Directory — Video Games — Blog Details for "The Wii PlayBox 360.3"

The Wii PlayBox 360.3

The Wii PlayBox 360.3
An all-purpose gaming blog with news, reviews, and how-tos for video games on all major consoles.

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2

Articles

Idea: Gaming Radio
2008-01-28 03:44:00
What if there were a service like radio for gaming? If someone could parse out demo levels of any number of games from any era with commentary during the load screens, that would be awesome. There'd be plenty of mainstream channels that would constantly cycle just the newest stuff, but channels for oldies and rhythm games and special things like that would exist as well. I think that'd be a great idea if it could possibly be implemented. Longer load times would require special interviews and histories of the game and stuff to keep people interested, but it'd be well worth it. Imagine everyone playing at once just a single level out of the same game at once, competing for a better aggregate score throughout the games for channels that would support that. I think the service could work commercially as well, with advertisements spliced into the commentary as well as some money coming from the gamemakers for featuring their game well on the service, perhaps. It seems like a great ide...
More About: Radio , Gaming , Idea

Politics in Gaming Blog to Split Off from This One
2008-01-23 01:00:00
I really want to post about where politics and gaming collide a lot, but I have little opportunity when this is a site for regular gaming news. That's why I'm going to split those posts off into a new blog, The Legal Arcade. Look there for any interest you have in gaming issues in politics, studies, pundits, and generally uncool old people. Prepare to be angry.
More About: Politics , Gaming , Blog , Split

[WPB] Call of Duty 4 Clan
2008-01-21 15:40:00
Alright, I really want to start a CoD4 clan, so I'm just going to, and this is the recruitment post you should be taken to if you came upon an invite to the clan. There's a poll on the right sidebar to pick the nickname for it, you can also give suggestions by commenting on this post.So, the Wii PlayBox is starting up a new Call of Duty 4 clan. I will only be able to play on the PS3, but if there are enough other system players to warrant 360 or PC divisions, then that's fine. Basically, I'm very soft on who to recruit. New players are welcomed, and I'd almost rather you not have a microphone so I don't have to be annoyed by anyone. Just friend me (PSN ID: kingpenguin1029) if you're playing on the PS3, and add the clan tag [WPB] in front of your name. Then we can sort of casually start gaming together, with scheduled events likely if this works out well enough. Comment on this post if you plan to join, but this is a clan done lite, not such a big deal as some others may be.Up...
More About: Call of Duty , Clan , Call of Duty 4

Brazil Bans Gaming Like It's 1999
2008-01-20 03:42:00
Just look at this article. Brazil bans Counter-strike and Everquest? Where did that come from? Both games were released in 1999, and neither's especially over-the-top with violence or anything. But apparently they both "…[Encouraged] the subversion of public order, were an attack against the democratic state and the law and against public security." Don't ask me. I have little else to say on the subject, because I can't figure out why a country would do that. It's just not hip to ban old stuff, unless it's Don Imus. That I can understand.
More About: Gaming

Modern Warfare has Never Been This Much Fun!
2008-01-18 05:09:00
Call of Duty 4 is the bomb. It also contains numerous bombs, which are hereby to be termed meta-bombs to avoid confusion. That's a joke, but seriously, I'm getting really lazy with my posts on the blog, and it's all due to Call of Duty. I'm rather late on the bandwagon with it, but I've gone through the single-player campaign on hardened difficulty and made it up to staff sergeant online pretty quickly.As in the rest of the Call of Duty series, the single player the first time through it seems like the most exciting thing you've ever done. Then the next times through, it gets irritating how many times you have to die and start over, but that's what online is for. The online is really nice, and it forces you to unlock everything for it over time. I don't know of another game I've played where you didn't have access to all the online game modes until after you've played hours and hours. Very strange, but the weapon unlocks seem much more suitable and rewarding. My MP5 is un...
More About: Modern , Warfare

Waving My Banner on High
2008-01-17 04:10:00
At the top of the page is the new "Clockwork PlayBox" banner for the site, assuming that you're looking at this post reasonably soon after I wrote it. I think I'm sticking with this one for a while, it's pretty awesome. Below are the previous designs:"The Original" my first banner and before I took out those numbers from the name of the site. I thought that the numbers would be necessary for people to realize that Wii PlayBox is a combination of the three consoles' names, but it really just makes the name too long."Corporate Qbert" was a prospective banner that I haven't used yet. It has a wonderful Qbert background and the real logos of the three companies in it, but it's sort of difficult to see and there's some left over green crap to the right that I couldn't get out very easily. I sort of like it, though.Here's the previous banner, which I'll call "KingPenguin PlayBox". It's alright, but having my avatar on the right doesn't really have anything to do with games esp...
More About: High , Banner , Waving

