Jared

Yeah, they may eat us, but that is one SICK ladar.

Nothing insightful here. I'll make up a word: hobocorn - a hobo unicorn.

N97 and E75 are relatively similar, but should appeal to different demographics based on personal preferences. Want touchscreen? N97. Don't care for touchscreen? E75.

Unfortunately, I think that the E75 will get overshadowed by the N97 just because of touch. Shame, seeing as how the E75 was touted by Nokia as being the successor to the Communicator series. The E75 is a great little slider phone.

One of my friends at ATT said that from what his agents are telling him the E71x shouldn't (fingers crossed) fall under their Smartphone category meaning the data plan should only be $15/mo. Hope this pans out that way. Otherwise if they do charge $30, an unlocked E71 will pay for itself.

Is that thing generating HP bars above peoples heads?

"I am Senior Systems Administrator for a large corporation and..."

Saying things like this does not gain you any cred online. Zilch. And it's simple, because anyone can say what you just did. People try to throw their weight around about their "profession" when in reality they install video card drivers and claim to be able to support anything with years of experience behind them.

You even said, "I think it's as funny as hell how many so called "experts" come out of the woodwork". Exactly.

You may very well be a sysadmin, but stating it online helps you not. As a result, your statement no longer holds validity to me, and probably plenty of other readers here.

Yeah, the first set of levels are cake. They seem kind of slow almost, and made me wish there was a difficulty setting.

The bonus levels come close to inducing seizures. My eyes got tired really fast after doing about five of those levels. I had to take a break.

A Fossil Phillipe Stark LED watch (which some LEDs have water damage, though the watch is *supposed* to be water proof).

Wow. Has no one here played more than one of the past seven Mario Party games? Here's what is different with each release of Mario Party (keep in mind that I enjoy the series):

1. A new theme is designed.
2. New boards are designed.
3. New characters adn/or models are designed.
4. New mini games are designed.
5. New play modes are designed.
6. (This is the key) Mini-game mechanics remain unchanged.

To clarify on #6, button-mashing in MP1 is still button-mashing in MP7 no matter which way you look at it. The difference is that the games have been reskinned or rethemed to stay interesting to those who like the same thing with a new eye-candy.

Now, if you don't like the same mechanics, then you should probably only try out one of the MP game series. Don't try more than one in that case.

However, with MP8, this will be the first major improvement to mini-game mechanics. Why? The new control scheme. They can finally break away from the mold of button-mashing/timing and other mechanics. I for one am interested to see just how these work out in the MP series.

If you don't like mini-games, you don't like mini-games - MP8 is not going to change your mind. Move on. Remember, one of Nintendo's tactics is to market this console as a social gaming console - something for a group to do within a short time frame.

@16 - You've stated why the console is doing so well in your own post: The Wii is simple, and people like simple. Again, this is for casual gaming - something that most people have time for, unlike "hardcore" gamers. Why does this make them "weak-minded"? Because they're having fun?

And just for the record, there was *way* more media coverage over the PS3 than there ever was with the Wii at launch. Once the media realized people were buying them up (because again, people were having fun), then and only then did they give it attention.

As far as innovation is concerned - The definition of innovate is: To introduce as or as if new; to make changes; to do something in a new way. Nintendo has *based* the Wii on a new (as in new to consoles) controller. Therefore, yes, innovate is an appropriate term to use.

Hey, that's my picture! Thank's for the cred...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darthservo/302517239/