Amazon.com Widgets

Wii U

Its not your stream box, its your rubbish remote

If you care about streaming video and other media you’re probably familiar with the plethora of "stream boxes" available for media consumption. None are awesome; most of the ones you’ve heard of are decent. I've been using Rokus since 2008, or about the time Netflix lifted their cap on streaming. It has always been a solid option ("no one ever got fired for buying a [Roku]"), and now we have several other options, such as Apple TVAmazon Fire TV, or Google Chromecast - to name any other stand-alone stream box you should consider purchasing. Of course there are also the consoles, PlayStation 4Xbox One and Nintendo’s horribly underpowered, still-no-HD-Zelda-box, to name the latest. With the vast majority of these stream boxes you will be able to watch the non-negotiables: Netflix, HBO Go, Hulu Plus, YouTube, or Amazon Prime. As you might expect, there are a few annoyances in content procurement, like iTunes and Apple TV exclusivity. Streaming content on any of the devices mentioned above is a fair experience, but not devoid of stutter, lag and freezing during rewind, fast forward and playback - even with the abundance of processing power in the meekest of said devices.

Ultimately however, the biggest problem by far is not that you can't get content, but...

E3: The Only Specs That Matter

With E3 days away, no... hours away, I thought it would be important to cut through the fat and post some key specs for the Playstation 4, Xbox One and the Wii U. Below you will find a quick comparison chart of the only specs that matter when considering what game system will deflate your wallet this holiday season.  I know who will be shutting up and taking my money.

The Nintendo Pii U

A few days ago, I clicked over to ign.com to settle into a nice rumor binge about the Xbox 720, or infinity, or whatever the Xbox 360 successor will be called. Those plans were quickly derailed as I noticed a headline that read 'EA Senior Engineer: Wii U is crap’. How do I not click that?

That link lead to the most fantastic series of tweets from an EA senior engineer, Bob Summerwill, tearing the Wii-U and Nintendo a new one. Just then I remembered something: somewhere in my house there was a Wii-U. It had been there for quite a while. My cousin had left it in my care for safe keeping and enjoyment while he set sail on his summer-sea-term. I also remembered that he had returned my 'Zelda: Skyward Sword', which I purchased for the Wii, but never played for more than an hour.