Thursday, December 28, 2006

Late Christmas update!

So, how was Christmas for everyone else out there? If it was anything like mine, the answer to that would have to be "fan bloody tabulous".

So what'd I get for the festive occasion? Elebits for the Nintendo Wii, which is coming across so far as a fun but not always varied game that makes some nice use of the controls, as well as Rayman: Raving Rabbids, which is coming across as a sloppily presented collection of mini-games which I'll need to spend some more time with. Right now though, playing Raving Rabbids has avoided being a waste because it meant that I dragged out my Sega Dreamcast and replayed the infinitely superior Rayman 2!

I also re-bought Resident Evil 4 for the GameCube, which I still think is one of the finest games to date. That didn't stop me selling it as soon as I finished it over Summer 2005 though, because I was strapped for cash, saving up for "one of those new HD-ready LCD WEGAs". (AV geeks will know what happened to that idea). But now that the US $ is worth almost nothing, I thought it would be silly to pass this one up.

For the DS, I got copies of Meteos (wasn't around to pick it up back at launch, but I'm glad I did!) and Contact. Also, Scrubs Seasons 2 and 3 on DVD, which are the first non-animated SD DVDs I've bought since last Summer and, as I expected, a lot nicer looking than the aliased, sped-up PAL standards converted versions my brother rented over Summer.

I also got the Psychonauts Cinematic Score CD. Oh yeah, and pieces of paper that can be redeemed for money, and in turn, a 1080p TV (wait for it)!

So, what else is coming up over the next few months in the AV centric world of moi? Well, the nice people over at Oppo Digital are planning on sending me a review sample of their latest DV-981HD 1080p Upscaling DVD player, which is based on the nice Faroudja chipset so should be fun to review. Currently, Oppo are delaying sending the review samples out because of a colour alignment problem on PAL discs, but watch this space for impressions on the unit when I get it.

Posted at 12:57 AM | Permanent Link

Monday, December 25, 2006

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Joyeux Noel and Happy Hannukah to all the people who are actually reading this today! Christmas 2006, which will take me into the fun-filled year of 2007, is shaping up to be one of the best yet thanks to an influx of Wii and DS games that should be heading my way. What are you all getting?

Of course, if you're in the United States or thereabouts, it's not actually Christmas for you yet, but that's OK, because Christmas only officially begins for me once I've woken up later today. Being a nostalgic git, I've been playing some "games of Christmas past", such as Shenmue, Quake III Arena, and Marvel vs Capcom 2 on the Dreamcast, all from 2000. How time flies huh?

Anyway, to continue that theme, I'm going to take a look back on the Christmasses of a few years ago to see what was happening at the time...

Last Year (2005): I came back home at 4am, crawled into bed, and the next day opened my brand new Nintendo DS, a console that I'd predicted would be a gimmicky flop a year before and was now beginning to take notice of. I also got a lovely signed Psychonauts poster as well as the lovely-looking NTSC Futurama DVDs!

2003: Back in '03, me and my brother had only just moved off of Graham's Rawr-Squared.net site and bought our own domain and web space, which we called LandOfWhimsy.com (which is actually still there but for various reasons, my site's now here at it's own address rather than being a subdomain). On the site at the time, I was all ready for Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and I-Ninja on the GameCube, both of which were damn fun games.

Also at around this time, I was toying with the idea of importing a 23" LCD from America. Why from America? Well, at the time, just about all LCD TVs in Europe had no Component Video jacks and had crappy SCART terminals instead, which meant I wouldn't be able to play my GameCube games in the elusive Progressive Scan mode. HDTV was basically a non issue to me back then. Me oh my, does a LOT change in 3 years, or what! Back then, I was just getting interested in LCD technology, although most LCDs were fairly crap so the talk was on Plasma. A few people I talked to told me that LCD would never, ever be able to produce watchable pictures from a TV point of view, to which I disagreed with. A minority would still agree, but I like to think that this is one of the few times I've made an accurate technology prediction.

2002: I was wowed by the quality of the graphics on the GameCube's StarFox Adventures, enough to be distracted by how average the game itself was. At this time, I actually didn't have a web site online, so none of you got to hear about it. Aren't you sad?

