first person shooter Archives - Intensive Gaming Diary

A Whole Lot of Call of Duty

Posted on February 4, 2024 by Viljami

I got this idea for this blog post as I was playing Call of Duty 3 on PS2. I started to think about how many games there are actually in this series. Why is it that there are so many games in the series and what are the main reasons for its success? Why haven’t we seen other games or other types of games? What is the secret here?

The first game of Call of Duty was released back in 2003. The latest game in the series was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III that was released last year (2023). And of course I have to mention that this is a remake and the original Modern Warfare III was released already in 2011. We have seen a new game almost every year since the series started its journey.

I have enjoyed especially the first Call of Duty, Call of Duty – Modern Warfare III (the 2011 release on PS3) and the first Black Ops. There are several good quality games in the series. I don’t have a full collection of Call of Duty games but I do have many of them as you can see from this blog posts featured image.

What kind of games these are one might ask. This can be a mystery to someone that has never played a Call of Duty game. They are shooting games and in more detail first person shooting games or FPS games for short. The first three games took place in the second world war. Many Call of Duty games also describe some more modern scenes. You are typically fighting against terrorists.

While being first person shooters the Call of Duty games have this certain edge in them. They differ a whole lot of games like Crysis, Doom / Doom Eternal and maybe even some other FPS games. Definitely there is a some sort of strategy or style of play that can be clearly seen. Of course I have to also mention a tight competitor of Call of Duty. It is the Medal of Honor series of FPS games.

We can count how many games are there in this gaming series. There seems to be precisely twenty games that have been released from 2003 to 2023. The latest CoD game I have had a good time playing was Call of Duty – Vanguard that was released in 2021. I played it on my Xbox Series S. I currently do own the Xbox Series X but I played Vanguard already back when I only had the digital version of Xbox Series or Series S.

You can play the earlier Call of Duty games with a PC and with a mouse and a keyboard but I think that at least I personally enjoy very much playing them with a good quality game controller meaning a game pad. I found some information online that said that PS3 would be the first platform that a game in this series was released. I am not sure if that is correct information since I clearly remember playing Finest Hour, the first CoD game, on my original Xbox already back in 2006.

We haven’t got a clear answer to the questions I made in the beginning of this blog post. Why is the series so successful? Why are there about twenty games released and do they keep making more games of this kind? Of course the series has been successful. So why break the mode? There have been many developers for these games. Infinity Ward has made many of these games along with Sledgehammer Games. Also a developer named Treyarch has been very involved. I think that since there have been many developers there has been this clear possibility to keep making games through all these years.

I can definitely recommend some of this series’s games but I advise to have some carefulness as every title is not a pure diamond here. The games remind of each other. I recommend to start from the beginning and progress to some more recent games. I can definitely recommend also Black Ops games and I did enjoy some titles of Modern Warfare. If you are completely new to this series I recommend either playing Call of Duty Finest Hour (the first game) or the newest CoD – MWIII remake.

A Neat Find from a Local Flea Market

Posted on July 14, 2023 by Viljami

You don’t have to necessarily guess what I found from a local flea market. While looking to the image right above this blog post you can see that it is an original CD-ROM of the legendary FPS game Quake. What you can guess is how much did I pay for it? It cost me two euros. Yes. That is right. Two euros. I am a bit tempted to sell this forward for maybe ten or fifteen euros but I decided that I would like to keep it.

I already figured when I decided to buy this that this game isn’t going to work on my modern Windows 10 PC. Fortunately I have a dedicated PC that runs Windows XP. I am going to play it on this old PC. I also understand that there are versions of this game available for Switch, PS4 and Xbox Series X. I think I made the right choice when I decided to buy this game. While re-use centers don’t necessarily always have the right ways to analyze the stuff they are selling I am willing to support them with buying a game for two euros.

There is one cool feature with this CD. It does play the games official sound track if you insert it to a CD player. I think this was why they had it in the audio CD section of this re-use center that I bought it from. I was actually a bit surprised that this disc didn’t have even more value. I have seen some CD-ROM PC games that were for sale for maybe 30 euros. This is of course a price of a game shop and those prices are always a bit high. This is due to some expenses that these special stores have like rent for example. I am very content in this latest purchase that I made. It is definitely a good purchase. Two euros. Wow!

I actually have a holiday at the moment. I have spent it sleeping, reading and playing. I have been just relaxing. I did spend some time in a hotel. And we are going to our family’s summer cottage next week. My wife has her holidays at the same time. We have spent some time together, of course. So, I have had a lot time for these activities I described a bit earlier. Today I had time to go to three different flea markets at Myyrmäki, Vantaa.

