Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: Reviews

A Book About Rovio and Angry Birds

Posted on by Viljami

The blog post right here is about a book about Angry Birds. The name of the book is The Slingshot Formula and it has been written by Pascal Clarysse. One reason for me to start reading this book was the matter that Rovio, the developer of Angry Birds, is a Finnish gaming company which is very much my dear home country. Read along as I briefly describe how the story of Angry Birds was told in this book that I finished reading just a while ago,

The book tells us readers a story of three young men, later formed to Rovio Entertainment, that take part in a mobile game development contest back in 2003. They all study then in Helsinki University of Technology (that later in 2010 became Aalto University as many big universities were combined). They actually come up with several games. Angry Birds is actually their 52nd game when it gets released back in December of the year 2009.

Angry Birds is a game that anyone can play. It might be a casual game. The developers wanted to make the game as easy to get into as possible. Then they achieved something with the game-play that had the players hooked. Angry Birds is a very popular game. It made into a worldwide pop culture icon. This was seen when there were huge collaborations with NASA and Lucasfilms Star Wars. There was eventually a movie and many other products that featured Angry Birds bird character. One popular product was a red pillow that featured the bird character of the game. Finally, in 2023, Sega acquired Rovio with a deal of 1 billion dollars.

I read the book. I liked it. With all this about a great Finnish game I have to be honest and tell you that I have never played any of Angry Birds games. I am not a huge fan. That goes to all mobile games for me. But if considered that there is a book written about a Finnish mobile game development company I might pick a book like that and just read it. I did like the book. I can recommend it to you if you are into startup companies and if you maybe want to try something like this by yourself also.

I found this book from this huge book store in Helsinki. I don’t want to advertise the place but it is my favorite book store since it has such a large selection of books to choose from. As I bought this book I also picked a book about this food delivery company Wolt and another book that was about artificial intelligence. The Slingshot Formula does cost 25 euros. It is written in English and that is the language that my copy also has been written in. It’s nice to have some language skills, isn’t it? You could probably seek it from a library if you are into borrowing books. There might also be a possibility to read this book as an electric copy.

The book is somewhat lengthy. It has a bit over 300 pages. Pascal Clarysse describes the main characters in the book with a nice detail and shares soem knowledge about different roles that these people had with Rovio and Angry Birds. There were many professionals involved from graphics design and programming all the way to musicians and also some financial specialists that made this phenomenon of the icon of Angry Birds as successful as could have been possible. Angry Birds are today known in all corners of the planet Earth and even beyond it. They actually did send an Angry Birds themed pillow into a NASA space station. Today Angry Birds is a very well-known brand and an icon.

Mafia: The Old Country

Posted on by Viljami

I just finished Mafia – The Old Country. I played it for about 12 hours which is also the length of this game on “How Long To Beat” website. This time it was natural to follow the plot and i is actually a huge part of the whole experience that Mafia – The Old Country offers. I am not going to spoil the plot but it builds on romance and personal story of the main character of this game. I liked this game. It is also the only Mafia game in this series that I have played through.

The gameplay offers fighting (with knives and guns), conversations and a bit of driving around on horses and cars. A car means here something very old since the game takes place in the beginning of 1900s. Knife battles are challenging and you have to time your moves, swinging the knife and trying to dodge your enemy’s attempts to hit you, very well. When it comes to guns I found out that shotgun, preferably the pump-action one, that can have more ammo loaded, was my favorite weapon. You can actually hit your target from a very long distance. It is also a bit easier to hit if compared to the basic rifle that is also available, at least at times. You can also use the rifle if you want to hit even targets that are a bit more far away from you.

The graphics in Mafia – The Old Country are beautiful. The catchy accent of the characters feels just right. I found myself, as awkward it may seem, babbling the dialogue to myself in this italic accent. So, I have to say that the voice acting is in a good form in this game. It is a big budget game after all. I bought the digital copy of this game and played it on my Xbox Series X. I didn’t even have to think about any performance issues which in my opinion is a good thing. The digital copy had a price of about 50 euros.

I really don’t have the option here to compare this game to some earlier games in the Mafia series. This was the first game of this series that I ever have played. I think we can talk a while about other games in this series. The first game was released already in 2002. The series has also games Mafia II and III. The second  game was released in 2010 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. The third game in this series was released in 2016 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. There has also been a game called Mafia – Definitive Edition that was released in 2020. It was a remake. There is also a collection named Mafia – Trilogy. It was released in the same year that the remake was.

What did Mafia – The Old Country have to offer for me as a gamer? The story was immersive. You start as a young mine worker and advance to a mafioso. There is also the love story involved between Isabella and the main character, Enzo. I am not going to reveal the ending. The plot is important in this game. If you enjoy the plot I think you should choose a lower difficulty setting. If you prefer fighting, with knives and guns, you should pick a more challenging difficulty level. You might also want to first finish the game and then increase the difficulty level and play it once more. There are also lots of collectible items that you can try to find as you progress in the game. I found Mafia – The Old Country to be a comfortably enjoyable game that is well worth its 50 euros price. The game is of course available as a physical copy. Its just a matter of which format you prefer. The choice is yours to make.

My First Hours With Black Ops 6

Posted on by Viljami

The newest game in Call of Duty series, Black Ops 6, has been released exactly one week ago. I have spent a total of four hours playing this first-person-shooter. I am playing it with Xbox Seiries X. It did take some time for the game to be delivered as I wanted a physical copy of the game. It would have been possible to order it in advance as I know lots of us gamers actrually did. I got this in a very cheap price of 55 euros with shipping included. I could have supported a smaller local game shop but instead I went for the lower price this time. I think I saved 20 euros.

After spending some hours playing I checked as I was curious about what other gamers think about the game what was the score for Black Ops 6 in Metacritic. It didn’t come as much of a surprise that it had an average score of 85 out of 100 at the moment that I checked. I am very glad that the game wasn’t a huge flop. We have seen some games that have not proved their worth in the eyes of a true video game player.

Call of Duty is a video game series that has already a strong legacy. The first Call of Duty was released in 2003. It was actually 2006 when I first played this game. I was in a moment in my life that playing some video games started to become again a reality for me. I played it with my original Xbox. I have always liked very much of the experience that Call of Duty offers. I soon also completed the first Call of Duty as I did spend many hours playing it and also continued to play Call of Duty 2.

The other day I had a short conversation about Call of Duty with a connection or should I say a friend of mine. I had shared a photo of every Call of Duty game that had been released. The pile was huge and consisted of 24, or was there even 25 games because there was also one PS Vita game, titles. My friend actually asked how many of these have I completed. I made some calculations and came to a conclusion that I have played through only six out of 24 CoD games. This gives me some edge to write about the game series while I have to say that I have some more games to play also.

What bad there is to say about Black Ops 6? I don’t have,  at least currently, anything to complain about. I think I am almost half way through the game since it takes, according to my information, about 8 hours to finish the game. I like the feel of my game pad. I couldn’t imagine playing actually any FPS with a mouse and a keyboard but I think that is possible. My experiences of this controlling method seem to be minor but I have to say that I have played at least the first CoD in this way.

The plot might not be the most interesting matter when it comes to this game. Of course like fans have come to know there are these political matters that really deepen the way that a soldier in a battle has to come think about his or her view of the world. I think these themes have become a bit stronger when it comes to Black Ops games in Call of Duty series. So, there is a plot but I don’t think that it would fit a game like this. It is a game where you shoot and move and also where the gameplay is filled with quick responses and constant action. That is everything I like about this game. I am continuing to play the game as soon as possible.