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Consumer Reports Gets Its Game On
Itninja writes "A few days ago Consumer Reports posted their first report on a specific video game: Wii Fit. From the article: 'Our testers ranged in age from 24 to 69 and included 10 women and five men. Users ran the gamut from regular exercisers to mostly sedentary folks.' Will this be a harbinger of things to come? Will CR be reviewing the next installment of Gran Turismo?"
That's a small sample size. How much of a gamut can you really run with only 15 people?
Yeah, because it is Nintendo's responsibility to keep me thin.
Keep clamoring for corporations to take responsibility for my behavior, and watch our individual rights continue to erode.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
I think it would be good to have more unbiased reviews. But I only think they did this because the wii fit is touching on the arena of exercise equipment.
-- if you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine
NO.
My humor is probably your flamebait
I agree with this report. In short it explains that Wii fit is good if you need motivation to get off the couch. It is not for those who pull themselves outside or goto the gym and get physical already. It's target group though is over 50% of Americans... and a heavily growing European segment.
When McDonald's serves salad, I worry about what's in it.
But when Nintendo makes a workout game, I have no such hesitation. perhaps because I know it won't kill me. Perhaps because they have a nice track record. Perhaps because there are other video games known to give a nice workout.
Your pessimism really doesn't apply here.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
I don't think Nintendo is trying to be a "responsible" game company, in the sense that I don't think they feel that they have to somehow atone for the fact that there are fat kids out there. I think they're more interested in making money, and one of the ways they've chosen to do that is by releasing new types of games that appeal to a wider market than video games traditionally had. Their strategy seems to be working quite well.
Sure, playing WiiFit isn't as strenuous as swimming laps, but if you're up and moving at all, you're getting more exercise than you would be sitting on a couch. I think the bigger problem with a lot of exercise routines has less to do with the fact that you don't get results and more to do with the fact that exercising is hard work and usually not particularly fun.
If someone finds WiiFit to be a good time, they'll probably keep playing it until it stops being fun. And in the meantime, they'll get a little bit more exercise than they used to. No harm done. I don't think you'll see any currently fit people giving up their habit of running three miles every morning and just playing WiiFit instead.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
...and this isn't an accident. Nintendo's Blue Ocean (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Ocean) named 'Wii' is decisively different, as evidenced by the fact that Consumer Reports is covering Wii Fit.
From fad diets to late night infomercial exercise devices, Consumers Union has a long history of testing out exactly this sort of thing.
I've grown thoroughly disgusted with the usual pattern of game reviews.
Previews: Holy shit, glowing reviews, the game is better than blowjobs and bacon sammiches combined!
Reviews: Walking the fine line between placating advertisers and telling the truth. Reviewers who bite the hand that feed them soon go hungry. So even the most disappointingly middling hash job gets a gentleman's C.
If we get the money out of the review process and really see some honesty... well, I don't know if we'll get better games but I do know it will honk off more suits and that's almost as enjoyable.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
I used one to come back from physical therapy after a fighting injury (i do mixed martial arts).
It is a HELL of a workout of your leg muscles, and VERY effective. The workout I get fromt hat is comprable to doing wall sits which are a staple of my boxing class every night.... and your quads get a tremendous burn.
Unless the wii balancing board is somehow deficient, you'd sure as hell get a nice workout.
after i went through therapy with a balancing board, i bought one for home traning the next month.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
Why do you feel the need to mention it, out of curiosity?
Wii Fit is a completely reasonable "workout" of balance and flexibility, and even for very moderate workouts for people who are otherwise sedentary (and there are a lot of those people, though they're probably sitting at their computer writing about how Wii Fit isn't a real workout because they see everything as a binary full-on-workout, or nothing).
Steps and other basic activities aren't going to replace the gym for someone who is actually into fitness, but it's better than nothing for people who have limited activity.
