10 most craziest game controllers

Inspired by my own post I decided to take a look at exactly what kind of controllers you can find to play games with. As I haven't tried any of the following gadgets I really don't know if they are good or bad in actually controlling a game. The only thing I do know is that they are special, either with their appearance or with the way they work. The meaning of this list is mostly to show what people/companies can come up with when it comes to playing games. So lets begin.

10. Slime controller

Made by Hori for Dragon Quest VIII on PS2. This controller has the same functions as the normal Dual Shock 2 so you can play any PS2 games with it. Well you could if you wanted to. Although this looks kinda cute in its own way its usefulness as a real controller is doubtful. The controller's cable can be removed so its value in decoration is slightly better. The controller even comes with it's own display stand.

Little update

I apologize for not being very active on the past few days. My life happens to be a mess right now and today was the last straw. I worked my ass off at work and at the end of the day got shit rubbed into my face by this one guy (not my boss fortunately). So today I'm getting drunk as a skunk and tomorrow I'll face the consequences for it. Luckily I have one post almost done so I'll make some final tweaks tomorrow evening and publish it on Sunday.

For this post to have some real value I'll write a little update on Sony's welcome back package. Couple days ago they announced the content of that package. Here's the most interesting part of it:

1. Two free games from this list:

• LittleBigPlanet
• InFamous
• Wipeout HD + Fury DLC
• Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty
• Dead Nation

2. 30 days free Playstation Plus membership for non subscribers and 60 days subscription for existing members.

Not really big surprises there, but it could have been a lot worse too. As I already own LBP and InFamous I'm going to download Wipeout and R&C. I'm sure Dead Nation is a cool game too (it's Finnish!), but this time I'm going to pass. Now we'll just have to wait when Sony will have the Store back online (rumors saying next week) and we can enjoy our free games.

We are the champions!

This is totally unrelated to my blog, but as yesterday was the second time something like this has ever happened I just have to write about it. Finland is the new world champion in ice hockey 2011!! There are probably two countries in the world who care about something like this, but I'm happy that Finland is the other one. I believe that the people will be partying the whole week here. It was so sweet when we won Sweden in the finals 6-1. From all the countries in the world our lovable western neighbor is just the one we wanted to beat. The last time we won the world championship in 1995 it was also against Sweden. Now we have something to remember for the next 16 years when we'll probably win the next time. Of course next year would be great time to win again as the games are played in Finland. Well maybe we'll win or maybe not, but we sure did win now! Oooooooooh yeah!!

This is how we roll.

PSN coming back online

It's alive! Or it will soon be at least. Sony announced that the PSN is being restored now, but as it will take some time all countries won't have it online at the same time. From the link: "The process has begun and some countries are being turned on now, so please be patient as we reach you." For example I heard some very unofficial rumors that Finland will be online later this evening. Playstation Store won't come back yet, but buddy lists, online multiplayer and Playstation Home should work when the PSN starts working.

You can already download the new firmware version (3.61) for you PS3 which will force you to change your PSN password when the PSN comes back online. This password can only be changed on your own PS3, or on the PS3 which you made your PSN account. If you haven't downloaded anything from the PSN with your account you can change your password via e-mail that Sony will send you.

I'm sure many of you are thinking about the compensations Sony promised. On the video where Kazuo Hirai announces the PSN relaunch he also says that some sort of "welcome back package" will be formally announced in the coming days.

I'll update this post if I find something new and relevant information.

250 followers!

250 followers is unbelievable. The 250th follower was Dubbadeedoo. Check out his cool blog, it has some crazy videos that I'm sure you'll find entertaining! Thank you guys so much for following and for the positive feedback. I promise I'm going to try to keep posting regularly also in the future, and if I'm lucky even with quality content. Because I just started my internship I don't have as much time to play games as I used to and this means I won't be writing as many reviews as I had hoped, but I'm just going to write about some other interesting stuff instead. So stay tuned for more low quality jokes and spelling errors!

