So yesterday I finally got to try a Wii something different for a change. My brother-in-law has a Wii and had it at the in-laws over the weekend. So I finally saw one up close and got to put it through a little action. I started out as an observer and find that is always best... gather some Intel... you know what I mean here, right?

I watched my daughter play a few rounds of bowling and then it was my turn to give it a try. I said alright, but I'm not sure what to really do here. They told me what to click pretty much and with very little effort (rather lame) I threw a strike right off the bat. I lost the game in the end, but it was fun to try and play. My daughter loves it and is really good at it. If I get on a Wii bowling league, I want her on my team for sure.

My fave of the Wii Sports package is Boxing by far. I had a really great time with this game. My first fight I was awarded all three rounds and won in the end. I went on for another 5 fights after that and won all of those with KOs in the 2nd or 3rd rounds. My last fight was the first fight for me to experience a knock down, lucky for me I came back and finished him off.

Now this morning I'm sore like you would not believe. It wasn't until this evening that I really felt how sore I was. Amazing that moving from left to right and jabbing and punching for 6 fights, almost a total of 18 rounds, can get you that sore when your done.

Next to Boxing would be Bowling as a fave and then its a toss up between Golf and Baseball. I found out today that I can actually change my pitches in Baseball and that I should really take a few practice swings in golf before each stroke.

Tennis comes in last, but that is just me and I've had a harder time with it is all. I think with a little more practice I could get better with it and enjoy it more. In the end I'm impressed with what I've seen out of the Wii. Graphics are not near the Xbox 360, but its geared towards different gamers all together. Still a blast and really amazing as to what it can do and how much it reacts to your motions. For me this is hands down the best Boxing in a game I've played and really gets you into the game. All that is needed is a third party vendor to make a sensor that inflicts pain at every punch. That's a joke, please don't do that.

I'm looking forward to learning more about the Wii and could see getting one for the family at some point for sure. Wii fit will be high on the list and other games like this will be cool. I wonder if they have Wii Karate or something like that. All they need is some special shoes to place the other controller and nun chuck in right?

I'm also interested to see how well it can help in getting someone into shape. I sure hope after a few sessions of Boxing I'd begin to get use to it and not be as sore. If not, I'll need to look at Wii doctor or some Wii rehab I suppose.

Finally I got my hands on the full version of the game. Snagged it at Target during a Black Friday sale for $48. Just a little gift to myself. So where to begin, where to begin. The beta was a blast I should say and I played the three available maps like crazy. I almost topped out my ranking on the beta, so I learned the maps really well and I upgraded my weapons. I could hold my own in most cases.

Flash bang to the present!
The beta is so over and its all Live Now Soldiers. This game has been out for almost a month and people have been fraging like crazy on this game. We have 16 new multiplayer maps to run and get use to. Better yet I have 16 new maps to run and get use to, a lot of people have already done that. Funny how the match making works or lack of I guess. It's tough is all and will take time to level up and get use to the maps and get the weapon upgrades I need.

Picture yourself, dropped into a hot zone with only a sling shot. Sorry, I'll try not to be so negative here... a fully automatic slingshot... that better? Your a level one in a map you've never seen and you have the limited scope to use. Take a step and use your compass, watch for targets. Bang! Your dead, having fun now? Kill cam shows someone way across, who knows where, but what's that little red dot on me. Don't worry, you'll see plenty of that over the next 3 hours son.

Rule number one
He who has the red dot sight rocks and he who doesn't gets rocked! Little tip for someone starting out new here or well after the others have been playing for a month now, pick up weapons when you can on the map and drop that sling shot, you just might get lucky and snag someone's red dot sight and find you'll last a little longer. Other than that, play hard, play harder, hunker down, and hope you level up and complete the challenges to get your very own red dot sight. The one you get to keep.

It's a little harder to tell in the dark night photo to the left, but a hint of red is in the middle and well, every one's rocking with these. It's a cool thing and helps you get those kills. Just like the melee attack in Halo 3 is one of the deadliest attacks. What's a Halo 3? Never mind, back to CoD4... the point is, this on just about any weapon will improve your kills, hands down. I remember in the beta taking out people on Overgrown way off, just with the help of the little red dot. Funny how it looks on the screen, that dot has to be as big as a Stop sign or larger if you were to stand next to the poor guy about to get popped.

What about the campaign?
What about it! Ok, it's cool and I don't want to give anything away. It's a good story line and the only trouble I've had is with a couple commands. Use that little Yellow Circle on the compass. Get'er centered and haul to that area. Something needs to be done in that area. But I did have a couple issues, I needed to pick something up or hit something and wasn't sure just how or what I needed to do. I wish the AI would have took me over to what I needed and pointed at it.

Death From Above
Now for the cool part and a level I'll want to play over and over. Death From Above, puts you into the safety of an AC130. Here's a sample of the the view you get. Ever seen those military video files of them taking out a target. You get that cool thermal video and the target has no clue he's being watched. The last thing he remembers is the Big Bang and the lights going out. This looks fairly realistic and one of the coolest things I've seen, next to the dead solider I looked at, who had two noses, four eyes, and two mouths. Talk about freaky, I know war is a shock, but I didn't think it would make me see things. In the end, get this game, you'll love it, might hate a bit of it at first, but in time you'll love it still. Oh and I'm a level 6 or 7 right now, so come on out and give the others something to hit and that includes me.

