Wii, PS3 & Nightwatch

The rumours on the internet seem to suggest that the release date for the Wii is imminent. This is likely to coincide with the speech that Nintendo are due to give at Leipzig on the 23 August. I’m just praying that there is no delay and that the European release is set for sometime before Christmas 2006. Ideally I’d prefer for it to launch before November 7, for 2 very good reasons. 1: My birthday is November the 7 and 2: This would give it a head start over the PS3 which is due to be release on November 17.

I also hope that Nintendo reveal the final details about the Wii shortly such as:

- The release games
- Further details about the virtual console
- A better idea of how wiiconnect24 will operate
- The console price (£150.00 seems like a reasonable amount to me)
- Game pricing (hopefully to undercut PS3 and Xbox360 pricing)
- The final specs of the machine and also the Wiimote
- Any further surprises about the Wii that they have yet to announce.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned before, but I’ve decided not to get a PS3 for launch. This is of course dependant on the Wii being release pre-Christmas 2006, otherwise I’d likely get a PS3. My reasoning for this decision being:

- They’re damn expensive… I’m on a budget you know!
- No release games look that spectacular. There are a few games coming to the PS3 that I do want, but these will be coming out at a much later date (2007 possibly)
- I’d likely mainly use it to play PS2 games at the moment (upscaled to HD maybe, but still a little pointless)
- There are so many damn good looking Wii games coming out around the launch date that I’d have very little time to have a look at the PS3 (Metroid and Zelda alone will take up a huge chunk of my time)
- Most next-generation console launches (with the exception on Nintendo consoles) are plagued with teething problems. Just look at all the complaints and bugs that were reported on the internet on the launch of the Xbox360! It was very much the same story when the PS2 was launched. As such, it’s actually beneficial to wait a bit until these manufacturing bugs are ironed out.
- Although I’m very interested in HD movies, I’m not convinced that Bluray will win against HD-DVD in the new format war. As such, I’m interested to see how this pans out before I start purchasing HD movies

Films watched:
Nightwatch

Why is it that some of the best films these days are Foreign language films? Is this an indication that the Hollywood machine is running out of steam? Anyway…

This is a Russian film which was release a couple of years ago and has just recently made its way onto DVD (it’s sequel Daywatch, the second in the trilogy, has already been release in Russian). This film can be best described as Highlander meets Blade, with a dash of The Matrix for flavour.

It’s basically the story of a race of superhumans called “others” who live alongside humans, yet hidden. These “others” choose to be either dark (evil) or light (good), although it is not so black and white as this, with the dark others being reminiscent to vampires. There is a truce between the light and dark which is policed by both sides, the Nightwatch and the Daywatch and the story starts when this truce is broken.

Visually this film is generally stunning with only a few moments which reveal its lower budget restrictions. The epic nature of the film and its style cannot be faulted, my only real problem is that you can tell that this is only part of a greater story and as such, many characters and aspects of the film are not explained or explored as much as I would have liked. Then again, that just makes me look forward to the sequel more!

7.5/10

Only a few more days now until Snakes on a Plane