Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: History of Gaming

I Finished Reading “Ready Player One”

Posted on by Viljami

So, as the title of this blog post tells you, I finished reading my copy of Ready Player One. It was originally published in 2011. My copy of this book is printed in 2018. This is the translation. I read this one in Finnish. I just wish that I would have read the original book in English. The translation isn’t bad. I just think there are so many terms in English “nerd slang” that you cannot directly translate to Finnish. They have done their best. I know this because there is a person mentioned in the first pages of the book. That person is Jyrki J. J. Kasvi. Or at least was because, sadly, he passed away some years ago.

This book offers a story and lots of references to 70s, 80s and 90s video game related content. This includes games, music and movies. When I am reading this material, I feel very much like a real nerd. I can feel the writers, who is, actually, Ernest Cline, passion, so to say, about every movie and game that he mentions in the book. You probably get who this book is targeted for. It is a fun read. All this talk about Atari 2600 makes it also a bit funny. It just shows how much this console mattered to the author of the book.

The book has a bit over 500 pages. On these last pages there is an advertisement about Cline’s new book called Armada. It is said that it will be available in 2018. I didn’t actually buy this paper back book as a new copy. I bought it from flea market. It might have been from recycling center. I don’t remember clearly.

The story takes place in year 2045. People are really into virtual reality gaming. There is a huge video game called OASIS. It was developed by a now deceased game designer James Halliday. He left a quest inside the game. There is a huge reward promised to that person that can solve the mystery. There is also a large company called IOI that is doing its best to get their hands on this award. The book takes you through of how the main character, Wade Watts, deals with this challenge.

This book has been very popular. There is also a movie made out of it. With all this hype around the book I found it to be a nice read. And of course it is related to the subject of my dearest hobby – collecting and playing video and computer games.

Still Waiting for Diablo IV

Posted on by Viljami

I am eager to get my hands on the newest game in Diablo series. I got information on Friday that the game shop has delivered the package and it’s on the way. I know that some people have already got to play this game. I am jealous. As I am still waiting it might be a good time to go through what my relationship with Diablo series currently is.

I wasn’t a big fan of the first game of this action role playing game series. It was the second game, Diablo 2, that got me excited. I also played Diablo 1 with my PlayStation back in the late 90s. Diablo 2 I played with a PC. I think it wasn’t even released to other platforms. And of course there is this one game that I like also. It is, of course, Diablo 3. I enjoyed it also very much.

A friend of mine sold me these Diablo 2 PC big boxes. There is the original Diablo 2 and there is also the expansion, Lord of The Destruction. I am very lucky to have this items. I think they are valuable also when it comes to money. I am not going to sell them. Not any day soon, after all. As you might have figured I have lots of love for PC big box games. I have currently 16 boxes in my collection. I just love the way they look on the self. It makes me feel like a real gaming professional.

I also have played Diablo 1. I have completed it several times. There is this thing that makes Diablo games re-playable. This is the way that you can choose your character class and have a different experience and play the game through with a different character.

What makes Diablo games so spectacular? I think it is the way it combines action, strategy and role playing elements. I have read that Diablo was very much influenced by a Sega Mega Drive hockey game (would you believe it). This game was NHL 94. The first Diablo was released in 1996. The company that first released it was Blizzard. You might find a book called “Stay Awhile and Listen” interesting. It tells you the story of how Diablo came to be. It is written by David L. Craddock.

Diablo has always offered its players a great overall gaming experience. For me it has also brought me a step closer to role playing. While Diablo has many roguelike elements, it isn’t fully a roguelike game. In 100 percentage roguelike, or the oringinal game, Rogue, there are some features that aren’t as rough for the player.  One difference is that when you die you don’t have to restart the whole game with a completely new character. Instead you leave a body to the spot where you died and when re-spawning you have to collect the body to keep all your gear and potions and so on.

I like this series of games very much. I hope to see one great game. I might write another blog post about the game. By the way – I finished Forza Horizon 5 after playing it for almost 20 hours. There could be some other achievements to unlock but I am not that interested in continuing to play that game anymore. After all, the latest and maybe the greatest Diablo game is just around the corner.

Some More Hype for The GameCube Gaming Console

Posted on by Viljami

The game I have been playing lately is Medal of Honor – Frontline for GameCube. I managed to get a copy of this game and it’s a cheap purchase. If you consider the hype that surrounds GameCube nowadays the price for this game was low. I have seen many GC games sold for hundreds of euros. I am not going that way…at least not yet.

What do I think about the game? It’s a nice and kind of early first person shooter. There was a  Medal of Honor released also at the same time for PC. They somehow wanted to separate the console version from PC version. This happened in 2002.

GameCube controller brings this games input a bit more sensitive. It is although far from perfect. If you compare this FPS game to what we see and feel today it is not even decent experience. But I am not a person that purely rates games and especially when they are retro games. You got to just give props to the makers. It has been over twenty years and a game that you can play today is valuable in this way in my opinion.

We can take Halo and compare it to Medal of Honor – Frontline. Where Halo wins is the smoothness of controlment. Just the way that your crosshair moves over the screen feels magical. I think Halo was the first FPS that actually worked very nicely in this matter.

I somehow still like the feel of this game because it just brings so many memories to my mind. If the controlling is a bit clumsy there are still elements in this game that I like.

I have many other games for GameCube. It’s a nice gaming console. The controller is unbeliavable especially when you consider that it’s over 20 years old. If you like retro gaming I can definitely recommend for you to get yourself a GameCube.