2001: I was scooping up ridiculous amounts of Dreamcast games from bargain bins across the land (I bought PAL video games back in these days, you see!) and was enjoying some fairly fun games for £4.99 each. Add this together with Shenmue II and Headhunter, as well as large amounts of Phantasy Star Online, and you had one fun Christmas!

2000: I enjoyed playing, for the very first time, Shenmue for the Dreamcast, as well as the fantastic port of Quake 3 Arena, Marvel vs Capcom 2, and Evolution: The World of Sacred Device. Yes, this was definitely the Christmas of the Dreamcast.

I also got an MPEG-2 card for my computer (this was back in the days when the average CPU wasn't fast enough to do the decoding work on its own) as well as a DVD drive (which I STILL have - a Pioneer DVD-105F).

Anyway, I'm going to bed. Talking about past Christmasses is fun, but this one is going to at least as good as these!

Posted at 1:16 AM | Permanent Link

Sunday, December 24, 2006

HD DVD Insider's Tour Podcast Report

If you weren't one of the lucky people who got to come along to PJ Hi-Fi's HD DVD fun night in Guildford - and even if you WERE - then there's a lot of interview fun to be had from this week's Christmas edition of the AV Forums Hardware Podcast.

Although the whole thing is worth a listen, the HD DVD Insider's Tour stuff begins at 18:34, and runs right up until the end of the 47 minute file. It begins with Amir and Kevin talking about the format(s), and then turns over to AV Forums members (myself included) and moderators for our opinions of what we've just seen. If you're curious to hear what I sound like on tape (I was), I'm on at 38:39, talking about how badly I now want a 1080p TV. If you're curious as to why I mention why I'm such a big fan of the Sony BRAVIA TVs in the podcast, it's because I mentioned that my own BRAVIA TV is only 720p, and seeing HD DVDs at 1080p was a big difference. I'm not sure why they cut that part out though (probably because I was stuttering), it doesn't make too much sense on it's own.

Get the podcast file in either MP3 or M4B (is that some sort of Apple Computer format?) over at the AV Forums.

More pictures from AVF's Phil over at, unsurprisingly, the AV Forums.

Posted at 4:15 PM | Permanent Link

Thursday, December 21, 2006

I'm stranded

Hahahahaha! You thought that I was going to be home in smelly Glasgow TONIGHT, a day after the HD DVD bazaar, didn't you? Well, I have something to tell you. You are very gullible. But it's OK, because I actually thought I'd be home as well.

It turns out that the whole of the London area is covered in grade-A fog that would make a Sega Saturn game blush, so I'm stranded in the airport for tonight. This means the following things.

1. I am going to spend quite a lot of money on wireless internet access credits.
2. There had better be an electrical socket that I'm allowed to use, so I can keep this thing charged. If the laptop runs out in the middle of the night, I might actually have to go to sleep on the uncomfortable departure lounge seats.
3. I must have a very good sense of humour, because I think this is actually really funny (for me, that is, I know it's really shitty for people who might not get to see relatives in time for Christmas). If tomorrow morning's replacement flight is cancelled, however, I will probably find one of the few remaining sharp objects that I have not had confiscated by airport security, and go on a massacre, decorating those lovely orange EasyJet uniforms with festive splatters of red. (Disclaimer: that was an off-colour JOKE).

Ah, but worry not, for I'm taking the train to Luton Airport and am flying out – apparently – at 7:45am tomorrow morning. That's in 15 hours. Oh sweet jesus. But hey, ALL of this was worth it because I got to meet the HD DVD guys (and no, that wasn't sarcasm). Right now I'm sitting in Frankie & Benny's waiting for dinner. That's the kick-ass thing about airports, you get all these unknown restaurants and shops from other lands! It's like being in America, only with more Cockney-like accents, and extra Us in all the words! Oh, and with more FOG as well.

Todd S Gallows – you better be on MSN Messenger tonight to keep me sane. You too Dan, and you as well Jodie, if either of you are reading this.

Edit: after paying £20 for a train ticket to London Luton airport, I've found out that the EasyJet geniuses didn't HAVE to put me down for a flight tomorrow morning, because there's two TONIGHT. I was able to grin very nicely and get the guys at Luton to transfer me over to one of those and wouldn't ya know it, it worked. The EasyJet goons over at London Gatwick are the same ones that told me to go ahead and sit in the departure lounge for about 4-5 hours FOR A FLIGHT THAT HAD BEEN CANCELLED. Seriously, what does it take...

