Wii impression thread

PiNkY

Regular
Sorry can't give any since I am located in Europe. But I am anxious to hear from our american friends, so please don't hold back and don't tell me nobody went out and got one.
 
Oh they went and got them alright, they're just either too busy playing, or too tired from all that armwaving to post on here! ;)
 
Yes they have. I missed all of the pre-orders, so I am hoping to be able to snag a couple or three or four for the family...wtf! I just realized what time it is, I should be standing in line, NOW!

BTW, how is the scene for Wii? Are there any lines for it? Anyone camping for it?
 
BTW, how is the scene for Wii? Are there any lines for it? Anyone camping for it?

My wife was at Target yesterday, came home and said "What's this 'W-2' thing? The next playstation? There's some people in lawn chairs camped out for tomorrow?"
 
People have been camped out at my (Bloomington, IN (IU)) Best Buy for two days. So I went to the broke down K-Mart this morning 30min. before they opened (8a.m.). On my way there I didn't hit a single red light, it felt like destiny, I was even starting to believe in God. When I go there, there were 7 people in front of me, some had been there an hour already. Some of the employees and managers walked in in front of us and then 8:02 came and they let us in.

We calmly walked all the way to the electronics section where there were three employees waiting for us. They said that they only had two systems and that they had already given away "tickets" for them. We of course were confused because they previously said they weren't taking pre-orders/reservations. They said that two people came around 6a.m. and they gave them tickets to come and get them later.
We of course were irate because we had waited in line for nothing and they knew that we were waiting in line for nothing and they didn't tell us. I decided not to make a deal about it then, by this time there were already two dozen people there. I do plan on making a formal complaint, hopefully I can get some coupons or something.

I then went to Target, Wal-Mart, Sears, and Sam's club, they were either already sold out or there were to many people for to few systems. For instance Sam's Club only had 5 systems but there were a dozen people outside, maybe they're going to share?
 
So...The benefit of living in a big city like Chicago, is that there are always places that you just know...umm, to put it politely, certain people won't go...

So I drive to Target, on 87th, 20 some-odd people in line, not too bad. Walk over and a Target dude hands me a number and a "shopping menu" #24, that's it folks, last one. So I am 24 of 24, wait time about 9 minutes. Get in and, the wait to check out is three times longer than the outside wait time. I look at their HD DVD collection inside (no need to worry about someone cutting in front of me, cuz I'm last), its pretty decent, but I already have all the movies, the Blu-ray Disc collection was about the same, but I digress... Get to the counter, Wii, wii remote, Zelda total $370.57 (wtf happened to cheaper "New-Gen").
Drama ensues, first I have yet to get my IL ID, check out lady, "We don't accept out of state id's"... Eric: "It's a Chicago account with our Chicago address and Chicago phone number"
Check out lady (looks around to superior): "Do we accept out-of-state id's?"
Superior: "That's fine"
Eric: "So, are we good?"
Check out lady: "Go ahead"

Wii and accessories in bag, drama ensues part deux, check only has my wife's name on it, Colorado id does not have my full name (which no one ever believes is real any way...part of my last name is Ice- no vanilla ice songs please:rolleyes:), COL and Superior, go/no-go, no-go...

Long story even longer...my Wii is on hold until I go back...I have until 12 to pick it up...and now I come to find out that who I was getting this one for...doesn't even want it anymore :mad:

So, for anyone in Chicago, who knows where the target on 87th and Cottage Grove, there is ONE remaining unit...i'm done for the day. I'm going to play Viva Pinata and brighten my day.

All things being equal though, total time spent driving and standing in line, and arguing was less than an hour if that.
 
I tried playing the demo at the Gamestop in the mall yesterday. Some fat slob had been manhandling the Wii-mote all day and wasn't letting anyone else try.
 
I tried playing the demo at the Gamestop in the mall yesterday. Some fat slob had been manhandling the Wii-mote all day and wasn't letting anyone else try.

:LOL:

BTW, nice and interesting experiences everyone. BTW, do you guys think some of them will end up at Ebay etc.
 
:LOL:

BTW, nice and interesting experiences everyone. BTW, do you guys think some of them will end up at Ebay etc.
Just do a search on Ebay.com, there are many Wiis getting moved right now. 500$ seems to be the minimum price you can expect. Some are going out for 700 dollars or more. Rapacious bundles seem to be in good health as well.
 
I played ExciteTruck at a Gamestop kiosk.

First immediate impression (being used to xbox360 games in hi-def) was that the graphics were terrible.

Arcade racers aren't really my thing anyway. Controlling the truck with the remote was fun for a couple minutes, but the controls felt pretty loose. I can't imagine playing a precision, skill-based game (like Project 8 for instance) with the wiimote.

Of course, this is a just quick impression. But it convinced me of a wait-and-see approach to the wii. I'm waiting for a game that really grabs me.
 
I have a couple friends who got Wii at midnight at EB Games. We stayed up until 4 AM playing. Impressions:

- Overall system: It took longer than it should (IMO) to actually start playing. It took about 15 minutes to set the system up, download two different software updates, and actually get into a game.

The Mii feature is awesome. We created Mii versions of all of us. Apparrently they can wander to other friends' Wii over WiiConnect24. They all appear in a big crowd, and you can arrange them by a number of criteria, pick them up with the Wiimote and find out all their info, etc. Another awesome thing is that you can actually save several Miis on the Wiimote and take them to whatever system you want!

The photo editing option is really cool! My friend put her SD card from her camera in and we had a blast. You can mess with photos and then post them on the message board, so any of your online friends can see. You can make puzzles out of photos and videos, which are surprisingly fun. You can also view your videos backwards, which makes for a good laugh.

- Wii Sports: Shallow but fun. Boxing stinkss (there's seemingly no connection between your hand movements and what the characters do), but it is hilarious to watch, especially since your Mii characters appear in all the Wii sports games. We laughed our asses off seeing my 5'3" female Asian friend punch the crap out of my 6'2" Black friend. Baseball is pretty boring too, because all you have to do is swing at the right time. The best part was waving the bat around and watching the Mii mimick your movements. Tennis is a lot of fun because you actually have to aim, and the on-screen characters do a great job of mimicking your hand movements. Bowling was the best out of the ones I've tried. It surprisingly feels a lot like real bowling because you have to put spin on the ball by twisting your hand the right way.

- Monkey Ball: Unfortunately we didn't play much of this. The single player mode is decent but pretty touchy. It takes a while to get used to. I'm hoping to dig into the 50 minigames today :)

- Red Steel: Feels better than playing an FPS with a control pad, but still nowhere near as good as mouse + keyboard. 2 player deathmatch reminded me a lot of Goldeneye but with better controls. If you still think Goldeneye is fun, give it a shot. I hear single player kind of stinks, though.

- Zelda: TP: Well, what can I say? We played this game for about 45 minutes and we didn't even get a sword yet. All we did was herd goats and try to catch this cat for the shopowner lady so she would sell us stuff. I'm sure it gets better but man, why do we have to do this dumb crap first?

OVERALL
I can't wait to get back to the Wii today and play some more! I sincerely recommend that anybody who gets a Wii should make sure to experience it with friends first. It was such a fun time discovering all the features and seeing everybody learn and explore the controls. Now I just have to track one down for myself. . .
 
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Two Wii demo stations turned up at the office on Thursday - hopefully they will be set up in the cafeteria by Monday.
 
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