Haiden Ly Lawrence Babin

Here is the first video of my little one, he is only 4 days old here.

Pictures are here.

Comments (144) | Permalink | Lee Babin | 11.27.2006

Wii Launch

So, Sunday marked the launch of the Wii. Saturday night I was fretting and stressing because I really, really wanted one but have a child on the way (like, any day now) and so wasn't sure if an extra purchase was really a good idea at the time. Me and the wife were driving home from the Zoo where we were walking around to try and get labor started (walking supposedly helps). We discussed the purchase and figured that it was going to be affordable. Naturally, I began to get excited. I didn't have one on pre-order so where would I get one? How many were coming to North America? Did I even have a chance to get one?

With these questions in mind, I began my search. Future Shop and Best Buy near me were getting quite a few but would no doubt be filled with campers. How about Wal-Mart then? I live in a pretty small town, what are the chances that all of the Wiis would sell out? I went in to the Wal-Mart and was told they were getting 24 of them. Sounds good, but the guy didn't really seem to know anything about the Wii launch (which I found hard to believe). To double check matters, I called the store to get some answers. After being put on hold for almost 20 minutes, I finally got through to someone. Interestingly enough, the person there told me that if enough people showed up Saturday evening to camp out, the manager would come out and give everyone a ticket when the store closed and only those with a ticket could get the Wii the next day. That meant that if I camped out, I wouldn't have to stay out in the cold past 11pm or so. Sweet.

Me and the wife didn't really think there would be 24 people lined up for a Wii. But as I sat there, I began to get more and more uneasy. The time was 7:30pm and, while I didn't think there would be that many campers, did I really want to risk it? So it was that I packed up a chair, put on a warm winter jacket, saddled up my DS Lite (armed with FF3) and was off to Wal-Mart.

When I arrived there, I noticed 3 lawn chairs perched outside the entrance, but no one in them. I was slighly confused but figured I better get my chair out there anyway, just in case. The second my chair hit the line-up, at least 6 people poured out of nearby parked cars and the line-up was now official. I was told by the people that they had been there for a little while but were waiting for anyone to line up. Obviously they were not happy to have had to leave their nice warm cars because of me, but within a few minutes we were all happy I came.

The line filled up pretty fast. By 8:30'ish, the line had easily grown to 15 or 16 and more people continued to come. The people I ended up sitting next to turned out to be great people and I quite enjoyed our conversations. I was surrounded by several gamers and a few parents but every last one of them was buying the system to PLAY which I am quite sure is a different story than the PS3 lines. In any case, we live in Canada so the weather quickly turned extremely cold so were all getting pretty antsy for the manager to come out.

And come out he did. At around 9:00'ish, he came out and informed us that he would be coming out as soon as everyone in the store left and he finished his managerial "duties". He said that 10:30'ish would be the earliest. As we were all freezing, we hoped he would finish early.

He did not. As we continued to wait (and freeze, seriously, the wind kicked up and we were pretty hurting), more and more people joined us. The line grew to at least 30 by 10:30 and everyone stayed despite our knowledge of only 24 systems. Wal-Mart customers walked by and questioned us. Teenagers drove by and heckled us. Wal-Mart employees came by and laughed at us. Despite it all, our little group remained in very good spirits and, despite the cold, everyone chatted happily amongst each other.

At 10:45'ish, the manager finally came out. He made good on his promise too. He immediately began handing out tickets, their matching stubs to be taped to the Wiis inside. He informed us that only those with tickets could get a Wii and we were welcome to come at any time the next day to pick them up. I went home and had a blazing hot shower to help get rid of my chill (my legs were practically numb).

Despite the manager's assurances that we could come at any time the next day, I wanted to play it safe. Plus I wanted Zelda, and we were not allowed to get a ticket for that. So it was that I showed up an hour before the early opening (7am) the next morning to find an entirely different line-up formed! By different I mean that not a single person who had a ticket was in line yet. I walked up and began chatting with the new line. I told them about the ticket thing and that the manager had said no one else would be getting one (I felt terrible doing this, by the way). No one really seemed to believe me and several of the people in line told me that the Wal-Mart manager had specifically told them that it would be first come, first serve Sunday morning. I wasn't completely sure what was going on but I was safe since I was about 10th in line in this new line and I had a ticket. I was set either way.

I would say there were about 15 people in line before the next ticket holder showed up (around 7:30). At least another 20 people without tickets and the vast majority of ticket holders quickly showed up. All said and told, the line-up was looking pretty huge. At about 7:50, a Wal-Mart manager came out and told the people in line that only those with tickets were getting one. As you can imagine, this excited some very pissed off people. Some of the folks there had been waiting since 5am, and they had been specifically told by Wal-Mart employees that it was first come, first serve. They yelled and screamed at the Wal-Mart manager and finally over powered her. She finally relented by saying that if anyone with a ticket didn't show up, the other people could have their console. I feel really bad for anyone who did have a ticket and listened to the previous night's manager who had said we could come at any time.