I wonder if Kevin from Microsoft managed to get home to the US today?

Posted at 6:33 PM | Permanent Link

HD DVD Insider's Tour comes to the UK!

Back when Microsoft's video encoding guru Amir Majidimehr posted details of the HD DVD Insiders Tour on the American site AVSForum.com, I jokingly suggested that he come to the UK and do the same thing here. The Insiders Tour is a chance for home cinema geeks to basically get to meet the guys responsible for the high quality video we enjoy as standard on the HD DVD format.

Well, as it turns out, good old Amir was looking for an excuse to visit Britain anyway since he has relatives here, so, it actually happened! NTSC-UK forum member Angry The Clown (who will forever have a place in my head as the one who convinced me NOT to buy a Blu-ray player at launch) suggested that I talk to the people at PJ Hi-Fi in Guildford, just outside of London, to see if they'd be up for hosting the event.

You can guess the rest! The event, which I think is the very first one in the world to happen outside America, took place today, so many thanks to Microsoft's Amir and Kevin flying out here to do their thing, and thanks also to Elliot and the rest of the PJ Hi-Fi gang for hosting the event, and for letting us in free, no less!

Yep, it's Amir and Kevin themselves!

Amir kicked things off by giving us some background info on who he was, and how he got to be in the position he's in. He listed his previous jobs, and most interestingly, shared a lot of info on how the VC-1 codec – the killer finishing ingredient that makes HD DVD's picture quality so mind blowing – came to be. I'll post the full story relating to that after I get his permission, which shouldn't take long!

After a lot of demonstrations – some from titles I've seen and some from discs that are released but I don't own, Amir handed things over to Kevin, who's in charge of the HDi system on HD DVD. That's the specification that handles things like menus and interactive features, some of which are very neat. What's interesting is that Microsoft actually developed this system with Disney, who are, as we speak, only releasing on Blu-ray Disc, which ended up using Java for its interactive content (or lack thereof, there still isn't any after 9 months).

After the event, we all braved the London fog and headed to a bar just across the street, where we discussed HD DVD, HD DVD, more HD DVD, CRT projectors, and HD DVD again. The best part of the night for me was talking to Amir here about the current state of most DVDs. We talked about how annoying the filtering process that screws up just about every major title is. You have absolutely no idea how nice it is to talk to someone about this huge pain in the ass and have them know exactly what you're talking about, right off the bat. It's a shame that as a mass-consumer product, studios get lazy with DVD and just throw their content at an MPEG-2 encoder with predefined settings and author it to disc, rather than getting the best picture quality possible. Amir then told me about how the VC-1 guys at Microsoft (that means him and his team) have told studios who've done bad encodes – no names were dropped – to go back and do them again – and they even helped out where necessary. Is this guy a hero or what? Anybody who ever tries to tell me that Microsoft are an evil, greedy corporation can silence themselves now!

It's a totally different mindset. The VC-1 crew are breaking their backs to get the best quality possible video out there. And so they damn well should – that's the whole point of the format existing! The HD DVD camp have not forgotten this important point, whereas it seems that the other guys seem to be offering no such support where it's needed and judging by the quality of some of the releases, no such stringent quality control either!

We also talked about obnoxious region lockouts, and I was delighted to hear that the general gist going around is that they aren't ever likely to become a part of the HD DVD spec. Yep, if a regional lockout system just fails to materialise on HD DVD, don't be surprised!

What was also great about tonight was seeing PJ Hi-Fi's demo room facilities. My own LCD TV at home is a 1366x768 resolution KDL-32V2000 (soon to be replaced with a 1080p KDL-40W2000 if all goes well), and I've only ever seen HD DVDs running at something close to their 1920x1080 resolution on a fairly small monitor. Seeing them played back through a 1080p Sony QUALIA projector on an 8-foot screen was amazing! The best shots honestly did look astonishingly like a real print, and made me think twice about buying a new LCD TV instead of a projector.

