The Wii rocks, okay?
First Andrew came around with his on launch day - I still thought it was fantastic. My sister played just one game of tennis, and she was trying to encourage me to go down and pickup my pre-order.
A few days later (the Sunday after), Ryan comes around with his Wii, and we played on it from ~3pm->11pm.
My mother got a shot.
Despite adamantly telling me I was not to get my Wii before Christmas, after that, she told me I could. The Wii is so fun it had my mother in hysterics while playing.
I only have WiiPlay and WiiSports, but they are some of the most enjoyable 'multiplayer' games around.
Wii will, wil will rock you indeed.
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I started with University of Texas' CS105 Assignment 1, and wrote Boggle.
Its not perfect, or very well written, but I was just getting the basics, and couldn't care less about refining it.
Then I followed LearnXNA's tutorial on creating Pong.
Its very basic - no score counting, not much in the way of difficulty increases, etc. They could all be added, but I'm worrying more about learning the means to make a game, rather than tweak said built game.
I used my 'own' collision detection method, which brought back memories of my version of Snake (Snake 2K1 I think I called it) that I wrote in Turbo Pascal 6 for a Year 10 programming class at Melbourne High.
If I can find that, I'll be sure to convert it ;)
Update: I've found it (funnily enough, in my Document/Programming/Pascal/ folder), and it was Snake 2K+1!
I'll look at the code, see if I can figure out what I was doing (I wasn't big on comments back then…), and try and convert it when I get back from my trip
I'm 'over' sprite based games, I might try my hand at some sort of 3D Game (or at the least "move X object around Y scene with the arrows and mouse")
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Without a doubt, Nintendo's Wii is making big splashes - I know I've preordered one…after playing it at the eGamesExpo, it was hard not to buy it.
The Wii is incredibly popular, to the point that you wonder why the Gamecube sucked so much (sales wise). The US is set to get 150,000 to 200,000 Wii's a week until the end of 2006. That's as many as 1.2million Wii's to the US alone.
But it makes you wonder, is it worth all this attention?
I mean, it certainly isn't an advanced system.
The Wii, really, is just a 'next gen' console, which is about the same as the PS2/Xbox - or 'last gen'.
So why is there the fuss? For the first time, since the launch of the Nintendo 64 and previous systems, we're looking at a games console - nothing more, nothing less. It plays games. That's it.
Compare that to the competition…
- The XBox, XBox 360, PS2, PS3 all have DVD playback.
- Xbox360 now has its HD-DVD addon
- Xbox360 is Microsoft's 'media centre that isn't Windows Media Centre'
- Playstation 3 is Sony's launch platform for Bluray
The paltry specifications of the Wii haven't stopped anybody from buying it.
Next Gen Wars tracks the sales info, estimating 1.1million Wii's are already out the door, while a paltry 300,000 PS3's have been taken home. (XBox360 has the obvious lead, but its also been out for a year longer).
At the end of the day, third party support will make or break the Wii. I'm rooting for make, unlike how it broke the GameCube.
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Engadget have a short FAQ on the Wii.
Disappointing about DVD playback, as well as the resolution the system outputs, but in the long run, who cares?
I've played WiiTennis, it looked fantastic. I've seen Zelda, it doesn't look as bad as what people are saying.
The key thing to note is the Wii is fun. Particularly in multiplayer environments.
The Wii is something you can get your parents into!
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Update: Long Zheng (wow, another MHS Old Boy) has photos of the event on his eGames Expo.
Highlights
Fury
This has the potential to kill Guild Wars.
Many of the 'hardcore' Guild Wars players don't play PvE - they love PvP.
So much so, Arena Net (developers of GW), released the 'PvP' edition of Guild Wars, which contains the PvP elements only.
Now, from what I understand, Fury is PvP only, developed by the folks over at Auran - thats right, Aussies!
I met the lead developer, who was running the exhibition (how cool is that? I could ask questions, and somebody could answer….unlike every other stall!), and he seemed like a nice guy.
Fury was running beautifully on a 7800 series card and on some Pentium 4 processor. The game is powered by the Unreal 3 engine, making it one of the more intensive and pretty games out there.
I didn't get much of a shot at it, but it was fun.
The interface was clean, easy to learn (which when you jump into the middle of the game, is kind of nice), and overall looked fairly polished.
That being said, without sitting down for half an hour, I wouldn't be able to get properly asses it.
Nintendo Wii
Without a doubt, this was the highlight of the expo for me, and the main reason I was going along.
Today there were three main Nintendo things to checkout.
- The main display (right outside the front door, with massive queues), where you could play any one of the WiiSports, Zelda, Sonic and potentially some others (I didn't check it out, we're talking 40minute queues).
- "Head to Head" displays, where the 'winner stays on'.
The Wii was loaded with Tennis (from WiiSports), and was fun. I'm not a tennis person, but it was just plain ole fun.
The fact that I managed to survive 4 or 5 rounds made it more fun ;)
There were similar setups for the PS2 (<insert racing game?>), XBox360 (Boxing..uhm..Fight Night?) and PC (I think it was Call of Duty 2) - none were half as popular as the Wii
- Nintendo Wii Demonstration on the stage. I didn't get to check this out (it was really rushed, and stank), but I hear they threw out some shirts into the audience, and the fans rushed the stage.
All I can say, after playing just Tennis, is that I'm buying a Wii.
It'll set me back $399.95AUD, plus $69.95 for a second controller, but it'll be a lot of fun.
I also hear that Toys R Us are giving away the new Zelda game with every preorder of the system.
Preoreder quickly, because its out on the 7th of December!
Lowlights
No cameras or bags?
All camera's and bags had to be checked into the Cloak Room before you could enter. Argh?! Its free advertising for the exhibitors! Idiots!
Booth babes
No offense girls, but you weren't turning heads.
There were a few attempts at 'scantily clad' girls, but most ended up looking terrible or try-hard-ish.
The Xbox360 girls looked the most attractive, but unfortunately, looked skanky in doing so
Conclusion
A good first games convention, hopefully next year will be bigger, and allow the public to bring in camera's
It was a good day for me and Chickz0r, only spoiled by queues ;)
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So I waltz into EBGames (okay, by that stage I was a little tired, so it was more of a slump), with chickz0r excited by my side. It was the day she'd been waiting for…the launch of Neverwinter Nights 2.
I hand over the preorder receipt, the stumpy little clerk shuffled away, and came out with the game.
I then asked about the poster I was meant to receive for preordering the Collectors Edition.
"We haven't got any of the preorder promotional material yet"
Last time I called EB (this particular EB store), it was the 'original (and worldwide)' release date of NWN2, and I was told "Nope, it was delayed, but we have the posters in".
So, I assured the guy that they did, and he presents me with the peice of paper, which turns out to be the key to get the toolkit early.
Yeah.
Great.
I've just bought the retail game.
He assured me they didn't have any posters, but after a few minutes fiddling around out the back, he emerged with one.
"Er, turns out we have it, sorry"
It wasn't the A1 I was told, but its still a decent size.
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As will pointed out, the eGames Expo in Melbourne is on next weekend (17/18th) at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre
I’ve been looking forward to this for awhile, its basically the ‘Au-E3′, which is fantastic.
My plans are:
- Meet at <nearest station> around 10am, Saturday
- Walk/Tram up to the Centre
- Go nuts like a kid in a candy store
Who wants to come along? 
Admission fees:
- Adults $16
- Concession/Students $13
- Family Ticket $38 (up to 2 adults, 2 children)
- Two Day Pass $22
There is also going to be some door prizes, so it could be very cool
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