I’m working on a whole gaggle of things for my readers this weekend, they shall appear below as they become available. Enjoy!

Benheck.com Podcast Episode 7 – We Try To Buy a Wii
Sunday the 19th

After doubting it for the last few months we decided to go out and buy a Wii for ourselves on launch day. Nintendo – impress us! We really want to check the thing out, I mean, there’s no kiosks to be found around Madison.

Follow our progress as we fight the Wii hoards trying to get a console to test… The audio for the first 10 minutes or so isn’t so hot as we recorded it in the car, while driving, on a PDA.

Also in the podcast Jones also gives his opinions on Gears of War, I review my recently purchased DS Lite and we discuss backwards compatibility.

Article Links:

Benheck.Com Podcast – Episode 7: Wii Day

ADDED- I have only been playing GBA Castlevanias on my DS thus far (waiting for DS Portrait of Ruin!) so the “lid closing pause” must be for DS specific games and not GBA ones. Believe me it was the first thing I tried.

How-To Breach Nintendo Security Screws
Saturday the 18th

My latest How-To is up on Engadget – it covers removing those darn pesky Nintendo security screws. How timely, eh? Check it out here!

PS3 First Impressions
Thursday the 16th

While looking for a Wii kiosk the other day (to no avail) I did find a couple PS3 demo units. Granted I am not a Wii fanboy but since it’s something new I want to try it out. PS3, well, we all pretty much know what to expect.

Anyway the PS3… I don’t really like the new curved R2 and L2 buttons… Or the controller at all for that matter. OK the batwing thing sucked but come on – that doesn’t mean you have to tuck tail and stick with a design that’s been around since the Spice Girls were still on the radio. Maybe Sony used up all their balls restarting Bond, loosing $250 per PS3 and spending $300 million on the new Spider-Man.

Speaking of the new Bond movie, it’s good but borders on science fiction during a scene in which Daniel Craig uses a recordable Blu-Ray player – apparently “Bond Begins” in the future. But to be honest, that’s not quite as ridiculous as movies suggesting everyone in the world uses a Mac. Zinger.

Back to PS3… The games looked no better than an Xbox 360 title. The basketball game actually looked worse. The load times were noticeable, a bit longer than a 360.

I don’t like these short Blu-Ray / HD-DVD boxes, they look cheap. But aren’t.

No PlayStation system has ever really had mind-blowing “must buy this now!” games at launch, but I’d reckon by this time next year they’ll be some games that make the system worthwhile. Regardless, I have never bought a system any sooner than 2 years after its launch, so I am very cautious in this department. (In case you’re wondering the systems I bought the fastest were the Genesis and Nintendo 64.)

While it might seem like I haven’t been doing anything lately that’s not exactly true – I’m doing all sorts of stuff, but of course I can’t post anything before it’s done because that’s a sure-fire way to not finish it. You know how that goes.

I will say though that we have a special seventh episode of the Benheck.com podcast planned. It will come out a week from this Monday, so do the math (like the Jaguar) on what it probably involves. Jones will probably also throw in a Gears of War review since I think he’s pretty neck deep in that now.

In the meantime you can waste your lunch hours by hanging out in our forums or checking out some of our independent films. See you in a week or so!