A Great 2008 Holiday Season for Games

It's been a LONG time since I posted here. I've been busy working on my business, Subo Design and Red Pill Designs, but needed to write something.

I, like many humans, have noticed the World economy going to shit. It's a tough time for many in the world. I have also noticed that this has so far not affected the gaming world like it has almost everything else. Games are still flying off shelves, the Wii was again the number one gaming console this season and the DS Lite was the number one portable again. Great news for Nintendo. Other games doing well are Halo 3, Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, Call of Duty, Wii Fit, Animal Crossing, Wii Music and Gears of War 2. What's more amazing are the games that have been around what seems like forever that continue to sell in bug numbers! For the week ending December 19th, 2008, Mario Kart Wii sold over 900,000 copies worldwide on its 37th week in release. And New Super Mario Bros. for the DS sold over 500,000 copies in its 136th week! What? I know. It shows that new gamers continually buy the DS Lite.

Also of note, is the fact, that Wii Sports will soon take over the Number One spot of best selling game of all time. Of course this number does include bundled software. But so did the current number one, Super Mario Bros. Right now Super Mario is at 40.24 million and Wii Sports is at 39.68 million. It will be just a couple weeks when we have a new number one. If you would like to check out some numbers for yourself, go to VG Chartz.

We'll see if the gaming community can continue to push through this tough time for the world economy. Only time will tell.

PSP just dropped price to $170... what next?

Well, SONY just announced that they are dropping the price of their PSP by 15% to $170. This is good news for gamers in general. I still do not own one but would start to consider as the price moves down.

However I do own an original DS! Which from the start has been very entertaining. I still play MarioKart online against others and still train my brain. So for now the DS is the only portable I need. Excellent games and good prices and still much cheaper than the PSP. And now I can see the DS going down to the UBER price of $99 just before the Holidays in 07. That will be something SONY is not looking forward to.

Review for Medal of Honor: Vangaurd on Wii

For the most part I am having a blast playing through the actual game. The story is captivating, the action moves quickly and the music and sound FX are great. I like how the game doesn't get side tracked from doing the mission. Sure I enjoy games like Zelda where I can rome around an entire map and look under things find hidden rooms with neat stuff but this MOH was refreshing. Pure action right from the begining.

Graphics wise, they are very good. I still wonder how much better they can get, given time. I can't wait for Metroid! That should look great in my opinion.

One huge draw for me buying this game was the multiplayer aspect. Having four guys drinking beer trying to kill one another is just a fun night for all. Though it will probably work for now, MOH: Vangaurd missed the boat on this one. The maps seem a bit small, and the option to include computer bots is not there. Another drawback to the multiplayer scenario is the complete lack of kick ass weapons available. My friend and I played each map and never did find a bazooka or true sniper rifle.

Oh well. I can't complain to much. I am finding the game to be about what I expected. And I was dying to buy a FPS for the Wii. I still have not tried any of the launch titles (Far Cry, Red Steel, COD3) since the reviews were not great for any of them.

Overall Score: 7.8 out of 10

Wii Still Capturing Retail Attention!

Yesterday night I was skimming the gamer news on Google News feed. I noticed a story saying that Circuit City had advertised in Sundays circular, they were to have Wii's gauranteed upon opening Sunday morning and vouchers were going to be given away one hour before open. Sure, I thought to myself, the hype must be dead bye now? Right?

Wrong.

I got up this morning to check the Sunday paper for myself and sure enough, page 9. Wii's available today and all that stuff about vouchers were also on the page in fine print. So I took a detour on the way to church just to see with my own eyes. There they were. Must have been about 15-20 people in line with folding chairs and coffee waiting patiently for the doors to open.

It's been four months since the Wii debuted in North America! I had to really hunt hard to get my Wii in December but I never thought the struggle would continue into the spring months. Good for Nintendo. They have created something truely innovative. I play almost everyday with my Wii and I love it. Sometimes just for a few minutes to check my Wii Sports fitness age and other times to bust open a round on Streets of Rage with the Virtual Console. I really think this is what Nintendo had in mind. Get people to play incrementally everyday. But I also have sat down for hours on end playing Zelda. Great for hardcore and softcore gamers alike. My wife even plays with the Wii when I'm not around. Hmm...

Sounds a little dirty. And I like it!

Sincerely,
Tom Schriner

My Wii is amazing!

Well after about one month of playing on the Nintendo Wii, it is safe to say it is amazing. I had parents playing video games for the first time since playing PacMan on Atari! It was crazy. Seeing my Dad sore the next morning after playing for a couple of hours on Wii Sports was a good feeling. Nintendo has truely done something diferent this time. Even my wife, who is rarely interested in playing video games, will challenge me to a few rounds of Wii Boxing or baseball or tennis. I hope that Nintendo will put out full versions of each mini game released on Wii Sports. I would pay full price right now for a full version of tennis and baseball. I also have to say that Zelda is also a must own game. The visuals are nice but it's the game play and story that make the game great.

The one game I'm looking forward to playing in the next couple of months has got to be Tiger Woods 07! As much fun as the small 9 hole course on Wii Sports is, it just teases you. What you want it to play Pebble Beach with the WiiMote. It should be awesome. I say should because EA will have had plenty of time to work on it. Tiger Woods 07 should be out in March.

I hope everyone gets a chance to play the Wii.