So after I made that post about the Wii, I was looking through the site statistics and found this:

Domain Name: microsoft.com ? (Commercial)
IP Address: 131.107.0.# (Microsoft Corp)
ISP: Microsoft Corp
Location:
Continent: North America
Country : United States (Facts)
State : Washington
City : Redmond
Lat/Long : 47.6706, -122.0685 (Map)

Referring URL: http://blogsearch.go…n plus&sa=N&start=20
Search Engine: blogsearch.google.com
Search Words: wii motion plus

So it seems that somebody at Microsoft is keeping up on the competition and using a Google service to do it, interesting.

Also, shortly after I wrote that post, Nintendo announced release dates for Wii Motion Plus and Wii Sports Resort. Wii Motion Plus will be out on June 8 and Wii Sports Resort (presumably with a Wii Motion Plus pack-in) will be out on July 24. The early release date for Wii Motion Plus is so that it will be available for use with 3rd party titles like the EA sports game I talked about.

[Joe]

I went in for my six month check up today. As you might remember, the last time I was in I had lost a bunch of weight and was told to lose even more because my cholesterol had not improved. This time I found out that I had lost only two pounds, which while disappointing, didn’t surprise me since I haven’t really been working at my diet. When the Doctor came in, he asked me a few questions, and brushed away pretty much all of mine. After that, he seemed about to end the appointment when I realized that we hadn’t even talked about my cholesterol. So I asked him about it, since last time he talked about putting me on meds if dieting wasn’t enough. He didn’t even know what I was talking about, and had to look it up on his laptop. The good news is that now my cholesterol has improved.

Total: 216 -> 188
HDL: 34 -> 40
LDL: 114 -> 114
Triglycerides: 216 -> 169

He couldn’t explain it, but also didn’t seem to care and told me I didn’t have to come back for a year.

[Joe]

(points to whoever can name the song and band)

In spite of the fact that I picked up several games for the Wii around Christmas, I haven’t really used the console since I finished RE4 earlier this year. This is mostly due to the fact that there haven’t been many games that paid off on the promise of the system. That may change this year, though, when we’ll hopefully get Wii Motion Plus, an add-on for the Wii remote that will give it greater sensitivity and Wii Sports Resort.

Admittedly it’s probably a mistake to get too excited about the possibilities until I get a chance to try it out myself, but I’ve started hearing good things about it already. EA, who is working on Grand Slam Tennis and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, both of which use the accessory, has said that they have actually had to tone down the sensitivity. The fact that I am even interested in tennis and golf games should be some indication of the potential I think Wii Motion Plus has. Here’s a couple videos of the games:

The Wii has had several good games that haven’t relied too heavily on the motion controls including Super Mario Galaxy, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Mario Kart. For the first two, we might actually see some information about sequels at E3 in June. We’ll almost definitely see some information about Pikmin 3 and there’s an outside chance we’ll see something about whatever Retro Studios has been working on.

At GDC this year, Nintendo announced an update to the Wii operating system that now allows you to use SDHC cards with the system. Currently, I have a 4GB card in my console. It’s probably overkill, but I was running low with just the 512 MB system storage given the WiiWare and Virtual Console games I’ve downloaded. A few of the WiiWare games I’m looking forward to are Swords and Soldiers, Night Game and just maybe Explodemon. Also coming out for the system is Cave Story (a fantastic game, by the way), but you can get that for free, online. Videos follow:

I know this sounds a bit like a commercial, but I needed to do something to cleanse myself after the last post.

[Joe]

I’m not a big fan of Facebook, but the Top 5 app that’s become popular lately has generated some interesting decisions and conversations. I find it much easier to decide 5 things that have influenced me or some such rather than an actual 5 best things of a given category. Still, I put a lot of thought into it and came up with my top 5 favorite songs of all time and thought it was too big of a post to put on Facebook, so here it is:

5. Hard Habit – Chicago
With such truthful and meaningful lyrics the only reason this song ranks as low as it does it because of the high caliber of the top 4.

4. Baby What a Big Surprise – Chicago
“Right before my very eyes” ‘nugh said.

3. Stay the Night – Chicago
Heh, well I can’t tell you why this one is special…

2. Saturday in the Park – Chicago
Whenever I’m feeling down, I throw this song on and all my cares disappear. “I think it was the fourth of July…”

1. If You Leave Me Now – Chicago
Every time I here the “woohoohoo”, I get such a strong tingle down my leg that I have to check if my pants are wet.

[Joe]