Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Video Games Transition from Toys to Entertainment

Posted on by Viljami

Video games might have been considered to be somewhat childish back in the days. We gamers of course know a lot about this matter and might have a better point of view on the topic. What I am going to write you about in this blog post is how the large audience was thinking about video games.

With playing video games we basically went from games being considered to be some kinds of toys for small children. This was the popular way to think back in the early 1980s to maybe the middle of 1990s. The gaming console that actually made video games to be a seriously taken entertainment that was suitable also for adults was PlayStation 1. It was released in 1994. One the games that defined the new role video games was that game on this blog posts featured image. The game is Metal Gear Solid.

There were also many other good quality games that were released for PS1 when it was the most newest and most powerful gaming console on the markets. You can find a list using your favorite search engine but let me make a brief list of some of them right here. Games I want to include here are the first three Resident Evil games, first two Gran Turismo games, Final Fantasy series, Crash Bandicoot and Colin McRae Rally games. There are many others also that I haven’t included here.

The hardware was developing quickly. Suddenly it was possible to save your game. The optical CD-ROM discs could offer more space for a video game. It was possible to offer some tens of hours of playing time. This wasn’t the case with some earlier gaming consoles like Nintendo Entertainment System or Sega Mega Drive. However PS1 didn’t have a hard disk. It relied on memory cards that could be purchased for your PlayStation console. This was how PlayStation 2 also handled saving games. The capacity of a PS1 memory card was 1 MB while PS2 had 8 MB memory cards.

The graphics of video games were moving strongly towards three-dimensional environments. The graphical content was improving in quality while professionals tried to do their job while the technology was improving in a fast pace. This was also for me personally a period of time that I started to think about some day being able to make a video game by myself. This can tell you just how strongly I was beginning to have a this sort of feeling towards gaming. I wanted to be involved in some way.

For me a dream like making your own video game has been in my mind since those days. I was 14 years old when I bought my PS1 console. Exploring these games three-dimensional environments was a very fun thing to do. I was amazed how now also some persons that were over ten years older than me had an interest towards gaming. The shift from being considered as toys to being a seriously taken form of entertainment had begun.

For me playing video games has been a hobby. Programming a full game is a project that takes a lot of work. There are many easy to use tools available today. Today I am working in the field of information technology but making video games is not my current job. I have actually found some other ways to be involved. I know a bit about programming but I am not so confident in being a professional programmer today.

It can be a subject of debate if SNES or PS1 was the first console to have games that could be considered as serious entertainment also for adults. One console that is usually mentioned in this discussion is Sega’s last console Dreamcast. Dreamcast was more powerful than PS1. It was on the markets only for some years and then it was discontinued by Sega. It is a common matter to say that playing PS1 was like listening to rock while playing Dreamcast was like listening to jazz.

Gears of War – Ultimate Edition

Posted on by Viljami

Gears of War – Ultimate Edition is a remake of the original Gears of War that was released for Xbox 360 back in 2006. It was also released for Windows. It is an exclusive game for Xbox. There has been some discussion about exclusive games and we have already seen a Gears of War game released for a PlayStation 5. We also have seen Silent Hill 2 (remake) getting released as a digital version for Xbox’s latest console which are Xbox Series X and S. Also now when Nintendo also has its very powerful console, Switch 2, it is also possible for it to compete. Nintendo does have these own type of games it likes to release that are quite different from what some other consoles have.

While Gears of War is a already a strong brand among game enthusiasts I personally haven’t played it a lot. I do have some experience on playing the first game in this series on my Xbox. I really cannot remember if I was playing on my Series X or 360. I enjoyed the game but couldn’t beat it after all. I just got stuck and finally lost interest. I hate when I end up in this situation. I would like to play the game with a flow mode and play it all the way to the end. Fortunately it isn’t today such a shame to look up some advice online if you need some.

Gears of War – Ultimate Edition seems to be a perfect game if you want to catch up before trying to play games like Gears of War 4 and the fifth game in the series that is titled just “Gears 5”. There is still a lot for me to play when it comes to Gears of War titles. Ultimate Edition was released in 2015 right before Gears of War 4 was released. That moment was 2016.

I can very much recommend Ultimate Edition especially if you haven’t played any Gears of War games before. It is obvious that in this game it is necessary to aim well and keep yourself in cover almost constantly. It takes several hits to drop an enemy. You also get to throw some grenades. There are many types of enemies that are trying to come and get you. You have some teammates that can die and when that happens you can also revive them. I really only play the single player mode but there is a multiplayer of some sort also available. The camera angle is in third person or over-the-shoulder.

