Smiter

Voice acting, but with a silent hero. Link is already perfect, he looks cool in Twilight Princess and his expressions do a fine job of conveying his emotions. If Nintendo do go for voice acting, they MUST do subtitles! Half-Life 2 does them, as do other games (such as the stellar Beyond Good & Evil that someone mentioned). Personally, this is because I'm deaf. I can hear the voices but not see the "shape" of the words unless I'm lipreading. Having both voices and subtitles would be perfect - provide the right atmosphere and keep it easy to understand. Plus, if the voices are awful, we can just switch them off and read the subtitles. :P

Yeah, graphics do matter. But, at the same time, they don't need to be technically accomplished. It's the art style that matters the most; how well do the graphics compliment the game? For example, Wario Ware's graphics are laughable on a technical level. Graphics whores may scoff at the basic 2D/3D cartoons. But - to me - the graphics do just fine because they perfectly compliment Wario's manic style! As others have said, some people have dismissed Twilight Princess' graphics as "grotty" - but you'd have to be heartless to say the game didn't have a beautiful art style that brings Hyrule and its characters to life! Give me a game with great art direction (e.g. Zelda, Secret of Mana, Beyond Good and Evil) over any game that pushes 1 billion polys a second but has sterile Uncanny Valley people and Generic City 243B.

*cough*

While we're on the subject of hacks... http://wiihacks.blogspot.com/ Discovered that page by accident, bookmarked it. I don't plan to mess around with the innards of my Wii, but it's interesting to see what the homebrew coders are coming up with. They even have programs to let you transfer Miis to your PC and download them from websites, which is damn cool.

It's nice to know that Nintendo are still keeping up their excellent level of customer service. I've got the thinner straps, but I'm not worried about them. My family and I have been playing Wii for almost a week now, and we haven't even had any slippages - not even when we really get into it.

Netgear DG834PN wireless router. Works like a charm. Great range as well. I might try switching from WEP encryption to WPA on my day off, I'll post how Wii performs if I do that.

I introduced Wii to my sister and her boyfriend today. We had a blast. Made Miis. Played Bowling and Golf, then they played Baseball and Boxing by themselves. Mum was watching, I asked her if she wanted a go, she said she was just a little too tired (couldn't sleep well) but would be interested when she's had some rest. There were a lot of laughs, and the boyfriend made a short video on his mobile so he could brag to his brothers that he played on Wii. Wii is infectious. It's completely different from the other consoles - just its mere appearance makes people go "wow" and "ooh".

When I played Laser Hockey from Wii Play. The sound, rumble, and movement just felt so right.

I played it for the first time today, spent 1h 44m on it (good old Play Record). It took a few minutes for me to get used to the controls, but I found them quite smooth. I did take the time to reduce the speaker volume to 0 beforehand. I had the controls on "high sensitivity" and didn't find the turning speed slow. Liking the game so far, I'm glad I chose to gamble and buy it rather than rent it. The only control annoyance I've experienced is that if you try to reload your gun while standing on a different weapon, it'll pick up the weapon instead. The sword fights feel artificial when you try to attack (parrying and dodging are OK), but the gunplay is much better.

I saw plenty of Wii Plays in Woolworths in Torquay town centre. Bought two. :p I'll keep both Wiimotes and maybe I'll give the second Wii Play (and its stars) to a friend of mine.

I got Wii elbows from playing boxing, baseball and tennis. XD Hurling the cow in Rayman really can take it out of you when you go like the clappers but can't always get the release right.

No need to repeat your question. I don't think anyone knows when the next shipments will be arriving, Nintendo are going flat out but there is just so much demand. They are shipping them as quickly as they can make them. Just keep an eye out for news and make sure you sign up for e-mail alerts from any online shops you're interested in using. You could also ask shops to ring you when they get stock - just ask if you can preorder/reserve. Anyway, this morning the postman arrived freakishly early - 8:15am! I missed the parcel... it contained Zelda. Ah well, at least I have plenty to keep me busy until Monday.

:D:D (there is no single grin smiley big enough to match mine) Can't wait for those games! Hey, I'm not sure if it's just me or not, but did anyone else notice Mario 64 seems to be better than the old PAL cart? I couldn't really see the borders. I bought Mario 64 last night, just checked my VIP lounge but it doesn't show any new stars. I hope it's not too long before we can use our stars for points.

Wii GET! ... But Zelda is missing from my Gameplay parcel! It isn't on the receipt, despite Gameplay confirming they'd sent it to me in the same package... Ah well, I'm happy I have the console. I'll contact Gameplay and see what's up. EDIT: Ahh! For some reason, it's in a different parcel! Oh well, at least it's coming.

... I have a suspicion that they're playing our Wiis at the depot. :p Argh, I really need to get to the shops later for a few errands, I hope my parcel arrives before they shut.

My face is pressed against the my window, still waiting for that red Parcelforce van. ... The glass is damn cold. Congrats to everyone who got their Wii.

Not just that, but something like: OMFG!11! TODAY!!1!1!!

Woke up at 5:08am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep! I've been browsing Wii news and playing WoW, killing time while I wait for the parcel to arrive. I hope it arrives in the morning so I can have plenty of time to hit the shops. Chatted with Mum, she mentioned she saw Wii on the news this morning and they were having a playtest. She said it looked a lot of fun and very amusing. Can't wait to see if I can get her to play Wii Sports.

Thanks for the tip. E-mailed my friend so he has another chance at scoring a Wii (he had two preorders and both got screwed, poor guy).

Excellent news! Who says wishes never come true? I still remember when we had that thread months ago, wishing we could use Stars for VC points. I agree with Nintendork that there'll probably be an inequal exchange rate. We'll probably buy points in bundles (500, 1000, 2000...). Maybe 1,500 stars for 500? Can't wait to see what NOE come up with, hopefully there will be one or two nice additions to the stars catalogue as well, if the Club Nintendo icon is anything to go by. P.S: Happy Wii Day!

A small update; Nintendo are now investigating the strap breakages to see if there is anything they can do. http://theboard.zogdog.com/index.php?automodule=blog&blogid=11&showentry=6331 Maybe they'll decide to replace the string with something stronger in future Wiis and Wiimotes.

Thanks! Well, if that's the case, I might be desperate enough to get two Wii Plays if there are loads of them and no remotes. :p Unbelievable to think Wii is so close... Been fondling the Classic controllers and nunchucks I got from Play Asia. Nunchuck feels a little strange to hold, but the buttons, D-pads, and analog sticks feel so crisp...

Today is my final shift at work until the weekend off! Yeah, I'm playing Wii Sports first. Still waiting for Gameplay to dispatch the package, but it's shown as "being picked" and I haven't had the e-mail of doom so it should be OK... Only problem is finding a copy of Wii Play... wish me luck tomorrow. :p

Sorry, Dante - Shadow beat you to it several posts up.

Mine too! I was just a little nervous because my best friend had two preorders at other shops cancelled. Now I can relax. EDIT: RGB cable is still on preorder but I'm not worried about that - I just want the console!