Went Out for a Wii Came Back With a 360?

I got an inside tip that the local Circuit City was getting a shipment of Wiis this morning. Unfortunately, waking up early on weekends isn't my forte. I got there at 10:15am, 15 minutes after opening and was greeted with a large Wii Temporarily Sold Out sign. I went in to survey the scene anyhow and found the Wii aisle looking like the canned good section of a supermarket before a hurricane. Games, controllers, wires.....gone.

What is a rabid, techie consumer to do? That's right buy something else equally or more expensive than the original planned purchase. As it turns out Microcenter is having an Xbox360 sale; premium console for $299. This is the cheapest they have been available, and I snatched one along with Gears of War. If you would have told me a week ago that I would be an owner of the 360 I would have told you that you were a crack monkey.

So the 360 is pretty large. It doesn't fit on my TV stand shelves. It's also a little loud. The fan goes on full speed immediately after powering on, not really a big concern when I'm blasting games. The power brick is colossal and that's not a word I throw around often. Otherwise, I'm pretty impressed with it. I like the xbox live setup where you have a single name and stats are available across all of your games. Initial setup was fast and easy.

Gears of War looks pretty sick. The graphics are really good but nothing terribly mindblowing. Game play is fun, but I'm more interested in the online play and haven't gotten that far yet.

So Nintendo and Sony, look what you have driven me to. I had no plans in hell to buy a 360 but your low numbers have driven me to your most feared competitor, who I really don't even like much.

That Seals the Zipper on My Wii Wii

I've been math debating about having two separate game systems. Up until now I've been a one console kind of guy. Do I really want to have to buy games for two consoles and have all the paraphernalia associated with it lying around my room? I am certainly buying a ps3 and certainly not buying the xbox360, but the Wii does intrigue me. Every other interactive controller gimmick I have had though has been a novelty, not a win. So I've been on the fence with the Wii, not sure whether it will break the mold or if it'll be fun for 10 minutes and then get stupid. Then I saw the video for Red Steel. Nintendo / Ubisoft advertising departments, give yourselves a pat on the ass. I'm sold.