I bought Metal Gear Solid 4, devoted 8 hours to it (combination of MGS4 and MGO) and I did not enjoy it. I was bored. I took it back and exchanged it for money towards a DS and a couple of games.

Nope, I didn't like MGS4.

Yeah, I said it.

That is all.

Now the thing won't accept discs. The drive motor seems to be damaged or something. Even when I forced a disc inside of it, the Wii wouldn't read it.

Maybe it's not meant for me to have a Wii. Sure, I should be able to get it replaced for free this time because of the last repair, but... *sigh*.

Strangely enough, sporadically as I try to log onto the site throughout the day, I often get this:

Oh noes

And yet now I can access the site. And since I didn't get any official notification that I was banned (or even warned) for any reason, I suspect it's some kind of glitch.

I hope it is...

As I sat up until around 2 AM playing Mario Kart Wii last night, I realized that I had a problem. No, it's not game addiction. When I play, I play, and when I want to do something else, I do so. No, my problem is that I am keeping myself stuck in a certain 'mode' of gaming.

When I was playing Mario Kart, I hadn't touched it about week before last night...not because I was bored with it (I'm not) but because I was working on other things. I have taken on art commissions, and they keep me pretty busy, but everyone deserves a break. But when I played Mario Kart, for the first few, no, dozen or so races, I lost. Lost bad. I don't mean the usual 3-5th place I'd maintain in a bad race. I'm talking 8th, 10th, once even 12th place. My VR dipped below 7000. I did eventually build it back up (hence the reason I was up until 2 AM).

I managed to get my VR higher than it was when I started, went out with several wins under my belt, yet when I finally decided to go to sleep, I felt strangely...empty.

It was when I forced myself out of bed approximately 3 1/2 hours later to get ready for work that I asked myself, "What the heck am I doing?"

I haven't played Brawl online since Mario Kart came out. In fact, Brawl hasn't even entered my Wii since then. (I have had several local matches at a friend's house though). I conquered DMC 4 and lost interest in Skate (not being able to create a female avatar does that to me sometimes). My friend let me borrow Uncharted but I really haven't had any interest in playing it. Meanwhile, I just opened my eyes and realized how many games I could be playing, games that I'd enjoy a lot more than online multiplayer matches ad nauseum.

I have always adored RPGs, especially turn-based ones. Strategy games are lots of fun too. I never managed to beat Final Fantasy XII because my original PS2 died on me. Now I have an 80GB PS3 and FFXII costs around $12.99 at Gamestop. I could be playing that. Persona 3, Shadow Hearts: From the New World, Rogue Galaxy...all games I told myself I'd jump on given the chance, but instead I'm forcing myself to find worthwhile game experiences (to me, that means lengthy, heavily story-based adventures and RPGs) on my current gen consoles when they largely don't exist yet. And as I've mentioned in the past, Xenosaga Ep. III is a better time sink for me than anything available on Wii or PS3 right now. Not to mention, I've been ignoring my PSP (I would love to play Jeanne D'Arc and Brave Story) and downplaying how much I miss having a DS Lite (wouldn't mind going through Phantom Hourglass or Advance Wars: Days of Ruin, and I never did play Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin).

I was in heaven while playing Folklore on PS3...until I beat it. It's not that the game was too short--the length was fine, but the problem is that there aren't other games like it for current gen consoles. I wonder if Enchanted Arms is any good...

This may seem a tad hypocritical after my last post, but, that's not really the case. It's just a problem with my focus. I guess this is largely a rant against this generation of gaming and the fact that I'm finding less and less to satisfy a gamer like myself, using artificial experiences (to me) to make up for it, to justify my possession of both my PS3 and my Wii.

Yes, I know both consoles have a bright future...but the future isn't here yet. Right now, I'm bored.

I'm thinking I'm going to get rid of all my multiplayer games and focus on going back to being a hermit gamer. I'll pick up single player games for every console available to me and generate a more fulfilling game experience. I've outgrown the need to be the best at gaming, even if I keep telling myself otherwise. I don't care if I never get the highest VR in Mario Kart or if I win a Brawl tournament, but I need to support the kinds of games I want to play, not force myself to enjoy the kinds of shallow, multiplayer-focused game experiences developers keep churning out. Good thing I have Okami...

I never bothered collecting friend codes for Brawl or MKWii anyway...maybe subconsciously, I just don't care enough about playing people online. Nothing personal.

I guess they're just never going to get it.

Even now, where it's all but certain the Wii, already the fastest selling console of this generation, will maintain its lead as the current consoles have saturated the market...even now, after GTA IV came out and there were actually less 360s and PS3s sold compared to previous months... even now blinded techno-philes still want to speak doom and gloom for Nintendo's so-called underpowered console. They still want to say things like "Wii is not next-gen" (of course, no console is next gen now because the next generation isn't here yet).

