The Gray Gamers

According to The Journal of Communications females rule in role playing games. From Scientific American:

Scientists conducted a survey of some 7,000 players who were logged on to a game called EverQuest II. And they discovered some interesting things. First off, the average age of the gamers surveyed was 31. And that playing time tended to increase with age. Which is also where the sex differences come in. The female gamers actually logged more time online: an average of 29 hours a week, versus 25 for the males, with the top players putting in 57 hours a week on the girl’s side, and 51 for the guys. What’s more, it looks like women are more likely to lie about how much they really play. The researchers found that the gals tended to lowball how long they spend glued to the screen.

You are looking at what is probably the most expensive Wii ever. There are three in the world, one is owned by Queen Elizabeth II.

From Plugged In:

It’s the Nintendo Wii Supreme. It took six months to make, and is built from over 5.5 pounds of 22-carat gold. Its front buttons are inlaid with 78 0.25-carat flawless, conflict-free diamonds, making almost 20 carats in total. It’s the work of Liverpool, England craftsman Stuart Hughes, and it costs — are you sitting down? — 299,995.00 pounds, or just about $484,000.

I just want a black one.

2010 may be the year of the best Wii games ever. Click on the pictures to see what the author is saying.

Microsoft is challenging the PC download platform Steam with a PC game download site of it’s own through Windows Live.

Speaking of Steam, they’ve started their holiday game sale early.
And there are some great deals in the casual game section

Putting games in front of users has resulted in a billion dollar industry of consumers buying ‘virtual goods’ for their games. The explosion took off on Facebook, where gamers don’t have to go to dedicated game sites, the games come to them. PC World

Most of us are on limited budgets, right? So instead of grand best of end of year lists, here is my favorites list from 2009. Jan get’s to pick her favorites, and so do you.

PC Games

Favorite 2009: Pop Cap Zuma Deluxe. I don’t have just one reason.

Runner up:
This surprises me, not my preferred genre.
I really like this time management game.

I ‘really like’ means that I play often and play through more than once. This game cheers me up and I’d get the sequel in a squeek.
Airport Mania.

Wii

Favorite 2009: Wii Sports Resort.

Runner Up: Wii Sports Resort.

I think Ravin Rabbit’s: Go Home would be my favorite, since the first three in the series get me babbling in joy and collapsing in laughter, but I don’t have it yet. It can wait until I get my own Wii. A black one.

If I can get Jan out of surfing around the web for game sales, I’ll ask her to weigh in on her favorites.
And if Mike pokes his head in, I’d like to know what his favs for 2009 were.

“Life, like all other games, becomes fun when one realizes that it’s just a game.”  — Nerijus Stasiulis

“It’s all fun and games, until someone looses an eye…than it’s fun and games you can’t see anymore.” — James Hetfield

I’m not sure who that first guy is (since he’s almost impossible to track down via Google™), but, as the lead singer of Metallica, our man James is well-known enough to, well… know what he’s talking about.

There’s nothing worse then loving to do something with a passion, but having to do it blindly, with no instruction, direction or explanation – basically “fun and games you can’t see!” Well, this is my first entry into what I plan will be a regular bi-weekly forum of reviews, opinions, and “hokum” relating to gaming, as interests the Gray Gamer in all of us. The tile of my column is a play on words, as I, myself, am in a wheelchair (I live with multiple sclerosis). And just so we’re clear, I won’t go on quoting statistics about how many of us Gamers live with illness or disability. No, what I will do is provide information that is relevant to Gamers of ALL styles and breeds, who have in common only the true love of gaming!

Whether you are a newbie or a hardcore gamer, I hope to “open your eyes” to all that gaming has to offer you. So – sit back, relax, grab a snack, and tape up your “Nintendo Thumbs” ’cause…

Here we go!

And as we say in game lingo:

PLAY AGAIN <Y/N?>

… is this the Gamer’s “Chair of the future” ?

Sales of game consoles have flattened,   the Wii is the top selling console and was released in 2006, but it appears to have peaked.

Sony dropped the price of it’s top of the line Playstation down to 300 dollars/US this year and the XBox went down to 300/US.

As of June Nintendo sold 52.6 million Wii’s,  XBox was second at 31 million.

As consumers gear up for year end purchases,  Nintendo has cut the price of a Wii by 50 bucks, bring the price to 200/US.

Business Week

The price won’t be dropping in Australia, retailers plan to add some software bundles to Wii purchases.

Black Wii remotes and Nunchuks will be available for the fall/winter season; given sales have flattened, and the black accessories are out in North America, I wonder if the black Wii (only available in Asia) may hit our market sooner or later.
I want a black Wii, and have been holding off. White is easier to dust, but black matches my decor.

Zuma is  one of my most played games ever.

Pop Cap wasn’t going to release sequels, but Zuma fans can rejoice. Zuma is Pop Cap’s second biggest seller and it’s sequel time.

Zuma’s Revenge features the all it’s high firing froggy colour with high resolution graphics, cool 3nd particle effects, new power ups and modes.

Release date is September 15th, in stores or by download.