Quake has gained lots of attention lately. So I guess that here’s some more hype for the game. I am also waiting to get to listen once again the soundtrack of this game. The soundtrack was produced by Nine Inch Nails. If you like old school first person shooters then why not give Quake a try. Back in 1996 it was something different. It is a good game and a legendary game also.

Some Notes About Doom Eternal

Posted on March 1, 2023 by Viljami

Last Saturday I picked up Doom Eternal. Its price was 30 euros. I decided to buy it. I have been thinking to buy this game for a while already. It is a very good first person shooter. I bought it for PS4. The game shelf in this store I was in was not so convincing. I am glad that I found at least one good game. Doom Eternal is a sequel to Doom that was released in 2016. This sequel was released in 2020.

The logic of this shooter game differs a bit from another strong FPS named Call of Duty. In CoD you basically have lots of ammunition all the time. It is necessary to take cover and move as swiftly as you can from cover to the next one. You get ammo and health packs here and there. It is also important to hit your enemies to the head preferably.

In Doom Eternal you basically have to kill monsters to gain health, armor and ammunition. You have to constantly keep killing your enemies to not be killed and to gain health. Armor is also important. Your health bar will stay up longer if you do have armor.

There is also upgrades to your weapons, maximum health and armor. Sometimes you will come across a puzzle to be solved. This makes the game have a clear rhythm. Weapons that you get to use vary. You might use rocket launcher to shoot your enemies from a distance. For a close combat you can use shotgun or even the chainsaw. Killing an enemy with a chainsaw gives you a bonus in health, ammo and armor. However you cannot kill every enemy with a one chainsaw swing. Sometimes the monster has such a level that you must use three chainsaw moves. So you can collect up to three moves and then you can finish a strong enemy.

There are many monsters in this game that we have seen in previous Doom games. I must remind you that the first Doom was actually released in 1993. Many of these enemies have a weak spot. Some of them are easier to kill in close combat. One monster actually swallows a grenade if you throw it to it. Another monster uses flamethrower in close combat so you have to beware that move, always.

I am satisfied with this game. However I don’t like that you cannot actually see, from a phone app, how many hours you have spent playing. So I don’t accurately know how many hours I have put in to this game already. I had to choose the easiest difficulty level. I am not so skilled in this game. I guess if I keep playing more I keep developing my skills also. By the way…I absolutely love the Xbox phone application. It is perfect!

How Internet Changed Gaming?

Posted on February 23, 2023 by Viljami

I got this idea when I was walking just some moments ago. I started thinking about internet and how it has influenced in so many ways our lives worlwide. Of course it has also had an impact to gaming also. So this blog post deals with gaming and internet. I am trying to get together a text about how things were and how they are now.

Take a look at this posts featured image. You can propably see that there is a Nintendo GameCube. It has four inputs for a controller. It has also a memory card attached and room for another memory card (so you can copy information from one card to another). This gaming console was released in 2001. So this was before smart phones, huge hard disks and internet connections. In 2001 gaming consoles didn’t have things like that.

If we think for a moment how were all these improvements brought to the consumers. They appeared little by little. Sony and Microsoft were among first to use large hard disks and internet connectivity. For a moment there was a point to have a PC for gaming. Do you remember going to LAN parties? You propably don’t. Today these events are rare. If you must know – they were parties where we connected our computers, that had Ethernet card, to a local network and played games like Counter Strike against each other in teams and even solo.

Playing multiplayer games has evolved. There is something so special when you just gather around the television in someones home and play your favorite video games with your friends. That feeling is unique. But things are changing. Nowadays you don’t have to leave home or take any hardware with you. You can connect with your friends online. You can even have friends that you interact only through internet.

This topic is getting me a rush of inspiration. I am writing this and I am starting to think where we are going. Most of the devices that use electricity could be quite easily be connected to internet. However I see this as a problem. It would cause a serious cyber security threat. And I don’t want to do that.

You can play also against artificial intelligence. I used to play also some first person shooters locally, you know, against bots. I am, after all, not so much into these new multiplayer games. I definitely like more playing single player campaigns be it FPS or some other type of a game.

Internet has also changed in a way that you can very powerfully share tips and even walkthroughs of games. You can chat while you play. The saved games can be stored in the cloud…if you have a subscription to the service that is required. You can also today collect your achievements and track how long you have spent playing a game. You can take screenshots and share also them.

This is a hug topic. I could go on writing this post but it seems it is a time to move on to something else, again. Internet has had a huge impact in gaming. It has pushed the progression of software and social media and all of the technologies that are constantly developing and changin all the time. One interesting side is how artificial intelligence affect gaming. Let’s keep looking forward!