Ben Boyle lives here!

Our consoles days are numbered

Big fans of gaming that we are in this house, we have 2 PCs for gaming, a Wii, PS3 and gamecube. There are more: N64, SNES and even an Atari, but they’re all packed away. Oh, and a handful of DS Lites and Gameboys are floating about. But I wonder about the consoles …

The PS3 exists here for one purpose only: GTA IV. With the announcement that GTA IV will be available for PC in November, will there be any reason to hang on to it? Sure it’s a blueray player, and a fine one at that, but DVD beats it hands down for price and availability and I’m not convinced the quality difference is noticeable (although I did enjoy Die Hard 4.0 — excellent quality. I’ll need to watch the DVD to compare). The games? Nothing has really struck me as “must have” yet. Other than GTA of course. The dualshock 3 controllers are great, and the USB charging is a great idea (that the Wii should borrow asap). They work great on the PC too, and xpadder is awesome at mapping the buttons. It’s a shame their isn’t better native driver support, or they’d be one of the best gamepads available for PC! So I might hang onto my dualshock, but I think the PS3 will be for sale soon. Just as soon as I complete GTA. Have I mentioned how awesome this game is?

What’s wrong with the Wii? Gotta admit I haven’t been playing it much, enjoying BHD on the PC more. But we love our Wii and it will stay. Very irritated at the long delay and inflated price of Super Smash Brothers Brawl here in Australia (and all PAL regions) and that Nintendo have used the Wii system update to block the freeloader that allows NTSC games to be played. Forcing consumers towards the slow and expensive local market for games is very, very disappointing. Of course, faster releases of games at better (internationally comparable) pricing is the real solution to this! For now, we're faced with buying another (local) copy of Brawl, or never updating the Wii system again … Please note I’m talking about purchased games, from overseas stores yes, not pirated copies.

Now when GTA IV is released for PC, in the USA first (followed by Europe), nothing will stop me buying the US version cheap from playasia the day it becomes available. And it will install and run on my PC without an issue. That’s how gaming should be. Go the mighty PC!

Props to Sony for keeping the PS3 game releases region free though. Learn this lesson Nintendo, and learn it fast. Your future revenue (from this household) depends on it.

Despite all this, I still love my games :)

Labels: gaming, PC, PS3, Wii

•  Ben said:

  After trying the PS3 more for DVDs, very happy with its quality as a multimedia player. Upscales grainy 4:3 DVD to pretty darn good looking presentation 16:9 via 1080p HDMI. Keeping it for that.
  
  Shame it's slightly noisier than the macmini we usually use. Maybe the Queensland climate again.

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Never a better time for gaming …

… and never a worse time to watch TV! Big Brother is back. Not only that, but the finale of Biggest Loser has kicked Smallville from TEN HD for the week and the Logies means waiting an extra week for part 2 of the CSI episode shown last Sunday. TV has never been such a bore!

The gaming scene is alive! Brawl is out (well, we have to import NTSC versions, but it is out), Mario Kart Wii is out, GTA IV is out — I’ll need to buy a playstation 3 for that — and Wii Fit is out next week. Holy how sweet!

If you’re not gaming — what are you waiting for? Get into it!

Labels: games, GTA, Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Wii

•  Andrew said:

  How's the PS3 going then? :)

•  Garth said:

  Don't know if you watch it, but Stargate Atlantis's new season looks promising (at least from the first episode).
  
  Eureka is also coming back. Not that it's a brilliant show, but it does have a charm.
  
  As far as gaming, I'm waiting for: Red Alert 3, Starcraft 2, Diablo 3.
  
  Potentially looking at a console as well, XBOX360 or Wii, but most likely would need to be a Wii to be able to convince my other half it's a good purchase.

•  Andrew said:

  Agreed. Diablo 3 will be worth waiting for!

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Sonic, Brawl and Jackets

Nintendo have been busy of late! First, an announcement of free wii remote jackets to improve grip and safety. Today, an update for the Wii that allows a USB keyboard to be used with it (why, I don't know!)—but the news, the BIG news, is (on every blog I am sure) …

Sonic is joining Smash Bros!