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom

I could guess many of you don't even know about this game as it was pretty new to me too. I just bought it because it was cheap and I remembered reading something good about it. The game is about a young man, Tepeu, who tries to save his kingdom which is controlled by mysterious darkness. Tepeu is accompanied by ancient giant known as Majin. The game's genre is mostly adventure although it has some action too. Tepeu and Majin explore the old kingdom and fight, or mostly Majin fights, the soldiers of darkness that control the land. I wrote few days ago that I like to lie down on the couch and relax with some nice adventure. Well, Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom is exactly what I meant.

The story in Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom is the usual (someone could say classic). The darkness has spread over the land and no one knows where it came from or how to destroy it. There has been some adventurers who have wandered into the kingdom to find out what's wrong, but they have all disappeared. So now it's Tepeu's turn and he, with the help of Majin, tries to solve the mystery of the darkness. Nothing really special about the story, but I found it nice how it's told by flashbacks of Majin's slowly returning memory.

Controller, is it you?

For about twenty-five years console games have been played with some kind of pad. Now people are given new different choices. Kinect, Move and Wiimote offer new ways to play games, new to the masses at least, but is that the right way for game controllers to evolve? Or is it just a nice gimmick to sell games to new people? Well they are selling millions so someone has to like them.

The 10 most common clichés in video games

When you play a lot you are guaranteed to bump into things that seem to repeat themselves in many games. Some may be there because there isn't any better way to do the thing in question, in some cases it can be just laziness, like "lets do it like this because others do it like so too".  What ever the reasons might be these things will make you laugh, cry, feel frustrated etc, but what they won't do is surprise you. Without further ado My little gaming blog presents the 10 most common clichés in video games.

Outbreak! Zombie Apocalypse

This time I'll be writing about some what different kind of a game. Outbreak! Zombie Apocalypse is a free real world location based game for Android. The idea of the game is that there are two sides, survivors and zombies, who battle against each other. When you register and log in the first time you will become either a survivor or a zombie. After that I bet you might guess what happens, but still let me tell you a little more.

Update on PSN

Just my luck. Yesterday I posted how i got scared about the rumors behind the closed PSN. Just after I published that post I looked at the latest news and found this. I'll summarize what was announced.

Sony admits that user accounts were hacked and personal information stolen. This information includes:

• "name, address (city, state/province, zip or postal code), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity passwords and login, and handle/PSN online ID."

 Also possibly stolen:

• "profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers."

And last but not least:

• "If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, to be on the safe side we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may also have been obtained."

You f*cking hackers!

I really don't mind so much if someone knows my birthday and now that my password isn't the same anymore on most sites I'm not so worry about that either, but what I don't like is if my credit card number is out there for someone else to use. Although security code should be safe this still gives me the chills. Well at least for now my credit account looks normal.

This was just a small update to my yesterdays post. It just was so odd coincidence that at the same time when I'm writing how I got scared about the possible account breaches, because of the past experience, Sony announces that the user information has indeed been stolen. Just my luck.

My face when I read the news.

PSN down, will Sony prevail?

As some of you may already know Sony's Playstation Network has been down since last Wednesday. Sony announced on it's blog that "An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services." There have been all kind of rumours around this news. First and maybe the biggest rumour being that it was the work of the almighty Anonymous, but I think that by now they can be left out. They have also stated that they didn't do it. Some other minor rumours claim that Admin Dev accounts were breached and that a custom firmware which allows the use of fake credit card info was released. The real reason might be some combination or it might be something totally else.

God of War 3

God of War 3 is an action-adventure game where you control Kratos, a Spartan warrior who seeks vengeance upon Olympian gods. The game is very violent and brutal which is shown very clearly during every boss fight. The game has many of these boss fights so the violence has a big role in the game, but what can you expect from a true Spartan warrior whose only reason to live is revenge.

I never played God of War on PS2 so when the God of War Collection was published I just had to have it. It was nice to finally be able to play one of the biggest PS2 games (or two of them actually). The actual games didn't impress me so much, good hack'n'slash with puzzles and quick time events, but I liked the theme. Greek mythology is interesting so it was nice to see those familiar faces and kick their asses! The ending of God of War 2 left me thirsty for more so lets find out what the third chapter has to offer.

