Wii Fit has dominated the Top Ten charts for almost a year now... and Nintendo is getting ready to push a "Wii Vitality Sensor" on the market. Where does the madness end?

When a hardcore old-school gamer tries out Wii Fit, things go very, very badly...

What the hell was with all the hype for Bioshock? Having finally sat down and played through this game, I was incredibly underwhelmed.

To sum it up, it was a ho-hum shooter with an above average storyline and setting. The art style and atmosphere were both great, but certainly don't make up for the unoriginal (even monotonous) gameplay.

Plasmids were dumb. Case in point: Telekinesis. I counted two situations where you had use this ability, and they both came within 20 minutes of finding the power up. Pretty lame considering that you get Telekinesis almost right off the bat, and it's useless throughout most of the game. The only plasmid attack really worth a damn was Lightning, and *maybe* Cyclone Trap in one or two places.

The other semi-rpg elements were shallow and boring. The upgrades never really made me feel that much more powerful. I enjoyed the Camera and taking pictures of enemies for bonuses; but since there are only 7 or 8 different types of enemies in the game, that didn't last long.

As I said before, the story and setting were definitely above average, although the much-touted "morality" aspect of the game was a joke. Either you kill the Little Sisters or you don't. End of story.

Also, what was supposed to be some big critique of Objectivism turned out to be very disappointing. I went in looking forward to the game's take/rational on a failed Utopian society right out of Atlas Shrugged, but instead discovered that Ken Levine doesn't have a very strong grasp on what Objectivism is. This is obvious right off the bat in Andrew Ryan's initial welcoming voice recording when he refers to morality as "petty".

Anyway, if you haven't played this game yet, you aren't missing much. I didn't hate Bioshock, I just feel like all of the hype surrounding it was/is completely unwarranted.

Well, fresh off of the craptastic experience that was Final Fantasy 4, I decided to give its
predecessor Final Fantasy 3 a try. Instead of playing the DS remake, I opted to play the
translated NES original using an emulator... primary so I could draw fair comparisons
between FF3 and the NES Dragon Warrior Games.



I played the game all the way through. I'm amazed by how similar it was to FF4 in terms of
basic gameplay, and even graphics. Just like the kinda-sorta ugly Dragon Quest 5, the FF4
graphics were definitely carry-overs from the previous NES games. FF4 probably could
have been called "Final Fantasy 3 with a s*** story and no class changing".

While Final Fantasy 3 had its moments, it still doesn't hold a candle to Dragon Warrior 3 or
4. As expected, the class changing system was INCREDIBLY shallow. You can essentially
change your class at any moment, and the only thing that carries over is Max HP. This
translates into certain parts of the game where you have to change all four of your party
members to a certain class just to beat a particular boss or get through a dungeon that has
class-targeted enemies.

Not that you'll really care about what your class is anyway, because at the end of the game
you get access to the two UBER CLASSES, which equate to an unstoppable warrior class
that can equip every weapon/armor, and a magic class that can cast every spell in the
game. Lame.



The overworld stuff is cool- airships that can do different things, from dive underwater to
hop over mountains. There are also secrets-galore to be found in dungeons and towns,
which is fun. The graphics are pretty damn good for an NES game as well.

Overall FF3 was fun but shallow, and very disappointing near the end. Which brings me to
the next FF game that I'm going to take a stab at... Final Fantasy 5.

I'm about three hours in and FF5 has COMPLETELY blown me away so far! The class
changing system isn't just really fun... it's very deep without being to complex or
intimidating. The graphics are great, the music is excellent, and so far the story is generic
but well done.

So, here is where things stand on the FF games that I have played through:

FF X > FF XII > FF 3 > FF 4 > FF 1

Growing up, I never really played any of the Final Fantasy games, which is weird, because I was a huge RPG fan. Quite frankly, I don't think I missed much.

Final Fantasy IV (originally released as FF2 here in the US) was okay I guess. The super-linear gameplay, completely forgettable characters and a blah storyline really failed to impress me. The worst part: almost every single character "dies" at one point then ends up coming back to life. This is completely stupid in terms of storytelling, but what it also does is make you completely unattached to your party. Why give a damn about your characters' level and equipment if they could "die" any moment?



I've now played about half of the Final Fantasy games, and I feel confident in saying that it is one of the most overrated series of games of all time. There are just so many better RPGs out there... and from the days of the NES to the present, there have been better RPGs available all along.

Whenever the mood strikes, the next FF game that I'm going to try is FF3. I hear a lot of hype about its "revolutionary" job system, but something tells me that Dragon Warrior 3's class-changing system easily trounces it. We'll see.

I bought Wii Fit on Wednesday, but I haven't had a chance to play it until tonight... and holy
crap! Not only do I feel like I got a pretty darn good work out; it totally had me panting
heavily about half an hour in.

The cool thing is that I actually had fun doing it! I guess that's the point... but I was still
surprised by how entertained I was. The only exercise that I really hated so far was the basic
Pushup exercise... because doing Pushups on the balance board was really uncomfortable.

This might be a good thing or a bad thing, but this game will make you feel like you're totally
out of shape. My balance is way off, I weigh too much and I'm apparently 55 years old. That's
okay though, because I'm going to spend an hour or so everyday for the next month
"grinding" to boost my stats! It's like WoW in real life... only not.



Recent picture of me from my honeymoon.

I'm 6'1" and 195 pounds. I'm not overweight by any means, but I'm certainly feeling a bit
pudgy lately. About two years ago I weighed 170.

So, we'll see if I actually end up booting this up everyday, and whether or not it actually gets
me in shape. I've started walking/running/going to the gym lately, so if anything this game
will help me get a bit of extra exercise and keep track of my progress.

I have a love-hate relationship with my Wii. I was initially blown away by it... and then
became increasingly frustrated by the absence of third party games that actually utilized
the Wiimote properly. There has been a complete lack of any coherent online play in most
titles coupled with the absolute s*** graphics (due mostly to a lack of effort). Oh, and the
fact that there isn't nearly enough HD space means that Wii owners get gimped versions of
games like Rock Band.

Why is the best boxing game on the system still Wii Sports, which itself is little more than a
tech demo? Why are most releases just shovelware from the PS2 with tacked-on Wii
controls? Finally, why does it feel like many first-party titles are being dumbed down (see
Mario Galaxy's laughable difficultly).


[i] This may look like a still image, but it's actually a real-time feed of SSBB being
played online... [/i]

That said, the recent releases of Boom Blox, Mario Kart Wii and WiiWare have given me
some new hope. After SSBB's travesty of an online mode, Mario Kart Wii actually got it
right; and at least the game *tried* to have some major Wiimote functionality. Boom Blox
is pure awesomeness, and is one of the best uses of the Wii controls yet.

Which brings us to WiiWare. The only title I've downloaded so far has been LostWinds,
which I beat last night. If this game is a hint of what's to come for WiiWare, then get
excited! It's original, features beautiful art design, and makes excellent use of the Wii's
controls. If you own a Wii, you really ought to download this game.

Now if Nintendo would only solve the HD problem (maybe by allowing games to run off of
SD cards?), Wii owners could be in for a much brighter future...