Wii-bles Wobble, But They Don't Fall Down

Weeks without posts are starting to become routine around here, but let me assure you, I'm not exactly happy about the current state of affairs. Last week I was still halfheartedly absorbing the E3 coverage, and the only game I'd played all week was the latest alpha of OpenArena, which is in such an alpha state that it didn't really deserve it's own post. Anyway, more on that later.

As I'm sure most folks are aware, Nintendo's Wii had a good time at E3 - enough so that people aren't talking exclusively about the name anymore, but not enough to stop people from dubbing the controller the "Wiimote". I've got to say, over the past week my opinion of the system has shifted from something I was merely keeping an eye on, to something I'm genuinely interested in. If the price point is as low as some people are speculating, I'm even more interested. There's just the one problem, something I was discussing with a friend the other day - I'm not a kid anymore.

When I'm gaming, my primary reason for doing do is to relax. My days of jumping around like someone being stung by bees on the mat that came with the NES Track and Field game are, how do you say, over. I really can't see myself standing ready for battle, sweat on my brow, swinging the controller, shouting "Hyah!", or "Take that!" with each thrust of my pseudo-sword. It's something my neighbors could probably do without as well, especially since I do most of my gaming at night. I suppose we'll see. If the same results can be achieved in a more relaxed fashion, I'll really be inclined to take a look at the system.

I mentioned OpenArena at the top of the post, or rather, I mentioned it's un-postworthy-ness. I suppose, coming from the Linux world, I'm used to the possibility of things labeled alpha being usable. OpenArena is not one of these pieces of software yet. It has a lofty goal for sure - to (as the name implies) implement a completely free (as in freedom) version of Quake 3: Arena. Hey, I'm all for that. But, for now, there's just not a whole lot there. I'm in no way writing the game off, and I'll revisit it again for sure, but there's just not much you can do with the game in it's current state.

Well, that's about all I've got prepared for this week. I've been planning on doing a "special feature" of sorts for the past few months, but it keeps getting sidetracked. Seeing as the loyal people still reading after all the missed posts deserve something special, I'm going to try to pull it together for next week. See, AYE is pretty much a "Oh crap, it's Thursday, what the hell am I going to write about?" thing most of the time, and this is going to take a bit more time than that. Anyway, if it's not up next week, it is on the way, so stay tuned.