Intensive Gaming Diary

Diablo III – The Battle With Diablo

Posted on August 26, 2023September 25, 2023 by Viljami

Last time I posted I was telling you that I am currently playing Diablo III once again. I have now managed to complete Act IV. I just defeated Diablo. The battle took some time but as I had a strong character it wasn’t a hard one. I made it with the first try. This can be explained through my dedication to develop intensively my character. Well, I had to concentrate for a while. Let me proceed and tell you how the battle went.

I have now, after this battle, a character that is on level 59. There is this kind of a logic of how your character develops in Diablo III. Basically you will unlock skills which are bringing your characters actions, like attacks, and so on, stronger. Of course you will also pick up some items that give you armor and more power to your attack, for example.

Some say that Diablo III is a wack video game. For me it hasn’t lost its appeal. You don’t have to drag health potions from town as was the case with Diablo II. This was actually my case when I played it with a Paladin character. I have always enjoyed playing with a character that has a strong attack and low skill level on magic. Someone might say that Diablo III is too easy or light on the player. I have to say that when you compare these games you are definitely in a tough company. I think all Diablo games that have been released to this day are worth getting into.

Let’s talk about my character a bit. It is a Crusader. There are seven character classes in Diablo III Eternal Collection. These character classes are Barbarian, Crusader, Demon Hunter, Monk, Necromancer, Witch Doctor and Wizard. I must once again confess to you that I have only played as a Barbarian and a Crusader. I like to use strong melee attacks and have a good sense when it comes to having a powerful armor. So, I am not going to explain so deeply about how these characters differ from each other. By the way, you can get your hands on some strategy guides either on the internet or in a form of a traditional published book. Since this is not a commercial I won’t provide a direct link this time.

There is point in adjusting your difficulty level. Bringing your difficulty higher you can achieve more experience points and level up more fluently. This was somewhat a strategy for me as I started playing Diablo III all over again with a new character. The difficulty level can be adjusted to very high values. I started as normal and then proceeded to Hard and then to Expert. I even played with Master difficulty for a while but changed soon to Expert. There are many other ways of how changing difficulty level will affect on how you are experiencing the game. For example monsters will have more durability and so on. Blizzard has utilized their software engineers and other professionals very fluently in this matter. I am talking about this game’s programmatic algorithms.

The battle with Diablo took me some tens of minutes. It was an easy battle since my character was so powerful. I have read that the character can be developed in this game to the level of 70. Then the development stops. We could discuss more deeply how algorithms of this game work. I am however not going to that. As I have earlier stated you should find information about that matter quite easily by using your favorite search engine.

There isn’t much more for me to tell you about this now a bit over ten years old action role playing game. I had my first touches with Diablo III as I played it with a PC back in the days. I soon also got a version for my PS4. This is actually my third console (Switch) with this game. I have played it a lot. This can probably exlpain why I am considering if it is a good idea to play this some more. Today, it feels easy to play Diablo III. There is however lots of deeper knowledge for a video game player like me still to be explored. This can be in form of different strategies and explaining to myself how these algorithms actually work.

How has this game actually been developed? This was released, as you must already know, by Blizzard. They have hundreds or maybe even thousands of people working with a game like this. So, its not only programming and developing algorithms. There are graphical designers, designers of discussion, dialogue and story, level designers, 3D artists and some people probably working also with the audio side of things.

This is basically everything I have to say about the fight with Diablo in Diablo III at the end of the Act IV. I am continuing to Act V soon. I will attach some more screenshots to my Instagram page of this blog. You can find them there. Please follow if you like the content. Peace!

Is Diablo III (Switch) Worth Playing in 2023?

Posted on August 17, 2023 by Viljami

Diablo as an RPG series is definitely something. The story first started back in 1997 when the first game of this series was released. My first experiences playing Diablo were achieved as I played it on my PS1. I remember my brohter playing it more than I did. He really liked the game. There were many limitations compared to Diablo 1 on PC. I can definitely confirm this.

The second Diablo game was so effing awesome that I spend one weekend six hours straight playing it. This happened in 2000 and I was playing it with a PC. Playing this fast-paced game trying to find rare and powerful items and developing you character made me an addict. I ended up finally finishing the game a bit later.

Diablo has brought action to role-playing. It might have created a completely new genre of video games. It was among first real time role playing games. As turn-based games have their supporters moving and making attacks in real time is really something else. It is said to have taken inspiration from this hockey game of Sega Mega Drive called NHL 94 which was released only some years earlier.

Blizzard had really hit the jackpot. There are many other games, like some strategy games, that were released. I am talking of course about Starcraft and Warcraft. Games seemed to be moving forward and starting to form as real time games where quick thinking is definintely a requirement.