And one of the best elements of the Wii is the simplest element of all -- weigh-ins with time plotted tracking. It's simplistic, relying upon the lame BMI scale, not taking into account muscularity and other variables, however again for a normal everyday person seeing an accurate graph of their weight when they occasionally weigh into their Wii can be a very powerful input.
Analogies are like a dog with a tail growing out of its nose. Kind of like the planet Mars with annuity insurance.
Nintendo's whole angle with the Wii has been whole-body gameplay that is their "gimmick" instead of the traditional thumbs only. This is an obvious continuation of that. Like Wii Sports, the included game (Wii Fit) isn't the most incredible demonstration of the board, but it gets the units out there.
There are over a dozen balance-board-using games in development, and of course it launched with Wii Ski. It's another input controller (one with amazing potential...and it's bluetooth, and could be used with a compatible PC bluetooth stack), and Wii Fit is one use of it. I certainly don't think very many people are going to stick with their Wii Fit regiment
I find it telling that not only did CR review the game, but that the composition of their sample group had a giant gaping hole in it - the young male. Not only that, it includes twice as many women as men. This really shows you that Nintendo has executed their strategy - ignore the ritalin kids in favor of focusing on everybody else - brilliantly. They realized what Sony, and to an extent Microsoft, didn't - that games aren't fun because they run on the latest hardware and look photorealistic, rather, they're fun for the same reason anything else is - you can play with your friends and family. Yes, I know Microsoft has Xbox Live. Running around killing people isn't really a game you'd play with grandma though - but Wii Tennis is (I have and she loved it). So no, I don't think CR will review Gran Turismo... but I'd bet money that they'll review the next big family hit on the Wii.
If you're going to say that Wii Fit is not a work out I'd point you at the Wii Sports Experiment. For six weeks this guy played Wii Sports agressively and lost 9 pounds. Is that a lot? No. But it did take him from a BMI of "overweight" to "normal". I can't imagine something that gets your whole body in to the workout while providing you with motivation (BMI and weight tracking) could be anything but more effective. Even if only slightly.
I think it's obvious to anyone with common sense that this Wii Fit can hardly be considered a workout.
Is yoga a 'workout'? Is pilates a 'workout'? If you consider that to be a part of your workout routine, then the Fit is a part of that. And if it accomplishes the same thing as working along with a yoga/pilates video and is more fun, then that would be a win.
Nobody is saying that a Wii fit is a replacement for cardio, or weight training. But it may well be a perfectly legitimate to compliment yoga/ pilates/ and stretching exercises.
Besides, after the buzz wears down, anyone doing these "exercises" will quickly discover there are no results to be had, and the balancing board will end up in the closet with the rest of the rubber bands, abdominizors, and exercises dvds.
Unless its engaging and fun. Which a lot of people think it is, and who will play it regardless of whether they get 'results' or not.
And no matter how you spin it, its better for you than sitting on the couch.
So while Wii fit may not melt fat off, at least its not part of the problem.
strangely, after trying to give this a real effort and running through many of the exercises daily, I actually do feel a slight difference. Not just common sense, but real experience speaking here. Is it the same as riding a bike or playing soccer, no. It does meet a useful niche though. Forcing odd balance and repetitions does work you core , and lunges and such do work your large butt and thigh muscles. This leads to calorie burn. I have truly been hungry all week since I got this.
Not perfect, not a gym , but quite useful.
Wow, you actually feel oppressed by Consumer Reports.
I will say that sometimes they do miss some important points when they deal with specialized products. I remember once seeing a review of bicyles that included a braking distance rating -- just like for cars. Well, all the bikes in the price range they were testing probably used the same or very similar Japanese component sets on rims of the same alloy. Any remaining difference in stopping distance would be determined by (in order): adjustment, rider technique, net weight, rotational mass (wheel weight). So there's not much to be gained for a serious rider looking at braking distance.
Also, there is the matter of comfort. The two most comfortable seats I've ever had were unpadded. One was a classic leather seat, the other was a plain, hard plastic shell. I never found that adding padding made the seat more comfortable, in fact quite the contrary. I found padding cut off the circulation after an hour or so in the saddle.
