Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Tag: role playing games

Going Back to Diablo IV

Posted on by Viljami

Diablo IV has gone through some serious updates already as it has been available since 2023. I remember how it felt to play it for the first time. I was already a bit disappointed since I got the game just maybe two days after its official released date. I sent back then an angry email to the local game shop that I ordered Diablo IV from. I got an appropriate message back that they were really sorry but there was no way for them to post it any time earlier. The game had I tight release schedule and they weren’t actually allowed to post it sooner.

I was after all happy that I was finally able to experience Diablo IV. There was nothing wrong with the game’s graphics, look and feel and also the overall design. There just was something missing with its game play. I didn’t feel hooked. I didn’t feel any passion towards playing it. This feeling lasted all the way through as I played the game for over 30 hours.

There have been many updates to Diablo IV. A friend of mine mentioned this game as one good game that he now was able to play on his new laptop computer. He asked me if I had already tried it out. I had to tell him that I really gave it a try back in 2023 and I didn’t like the game back then. He was sure that this game was really good.

I started thinking about if I should give Diablo IV a second chance. The game would be available from Steam or Battle dot net. The price would be 50 euros. I thought this seriously for a moment. If I would pay 50 euros I would be able to play Diablo IV on my powerful and mighty Windows PC that I had acquired at the end of year 2025. I thought about it. I still had the physical copy of the game for Xbox Series X. I decided that I would give it a try. I had really nothing to lose.

So, how did Diablo IV feel like to play almost three years since it was first released? It does take about two and a half hours to install. In decided to install it yesterday just before I headed to sleep. The first thing today I did after drinking some coffee was to fire up Diablo IV that was already installed. I did play it for maybe three hours or something like that. It felt a bit different. I kind of enjoyed playing it. At the same time I am thinking how was this game even released as it has gone through some very serious updates. It feels sort of like an experiment that the developers have been doing with this game.

I do have very warm feelings towards Diablo game series. My history with this action RPG series did start with the first game that In did play on PS1. Later on I discovered Diablo II which I played on a PC. Diablo II was the game that got me really hooked. I later played through also Diablo 1 on PC. The PS1 port is a bit like reduced version of the game. If you want to experience the first Diablo game I recommend getting it for PC. There was also a game released just some years ago and it was called Diablo II – Resurrected. It was released just maybe a year or so before Diablo IV.

I really don’t know what else to tell you about Diablo IV. I only played it today for some hours. I don’t know as I am writing this if there is going to be another Diablo game released and when would this release see a daylight. The thing I want to stress is that Diablo IV might not be for you. It is a bit different as an experience. I am not saying that it is totally a waste of time. It is just different. Maybe I too learn to like it some day.

My day has been a typical Saturday as it is a day off work for me. We are currently enjoying some sunny weather here in Finland. I just installed Shadow of the Tomb Raider for my Series X. I hope to get to play it and I might do so later. I am wishing a nice weekend to all my dear readers worldwide!

The Role of SNES In The History of Gaming

Posted on by Viljami

There was a time in history of gaming when SNES was the most powerful and the most newest gaming console in the markets. This period of time was followed by many years of dominance from Mega Drive, or Genesis as the system was called in the USA, that in turn was a following of dominance from Nintendo Entertainment System, or for short, NES. What had happened earlier, before Nintendos dominant era, would be known as video game crash. It was a time when video games weren’t selling so well. NES begun the new era when video games started to begin to be popular again.

What makes Super Nintendo, or SNES, so significant is reflected in these games that were released for it. They were beginning to look like something that could be considered a true form of art and not just some entertainment for kids. There were stories that were told through these games. There were some limitations about the amount space available and also some considerations about how to, for example, save a game with this technology. However the progression was fast and SNES had its time when it was actually considered the greatest gaming console of all that were available.

Now, you can debate on which one is better, Mega Drive or SNES but actually the way I see it is something like this. NES was the best during 1983 to 1988. Mega Drive dominated from 1988 to 1991. And SNES was the greatest console between 1991 and 1995. After that it would be the era of PlayStation 1 which would continue all the way to the era of the generation in which PS2 would belong to. Take this as just an idea and not something I could somehow actually prove to be true. This is a sort of a theory.

How were the games that were released for SNES? I would point out that there were games like Street Fighter II and Super Mario World. They were full of action and included graphics that were very impressive at their time. There were also some role-playing games that I think moved gaming very much forward at this time in the history of gaming and playing video games. These games brought us closer to the games that could be later found on PS1. I think that when PS1 came actually as popular as it would show to be we were actually starting to realize the full potential that video games actually had. RPGs on SNES were something like a bridge to more complex and modern gaming.

So, the whole scene of gaming was advancing very fast at this time. Everything I have told you here makes me think how little I have spend playing SNES. I have several RPGs to explore if I choose to go to that path. I am thinking that this system, SNES, has some great games. But the question in my mind seems to be “are they actually worth playing”? I ma thinking this because they are old games. I don’t have so many memories of playing SNES back in the 90s. I have more memories about Mega Drive.

I am still thinking about this. Some good games for SNES include titles like many of Final Fantasy titles, Secret of Mana, Dragon Quest VI and III, Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG. It also had many good games that weren’t actually RPGs. These titles include Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars, Donkey Kong Country, Star Fox and F-Zero just to mention some of them.

If you are a retro collector you must have heard how there was a device that would have actually been a Nintendo console that would have had a CD drive of some kind included with it. This was actually something that would have been a collaboration of Sony and Nintendo. We never saw this machine and Sony went on to release its own gaming console. PlayStation, later. This leaves my imagination with many possible outcomes of what we would have had as video gamers if it would have come to reality.

SNES is a huge part of history of video games. As I am more of a Mega Drive and PlayStation 1 fan I have lots of playing to do if I wish to get into SNES a bit more. There is a lot to explore. Some games might not be ones that I will spend tens of hours or even hundreds of hours playing since they are already a bit old as video games. I might play some newer video games instead. However it is great to acknowledge how these games shaped the way we experience gaming today.

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.