So many people just don't get it. Processing power isn't everything. It never was. I don't know where the idea came from. What game development guru got on a stage one day and proclaimed to the world that the most important element of gaming was graphical horsepower? It saddens me when people say the Wii isn't next gen because it only proves how many people just don't understand simple logic, how many people have been led to believe that a game with great graphics is automatically better than one that doesn't have good graphics, gameplay be damned, game length, level of immersion, art direction and originality be damned.

It is important to push tech forward. But how far forward...that's open to debate. Don't get me wrong; I love my PS3. I'm happy that such a powerful gaming console is available to the consumer. It's definitely a great device for showcasing how far visuals have come since the days of 8-bit 2D game consoles with 4-color sprites. The PS3, and the 360, have pushed graphics forward to an extreme degree. They've pushed forward online gaming...I guess (I don't play online enough to have an educated opinion about it.) But they haven't really pushed gameplay forward. Mind you, there's nothing wrong with making better versions of traditional favorites. But the two HD consoles have pushed graphics forward so far that not everyone's going to be able to survive this generation. Development studios close left and right or get swallowed by larger publishers like EA and Activision. Games have to sell millions of copies just to recoop the money spent on development. And with the death of studios comes the death of creativity. Don't believe me? What's all the rage in Hollywood? Big-budget, CG-saturated movies based on comics, video games and cartoons. Not that these movies don't have an entertainment factor, but where's the creativity? It's largely been reduced to a little known event called the Sundance festival...just like many developers are making downloadable games for PSN, XBLA and WiiWare.

The Wii doesn't really have this problem (but what is done with the Wii is in the game developers' hands). Like the others, the Wii has pushed technology forward past the previous generation. It just did so in a different way, improving the graphics capabilities (the fact that many lazy developers don't actually put that power to use notwithstanding) as well as the user interaction (motion controls) and system features (various Wii channels, VC, WiiWare, BC, Wi-fi, etc.) Developers are beginning to understand that the Wii's lack of processing power (compared to the 360 and PS3) is almost a strength. It has been proven time and time again that if a game is developed well enough, having weaker visuals than other current gen games isn't a factor in the game's quality (No More Heroes, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii, Zack and Wiki, RE:UC, etc.), and it certainly doesn't hurt that Wii games cost less to develop.

And the online thing? When people say the Wii isn't current gen, I could ask why and most would say because it doesn't boast HD graphics, but others might say it's because of Nintendo's stance toward online gaming. But the best selling games are rarely those optimized for online play. Before you start spouting GTA...how many people really bought GTA IV to play it online? It's a nice diversion but I doubt very seriously there are more people playing GTA IV online than those playing Warhawk, Halo 3 or Call of Duty 4...heck, I'd be willing to bet there are more people playing Mario Kart Wii online than people playing GTA IV online.

Am I saying the Wii is a better console than the others? No. There is no 'better'. It depends on what the individual wants. I can only speak for myself. I own a Wii and a PS3. I play my Wii more often. I devote more gaming hours to my Wii games than to my PS3 games. However, I also devote more hours to my PS1 and PS2 games than I do any current gen games, and I play old school games like SNES and GBA even more than those. Because, at least from my point of view, as graphics and connectivity get better and better, it seems like gaming quality and innovation gets worse and worse. Seriously, how many first person shooters do we need? How many racing games do we need? And yeah, how many minigame collections do we need? Doesn't anyone try anything new anymore? I'm not talking about adding one small gimmick to a first person shooter like Haze or an adventure game like Twilight Princess. I'm not talking about a new game mode to sit right next to the standard deathmatch and capture-the-flag modes. I'm talking about using today's processing power and varying ways for the user to input commands to develop new kinds of games.

Anyway, I'm just glad the Wii is succeeding. Not because I'm a Nintendo fanboy...I'm not, though I really don't care if you call me one. (FYI, I own a PSP and not a DS, and don't feel compelled to buy a DS because I prefer the PSP.) I've been gaming long enough to see its evolution and growth, and not all of the growth is good if you ask me. I can't imagine how much further graphics can go. How much better do games need to look? How much easier does it need to be to play online? The hardware doesn't need improvement. The games that utilize the hardware need to go back to the roots of creativity.

I'm glad the Wii is winning because it proves that graphical horsepower isn't everything. You can complain about the fact that "only kids and seniors" are buying the Wii. You can claim that the Wii isn't for "real" gamers. You can claim that it's only selling well because it's cheaper. But the fact is, people of all ages want the Wii, gamers and non-gamers alike, and they're buying it. No one is going to spend money on something they don't really want. A $250 turd is still a turd. They're not going to a store with intent to buy a PS3 or a 360 and leaving with the Wii because it's cheaper. They're buying the Wii because the other consoles don't interest them (as much), or they already have one or the other.

Me, I'm a 30 year old who has been gaming longer than many of this site's users have been alive. I've owned every major console there was since the NES and a few minor ones. I've seen what the 360 and the PS3 can do, and in the end, after the sheen of the glitzy graphics wears off of me, I go back to playing my Wii games, and guess what? I'm not alone. I still love my PS3, and there are plenty of games I'm eager to play on it once they come out (Saint's Row 2, Soul Calibur 4, Bionic Commando and Final Fantasy XIII, to name a few). But there are plenty more Wii games I'm enjoying now and I'm looking forward to whatever comes next on the Wii. A year and a half later, the Wii continues to impress me, and I've no doubt that it will continue to be a satisfying investment until the next console generation. Nintendo has almost never disappointed me (except with Virtual Boy) and I doubt they ever will.