But that particular observation is not valid for somebody who takes his bike out for an hour or two a dozen or so times a year. If you ride on the order of a hundred miles or more per week, what you find comfortable is different.
Likewise, tire differences might make a difference in braking for a weekend rider, who is more likely to brake without adjusting his weight distribution, and thus is more likely to skid.
What I'm getting at is that if you aren't the kind of person who as a more specialized source of consumer information, the CR reports are probably fairly useful.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
If you want to lose a decent ammount of weight all you need to do is put on 2.5 lbs of muscle (150 extra calories burned per day), eat 150 less calories than you need to maintain your current body weight (without considering excercise), and burn an additional 150 calories per day; this works out to a grand total of 450 calories more burned per day than you're currently taking in.
Wii Fit may not turn you into a body builder but its weight training program should be able to help you put on 2.5lbs of muscle, its aerobics program may not be nearly as good as jogging but it should be able to help you burn 150 calories per day, and if you cut down on sugar/cream in your coffee (or start drinking diet pop) you should easily be able to cut out 150 calories per day.
Basically, Wii Fit may not be much of a workout but it is all you (probably) really need.
Since your post makes it painfully obvious that you haven't used Wii Fit at all, I'll post about my actual experience, and then people can comment.
After 30 minutes of actual activity on Wii Fit, I am sore. I am also pretty fat (32.xx BMI, and I'm not an athlete, so that's pretty accurate). The game charts your progress (based on BMI, and as a relative percentage) every day, which is quite useful.
The game places an emphasis (peculiar, at first, I have to admit) on balance. This is for a few reasons. The Balance Board is the game's only input, but it can tell where your center of balance is (and what your weight is) very well. The game doesn't come with any weights for additional resistance, so any resistance your muscles would work against is directly related to your body position.
Finally, the emphasis on balance seems to be firmly rooted in eastern culture. I mean, I can't really think of why it's so important to have *exactly* 50.0% of my weight on my left foot, and 50.0% of my weight on my right foot, and right now, that goal seems impossible.
Where the game succeeds best is, as is noted in the CR review, is in the balance games. Some people can exercise without the additional benefit of visual stimulation -- they enjoy varying degrees of pain or short-term uncomfortability for the hope of long-term progress. I am not one of them. So this is a big boon to me. And these exercises are not of the Wii Sports variety, either; whereas that game would just give you tennis elbow, in Wii Fit you're fighting yourself while trying to head soccer balls or being the human Super Monkey Ball. (Fighting yourself. How very eastern.)
Most importantly, the game makes sense to anyone who hasn't touched a controller. It's straightforward in the way Nintendo has made all of their games in the Wii generation, so that everyone can use it. This alone will be why Wii Fit should outsell Gran Turismo by at least a factor of 2-3 : 1.
I don't exercise nearly as often as I should. I also don't think this game will be the start of a sweeping change in our culture (where everyone walks swinging their arms as much as possible to improve their posture). But it's a big step forward in getting the interactive part of exercise to the home, without having to resort to video tapes or DVDs (no feedback in terms of balance), Bally's (image conscious?) or personal trainers (far more expensive than $90).
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
I see a lot of people complaining that it's not a REAL workout, or it's just a gimmick. Knowing that the Wii Fit is sold out almost everywhere, how many of you have actually tried it?
I own a Wii Fit. I've been using it for 5 days now. Not a workout, my ass! Maybe if you only do the balance games, or maybe if you only consider a workout to be doing weightlifting. I've been doing the cardio games (Hula Hoop, Stepping, Running), and I end each session out of breath and sweating. No, a single 2 minute stepping series on the starter level doesn't wear me out. 30 minutes of rotating between the 3 exercises in the more advanced mode (which you only get after having done them for 30 minutes...I think. Regardless, they are an unlockable you wouldn't see the first time you tried) will have your heart rate up just as effectively as the same amount of time on your average exercise bike or elliptical trainer.