What an amazing night. Meeting two guys in such important positions, in the flesh, was just incredible. Roll on CES in January, where we'll hear more good news about our favourite format (no, we didn't get told anything, so don't ask!) Oh, and if anyone else from the AV (or AVS) Forums is reading, as well as Amir and Kevin, have a great Christmas!

Plus, I got an exclusive collectable, too!

Posted at 12:48 AM | Permanent Link

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Wii remote battery solution

The Wii remote's fun as hell motion sensing and great feeling rumble comes at a price - it eats batteries FAST. Fortunately, British peripherals company Joytech has the solution for us - rechargable battery packs that will sit in a supplied base station and, well, recharge.

Presumably, the station will come provided with new battery doors for the remotes, with holes, that will allow them to easily slip into the charging dock. Good thinking there, Joytech. This is estimated at only $40 US and unless something goes wrong, it'll be an essential Wii accessory. Much more essential than the Wii accessory I already have.

Source: IGN

Posted at 12:11 PM | Permanent Link

Flight delayed

Ah, well isn't this fun. My flight is delayed from 12:30 to 2:15pm at the earliest. This means that I have lots of time to sit around here in the airport lounge, paying through the nose for wireless internet time, and refresh my MySpace page and play Nintendo DS games.

But where am I going and who am I going to meet? Oh ho ho! Well, the news is on the web somewhere, but most of you will have to wait until very late tonight - or maybe even the early hours of next morning - for that information to be revealed, but I promise there will be lots of pictures and juicy news about something special (or as much of it as I'm allowed to post, anyway).

Don't you just love airport arcades? They're like little retro time warp areas!

This one is called SEGA Ultimate Airplane or something like that. I'm pretty sure it's from a more innocent era. Judging by what happened to Propeller Arena, I don't think we'll be seeing this one on the Dreamcast any time soon.

Well, that explains that then. Only kidding, only kidding...

Stay tuned...

Posted at 11:42 AM | Permanent Link

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

US Wii - first minor locality quibble

As expected with imported consoles, there are bound to be a few slight issues. The Wii has gotten off lightly, as us UK owners of US machines can download cheap virtual console games, all of them in 60hz, from the US SNES, Turbografx 16, NES and Sega Genesis ... sorry, Mega Drive (wink) catalogues.

What's wrong with this picture, you ask? Nothing actually, apart from the fact that I live in Glasgow, Scotland. Yep, today the Wii's weather channel launched, and it seems that the price for getting nice cheap games with better release dates and guaranteed 60hz video, is that we're denied local weather information and instead have to settle for seeing whether it's raining or not in New York or Rio De Janeiro instead. (Hey, it said, "Pick the region closest to where you live!)

Oh, and sorry for the lack of updates recently. Things have been a little hectic in the run up to Christmas. You can expect a very, very special and exclusive update tomorrow night/early Friday, however! Wink wink!

Posted at 7:21 PM | Permanent Link

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Wii again: Euro launch

Hey, while I was playing Zelda (I finished it!), someone forgot to tell me the Wii came out here in Europe! Only kidding, only kidding, the advertisements and press coverage has been absolutely everywhere over here, but as I said, I've been too busy playing my US version to spot many of the local TV commercials (which apparently are very good).

Nevertheless, after playing Zelda, my friend Adam decided that rather than being very interested in the Wii, and being the kind who doesn't mind delays, he decided now had to own a European one. So, that Thursday night, Ryan (of Gamesfest 2006 fame) drove us all into Glasgow for the midnight European launch. We knew there was almost no chance of being able to actually get a console (and we were right), but we waited in line to pick up a second Wii Remote for multiplayer Wii Sports fun, and surprisingly enough I also managed to snag Gamestation Sauchiehall St's last Component video cable (they had 3). It's an unofficial Mad Catz one, but is nice and beefy and is no doubt identical in quality to the Nintendo version.

The line wasn't exactly the best place to soak up the launch atmosphere, because, well, there wasn't really any. We were behind a grumpy old hairy man, who scowled at me when I grinned and excitedly exclaimed "WIIIIIIIIIII!". I ask you, whatever happened to excitement in this hobby that's supposed to be centred around fun? Joke's on him though, because we brought along a crate of Diet Pepsis and handed them out to the friendlier Nintendo fans in the line, inbetween sessions of DS multiplayer Mario Kart, and he didn't get any, so there. The doors opened soon enough though and we were let inside despite not having consoles preordered, where we talked to a nice guy who we will probably never see again about the DS, region lockouts and the ridiculously cheap exchange rate.