A Stern Warning of Games to Come... for Playstation 3
2008-01-16 03:29:00
These posts will detail the video games ready to explode onto the gaming world for 2008. Even though Sony apparently has several unrevealed IPs in store it will announce (sorry, can't find the link to that story right now) most everyone still knows what the big hits for their year are meant to be. Metal Gear Solid 4, LittleBigPlanet, and Resistance 2 are the three most hyped exclusives for the Playstation 3 in 2008. Those linked sites give you a good idea of how complete the three games are. Resistance 2 is set to be released apparently in the fall, Metal Gear Solid 4 in June despite earlier beliefs that it'd be out for Christmas 2007, and LittleBigPlanet leaves everyone completely puzzled as for a release date. It was set for 2007 as well, but got seriously delayed, and is perhaps going to be ready for September.Metal Gear Solid 4 is certainly going to be releasing on time, as it has been recently announced that it is fully playable from start to finish now. The highly anticipate...
More About: Games , Stern , Playstation 3 , Warning

Video Game Ideas You'll Wish You Thought Of
2008-01-13 18:26:00
Admittedly, some of these names were generated by this site to get the creative juices flowing.Vandal Hero: Don't buy it, kids, it's a trap! In the game, you're a regular high school kid who vandalizes territory to gain props points. But the trick is, you're actually learning while you vandalize! Rearrange the letters on church bulletin board marquis-things into naughty words and clever commentary on the said religious institution, but learn about anagrams at the same time! Spraypaint graffitti on walls that is actually artistic! You think you're being bad, but you're really just inside learning... What a shame for the games industry...Vampire Theme Park Espionage: I would compare this game to Spore. You start off by creating a theme park, like Roller Coaster Tycoon or something similar. Then, your theme park gets nuked and there are suddenly all these undead creatures around, but you, the owner, are still alive. What you have to do is stay alive and keep those zombies and vam...
More About: Video , Ideas , Game , Thought , Video Game

Weird Storyline Showcase: Mario
2008-01-12 16:05:00
Mario has perhaps the craziest story of any popular video game series, yet you'll find few who question it. "Why does that mushroom make him twice as big?" "Well, that's because it's a super mushroom, Suzy." Mario is embedded into people at such a young age that there's never really anybody that gets introduced to it when they would want to question why an Italian plumber is jumping on goombas to save a mushroom person named Toad (like toadstool, I know) so that he can then go on to save a perfectly human princess of a Mushroom-person Kingdom from a turtle-ish thing named Bowser. But it gets crazier than that. (Before I forget, the picture at right is from Felixe on Flickr. Do you know how hard it is to find a usable Mario picture without copyright?)As this Escapist Magazine article explains, Mario has an extremely flexible story as well. It's barely defined, so Superstar Saga could just introduce a new BeanBean Kingdom that apparently exists parallel to the Mushroom one. It ne...
More About: Weird , Mario , Showcase , Storyline

Introducing CheapSkate: Your Mascot for Cheap Games
2008-01-11 01:30:00
Introducing a new site mascot, Cheap Skate! He's a bottom-dwelling cartilaginous fish who grew up in the meaner parts of Britain (the seas around it) and he's a big fan of video games. The only problem is, his $100 a year salary for living as an endangered skate is hardly enough to get the big games throughout the year, so he has to maximize his gaming pleasure with the cheapest ones out there. Here is his guide, loyally translated from Fish into English using a Babelfish, to the cheapest gaming experiences out there. (Be sure to read the following in a Dickensian British accent for a full translation experience, just a suggestion.)Cheap Gaming Suggestions#1: $8.96 Circuit City gamesThere was a recently released list of games at Circuit City here that let gamers now which of their games had had their prices dropped to the bottom bin, but there are a couple of savants in that special ed class. If you want any EA Sports game that says 2006 or 2007 on it, you can probably get it. Last...
More About: Games

Politics: Wisconsin Video Game Tax?
2008-01-09 23:59:00
State Senator Jon Erpenbach (D) of Wisconsin has proposed an extra 1% tax on video games on top of the regular 5% sales tax. This increase in tax is set up to fund juvenile criminal rehabilitation. I'm not going to say that the cause is a problem, but this is really unfair to tag it on to video games, as if they were the problem. If you get the gamepolitics.com newsletter, they should be telling you about this, but you probably don't, so that's why I'm telling you about this.This really can't be allowed to happen, if it's even constitutional, because it just confirms that politicians can't understand that video games are the least offensive of mass media products. You can't allow them to make a law on video games as if they were responsible for putting the 17-year-olds in prison in the first place. Just a quick rant, I'll leave it at that. Look here if you need more info.
More About: Video , Politics , Game , Video Game

