Geekishness and Other Such Things

Monday, October 23, 2006

I don't really know how I'm going to pay for this fall. I mean, it's going to be really expensive. All told, I figure I've got to come up with around $1000 in order to get just the basics: a Wii, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, a memory card, and a PS3. OK, so I'm just planning to buy a PS3 so that I can sell it, thus making a huge profit I can use to buy all the other crap I want, but still. Getting $1000 dollars together and spending it all over the course of three days is a difficult and frightening proposition.

I kind of feel like a jerk for buying a PS3 for the sole purpose of selling it for a ridiculous sum on eBay, but you know what? I don't care. Not really, anyway. If I don't do it, then someone else will, and at least I know how to enjoy a good line-sitting session. Although this particular line is going to be overnight during mid-November in Wisconsin. It could be snowing for all I know. It sometimes does that. Snows.

Anyway, I'm poor, and being poor, it is in my best interest to seize any opportunity to turn a massive profit for minimal effort. Besides, if someone is actually willing to pay multiple thousands of dollars for a system that is launching with zero good games simply because they have been brainwashed by Sony into buying anything labled PlayStation (or in this case, PLAYSTATION), then they deserve to pay those multiple thousands of dollars. I'm certainly not going to stop them. Not in least. In fact, I'm going to enable them.

And that $1000 I mentioned earlier? That's only a bare minimum. That's me buying only what I absolutely need, that stuff without which I simply cannot survive. I'd love to be able to pick up some other Wii launch games, like ExciteTruck and Elebits, and I also need to get Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin at some point. And Yoshi's Island DS. And an Xbox 360. And some games for it. But that just ain't happening right now. Oh well.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

So, we got the new signs in for Wii and PLAYSTATION 3. God, is it obnoxious to have to write that in all caps, PLAYSTATION 3. Anyway, the signs that go above the game lockups arrived, and the shelves are all cleared out, ready to sit bare for the next month and a half in preparation of the launches. I am, of course, super pumped.

OK, so I'm actually only pretty pumped for the PS3. $500-600? I can't really afford that. And what incentive is Sony putting out there for me to get one? The vaporous promise of great games at some point the future? That's not really good enough for me. I don't think there's a single PS3 launch game that's got me all worked up. Assassin's Creed and Resident Evil 5 are the only games so far for the system that I'm really looking forward to, both of which will be appearing on the XBOX 360. No, I don't have a 360 yet, but I am honestly considering picking one up. I am at the very least more excited for it than the PS3. At least there are finally several decent games available, with Gears of War right around the corner.

Wii, however, is a different story entirely. I cannot wait for that thing to release. $250, Wii Sports packed in, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on launch day, Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption shortly after launch, Nintendo on track to keep the system stocked through the holidays -- what's not to love? Oh, and not to mention the COMPLETELY REVOLUTIONARY CONTROLLER. OK, so that one might not be fair for me to include as a positive thing, because I have not yet actually PLAYED with it for myself. I do, however, have a lot of hope for it being another DS-style success -- a completely different way to play games that feels both intuitive and fun.

I was, for whatever reason, playing Resident Evil Zero yesterday, I guess because I haven't played it since I beat it about three years ago. I started a new game and played through the train section three times. Why? Because I kept fricking dying. I don't know what was going on, but for some reason I was absolutely sucking yesterday. This would be frustrating in any game, but it was made all the worse by the fact that when, in RE, you die, you start at your last save point, which is usually pretty far from where you die. Sucks. Anyway, I'm gonna give it another shot tonight. I don't know why, but I've just got this RE craving lately.