But that's just me.

I got Hitman (the movie; the unrated version) in the mail yesterday from Netflix. I watched it and...as a movie taken on its own, it's not bad. Nothing groundbreaking or anything, but I was entertained. But from what little I know about the Hitman game franchise (I played Hitman 2 for maybe an hour, that's as much as I know), Timothy Olymphant probably wasn't the right choice to play Agent 47. He was too young looking and too chatty to be a hardcore, methodical killing machine. But the movie itself isn't bad. Definitely proves that a decent movie can come from a video game, although the whole 'one cop who knows the target better than anyone else and has a sixth sense about what he might do' is a trite plot device.

In lieu of GTA IV being unavailable on Gamefly (surprise surprise), they sent me the next game on 'MyQ', which happened to be Obscure: The Aftermath for Wii. I put about an hour's worth of time in it so far, and I can honestly say that much of reviewers' biggest complaints about the game (the camera and voice acting) seem a little exaggerated. The camera does have its annoying moments, but it can be dealt with (moving the camera with a pointer isn't so bad after playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption). The voice acting seriously didn't bother me much. It certainly wasn't what I'd call good, but it wasn't nearly as bad as many reviews made it out to be. I mean, it was a far cry better than Resident Evil 1. However, I do have issue with the controls. Moving around is fine, interacting with objects is fine and the game gives you context clues in order to do things like pick up weapons or fiddle with locks. But fighting is where things get nutty. In order to use a firearm, you have to hold Z to enter fight mode, then use the Wii Remote pointer to select a target, press A to lock onto said target, and THEN pull the B trigger to fire (all this while holding Z on the Nunchuk). All that? Seriously? Why couldn't they have made it just went with the RE4 style and let you free-aim with the pointer and shoot with A (or B)? Melee fighting is worlds easier...you just hold Z to enter fight mode and swing the Wii Remote to swing your hockey stick/golf club/chair/whatever--the problem is, with controls for melee and firearms so different from one another, I initially found myself confused, shaking the Wii Remote and wondering why I wasn't firing, pressing B and wondering why I wasn't swinging my golf club. Oddly, even for the 'strength' character, you have no bare-handed fight option. I've yet to play co-op, but I would think it would be a lot better than single player because in every fight I got into with a monster, my partner held up her weapon in fight mode but I don't remember seeing her swing. Then my guy's head got chomped off by a monster. (Which reminds me, as far as I know, you can only use recovery items in real time, not in a pause menu, but I could be wrong.) Presentation-wise, the game is good...for a PS2 game. It doesn't look bad per se, but we know the Wii is capable of better. It has some genuinely creepy moments in the beginning, so I think if played in co-op and once the controls are mastered, it might not be such a bad game. Yeah, the fighting is definitely more complicated than it needs to be, but I can learn to live with that; the controls are needlessly complicated, but not broken. I'll give it a review later, but I think I'm going to be rating it in the 6.5-7.0 range for now.

My friend let me borrow his copy of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (for PS3 of course) since he has GTA IV and probably won't play much else for the next several months. I don't have much of a TV, but even on my old crappy set the game looks gorgeous. Sure is hard though...but at least continues seem to be user-friendly. I had a little fun with it and I do like the attention to detail in the graphics. I'm interested in finding out if the gameplay holds up.

I've been having lots of fun with Xenosaga Ep. III (PS2). It reminds me why backwards compatibility is such a great thing to have on a console. The game looks great and is fun to play, and of course it has a deep and intriguing story. Until they start making decent PS3 and Wii RPGs (looking forward to Tales of Symphonia 2 and Final Fantasy XIII, naturally), I'll have to have my fill on all the PS2 ones I've missed. Rogue Galaxy is next on my list. In fact, I can't help but wonder why, with all the current gen systems having been out for as long as they have, why there aren't more quality RPGs on any of the consoles. I mean, I've heard of a couple, but you'd think there would be more. It's not like developers forgot how to make them, is it? I'd be pleased with a game with mechanics like Arc The Lad: Twilight of the Spirits or Shadow Hearts: Coventant with today's graphical processing power over the flood of shooters that just keep coming out over and over again.

I'm looking forward to Wii Fit. I wasn't at first, but after reading the previews, checking up on its varied features and seeing the interface, I really think it'll be a neat thing to have in my home, particularly since neither my wife or myself are workout afficiandos. I'm thinking it could be a cool way to inspire us to do more rigorous activities. I don't expect Wii Fit and the balance board alone to get us in shape, but who knows...seeing actual results on the TV screen might inspire us to get out there and do 'real exercise' like all the naysayers keep ranting about.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading my blogs.