Would I lose any more weight if I drove 30 minutes to the nearest gym, paid the equivelent of a used car payment in membership fees every month, and used machines covered in somebody else's sweat? I doubt it. More importantly, I wouldn't bother, so I wouldn'get get ANY exercise. Walking into my living room and turning on the TV seems to have a much lower barrier to entry, so I can't easily make excuses for why I can't work out today.
`fortune -o`
I have had the opportunity to play with the Wii Fit for a few days now. I like it. The style is very much like Brain Age and other training games on the Nintendo platforms. Some of the Aerobics and Balance games are fun to play with other people. It isn't setup to be competitive, but if you rotate profiles it works fine. Unfortunately many of the games don't have enormous amounts of replay-ability. It isn't long before you master each one and need to move up in difficulty. After you've perfected each one they are kind of repetitive and it doesn't take many days to get very good. As for the workout aspect, some of the exercises can get you to break a sweat, but most of them won't. The running in place exercises definitely can if you really put yourself into it. Rhythm boxing is also pretty good. I didn't do much of the yoga and strength training exercises, but it looks like they would be effective if you actually followed along with them.
The use of BMI without any warnings about the flaws of BMI is a little disappointing, but generally it is accurate enough for average people. Still, it is good to be aware of what BMI is, and they don't do anything to help you understand that.
Overall, I like it. I'd give it a 7 out of 10. You can really use it to work on your fitness. It probably won't guide you to being a top tier athlete, but just to stay in a reasonable shape I have little doubt it could work. Like most things at first it will be great, and then you will likely grow tired of it. You have to keep using it to get results, and there is no magic there. Like anything else you only get out of it what you put in. It nicely tracks your weight and BMI over time and provides graphs so you can see your progress over time. At first the games are lots of fun, but after the novelty has worn off (like with Wii Sports) the fitness stuff will remain for those willing to take it seriously.
I'm looking forward to future games using the Wii balance board. There is a lot of potential there for some incredible gameplay.
"Will CR be reviewing the next installment of Gran Turismo?"
CR picking up on Wii Fit is less an indication of CR getting involved in game reviews and more an indication of the success of Nintendo at reaching out to non-gamers. By the blurb alone it's easy to see that they tested it not as a video game but as a physical fitness device.
So no, Consumer Reports will not be reviewing the next installment of Gran Tursimo, any more than they review the next movie or album.
Ok, I'm watching the video and apparently the woman doing the voice over wasn't one of the 15 people using Wii Fit as she called the balance board "optional". Sorry, but running in place is only so exciting, and it's the only game (that I have unlocked anyway) that doesn't require the board.
Disclaimer: I use CR for most things. That said, I've seen people use crappy stuff. Maybe a blender has no soul (believe me, I don't derive enjoyment from driving my Civic, but that's because I use it primarily as a tool to get from point A to point B) but I *do* feel good when it "just works". As opposed to other blenders I've owned that don't blend, or blend very crappily.
The reason that Wii Fit is being reviewed is because it is passing itself off as a piece of exercise equipment, not (primarily) because it's a video game. CR happens to review exercise equipment.
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
I found the boxing in Wii sports to be a light impact cardio work out. Im usually a touch winded after a couple of fights. I wouldnt call it a work out but its a lot more interactive than Mike Tysons Punch Out.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
They do? Where? There are no ads accompanying the article and I don't see them on any of the reviews I've looked at.
The reason CR sucks though it that their reach is too far to produce any real usable information and reviews.I've found their reviews very useful and their expertise in affordable testing procedures carries from products to product. They provide fairly useful reviews from a normal person's perspective, with some product lines being reviewed by experts as well.
