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nintendo has announced a new fitness game Wii Fit which is a full on exercise product set to give you more of a workout than Wii sports, while still retaining all the fun of gaming. Wii Fit will help to keep you physically fit via a dedicated peripheral, a wireless balance board which comes with the game. There are over 40 different activities, including hula hooping, ski jumping and heading soccer balls.

The hula hooping consists of, as youd expect, gyrating your hips with a virtual hoop onscreen and then as the game progresses, characters will throw more hoops for you to catch and rotate as many times as you can until the time runs out.

The skiing game gives you two chances to make the longest jump you can whilst keeping your balance when landing. Players can increase speed by leaning forward, the more you lean the faster youll go, and upon reaching the jump, you stand up straight ensuring your weight is evenly balanced for a good landing.

For the football game, you will need to balance on the board moving from side to side whilst balls are fired at you to hit back on to the field and avoiding other objects that are thrown at you at the same time.

Training falls into 4 categories: Aerobics, muscle conditioning, yoga and balance games. Players can assign their height to a profile to measure body mass index and Wii fitness age as well as monitor progress and record performance statistics.

The calorie busting fun could appeal to couch potato kids as well a non gamers, perhaps using the nintendo Wii as a slimming tool which would be a move into the lifestyle category rather than gaming, covering the market from another angle.

nintendo hasn't given a release date yet for Wii Fit, although its thought to hit the highstreet in early 2008.

Karen Bennett

# posted by 12152 : 3:25 PM  0 comments

The first video game system that I actually owned was an Atari game console that played only pong and pong like games. The console used your television to visually display the game and its action. We were thrilled with the system and many hours were spent staring at the television screen with the eerie beep of the pong hitting the paddles echoing through out the room. The next video game system I owned was also an Atari, but instead of being dedicated to only one game, this actually accepted a variety of cartridges which played wonderful games, including Asteroids, Space Invaders and Pac-man. And we once again embraced them as wonderful advancements in technology and introduced them to our children.

Before I knew it, the kids were asking for a Commodore 64. They now wanted a personal computer and I was saving the money to get one, because the price was right. The C64 did not require a monitor, and could be plugged into a television set, and had graphics that were evolving away from the simple shapes of Atari to realistic drawings. Instead of all action games, some of the games involved solving problems and were much more intellectual. Even better, you could copy the games on a cheap cassette tape and pass them around.

The next video game system that the kids were asking for was the nintendo Entertainment system. It had high-resolution, full color, tiled backgrounds and the games were longer and contained more detailed graphics. Super Mario Brothers was the big hit game that everyone wanted. When the sega Mega drive was introduced, they were still happy with their nes. Then the kids outgrew the video game systems and it wasnt until I discovered the role playing game called morrowind that I was drawn into PC video games. I was totally blown away! I could not believe the advancements in technology that enabled such realism! And to my grandchildren, who by the way have nintendo 64 and play station 2 and full access to PC games, these are common, everyday toys. How amazing is that!?

Sandra Cundy

# posted by 12152 : 9:43 AM  0 comments

The biggest problem we face in America today is not terrorism it is obesity. This is according to Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for disease Control and Prevention in America. And it seems much of this problem is happening in a slow and creeping way, through gradual young and middle-aged adult weight gain, over very long periods of time.

On the average, a typical American adult gains at least two pounds per year over his or her lifetime. That probably means that approximately 100 extra calories are being consumed each day, according to Dr. James Hill of the University of Colorados nutrition center. If you simply burn off those 100 extra calories, or dont consume them to begin with, you will then not gain that yearly extra weight.

Dr. Gerberding says that fixing the problem will involve changing most Americans daily social norms. This will have to start in our early childhood, she says. people will have to begin performing more physical activity and eating less every day. And Dr. Hill has examined government figures showing that about 40 million adults are currently obese. He has also noted that Americans are steadily gaining more weight than usual in recent years. But what can be done about this socially and personally significant health problem?

The future is not hopeful unless we act now, Dr. Hill says. He estimates that if current trends continue, the obesity rate for American adults in 2008 will be 39%, which compares unfavorably with 31% in the year 2000.

Middle age shows a great increase in the amount of weight gained. There is a doubling of body fat in this time period in both men and women living in the developed countries. Such weight gain is strongly associated with increased morbidity and mortality. But there is ample evidence to conclude that moderate physical activity combined with a steady and healthy diet slows down or stops middle-aged adult weight gain.

