"Nintendo was already planning to appeal this case to the Federal Circuit court,'' Nintendo spokesman Charlie Scibetta said in an e-mailed statement. ``The recent ruling by the trial court does not impact that decision.''

Note that the ban does not affect the Wii remote or nunchuck controllers - just the standard controllers that include analog sticks.

Nintendo Faces Ban on Some Wii, GameCube Controllers [Bloomberg - Thanks Shannon]

Wii Fit is in many ways the next step in Wii Sports, a title that boils gaming down to it's most rudimentary elements of interaction and fun. But can even Miyamoto make tracking your BMI and doing Yoga interesting?

Loved
Fun Balance Games: I enjoyed testing out Yoga and I know that both Strength Training and Aerobics are probably the best for building muscle or endurance, but it's those Balance Games that were the biggest hit in my family. Who knew standing could be so much fun?

Excellent Balance Board Peripheral: For something that is essentially four sensors, the Balance Board can do an awful lot and it's ability to test movement is amazingly precise. The peripheral performed well in Wii Fit, but what really excites me is the potential of using it in games like Shaun White and Skate It.

Great Motivator: Before Wii Fit my parents had no interest in the Wii, now they're one of those countless prospects cruising the local Best Buy and Target daily in hopes of landing a Wii. My wife, an avid non-gamer, is even intrigued and my son and I actually take turns to see who can make it the furthest down the river in Balance Bubble. If nothing else, Wii Fit is an amazing motivator and a fun way to track your progress when doing other exercises. It sure beats weighing yourself on a bathroom scale.

Hated
Idiotic Unlocking Method:I have come to terms with the fact that games, almost all 40 or so of the games it seems, force you to do stuff to actually get to the whole game. Unlocking content through gameplay isn't that big a deal to me, usually. But when you release a collection of mini-games and then make most of them unlockable by measuring the time spent playing, well that's bad design. What makes it worse is that many of the games in Wii Fit take less than three minutes to play, some less than two and a few less than a minute. The games can be fun, but I just don't want to play Hula Hoop THAT many times.

No Online Support: I really dig how you can compare your progress in a non-demeaning way (aka no weight shown) with your family and friends who also play Wii Fit. But why limit it to just those who play on your machine. It would have made a lot of sense to let me, for instance, use those abysmal friend codes to share my scores with my mom and step-dad who just bought the game, but live two states away. Heck, I'd even settle for using the Wii's messaging system.

Lack of Modes: Why can't my son hop onto the Wii Fit board and play a Balance Game right after I do? Sure he can try to use my profile, but it seems that the Balance Board compensates for weight, making it nearly impossible for him to get a reaction. Instead he has to back all the way out of the game and choose his own profile. It seems that the developers should have included a multiplayer mode. The same is true for those who want to use Wii Fit for actual health reasons. While the game suggests workout combinations that include different mini-games, you cant pre-select them and then run through them back to back, like a real workout. Instead you're forced to go through the tedium of moving around in a menu to select the games.

Last week I had a chance to sit down and talk with Nintendo's Cammie Dunaway about Wii Fit. I was convinced it was a game that was doomed to a week of play and then lots of dust. While Dunaway disagreed, I've come to realize that it probably doesn't matter. Wii Fit may be a game enjoyed or one tested and put away, but more importantly, it's a way for Nintendo to sneak a Balance Board into millions of homes. Already several developers have new games in the works for it, and I suspect that may have been the plan all along.

While the Wii Fit kit is intriguing, the software suffers from a pretty big identity crisis: Does it want to be a game or does it want to be something used to improve a person's health? This indecision on the developer's part led to a game that is more interesting than it is fulfilling. I want to like Wii Fit. I want to use it everyday to help obtain physical balance and keep an eye on my weight, but the frustrations of play, the tedium of menus prevents me. I'll still use it and enjoy it, but these slight design flaws have relegated the game to curiosity rather than crown jewel.

Wii Fit was developed by Nintendo Entertainment, Analysis and Development and published by Nintendo. Retails for $90. Available on Wii. Played single player for a week, daily for 30 minutes to an hour. Watched son, wife, mother and step-father all play it over a week.

At first blush Far Cry 2 looks and behaves a bit like Grand Theft Auto IV: The game has an open world, friends who can come to your rescue, a phone you use to contact them, safe houses, a detailed map for guidance and a non-linear story line.

But where at its heart Grand Theft Auto IV is an action game, Far Cry 2 has its roots deeply embedded in the bedrock of shooters and from what I saw during my short time with the game it seems to remain true to those origins.

I asked the developers about the similarities and he seemed genuinely surprised, I think that’s because most of these similarities are obvious design decisions made once you’ve decided you want to create a sandbox game and the parallels are for the most part quite superficial.

