Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: Gaming Philosophy

Why Do I Find Games Attractive?

Posted on by Viljami

I have been recently playing Gran Turismo 4. I haven’t finished Resident Evil Village yet. I have played it for five hours. I also picked up Hollow Knight. This game has some very attractive two-dimensional graphics. I thought this would be a short game. I checked how long it takes to complete form HowLongToBeat dot com and I found out that it takes 25 and a half hours to complete. That’s a long time for this kind of a game.

As I begun playing Hollow Knight I started wondering what it really is in games that appeals to me? Is it the graphics? Is it the sound? Is it the way that you get to interact and really get involved in the story? The answer is propably the combination of all these things.

I don’t actually remember my early childhood. My parents have told me that I was excited about technology and different kinds of machines at an early age. I can believe that easily. It doesn’t come as a surprise to me that I am today deeply interested in technology. I also have studied and I am currently working in the field.

What is it in games that appeal to so many people around the world? This question might not have a clear answer. There has to be something special about it. Video games have always since their first appearance been extremely popular. Back in the 1960s when a video game called “Tennis for Two” was introduced to audience it blew many peoples minds.

Today the business of producing video games is huge. Games are more popular than ever. Video games aren’t anymore just for children. Gaming has become a hobby for everyone. It doesn’t matter what is your gender, where do you live, are you poor or rich. There seems to be absolutely no limit. This can be a good thing but it might also be a bad thing.

There are lots of games that are very good. But there has been some huge disappointments also. Maybe the consumer should think about where he or she puts the money. And also we should support independent developers even more than we do today. This way we can have gaming as a hobby. And everyone will be happy, right?

Not Enough Time For Every Good Game

Posted on by Viljami

Some months ago I bought Silent Hill 4 The Room for original Xbox. I haven’t had time to play it and really get into it. There are also some other good games in this featured image. On the top is Dungeon Siege for PC. This is a good Diablo clone that was developed by Microsoft. I have played it but I haven’t completed it. It’s a shame since it is definitely a nice role playing game.

There is also a game called Black. This is a first person shooter for Xbox. I played it for some hours last year. It is very good but also a difficult game. I just got stuck because and found myself going through the same situation over and over again. It was a struggle and I couldn’t beat the game or even proceed from the point I was stuck in.

Not all these games in this picture have received marvelous reviews. I know that Goldeneye – Rogue Agent and Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer aren’t so appreciated by game reviewers or even by common gamer people. I wanted to pick these games up. One reason was that they were so cheaply available. The other reason was that they are compatible with Xbox 360. I currently don’t have an original Xbox. I do have Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2. M;aybe some day I decide to move one of the other gaming consoles to side and add once again original Xbox to my forever evolving game console setup.

I remove, sometimes, a gaming console from my setup. Many times I also find some gaming device that can bring me multiple systems for one HDMI connection. I use mainly HDMI. PlayStation 2 is currently the only SCART connected device I have in my setup. Recently I bought a HDMI adapter for my GameCube. It cost me almost 80 euros but it enables connecting my console to a regular HDMI channel. I have thought about getting also a similar adapter for PS2. I found one for only 15 euros. I don’t know if its a one with good quality.

I also received some bonus credits from one game dealer. It was nice. I received 25 euros for buying ten times a purchase of 35 euros or over. I have been ordering already for years from this dealer. I used this sum of euros to buy six games. Four of them were for Xbox and the two other were for Xbox 360. It did cost me 50 euros after I used the 25 euros of bonus credits.

So I got these games for original Xbox: Batman Begins, Dead to Rights, Oddworld – Munch Oddysee and The Thing and these two games for Xbox 360: Devil May Cry 4 and Supreme Commander 2. I really enjoyed playing the first Devil May Cry although I didn’t complete it. I also played the fifth Devil May Cry but found it to be not so interesting. I think it has too many cut scenes in the beginning of the game and it seems to be too easy when it comes to playing the actual game. So I didn’t like it. I hope that the fourth game in the series would be better. I actually didn’t read a lot of reviews about this game.

You can figure that I buy a lot of games and usually I buy them for a cheap price. I have noticed that the price of some games is rising. You can take some GameCube games for example. I think that there’s always these high priced games that I won’t even look when I am skimming through gaming web stores.

I am going to have a holiday this year. It is yet too soon to talk about when it’s going to be and exactly how long will my vacation going to be. I might go to a trip. I will definitely play some games that I currently own. I hope I can spend some good times with games and writing this blog also. I do have the book project. I just haven’t once again had time to get deeply into writing more of it. Today I also designed a game with my pal that is currently doing some heavy programming with the second and even the first game that are under updating and also under development right now.

Where It All Begun (And Where Are We Now) With Gaming

Posted on by Viljami

I am a game hobbyist that started playing video games as soon as I was old enough to interact with a keyboard and a mouse. Some years later I was gaming on a Sega Mega Drive and some years after that I got my PlayStation. This was the beginning of my hobby.

Today video games are more popular than ever. There is a large amount of money involved. There are also many independent developers. There seems to be some people that really love video games. There seems to be a lot of games released mainly for making lots of money.

There was once a time when video games were a true form of art. You can take for example the game I am currently playing now. I also wrote a blog post about this game. The game is Remedy Entertainments Max Payne. You can see that this title was a success both artistically and financially.

I think I don’t have to point out any of these big companies that try to release very big games. It seems that when the stakes are too high there is a strong propability for the game to also fail completely. The failure will be financial and you definitely wouldn’t call it art in any way.

The involvement of money is one thing that is effecting the whole industry today. I kind of miss the artistic side of gaming. I have nice memories of playing all those PlayStation 1 titles. It is said that playing PS1 is kind of listening to rock music. And playing Sega Dreamcast is like listening to jazz music.

Why was Dreamcast a failure? To put it simple it didn’t sell that well. It did sell 9 million units. That wasn’t enough. We can compare this to how PS2 sold. That was way over 100 million. Even Xbox and GameCube sold over twice of what Dreamcast ended up selling. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are the leaders of todays game console markets as Sega has already made it clear that they aren’t going to release another new console.

Does it seem that you are getting fooled? This might not be the case afterall. If consumers keep buying those titles that they find the most satisfying there might be a brighter future for gamers and gaming. You just have to be aware of the situation. If you are a gaming hobbyist like I am you definitely want to keep up with this field. There is the mainstream. But there definitely does exist an opportunity to pick the games you really want to play. I think that there is a way to have good experiences in gaming. There is an alternative.

There are loads of games, old and new, for you to choose. Don’t have the latest console? Don’t worry about it. You can pick yourself a Xbox 360 or some other older console. It doesn’t cost you as much and you can have a really good time. There are many ways to get some good quality games for your personal computer.

There is always a way and also a place for art inside gaming. It might not be the deepest art you will ever see but it does have a value for gamers. Observe your possibilities. What you are buying is usually a way for also a gamer to influence what is going to be available in the future.