Review: Hot Fuzz

As Heather and Ben are off at the beach, I had a quiet day at home today. Last night, Matt came down and we grabbed some dinner (stuck to my WW point goals) and then we played Tennis & Golf on the Wii. The Wii definitely shines when paired with other people. It is fully a social game system.

Anywho, back to the review. As it has been a quiet day, I have spent my time, uhm ... sleeping :) In between waking up and napping, I watched Hot Fuzz. I wish I had seen this one at the theater like I had wanted, but life/work conspired against me. It's great, absolutely fun. Not the same movie as Shaun of the Dead, but there are a lot of similarities and you can catch occasional references. It's just a fun movie and Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Timothy Dalton (still my third favorite Bond) are all fun in their roles.

Simon Pegg's Nicholas Angel on the movie Point Break:

Well, I wouldn't argue that it wasn't a no holds barred, adrenaline fueled thrill ride. But, there is no way you can perpetrate that amount of carnage and mayhem and not incur a considerable amount of paperwork.

It's hard to pull out great quotes as much of the movie, like Shaun of the Dead is subtle, dark humor. I definitely recommend both. They can be a bit violent in places, but their great spoofs of their respective mixed up genres.

Just as an aside, I REALLY want the DVD library room shown in this flick :)

Initial Impressions of the Wii

My first few days were without internet access, so I didn't initially get to try that out (and once I did I discovered it isn't what I expected, but more on that later).

First off ... the hardware:

• Beautifully designed. My favorite of all the current consoles.
• The feel of the Wii Remote is good. It isn't too heavy, but is generally very comfortable.
• The Nunchuk controller is similar, but is rather more simplistic. Still, it feels natural to use.
• The range of the Sensor Bar to detect pointing directions from the Wii Remote is somewhat problematic for me right now. I can't find any position that allows me to stand or sit and play without moving the sensor bar, but I think this may be solvable.
• I really wish the console came with video cables better than plain old composite. Honestly, in this day and age, S-Video or more likely, Component really needs to come in box.
• Video generally looks good (given SD expectations), but I haven't tried hooking it up to my HDTV and likely won't until I get my hands on a Component cable.
• Seems I can save just about anything to good 'old SD flash. Nice change from other vendors.
  

Now for the software:

• I started with only Wii Sport. This game is a lot of fun, if not a bit repetitive. My favorite mini-games so far are Golf and Boxing.
• I rather quickly went out and picked up Wii Play bundled with a second Wii Remote. This game is a bargain bin collection at best. It isn't nearly as good as the Sport disc, but you only pay a $10 premium over a Wii Remote on its own, so the value isn't too bad. The Cow riding and fishing are fun. I have yet to get comfortable playing Billiards.
• I think games that demand physical action (sports, etc.) will work beautifully. I'm not sure the novelty won't fade on other titles, but we'll see.
  
• I rented SSX Blur and Elebits last night. Both seem fun, but I haven't really dug into them much yet.

More coming this week:

• Internet Connectivity
• Virtual Console
• More in-depth discussion on the listed game titles