I have to get the disk. This isn’t going to be optional.
If you haven’t tried the 2003 hit yet, give Zuma a try, you can download for full screen free play time or try it in your browers.

Ribbit.

This anticipated sequel to Wii Sports is going to make Nintendo a lot of money.
Having to purchase the Wii motion plus so others can play along is going to make Nintento even more money. 
This sequel to Wii Sports has been worth the wait, and will sell on word of mouth alone.

Jan and I parked ourselves at the game store yesterday waiting for it to open and had some lovely chats with people asking us what the heck we were waiting for. We dashed back to my place and seven hours later we stopped playing, happily tired. Well, okay, happily overtired and looking forward to tackling it again.

Even that first day play time was worth the price. Seriously, coming from a penny pincher, that’s saying something. 
I know we are going to have many more Wii Sports Resorts play days and we can’t wait to share it with friends.
Jan has already got a play date with the neighbours.

Jan likes to ignore instructions and get straight to game play.
Just like Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort gives you that opportunity, and game play has been significantly expanded for those of you tired of your Wii Sports.

Wii Sports Resort is a compilation of mini games with some surprising additions.
For me the star of the game is the the resort Wuhu Island. The graphics are lush, there are great little details catching your attention, like the outfits your Mii’s wear. I noticed others details like the grass in golf, the divots and leaves when I whacked the ball into the trees and realized it’s going to take playing several times before the upgraded graphics don’t distract me.

Make no mistake, having your Mii’s family on the island cheering you on is a big plus for Grandma Jan.
We’d be playing and she’d start laughing, “Oh look, there’s so and so!”

Miis vacationing with you in the game brings the warmth of Wii Sports to us world weary gray gamers.  That is a Nintendo feature which can’t be underestimated for the gray gamer crowd.

I’m going to do a review, because writing a game site for casual and gray gamers can be discouraging. While we read about the game industry acknowledging we gray and casual gamers do our share of pay and play, game sites written by pros can be snarly and technically picky to the point of numbness. Interestingly, Wii Sports Resort isn’t getting the snark I expect to see from the boys club.

Wii Motion Plus: While the instructions for hooking up the Motion plus are quite detailed, it’s really easy and nothing to be intimidated about.
It’s like tupperware; snap in, snap out. The Wii Motion Plus sleeve gives you a good grip on on your remote, which I really needed when I started swinging my sword.
Snapping that little sucker onto your remote, where you snap in your nunchuk  gives you the player a ratio of 1:1 real time precision. You can read up on technical aspects, let me just say it works. It responds precisely to your movements. Jan noticed that most in golf. One Motion Plus comes with the game, we had to wait over a month to get our hands on another one. You don’t have to snap it off for games that don’t read the Plus btw; and putting on the nunchuk is the same as your original remote.  To recalibrate it, the screen asks you to lay it on a flat surface. Takes a few seconds and you are back to incredibly precise play.

Airsports
The game opens with you in a plane getting ready to parachute down to the resort. On the way down you can do formations with your Mii’s. Cute opening. Anticipatory.
The Island flyover:  Interesting because it gives you an idea of the future potential of this series.
Dogfight: Holding your remote like a paper airplane you take to the sky to fly to shoot your opponents balloons attached to the back of the planes. You swoop down to the island to gather new balloons.  I would have liked to try it more, gives you an opportunity to find out where all the venues are at the resort.  Truth is it was the most boring game, but with several new games added one has to be the worst. This was it.

Bowling:
The standard game is fun again.
The graphics are better (I keep saying that but it’s absolutely true) and you get to take the Wii Sports training game of knocking down 100 pins in a 10 frame game against opponents. 
I found 100 pin  to be quite the sensory satisfying game, I cranked up the sound,  listening to all those pins go down was a blast.
Replay is a bit faster so you are less likely to skip it, and I quickly learned from my mistakes.  The Motion Plus took a bit of adapting too, you have to release the ball  just the same as you do at the bowling lane.
You get two choices on how to release the ball, which evens things out for new and experienced players.

Just to ratchet bowling up a notch there is an opponent obstacle game called spin control.  This is where I found the slightest movement important. Jan won of course, she’s a mean bowler. The obstacles were a fun surprise.

Table Tennis aka Ping Pong

No tennis at this resort, since it was so popular in Wii Sports the spin offs are out and selling as separate games.
 If you’ve played Wii Play and tried the table tennis,  completely forget what you learned.
This is a whole new game with your Mii. I lost a game to Jan because I got gawking around. The table is outside and my kid sisters Mii was standing watching with a drink in her hand.  Since that is probably what she’d do in real life I got laughing and missed returns.
There are two games, match and return match. I would have played this for hours, Again I think it is the Motion Plus that makes the play more intense. I’m not a big table tennis fan, the movement sensitivity is delightful.

Basketball 

I didn’t think I’d like this but I did. The time 3 point contest was intuitive, all you have to do is use the b button to pick up the ball.  Gives you time to concentrate on your shots. The pick up game is surprising, I didn’t expect the gameplay. Let me put it this way. Jan’s a thief. Her ball stealing skills are as irritating as all get out. You get to play as opposed to concentrate on what buttons you need to push.

