There and back again
No, not Bilbo Baggins, just me -- I haven't posted in a while because all last week I was at E3 in Los Angeles, and just too damn busy or tired for most of the week to post to Tikkabik while I was doing other things.
The show was great -- I got to see the public reactions to the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii first-hand. I think it's safe to say that the Wii is going to be a monster hit -- lines to get in Nintendo's booth to see it regularly lasted three hours or more.
Three hours. Let's put that into context. Many of the people standing in that line had paid hundreds of dollars for their passes. The show lasts three days. One of the days it's open nine hours, two days it's open for seven. Many people are only able to take a single day off from work.
Regardless, they were willing to wait three hours (or longer) just play with the Wii for a few minutes -- that ought to tell anyone all they need to know.
The Wii controller is simple and intuitive and, most of all, fun to use, and the games look great too, even if they lack the same visual pizzazz so evident by the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.
L.A. was positively gloomy for most of the week. Most days stayed gray and overcast except for some afternoon sunshine, with temperatures in the 60s -- uncharacteristic for this show the past couple of years. Then again, when I got home to Boston on Saturday afternoon at about 4PM, it was in the 40s and downpouring torrential rains.
Sunday was my cousin Michael's wedding to his fiancee Kathy. Luckily for us, a sitter was available and the event was pretty closeby, at a beachside resort on the lower Cape. As I told Michael before the ceremony, rain on the wedding day is good luck for a new couple -- and given that it rained all last week and is expected to for much of this week, as well, they ought to have fantastic luck. They're taking their honeymoon in Tahiti. Tahiti sounds great right now.