"My vengeance...ends now."- Kratos

The way of the future

When I started this blog I was thinking to write only about the games I would currently be playing, but as usual things didn't go as planned. I could write only about the games, but I don't like the idea of updating my blog only once or twice a week. So as you have seen I have already made few posts about something else than just the game I'm playing and that is the way of the future for this blog.

So then what is this other stuff I'm going to write about? The only certain thing what my future posts will have in common is that they will somehow be game related. So basically you can expect almost anything. I will still write about every game I play though. I don't know if they are reviews or just some random thoughts, but in any case something. I don't believe I'll be posting any general news as they can be found pretty much everywhere and I would like to write as much my own opinions and stuff as possible. If the news are super interesting or have something that concerns me someway then I'll talk about them.

This new posting policy helps me to make the blog more versatile and will add some variation for my posts. I'm also open for suggestions about what I should talk about, so if you have something on your mind tell me about it in the comments. I would also like to thank everyone who voted at my poll. God of War 3 won so it's time to kick Zeus's ass.

Games + girls = ?

One of the biggest mysteries of our time is, of course, the combination of games and girls. Do they mix? Well here's my two cents.

At least they seem to mix really well.

I think the public opinion is that games are for (teenage) boys. At least it used to be like that. Of course it's easy to think so when you look at the games today. When you see a game or advertisement with a women with huge tits and very little clothes on, it gives us a pretty good hint to whom the games are made/advertised to. Well not all games are like that, but big part of them is. And why is that? Because sex sells. There's no denying that. I can't walk on the street without seeing ads with good looking women on them. But it works. My head turns nicely when I walk past them. I like women, can't help it.

I wouldn't mind playing with her.

So it seems like games are for boys, but don't believe everything you see. Today's generation has grown up with games surrounding them, so they see more easily what's the deal with games. And this includes girls. I understand if my mom says that games are for little boys. Only thing she knows about games is a tv commercial about Gran Turismo. Well that and solitaire she plays occasionally. That was my mom and she's is 60, then lets move to my girlfriend who is 19. She used to play games just like me when she was little. Mario and Tekken were great she says. She also played WoW few years back. Well today she doesn't play that much anymore, but that doesn't mean she wouldn't like games. I bought all the available Crash Bandicoots from PSN and she played them all through. She also tried Flow (game where you control the character by moving and turning the controller and not by pushing any buttons) but didn't like it. "Only suckers play games like this. I want my good old pad with buttons" she said. Words of a true gamer. :p

That's only one person I know, but if we look at the game industry as a whole we can easily see how the girls are taken into account more and more. They even have a word for it, social gaming. Ever heard of it? Popcap Games ordered a survey about social gaming and guess what, the majority of those gamers are women (55% - 45%). If you look only Facebook the gap grows even bigger (69% - 31%). So the girls in fact do like to play games. They just play them on Facebook, at least for now. One interesting point from Popcap's survey (this includes boys too, but girls being the majority of those gamers it still gives us some direction):

• When asked to choose as many reasons as they wanted for playing social games from a lengthy list, social gamers cited "fun and excitement" as the most popular motivation (53%). Stress relief (45%) and "competitive spirit" (43%) were next most popular respectively, followed by "mental workout" (32%) and "connect with others" (24%).

Those most popular reasons look familiar. At least for me they are the reasons I play games (although some games cause more stress than relieve it). "Competitive spirit" is also one big reason for all online gamers, whether they play CoD or FIFA or whatever.

Maybe this is why girls don't play with consoles...

So the reasons to play are pretty much the same but games differ. I believe this is because it's so easy for girls to play Farmville or whatever on Facebook. I'm pretty sure they would like "real" games just as much if they only had the chance to try. These "real" games have so many different genres that there surely is something for everyone. For example games like Little Big Planet, Sims, ModNation Racers and Viva Pinata are great if you want to show someone that there are also other games than the GTAs and CoDs. And I'm not stating here that those two are bad, just that they are so well known already. Also Guitar Heros and Singstars etc are easy to approach.