Frisbee

Some of you may have gotten the dog frisbee as a promo. 
There are two frisbee games, but let me say I let out an ”oh cool!’ when we started Frisbee dog.
You get your own dog.  That shouldn’t have elicted an ‘oh cool!’ but it did because if you’ve played games rushed to the Wii console with no thought to detail and what makes the Wii fun, it was cool to get my own dog.
The dogs aren’t Mario Brothers cartoonish and they have as much fun as you do.
Frisbee golf. What can I say. Jan is the game golfer so we spent a lot of time playing this and I got sucked in. I think it’s the same course as Wii Sports, but it’s the graphics details again that got me gazing around and that have bumped play up a level. Jan can babble about it, I had fun trying. I had only heard of disc golf a few years ago, you don’t have to be a golfer to like this. I found it pleasant and relaxing.

Golf
This builds on the Wii Sports golf, like the bowling does, and Jan got all excited because there are nine new holes to play. But she was also disappointed because there were only nine new ones to play. Having said that, she says the game play is a lot more precise, and muttered something about slice. I phoned earlier today to ask her about it, I thought I’d better ask while I can. 
She’ll disappear for a few days working on her Wii Resort golf game while she has the opportunity.

Archery
I was an archery instructor as a camp counsellor and I enjoyed this. You have to use your nunchuk to draw back on your bow and the feel and sound is a lot more realistic than I would have anticipated. There are three levels of difficulty and I enjoyed the personal challenge. I can see how people who play high end fantasy games on more expensive consoles might find it boring, but I certainly didn’t.

Sword Play
This  game lived up to it’s hype, and let’s not pretend that this was a feature of the Wii Motion Plus that Nintendo didn’t hype.  This has been a key part of Nintendo’s advertising. 
Again, for us world weary types that don’t want to play with even fake blood, having the guy from Wii Fit boxing tossing melons and sushi and bread and bamboo at you is hilarious in Speed Slice. You can’t just hack, as soon as what has been tossed lands, an arrow shows you which way to slice.  As quick as you and your opponent can move, you snooze or lose. Duel. You and your opponent are on a platform over water.  One misplaced thrust or parry and your Mii tumbles off the platform into a  laugh out loud fall into the ocean complete with a graphically satisfying splash. I cranked the sound up on this one too. Loved the feel of the remote also. Showdown pits you against numerous opponents, however I can’t say much about it because I didn’t get to explore it, I did the bridge dash. It reminded me of sword play and the game of war when I was a kid. Again, random hacking at guest Miis coming at you doesn’t cut it, your movements have to be deliberate.  Really cool. I can’t wait to get back at it.

Cycling
If I have to pick a favorite, hands down this was it. You use the nunchuk and remote to pedal. There are two modes; road race and vs. Over exert yourself in a race and you get dehydrated, turning blue or red. There are three hearts at the top of your screen that give you an idea of how hard you are working.  Too much and you lose a heart and have to start slowing down and coast. The races take you all over the resort, you are peddling different altitudes and again I got gawking around. There is a bicycle built for two race which requires you to work with your partner.  The environments were terrific, you cycle on everything from sand and grass to cobblestone.  There isn’t a lot of fussing with buttons,  there one to brake if you remember too, the rest is up to you. Strategy matters. 

The Water Sports

There is room for future development potential here. You get introduced to water sports through canoeing, jet skiing and wake boarding.  The jet skiing course brings up rings similar to the smoke rings you have to dive through in another Wii game called Playground. The wake boarding is fun, reminds me of a few courses in Wii Ski.  You get points by moving precisely through a timed run.
The canoeing is harder, I had a tendency to over-paddle. And I admit it, I got gawking around again.

Like Wii Sports, this offering is a winner because it is people friendly.
If you try something, you get a stamp, which is great when you are playing with the kids.
Oh, yeah, okay, I like earning a reward and unlocking levels too.
Some of these games are cathartic, some work up a sweat, some are relaxing;  walk away from reading this remembering  the operative and definitive word for Wii Sports Resort is… fun.

 The potential for this island, this relaxed interactive and intuitive play is huge. 
I really liked the ease of the menu, you get single play and up to four player play in different venues.
The graphics are quite an improvement.
I like that someone who has never tried a Wii could jump right in, and there is enough of a challenge for experienced players.
This play has appeal to the family from my 5 year old nephew to Jan. In the first two weeks of release in Japan, over 1/2 million were sold. (Wii Sports - 46 million world wide)

It’s going to be huge for the gray gamer crowd here in North America.
 I wasn’t expecting anything to top the value I’ve gotten out of Wii Sports.
Wii Sports Resort has. 
And Nintendo has put in a few more surprises, if you can crack the code.
It’s great to wait for something and be pleasantly surprised, isn’t it?

Jan’s review:  Huh. Long overdue and well loved, back to you later.

Awesome bang for your buck.
59.99/Cdn for the game and one Wii Motion Plus
24.99/Cdn for each additional Wii Motion Plus