Gamestation, like most retailers in Glasgow, somehow had no Wii Remotes either, but they had plenty of Nunchuk attachments (bafflingly, a few got sold) and plenty of the rubbish silicon skins to go over the remotes (who honestly decided to bring such a ridiculous product to the market?) So, we continued our Wii Launch road trip to the nearest 24 hour ASDA (it's a supermarket). Driving along the motorway, we discussed gaming days of olde, and how we hope that Sony Computer Entertainment get their arrogant tushes kicked.

When we got to ASDA, we tried our luck and asked the guy staffing the entertainment section if they by any chance had any Wiis left. Of course they didn't, but we DID get to hear a story about the 7am line outside and how one customer bought a wristband for £400, so he'd be able to stand in the line and THEN go inside to spend another £179 on the console itself, which is probably just about as good as getting a PAL Wii (I'm kidding). Outside, the line at the neighbouring Toys-R-Us had already begun, tents and all.

So, when we got home, we hooked up the Component cable and sampled some Wii Sports and Zelda with a fresh look. Yum.

Posted at 10:10 PM | Permanent Link

Theme Park on the way to DS

Oh hell yes! EA Japan is porting Theme Park - the ORIGINAL Theme Park, not the childish and ugly-as-hell sequel - to the Nintendo DS. I've been hoping that someone would port the sequel-of-sorts, Theme Hospital, to the handheld for a while, since I imagine its lovely clean 2D isometric pixel art would look great on the DS Lite LCD screens. Theme Park is almost as great news, though.

As you can see from the screens, while the interface has (obviously) been changed around and modernised to some extent, the 1990s 3D rendered attractions remain. Hoozah!

Screens over at IGN DS.

Posted at 2:13 AM | Permanent Link

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Super Mario World is no longer the best game ever made

...says me, anyway. Yes, it's true, the new (ish) Zelda game is very very good indeed, and although I've not played the original GameCube version, I don't think the game would be quite as enjoyable without the Wii remote so I'm going to say that this game makes the Wii a must-have console.

There are so many reviews of this game that you can read scattered around the web - most of them featuring scores in the 9s and occasionally, 10s, so I'm not going to critique it too much. The usual negative comments are of course related to the technical aspect of the graphics, that the game's GameCube origins show through too easily. Some of the textures are most definitely very GameCube-like and blurred, and don't make use of the more powerful Wii hardware, but it matters not, because as I've said on this very site countless times, it's the art direction and style that are more important, and this game has some really breathtaking sights and utterly brilliant colour. (Technicalities matter, of course, but not as much as those). At times, the developers manage to pull off dull, murky environments WITHOUT making them look boring and ugly. Again to repeat myself, this game is proof that you can have fairly realistic environments (without painstakingly realistic characters, however) that dont' bore the player to death.

Some of the nicest parts of the game are in the spirit-inhabited Twilight Realm, where Link somehow transforms into a wolf (they pull this off without making it look corny, don't worry) and rides around with Midna, your kick-ass little helper and Navi-replacement, on his back. My friend Adam described the Twilight Realm perfectly, it's a world that feels sort of muted and restrained and almost sad, but none of this rubs off on the player (it's not depressing to play, or anything) because it's oh so pretty. The music, oddly, has echoes of a sort of Silent Hill style in it and is nice and strange at times to hear in a Zelda game.

The controls also work near-perfectly. The Nunchuck attachment to the Wii remote is used to control Link and to lock on to enemies and other objects, and the Remote is used, as you'll probably know by now, to replicate sword movements and to aim using grappling hooks, bows and the like. It's absolutely brilliant fun, for example in a boss fight (this isn't too spoilerrific, don't worry) where you need to grab on to the creature and jab your sword down into its weak spot. The game has a calibration feature where you tell the TV exactly where the sensor bar is sitting for further accuracy, and we were both near-positive that after doing this, ALL Wii games and controls benefited from the calibration.

