Flaight

I do want the cloth map. So, provided that it's coming to the UK as well, should I not pre-order TP and wait for a week or so till it comes out?

What method do you use to connect Wii to PC Monitors (VGA)? Particularly to LCD commonly available? Any bit of useless/useful info on this will be appreciated. Currently info on this is scattered. In the UK, Wii outputs to SCART, Component and Composite (Will S-video be available?). During GameCube era, VGA box was good even to go from Composite to PC Monitor. What VGA box has been your choice, or what one would you use for Wii?? If I could go from Component/SCART to VGA, that would be good. For GameCube I used various VGA boxes to convert composite. The worst case scenario would be to connect Wii to PC Monitor through a VGA box that you used to connect GameCube.

Im still torn between this and Call of Duty 3. I'm not expecting anything big from either. I'm well aware a lot of this is still experimental. but anybody know which does FPS controls better? All that said I reckon we won't find out what system works the best for a long time. Do you guys still remember the first time you played FPS on a PC with mouse + keyboard? I used to think it was the worst system and took ages to get used to it. For me it was pre-Quake, some futuristic game that came in a cover disk for DOS. I hadn't seen anyone play this setup. I was like, WTF I can't enjoy a game like this. But now it's the standard in FPS. Console gamepads don't come close. I could sware back then that Doom/Wolfenstein controls were better and mouse + keyboard would never take off because it was so fiddly. Many people around me agreed. Then Quake came out. How wrong were we?

I read a statement that said all was sold in 7 minutes. That's 420 seconds... wow. Don't know how many though.

Yeah I suspected as much; of course I didn't think they would actually deliver wii in November! What I was getting at is that there seems to be absolutely no notion of thinking how they are to deal with Wii preorders. They didn't even have a list at my local store. Staff didn't even know what Wii is. In other words, when you place a preorder at some highstreet Argos, you don't really know what you're getting yourself into. It could even be delivered next year. That wouldn't exactly instill courage in me to try placing a preorder there. But I read someone write earlier that the helpline for online preorder at their site confirmed the launch day delivery.... which is nice. So best go do it online and not at the stores.

I wasn't criticising on any of those points you "defended" though. I was just saying, blindly taking preorders when they knew nothing about the circumstance surrounding the release of the console seems bizarre and irreponsible. Particularly at £30. For all practical purposes, there could be a situation where HMV customers would get wii nearer to christmas (or even after) while others pick one up from a smaller outlet on highstreet. HMV's approach further exacerbates what is already a messy pre-launch. But, HMV isn't alone in it, as I said. Actually, that brings me to the next question - does HMV refund the deposit when you cancel the preorder? If so, this may not be as big an issue.

Yeah thats a good point actually. I guess it's the people who want to put it under their christmas trees. It's just that I was so surprised when Argos store offered to deliver Wii on the 23rd of November (yes, November) if I placed an order and made full payment on 20th. Putting aside the whole christmas thing, you've got to admit THAT is weird. It's almost as if their central database is clueless about what Wii actually is. That's why I was saying something about it seems dodgy. Their website seems to be doing alright. So that's cool. As for woolworths website, they are guaranteeing a wii on the launch week so I suspect that's another loose one - for "under the christmas tree" people.

I think I can understand the frustration. Nintendo tightly controlling the supply is one thing, HMV blindly taking preorders at £30 is something else. The likes of Amazon and GAME are managing this much better in a way that is more considerate to their customers. My local GAME store turned away my friend the other day saying GAME couldn't guarantee him a unit. I don't think HMV is alone in it though, and wii alone will not make HMV a bad store either because it has other positives, but nontheless darth's criticism of HMV is perfectly understandable and rational (OTT the phraseology may be). There is a possible scenario that those who shop at a highstreet on the 8th get Wii before those who pre-ordered at a dodgy outlet.

Something about ToysRUs and Argos worry me. I don't think they are as maticulously organized as the likes of Amazon and GAME (at least on this Wii launch). Argos highstreet stores are currently offering to deliver Wii "in 2-3 days". You also have to pay the full amount when you make the order.

Nooo I mean in the UK. I'd be damned if I was stuck with wii sports for the weekend lol

I haven't ordered any games for any of the preorders I've placed. Games won't run out though will they? I mean like, I could just run to a local store on the 8th and 9th and pick up any launch game...?

In all honesty I think less obvious shops will have a few lying around on the 8th anyway. Pre order at a wrong place and you'd be forced to wait when you could've gotten one from your highstreet on the launch day.

Somehow I had to launch IE to get the preorder button as it wasn't refreshing in firefox. Anyway. now I'll be getting 3 unites of Wii. How incredibly pointless.

It says on my end: "We are currently unable to offer this item. It may be out of stock at the manufacturer. If you would like to purchase this item, we recommend that you occasionally check this page to see if it has become available."

I dont know at what point "an order" becomes a garantee. I think you secure your item when you go through the payment page, which can be filled out in advance by setting up credit card info. So yes if you set up an account and enter credit card info in advance, you can speed up the process.

