Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: Modern

Finishing and Completing Games

Posted on by Viljami

In this blog post I write to you, dear IGD blog readers, about finishing and completing games. The thing is that for me back in the 1990s and in the era when PlayStation 1 was the most powerful gaming console it was a habit to finish a game that I had bought. There are some reasons why I am not today finishing all these games that I have.

First that comes to mind when thinking about finishing anf completing games is that we have seen hundreds, even thousands of new games becoming available fom older consoles, like PS1, and for consoles that have been released after that. Just think about thousands of games released for PS2. Add also games that were released to these systems: Xbox, GameCube, Xbox 360, PS3, and so on. There have been many games releaseda and so there are more games to be finished.

Finishing a game is a one thing. Some games can be completed. The difference between these two is that when you finish a game you have had enough from the game. It has provided you some entertainment. When you actually want to complete a game after you have already finished it the game seems to have still something to give to you. So, you play the game until there is nothing left to accomplish in it.

There were many PS1 games that I finished. There are a few games that I wanted to play even after I had finished them. These games are Gran Turismo 1, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Colin McRae Rally 1 and 2. I don’t know if I completed for example THPS 1. I did unlock every skating level and achieved a gold medal in every competition but I didn’t finish the game with every character. There was also some characters that could be unlocked and this was kind of a bonus for someone that was feeling  a deep motivation to totally complete the game.

I think in a way I have become busier. I don’t have as much time for video games than I had back in the 1990s. Also the society has become very different from what it used to be. The games often try to hold the play and games have become longer than they were. The capacity that a game takes from your disk has grown. It went from one CD, about 650 MB, to one DVD, to one Bluray to something like over 100 GB. There are more possibilities in a single game and there is more content. Also game manufacturers have become more ambitious with their games.

I used to complete every game I had. Back in 2014 I tried to complete every game that I bought for my then so shiny PlayStation 4. It started well. I was using PS4. I finished maybe five games and after that the backlog started growing and I started to skip a game that I got stuck with and buy another game and start playing it.

Even back in 2006 when I played mainly original Xbox I had some more ambition in trying to finish the games that I had bought. There has been a shift in this way. We are seeing more games that are very long. Publsihers are trying their best to get players hooked in that particular game and to play their game for a very long time. At the same time we are seeing fewer games.

So is the innovating started to become less of a thing when it comes to modern video games? We are seeing fewer games than back in the say era of PS2 and original Xbox and other consoles of that era. The stakes might have risen. And there is more money involved.

All Original Xbox Games I Own That Are Playable On Series X

Posted on by Viljami

I have exactly only nine original Xbox games that are backwards compatible with my Xbox Series X. There are only 63 games in total out of every almost 1000 Xbox games that are backwards compatible. These games that I own are Black, Manhunt, Dead or Alive 3, Dead to Rights, Max Payne 1 and 2, Oddworld Munch’s Oddysee, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Full Spectrum Warrior.

The fact that you can play these games with a modern hardware seems amazing to me. Owning a working original Xbox would be another way to get to play these games. The controller of modern Xbox just feels much better than the original Xbox’s controller. You don’t have to concern yourself with poor video output quality or a need to use an adapter to get an HDMI out of your gaming console. The poor quality of original Xbox’s can lead you to buy many Xbox consoles if you aren’t able to repair them by yourself. But what kind of a gaming console would last over twenty years and still work? After all the device would need some maintenance.

Now I have tens, maybe even over a hundred, original Xbox games. I have had to move some of them to storage as I have had issues with consoles getting to malfunction. I have a broken original Xbox and also a Xbox 360. The issue with my Xbox might have had something to do with a broken condenser. These things can start to leak and cause some internal damage. The symptoms were that the console wouldn’t turn off. I had to unplug the power cord just to shut down the console. Otherwise it worked fine. The problem I had with my Xbox 360 was that it didn’t read any game discs no more. This was caused by some dust that had gotten into the console. I tried to solve the issue with compressed air but didn’t eventually succeed.

Over twenty years old gaming console can have many different issues. These devices aren’t actually today made to last tens of years. I don’t think that software developers and manufacturers of electronics were really thinking in the future for such a long period. This is somewhat understandable. Today there is this scene of old games that can inspire you in many ways if you just find yourself spending some time with them. After all there are so many games and so many systems to explore. This richness should be truly acknowledged.

Xbox Series X supports many Xbox 360 games also. There are 632 games out of a total of 2155 games that are playable. What happens when we move always to more modern consoles? Are we forgetting our past? Although the original Xbox can be emulated it seems today to be a difficult task while we are already seeing emulators that you can play Xbox 360 games with on our PCs. My current PC system just isn’t powerful enough to operate an emulator of this kind. The emulators name is Xenia.

What Makes You a Good Video Game Player?

Posted on by Viljami

What it takes to be a good video game player? You can be a professional level player or a casually playing person. Anyways we are going to go through some matters that can make you a better video game player. There has been a lot of talk about the limits of aged people and how you cannot be an eSports star if you are over 27 years old. This does have an impact but the matter is more complicated than this at least in my opinion.

You can be a single player gamer or you can be playing multiplayer games. Many of these points that we are dealing in this blog post have an impact on both of these ways of playing video games. Lets start to go through these facts right now.

You can have a long history in video games. This makes you familiar with all the games you have played in your whole lifetime. You might not have such good reflexes but you might just have developed very deep skills in some game or genre of games. When you are good at say FPS games you can be successful just by concentrating well.

Sometimes games do require a proper controller. Yuo might need a racing wheel and pedals or maybe you need a mouse and a keyboard to play some video game. Having skills in using this special controller can give you an edge. I have noticed that some people can have difficulties using a game-pad if they are used to using keyboard and a mouse. I have actually the opposite problem – I am not so good as a video game player when I don’t use a game-pad.

Concentration and tiredness have an impact on how you perform as a video game player. At least for your health you should make sure that you sleep enough and have some exercise at times. Also you can keep in mind that your concentration doesn’t last for unlmited time so you have to take breaks so you can have a better concentration level.

Being young has a positive impact on your performance as a video game player. You have better reflexes. You learn quicker. When you start playing young you are probably a master in many ways when you become a bit older. I also learned a lot of English when I was playing some PlayStation and PC games when I was a teenager. I am actually from Finland.

Being a quick learner gives your performance a boost. Also knowledge of technology can give you an advantage. You can know some programming or some other sort of computer science knowledge. I have noticed that even when the game is not totally an open source game I do notice some things here and there that can give me an advantage.

Cheating is of course something that you can use if nothing else works. This gives you same kind of an advantage like if some sport competitionist would use doping. It kind of takes the point out of competing. Creating cheats for a game can be also technically intereting as is also making any mods out of a video game that already exists.

You can also understand a lot about games and the platform, or the console, that you are playing with. Remember also that there is an element of luck also. Many things in video games are totally random. This makes you sometimes have to try to play your run in a game over again. This can be annoying and can make the experience just a bit repetetive.