I have only spent something like two hours playing Ultimate Edition. I really like the game. I am playing it now on my Xbox Series X with my Elite 2 controller. It did cost almost 150 euros. The regular Xbox controller does cost if there aren’t any discounts something like 60 euros. I can definitely feel the difference. The Elite controller is more responsive and sensitive enough. It might be also a good purchase if you are into eSports and/or some competitive gaming. It is a bit sad that Microsoft doesn’t offer such a high quality controller as a default but that is just the way it is. You nowadays sometimes have to pay a bit more for quality. I also did buy some years back the official extra disk space unit which was for me the 1 TB version. This was also a very expensive purchase but it also improved the experience in overall.

I was checking a day back or something like that about if I should get an Xbox One console. I found out that consoles One and Series X do support the same amount of original Xbox games. If One would have supported more of these I would have been very interested in getting one. The amount of original Xbox games supported is only 63 out of all over 2500 games. As I do have loads of original Xbox games the only ways for me to play them seems to be buying a working used Xbox or playing these games on an emulator.

I also have lots of Xbox 360 games that aren’t supported by Series X. So I would need also maybe a used and working Xbox 360 console. Question seems to be how long will these consoles last if I purchase them? It seems to me that I will be playing these games on emulator. The options seem to be Raspberry Pi 5 (8 GB of RAM) and Recalbox and my old desktop PC with Batocera installed. I actually think that with Batocera it is possible if you have a powerful PC to play games up to PS3 and Xbox 360. Actually I think that also PS4 emulation might be possible at least soon.

I did find some more games from my gaming shelf. I picked the first Forza Horizon, Xcom UFO Unknown and Army of Two and also one Xbox One game that was Alien Isolation. We are going to see a sequel for it soon I think. I have tens of Xbox 360 games on the shelf just waiting for me to get to play them. I wish I had more time to play also these titles.

 

Fighting Force (PS1)

Posted on by Viljami

Fighting Force is a fighting game in three-dimensional world for PlayStation 1. It was released back in 1997. I remember this game very well. I did only play the demo version of this game back in the day but decided now just some days earlier to give it a try. First I checked if it would be a game that would require a long playing time. As I usually do I went to How Long To Beat and checked this matter. Playing this game through would take approximately three and a half hours.

So, it is a bit of a short game but I decided to start playing it and I already felt it would have something to give to me as a retro gamer and a huge fan of PS1 games. I would compare this game to some fighting games that were released earlier for Sega Mega Drive. Of course the graphics are three-dimensional and better than what Mega Drive was able to offer. Although the playing style, you basically just beat your enemies up, is very similar. You get score bonuses and health updates. You also get to use melee weapons and even some guns and grenades. The amount of ammunition is very limited. Grenades make a very powerful explosions and you often end up hurting yourself also in Fighting Force.

It takes a while for you to get really into Fighting Force. I played the game through with one of the four main characters – Hawk. You also get to choose the difficulty level from easy to medium to hard. This does give this game some replay value. In this game you can hit or kick. Jumping is also possible. You can also try to kick your enemies while you are running to make a kick in the air or try to slide on the ground and hit your enemies. It is necessary to try to pick up health bonuses or weapons that these enemies do drop. You can also wreck your environments. At the end of a level you might get continues if you have gathered enough of a score. There are possibilities at some points also to save your progress which feels comfortable.

There is a bit of a variation between the enemies in Fighting Force. Some of them keep healing and you have to beat them quickly or they will heal themselves fully. Some enemies can hit you with a strong punch and you have to run away from them at times. Some enemies can give you electric shocks that make you hit the ground. It is also important to try to kick your enemy if it gets knocked to the ground for a while. It doesn’t take a whole lot of time to understand these basic tactics when you are trying to beat this game.

Back in 1997 Fighting Force was a new PlayStation 1 game. Now it is a solid peace of gaming history. It was very interesting to go back to this game. You can compare it to some of the greatest games of this era. I am comparing it to maybe the first two Resident Evil games which offered something very similar graphically but that had already a deep plot and some more advanced ways to make the player more involved to playing the game. While Fighting Force is a bit simple as a retro video game it still manages to offer something for a retro gamer and a PS1 fan like myself.

If you have a chance to play this game and you do like PlayStation 1 games I can definitely recommend Fighting Force. Just don’t expect too much of it as a game experience. It sure can bring some memories and also nostalgia to a retro gamer. It was nice to go back in time and play this game for some hours.