Author Archives: Alex

About Alex

As you can probably tell from this blog, I'm really a kid at heart. My little girls teach me a lot about being an adult.

Faith Over Football?

I recently read an article on ESPN.com about the two coaches in the Super Bowl coming up next week. As Michael Smith says, they have been talked about a lot because they are the first black coaches in the Super Bowl. Tony Dungy, the coach of the Indianapolis Colts, and Lovie Smith, coach of the Chicago Bears, are much more than just that. They are men of character:

Dungy and Smith are role models, not just for coaches who look like them or men who look like them, but for all coaches and all men. They live their lives the right way, and as a result they do their jobs the same way. Their priorities are, in order: faith, their families and football. The outcome of the Super Bowl or any game does not define them. They personify words such as class, grace, dignity, honor and integrity. We all can draw inspiration from men such as these.

Being a role model is something that transcends the game. It’s great to hear about the accomplishments and character of these men off the field because it’s something so rarely seen in the spotlight: role models in athletics. Read the full article on ESPN.com to see what I mean.

Why I like the Wii

Since my last post way back in September, I managed to find a Nintendo Wii and my wife bought it for me for Christmas. Since we started playing it a few weeks ago, we both really enjoy it. Since we’ve wanted to play with lots of others, most of our playing has been in Wii Sports, but it has been a lot of fun.

Let me tell you why I like the Wii:

  • It hasn’t caused me to go broke
  • It’s fun for all kinds of people!
  • I can play video games with my 5-month-old daughter

And there you have it! Those are the top two reasons. I admit that there are tons of other gaming systems that are fun, but the Wii really has been fun for everyone I know who has played it. Even little baby Emmy loves being held while we play bowling, which is something I just can’t do while playing X-Box. When my sister and her family was in town last week we brought it to my parents’ house and even they played bowling. I took the Wii to our new apartment yesterday, and my mom already asked when we were bringing it back. Even my dad played with us, and the only other games I remember him playing are Super Mario Bros. over 15 years ago and Super Mario Kart on the SNES. It’s interesting to note that this lack of gaming experience hasn’t been a disadvantage at Wii Sports; I must admit that despite owning the system, I’ve been beaten by both of my parents at Wii Bowling. I’ve had fun playing the new Zelda game as well as Marvel: Ultimate Alliance on the Wii, so I’ll share my opinion of those games a little later.

Nintendo vs. the Media

I have been keeping a watchful eye on the new Nintendo system (the Wii) since the massive media hype around the time of E3, the yearly video game convention. The Wii showed to be very impressive, with a revolutionary new controller system. It sets itself apart from the other new consoles (the nearly-year-old Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, to be released mid-November along with the Wii) because of its controller (which is something like a motion-sensing TV remote control), its price ($249), and its focus on gameplay rather than graphics.

Last week, Nintendo had an event to tell us the details of the new system’s release, price, and to give us a look at some of the games. To make a long story short, the media got a bit mad because Nintendo has always said that it would be priced under $250. Since then, many gamers have been upset by the price, because the media had made them expect a lower price. Frankly, I really agree with Jack from infendo.com on this one. He summarizes this in just the way that I’ve been thinking since I read so many comments about the Wii.

Frankly, the conference hasn’t changed my opinion on the Wii. It’s only confirmed what I’d already been thinking. Here are a few highlights of why I’m interested in the Wii:

  • Price of the system. When compared to an Xbox 360 ($299 for a basic system) or Playstation 3 ($499 for a basic system), the Wii ($249) wins hands down. For some reason, fans are upset at the news that Nintendo won’t be losing money on the system like Microsoft and Sony.
  • Price of the games. A promise of $50 first-party games is great news, considering the price of Xbox 360 games I’ve seen.
  • Intended audience. Since I’ve recently become a dad (and also because I want to play games with my wife), I’ve had a hard time finding games that fit the family-friendly bill (or even just wife-friendly). Most of my favorite games for my Xbox are also available for the Gamecube (X-Men Legends, Star Wars: Battlefront, MLB 2k6) and I know there are Gamecube games that my wife would like better because we still play their predecessors on the Nintendo 64.
  • The Game Library. I’m very excited to play old-school Nintendo games again. My wife got me a system that plays our old NES cartridges and I love it. I’m excited to play many of the other games as well, like Super Mario World and Super Mario 3. I’ve heard the argument that you can just download the ROMS and play them on your computer, but the experience is very different.
  • The Controller. This is where I’m going to be looking the most. I’m doing planning on buying a system on launch day because I want to try this out for myself. If it looks good (and it really does so far), the controller could make or break the system for me. This could make games such as Zelda (with the sword fighting) and sports games (particularly baseball) a lot of fun, so I’m really hoping for this to work out. It’s too bad that the controllers are going to be expensive, but if it means more fun with friends, I’d gladly pay for more controllers and have game prices cheaper.
  • Graphics. The Wii won’t win on this one in comparison to the other consoles, but I think the graphics look great so far. I don’t own an HDTV, nor am I planning on buying one anytime soon. The idea that I need super-high-res graphics never really appealed to me, since it’s more about content and price in my book. That’s the same reason I’d have to think long and hard before buying Blu-Ray or HD-DVD: I’m very happy with DVD quality, plus they’re getting to the point that I can just encode them to a USB flash drive and watch them on my laptop.

I see too many plusses to start criticizing Nintendo here. As has been said before, what some consider Nintendo’s bad news last week has really been a confirmation of what they’ve been saying all along.

Welcome Home, Emmy Baker!!!

I already wrote about this on our family blog, but this deserves a post here, too.

EMMY’S HOME!!!

A million thanks for all the prayers and fasting that you’ve done for Emmy. In fact, we still appreciate those continued prayers! She’s a very special baby, and we’re very blessed to have her.

We were welcomed home yesterday with a sign that Emmy’s uncle Christian had made for us. It’s been fun so far, and I wouldn’t trade her for anything (even all the sleep that this means I won’t get). We love you, Emmy Baker!!!