Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Yesterday’s Purchase

Posted on by Viljami

Just yesterday I made a tiny purchase from a local flea market. I bought a pocket book titled Resistance – The Gathering Storm. It was only two euros. I also found a driving game for Xbox One. The game was Forza Horizon 3. It is an open world racing game. I have just recently finished Forza Horizon 5 and I very much enjoyed playing it. The game was three euros.

This is why I like going to flea markets. You never know beforehand what you will find. I had to think for a moment several times, yesterday, when I was walking inside the flea market. They had some neat programming books, some hardcover books, many Tom Clancy titles, and also several very interesting pocket books. Pocket books had mostly a price of one euro. I came across also some Ilkka Remes books. He is a Finnish writer that writes these popular thrillers and has tens of books already written. Also there were many Stephen King books.

I had to hold back a little bit since there were many interesting things available. At the beginning of this year (2025) I handed over lots of books that I didn’t have time to read since I do have lots of books that I haven’t had time to read yet. This time, while visiting the flea market, I didn’t find any audio CDs or movie DVDs. At this particular flea market CDs have a price of two euros and DVD movies are one euro. There are some exceptions of course. Sometimes a CD or a DVD has a bit higher price tag on it.

Lately I have noticed that there aren’t as many video games available in our local flea markets. I think this has everything to do with that some people do this kind of “scalping”. They try to find as many games for as low price as is possible and then they resell them with a bit higher price. Also, if you are going to buy these games from a dedicated game shop you are going to have to pay a bit more. This is of course understandable and it happens to be so because game shops have to pay rents and salaries of their employers.

The pocket book, Resistance – The Gathering Storm, was a nice find and purchase. I think that scalpers aren’t so interested in buiying and then reselling books. I hope I get to read this book through sometime. The author of the book has also written a Halo themed book titled “Halo – The Flood”. My yesterday’s purchase has over three hundred pages in it.

I haven’t read the book yet but its plot centers on fighting against an army of aliens and/or zombies that are trying to wipe out whole human existence from planet Earth. I have Resistance as a video game for PS3. I bought it and started playing it also but really didn’t get into it. I hope the book is going to be a good and exciting one to read.

I don’t have high expectations about Forza Horizon 3. It was also a nice purchase. I am expecting to experience some exploration and easy to handle driving from this purchase. It was originally released in 2016. It is released for Xbox One but since Xbox Series X has a wide backwards compatibility it is playable also on the now latest Xbox gaming console, also. Xbox Series X is fully compatible with Xbox One games. You can certainly find some good titles from the game library of Xbox One.

Going to flea markets now and then is a fun activity. I just hope that I would find even more games as I visit these places. The prices are usually low. There seems to be more and more people interested in making a purchase or two and the popularity of flea markets seems to be rising.

Character Progression in Video Games

Posted on by Viljami

Character progression in video games was back in the 90s when games like Golden Axe II were released very much nonexistent. I played the first Golden Axe just a while ago. I almost suddenly started to realize how this game would feel like if there would be some sort of character progression in it. It is very sad that a game like Golden Axe that has very nice visual look and very fantastic character design along with a fun game play to not have something we have seen in so many modern games – a character progression.

Take Donkey Kong Bananza for example. The game isn’t overly obsessed with the development of the character but you get to update your skills with “bananas” that you collect while progressing in the main story. You get to update your hitting force and health level along with many other skills that you can update with the bananas that you collect. You get to choose very much how you will spend your hard earned skill points. This molds the experience and gives you some strategical point of view to the game.

We are today seeing this also in many sports games. In modern NBA games you have to keep developing your player to perform better. There really isn’t a such a solid goal in these basketball games but you can have achievements like winning a championship or getting awarded as the “most valuable player” and things like this. Basically you can play these NBA games almost forever or as long as you will. You kind of get hooked in developing your character and some people are also willing to buy stat upgrades with real money. You can of course have multiple and different types of main characters.

The origins of character progression are in my thinking something adopted from today so popular role playing games. The origins of RPGs then are from something called Dungeon & Dragons. Of course we cannot forget also how fantasy literature has shaped the scenery of today’s role playing games. The components of modern video games have everything to do with the creative power of those people that keep on creating and telling stories and describing different characters, missions and stories. We owe a lot to these foundations and there has been a long time that modern video games have been getting developed.

