Maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking Gamespot's Wii division right now is a lot like a baseball closer whose team is in the midst of a streak of blowouts and never gets into a save situation. Every time some crappy game comes out for the Virtual Console, Gamespot feels a need to review it just to get its bullpen some innings. Even for games that are quite good (Ocarina of Time), is it really necessary to review it for the Wii when it was already reviewed when it came out the first time for the Nintendo 64? Either it's emulated properly or it isn't, but since the VC has a pretty flawless track record for getting emulation right, even that's a moot issue.

Of course, this diarrhea of the pen on Gamespot's part speaks to a greater issue with the Wii, namely that there just aren't any games for it that aren't at least a decade old and sourced from somewhere else, much less any that are actually worth playing. It really doesn't augur well for the long-term success of Nintendo's experiment that the best Wii games thus far have been the pack-in Wii Sports and some SNES games.

Call me crazy, but I think the Wii's going the way of the Gamecube if Nintendo doesn't get its ass in gear.

Been playing Patrician 3 again---call it "Rostock Project 3.0" (v1.0, last September, was scrapped with my old PC, v2.0, in February, fell idle after a long Oblivion kick.) I'm not actually sure whether I prefer P3 or Port Royale 2 (which are essentially the same game in a lot of ways), since each has its own very strong virtues. The distinct advantages of the former are as follows:

- All cities are on the same side, so you don't have to worry about other nations' buccaneers constantly monkeywrenching your businesses.

- With the lone exception of Spices (which are found in great abundance in Bruges and Scarborough, it seems), all products in the game are actually produced somewhere, so no artificial shortages like in PR2 (which has three products wholly depending on deliveries from Europe).

- Ship lineups are quite simple. There's snaikka, crayer, cog, and (eventually) holk. No wondering what you're going to get when you sail into a port with a shipyard---if you start in 1350 or later everything is right where it's supposed to be.

- Avoiding pirates is actually possible. In P3, if you're not a combat-oriented player the game doesn't penalize you.

- In addition to the above, you can actually build a town without having to play Kull the Conqueror first.

PR2 has its good points (goods production is a snap, a fact which almost tilts the balance by itself), but right now I'm just more into what P3 has to offer.

Just completed a successful Rome: Total War Barbarian Invasion as the Sassanids, driving the Eastern Roman Empire completely out of Asia Minor and North Africa, then mounting a thrilling siege of Constantinople for the final victory.

Oh wait.  That's right.  The final siege involved pushing three massive armies up to the walls, using assassins to pick off family members as they came to try and relieve the siege, and watching the garrison punk out without a fight to give me the victory screen.  Yawn.  But hey, a win's a win.