We didn't go to Newcastle at the weekend. Decided that getting up at 5am to drive and then catch a train was actually a silly idea. I don't know why it took so long to realise something so obvious. Will try to do it again soon, possibly the next bank holiday weekend.
Instead I bought a Nintendo Wii, which has been on the cards for a while but seeing an advert on the big screen before Spiderman 3 seemed to do the trick. God knows why that was the final push, but it seems I'm a slave to advertising just like everyone else. However, so far the console is as disappointing as the movie was. Not just the silly sand monster and the black ooze from outer space, the story was all over the place and it was way too long. Considering how good the sequel was, and how cool the dark suit story looked from the trailer and could have been, it was a real let down.
The Wii situation wasn't helped by the fact the traded-in copy of Madden I got didn't load. It's gone back and I've re-ordered it from HMV thanks to a combination of Quidco and discount coupons from McDonalds. But I was very much up for doing the whole pretending-to-actually-throw-the ball using the Wii stick thing but I had to make do with some Wario thing instead.
I just didn't get it. You watch some cartoon graphics for a while then it says to do something, you wave the stick at the screen and if you waved it in the right place (which happened about half the time) you did whatever it asked you to do, even before you worked out what the thing was. I think I must be too old now, but I couldn't really see where the game was.
The whole stick waving shenanigans is hit and miss. Whilst Wii Sports is great fun and I love that it makes a swooshing noise when you swipe your tennis racket, and other such novelties, anything that needs you to point at the screen was decidedly dodgy. I tried the sensor bar in various positions and each was dodgy in its own separate way.
I'll have to give another game a try before I decide if it was a complete waste of money and I should have got an Xbox 360 instead (at least then I could play Rainbow Six Vegas with high definition computer-generated neon in my living room).
The Wii isn't the only reason I have a sore elbow though today. Believe it or not, Claire and I also started to play squash regularly. We don't know the rules and use extra-bouncy balls (noobs' balls are bright blue, so the guys in the court next door know we're crap when it goes flying over the dividing wall) but hey, it's excercise - and that in itself is impressive.