So, games and girls, do they mix? I'd say yes. Girls like to play but they just play the games that are available to them and most of those games happen to be on Facebook or somewhere else on the internet. If we want to get them on the couch to play with us we need more social games for consoles or the current games and consoles with different kind of marketing strategy.

Dead Rising 2/2

Most of the zombies are dead and Chuck has escaped, but was it worth it? The answer is yes and no.

The answer is no because of the time limits. Like I said before they are super annoying. I'm now playing the game second time and I still hate those time limits. I'm not even sure if I'm able to play it to the end now. I'm going to try though. I was hoping that there would be some kind of free roam mode after the first playthrough. That would have been nice. No time limits, just you, weapons and the zombie horde.

This screen comes too familiar.

Last time I also mentioned difficult enemies. There were some that felt difficult, but as Chuck gained some levels it became easier to beat those little bastards. But first you had to gain those levels and before that there were some missions that I had to skip because of the difficult foes. So again I repeat myself. Without time limits I would have had the chance to level Chuck up and after that go and try those missions.

So why was the game worth my time? Dead Rising 2 has it's moments. If you leave out time limits, killing those zombies is fun and entertaining. With so many different ways to smash a zombies head it doesn't get boring. After killing few thousands of those things I don't even find the killing repeating itself. Picture this: twenty zombies coming your way and you take a few swings at them with your fire axe and sledge-hammer combination. You hear few splashes and find yourself standing alone with a big pile of zombie guts on the ground. Man, that's satisfying!

Randy with his pink chainsaw. Got to have one of those myself!

The game also has twisted humour which at least I find funny. For example there were these two magicians who were practising a trick where a woman was cut in half with a huge saw blade. Well they failed every time, the woman died, but it didn't stop them of trying. The humour in general was about some sick people killing others. Some like it and some don't. Another example: maybe my favorite character, Randy, is a psychopath who wants to get married. And he just accidentally cuts his father in half with his chainsaw.

Because the point in this game is to survive and kill zombies it isn't a surprise that the plot is not worth mentioning. There are couple bad guys who get what they deserve. That's pretty much it.

Another great character. Slappy is sad because his girlfriend died. :(

Lets try to sum up my opinions about the game. The game is good if you know what to expect. Lots of zombies and many many ways to kill them. But if you are like me and want to complete all the missions you are in a constant hurry with very little time to really enjoy killing zombies.

P.S. There is still time to vote what game I'll play next. The poll's on the right. Vote!

Can't decide

I'm still playing Dead Rising 2 but I'm already thinking about the game I'm going to play next. I have two new games waiting but it's always so hard to decide, so I thought I could ask you guys. The nominees are:

• God of War 3

• Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom

I guess many of you know what God of War is about, but for those who don't know it's an action game loosely based on Greek mythology. You play Kratos as he tries to take vengeance on Zeus and other Olympian Gods killing huge amount of monsters on the way.

The second one can be more unfamiliar. It's an adventure game with some action and puzzles. You control a young man Tepeu who's accompanied by the great ancient beast Majin. This duo wanders around old and mystical kingdom and tries to defeat some evil monsters. I myself don't really know much else about the game.

When I'm done with Dead Rising 2 I'm going to choose the game which has more votes and play it next. The poll is on the right so choose your side and vote!

Dead Rising 2

As I promised before I'm now playing Dead Rising 2. Dead Rising 2 is a third person action game where you play Chuck Greene as he tries to survive the zombie outbreak in Fortune City. Chuck has been framed to be a terrorist and he tries to find the persons responsible.

The game happens in "real time", meaning that the in-game clock runs all the time you play. The plot is divided to small episodes which all start at some exact time. Between these episodes there are lots of different side missions where you rescue or kill people around Fortune City. These side missions have time limits too. When they come available you only have certain amount of time to complete them. Third time based thing in the game is finding vaccine for Chuck's daughter. She has been bitten by a zombie and needs Zombrex every 24 hours (game time). So all these happen at certain time and the clock is running.