I don't quite agree with Gamespot's 8.8 review score of this game. I probably would, because normally I respect that site's objectivity, but the problem is that they also rated Wind Waker and Ocarina of Time 9.3 and 10 respectively. This game is better than both of these. I absolutely loved Wind Waker and its visual style, but this is the better of the two for definite. As for Ocarina of Time, I'm sure I'd have loved it back in the day, but like the majority of N64 games, I don't find it playable because the 3D has dated so terribly.

I have no idea if Twilight Princess is going to have the replayability of Super Mario World. I'd guess probably not, because it's the sort of thing you become engrossed in until you finish it or decide to replay it again, rather than the sort of game you can instantly pick up and play, but I do know that Twilight Princess is the most enjoyable experience I've had in a long time and I get the idea I'm almost nowhere near finished it yet.

Posted at 10:07 AM | Permanent Link

Friday, December 08, 2006

Need Wii-motes? Amazon France to the rescue

A heads up bonus goodie nearly-Yuletide treat for my loyal (pfft) readers. Tired of not being able to find Wii Remotes ANYWHERE in Britain or American and Canadian online stores?

Well, Amazon France have the remotes in stock. The price, including "rapide" delivery, is about £35, or with the standard delivery option, £30, the same as the UK street price. Since Britain and France are both European countries, you will have no customs charges to pay.

Hooray for the free global economy!

Posted at 6:30 PM | Permanent Link

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Wii Custom Cover Template

Available to download now, so us cover'ers can make nice new packages for anything nasty looking that Nintendo of America choose to throw our way. Not that they have so far though, because the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess cover is excellent. (And holy crap, WHAT A GAME - if there are no updates to this site for a few days then you'll know why!)

Get the cover template over at the Custom Covers page. Anyone caught using it to make rubbish covers will have their car towed.

Posted at 4:08 PM | Permanent Link

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

PAL Wii warning - [some] Virtual Console games are 50hz only with borders

I need to point out from the start of this post that I am in no way making fun of gamers who were unable to get imported Wii consoles. That would just be plain cruel. I'm poking fun at Nintendo of Europe for once again letting us down.

Yes, you read that right. An NTSC-UK forum member, who previously had a US Wii but was unlucky enough to find it faulty - has posted info on the PAL Wii he's managed to bag:

"PAL was a second choice for me. Sonic had huge borders and ran at 50hz. I switched the console to 60hz, but it made no difference to the speed or borders. F-zero only had slight borders. Again, it only ran in 50hz."

If this doesn't make any sense to you, then a brief history lesson. Back in the late 80s and up until around 1995, TV sets in Europe could only show 50hz/625-line pictures (the same way most TV sets in America can still only show 60hz/525-line ones). This meant that all of the games that had been developed in Japan or America for 60hz/525 TV sets played back on European ones with a squashed video display, due to the extra 100 lines of Europe's TV system being an afterthought to the American or Japanese game designers - they had never filled them up with anything. The slower scan rate of the European system also meant that some games ran, well, slower.

In 2006, most games consoles in Europe allow the player to select 60hz (now that TVs here can handle both the 50 and 60hz systems) to get the same game experience as US and Japanese gamers. We assumed that Nintendo would allow the same to happen with the Virtual Console feature - after all, you're paying fairly large amounts of money for old games, so you'd think quality would be a concern - but obviously not. Rather than the technical limitations of the past being worked around, European gamers will be treated to a back catalogue of many generations worth of games featuring a distorted video display.

Once again, importing has been proven as the way to go for the best value, best availability, best timing of release dates, and astonishingly enough for 2006, best speed and video display. Well done Nintendo of Europe for making your domestic console the firmly inferior choice for what now must be the fifth generation running. Idiots.

Update (6:31pm): Another forum member who has the PAL console has reported that he's "Just downloaded Super Star Soldier for my PAL Wii. It runs in 480i. So maybe PC Engine games all run in 60 Hz?". Hopefully Nintendo of Europe can allow ALL of the games to run in their original 60hz through a system update, but I'm not crossing my fingers.

Posted at 6:18 PM | Permanent Link

Wii!

Well, as you might have gathered if you've been reading this site lately, I'm one of the very fortunate few to actually own a Nintendo Wii console right now (thanks to the kindness of an almost-stranger). So what do I think of it?