First we had some games that were organized as turn based games. In the middle of the 90s we saw something new as a very popular game called Diablo was released. The year was accurately 1996. Blizzard was the game house that finally brought us a video game that had along with role playing elements also elements of pure action. I have to bring up once again a spectacular game that inspired the creators of Diablo. This game was NHL 94 for Sega Mega Drive. Also it was a game that inspire many other game developers like the makers of Doom. NHL 94 was a very good game and it inspired also me at that time.

The question that still remains unanswered and might not be answered even after we go through these thoughts a bit more is that how come no one has ever utilized the characters of Golden Axe in such a long time? Maybe they don’t have the copyrights? Then what about Sega? Why haven’t they come up with a new Golden Axe game or spinoff?

The short answer to my question is that we have seen some Golden Axe games after the third game was released for Mega Drive back in 1990s. It just happens to be that they weren’t successful games either financially or content wise. And once again we have a question that needs to be answered and all I can say is that time will probably give us an answer of some kind. We will have to wait and see. There have been many games that have a character progression but I think we would need a new and decent Golden Axe game for modern gaming platforms.

Six More Switch 1 Games Now Added to The Collection!

Posted on by Viljami

While browsing the web I noticed some Switch 1 games. You must have already figured that Switch 2 is very much compatible with Switch 1 games. All of these games were on some sort of sale and I got them for a pretty neat price. Follow along as we go through every one of these games.

We can actually go just in the order that can be found in the featured image right here in this blog post. The first one of these Switch 1 games is Sega Mega Drive Classics. I have seen these collections all the time. I think the latest I have actually bought was the collection for PS3. I have seen these collections released for PS4, Xbox Series X and so on. What I do find interesting about them is that you can actually play them in the handheld mode and when you are travelling. Just wanted to play these classics on my Switch 2. I really enjoy Mega Drive games.

Pokemon Shining Pearl is a very new game for me. I don’t have, yet, so much experience in Pokemon video games. That’s excactly the reason for me to buy this game. I wanted something recent and also something that could get me introduced more to this franchise. I could have bought some earlier game in the series and I am not 100 percent sure about if this is a game that suits my interests after all.

The next game has its title in Finnish (“Nuuskamuikkunen”). The game is titled “Snufkin – Melody of Mooninvalley” in English. The translation has been made this way so that, obviously, smaller children could also enjoy playing this video game. Also Moomins are actually from Finland. They were created by Tove Jansson, but you can probably find some more information from your favorite search engine. I don’t know what to really expect from this game but I found it somewhat interesting. Also, it cost me just a bit under 30 euros. So, I just went and bought it.

Next up is Final Fantasy XII – The Zodiac Age, This game is very familiar to me. It is a very good role-playing-game that does seem to take forever to play through. I first experinced it on PS2 and later went on and bought it as a remaster for PS4. I wanted to give this game a try once more and to play it on my Switch 2. So, this one was now added to my collection of Switch 1 games.

Turok 3 – Shadow of Oblivion is a “Limited Run” release. This was the most expensive game in this group of Switch 1 games. Turok is a video game series that I have not studied a whole lot earlier. I do remember a friend of mine presenting how the first of these games looked on his PC back in the 1990s. It did look impressive in that particular environment and time. The game has everything to do with fighting dinosaurs. I do have  a Turok game also for Nintendo GameCube but I haven’t, yet, played it a whole lot.

The last game in this bunch is Chocobo GP. This game seemed to be a fun one. I definitely know what Chocobos are. I was introduced to them in Final Fantasy VII back in the 90s. Oh, I have so many memories. I am hoping to get to play this game also soon. Lets hope its a good one. I think this game had the cheapest price out of all these six Switch 1 games that I bought and just today picked from the post office.

That’s it! We went through every one these six Switch 1 games that I have just bought. It soon weekend again. Lets see if I get to play these games this weekend. I haven’t yet finished Donkey Kong Bananza, on my Switch 2, but I am working on it. I have played a bit over 15 hours of that game already. See you again, soon!