Friends for instance. In Grand Theft Auto IV, you can call them for help, but they don’t really get involved in missions. In Far Cry 2 they are your salvation.

Playing through a chunk of the game, I got caught up in a particularly hairy firefight. As is often the case when I play games with an option for a stealth approach, I stumbled into an enemy camp and managed to alert just about everyone there without firing off a single shot.

Soon I was taking fire from all sides. As would be expected, the aiming and controls in Far Cry 2 are excellent, well-honed mechanics. Whether you’re sniping, firing off rockets (which can be laser guided to a target), or just popping off rounds from a rifle, it is easy to land precision hits, even on the go.

The enemy artificial intelligence seemed quite robust after I tipped them off to my presence. A man in a wooden watch tower fired off sniper rounds at me as men tried to flank me from both sides. I managed to take out the sniper and two men and then blew up a nearby gas canister to try and distract the rest of the bad guys. Unfortunately, that seemed to attract the attention of nearby men, who cruised into camp on a jeep.

Muscling my way through the camp proved to be far more difficult than I assumed it would be and shortly into my escapade, I was downed by enemy fire.

When I started playing the game, I went into a safe house to meet up with a contact and then befriended one of the game’s main characters. It was this newly minted friend who, unbidden, came to my rescue, pulling me from the ground, where things had become decidedly black and white for me, and hustling me to safety.

What was so neat about this mechanic was that I really had no control of what was going on. The sequence, seen through the shaking vision of a dying man, took away all control and forced me to watch as a friend dragged me through combat to a place away from enemies, and then patched me up. That can’t help but make you feel attached to your friends, something I hope the developers take advantage of in the game’s storyline.

Healing, as has been noted before, is also rather unique. You still need to grab what are essentially health packs, but the developers added a collection of unique animations to the healing mechanic so you get patched up in different ways depending on how you were injured. If you’re shot, you use a knife to dig out a bullet. Burned, you pat out flames. It’s superficial, but still kinda neat.

The game’s map also has plenty of neat touches. It’s an actual map you pull out and hold in front of you when you use it. So driving becomes a one-handed affair when you are looking at the map on the move. The map also updates with information when you spot things like bad guys or tactical information through your binoculars. The whole thing feels very organic, very real.

During my time with the game I played through a single, relatively short mission that had me driving from a safe house (there is always one about two minutes away on the 50 square kilometer map) to a nearby camp where I was to shut down a gas line. The game will feature more than 100 missions, I was told, 25 of which are tied to the main story line and the remaining 75 are considered side missions, assignments you get from your buddies.

I remain impressed with the game’s graphics, controls and feel. It is a game that has managed to erase the bad taste of Far Cry Instincts from my mouth, but just barely. I played on the PC version of the game simply because that’s what I plan on getting when it comes out, but the developers insist that there is no difference between how the game will perform on the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

While that looks to be true, I won’t truly believe it until I see it.

LEGO Universe design director Brian Booker says that the game will have an "overarching epic storyline about the origins of LEGO Universe and the minifigs that inhabit it."

I can't tell everything about the game just yet, but maybe I can give you some hints... Aside from just playing games or trading and socializing, the story allows minifigs to team up—and that's when the real adventuring begins. If the teams of little LEGO people are successful in their endeavors, they'll uncover new zones where they can have new and different experiences...

Booker also walks us through the games economy which isn't, it turns out, based on studs.

Turns out that LEGO's are going to be toting around... plastic to buy things.

Essentially, new minifigs enter LEGO Universe with nothing: no money, no bricks, no stuff. Then they go through the world completing challenges, defeating enemies, gathering goods, discovering treasures and unlocking secrets. Along the way, the minifigs find bricks and collect a highly valuable currency— plastic.

Using plastic, you can buy and sell goods to do things like customize your minifig; all the shops and vendors in LEGO Universe take plastic!

Since LEGO bricks are actually made of plastic, your minifig can also use it to create the bricks they need for their models or pets. But you could also trade with other minifigs for the bricks you need —so you can conserve your currency by cooperating!

"While the Entertainment Software Association remains the preeminent voice for U.S. computer and video game publishers, we can confirm that Activision and Vivendi Games opted to discontinue their membership. The ESA remains dedicated to advancing our industry's objectives such as protecting intellectual property, preserving First Amendment rights, and fostering a beneficial environment for the entire industry. Our high level of service and value to members and the larger industry remains unchanged."

- Rich Taylor, Senior Vice President of Communications and Research, Entertainment Software Association

This comes a day after it was noted that Activision and a number of other notable publishers were not listed as showing at the industry's big conference.

Neither Activision nor Vivendi have responded to requests for comment. More as this breaking story unfolds.