Well... yeah britain is the home of practical jokes, so...

lol I think they're having us on

Same here. 2nd backup, too. It'd be funny if this whole thing turned out to be a practical joke lol

Out of curiosity - and following various Argos related posts here - I visited one Argos branch to see what happens when I try to preorder Wii (I already have it secured elsewhere). It was weird to say the least. First, I typed in the item code (as you do) at the catalogue: 568 3257. The little Argos digipad displayed "Only available for delivery". So, I went to a cash till for delivery order. The woman at the counter (who didn't know what 'Wii' was) asked me my address etc. Then she asked on what date I want it delivered. She replied: November 23rd, 24th, 27th, 28th etc... December 1st, 20th. And I was like, WTF. I looked at her screen and sure enough, all those dates were there on the system, ready to be chosen. The woman was clueless. She got someone senior over and she was clueless as well. There certainly wasn't a pre-order list at the store. I don't know about you, but that gave me no confidence in Argos system. Argos system is centralized for the UK and it is not aware of the state of Wii. It's almost as if Argos Headquarters didn't know what it is and just added it to the catalogue and set it up like a new kettle hitting the market. The lack of attention towards Argos by Wii buyers mean that they may not bump into a problem, but I have the feeling they don't have a system setup to detect over-reserving preorders. Their main system seemed as clueless as the women working there. And I fear that Argos online shop is also hooked up to the same system. Incidentally, Woolworths online store is guaranteeing a Wii in the launch week. Now, that is more exact and reassuring... I think there is meant to be 1. It's out in Japan. Maybe you could get component cable and get a component -> S-Video adapter....

I loved the 1st one on PC. I want this one, but I can't play everything at once. I'm a bit torn between this and the likes of CoD3 for my FPS fix. Anyone seen a detailed review of this so far? EDIT: Correct me if I'm wrong - I think Reggie said something along the line of "Wii is not ONLY next gen, it's new gen". And I agree with him. I think the trajectory Wii is on is the only way forward to stop flogging the dead horse of the past 2 decades - not in microchip terms, but in gaming terms. :horse:

You serious about this post? It seems so counter-intuitive to what the industry has been gearing up to in this new generation. In fact on each point I thought the exact opposite. The contradiction is so vivid and consistent, it's bewildering. You sound like you are still suffering from the hangovers of the previous generation's stereotyping.

I've always wanted to talk about this and this seems to be ideal. As with any of my posts, if you find this intimidating or daunting I'd like you to skip it; as always please don't let this be a conversation stopper - this is a good thread. ===================================================== I have a love-and-hate relationship with reviews. A "review" can be a combination of factual observations and personal experiences. So, one is objective and the other is subjective. The problem seems to occur when (a) you have a narrow perspective in observation, or when (b) you attempt to quantify an emotion. Depending on your approach, any review can be correct. For example, I could review that Ronaldinho is a bad footballer because he isn't a good goalkeeper. I speak the truth, but only from a certain perspective. Gaming reviews are the same. This is particularly so when a company, such as Nintendo, comes up with a new direction. We can easily compare things when they use the same yardstick. It's harder when we need to compare 2 things when each requires a different yardstick. The easiest barometer is the statistics on technical specs. It's the least disputable of the lot. Nintendo games will likely always score very lowly in this area. Then comes the 'fun' aspect. This splits further into 'natural' fun and 'nurtured' fun. Nurtured fun is probably more common. This is when you learn to enjoy something. For example, some people might learn to enjoy studying languages. Or play chess. Or mobilize an army to defeat the enemy. Natural fun is instinctive; you don't have to be taught or conditioned by society. Many psychologists seem to believe that this is caused by fulfilling our instinctive curiosity towards unusual things which we have yet to get used to. 'Realism' became a big thing from around SNES. The development of 3D graphics reinforced the mainstream fascination towards realism, just because "it was possible". Enjoyment of realism falls into nurtured fun; your mind compares the gaming world to your own and gains satisfaction from achieving what-if scenarios without facing the real-life consequence. This is the origin of why realism fascinates our society, but this is a socially-conditioned 'fun'. Miyamoto/Nintendo's take on fun mostly falls into natural fun. The mainstream gaming tends to fall into nurtured fun. It's important that we remain perceptive to both types of fun and give just as much value to one as well as the other. Actually, perhaps a persuit of natural fun deserves more points because of its difficulty and risks. At any rate, both types of 'fun' are hard to gauge because of emotional factors. I feel that many reviewers jumble them all up. For me, the best reviews are the ones which tell me what perspective they are relying on to get to their conclusions; it's inevitable that a review will be just one perspective and I would rather they tell me what their yardstick is exactly. This is too seldom done for my liking. I suppose we are supposed to know it, but somehow that doesn't feel good enough for me. For so many years, a technical spec has been the yardstick. I hope Wii will change this tendency in this generation. A reviewer's lack of width in perception also leads to increasing or decreasing scores. I find that many reviews are single-dimensional in criticism and fail to aggressively measure their limitations.

Funny that isn't it. And the likes of GAME, which is supposedly one of the biggest distributers in UK, have already run out of 1st alotment and telling customers to hang on as they provide the best chance Amazon will probably be saying the same later this month.

No clue ShadowV7 but from what I've been hearing there seems to be an effort being made by various big retailors to fulfilll preorders by christmas, so surely there will be at least 1 restock between the 8th and 25th.

Wii remote and Miyamoto making games for it.