Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Author: Viljami

You Don’t Want to Use a Generic Controller

Posted on by Viljami

So I encountered a slight issue with my generic controller for Xbox 360. I first bought this gaming console from a friend of mine. It was a good deal. I got the regular game pad with it. As I got to know the system a bit more I discovered that it would require a battery or a cable so that I wouldn’t have to change the alkaline batteries all the time. I am not a big fan, as I wrote earlier to this blog, of AA batteries.

My solution to this slight issue was to buy a generic controller. It was cheap. It was like twenty euros or so. It played nicely for some time. It wasn’t that awful when playing driving games like Project Gotham Racing 4 or Forza Motorsport. As I was thinking about to play a FPS called Crysis 2 I encountered and totally understood the problem I had. This generic game pad wouldn’t be a solution for me as I would need a better, a sharper, controller for my Xbox 360.

It was a pain to try to aim and move efficiently while playing Crysis 2. Where I think the controller performed the most poorly was at moving the sight. The left thumb stick of this controller just isn’t accurate and sharp enough. I was very lucky although. When I first bought the console it came with a controller. This game pad was the original that was delivered with the system in the first place when the console was bought as a new. I just had to buy a USB cable for the controller or else I would have to buy some AA batteries for it and keep changing them every time they would get consumed.

I bought a cable. I actually bought one nice game also so I wouldn’t make just an order of only twenty euros. I was happy. I had finally the cable that I needed. Then I figured that the cable was actually a charging cable. Well alright then. Its length was only about two meters. That’s not a good cable for powering a game pad. So what I actually had to do was to buy an extender cable. So it got a bit messy but I finally managed to plug the controller to my Xbox 360.

I think playing FPS games with a cheap, generic, controller on Xbox 360 or maybe even on your PC is something that a real gaming enthusiast wouldn’t do. Some people like to play these shooting games with a mouse and a keyboard. And you have to say it has its advantages. I like to casually play first person shooters with a controller but when I do I prefer a good quality controller that doesn’t require me to change the batteries all the time and maybe even consume the natural resources with these kinds of actions. So save your money and buy these controllers as wisely as you can. That is all for now my dear readers. Til the next time!

How Many Buttons Can You Handle?

Posted on by Viljami

First of all I am sorry for not posting anything for a while. I haven’t had time, effort and, or, motivation to write here. So it’s been three weeks since I last posted here. But, now it’s time for me to write something for you guys. As you may have noticed I have added some advertisements to this blog. Maybe I get something out of this. I don’t know and we’ll figure out as I keep writing these stories here. I am trying to write something at least once in two weeks or so.

So, I decided to make a bit of a comparison between game controllers. In that featured image we have a NES controller. Now that’s about as old of a game pad as can be. Or do you remember something more older or simpler? Now, it has only buttons A and B, select, start and the directional control. There are older controllers but basically it doesn’t come much simpler than this. And look at the shape of that thing. It’s actually a piece of block with all those sharp edges.

To make this comparison as concrete as can be I chose the other game pad to be the standard Xbox Series S/X controller that I got shipped with my Xbox Series S. This controller has Y, A, X and B buttons, two thumb sticks, a button to control directions, four shoulder buttons and four more buttons. As you can notice I have acquired a cable for my controller so I don’t need to keep changing batteries all the time. This game pad is also very neat, good looking and fits in the players hand smoothly.

It is definitely simpler to play NES games. While playing Xbox Series S or X games you have lots of going on. Your ways to interact in the game is more diverse. As you might have or might have not heard there is actually a limit for things that a human being can handle at a time. That’s why all the menus in the user interface usually have limited amount of choices that the user has to make. This isn’t directly what is happening here but this gives us a view to what’s really going on as you are playing a game.

Remember those annoying selections you have to make when you make a phone call. You are given maybe three or four choices and you have to press a number corresponding to the selection. The user is unable to see the options that he or she has. So that’s an example of bad user interface design. I know this isn’t exactly what is going on but this is just an example of these psychological rules that our brains use to work.

So we have a more advanced controller here. As you can see the shape has been developed to be more friendly for the user. You have more options but also more responsibility. You have the ability to move accurately the cursor. So the thumb stick can actually replace the control of computers mouse. There has been almost thirty years and you can clearly see that things have in this matter progressed. I probably have to say that this controller is also if used so completely wireless.

One important thing I have to mention while we’re on this subject. It is important that the user can get out of the game and exit from it and maybe even pause the game for a while. Both of these controllers have this option. While using NES you can hit the right button to pause the game. When using Xbox Series S you have the option to pause and exit the game mode and kind of return to the operating system mode. You can also think about how this works with virtual reality. You definitely need a way to pause the game at any time you have to.

Some Thoughts About Diablo II: Resurrected

Posted on by Viljami

The newest Diablo game was released last Thursday. It is a debate about if these latest issues they’ve had in Blizzard concerning sexual harassment and bad working culture are affecting the actual sales of this game. What must be true is that this hasn’t affected on the quality and design of Diablo II: Resurrected. It is your own opinion if you decide to not to buy the game because of this. I also don’t have anything to say about if this is going to help the matter some way.

I actually bought this game in advance. I did it accidentally. The game was released at 6 PM and I made the payment maybe fifteen minutes before that. The price was the same so it didn’t matter so much. There would have been different versions of the release. I decided to go with the cheapest one.

This game is definitely a remake. It isn’t a new game. That doesn’t mean it is a bad game. I love to get into Diablo II again and even more so as there are some huge improvements. I am playing this game with Xbox Series S. Diablo II was originally designed for PC so you would naturally play with mouse and keyboard. Moving the player is a bit clumsy but you get used to it fast.

There are definitely a lot of differences to Diablo III when these two games are compared. I think this makes it interesting to see in the future what kind of a game is Diablo IV going to be. It definitely will be a completely new game. It is still not announced when it will be released. There is a sense also that there is something more to come since Resurrected is only a remake. Although Diablo IV might be released as late as 2024. We don’t know that yet. But you definitely get a picture that there is something more to come and Resurrected is only the beginning.

As my character I chose to create a Paladin. I played with this character class when I played original Diablo II back in the beginning of 2000s. That was 20 years ago. I can’t believe it has been so long of a time. This new remake is an addition to series of remakes of my favorite games that I played back in the days. We’ve had a remake of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Final Fantasy VII, Spyro The Dragon and also many others. So it is a nice addition.

I like this game. It reminds me of this great title. I have currently this Paladin character with a level of 15. You can connect and move your character online with Battle dot net but you have to have an Xbox Live subscription which I currently don’t have. Luckily you have also an option to only save your character locally in offline mode. You will like this game if you like Diablo II. Although it isn’t a new game. If you are expecting to see some new shiny things this isn’t for you. If Diablo II isn’t yet familiar to you I can recommend this game for you also but maybe with a small reservation.