PS3 Is Doing Well, Because People Say That it's Doing Well
2008-01-08 18:01:00
According to the Blogosphere Echo Chamber, the Playstation 3 is in great shape. This is mostly because of the recent Blu-Ray declared victory in the format war. In case you don't know, Warner Bros. transferred from HD-DVD to Blu-Ray, so apparently the format war is over. Paramount may or may not have a clause in their HD-DVD exclusivity contract that they can switch if Warner Bros. does, so every studio may switch over very soon, leaving HD-DVD completely dead.Because of that, the media has finally stopped reporting "Playstation 3 is dying!" stories and started reporting the "Xbox 360 is dying!" stories, instead. If you're not sensational about your headline, you won't get anybody to read it. However, if everyone is sensational in their headlines but you, then maybe no one will read theirs. That's the theory behind my post, basically, is chill out, media.It's a bit like the Presidential Primaries right now, really. A candidate does better in the primaries if people think they c...
More About: People

Studying Studies: Violent Video Game Research at the University of Michigan
2008-01-08 02:31:00
Research on violent video games comes out in a completely polarized fashion, at least as they are reported by the press. The studies always are reported as confirming or disproving that violent video games have a negative effect on people and society. This series of posts will discuss these studies and assess their validity one by one.This specific edition of Studying Studies features the studies coming from the University of Michigan 's Institute for Social Research. These studies come from L. Rowell Huesmann, professor of psychology and communication studies and Brad Bushman, another research professor. They made plenty enough studies to fill up this post, so the rest will have to wait for another day, I've decided after looking at the length of the post once written.Going in chronological order, a study released on December 5, 2005 concluded that violent video games can desensitize gamers to real-world violence. Thirty-nine male gamers of college age were studied, beginning with...
More About: Video , Research

Your Regular Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov's Guide to Тetris
2008-01-06 18:50:00
Tetris is of course the classic puzzle game of the falling tetronimos. You all know it, and would have been killed by someone at some point if you did not love it. It's the Bol'shaia Igra, Alexey Pajitnov's Russian game that must always be found on lists of the best games of all time. It has been played more than any other game in history, mostly because a version of it exists on most every console and most sophisticated electronic devices as well, such as calculators and cellphones. This post examines the game's complicated history.History - ИсторияIn 1985, Alexey Pajitnov (pictured a little bit down the page) came up with the game's concept at the Moscow Academy of Sciences. His game was based off of his love of pentomino puzzle pieces. The name itself is a combination of tetromino (from tetra- the Greek root for four) and tennis, Pajitnov's favorite sport. Vadim Gerasimov coded a port of the game to the IBM PC from its original Electronika 60 heritage. The game sprea...
More About: Guide , Regular , Ivan

Politics: Iowa Caucus Losses for Anti-Gaming Politicians
2008-01-05 21:01:00
This will just quickly sum up that Hildawg and Mitt Romney both lost in upsets in the Iowa Caucuses, the first round of the primaries (though they're not technically primaries until New Hampshire Tuesday). My previous post on the subject should fill you in on their stances on video game legislation. The candidates that won, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee, both have specific factors increasing their video game, uh, street cred. Obama is cool simply because he sounded the least willing to pass legislation to ban M-rated video games for minors, though still not exactly defending their right to play them.Huckabee, though I don't support him at all, has at least documented proof that he has played Guitar Hero (along with real guitar). The gamepolitics.com article here talks about it, though the doctored photo is a bit weird. Huckabee did not respond to the survey from my previous post, however, so his stance on video game legislation is unknown.Anyway, sort of good news for the politic...
More About: Politics , Gaming , Politicians , Iowa Caucus

Weird Storyline Showcase: Parappa and Metal Gear Solid
2008-01-03 03:06:00
Today's Weird Storyline Showcase will discuss the stories of the Parappa the Rapper and Metal Gear Solid series. As I did last time, I'll start with the zany one and end with the good but odd one.Parappa the Rapper and Metal Gear Solid 1-3 spoiler alertHowever, I'm not going to talk about the story of Metal Gear Solid 4. It won't be out until apparently next summer, and I'm not going to spoil anything I know, so we'll just talk about Metal Gear Solid 1-3 (maybe something from Portable Ops thrown in). But, for now it's-Parappa the Rapper! Like Katamari Damacy, it's weird, heavily Japanese, and extremely fun. Now, I'm just going to take the short plot synopsis from Wikipedia here, because it really works plenty well enough, and is funnier than I would likely present it."The player takes on the role of PaRappa, a paper-thin rapping dog. He is trying to win the heart of a flower-like girl named Sunny Funny. He is aided by his friends Katy Kat (an enthusiastic cat) and PJ Berri ...