You say Consumer Reports sucks.. well maybe so, unless you compare them to every other company out there. They're pretty much the most reliable source of unbiased, professionally written reviews out there. Even for unprofessional reviews you have to deal with astroturf (more and more common) and with people trying to justify their purchase, by excusing problems or by villainizing the company because of a bad experience. Consumer Reports is better than anyone else I've seen. Who, exactly, is more trustworthy and useful in your opinion and why do you think that?
Calories aren't the only thing that matter. The chicken on that salad has lots of sodium (depending upon which salad you're talking about, the salad+chicken can have up to 960mg.) The salad dressing has another 700mg or so. That's per serving--I don't know how many servings you get per order.
I can't figure out which salad you're talking about, anyway. Every non-ceasar salad with chicken has at least 260 calories per serving, plus another 40 from the dressing (again, always assuming 1 serving of each). Maybe you didn't include the dressing when you were reading on the salad's nutritional information?
Citation:
http://www.mcdonalds.com/app_controller.nutrition.index1.html
The salads may taste good, but that doesn't mean that they're good for you.
Balance is also important in a "real" exercise routine to ensure muscles are worked evenly. A good example is weight machines- if your balance is very bad, you will not be able to use the machine properly, and you may end up injuring yourself.
Have you actually used WiiFit? I have been using it every chance I get and let me tell you, some of those activities make you feel the burn. I didn't think much of Yoga, but I've got to say that some of those poses really work out your muscles. (Note to those attempting Tree Pose: Wear "slipper socks" or some other gripping sock/shoe or your foot will slide down your leg leading to loss of balance.) I've found that the best (of my currently unlocked activities) is the Hula Hoops. Swinging around to spin those hoops and then leaning over to catch other hoops really seems like a great workout.
Of course, WiiFit can only be one part of a plan to get in shape. If you work out with WiiFit for 30 minutes a day, but then follow that up with a banana split each time, you're not going to lose any weight. However, if you work out with WiiFit and eat healthier, the added exercise WiiFit gives you should help with weight loss.
Plus, the weight/BMI charting alone should help. I've found that the closer I pay attention to my weight, the less likely I am to gain weight. Probably because I'll be more likely to reconsider that sweet treat if my weight is on my mind.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
I own a Wii Fit. I'm also a martial artist. I bought the thing mostly so me and my girlfriend can work out together a little on the weekends.
Turns out, there are some exercises in there - in the advanced section that you have to unlock - that are quite a good workout even for me. Remember that in many cases, it isn't how much weight you lift or how fast you do something, but the number of repetitions. Also, all that yoga stuff and balance training is quite a good addition to my usual training.
There are also parts that I don't like that much (like having to start with the baby stuff, no matter what) but all in all it definitely is good exercise - as long as you don't consider it a total replacement of all other activities, but it does a good job of reminding you about that.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
It's better than eating a bullet, too. That doesn't make it good for you.
Sadly, he's not even right on the numbers. A pound of muscle takes about 35 calories to maintain (that's only 87.5 calories/day for 2.5 lbs of muscle). Building that muscle takes a lot more calories, so resistance training IS important.
The diet stuff leaves you hungry, leads to more snacking. Supposedly, when you eat food (with real live calories) your body thinks it's been in starvation mode (thank you 0 calorie soda!) and stores as many calories as it can as fat. HFCS does other nasty things to you, not to mention all the trans-fatty acids in the American diet.
Wanna lose weight? Eat less, exercise more. Do resistance training and stop sucking down the soda, diet or otherwise.
Here come da fudge!
Near the end of the video the comment is made that if you aren't an athlete the Wii Fit will probably work for you. That is pretty much in line with what I've seen. We got one 2 weeks ago, and it does give you a workout if you aren't fit.
My wife and eldest son are both very obese, and the machine can get them both sweating with jelly-legs. I'm not overweight, but don't get to exercise much any more. I find I can get my cardio right up on it. Is it a complete substitute for a gym with personal trainer? No. But it's much cheaper than gym membership for my entire family (7 people) and gets my kids (especially the video game addicted teens) moving more than they were before.
