmark of the Wii). My Fiance did a work out and even though she is supposedly "normal" (I'm still bitter) she said she was exhausted and could really feel it the next day. I purchased Wii Ski which uses the Balance Board, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet since I can't get the girls off the damn thing. I went into this thinking that it was going to be another gimmick, but I have come away impressed. I don't think it will replace a good gym or trainer, but it's a good way to get people up and moving around while having fun at home. Oh and Nindendo? It's on now suckers! We'll see who is normal...

Have the Halcyon days passed?

I have posted before that I have been a gamer for a LONG time. I fully expect to be a gamer for an even longer amount of time. There is a period of time about 8 or 10 years ago that is one of the most memorable in my gaming life. Back then I was managing an Electronics Boutique and I had quite a few people to play and talk about games with. Multiplayer was just starting to kick off as a phenomenon. When a new game came in one of the first questions we asked was: "does it have multiplayer?" We are talking about modem gaming here folks, not the low latency high speed internet stuff we have today. It felt almost as if we were completing some sort of arcane ritual punctuated by the death of an innocent. I remember rollicking games of Age of Empires, Outlaws and Warcraft II (the best in the series in my opinion). The point is that back then we were all on the same page in terms of what game we were into. It was usually the latest game that offered fun, workable multiplayer.

Fast forward to now and the ease of multiplayer makes this sort of gaming easy (except if you are using a Wii). The problem is that there are all too many options for people. I guess this is a good problem to have, but I am rarely on the same page with my friends when it comes to what we are currently playing. It started out with MMOs. Yeah, we played the same game, but we were usually vastly different levels and the game offered no mechanic to allow us to group together without one of the parties suffering. I have tried going on to Xbox Live and getting random online games. It isn't pretty. Nine times out of ten the experience is ruined by a bunch of assholes being either elitist, racist or just plain stupid. I actually played a session of COD 4 where everyone on the server punctuated every sentence or expression with the word "yo". As in, "take out that sniper, yo" or "Call in a helicopter strike, yo" or "dude is a pussy, yo." You get my point.

I guess I have come full circle. In the early days gaming it was a solitary experience with little to no access to multiplayer. Now the option to multiplay is in Nintendo DS games for Chrissake. Yet most nights I sit there and play solo. I guess I miss the old days and my friends who shared the great experiences we had. Things are looking up a bit. I found a great site called Gamers with Jobs. They have matchmaking forums for specific games and the community seems on the whole to be very fun and mature. I'll report back after I have had more experience. In the mean time if you aren't a dick send a friend invite to Flying Norseman on Xbox Live.

Gaming Thoughts: Larry King Style...

• GTA IV is not as fun to play when your Fiance is sitting next to you on the love seat playing Nintendo DS.
• Age of Conan seems to be doing ok with their launch. I will still pass though. Keen and Graev have some thoughts at their site.
• I decided last night that Gamefly is not worth it. With the turn around time and the fact that I have so many games that I own to play, the 20 + bucks a month is not worth it.
• Penny Arcade Adventures releases this week. I think I will get the Xbox 360 version. Gabe and Tycho are hip to what gamers like so, I am pretty confident the game will be fun.
• Speaking of GTA IV, I really like this game. Having not played any of the previous incarnations for any length of time, I came in with a clean slate and I am having a blast. It's easy just to fire up and do a couple of missions or raise havoc and then sign off.
• Deca Sports is getting disappointing reviews. Hey developers, it isn't rocket science. Take Wii Sports and make each event into a coherent game.
• Speaking of the Wii... I am so over the motion controls at this point. The realization comes when you can sit back on the couch and just waggle the Wiimote a bit and accomplish the same thing that someone standing up and flailing around can do.
• I played against my Fiance in Sega Superstars Tennis on the Wii this weekend. When we used the easy "flail" controls it was pretty even, but when I switched to using a controller, I kicked her ass. All that training came in handy I guess.
• Problems persist with LOTRO and SLI. I seriously don't understand why they can't iron this issue out. The game performs worse with SLI enabled than without. I can see if it didn't have any effect at all, but worse performance? Come on!
• The hunt is on for a dart board for Man Room 2.0. The one I have from Halex is a piece of crap. I can't read the LED and it is very cheaply made. I have read of some that have a laser toe-line. That sounds cool enough to investigate.
• I am on the fence about whether to get Mass Effect for the PC. I have finished it on the Xbox 360, but all of the new features on the PC version are tempting. I could make that kick-ass female Soldier that I wanted to make. Plus, I could support their effort to make DRM less of a hassle.
  