In a large, hyphenated word: fan-bloody-tastic. Wii Sports is ridiculously addictive, and Trauma Center: Second Opinion actually (usually) works better with the Remote and Nunchuk setup than it did with the DS touch screen - it's a pity it's only a remake. Sega's Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz wasn't to my liking at all though, so I've passed that one on and will probably give Rayman: Raving Rabbids or the apparently average but nevertheless interesting Red Steel a go.

What about the hardware itself though, you ask? Well, let's get nice 'n' geeky and talk about the quality of the video output, why don't we? Remember how I constantly raved about the video quality the GameCube's Component Video cable would give you? Well, that was thanks to a very high quality chip that was in the end of the cable, rather than the console itself. I think the idea behind this strange move was so that only people who required Component video would pay the price for it, thus keeping the costs of the Cube down for most other people.

Well, that same chip, as I previously reported, is built into every single Nintendo Wii console and from what I gather, is responsible for handing EVERY type of video output signal - not just Component Y/Pb/Pr. The long and short of this is that even the Composite video output of the Wii can be amazingly detailed, and when hooked up to a TV that knows how to process the signal correctly, can look damn impressive.

Obviously, I can't wait for my Component cable to arrive so I can use the 480p mode, but even still, the quality of the Composite on my KDL-32V2000 HDTV is amazingly bearable! Have a look for yourself:

Pretty incredible, no? Sadly though, not all games look this good through Composite, because it would seem that some of them kick in a Flicker Filter option in the Wii's hardware - just like a lot of Xbox games did. Trauma Center is one of these - it's fun to play, but incredibly blurred. I hope that connecting a Component cable disables the flicker filter.

What's interesting is that the Wii has kickstarted a real nostalgia theme in my gaming interests lately - and I'm not talking about the Virtual Console feature - I'm talking about GameCube games. I feel bad for more or less neglecting the poor little system for the last part of its life, and now I'm sucking up NTSC software at ridiculously good prices - Resident Evil 4 for £13 brand new, for crying out loud - even though I've finished it and used to own it before, you can't go wrong.

Although good games right now are a little scarce - there's a pretty high number of licensed titles - I can't wait to see what Nintendo has in store for us Wii owners. It looks like it's going to be a great system, that's for sure!

Posted at 12:57 AM | Permanent Link

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz - it's a bit shite

Dear Mr Sega,

Over the years you have been systematically lowering and lowering my expectations of your corporation. You exploited your most beloved of mascots and dropped the bar to unimaginable lows with "Sonic Heroes" in 2003, only to follow up only two years later with "Shadow the Hedgehog".

Now the Wii is out, and with its innovative new control system, it is offering you multiple new ways to irritate gamers. Your first victim has been "Super Monkey Ball", one of the few of your more recent "franchises" that gamers hold in some form of regard. Using the Wii Remote to tilt the level around sounds like a good concept, and you'd think it'd take a lot to make a game as simple as Super Monkey Ball more irritating and uncomfortable than it is fun, but somehow with the addition of a terrible in-game camera, you have managed it. Whatever next - a new Sonic the Hedgehog game with controls that make it difficult to pla....oh - wait. Maybe you can also re-release the very first Sonic game, and somehow manage to mess it up as well? What's that? You've done that too?

Look at other Wii titles such as Wii Sports, Trauma Center, or The Legend of Zelda for examples on how to use a new control scheme to enhance a game.

Looking forward to seeing what you will bugger up next,

--Lyris

Posted at 8:52 PM | Permanent Link

Wii owners: RISTAR tomorrow!

For anyone lucky enough to own an [American] Nintendo Wii, get ready to buy the Sega Genesis/MegaDrive classic RISTAR all over again tomorrow on the Virtual Console!

I say re-buy semi-jokingly, because quite frankly Ristar is one of the best games ever produced which means it's more than worth the $8.The music is catchy, the character designs are totally endearing, and the number of on screen colours is astounding for a MegaDrive title.

The game mechanics are interesting as well - Ristar uses his long arms to latch on to enemies (and items), and upon releasing the button, he slams himself into them to defeat them.

