Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: News

Moving On From Just Playing?

Posted on by Viljami

As a child I had my first touches to computer technology by playing video games. This sparked eventually my interest towards information technology. We might call it as well ICT or Information and Communications Technology.

Later in my life I chose ICT as my main subject to study. I learned a whole deal about programming. My dream back then was that I could be someday developing a video game by myself. I dreamed of creating games that would have a deep plot, a nice game-play and good looking graphics.

I actually did complete my studies. My story in trying to get a job as a fresh graduate isn’t very rare at all. I graduated back in 2016 and it was very hard to try to get a job as I also had only little working experience. It seemed like there was misunderstandment about what jobs I actually had the actual skills to be successful in.

I ended up getting a job that required skills in customer interaction. As I had no experience at all I had to start from somewhere. I didn’t get to work as a software developer. This was a bit of a disappointment for me but I just kept growing my working experience. I actually never gave up on my dream completely.

As I was studying I got to develop my skills in writing. In 2020, just before corona virus hit us all, I started to write this blog about video games. I chose to write in English as I hoped to reach more people and get to learn more English, also.

Today I am an IT Support Person. The choices that I made throughout my whole life are getting reflected in this whole blog post. I like sometimes to write also about my personal matters. Also I like to write about games, books that are somehow related and also about music and technology and computers while not forgetting programming.

That’s just how life goes sometimes. We make choices. We make some sacrifices. We lose some part of our lives and we do something that motivates us to go further and get to develop ourselves.

Today, I am also trying to learn something relevant every week if not every day. I haven’t forgotten everything I’ve learned especially from programming, computers but also about communicating with other people sometimes referred to as customers or players or users.

This text, this blog post, is for you here to reflect on where you and where we are going towards to. Are we just playing video games or is this actually a part of a larger picture we are dealing with?

What’s Going on with Xbox?

Posted on by Viljami

Just some days ago we heard some news about new Xbox consoles to be released. We have seen already three models of Xbox Series consoles. First two were Series S and Series X. Series S didn’t have an optical disk drive while Series X did have. Series S had 512 GB of sotrage while Series X had 1 TB. The prices were about 310 € for Series S and about 510 euros for Series X.

We saw earlier a new fully digital model that had 1 TB of storage. It was a bit more expensive than earlier released Series S. It was maybe 50 euros more expensive or so. This console had a black colour while Series S was white and Series X was black also.

Many gamers today use their modern Xbox with the Game Pass. This enables you to play any game included in the offer. Games are changing from time to time so you never excatly know when or what you can play in the future.

A total opposite for this is someone that wants to buy every game that he or she does play. This is actually how I myself view this matter. I like to collect physichal games or at least own a digital copy. Owning a game can be difficult and it might become more difficult in the following years.

These new consoles are getting released 15th October this year. There is going to be a 2 TB Xbox Series X that has an optical drive, fully digital Xbox Series X that has a 1 TB storage and lastly Xbox Seires S 1 TB.

These consoles do add a variety to this generation of Xbox consoles. They seem to be targeted to new Xbox console buyers since they don’t have any major perfromance upgades. I, personally, am not so confident in getting a new console of this type. I have already Series X and also Series S that currently is in my storage space and I am not using it.

What I Have Been Doing Lately?

Posted on by Viljami

It has been a while already since my latest blog post. So, I decided to write something here about some things I have been spending some time with. First of all it has been already some weeks since I bought the latest Paper Mario game for Nintendo Switch. The games title is Paper Mario – The Thousand Year Door. I have played it for about 20 hours.

I finished reading a book by Rick Rubin about creativity. I read the book in Finnish but the book is available also in English. I can definitely recommend this book for you to read. It was an easy and a quick read although it was over 400 pages long.

Another book, that is more closely related to gaming and that I have also been reading is John Romero’s Doom Guy. It is an interesting story of life of John Romero. I have read maybe 100 pages now. The book is interesting and it goes through the life of Romero. It brings to my mind another book that tells about creators of the FPS game Doom. This book is titled Masters of Doom.

I am also going to get into System Shock. I bought this game for Xbox Series X at the same time that I ordered Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door. I figured that I could play this game after I have completed the Paper Mario game. It can take a while. I checked online and discovered that it takes about 31 hours to complete. So, there is a lot of playing to do.

I kind of like how Nintendo Switch’s feels like to play right now. While it isn’t the most powerful gaming console on this generation of gaming devices it definitely has its edge. There are many nice games and these games are available only for Switch. The way that you can switch the Switch’s mode from playing it on a television screen to playing it as a handheld device feels just nice. There has been some conversation about the next Nintendo’s gaming console. It might not be as powerful as some other new consoles.  Nintendos Switch was released in 2017. I also have a Nintendo Switch Lite but I prefer playing with this regular Switch type of console.

I also have a Xbox Series S in my storage. It might be worth trading but I think I would only get maybe 150 euros for it if I would trade it. And I would have to spend that amount of money for buying some games. I have been a bit lazy with getting rid of old gaming hardware. Also I am a bit more careful about this because I have made some decisions on selling my old consoles that I have had to regret.

I have laid my eyes now also on PS5. I am looking at the digital version. It currently costs 400 euros. I just don’t have any more room for my setup. So, it seems that I am not going to buy this device. But I have to tell you that this was what I was first saying about Xbox Series S just some weeks before I actually bought it. The Series S was a bit cheaper. It cost back then around 310 euros.