Rocking through Easter

So, Courtney and I headed down to Arkansas for the Easter weekend, both to see my family and to attend my nephew's baptism. While we were there, we stayed with my brother, who has a wii and a playstation 3. After a Friday night of playing Guitar Hero, he headed to Sam's on Saturday and bought Rock Band. I learned two things over the weekend: 1) this game is incredibly fun, and 2) I am incredibly talented.

For the uninitiated, Rock Band is an extension of the performance games such as Guitar Hero or Karaoke Revolution, where in a person plays on a play guitar or sings into a microphone and is measured on hitting notes or playing combinations. Rock Band takes it one step further and has a guitar, a microphone and a drum set in one game, and all three are played in concert to complete a popular song.

With the entire family there, it was great fun. Trulie singing, Andrea on guitar, Kin on drums; fantastic. I didn't know many of the songs (I am not much of a music person), but I still had a great time. It seems like the game sort of transcends the normal limitations of video games, and so reaches a much larger audience (much like the wii console). It makes me think that maybe we should buy the game, just for parties and such.

Even if we don't, I'll remember singing Black Hole Sun. I think everyone will remember. Even the neighbors. (If you can't sing well, sing loud.)

Ian and Whitney

Courtney and I had a nice little time in Arkansas, even if it was a little short. We flew in on Saturday morning and headed straight up to Fort Smith to meet Ian McLellan, my new nephew. He is pretty short still, but has some weight on him. We were only able to stay until Monday afternoon, when we had to fly back up here to DC.

However, while we were down, we were introduced to something other than Ian, and that is Karaoke Revolution. Wow. It seems like every time Courtney and I visit Michael's we come home wanting another video game. I had no idea, but it turns out that I am quite a good singer. It took me a bit to get started (I was booed off the stage for my first attempt), but after I got the hang of it I was basically the best singer in the room. It is fair to say that when I sang "I will always love you," in the style of Whitney Houston, there were quite a few tears from my audience (including Courtney, Michael and Melissa).

A good time was had by all. Definitely.

Microsoft Arrogance

I am no hardcore gamer. Not at all. I play the occasional video games on my Mac, but mostly things like SimCity, not Halo. However, when Courtney and I were in Arkansas over Christmas we played the Wii at Michael's house, and thought it was fantastic. It made me want to buy a console, which I have never thought before (not since 1988, at least).

That is why I was a little offended by a comment by a Microsoft Xbox product manager in a New York Times article covering the new Xbox model:

“We don’t feel like the Wii customer and the Xbox customer are the same thing,” he said. “We think that as soon as the Wii customer turns 14 they want something else.”

Hmm...I am 27, and I like the Wii. Courtney liked the Wii. I feel like Microsoft has just insulted my intelligence a little (or a lot). I know they want to push their consoles, but if they aren't frightened of the Wii, then why insult its users?