Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Won The Championship, Finally

Posted on by Viljami

First of all, I have to say that I have played this game a lot. I am talking about NBA2K22. This was my fourth full season that I played with my player. I have worked with this game for about 140 hours. That’s a long time for a sports game. But you know how NBA2K games tend to be. So, it’s not a big surprise.

My player is a small forward. I have had in previous NBA2K games a player that was a shooting guard. I have also tried to play as a point guard and also as a center. I don’t really remember if I have already created a power forward. My main skill as this player was scoring. I wasn’t so good at shooting three-pointers. Well, I was decent, after all. I didn’t also have so much height. This made me not to get so many rebounds even if I was positioned well to grab the ball.

I really like NBA2K series. I previously finished, some years ago, NBA2K14. This was the one that I finished as a shooting guard. I have played also several other NBA2K games with PS4, Switch, PS3 and now with my PC. This game brings the most realistic and entertaining basketball out of, I think, all basketball games released, ever. Well, I have to say that NBA Jam holds a special place in my hearth.

As an addition I too have a background in playing basketball. I played for seven years in a competitive level. We had a good team. Eventually things got very serious. It was also tough to study in high school. I had very tight schedule. It also doesn’t pay your bills if you only play basketball. So after many glorious, so to say, years in a hobby, I decided to quit playing basketball. I haven’t played in a team since then. And it’s been over 20 years since I quit. But, I do have some knowledge and you can say that I am a big fan of basketball in many ways. I even have had some plans to make a basketball simulation strategy game but that would be another topic for another blog post, I think.

I have a Xbox One Elite Pad and I played this time this game with my PC.  I am a bit dissatisfied with my current display. My computer has a powerful graphics processor and it gives a clear 4K picture. It would give if I had a sharper screen. Why am I still playing with a Full HD display? The main reason is that my work station fits only a 22 inch screen. And the other is the price. You might have to spend several hundreds of euros for a 4K display. I think it is soon time for me to buy a new Xbox Series S/X controller for my PC. I am going to buy a regular controller instead of a new Elite pad. I might write something about it in the future.

So I kind of completed my journey inside NBA2K22. Actually, I have already bought NBA2K23. So things are looking like I am going to play some more basketball, soon. I have thought about also some other games that I would like to get into. I have thought about starting to play Space Quest series and especially the third one in the series. I finished Space Quest II back in the day. This is the only Space Quest I have finished. It would make sense and it would be very interesting.

Prices of Retro Games Are Rising – But for How Long?

Posted on by Viljami

I have noticed that prices of retro games are rising. You don’t necessarily have to make a reasearch to find this out. It is enough to just browse through games and their current prices. Some already sold games, that still appear on a webshop, can make this very clear. It seems like this progression only took a short amount of time.

I got to think about this as I was looking for some GameCube games. The rising is present in PS1 games also. What will the future be like? Will we see more games with more increased prices? Who is buying all these games? Who is selling them? I think you do have to do some sort of a research before you sell your game related property nowadays.

Of course retro gaming systems are getting older alll the time. It would make sense that these consoles are going to be broken ones one day. I mean, technology doesn’t last forever. Where are all methods and ways to repair your broken gaming console? I guess we, game consumers and retro gamers, are too foolish to even demand a service like this. It seems easier to just buy another classic mini console. Well, I don’t think that everyone would have the opportunity to own one since there is a limited amount of new devices available.

“But Viljami…What about emulation?”, you might be asking. Well, that’s an interesting question. There are ways to install an emulator to so many different devices. You can use your desktop PC for this. You can also use Raspberry Pi. Why wouldn’t you get a dedicated PC and install Lakka OS or some other Linux type of operating system? There are lots of possibilities.

Aren’t game roms and emulation illegal? Yes, basically they are. But if you think about it, you might have to consider this with a common sense. Can you really buy a game? Is it really available in where you live? Of course, some games get published as remakes or something like that. But this is not the case in every situation.

Should we wait for a remake on every possible and popular retro game? I think old games are valuable. And I mean this in a way that’s not the actual amount of money you get from it. I actually think games are part of our culture. When you consider Commodore 64 games there already is a website that can be accessed by everyone that is dedicated to bringing C-64 fans their favorite games. I don’t know if this is actually illegal but it makes sort of a sense.