• Bill Harris over at Dubious Quality has a console post where he uses logic and truth to illustrate how much the Wii is kicking ass over the Xbox 360 and PS3. How dare he? I mean, the Internets weren't made to be a repository for truth and logic!
• I made a pact with myself that I would finish several of the games I own before I buy any new ones. With the exception of Civilization Revolution, that is... I need that game.
  

Spoiler Alert! Gamers are spoiled.

This gamer is spoiled anyway. I find that the more able I am to purchase any game or system I want, the more spoiled or jaded I become. I have been a gamer since the Atari 2600 and Vic 20 days. Back then, I had to rely on whatever money I could scrape up or try and convince my parents to buy me a certain game or system. There were games I played to death back then. I invented new ways to play them when I finished them or made up house rules to change things up a bit. But the point is that I devoured those games.

I have always been something of an impulse buyer. Those crappy items at checkouts that no one needs were invented for me. That isn't a good quality to have combined with a video game addiction. I buy games sometimes just because I like the idea of them. Sometimes I will buy a game and load it up, play it for a bit thinking to myself how cool it is and then never play it again. I bought a PS2 to play RPGs I missed out on during the "PS2 era" when I was mired in my MMO addiction. I bought Dragon's Quest 8 because I liked the idea of it. I actually even played it for eight or ten hours and had fun. I haven't played it in months now though. Why? Well, because there was some new shinny thing that came out.

Why am I sharing this with you? Well, because I think this kind of endemic of the gaming review industry. I listen to a lot of podcasts and read a lot of blogs on gaming and the thing I invariably take away is that the people on them are bored. They are jaded and it takes something really fresh and unique (to them) for them to sit up and take notice. I think this creeps into their review scores and how they talk about games. These people (for the most part) have access to a huge amount of games and systems. They see a wide variety of games and end up reviewing things they probably wouldn't want to play in the first place. This leads to a general pessimism and malaise where gaming is concerned. Witness the fact that almost every review you see of a WWII shooter will be prefaced by the fact that reviewer is just, "so over" shooters set in WWII. Well guess what? Not everyone has played every shooter ever released and there are some people who have a real interest in that era.

My point is that game reviewers that work for large companies and I have a lot in common. We are all jaded. Keep that in mind when you read our reviews and thoughts on games. We are not normal people. Take our reviews with a grain of salt and avail yourself of other resources when trying to decide whether to purchase a game or not. And by all means, don't rely on review scores. They are pretty much worthless.

Age of Conan: I'll pass, thanks.

I have spent a good deal of time with the AoC beta and at this point, I will have to give it a pass. I am not even concerned about the bugs (I expected those in beta) or the lackluster quests. What disappointed me was that the combat really wasn't different enough or more fun than any other MMO. I was hoping for a visceral, dynamic combat system and this ain't it. What it boils down to is instead of your character auto attacking and you deciding when he uses special abilities, you now have to make every swing AND decide when to use special abilities (they call them combos). I never got the feeling of being in a Conanesque combat.

While I am on the subject, why is it that combat is like this in video games? Why can't we have combat where there are more blocks and parries instead of hits and it comes down to being able to out think and maneuver your opponent? A couple of real blows from the types of weapons used in these games would be enough to take down most things. It should be more about landing those blows than just striking over and over again. I would rather block and parry and get occasional hits in. It would also be nice to be able to use tumbling or an overpower move to gain an advantage. The bottom line is that Funcom has not reinvented the combat system here. They just changed it slightly.

