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How was your next-gen weekend?

12:50 PM on 11.20.2006   |   Niero

How was your next-gen weekend? photo

Many of us did the dirty deed of standing for hours on sidewalks this weekend for a chance to experience the PS3 and Wii first, and we want to hear all about it. Were you among the first? Which system did you pick up, and how do you like it so far? Any technical difficulties? Am I the only Wiitard that took almost 20 minutes to set up his second Wiimote (until my girlfriend figured out that I wasn't pointing it at the sensor bar - duh!).  So, did your console live up to the hype? Post your first impressions here!

A lof of people also went home denied this weekend -- were you among the masses that went home empty handed? We also want your story, especially if the said store screwed your half-camping over. We heard reports that some Wal-Marts were breaking up lines and not observing camper's self-organized efforts. For shame! Or did you stay indoors to the warmth of your Xbox 360 with the new Burger King games? (they started selling them yesterday, run!)








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Yanier "Niero" Gonzalez is Destructoid's founder and guy-in-the-helmet.After 2,000+ stories posted and years of starting trouble on the front page he's now busy behind the scenes building the future of Destructoid. His story is our motto: "Living The Dream".

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16 comments | showing # 1 to 16
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Toneman's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/20/2006 13:17
Toneman
I walked into Gamestop at midnight, picked up my Wii, and haven't stopped playing it yet. Well, except for right now because I'm at work...
BluDesign's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/20/2006 13:24
BluDesign
Hell yes it lived up to expectation.

Everything I could ever want either will be or is on the Wii. I only hope that when the next console comes around for Nintendo, they make a way for you to transfer VC purchases to the new machine. :)

The first time I used thw sword in Zelda and the first time I swung a racket in tennis were amazing. Simply amazing.
ff6600's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/20/2006 13:25
ff6600
I woke up at 7 on the 19th with the plans to wait in line for a Wii at a Supersotre here in Calgary (it's Canada's version of Wal-Mart). On the way there, myself and my two roomates went and swung by a mall with a Best Buy and a Futureshop to get a feel for the line there. Futureshop was ligned up at least 60 deep (they were opening at 10) and Best buy was a giant mob as they just opened the doors.
A little surprised we headed over to the Superstore and saw a small gathering of about 15 people in front of the doors. We were informed when we got to the line that they were sold out and everyone who was waiting had pre-order tickets, so we got to head back to the truck (did I mention that it was below zero centigrade?) and contimplated our options. Last ditch effort we headed over to a mall that had a Toys 'R Us, a Zellers and a EB and saw quite a few campers waiting at the OUTSIDE enterances of the Zellers/TRU. Being sneaky/curious, we tried the main doors of the mall and found them to be open so we headed to EB and joined the line of 10 others (it opened at 11 and it was 9).
TRU opened and sold out in 20 minutes, Zellers opened and turned away almost everyone who was waiting outside (no preorders, no Wii).
It was about 10 when someone with a Wii in a TRU bag waited BESIDE our line with a large "For Sale" sign on it trying to entice a buyer near the end of the line.
At about 10 a manager came out of EB and counted down the line and lo and behold I we were #15 of the 30 availible. We had our Wii, but were informed that almost all the games were preordered (no Zelda for us). Rumor then spread through the lineup that Zellers had a ton of games and there was a mini mad-rush of people who ran to scoop up their last of the copies of Zelda.
Once we got the Wii in our possession we realised that the entire city of Calgary (pop. 1million) didn't have a single Nunchuck availible for sale, wtf?
All in all the crowds that were waiting were pretty hospitible and I'm hoping that no one froze to death in our cold winters.
Gregor's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/20/2006 13:53
Gregor

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5613786427956698096&hl=en

that was my weekend minus speech and debate
starcrossedpimp's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/20/2006 14:11
starcrossedpimp
i am an Electronics manager at Target and we had 60 Wii available to buy. My wife wanted to camp out overnight with her friend( i wasnt allowed to as the manager) so i took her with her stuff round to target. We got there about 730pm Sat nite and there was 30 people in line (my wife and her friend were 34 and 35) and i got no sleep as i kept driving round to 1. Check if my wife was ok and 2. Makes sure all the peeps in line were safe and needed anything. I brought them some pizza round( god bless little Caesars hot n ready!!) and i called the local police dept if they could patrol the parking lot every hour to see if the people waiting were ok and they completely obliged (they had a squad car there all night!!)

