Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Beginning to Play Signalis

Posted on by Viljami

Last time I wrote to this blog I was playing Super Mario Wonder. I actually completed that and decided to dig into my pile of Nintendo Switch games that I just haven’t had time to play. At least that was the case. Since I now had some time I decided to start playing Signalis.

Signalis is described as a horror game. I would also call it an adventure game. It has been a long time since I played a game that would remind me of this game. I think Signalis is like something pure that has been missing from my latest gaming experiences. There are actual puzzles and problems for you to solve. Saving is not allowed at every moment. There are these certain parts and places in this game that you are allowed to save your game.

Signalis has been developed by rose-engine and published by Humble Games. It was released in 2022 for Windows, PS4, Switch and Xbox One. I have to admit that I have already been used to these extra sharp 3D oriented graphics that look very realistic. The way that Signalis opens up with its graphics feels amazing. Graphics designers have really done their job. I find the look of this game to be satisfying even if a slight retro feel seems to be present all the time. You can actually tune up the settings so that your screen looks a lot more like it was presented from an old television.

I just checked how many hours approximately it takes to beat Signalis. The web page (HowLongToBeat) informs me that it takes nine hours to finish it. So if I put same amount of effort as I put into playing Super Mario Bros Wonder I should be close to completing this game, say, maybe next week or something like that. It can take several days since I have work to do also. But it is nice to know that this game doesn’t take so long to beat as I find myself sometimes stuck on some games that take a bit longer to finish. Just to inform you I can tell that it takes about 50 hours to beat Red Dead Redemption 2.

I have only gone through the first level. Right now I just woke up and started exploring the first level. It isn’t possible to save your game right in the beginning of the game and that seems logical to me. In the first level there are some areas or rooms to explore. You have to collect some items and solve some puzzles. The problems seem to have a logical way for them to be solved. So you won’t find any humorous puzzles like those from retro type of adventure games like Monkey Island or Leisure Suit Larry. At least I haven’t stumbled on any since I just started to play Signalis.

The game reminds me a lot of Resident Evil. The camera angles are more reasonable although. The horror and anxiety are created mainly through graphics. I don’t even recall hearing any background music while playing. If there is some music it is very soft and in the form of some genre like ambient or something very close to that.

Switch is a nice console to have. The library of games that are available is already huge and it keeps growing all the time. It is also a nice console to collect games for. It was first released in 2017 followed by the release of Switch Lite in 2019. I currently have some tens of games for Switch. As there have been rumors about a new Nintendo console to be released soon we are still waiting for more information about this. A big question is if the new console would have any kind of a backwards compatibility.

It was nice spend some time today starting to play Signalis and as I also finished Super Mario Bros Wonder I think I had a nice day all in all. Today it was very Nintendo Switch related. I am hoping to get to spend some more time with my Switch. I’ll write a new post some day soon. It was nice to see you here and you will get to read something from this blog very soon!

Super Mario Bros Wonder

Posted on by Viljami

Today I have spent maybe three to four hours into continuing to play Super Mario Bros Wonder for Nintendo Switch. This game deserves its spot as one of the best games available for this console. I proceeded to world number four. This game has eight worlds in it.

I just love the game play. Nintendo has put together a definite classic once again. There are many elements from earlier games but there is also something new for those of us that have witnessed the whole legacy of Super Mario Bros. I can picture gamer’s of all ages playing this video game.

It is said that Super Mario Bros Wonder takes ten hours to complete. That being that you manage to pass through slightly demanding puzzles that this game offers. There is a lot to explore. Mario or which one of the characters you happen to play the game with has many new abilities. You can add a special tag that can give you a skill like floating in the air or jumping a bit higher.

These certain elements are present here that are always relating my thoughts to this game series. We have seen earlier games like New Super Mario that have tried to bring back that feel of a nice platform game. This game reminds me a lot of the first game that was released in 1985. I also see many similarities to Super Mario Bros 3.

