Vision camera, Totemball, and thoughts

I finally acquired a Vision camera yesterday, and we spent a couple hours of the late hours playing Totemball. For some reason, my local Wal-mart didn't have them. I had to visit a Wal-mart in another city to get my mitts on this flashy device.

While waiting for the clerk to open the cabinet, I cam upon two other gamers buying late-night goods as well. The first was disappointingly buying a slim PS2 with Call of Duty. Almost simultaneously, the other customer and I said, "We could have sold you one of those."

"We have too many as it is."

That was a little odd. A chuckle ensued, and my fellow patron asked the clerk for NBA2K7 (for 360). PS2 guy continued to praise the 360, but said his friend is buying one so he doesn't have to buy one.

Miscellaneous chatting followed, but nothing else is worth mentioning.

Upon opening the box, I was surprised that the camera itself is much smaller than I anticipated. Small means less clutter, so it was far from being a problem. The capturing framerate for video was better than expected as well.

On to the Totemball.

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For the first time, a game as made me regret having a big screen television. While finding a good location for the camera isn't very hard, trying to look at both sides of a 51" screen at the same time is next to impossible. For those who haven't seen Totemball, the controls consist of up and down movement on both sides of the screen.

Aside from that, I've noticed that the camera doesn't seem too happy with the lack of light in our entertainment room. We have a single lamp on one side of the room for light since the room has no lights of its own. While the game registered our movements, it seemed much happier when I was moving a bright bottle up and down instead of my hands.

The game is immensely tiring on the arms. And there's no apologies for wearing them out quickly. However, if you are looking for some arm exercise, try getting that 20-minutes-without-a-break achievement. Lazies all over the world will probably slug run far from this game and that achievement.

The thought, "Will this be what the Wii is like?" was popped into my mind. My immediate answering thought was, "Not likely." Wii motion control will be based on the controller rather than captured video. There won't be constant readjustment to make sure your hands are in the designated spots on screen. Sit-down-and-play is also likely to be more forgiving than this camera.

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Camera's make everyone a dork, including myself. To geek out, I'm considering wearing my ninja mask if video is streaming. Do you want to see my ugly mug? Probably not.