Should we just not care about copyrights anymore? Maybe there should be a more strict law that handles old video games. I think music has a copyright that gets sort of out of date when the music is old enough. What if there would be a law that makes a 20-year-old game to not have a copyright.

If we once more use our common sense, I think that if a game is not anymore available as a new game or even as a used game, it would make sense that it wouldn’t have a copyright anymore. And maybe we should just avoid some major cases where there is a certain benefit for someone in not respecting a copyright.

All PS3 Racing Games (That I Own)

Posted on by Viljami

Today I started first playing a game for PlayStation 3. This game was Castlevania – Lords of Shadow. I played for some time. I had an idea of a new blog post about some of my favorite games for PS3. I thought about racing games because these are my favorite type of games. I remember many good games that can be said to be in this category.

First I thought that I would like to introduce all my driving games for PS3. I started picking up these games. Suddenly I understood that there were many titles that weren’t so good. I didn’t spend time with them so much. Some titles I had bought from flee markets and I haven’t played them at all. So there is a wide variety of games introduced here. I decided to write a paragraph of every driving or racing game that I currently own. So, here we go.

First in this pile of racing games is Test Drive Unlimited 2. I remember that I was excited about this game when I first got it. Test Drive is a classic and retro type of a game that was released for PC back in the day. However, I didn’t enjoy this game so much. I was actually a bit short of money and I thought twice about even buying this game.

Next we have Dirt 3. It is the third game in a series of Colin McRae Rally Dirt games. This is a very good rally game. I played it for so many hours. I also got my first experience of a setup that I used a racing wheel and pedals. This game I can definitely recommend.

Then there’s Ridge Racer 7. I am sorry for the picture is a bit dark and I can actually barely see the title of the game in this picture. This game is more of an arcade racing game but don’t let that fool you. There’s lots of stuff in there if you play this game. The feel of driving is very different than in any other racing game.

Need for Speed – Undercover is one these games that I’ve found from flee market. Actually I think I have never even launched this game with my PS3. I think it is a typical NFS game that get released so so often. So I don’t have a much to say about this.

Gran Turismo 5 is the first Gran Turismo game that was released for PS3. I played this for some time but I didn’t like it that much. It is a decent game but I think Gran Turismo 6 and 7 are better and of course Gran Turismo 4 might be the best out of all games in the series.

Colin McRae Dirt is a very nice rally game. I think Dirt 3 is still better. I just liked it more. Dirt 3 has also a very nice soundtrack. There is also a second Dirt game for PS3 but I only have it for Xbox 360 and not for PS3.

I really liked Burnout 3 Takedown. So I was anxious to buy this new Burnout game back in the day. And this game was Burnout Paradise. It has a funny soundtrack. That’s where the title of the game comes from. It had a huge open world of diffeerent kinds of roads and goals. I didn’t play this game so much.

Need for Speed Shift is a game that I was practically addicted to back in 2010 and 2011 when this game was actually the best racing, at least in my opinion, game that was available. Very nice game. In can definitely recommend this one if you like this genre.

F1 2011 was sort of an update to F1 2010. I never played this game. I didn’t buy it when it was actually first released. I got it many years later from flee market for very cheap price. Might be a good game. I don’t have anything more to say about it. Maybe I have some day time to get into it. Well, there are some newer F1 titles available so I will probably not.

This is a bit longer post than what I usually write. But it’s a nice subject. So, lets move on to the next game of this pile of racing games. And it is Shift 2 Unleashed. It is a sequel to the first Shift game. I found this game to be very enjoyable. And you can figure why I went and bought this sequel. Because I of course liked the first game so much.

F1 2010 begun a series of high quality F1 games. It was a decent game. I just didn’t play it all the way through. It offers a variety of difficulty. I tried this game also with wheel and pedals. This is a nice game. I can recommend it if you are into this genre and platform.

Last, and maybe the least, heh, is a game titled Formula One – Championship Edition. I think this cost me three euros. So, what the heck…why wouldn’t I pick this up. I remember that the disc was in a decent condition. Otherwise I wouldn’t have bought this one. And…I never have played this game.

There you go. We just went through all racing games for PS3 that I currently own. And, I almost forgot one game. That is Gran Turismo 6. I just played this recently so it wasn’t directly on my shelf. It is a very good game and you should play it.