Weird Storyline Showcase: Katamari Damacy and Uncharted
2008-01-02 04:36:00
I'm going to start up a new regular series, the Weird Storyline Showcase . These posts will highlight the wonderfully weird stories of gaming, from the off-the-wall Japanese ones to the poorly written or cliche-filled western ones. These will require a spoiler warning, so I'll post the names of the games whose storylines I'll be discussing before each actual post body. Anyway, for today's showcase I've chosen Katamari Damacy and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. So, just to warn you:Katamari Damacy and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune SPOILER WARNINGSo anyway, Katamari Damacy is probably the best example of the off-the-wall, out-of-left-field, zany, silly Japanese storyline. (The box art on the right is great, isn't it?) In case you haven't heard of it yet, you are the Prince under the King of All Cosmos and you have to roll lots of stuff on Earth up into a huge ball. Your ball (a Katamari) has to be a certain size by the end of the level. The basic trick is rolling smaller things up en...

Crumpled Tin Awards: Game of the Year
2007-12-31 17:34:00
The poll for Game of the Year will soon be closed, and I have actually decided to listen to the voters this year. Your choice will determine the Game of the Year that will receive the luxurious Crumpled Tin Award. Hopefully I'll be able to afford a better trophy next year, but that's beside the point for now. The people have spoken, and here's the winner:The Crumpled Tin Award for Game of the Year, 2007, goes to:Not Manhunt 2 by Rockstar GamesYou all voted, and by an overwhelming majority the winner was "Please use Google Maps to find and kill the guy who said Manhunt 2 was the best." The gaming industry has unofficially disowned this game that caused so much negative media for them. Concerns over ultra-violent games rose yet again, (even though the worst in Manhunt 2 can be seen in Hostel films), and the game wasn't even any good. We could defend Grand Theft Auto, but Manhunt didn't deserve it.I was having a very difficult time picking the best game of this year, and at least ...
More About: Awards

Things that Happen in Video Games that Would Never Happen in Real Life
2007-12-31 03:39:00
1. In real life, people don't usually accidentally jump in the wrong direction. Camera angle issues in general don't affect real life people.2. Real people never jump on someone to kill them.3. Real life tank turrets don't rotate in stages. Battlefield 2 tanks must do this all the time because of the commander having to swing his mouse in one direction over and over.4. Real life musicians don't compete to see who's better at that Dragon Force song. I'm just sayin'.5. Real life soldiers don't "hump" their kills.6. Real life people can tell what's a wall and what isn't. Only mimes have to deal with those pesky invisible ones.7. Real life people wait until they're near the end of a clip before they reload.8. The real life medical profession is nothing at all like Dr. Mario.9. In a real life fistfight, there aren't really combos to memorize.10. In real life, the main character can talk and see his own feet, unlike Gordon Freeman in Half-Life .
More About: Video , Video Games , Games

I've got nothing to say, but it's O.K.
2007-12-30 22:33:00
I've no clue what to post about today, so I decided to work on a new site banner. Here's the first new option, hopefully I'll be back with more:I like the Qbert background a lot, but there's something mediocre about it. I'll keep working...

Crumpled Tin Awards: Best Independent Game
2007-12-29 20:24:00
To continue the fabulously unpopular end-of-year Crumpled Tin Awards , I decided today I'd award my favorite independent game of the year. You know, most of them are just little games that you get at the Xbox Arcade or Playstation Store for a dime a dozen. The lines on what games can be considered independent are a bit blurry, but I'm certain my winner exists well away from that ill-defined line. Some good news for the winning game: The influx of traffic to this site has allowed me to refine my trophy a bit from the soda cans that were presented to the best sports games, so here's the new official Crumpled Tin Award to the right, (actually just a photo under Creative Commons license from tanakawho on Flickr). Anyway, on with the show.The Crumpled Tin Award for Best Independent Game of 2007 goes to:Everyday Shooter by Jonathan MakThis little title on the Playstation Store carries a lot of hope. The title was basically made by just the one guy, Jonathan Mak, and is the best casual g...

More articles from this author:
1, 2