Freebird! Freeeeeebirrrrrrrrd!

I remember listening to Freebird for the first time in my life. I was standing in front of my television with a plastic guitar controller strapped to me. My brother and I had been taking turns on songs to finish up Guitar Hero, and we had done it, we'd finished the game. The game called for an encore and was preparing us for one final big finish song, and they said it was a song called "Freebird". Of course neither of knew what it was, so we were excited. The game kept asking:

"Are you ready?"
"Are you sure you're ready?"
"Are you really sure?"

And we were thinking YES damnit, let's play it!

So I'm playing the song, for about 5 minutes I was there, playing the guitar, and it was a joke. Turns out Freebird is a slow song by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Maybe it gained popularity because of it's lyrics? It's a slow song so it's a little bit anti-climatic. After all the songs we thrashed our way through, to end it all with this soft song, it's nice but it's not what we had hoped for.

So 5 minutes into the song, I'm getting bored and wondering if maybe I can transfer the guitar over to my brother and let him go for a few minutes. But then, hello, it starts to speed up a little bit. It's getting faster. Next thing I know, the tempo quickens and I'm playing a short solo, only it's not a short solo, it's a long song, like 2 minutes. Then 3. Then 5. What's this, a 10 minute solo? I'm going crazy now, my brother is like "what the heck.. does it end?", and I'm like "OMG this song rocks". I'm playing this impossible solo that I can barely keep up with and it lasts forever. It's like a crazy mother of a song, 15 minutes in total and the second half sounds nothing like the first. Just when you think it's over, it starts again. The two of us are going nuts. What the heck is going on, does it ever end?

Finally, the song ends. We erupt in excitement over what has just transpired. I feel like I just ran the marathon. My fingers are exhausted and I'm sweating like a hog. We go from "What the heck is Freebird" to "OH EM GEE.. Freebird is the best EVAR!".

A Wii Retrospective

It's hard to believe that I have owned a Wii for 7 months, because it feels like I haven't played it very much at all. In all honesty I haven't touched the thing in 2 weeks. I'm trying to think of the last time I played Wii by myself, as a form of entertainment (as opposed to a form of entertainING). I believe I haven't played it as a form of personal entertainment since.. well, February when I first got Wii Play.

Hard to believe that such a popular gaming system, one that continues to be difficult to obtain throughout the world, has completely lost its appeal to me. Although I do continue to look forward to Smash Brothers Brawl, my zeal for this gaming system has waned significantly. Yesterday in EB Games, I was lining up to pay for Guitar Hero for PS2. The guy in front of me had just picked up the last copy of Mario Party 8. Heck, I didn't even know it had come out. I could have easily lined up ahead of that guy if I had wanted one. (MP8 is probably one of the MOST sought after Wii games yet).

Now on one hand I'd fully admit that when it comes to entertainment, I am a person who loses interest in things rather easily, going from one thing to another, but to think that a few months ago I was trying to convince everyone how great and revolutionary it was and now, I barely even touch it. It's just a neat little white box on top of my speakers that collects dust.

The other day I spoke to Allan at church, he was explaining to me that the novelty has kind of worn off on him and he hadn't touched his Wii for a whole week.

Mind you, I think the Wii is a fantastic party system. But without company, I think this system is not nearly as great as everyone thinks. I haven't touched my XBOX360 in about 3 weeks either, so it's not like it's any more 'exciting' than the Wii. I have arguably the most popular game for it, Gears of War, and I haven't touched the system in 3 weeks. Think about that.

Meanwhile I haven't gone more than 48 hours without picking up the Guitar controller for the PS2. Guitar Hero games totally rock. All this talk about these next-gen consoles and here I am playing old-gen stuff. Just goes to show you how important graphics and cpu speed are -- not at all.

Just think, had I known all this today and not bought any of those systems, I'd be sitting at home, still playing Guitar Hero 2 (which I got for free), and be sitting pretty with an additional $1300 in my pocket. Such is the life of a gamer..