Nintendo improving the worlds fitness and doing a good job

Nintendo hit a fantastic new market when they released the Wii last year, and now they have added a great new gadget to their line up - the Wii balance board, and the WiiFit game. 

WiiFit uses the new balance board to provide an interactive way to exercise, and I gotta say it does a bloody good job of it. The game will track your weight, let you set goals, and then provide practical advice on how to reach your fitness goals.

The game provides yoga exercises, muscle workouts, aerobic exercises and balance games. Each activity in the game will give you feedback on how you are doing, based on your your distribution of weight across the balance board. Things like holding a yoga pose will let you know how you are doing by tracking your centre of gravity to make sure it stays centred. Or when you are doing rowing squats it will make sure your centre of gravity moves far enough back on each one to ensure you are doing it right. It's like having your own personal trainer of sorts.

Personally I think this is fantastic. It is helping me get my 30 minutes a day of exercise and I enjoy doing it. I usually get in a few minutes of yoga to warm up and stretch, do a few muscle workouts, an aerobic exercise or two and then finish up with some of the fun balance games. This one has breathed some new life into my seldom used Wii, and I think it will help me to keep turning it on at least a few times a week. Top stuff Nintendo.

Dear humanity, we regret being alien bastards ...

... we regret coming to earth, and we most definitely regret the corps just blew up our raggedy-ass fleet! No matter how often I hear that line, it still brings a smile to my face, and its a moment I just got to relive in a slightly different fashion. If your a big Halo fan like myself (and also a sucker, like myself) then you may have picked yourself up a copy of Halo 2 for Windows Vista, despite owning a copy of Halo 2 for your Xbox. I (finally) now have my piece of crap PC running the game with all the visual settings dialled down, which although it is disappointing, the game still looks respectable (not as nice as the Xbox version, and not as nice as if I had a decent PC as this release had some beefed up graphics, although I can't comment on how it looks).

Rather than talk about how great Halo 2 is though, I thought I would talk about the "Games for Windows" integration in the game. Games for Windows is the desktop extension of Xbox Live. You sign in using the same gamer tag, you still have achievements and gamer score, and you share a unified friends list - pretty cool huh? It definitely starts to bridge the gap between PC and console games, and users who have traditionally stuck to consoles because they fear that using a PC will cause their heads to explode while they try to work it out, may find themselves a lot more comfortable with this set up. To add to the console like set up, the game also supports a nice MS feature called "Tray and Play". This means you can put the DVD into your PC and start playing immediately, no waiting for the game to install. What it will actually do is install the files while you are playing from the disc. Sounds like a nice touch, but given how crap my PC is I waited for the full install before playing the game, so I can't comment on how well it works (or doesn't). Also I don't think this is a mandatory thing for all Games for Windows games, it just happens to be included with this one.

If you have an Xbox controller that you can connect to your PC (either a corded one, or you are using the wireless receiver), then you will feel more at home, with the Xbox Guide button still working as you would expect it to, brining up the PC version of the guide where you access all the same stuff you would expect to see. I can even send messages to and from people on Xbox's which I thought was kinda cool.

My only gripes with all this is that no matter how hard MS (or anyone for that matter) works, they are really pushing the envelope to make PC gaming get to be as streamlined as console gaming (and no I'm not looking to start the PC vs console argument, I know there are pros and cons both ways). For example, when you sign in to Live you get the 'this game needs a patch' message, and it downloads but then throws you out of the game as it runs through a normal setup program. Also, you have to be connected to Live to earn achievements. For those without an Internet connection (they exist somewhere, I'm sure of it) this sucks. Having said that, these really are minor problems I have, and if I had only ever seen Live on a Windows PC then I would be happy enough with how they work.

All in all, the Games for Windows platform is looking pretty solid, and offers a nice cross over for console gaming fans who are looking to use their PCs for something other than email and Facebook. If you see a game that carries the Games for Windows branding, you can be sure that it will have all this, so keep it in mind when you purchase your PC games.

Gears of War 2 Gameplay Trailer

This one got announced a week or two ago, but I thought I would share my thoughts on it - Gears of War 2. Epic revealed the title officially with this gameplay footage.

So, straight up let me say this - wow. I mean really, wow. If you can get a higher resolution copy of this video, then do it (its on the Xbox Live Marketplace) because the visuals here are stunning. Straight off the bat this shows us some cool things that have been added to the game - my favourite is using a dead enemy as a human (if you can call the locust that) shield. Next the chainsaw duel thing looks to be a nice add in (although I can see my controller being wrecked by insane button bashing!).

Also I have heard there are some big improvements to the multiplayer this time round - and yes, for those of you who hated that when someone was cutting another player up with the chainsaw they were invincible, you will be pleased to know this has been 'addressed' :-)

The story line looks to be solid, following on from where the original GoW leaves off. Basically humanity is even more screwed than they were in the first game, so they do what any species does when it is backed into a corner - it fights its way out. This time we are taking the fight to the locust and I can't wait.

Keep an eye out for this one later this year folks, its gonna be a ripper and a must have for fans of action games.

Settling in to Liberty City

Lately I have been spending a lot of time with my most recent game purchase, GTA 4. Before I got any further, if you do not own this game yet, seriously consider going out and grabbing a copy because this is easily one of the best games out there.

I'm progressing through the game at an alright pace (with the little time I have for gaming lately anyway) and I really am enjoying it. The open ended style game play lets you pick and choose what you feel like doing at the time. For example today I might want to do some missions, tomorrow I'll go and steal some cars, then I could go and socialise with others in the game (which will usually unlock more missions), or even just go for a cruise around the city (which will usually end up with me stealing a fast car and then seeing how many cops I can piss off in the process). The game really does leave you feeling in control of where you want to take it next. I know that previous GTA games have been like this, but GTA 4 take this to a whole new level.

But the thing I like most about this game so far is the attention to detail, lots of little things that show that Rockstar really have put a lot of thought into this game. Like you can put new ringtones and wallpaper on to your phone, which also takes pictures that you can share. Your cars will get dirty after a while, so you can take them to a car wash to get cleaned (always a good idea to have a clean car before you go on a date). Most cars on the street are now locked, so Niko will break into them and hotwire them before he can tear off into the sunset with the new ride. Its just lots of these types of little things that I really find make this game "great". It just feels very polished and finished.

So far the only things that have bugged me are the motorbikes (anyone who has done a mission where you are chasing down someone on a bike trying to shoot them will feel my pain here), they really are hard to ride. And when you drive some of the cars you will feel that there has been a lot of thought go into the way they handle, the bikes though didn't get the same love in my opinion. Also a pet hate of mine is that fact that to sprint we are still button bashing the 'A' button. Why on earth are we doing this when we have a controller with a pretty precise control stick - if you push the stick a little you walk, push it all the way to run. Still these are only minor dents in what is a nearly flawless game.

I'll continue to make posts about cool stuff I find in the game as I progress, but really GTA4 is one of those games that just had me at hello.

Blog re-launch: I'm back!

A while back I let my gaming blog die off, and then when I started my new job replaced it with my SharePoint blog (http://pointstoshare.spaces.live.com for anyone interested). But after a few months of no gaming blog, I found myself with a bit of an empty space to fill - so I've decided, why not do both! So here it is, my new gaming blog. Here I hope to share news on gaming (in particular stuff related to the Xbox 360) as well as some of my opinions and experiences. So stay tuned kiddies, more to come very soon!