A big plus also in commercial sense is that kids and adults can all play this game. As you can see that the game is recommended for ages three above. Getting into the game isn’t difficult. I only got a bit stuck in these certain puzzles and made it to the end of the world 4. I had slight problems with tasks in the game that concerned invisibility. It was hard to jump to a certain spot while the character wasn’t almost at all visible. I think I will try to get through this point some day but it isn’t just today.

I don’t think you can complete the game in one sitting. Otherwise the game is very playable and progresses very fluently. The levels information that is provided to the player before entering the stage includes a rating of difficulty starting from 1 star and ending to I think 4 stars or maybe 5 stars. At least that was the way as I played these levels.

You can explore the whole surroundings quite freely. To progress you have to collect these some sort of rewards. You don’t always have to have everything completed to advance. So you can also skip some parts that might seem difficult. There are lots of item to collect. Coins are of course present as are cash points that enable you to buy many other items including extra lives. One hundred coins collected gives you of course one extra life as is usual in Mario games.

I definitely think this is the best Nintendo Switch game that I own currently. It is targeted to all ages but I wouldn’t call it childish in any way. More so it reminds of a deep technical fantasy type of product. Something that engineers and computer enthusiast have brought to all video game fans. And I have to mention one thing. I never got into Tears of the Kingdom so I cannot compare these two games directly. And how would you compare them? That’s like comparing an apple to a pear.

I am going to write one more paragraph to finish this post. I love Super Mario Bros Wonder. It being directed to whole family just makes it a better game and a better product. Congratulations Nintendo! You managed to bring Super Mario to us gamer’s once again with this game: Super Mario Bros Wonder.

How Did Skyrim Impact The Whole Gaming Industry?

Posted on by Viljami

Skyrim had a huge impact on gaming industry. It has been released and remade for several generations of gaming consoles. Skyrim has also been released for PC. It was first released in 2011 which was the time for consoles like Xbox 360 and PS3 to dominate the console markets.

What kind of a game is Skyrim? Have ytou ever played it? Skyrim is a game that gives you an open world for you to explore. You have main quests and also side quests to complete. Your character keeps progressing when you play the game. So, there is almost unlimited amount of things to do inside this game called Skyrim.

This isn’t the first Elder Scrolls game that has been released. I think some earlier games that remind a lot of it are Morrowind and Oblivion. There are also some other games in this series of games. This is the latest and all in all fifth game in the series. There have been rumours about a sequel already.

The game was a huge effort. Bethesda certainly knew what kind of a game they had in their hands. What I am concerned about is that these kinds of large games make it even harder for new games to be developed. I mean that we saw back in the 2000s many good quality games getting released very quickly compared to how long it takes today for new games to get to the markets. The demands are very high for a new game.

Gaming industry has grown. There are these huge projects that ever larger companies get their focus on. There is a lot of money involved. I am not sure if this is how I and propably many of you gamers out there wish things to be. We were content with our retro games earlier. Why wouldn’t we be content right now?

Games seem to go right now to a direction that focuses on making money. This is somewhat understandable. Money makes world go round or so they say. What this however means might be that we are going to see fewer independent developers. Maybe there are some small developers alive after thje next ten years but I mean – where would the rising new companies be that would take gaming to the next level. Currently we see huge releases that try to lure us to buy them over and over again on a new console. Just the old game with better graphics and so on.

Where is the innovation? I have been frustrated also in a fact that some things are just not available. I mean I am living in Finland. There are many great projects going on around the world and just so many of them are unreachable for me. I wish it wasn’t so. Take for example Analogue Pocket. I was very interested in this product but never bought one. We have seen Steam Deck and many of its competitors being released here.

Are huge companies going to release these huge games in the future also? They take at least 40 hours to finish. Thy might take several hundreds of hours of your precious time. Where does this lead? We would need some fresh ideas from programmers, designers and form the people that make graphics and 3d models and even soundtracks to games. And the question here is also how are the currently young people going to get into the industry and start shaping our world of games again to a more bearable form.