What I'm hoping to see is that it will be a tool that will improve their fitness enough that they get back on their bikes. So far I believe it will.
are a good thing in my mind. [disclaimer]I haven't managed to get my hands on a copy of this game yet, all the stores near me are sold out.[/disclaimer]
But when DDR got big, I've got to say I saw it as a positive thing. Will it replace treadmills and such? Of course not. But, to someone with my attention span, a treadmill is VERY boring. A video game is fun and exciting, so I am much more likely to use it.
Case it point: in my living room right now, I have a nice metal dance pad and a nice elliptical machine. They both cost about the same. Guess which one gets used more? Exactly. So even if the dance pad doesn't give a better workout, it gives a better workout anyway because I will actually use the damn thing rather than avoid it like the plague.
Just my 2c
In Soviet Russia jokes are formulaic and decidedly non-humorous.
You are clearly unfamiliar with anything the Wii Fit does. No, it isn't some professional sports star training regiment, nor is it meant to be. The Wii Fit has things broken into a number of categories, Yoga, Strength Training, Aerobics, and Balance Games.
Now, I'm no fan of yoga nor am I knowledgable enough on the subject to critique it.
The strength training exercises are the standard group of exercises that you would normally do, pushups/side planks, various leg lifts, jackknives, all the Wii Fit does is watch your center of balance and in some cases count what you are doing. It also does almost all of these excercises at an excruciatingly slow pace, which if you know anything about most strength training exercises is the correct way to do it. 30 very slow and controlled pushups will put a burn in your muscles far beyond 100 rocket fast pushups.
The aerobics piece is basically the same. The game does very little more than give you something to play along with while exercising. How much workout you get is entirely dependent on the effort you put into it, not what the game is doing. As you spend more time on the thing it unlocks more exercises and more options. The hulahoop thing on TV eventaully can go into longer time frames and it measures your balance and movement control while you are doing it.
The balance games are pretty amazing themselves. They force you to shift your center of balance around and are far more difficult than they look. I had major reconstructive surgery on my ankle and I thought it was getting quite a bit better until I played with this for a while. I realized that all I was doing was shifting more of my weight onto the opposite leg rather than really rehabilitating. These balance games are forcing me to rebalance my weight and build the muscles required for better stability.
Finally it lets you do little body tests every day for weight and body control and tracks that information. The game isn't meant to make you fit. The game is meant to give you motivation to get fit yourself, let you set goals and track them. The little beast is very effective at giving you a solid measure of progress.
I don't think this has anything to do with Nintendo trying to be a "responsible" gaming company. They did it because there was a demand for it and those devices are flying off shelves. I think it is obvious to anyone who has actually played with one of these that you probably haven't seen anything other than some commercials. Also, your S=$ isn't that clever. They are profiting off of a real demand, not some enforced monopoly status like MS. And the S=$ isn't even that clever there.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
How else would you explain the lackluster reviews of cars such as the BMW 3-series, that seem to win award after award in nearly every automotive journal on the shelves?
What lackluster reviews? BMW 3-series gets top marks in every category (membership required) and the new wagon gets a good score but loses points for controls, cup-holder design, a small interior, and the need for premium fuel. I'm not sure why you're so personally offended by such an honest review, but maybe it would help you to know most CR readers don't focus much on the final "score" but rather look at the pros/cons and consider which are important to them.
Your post really comes across as a pompous attempt to be a "car guy" but real "car guys" (1) don't get their panties in a twist over a CR review and (2) don't drive BMW's.
everything in moderation
How do you know it is not biased? They're being paid by the companies they are reviewing. So how do you know they don't nix the most critical reviews? Do they take donated cameras? Are those cameras the same as normal people buy, or cherry picked by the companies donating them?
The point is no one place reviews all these things because to do so is madness.There are several things useful for review sites. Expertise is one, and maybe one where CR is not top of their game. Another is credibility, where CR is at the top of their game. With other sites, you just don't know for the most part if they are honest or will remain that way. A third is testing methodology. Do they know how to acquire and test batches of goods for reliability?
