Nintendo Attacked for Fitness Failure
Fitness celebrity Michael Torchia is suing Nintendo for not placing proper warnings on its products and for misleading consumers about the Wii's potential fitness benefits. He claims that Nintendo marketing implies that the Wii is a proper replacement for more traditional exercise. Torchia wants Nintendo to put warnings on its Wii products, warning of the risk of injury. He goes so far as to compare Nintendo's marketing to strategies implemented by tobacco companies and claims that Nintendo is "contributing to the epidemic of obesity."

If the flood of hearts and flowers in honor of February 14 doesn't leave you feeling the love, you're not alone -- apparently gaming companies are right there with you. Face off against scorpions and spiders in Deadly Creatures, revisit the paranormal in F.E.A.R. 2, or kill -- and kill, and kill -- a bunch of zombies in House of the Dead: Overkill. So what else is out this week?

Although I did my share of gaming as a kid, I seriously doubt I’d be playing as much as a I currently do, and most likely wouldn’t be writing for this website, if I hadn’t met my hardcore gamer husband, Isaac. Games have defined a number of integral moments in our relationship. Here’s our story.

Over the last few months, we've seen both major music-game franchises getting a little more experimental with their offerings. Sometimes it's an unusual genre, other times it's a lesser-known band, but it's becoming clear that the franchises both enjoy so much success at this point that they're comfortable with branching out a bit.

At the end of my six-week quest to get fit using fitness games, I’ve actually come to a somewhat disappointing conclusion: While you can technically get fit using some of these games and there are some non-fitness titled games that can help you get some exercise with, none of them have really married the two together. The ones that succeed on the exercise part, lack the fun aspect, while the ones that get the game aspect right, fall short on providing substantive and well-rounded exercise.

I'll be honest: I haven't fully accepted the new reality of life as a parent as of yet. While work and a social life and other general responsibilities definitely kept me busy in my pre-parenthood days, a lot of it was stuff that I could put off if I really wanted to. If I wanted to get to that next level in World of Warcraft, the bills could wait another day; if I wanted to get to the end of Uncharted, I could bail on going to that party across town. And fortunately, writing about games meant that I could often squeeze a certain game into my workday under the guise of "research."

Felix is your average slacker with the slacker favorite job -- he works as a courier in a nameless city. Every day he journeys at breakneck speed with complete disregard for his personal safety to deliver packages. He gets Saturdays off, and on Saturdays he sits in his apartment in his underpants eating snacks and playing video games. He dreams of getting a girlfriend but can't help but wonder if he'll ever get so much as a date ever again.

Valentine's Day is nearly upon us, and depending on your current relationship situation, it may either be a day for celebration or commiseration. Or maybe you'll spend the day laughing off the "Hallmark holiday." Whatever your plans, know this: Very few video games have been actively designed to commemorate this special day.

How do you play games? That's the question we asked a number of people who work in the game industry and write about the game industry. This week's guest writer is Julian Murdoch, who contributes regularly to gaming sites such as Gamers With Jobs and 1UP.com.

"Oxygen mask."

If the sight of your cat or hamster suddenly doesn't give you that cuddly feeling you used to have, it's probably time for you to downgrade to something that doesn't require you to empty a litter box once a day. With novelties such as raccoons, weasels, and wolves, SimAnimals may be the right choice -- except for one annoying string attached. Do you like watering plants every day, several times a day? If your answer is no, maybe it's time for you to consider going back to that narcoleptic feline and its litter box. SimAnimals is a good-looking, simple strategy game, but it unfortunately suffers from repetitive gameplay and a low degree of challenge.