I really have mixed up feelings about the game. As I said before I don't like time limits in games and it's as I'd feared. The time limits are really annoying. I can't rest or "take it easy" at any point. There's always something where I have to hurry. Well the side missions aren't mandatory so I can admit that the hurry is partly my fault, but with my obsessions to try to do everything in the game it's really hard to let some missions just pass because I don't have the time. I just try to think that I'll complete them during the next playthrough. The game also feels pretty hard from time to time. Or maybe it's just me and my sucky skills but certain enemies in some missions feel really hard. They run faster than you, have much more health and do more damage. Some even heal themselves. I think it would just take the right tactic and right weapon to kill them, but with the hurry on my mind I just don't have the patience to try everything.

The game has zombies, lots of zombies.

Time limits cause panic in me, but so do the zombies. They are everywhere, and there's lots of them! Of course if the main thing in game is zombie riot there should be lots of them, but together with time limits they can be really huge pain in the ass. I'm always running from point A to point B and wouldn't have time to deal with millions of zombies, but there they are. I have to admit that this is maybe the right way to do a game like this, it's just me that is wrong in this combination. The only thing that I would change is the time limits. Without them I would so much enjoy crushing those zombie hordes.

So you didn't like my solo, bitch?!?

That leads us to the next big thing in the game, weapons. There's more ways in the game to kill those bastards than you can imagine. Almost anything can be used as a weapon, from a house plant to a huge war axe. And as if those weren't enough you can combine many of them with each other (after you have found the correct combo card). How'd you like a toy helicopter with a machete attached to it, or a paddle with a chainsaw? One of my favorites I've seen so far is a bucket with a power drill. You put that thing in zombies head and it drills the zombie to death. Oh wow! That's how I like my zombies, in bits and pieces.

It's splashing time!

Dead Rising 2 may not be my favorite game but I'm still going to finish it. The game has it's moments from time to time so it's not all bad. You'll have my final opinion when I have played the game through. That would be in few days I hope.

History part 4

I don't actually know what made me change PC for consoles again. One reason that comes to my mind is the image of me lying comfy on my couch with pad in my hands looking at my huge television. Now I know that you can do that with computer also, but at that time my idea of PC gaming was me sitting in front of my monitor with crooked back.

So in late 2007 or early 2008 I decided to spent the money I had saved from my previous job and bought Xbox 360 and PS3 at the same time. I bought them both because couldn't decide between them. I think with Xbox I thought about games like Halo and Mass Effect and for PS3 there was "the brand" that interested me. Sony had had some great exclusives like GTA, Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid and I wanted to be sure I would have the change to play some of them (yeah, Sony had had some exclusives...).

Two brothers side by side.

As you can see I totally missed the whole PS2 era. I played happily with my computer and thought "lol those lamers don't know shit about games, they just play with their crappy resolution and pad that has like four buttons." Well times change I see. Still the whole PS2 phenomenon was one reason for my decision to buy PS3. Sony surely has made some good work with their marketing. It's my luck that game studios are making remastered versions of some old classics for PS3. Just waiting to get my hands on Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.

Xbox 360 and PS3 at the same house? Yeah it's a winner's choice. At first I was happy that I bought them both. Uncharted for PS3 and Mass Effect on Xbox. They both had good things, but then something happened. Somehow I just leaned towards playstation. I could say that it was the overall feeling about the system and software, but that would be strange because it was PS3 that broke down a month after I bought it, Xbox had better games at first and dualshock is crap compared to Microsoft's controller. And still I bought almost all cross-platform games for PS3 and quite soon stopped buying games for Xbox completely. After that I guess it's just fair to call me a fanboy.

I have six games for X0 worth mentioning (technically only 4 because of Halos 1&2), first three Halos, Mass Effect 1 and 2 and Lost Odyssey. Halos are overrated, I don't understand why people make so big deal about them. Really liked the atmosphere in Lost Odyssey. Stories Kaim starts to remember are nice to read and the milieu is great. But those child characters, oh man how I hated them. Indeed the game comes from Japan. Don't have to say much about Mass Effects, they are pure gold (1>2). I'll buy Mass Effect 2 for PS3 also when I see good enough offer.

