Friday had the PS3 launch. I was not
in line for that, but not by choice. I have this
full time obligation 5 days a week, and due to recent events, couldn't call in the "favor" to have the Thursday off to stand in line, and then show up for work an hour late friday. On top of that, the required man power for my "Sell-two-on-Ebay-keep-one-for-me" plan was unavailable because of us all sharing the same
obligation's location. Still, the Best Buy
in question had a surprising
22 consoles, and I
would have been first in line if I, and my entourage (not that one), could get in line on the afternoon of the 15th and had the 16th off work. If it was a midnight launch, like the 360's at that location, that would have sealed the deal, but unfortunately they just opened 2 hours
early for this holiday's console commencements.
Anyway, I picked up the
HD-DVD Drive for the 360, along with
Constantine on the 17th. Even though I'm only viewing it in 720p, the picture quality is truly breathtaking. Hopefully Microsoft is still open to the idea of an HDMI output cable, as the component (game only) and VGA (game/HD-DVD) 1080p options are
working, but not everywhere. But, then again, it could
be worse.
The next morning I played some Splinter Cell for a couple trophy achievements, then headed to that Best Buy
again. This was going to be an extended visit, though. I was getting myself a Wii, and was determined to be first in line. Arriving at 9:00 AM ensured that, and to boot, I was wearing my launch day shirt for the 360, signed by
Peter Moore. I thought that was a cool detail, and when others showed up they found it to be very
interesting, to say the least. Best Buy opened its doors at 10:00 AM, so I, and some homeless guy looking to profit off of his spot in line, migrated inside.
Once inside, I made a decision as to what constitutes "camping out" and being "in line". Firstly, so long as the Best Buy is open, your place in line is held as long as you are in the store. So, for example, there was a Guitar Heroes II demo playable on the PS2 display, which right in the middle of the shelf with all the PS3 games. Go Figure. I could play that to my hearts content and still be "in line". Homeless Terry made use of my lawnchair in the mean time, so I wasn't too concerned. So, having only played one or two songs at PAX '06, I decided to get acquainted with the game and the controller, as the 360 version was an imminent purchase. The only four songs I played that day were, in order of most played,
Strutter -
KISS,
Van Halen,
War Pigs -
Black Sabbath, and
YYZ -
Rush. I got quite good at Strutter on Medium, scoring a 4 star 82,000, and was alright at You Really Got Me at that difficulty as well. War Pigs and YYZ were on Easy since I only played either of them twice.
With the impending Wii line full of Nintendorks (a term of endearment), and PAX'07 always reminding me of how much fun it is, I decided to get myself a
DS Lite. Along with that I grabbed
Elite Beat Agents,
New Super Mario Brothers,
Mario Kart DS, and
Metroid Prime: Hunters and a slick leather carrying case for the DS. Apparently, I made that purchase not a moment too soon, as over the next few hours the line started to grow exponentially. Most came in groups of at least 4, with the occasional spectator. Everyone found my shirt and its story to be
fascinating, and appreciated the humor in my wearing it to the Wii's launch. Much fun was had with the DS as well, with Mario Kart and
Star Fox download play games keeping us occupied. I found that with the stylus, like the mouse, I prefer the Y-axis input as
normal, as opposed to playing anything with a joystick/thumbstick as
inverted.
Best Buy closed at 10:00 PM, and the 20 of us had to go outside for the next 10 hours. Terry had "Terry's Tent" labeled at the front where he and his "brother", Mike, would come and go
pass out after getting hammered. We took all the names of everyone there as an "unofficial list", and used it to keep a tally of how many were there, considering there was only
90 units of Wii in stock. Later in the night, I had some of my favorite franchise pizza,
Boston Pizza, delivered
to the line. It was very tasty.
At about 12:45 AM, the Nintendo Reps showed up to give out free swag. I got a black Wii shirt that has "Wii Play" on the very bottom of the back with the Wii logo on the front. They took pictures of the first 10 or so of us. The first was rather normal, with me in the center, pointing out my shirt. The second, and my idea, was with me on the ground and all of them pummeling me. A Kodak moment to be sure. Over the course of the night more and more people came, including one guy who wanted to see the first person in line and when he finally learned who I was in the Xbox 360 community, asked if he could worship me. I was flattered, but didn't need to go through
another stalker situation. A camera crew came by and interviewed me as well. All in all a lot of fun.
By 2:30 AM we had
85 in line. Mike, #84, was friends with some of the first 10, so he hung at the front with us, he and his cohorts were very knowledgeable on
Homestar Runner quotes. So we had a bunch of fun with impressions of characters with that universe. Mike, while shuffling around his seat against the glass door, slipped and fell back against it, setting off the alarm. The alarm went off for about 7 or 8 minutes, with no sign of the cops, before shutting off. This was amusing because the Vancouver Police Headquarters is a
literal single block north of the Best Buy. When a patrol vehicle finally showed up, it was 20 minutes later, and the officer didn't even leave his car. He just pulled up, said to be more careful, and left.
Staff started showing up around 5:00 AM, and handed out all 90 tickets at 6:00. I filled out what
accessories I wanted: An extra Wii-mote and nunchuk, classic controller, 2 1 GB SD cards, and a 2000 Wii Points card (more expensive than MS Points, and also games cost more Wii points than Xbox Live Arcade). As for games, I got
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz. The next two hours flew by, and the let me in and all the employees there applauded. I grabbed my basket of Wii-tacular goodness, paid up, and took a taxi the 10 blocks home.
The packaging presentation of the Wii is breathtaking. It's on the same level as the iPod's packaging, clean and elegant. I really liked the way they had everything sorted. The Wii is
extremely small. Even
with the vertical stand, it's shorter than the packaging for its
games. I currently have it vertically set up beside my subwoofer in my TV stand's lower level. Unfortunately, the Best Buy didn't have any component cables available, and Wii only comes with composite. Still, even in 16x9 480i, the Wii Channels (aka Dashboard) look extremely clean.
WiiSports is a blast, and Twilight Princess is the true successor to
Ocarina of Time. I made a couple Mii's too, and they look surprisingly close to their real-life conterparts.
So, that was my
Wiikend. I guess I got Christmas early. Fortunately, I can play it whenever I have the time, and not let it interfere too much with my 360 gaming. I'll give more insight into it once I get my component cables and can spend some more time with it.
