Note: This week's celebration of sloth is a slightly less straightforward (read: completely different) version of a story that PCW ran on the Madden Curse (and legacy) earlier this week. Also, I apologize in advance for anything that may happen to Brett Favre. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Of course, Madden NFL Football is a huge game. It's EA's golden goose--no, wait, it's more than that. A little over 20 years ago, John Madden was just a man. A former pro footballer and coach turned color commentator. Then, in 1988, Electronic Arts put him on the cover of its new Apple II football game, and--wham!--just like that, he became a legend.

The original plan: Go interactive and challenge you--yes, you, the one who just clicked on PC World's weekly column dedicated to goofing off. Then I realized that I'd get my butt kicked. But I digress. For the past couple of days, I've been playing Reset Generation--the most cleverly designed, most addictive, and most hard-to-quickly-describe puzzle game in ages.

Normally, I try to keep it casual with PC World's weekly slothfest--and this week was to be no different. The original plan was to dig into the megaton fighting game, Soul Calibur IV , which launched this week for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It looks fantastic, is amazingly replayable, and lets you beat up frenemies over the Internet. Then I flip on the news. Senator McCain jabs at Senator Obama, saying that Barack is akin to Paris Hilton (minus the estrogen and X-rated videos). Obama fires back about GOP tactics. There has to be a more civil way for these two to hash out differences. That's when it hits me: You can create your own custom fighters in Soul Calibur. Yeah, I think you can see where this is going...

White House Calibur

Barack always struck me as a Jeet Kun Do master: nimble, deadly with his words--and with a pair of nunchucks. McCain? This guy's tough as nails. I don't know if I could've made it through half the stuff he did, so, of course, I have to equip him with the biggest mallet available. (Disclaimer: The author denies any knowledge of martial arts training on the part of either presidential candidate and avers that this game in no way replaces real political discourse.) Ready? FIGHT!

So many games ask you to shell out 50 or 60 bucks, and for what? Thirty or so hours of playtime? Great, but what if you don't want to spend a whole week in fantasy land? That's where episodic gaming comes in: smaller games selling for less and offered up on a more frequent basis. Y'know, like Heroes or Battlestar Galactica--shows that keep you glued to the set from one week to the next. Well, the new TV season may be a couple months out, but that doesn't mean PC World's slack celebration can't pay its own tribute. Here's a quick list of new (and old) episodes to try.

Siren: Blood Curse
Season Starts: July 24
Network: PS3
Episodiness: 12 episodes; in a set, or in smaller packs
The Deal: Bloody zombie-ish things? Check. Creepy puzzle-solving mysteries while you (literally) have to beat back said demons? Double check. Siren: Blood Curse really gets under your skin as a thriller (Think The Ring meets Silent Hill), and it's also Sony's first experiment in episodic gaming on the PS3. Some talk a good game about episodes, but this release really sells the idea. Each chapter closes on a cliffhanger. Start a new chapter, and it might as well say, "Last time on Siren...."

I'm all for celebrating slack on a weekly basis here at PC World, but there's something more tangible that I like just as much: free games. Now a little confession before I go any further. In my past life as a video-gaming journalist, I was a bit of a freeloader--that is, I'd be ferreting out freebies that were just addictive fun. And today, I'm giving you my personal Top 10 free games that I'm playing right now--with a bonus eleventh game, to boot--and links to hundreds of others).

The Best Free Games (This Week)

One of last year's hits, Portal, had a simple concept: Shoot a warp hole in one wall and create the exit point in another. Easily one of my favorite puzzle-solving games in years, it was brilliant, but waaaaay too brief. To keep me going, I've played Portal: The Flash Version on lunch breaks but that still isn't enough. Ready for another 40 levels of brain-bending puzzles? These days, I'm making my way through P:TFV Mappack, which plugs into the original PC version of Portal.

For PC World's latest  celebration of slack, we're taking another rocking look at an ever-increasing trend in the video-game scene: music-based games. Guitar Hero kicked it off here in the states a few years back (evolving more with every update); meanwhile, Electronic Arts and MTV blaze ahead with a September release of Rock Band 2. I've brought this up in a couple different Casual Friday columns already, but we simply need to accept that games are the new MTV. And Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, which launched just this week, could be the next step in that direction.

The Interactive Box Set

Initially, I made a couple cracks about how GH:A should be like some VH1 Behind the Music special. Playing some less-than-"G-rated" moments in Steven Tyler / Joe Perry's career sounds fan-tastic (like a battle mode while chasing the dragon, maybe?), but a deep dive into the band members' lives, this isn't. It's an interactive box set. Need proof? There's a collector's edition bundle that ships with an Aerosmith guitar, an 18-page "Tour Book," and, oh, yeah, the game.

Welcome back to PC World's weekly celebration of slack. And nothing screams "slack" like summertime. Problem is, with gas prices rising and dollar values dropping, taking a vacation is tough on the wallet. So, what are you going to do with your spare time?

The Great Indoors

Staycation (stay-kay-shun, noun). "A vacation that is spent at one's home enjoying all that home and one's home environs have to offer." --Urban Dictionary

Welcome back to PC World's weekly celebration of slack. So get your geek on as we examine remote-access gaming, playing Crysis in odd places, and the future of online games. (Melodramatic enough for you?) 

Disclaimer: Hey, I was due for a remotely serious column. I can always go back to something screwy for next week.

Welcome back to PC World's weekly celebration of slack. For this installment, I stand in line and wait patiently for the next summer blockbuster ... and later, I get infected with love for EA's Spore.

Waiting on Solid Snake

"Excuse me ... what is everyone waiting in line for?"

In PC World's ongoing efforts to celebrate sloth, we're taking a high-tech detour this week. I mean, yes, we'll find cool ways to kill time and slay spies--but how about, as well, some top secret tech that will show you how not to get caught while doing it?

NATURAL BOURNE KILLER

Everyone knows Bond, James Bond. But Jason Bourne? Before the movies, you probably never even heard of the pulp fiction star. Well, this week marks Bourne's first video game treatment, and here's the shocker: It ain't half bad. Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy (available on PS3 and Xbox 360) retraces steps from the first flick while filling in blanks along the way. Do I miss not seeing Matt Damon's likeness? No.

Welcome back to PC World's ongoing effort to celebrate sloth. This week, we're monkeying around in one epic, action-heavy online game for which you won't mind paying the $15-per-month fee. First, though, buckle up for a few massively multiplayer online games that won't cost you one red cent. We're talking completely gratis online gaming--no hidden items to buy, no shenanigans.

The Free-MMO Patrol

Don't feel like parting with your paycheck just to goof off? Here are couple of free online games that I'll probably spend the rest of my weekend playing. Give 'em a try--it's not as if they'll cost you anything.

Welcome back to PC World's weekly effort to celebrate sloth. Today, we're shaking things up a little bit by exploring a serious topic (albeit in a barely serious way): your health. So are you ready to get your lazy duff off the sofa and onto something a little less comfortable?

Kicking the Habit

Right now, according to the Surgeon General, 12.5 million overweight American kids lead sedentary lives of quiet inhalation of Slushies (if someone else is going to Seven-Eleven anyway...) and Cheetos. Mmmm, Cheetos. No doubt, video games are on notice for inducing indolence, encouraging antisocial behavior, and breeding killing machines. Or so I'm told. That's right, games provide all sorts of bad influences--and they have for ages, but you may not have noticed the signs.