Still individual publications out write CR in every field they cover. This is because they specialize which is a good thing.Most individual publications are horribly biased either by intention or because of the realities of the industry. The only practical way around that is to move away from advertising as in income stream and move to subscriptions. Very few people want to pay a subscription for just reviews on one type of product, because it is inconvenient even if it is not too costly.
If they run ads or even take donated gear, I don't trust them. This opinion has proved to be the correct one again and again as magazine after magazine has been exposed as changing content to suit the people paying them, and that isn't the reader. For sites where consumers post reviews, the situation is just as bad. Reviews can be removed at the behest of advertisers. Reviews can be paid astroturfing. Reviews can be biased by consumers trying to justify their purchase or angry because they had a bad experience that may not be reflective of the general case. Seriously, paid subscriptions are the only model that does not have a huge probability of intentional or unintentional misinformation.
I dunno, I find them a good source of concrete relative comparisons rather than gushing hyperbole like most advertising-driven reviews from other sources. Even for cars. Yes, there are lots of subjective factors that go into car buying (or blender buying, for that matter), but subjective reviews by third parties (even if they were directed by a desire to maximize advertising revenue rather than honesty) aren't a good guide to those factors most of the time, anyway (the self-awareness to know what objective factors influence your subjective response to something allows objective reviews to sometimes be a good guide to that, and beyond that you've just got to try it yourself.)
As I was watching TV the other day, I wondered....does CR do any sort of reviews on the various "male enhancement" pills they advertise during primetime? Heh, is there any sort of 3rd party examination of things like that?
"Eating a bullet" is a phrase used to mean that a person was shot in the head with the gun barrel having been placed in the mouth before firing. It's almost always a euphemism for suicide.
They exist to keep regular joes from getting ripped off.
They do not exist to give expert advise to nit-picking, niche hobbyists. If you want that sort of expert advise, go to one of the many magazines dedicated to whatever niche you have a fetish for.
Meanwhile the people who just want to buy a washing machine/refrigerator/car/bed/television/dvd-player/vacuum/etc that does a decent job and won't break down a month after the warranty expires can go to CR.
The number 60 calories/pound of muscle per day came from a news story I had seen earlier this year ...
Upon googling it seems that there is no solid answer and people are claiming anywhere from 6 calories per day to 90 calories per day; it isn't quite as simple as the 35 calories you listed either being that most (seemingly trustworthy) sites claimed between 35 and 50 calories per pound of muscle per day.
If you have a tube tv, there is nothing that little plastic box is going to do to inches thick tempered glass. That stuff is holding back 15 pounds per square inch *already* and you think twenty flings of a flimsy plastic pointing device is going to do *anything* to it at all?
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Well... I *have* been asked what kind of dressing I wanted with my salad after ordering a caesar salad at McD's....
Me: *raises eyebrow* Caesar?
Girl behind the counter: That's a kind of dressing?
Me: *waits patiently while girl checks*
Girl: oh. Wow. I didn't know that! *slaps forehead*
Me: *dies inside*
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
A lot of people don't engage in any other activities already. I have a friend whose mom is like 62 or something, and her body has just broken down because she stopped doing anything, just sat on the couch and watched TV or read books or ordered shit from catalogs while balancing the ice cream container on her gut. If she would get up and walk around the building a couple times, it would be an improvement. Depending entirely on Wii Fit would be a DRAMATIC upgrade.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
since when I put it in my pants, it tends ruin your pace
I don't think I want to know what kind of game you have that requires you to put the wiimote in your pants. Heck, this one is bad enough :p
And just why should a wiimote in your pants ruin my pace, anyway? I don't even know you...
Yes...beer drinking...
That the reviewers did not follow the game's instructions and wore shoes on the balance board. I have difficulty listening to a review done by someone who cannot be bothered to follow the maker's instructions.
Voting them all out of office, now that's change I can believe in.