Of course, unless someone makes a mistake, the version we'll have served up to us will of course be the American release, which has a few cultural edits done here and there, compared to the original Japanese release which went under the full title of "Ristar: The Shooting Star" (notice the empty gap under the logo in the first screen grab up there?) The story, and consequently the ending, were schmaltzed-up a little, with more emphasis put on Ristar finding his dad. Ristar's game sprite was also changed to alter his good-natured, friendly smile to a more "come and get me bitch" frown. I'm really only mentioning this for trivia's sake though, as none of it harms the game.

If you've never played Ristar before, and you like platformers, you'll love this. It's totally worth the 800 Wii points ($8 US). It seriously is one of the best games ever made, and I don't say that often.

Posted at 7:15 PM | Permanent Link

Saturday, December 02, 2006

GAMESFEST 2006!!!

GamesFest is a long running tradition of mine. Around Christmas time, me and some of my high school friends would skip school to play video games. Since we're all big Nintendo fans, these were almost exclusively GameCube titles (and the occasional N64 one). GamesFests featured large amounts of video games (obviously), pizza, and increasingly, alcohol.

So after a 2 year hiatus, it was only natural that I'd celebrate the launch of the American Nintendo Wii (OK, I was 2 weeks out but still a day ahead of Japan and a week ahead of Europe!) in style by reviving this cherished tradition! Interlink Express delivered the Wii from London a few hours ahead of the celebrations beginning, so there was time for me to run home and set the thing up (to discover my first stepdown transformer wasn't working properly and I needed to revert to an older one I had lying around - NOT the most pleasant feeling in the world). My high school friends Adam (who I lied my way into ECTS with in 2004) and Ryan (who I think has owned every Nintendo console known to humankind) came, as did good old Craig. My friend Pete, who I've known since I was about 10 but haven't seen much of lately, also showed up, so with these fine miscreants and my brother and myself, the total body count was up to 6. It was great seeing these guys again!

Although this doesn't sound like a huge number of people, when you're playing Wii Sports and jumping around the room like a lunatic (see picture), you soon realise that in order to avoid getting bludgeoned with the remote or getting your front teeth knocked out, you have to allow whoever's playing "room to breathe". And yes, Wii Sports is TIRING. My shoulder blades are killing me but I get the feeling I'll get used to it.

I'll leave my thoughts on the Wii console itself and the launch games I got, for a later post here, but I think the pictures speak for themselves. Everyone was having a fan-fucking-tastic time and the hours literally flew by. Wii Sports definitely stole the night with opinions on Trauma Center mixed (I love it myself) and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz being pretty much dismissed as awkward to control and a move in the wrong direction. What about Zelda, you ask? Well, that one hasn't arrived just yet but that may actually be a good thing, since it's not really the ideal party game anyway. We also had a ton of fun looking at these ridiculous pictures we took using the Wii's slide show functions. It's more fun than it sounds, and is pretty hilarious with the cheesy pre-set music the Wii plays over it, trust me.

Anyway, here's us looking like total tools! Enjoy! Firstly, Adam lets his thoughts on Nintendo's latest be known:

Pete seemed to like it:

Ryan (left) and Adam (right):

Me getting some private time alone with my new friend:

This is what we ended up drinking. That and a fair amount of Vodka and mulled wine:

And then some Wii Boxing:

Look at the RAGE in this one!

Looking around on MySpace, I found some comments from a disgruntled PAL gamer who didn't get invited to the celebrations, who was a little bit non-plussed about American gamers getting to play the Wii, and I quote, "before the release date". A little bit strange seeing as the release date was two Saturdays ago.

Oooh, temper! Well guess who's not getting invited to GamesFest 2007!

Finally, a gi-moungously sized THANK YOU to Guyle, originally from Miami, Florida, for being so kind as to get me a Wii on launch day and bring it over here with him. You don't normally see that kind of generosity, do you? And also to Interlink Express for getting it here in time for Gamesfest!

Posted at 1:16 PM | Permanent Link

Friday, December 01, 2006

Welcome to Europe, Nintendo Wii

"You're gonna LIKE it here. We're gonna have a lotta FUN! You LIKE to have fun, don't you? Well go ahead, have fun! See if I care!"

The wait is nearly over!

Posted at 12:26 AM | Permanent Link