Young adults are also at a high risk for weight gain. In America, for adults ages 25-74, the major weight gain was shown to be highest between ages 25-34. This was found by recent US government studies. And in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study, even though trends were constant across ten years of follow-up studies, age-related weight gain was larger in the early to mid-20s than it was for older age groups.

It may not be wisest to wait until middle age, even though that may be when obesity becomes a more significant health threat, to lose weight. Irreversible health damage from weight being above optimal levels may occur prior to the beginning of a health-related diet and exercise program. But modest weight loss can reduce cardiovascular risk factors, and in high-risk individuals, it also prevents the development of diabetes and hypertension.

The American College of Preventative Medicine endorses the guidelines of the National Institutes of health when it comes to advising obese and overweight patients on how to go about both losing excess weight and keeping it off. They encourage moderate physical activity for 30 to 45 minutes for at least 3 to 5 days per week for clinically obese or overweight persons, whenever such a program is not contraindicated by any current health problems. They also advise counseling regarding an energy-reduced or low-calorie diet of 800 to 1500 calories per day for an obese or overweight adult until optimal weight is attained. Then it is suggested that the patient should remain on a healthy, normal diet that is not higher in calories than the amount burned by ordinary activities and exercise each day.

It is felt by many experts that simply avoiding excess weight gain during the early adult years may be very important. It may ensure the prevention of adverse health reactions and establish an early foundation for the maintenance of lifelong healthy habits in later adulthood. It is also felt that interventions such as simple changes in diet and the maintenance of a regular exercise program will help parents establish lifelong role models for their children. This would greatly help to prevent Americas steady increase in obesity over the oncoming decade, and its accompanying morbidity and mortality over the next several generations of aging adult Americans.

information in this article was obtained from the four sources listed below:

The Cutting 100 Calories/day Might Prevent Weight Gain & Obesity page at Weight Control and Obesity;

The "Symposium: Adult Weight Gain: Causes and Implications" page at Nutrition.org;

The Weight management counseling of overweight adults page at National Guideline Clearinghouse;

The NHLBI Working Group Report Preventing Weight Gain in Young Adults page at National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

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# posted by 12152 : 1:03 AM  0 comments

Controversy over manhunt 2 spreads as Britain and Ireland have already censored the computer video game; and sales in the US look to be put on hold or restricted all together.

In New Your video game publisher Take-two announced on Tuesday June 19th that it was temporarily suspending the release of the ultra violent computer video game "manhunt 2" because of the ongoing rating issues faced in the United States and the the ban in Britain and Ireland.

Take-two said int a statement that it need time to "reviews its options" but would "continue to stand behind this extraordinary game."

"We believe in freedom of creative expression, as well as responsible marketing, both of which are essential to our business of making great entertainment," Take-Tow explained.

The computer video game "manhunt 2" had been scheduled for release on July 10th in the Untied States for both the nintendo Wii and Playstation 2.

However critics are concerned with games' content, "which depicts escape of an amnesiac scientist and a psychotic killer from an asylum and their subsequent killing spree. In the Wii version, the consoles motion-sensitive remote is waved around to control a virtual murder weapon."

There is still skepticism on whether violent video games lead to violent behavior, but many big retailers, such as Wal-Mart, which accounts for 25 percent of U.S. computer video game sales, refuse to carry "Adults only" titles.

This suspension was a setback for creator of Roskstar games, which came under fire for the popular "Grand Theft Auto" series of urban crime games, with Take-Tow earlier this year "underwent a shareholder coup that ousted its chief executive and nearly all of its board."

Take-two has done very well for itself with last year revenues just over $1 billion, and with manhunt 2 it is expected to generate around $40 million according to analysts, which suspension or setback can hurt Take-two sales.

For Take-two new management its goals are to rein in the creative talent and tell the video game industry that they are in the business of making money and to make games that sell not game that are artistically beautiful but not available at Wal-Mart. Agreed, if Take-two or Rockstar or whatever company creates game that may look great but are to violent or have too much sexual content to be put on the selfs at Wal-Mart that need to reconsider how they create their games. For more article like this one please go to http://www.gameznstuff.net/blogs.html

Kirk Jensen, owner of:

# posted by 12152 : 12:16 AM  0 comments