When I started this whole "Wiihunt" thing, it seemed like it would be kinda fun. Show up at Fred Meyer's every Tuesday and Friday early, start looking for the elusive nunchuk peripherals, that sort of thing. What has happened is a long slow slide into frustration and not a little apathy as three weeks have passed with little success. I'm not exactly sure what is going on, but my sense is that there are significant production issues that have finally caught up to Nintendo and they've decided just to ship them all at once rather than in dribs and drabs.
As such, I'm going to make one final Freddy's trip next Tuesday, and after that I'm going to simply wait until the supply channels are such that stores actually *stock* the damned things instead of the current trickle-down model. Very frustrating when there are piles of PS3 boxes all over the place. Of course, there are really only four or five decent games for the Wii at present, so that makes it a bit easier to call off the hunt.
It's easy for me to do this, as I finally gave in and purchased a PS2 and Guitar Hero 2 the other day. I've been kind of waiting for the PS2 prices to drop, but since that's not happening I decided to just go get one. Imagine my surprise at my having to travel to *six* different stores before I could find a controller/game bundle for GH. For those of you who know me well, you can imagine what my blood pressure was doing.
One of the advantages of buying a retiring system is that you get the games for pretty cheap, and you have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight as to which ones are worth buying. As such, I've purchased seven games besides GH2, including the original God of War (which is freakin' awesome) for less than $120. This should keep me occupied for a little while, so not so much desire to get a Wii at this point.
I also made what could have been a titanic mistake - I bought World of Warcraft as well. I've put off doing this for some time, mostly because I know that I've got an addictive personality and this is just like putting a can of gasoline and a lighter in my hands. However, I learned that my daughter, who lives in Vegas, is really into the game, and I'm looking at this as a great excuse for me to have more contact with her. I plan to spend a couple of weeks getting so that I know the system. I didn't get the Burning Crusade expansion (although I expect that's not a terrible idea at this point), I just want to learn the very basic part of the game first and see if I can manage my time effectively.
Imagine my surprise when the initial installation and update procedure took two.... full.... hours..... The updates alone were half of that, and on a broadband connection. I ended up with about an hour of play for the afternoon. Even the account registration was painful - I must have put in the access code eight times, and every time I missed something (usually some vague character in the security portion of the screen) I had to start over. At one point I got as far as clicking the last button and was informed that I'd taken too long. Fuck you, Blizzard. I shouldn't have to take more than five minutes for registration, and this process was filled with learning that case mattered, that I needed a numeric in my password (which I hate), and you tell me that I've "taken too long?" Fuck you.
Now I'll give you oodles of money for the next year. F*cking pushers.
Sorry for so much profanity, but sometimes it's cathartic.
Anyway, the game seems pretty cool so far, although mostly I just look for a particular variety of critter, kill a bunch of them, then go get a pair of gloves. Or nice boots. It's a lot like shopping, which is why I suspect my daughter likes it so much. I'm not a level whore, so I really don't care if I get to level eighty bazillion, so I'm hoping that this is the crack-like quality that so many people forsake work, family, and lives for. At worst, I've blown $20 and some time.
As such, one more Wii Hunt update next week, then I suspect I will give up and concede the game to Nintendo. F*cking pushers.
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