Come 615am when i went out to hand the tickets out there was about SEVENTY people in line, most of the guys tried to tell the peeps after 60 there was no point in waiting but they stayed anyways. So before i handed the tickets out i informed everyone if there was any pushing or shoving they would be escorted from the premises by the police (didnt want anybody who had been camping out to get cut). I then announced to the crowd that NO 1 had been waiting since 8am Saturday morning and i had everyone gave him a round of applause(was hilarious). It was a great crowd outside and everyone was well behaved once we opened at 8 and my wife got her Wii!!!!. But alas she played it for 30 mins and the ac adapter died :( but nintendo are sending us a new one via UPS red free of charge and my friend lets me borrow his when he is at work. It was a great day that ended with a little disappointment but was quickly avoided with nintendo's amazing response to my problem. I am truly exhausted and i hope i haven't typed too much but i just wanted to share my experience with you all.It was a great day and everyone who waited overnight( you know who you are) should be very proud of themselves. I kept asking everyone in line if they knew what destructoid was and they didnt(!) so i kept telling them to check it out.
Maxpower's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/20/2006 14:14
Maxpower
I tagged along with my friend who bought a Wii, and we played for the rest of the day. He got DBZ, Rayman, Zelda, and Super Monkey Ball. Rayman was really fun. And like ff6600, we went around to EB, TRU, Walmart, Best Buy, Futureshop and more places to look for a fucking Nunchuck. Why would they make less accessories for the wiimotes?
BluDesign's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/20/2006 14:33
BluDesign
SCPimp, I have no issue with your wife standing in line, or any store employee, given that they're in line with us. But I think it's retarded that Target wouldn't let you stand in line with your wife the night through. I know she's going to be a grown woman who can take care of herself, but that's really besides the point. Does that thin layer of diversion by making her stand in line alone really mean a lot to corporate? I mean, what the hell? I'd think, if I saw a manager in line, and he's IN LINE, that he'd be a pretty swell guy. There are some that I've seen of the a-holes who think otherwise, but screw them. I mean, at the end of the day, which customer warrants your business more? The happy one who doesn't care? Or the vicious nasty a-hole who does nothing but pee all over everyone's parade by being a whiny douche?
Knowthyself's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/20/2006 14:35
Knowthyself
Still waiting for mine, live in the Caribbean and it takes about 3 days for us to get our orders in store. Any ways, I have a Question, Maxpower or anybody else that bought DBZ. Is it any good and would you guys recommend it? I will be posting my experience as soon as I get my Wii.
NotAwesome's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/20/2006 14:58
NotAwesome
The store kinda screwed me. But I didn't camp out, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Blogged about it here:

http://notawesome.wordpress.com/2006/11/19/wii-midnight-launch-at-ballard-fred-meyer/

Lessons learned: 1) Ask more than one employee what the deal is, preferably a manager, before launch; 2) Most retailers are fuckers.
Chris Taran's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/20/2006 15:22
Chris Taran
No Wii for me. I started my search around 7am and every store I went to had giant lines and most allready handed out all the tickets they had except for Toys R Us which supposedly had arounf 100, by the time I got up there aparantly word got out and there were litterally around 140 people there. I waited in line anyway ust in case only to miss out by about 7 people. I then started calling and traveling all over the area hoping one would be left somewhere. Long story short, I tried every store in a nearly 80 mile radius (either called or visited) that might possibly be selling the Wii.

I still can't get over jus how large the demand was for this thing. I was one of those people that thought you could stroll in in the afternoon and pick one up without a problem.

Looks like my next chance might e this Friday when it's rumoured some stores will be getting more!
Maxpower's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/20/2006 15:23
Maxpower
DBZ is fun if you love the series and wouldnt mind learning all the specific movements for playing on the Wiimote. I played a little bit of training mode as Vegeta. It was pretty easy to remember some of the remote movements for his Blasts. Sometimes the motion is unresponsive, because they demand you to do it exactly as said in Skills List. I havent really played through it much, but I think that to truly enjoy the game, you need to have a friend who either has the game or very knowledgeable with the game.
Darren Nakamura's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/20/2006 16:41
Darren Nakamura
Thanks to the message from my Wii, I know that I played for a total of eleven hours yesterday. Five of that was Zelda. Now I have a ten page paper to write for tomorrow, and I haven't done the reading yet. Procrastination FTL.
Corpse Explosion's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/20/2006 17:28
Corpse Explosion
Hahaha NO ONE got a ps3? Surely someone can give me some feedback, I'd be interested to hear
Tanooki's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/20/2006 18:34
Tanooki
My next-gen weekend was pretty great. Like most people, I wasn't really expecting much of a line and arrived at Target at around 9:30 with about 12 people ahead of me (and there were none there at 5.) Unfortunately, I must've been extremely anxious, because I was having to take a long piss every 1-2 hours (no caffeine, no drinks), which required a long walk to a dumpster that was our makeshift bathroom. One time over there, a car with this bright light coming from the driver's side followed my friend and I for about five minutes, but gave up chase. We also ran over to Gamestop because we had heard they were getting extra copies of Zelda, and had no idea how many Target was getting. However, after 8 more chilly hours talking with some cool guys and girls, I got my Wii, Zelda, and extra controller/nunchuck. Great weekend.

P.S. To anyone who went around flashing their Wiis to the people who had to wait in line until 8..., not a good idea, unless you want a Subway sandwich and marinara sauce all over your car. But hats off to the guy who wished us a good night.
Knowthyself's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/20/2006 18:38
Knowthyself
THNX Maxpower, I will keep an eye out for this one, never played the DBZ games, but somehow this one appeals to me.
Ballistic90's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/20/2006 18:49
Ballistic90
I got my Wii and Zelda at a nearby EB Games located in a mall. I picked up my preordered Red Steel on Friday as it didn't have a street date. Since I was one of the few people allowed to preorder my Wii (I was number 12 out of 16 in the lineup several weeks ago), I didn't really have to wait in line. I was the second to get a Wii at my game store, and I spent a lot of time setting it up and checking out the interface.

I have to say that Red Steel isn't horrible, but it plays a lot like Halo in some ways (2 guns at a time, regenerating health bar). It does have unique aspects to the shooting, and I do want to keep playing.... if only Legend of Zelda would release it's grip on me...
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