I’ve always hated sports computer games. I thought it’s just a sponsorship
laden cash cow for EA not bringing any enjoyment whatsoever. Sore thumbs. But
then I went over to Ursimon’s place
and checked out the new toy
from the land of the rising sun. Man I was hooked.

Unfortunately the first game you have to play is the ‘Do you have a Wii in
stock?’ one. Not that enjoyable. But once that miracle happens, it’s all
exciting.

The console feels like it has been created for sports games. Games like
bowling are really only enjoyable with friends, but golf is quite fun every
time you have a minute. Especially as it allows to play short three hole courses
(I only wish there were 50 of them). I don’t think I’d play target golf with a
classic controller longer than 10 seconds. I can’t get enough of it with the
wiimote. It’s fun the first time you clumsily swing the wiimote and it’s fun
once you master what the sensors want to feel .

Lot of the reviews say the least natural game is Wii boxing. I have to admit
at the beginning it really felt disconnected from what I did and what happened
on the screen. Yet once you figure out how the game wants you to move, it’s
nicely following your commands. And the best thing is what it does to you the
next morning At least it’s bruise-free (unless you have very easily excited
friends).

Some people have been playing wii sports for quite a while and claim it’s an
effective workout. I have been getting less and less workout lately and
nothing has been more fun burning callories than boxing air . I really wish I
could select the opponent Mii (a virtual person). I have some list
lined up in my mind.

If you fear the wii is a gimmick, rest assured it isn’t. Some games feel
more natural than others, but overall it works. If you play computer games,
this is completely different. You will have fun controlling rather than
watching visual extravaganza on the screen. The controller isn’t quite as good
for an FPS I have to admit (picked up Call of Duty 3 and don’t like it as much
as bowling, I hope that explains a lot… , but for things like bashing
monsters with a bat or plaing baseball it’s a marvel!

After reading the above, I have to note that I don’t work for or own any
stake at Nintendo It’s just an awesome toy.

Cornelius mentioned this awesome
patch on #tango today. Worth sharing and enjoying.

Demo

Matt Ebb has recently commited a patch to allow Blender to support icon themes. You can guess what I’ve been up to.

To install the icon set, click on the above thumbnail and save the PNG to
~/.blender/icons. You can then select it in the user settings under
Themes>UI and Buttons>Icon File. You will need a very recent
blender build.

For those who don’t like saturated colors for their icon set, there is an
excellent alternative made by Jendrzych.

Update: Action shot for Steven:

I couldn’t find a better example of how bad can branding in
icon design turn out. Yuck

Bumped into another interesting electronic artist, Chris Leary aka Ochre. I’d characterize him as a more
digestable Aphex Twin. Great beats, pleasant synths.

Ochre Music

• Buy A Midsummer Nice Dream , (Toytronic, paypal, no DRM mp3, 79MB download)
• Buy Lemodie, (Bleep, paypal, no DRM mp3, 132M download, registration required)