Games Cheats and Reviews

I have been waiting patiently…  ok, not so patiently… since January for today to arrive.  Ever since Netflix announced they would add the Wii to their family of streaming devices, I’ve been on pins and needles.  The announcement got me excited.  The reservation got me primed.  And the arrival really has made me happy.  Its nice not hacing to be confined to my laptop anymore.

The disc arrived, as you might imagine, in the traditional red envelope.  When you power the Wii on it recognizes the disc and you start it as you would any Wii game, via the disc channel.  You are then presented with a code.  At this point you need to go online to netflix.com/wii where you will be prompted to enter your code.  The webpage said it might take up to three minutes to authorize the Wii for viewing, but our TV screen went live in under a minute.

The Wiimote was very intuitive to use in navigating through useful options like my Instant Watch queue, Movies You’ll Love, My History, and so on.  Navigate to a desired movie and it will show you the cover art, your rating(where applicable), a synopsis, and the MPAA rating, among others.  Once a movie starts to play, navigation is pretty basic.  There’s a pause button below the slider bar.  To the right you’ll see the total time of the selection, with the “time watched” to the left.  I’m not sure how the other gaming consoles(which have high def connections) fare, but I found the picture to be quite watchable.  Being on the one disc a month plan, streaming has really enhanced the value of my Netflix subscription.  I can only imagine that the ability to stream to our big screen will make a good thing…  better.

Sharing: It’s Win/Win

In this interview, "Netflix bolsters their hopes for success on the Wii platform by downplaying their HD content."

Netflix calls their own HD content streaming "underwhelming," downplaying its presence on other platforms, to emphasize the upcoming Wii service.

PCWorld’s Matt Peckham writes: Dear Nintendo, while I respect your president Reggie Fils-Aime’s decision to shrug off the Wii’s inability to do high-definition video as "no loss" in an interview with CNBC, I’m not sure you’re taking the long view.

Nintendo of America President, Reggie Fils-Aime, downplayed the Wii’s lack of support for HD content on its upcoming Netflix streaming service, set to launch this Spring. Fils-Aime believes Wii owners aren’t missing much, due to the fact that the majority of Netflix content is not available in HD.

Today, Nintendo of America and Netflix have announced that from Spring all Netflix users can view “thousands of movies and TV episodes” by streaming it to their Wii console at no extra cost to all their subscribers.

The service, which has also been avaliable on the Xbox 360 via the Dashboard, and the PS3 via a seperate blu-ray that members of Netflix can request, will be arriving on the Wii with the same catalogue that the other consoles receive.

Reed Hastings, CEO and co-founder of Netflix, says “Our goal is to offer Netflix members as many ways as possible to watch movies and TV episodes streaming from Netflix right to their TVs and to give non-members more and compelling reasons to consider the service. Joining forces with Nintendo, which has been so immensely popular with consumers since its introduction, is a very meaningful step in that direction.”

The service will work similar to the way it works on the PS3 with an optical-disk being inserted into the console, and once the software launches, users can browse and view the different titles from Netflix’s catalogue.

Sharing: It’s Win/Win

Today, Nintendo of America and Netflix have announced that from Spring all Netflix users can view “thousands of movies and TV episodes” by streaming it to their Wii console at no extra cost to all their subscribers.

The service, which has also been avaliable on the Xbox 360 via the Dashboard, and the PS3 via a seperate blu-ray that members of Netflix can request, will be arriving on the Wii with the same catalogue that the other consoles receive.

Reed Hastings, CEO and co-founder of Netflix, says “Our goal is to offer Netflix members as many ways as possible to watch movies and TV episodes streaming from Netflix right to their TVs and to give non-members more and compelling reasons to consider the service. Joining forces with Nintendo, which has been so immensely popular with consumers since its introduction, is a very meaningful step in that direction.”

The service will work similar to the way it works on the PS3 with an optical-disk being inserted into the console, and once the software launches, users can browse and view the different titles from Netflix’s catalogue.

Sharing: It’s Win/Win

SAN FRANCISCO – Owners of the Nintendo Wii can finally stop waving their video game controllers in the air and sink back onto the couch. Nintendo is bringing Netflix’s online streaming video service to its Wii gaming console, the most popular in the industry, the companies plan to announce Wednesday.

From the PlanetXbox360.com feature article:

"On November 17th, Microsoft released a new update on Xbox Live that allows all of us to have a new amount of latitude from the convenience of our Xbox 360’s. After bringing us the convenience of Netflix with the last update, this new update gives users the ability to Tweet, access Facebook and listen to music from Last.fm all through LIVE. I bet you don’t realize just what sort of stroke of genius this was on the part of Microsoft and how it will help push LIVE past Sony’s online offerings."

PlayStation LifeStyle writes, "Netflix has offered instant streaming for quite some time now. The Xbox 360 has enjoyed Netflix instant streams since late 2008. Additionally other consumer electronics devices support the popular streaming service. It was only a matter of time and a natural fit for the jack of all media, the PlayStation 3, to support Netflix."

Screen captures are included in this review.

Steven Burke at ChannelWeb writes:

"Here are three reasons why Sony’s PS3 is beating Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT)’s Xbox 360 in the marketplace."

1. Sony PS3 Is A Better Value Than Xbox 360

Check it out. For $349.99 from Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) you get the new lighter and slimmer PS3 with a 250 Gbyte hard drive, built in Blu-Ray disc player (yes Blu-Ray!), built-in WiFi lets you access the Internet and the FREE PlayStation Network, where you can download exclusive games, movies, TV shows.

2. The PlayStation Network Is Better Than Xbox Live

PlayStation got it right with its Free service to gamers offering unmatched games and game content along with robust Blu-Ray video content from Netflix and major studios.

3. PS3 Is A More Reliable And Better Engineered Product Than Xbox 360.

Yes, engineering and reliability matter particularly for hard core gamers that are banging on a system day in and day out.