That's right, I'm talking about Madden 07 for the Xbox 360 and I'm making the jump from the Nintendo Tecmo Super Bowl game... and were talking about a huge leap here for me. I loved that old game when I first saw it and played it like crazy, being the earliest game to actually get the rights to use the real NFL team names and players back in the day.

I remember seeing Madden in the early years on a Play Station and with some many buttons, I was lost and couldn't get use to the new style of game play and all the extra buttons and more plays then I new what to do with.

Many years have past and that brings me almost to the future now. I picked up Madden 07 with the goal of learning it and trying to get better. Sure they just released Madden 08, but when I could pick this title up for around $11 and was lucky to find the Prima guide for free, it was a win win for me in my book. I still have at least a year or so of online play left in it and I haven't spent that $60 to try an learn on the latest, only to find that I'm not good and don't like it.

Fact is I'm getting over my fear of the 3D look and feel and love what it has in store. I plan to play it a lot over the year and more an likely pass on Madden 08 all together. I downloaded the demo at least and haven't seen enough that makes me say, "You need to go buy that title now". If all goes well, I'll get better at 07 and can set my eyes on Madden 09, I mean its a given that will come out next year. From everything I've seen so far, Madden 07 has a ton of life still in it for me, after all I played Tecmo Superbowl for years after Bo Jackson was gone from the game and he was my go to guy, if only he could get into the Hall of Fame some day.

One of the coolest things about working with a great bunch of guys and who all have Xbox 360's is we get to share games with each other at times. Me not being a huge sports gamer, I'm taking advantage of that part, with one of my friends collections and learning about Tiger Woods PGA Tour® 07.

Who would have thought that the game of golf could be so much fun, perhaps its the fact I don't have to really lug clubs around and try to play this in real life, but what ever it is, this game is really well made and I'm enjoying learning to play it and learning more about golf in general.

A cool feature to this game is creating the virtual player and I've enjoyed making someone that looks similar to me for game play. The easy achievement points for doing that can't be all that bad too. I'll need to return this at some point, but I might have to keep my eyes open for a used copy of this. My next sports review will be Madden 07, a new game that I've recently added to my collection and at a steal.

Let's get this Party started, its time to get down, freak out, and get to step'n with the hottest Dance Game Craze for the Xbox 360. In my quest to bring the Xbox 360 home, the ladies in the house said I would need to get DDR Universe for them to play.

Last night I kept up my end of the bargain and we brought the game home. For someone that use to go clubbing fairly regularly, this couldn't be all that bad. I've seen people play this in arcades and its bound to be fun for the home and a party.

So we hook up the pad and fire up the game for the first time. The music starts pumping and colors begin to fly all over the screen. We go through a couple tutorial sessions and then head to some extended tutorials.

Huffing & puffing away, we slow things down to try harder at this game. We're having fun with this one, but I can tell you one thing. I use to club and I think I can do alright on the dance floor, but this game is a real challenge. Lucky for me, people at clubs don't dance like this game.

So the animated girl in a Sexy short pink dress and high heels is dancing on the screen and I'm doing my best to hit the required steps. Problem is this Vixen is wiggling and spinning around and I find myself distracted and missing the arrows. Unlike Guitar Hero II and my ability to glaze over the band in the background, this game requires a lot of precision moves and your undivided attention.

Still its a lot of fun to watch the whole family have fun & laugh along or at me, as we dance the night away. This will be a cool party game for sure, a real work out and a challenge. I wonder if I need to drink some and dance, that's one thing I would do back in the day at the clubs.

Viva Piñata recently received the Gold Award from the Parents Choice Award program. The Gold Awards are bestowed upon books, toys, games, videos, software, magazines, audio recordings, and television programs that are judged as of the highest quality, and are the most appealing products in their genre.

Viva Piñata is a leading title for the Xbox 360 platform and is geared for family game play and enjoyment. My daughters first started out watching the supporting TV Show and they totally love the show. I knew at that point that this would be a must buy title for my girls and would help encourage family gaming sessions.

So how about the game play for this exclusive Xbox 360 title? Well you start off with a very rough patch of land and have to work at building it up to a wonderful garden and attracting lots of Piñatas to live there. The cool thing is the game is fairly easy for a six year old to pick up and get use to the controls. They do have to read along with the game some, but its fairly easy for most six year old's to handle.

The real key to children gaming is allowing them to use the controls and building up the confidence in playing games. With this game they get all the rewards of seeing what they create in the garden. But I strongly recommend with young gamers that you sit down with them and be available to help them play along. Plus its exciting to see the smiles and how animated they get, when they create something in their little world. Games like this are also building the Next-Gen Gamer's of the world too, they'll grow up and start playing the older games.

Now you will find some topics that come up, that might require you to teach and explain some situations with your Piñatas. For example, one way to get more Piñatas is to have them Romance and lucky for me, she's not asking what romancing really is. You will have a few fights break out or bad Piñatas come in and need to be removed with a little shovel action. You will also find that some of your plants will die at times and some Piñatas will be eaten or get sick. The point is this is only a game and teaches them at the same time about things. But stress that its only a game and they need to have fun playing it. My daughter is having a blast and loves talking about the world she's created. It's a perfect family game and I hope to find more along the same lines as this game.