It was announced all over the web early this morning or late last night- depending what part of the world you are from- that Nintendo will release the Wii stateside on Nov.19th at a price tag of, you guessed it, no more than $250!  And Nintendo indeed kept their promise.  The Wii's debut price is...$249.99.  This is of course great news for gamers stateside but what about Japan?  After getting the shaft from Sony with a projected 100,000 unit launch, you would think Nintendo would launch the Wii at the same time as the U.S. right?  Well reports from websites such as Joystiq and Engadget say that Japan won't see any Wii action until December 2nd.  I know it's only two weeks later, but has Japan all of the sudden become the bridesmaid in the console launch situation?  Are gaming companies that are based in Japan to scared to go up against incredible DSLite sales?  Only time will tell but one things for sure: I have a feeling come November when a lot of people are out shopping for a new console and they are faced with a Wii at $250 and a PS3 right next to it at $600 they will opt for dropping the money on the Wii and a handful of games and accessories and come out spending less than the PS3 alone.  Either that or they might just say screw it all, I'm getting an Xbox 360!

The Wizard was finally released on DVD and it rocks.

I remember going to see The Wizard on opening day years ago with my Dad.  Whatever company it was at the time that was promoting the movie handed out "The Wizard" pamphlets that had facts about the movie and puzzles and strategies for current Nintendo games. 

I was actually psyched to hear that this movie was going to be on DVD.  I hadn't seen it in years and I was looking foward to some possible extras or documentaries on the Power Glove but I was left with what you see on the picture below.  Words just don't describe it.

Edit:  For those of you that might not be able to view the pictures above; the picture on the left shows the start menu for the movie consisting of the options Language and Play-really not a lot of options for the DVD enthusiast.  The second picture is a close up of the cover of The Wizard showing Fred Savage sporting a Power Glove. 

Edit #2:  Fred Savage actually never used the Power Glove in the entire movie.  He was however in awe of the character Lucas when he pulled out an aluminum looking box containing the glove itself.  And yes, you can actually score 50,000 in Double Dragon-if you're good.

I was going through some sketch books and found my egg drawing.

There are only a few assignments I ever had to do in any art class that stand out more than when I had to draw an egg using only one graphite pencil.  (I used a 3b pencil)  I mean, it's an egg.  It's plain and doesn't have a lot of detail to it.  Although I thought the assignment was a breeze-2 hours into the drawing I found out I was wrong.  Eggs have a ton of detail on the surface.  For one eggs have a certain texture to them that reflects ambient light in a unique way.  And if you pull the egg right out of the 'fridge it builds condensation, so you have to take that into account.  Although it took hours to complete, I thought it was a fun project to do.

Also notice I only made one egg.  The original plan was to do a dozen or so eggs in a carton but I distinctly remember saying "to hell with that" and then I made an omlette.

Saint's Row (SR) is out now for the Xbox 360 and man is it fun.
I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of the open sandbox genre.  I mostly enjoy games with some sense of direction that focus on an inevitable goal.  But after visiting some friends in Kansas and playing GTA: San Andreas, I think I've had a change of heart.  So when I heard about SR a few months ago and played the demo on Xbox Live, I gotta say I was skeptical.  I thought as many critics did that SR was just going to be another GTA clone.  And I was right.  SR is a clone of GTA but atleast it is very well done.  The gameplay is fun and engaging thanks to great voice acting by pro actors such as Keith David (Gargoyles, and a ton of movies) and Michael Rappaport (umm.. he's done some stuff). 
SR does improve where GTA lacks in some areas.  Finally not only can you rob people on the streets and in their cars but now you can go into buildings and buy things like shirts and tatoos, pay for them, and then rob the store to get your money back.  Theoretically you don't have to pay a dime for anything in this game.  Another cool feature is the built in music player.  You can drive to a record store and purchase records with in game money and then play them on you personal music player.  It even allows you to customize playlists.  I'm not quite sure about DRM though.  I doubt you'll be able to share your legally bought tracks with your gangster homies.
Saint's Row is definitely a must by whether you are a fan of this genre or not.  It's just extraordinarily fun.