The interesting point however, was that most people who didn't have tickets had left which left me in about the number 3 spot in line, and the two people in front of me did not have a ticket. When the doors finally opened, people looked frantic. Since I was in front, I walked directly in the middle of the aisle and, being a bigger guy, managed to make it so that if someone wanted to get by me, they would have had to shove me. Thankfully, no one did and therefore no one could run (causing a riot no doubt) and so we walked briskly to the electronics section at the back of the store.

When we got there, we found a pile of Wiis with the matching stub to our tickets taped to them. Rather than give us the first Wii on the top of the pile, they were to match up the Wii with the ticket holder. I thought it was a good (if slow) idea as it would ensure everyone that had a ticket got their Wii. People without tickets did not like this idea. Since the two people in front of me did not have tickets and the lady handing out the Wiis said that she was only to give them to ticket holders (poor, poor employee communication), they quickly got into an argument filled with some pretty brutal profanities (poor kids around me). Taking advantage of the situation, I quickly handed my ticket to the helper employee who was looking up Wiis. He found mine quickly and handed it to me, making me the first to grab one. Again, amidst the confusion, I quickly slapped the Wii down on the counter, grabbed a copy of Zelda and an extra wiimote (that was sitting on the counter) and whipped my bank card through the reader as fast as possible. Then, while everyone crowded and pushed against the pile of Wiis, I slipped through the line and made my escape. I only stopped once to look back at the madness and then immediately made a bee-line for the door.

In retrospect, I had a fun time with the whole launch thing. This was the first console launch I have waited in line for and the experience was pretty fun for me. I got to meet a whole bunch of truly nice people, got myself a console with the game I wanted, and avoided any unnecessary complications. Sure, I had to wait in line but, all things considered, I was the luckiest guy there. I will, however, make note that Wal-Mart employees really need to a) setup a policy and enforce it, and b) grow a back-bone, no matter how hard that may be. A lot of anger could have been avoided if they had just stuck to their guns.

So how is the Wii? Well, I will leave that for another post (this thing is crazy long already), but needless to say it is everything I could have hoped for and more. Anyone else have any cool Wii launch day experiences? Leave a comment!

Comments (37) | Permalink | Lee Babin | 11.20.2006

Final Fantasy III Initial Impressions

While the majority of gamers on this side of the planet are just recovering from all manners of bruising, freezing and sleep withdrawl after an attempt to secure themselves a PS3, I am sitting at home enjoying a much more comfortable experience; I am playing through Final Fantasy III on the DS. That's right, the last link in the Final Fantasy chain has finally come to North America and, trust me, it was worth the wait.

To say that FF3 is a DS killer app (like it needed another one) is a bit of an understatement. Every time I load this baby up, I am amazed at what Square Enix has accomplished. Full motion video, nicely rendered (for the DS) 3-D graphics, beautiful (I cannot emphasize this enough) music and a fantastic adventure with plenty for everyone. FF3 is everything you could want in a portable Final Fantasy and more.

While I am only 4 or 5 hours into it, I am truly enjoying it. The gameplay is classic Final Fantasy with turn based battles abounding. After playing through FF12, the return to the series norm gives off a lot of nostalgic appeal and works very well on the small screen (s). The catch to this Final Fantasy is the introduction to its much lauded job system. From what I have seen so far, however, it seems to be a lot more minimalistic and doesn't encourage building up each job so much as it seems to push you towards really specializing in only a few jobs per character. I have yet to really see the depths involved however, so perhaps my inevitable review will say more.

The story whizzes by at the speed of light. While most Final Fantasy stories are slow, well defined and take a while to get going, FF3 moves you from location to location, plot to plot, character to character at break neck speeds (at least so far). I was floored at how quickly I was flying airships and sailing across the seas which, in most Final Fantasy games, takes a considerable amount of time to move along to. FF3 sets you in motion from the second you turn on the power button. The advantage to this is, of course, that playing in small chunks (something ideally suited to a portable system) is much easier to do and feels very natural.

Overall, I find myself very happy with FF3 so far. It reeks of insanely high production values and is just what I was looking for on my new DS Lite. I will have more details once I have played through the entire quest, but my early reaction is that it is good, very good and should take up residence in my DS for a long time to come.

Comments (1) | Permalink | Lee Babin | 11.17.2006

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