Labels: Smash Bros, Wii

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Ultimate late night shopping

Me and my stack of transformers — it's taller than I am!

Tonight we went ultimate late night shopping. There are many toy sales on and transformers are everywhere due to the new movie (very cool, go see it!) The sales are great. I caved and bought the Wii game. And the Harry Potter game. And Bonecrusher. Then we went to another store and I got Megatron, Optimus, Starscream, Blackout, Ironhide and Ratchet. I showed restraint and did not buy Brawl or Jazz. Well, they weren't on special! Maybe tomorrow! ;)

Speaking of tomorrow, and of shopping, I got some Robot Heroes for my work buddies, as tomorrow is my last day. They'll miss me, but this well help remind them there are more important things out there in the world, namely the Autobot–Decepticon war!

We also had Subway (yum) and ultimate shakes from Wendy's

What else is ultimate? Smash Attacks!!

Labels: Harry Potter, Smash Bros, Transformers, Wii

•  Andrew said:

  Nice figure...s ;)
  Are you going to keep them mint? Or are they to be freed from their plastic entombment for posing, etc.?

•  Ben said:

  Two remain unopened at this stage, but surely not for too much longer! I don't think they truly qualify as transformer toys until you open and transform them!

•  Andrew Smith said:

  How very Toy Story of you. My nephew comes over to visit and can leap into any of my toys.
  
  EXCEPT... for the Star Wars Lego. Some things are not meant for destructive nephews. ^_^

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Unleash the power of the primal baseballer!

Baseball pro status reached in Wii Sports—huzzah!

Labels: Wii, Wii sports

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Wiimote back in action

The bad news:

One of our wii remotes broke. The A-button stopped responding.

The ugly:

Nintendo said it would take them 20–25 days to even look at anything sent for warranty/repairs due to a backlog of work. Apparently a lot of people took their DS to the beach over summer. Note to everyone: sun, sand and surf fun for people, not so fun for electronic gadgets.

The good:

We got a replacement remote already! I only posted it last Wednesday so that was turned around in little more than a week. Less than a week if you allow for postage. Nice work Nintendo!

The disappointing:

I’ve always said service providers should overestimate when providing timeframes. A little conservatism allows time for the unexpected, or better yet, allows you to set and exceed expectations. Customers love it. What’s disappointing about this? In over two years where I work we have managed to consistently disappoint customers with inefficient service. Bummer.

p.s. 4 (Daniel really wanted to include that).

Labels: customer service, nintendo, Wii

•  Inspiral said:

  Good on you Nintendo!
  
  Everything Daniel related is brought to you by the colour purple or the number 4.

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It'sa Mii, bowling Boyle

Tonight I reached pro status in Wii Sports bowling—Hooree!! I am already a pro boxer, tennis player and golfer, that just leaves baseball. What the heck is baseball!? Why are all my hook shots "foul"? And why do my fielders keep fumbling. Ah, it's good fun really, but harder than the other sports. I haven't yet cracked the fitness test—20 is the ideal age. I've made it to 21, so close! I've made it over 70 too, lol.

Here's a picture of me (Mii) bowling, before I went pro :P

The Wii is still as much fun as when we bought it. I can't believe some people still don't own one!

Labels: bowling, Mii, Wii, Wii sports

•  Andrew said:

  Remarkable likeness!
  
  Looks like you putting on weight!
  
  Middle aged spread.
  
  If you exercise harder does your avatar get thinner?
  
  :-)

•  Ben said:

  No, he doesn't. But I might! :)

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Assaulted by Dark Nuts

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you are having a groovy day. Pretty nice weather here. Bit muggier than recent days but there is still a cool breeze. The weather has been so mild, we have not had a chance to run our new airconditioner through its paces. Well, surely Summer will hit us soon?

But what about the Dark Nuts? Well, that's a particularly tough fight against three armoured foes in Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (after many levels of battles with no way to be healed) that has me beat. If you haven't played Twilight Princess, get yourself a copy and a Wii and get adventuring!

Labels: games, Wii, Zelda

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