For PS3 I have little over 30 games. It ain't much but they have kept my busy over the last few years. Don't want to write a list of them all but it's hard to name just a few, so I'll take a photo of them and you can see for yourselves. The best one? It's really hard to say, but maybe Batman: Arkham Asylum could be it. It depends on the day you ask though.

My babies.

Being a console person nowadays there is one thing I envy about PC gaming, Steam. It's easy and it's cheap if you just wait for the right offers. PSN and Xbox Live are ok, but they are missing the offers that would make me buy games there. I have bought few games from PSN (Megaman 10!) and I'm sure the number would be doubled with good offers. Good offer isn't a few years old game for 20 euros. With PSN+ I could get some games for "free" but they haven't interested me much yet.

I think that covers pretty much all of my game related history. I hope there has been something interesting enough to read about. Writing about this stuff has also made me think about the future of gaming, so I think I'll be writing about that too in the future.

History part 3

Pentium 75MHz was getting old and fast. Couldn't really buy any new games for it anymore so needed something new. The answer was Sony Playstation. Actually if I remember correctly my parents bought it for my brother (the computer was in my room so it was his turn). Nevertheless we played with it both as much. It didn't have nearly as big effect on me as did the earlier platforms. The first time is always the first time.

Even the games didn't feel so good. I guess here the first time law applies too, I had already seen pretty much all the genres I was playing then. Some good games what I remember: Metal Gear Solid, Tekken 3, Gran Turismo, Tomb Raider and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Then there were games like NHL and Need for Speed and others, but they didn't really rock my boat.

My favorite. Does he look cool or what?!

Although I played with PSone pretty much I needed something else. So after one summer I used all money I got from my summer job and bought a new computer. AMD Thunderbird 700MHz with 128MB ram and a cheap GeForce2 MX. It was good enough to play almost every game for a while, but it too started to get old pretty fast. Some years later it broke down and I had to buy a new one. AMD again, Athlon 64 3200+ with 1GB ram and ATI 9800 Pro (changed it later for GeForce 7600 GT). That is the computer I'm still using right now and it's also one reason why I don't play new PC games anymore. Not many PC exclusives I'd like to play though. Witcher, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Starcraft 2 comes to mind. Well and the incoming Diablo 3 of course.

So what about the games I played? The biggest thing was of course Baldur's Gate 2, the best game I have ever played on PC. Right behind it are Fallouts 1 and 2. I also tried Icewind Dales but never finished them. Weird thing is I have never even tried Planescape: Torment. I know it's an excellent game, but somehow I have missed it. But someday... Other great game from that time is Deus Ex. It was new to me to be able to complete the missions with so many ways in a first-person game. It felt so cool back then. Really liked that one, but haven't ever tried the sequel. I will make up for that mistake when the third one is published.

One of the greatest ever.

Because I played Jagged Alliance back in the day I of course liked Jagged Alliance 2 and because of those I had to try Silent Storm. It's great but would be even greater without Panzerkleins. I just didn't like them. The game is still one of my favorites though. I also tried X-COM/UFO series for the first time. The first ones are old but they just keep on rocking. With games like these I always imagine myself playing hardcore and not using save/load trick, but mind is weak and it almost always goes to that. It's a shame.

During these years online gaming started to become more popular, but like I have told you before I'm not really into that. I didn't like it then and don't like it now. I remember playing Quake 2 and some other games with friends at school and that was cool, but playing on lan is different because you are with other people there and not by yourself. Half-Life is a great game but I have played Counter-Strike like two times. I have spent countless hours with Diablo 2, but don't remember if ever tried the multiplayer. Also have never tried WoW. Just not for me.

History part 2

Nothing good lasts forever. While I still played with NES something new and different was coming. It was the day when dad bought our first computer and I was happy again. I think the year was 1995. It was so different from Nintendo and you could do some much with it. Like write stuff! We didn't have a modem, so internet came to our house some years later.

IBM Aptiva Pentium 75MHz. I was so proud .