Man-love for Bioware cemented...

The whole DRM fiasco with the upcoming release of Mass Effect for the PC has had me in a tizzy for a couple of days. I seriously hate that shit. I am also lazy enough to not want to have to find the disk I need to play the game I am currently interested in. Imagine my joy when I found these comments from Bioware... (psst are your listening Will Wright?)

There has been a lot of discussion in the past few days on how the security requirements for Mass Effect for PC will work. BioWare, a division of EA, wants to let fans know that Mass Effect will not require 10- day periodic re-authentication.

BioWare has always listened very closely to its fans and we made this decision to ensure we are delivering the best possible experience to them. To all the fans including our many friends in the armed services and internationally who expressed concerns that they would not be able re-authenticate as often as required, EA and BioWare want you to know that your feedback is important to us.

The solution being implemented for Mass Effect for the PC changes copy protection from being key disc based, which requires authentication every time you play the game by requiring a disc in the drive, to a one time online authentication.

This system has an added benefit of allowing players to seamlessly play the game without needing the DVD in the drive.

Key points---

•This solution allows gamers to authenticate their game on three different computers with the purchase of one disc. EA Customer Service is on hand to supply any additional authorizations that are warranted. This will be done on a case-by-case basis by contacting customer support.

• Games are authorized to the machine when the player installs and launches the software for the first time.

• We’ve all had those times when the discs get lost or scratched and you can’t play a game you’ve bought because you need a working disc in the drive. With the new system players will no longer need the disc to play the game, but can instead simply retain the disc as back up for re-installation.

Mythos

Sign up for the Mythos beta here.

Game plans for the weekend

Looks like a GTA IV, LOTRO weekend for me. Sunday is Mother's Day so I probably won't get much gaming in that day. Sorry for the lack of posts the last few days, I had a minor medical procedure so was out of commission. Look for more Age of Conan impressions soon.

GTA IV Driving Issues.

I have read some complaints from people about driving being difficult in GTA IV. If you are one of these people, try going to first person mode by hitting the select button a few times. This makes driving much more enjoyable. Keep in mind that the type of vehicle you are using makes a big difference too. I am having no problems driving around the city at speed anymore. This game is really enjoyable and I am not a GTA fanboy. In fact I played all previous incarnations of GTA put together for about 1 hour.

AoC Beta Impressions

I promised some AoC beta impressions so here are some quick thoughts. Keep in mind, I haven't had a great deal of time to play it because I have been putting together Man Room 2.0 so these are impressions from limited play time.

• The graphics are excellent. They have captured the Conan world beautifully. The only other MMO with graphics this good is LOTRO.
• The new combat system will take some getting used to. There is no auto attack so every attack and block you do is something you initiate by pressing a button. The only problem is I have no clue how I am supposed to go about it effectively.
• It's an adult world, which is a nice change of pace from the cartoony games like World of Warcraft. You rescue a scantily clad chick who is chained up within five minutes of starting the game.
  
• There is a night time vs a daytime play structure. During the day you do normal quests like any MMO and at night you do instanced quests in the city of Tortage with animated cut scenes which are nicely done.
• The game client needs a lot of work. It is very buggy and the frame rate can be all over the place at times. Upon loading an instance it isn't uncommon for your frame rate to drop below 10 FPS for 30 seconds
• The interface can't be scaled in any way. You are stuck with big blocky quickbars which can be annoying and I can't figure out how to turn off or slow down the mouse over info so it doesn't block my view of combat when I am hovering over an ability.
• I have not grouped with anyone yet. I am having a hard enough time figuring out what to do in single combat in order to be the most effective. I don't need to worry about other people.
• Over all, I my impression is that the game has a lot of potential. It still needs a good deal of work before the May 20th release date though. I hope the version I am playing is much older than the one the devs are tweaking right now.