Today, we are seeing the rise of Diablo 4. It has been released for latest consoles just couple of months ago. It has received good ratings from many reviews. We are still waiting for it to take its final form as there are many updates and patches also being applied to this game.

Is it still relevant to go back one step and play some Diablo III? After over ten years of being developed, the third game of Diablo series was released, finally, in 2012. It even caused a serious problem in which the internet was heavily used and the connection was finally lost. This happened globally when Diablo III was released. The game required the player to connect after the game was installed.

We are still waiting how Diablo 4 will take its final, or at least stable, form. I found Diablo III to be a bit of a disappointment when it comes to graphics. Well, the game is over ten years old. I am currently playing it with Nintendo Switch. Controls are fine. I am satisfied in what the game actually offers. It can take tens of hours to finish Diablo III one more time.

I really like graphics of Diablo 4. Also, I really like the game pad of my Xbox Series X. It is a bit better than Switch’s Pro Controller. I really think Nintendo should include Pro Controller or a similar to the package in which the console is sold in. It is cheaper than some other consoles although. We are also hearing some rumours about the next Switch console being released next year. We might see, finally, 4K graphics in a Nintendo console.

PS2 Games That Are Still Worth Playing Today

Posted on August 12, 2023 by Viljami

I have many PS2 games. I wanted to pick some of these games that I do still enjoy playing. Here in this image there are three games. They are Gran Turismo 4, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and Resident Evil Code Veronica. Yesterday I wanted, first, play Gran Turismo 2 on my PS2. I’ve owned that game for a long time but haven’t had time to get into it. I even removed some saved games from my PS1 memory card. As soon as I started the game I just couldn’t stand these awkward 2000s PS1 graphics. It was too muddy for me. So, I turned to Gran Turismo 4.

I wrote about Gran Turismo 4 earlier. It is definitely a great game for someone that loves racing and cars even in a technical point of view. So I started playing. I finished A International license which opened up some new competitions for me. I also drove some races with one of my favorite cars – Dodge Viper. I really enjoy Gran Turismo 4. I have only completed a bit over 12 percentage of the game. I have to say it has been fun playing this game. Graphics aren’t as nice as in some newer games in Gran Turismo series.

“Which Gran Turismo is best?”, one might ask? I really enjoyed the first game in the series. That was of course over 20 years ago. I think there have been many improvements in graphics and also on some other perspectives also. I liked the sixth game and also enjoyed the latest that was Gran Turismo 7. I have played third and fifth but I didn’t like them so much. This is of course my opinion and you can think however you want. All in all it is a great and realistic racing game series.

What about these two other games? There certainly isn’t a debate about if THPS 3 is a good game. I think I heard someone mentioning that it is among one of the best games of all time. That isn’t a light statement. It might be the best THPS game ever released. First Tony Hawk Pro Skater was and is a good game. The second comes very close but I think there isn’t a game in this series that can really beat the third THPS game. The graphics were as good as can be. They were definitely better than the graphics of the first two THPS games that were released for PS1.

Why did I pick Resident Evil Code Veronica? It’s just this traditional style of Resident Evil game with some upgraded and good looking graphics. It is still a traditional RE game and not something that we would play in first person view on a more modern hardware. It might be the last traditional survival horror game in this series of great games. Maybe there is something reminding me of those times in some Resident Evil Revelations games that were more recently released.

I am not satisfied about every PS2 game that I have acquired. I have recently bought Forbidden Siren, Ecco the Dolphin and Ratchet & Clank. Guess what? I didn’t really get into those. I just hadn’t enough time to learn to play them well. Also I am a bit sad about how PS2 games look on my 4K television. I know I should get a decent HDMI converter but I don’t know if it would make my mind any easier. Dual Shock 2 controller hardly makes things any easier for me, also.

There are some verry good games for PS2 that you might want to play even today. I am not so sure if you should get this system. I think it is also possible to play these games as emulation. There is so much about PS2 that I love. But there is also a lot about it that I hate. I never had PS2 when it was the latest system. It reminds me of an era of the past. It reminds me of watching movies as DVDs. Is that an experience I don’t want to forget?

It might be a time for me to move on and enjoy more about modern games. I have PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC and Xbox Series X. PS2 might still remain as a system that I play sometimes. I just think it isn’t worth spending days on. It did enable a break for me in my streak of playing NBA2K23. NBA is just basketball and if you know anything about me and basketball you will understand why it keeps getting my interest so heavily. Did you see just a week ago as Finland played against Lithuania in Tampere. Did you see Lauri Markkanen? He is that Finnish basketball player that really made an impact on that game that was played. There were 13 000 people watching the game at the stadium.