My first PC game was Space Quest 6 - The Spinal Frontier. Reason for that game was the same as it was with all my NES games. The box looked cool (funny looking dude in space!). I had never heard of any Space Quest games before. The game was fun to play. I even got help from my mom with it! And it looked so much better than those crappy NES games. Of course years and years later those crappy games now look cool and retro. ;)

After that became games like Jagged Alliance (and Deadly Games), Steel Panthers, Carmageddon, Grand Theft Auto, Master of Orion 2 and Heroes of Might and Magic 2 just to name a few. Opening the drawer behind my back reveals some of those games in their original boxes. I would love to have those big cardboard boxes back. They were so much cooler than the DVD casings today.

Some of those games from my drawer.

I think games like Master of Orion and Heroes of Might and Magic were my favorite at the time. It was so nice to play those games with my brother at the same computer. Switching chairs and trying to guess what the other is up to. Nothing like good hotseat action. I still have played MoO several times after those years, although during my second PC era I started to like different games (about that later).

Mine Bombers. Some serious action.

These years also introduced me to small finnish shareware games. Anyone ever heard of Slicks, Molez or Mine Bombers? Especially the last one was maybe the most played game with me and my brother. We even bought the full version by sending some cash via regular mail. Some other great moments I remember during that time are the first time I saw my friend play Doom, "Wow! The barrels explode when you shoot at them!!" and the first time I saw 3D accelerated graphics. That was Quake 2 I think.

History

I thought I could write about something else than the current game I'm playing for a change, so here's a little story how I ended up where I am now. We are talking about video games of course. I split the story in four parts and will publish the parts during the coming week.

Part 1:

The first time I got my hands on games was at the late 80's I think. My parents rented a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) from some local shop. After that there was no turning back. The renting time was 24 hours so I think me and my little brother didn't sleep at all that night. My folks didn't rent it very often, against our wishes, so it was always so cool when they did. Too bad I don't remember any games we played, but I could guess Super Mario was one.

You are now hearing the music in your head.

Couple years after that came the big day when we finally got our own NES. Oh man, I was probably the happiest kid in the whole world that day. I think the only game that came with the console was the one and only Super Mario Bros. During next few weeks/months there were "few" arguments about who can use the television (we only had one).


Because we lived in a really small town there wasn't any place to buy new games. So whenever we visited some bigger city we got a new game. The way to choose a new game was quite different at the time. I looked at different covers and chose the one which seemed most cool. And yes, we did got some sucky games with that method. But there were so many good ones it's useless to complain. Super Mario Bros. 3, Double Dragons, Blades of Steel, Contra, Excitebike, Mega Mans, Snake Rattle 'n' Roll and many more. So many good memories there. *sigh*


It's nice to remember what gaming was like then. Today games are made pretty easy for mass markets and you can usually save whenever you want. It was different back then. At least I notice it if playing with emulator. Save and load are in heavy use. One particular game comes to mind when talking about difficult games. Ever heard of Battletoads? Man that game was hard! I remember how me and my brother played it for hours and hours. It was hard yes but yet so fun to play. If the game is hard it still have to be fair, otherwise it will just suck. And the feeling when we defeated the final boss? Indescribable.

One of the easier ones.

I think the console and the games are still somewhere at my parents. Maybe I should take a ride at the retro train sometime. For the old time's sake.

Change of heart

I've been very interested on earthworms lately and been thinking about changing my blog to be about them.

Did you know that earthworms (Lumbricus terrestris) can grow up to be 30cm long? And that they are hermaphrodites, meaning they are both male and female at the same time? Talking about playing with yourself!

Earthworms can also regenerate to some extent, but that varies between species and depends on the extent of the damage. Studies of some G.E. Gates show that, in theory, it's possible to grow two different worms from one. Science fiction is here!

Earthworms are also very known as fishing baits. Many of you have surely dug up some and gone fishing with your friends. I know I surely have done it many many times. Behind my parent's house is their little garden and back there is a great place to dig up some worms. Especially after the rain.

But maybe the most biggest secret about earthworms, that most people don't even know, is this: April Fools! I so got you!

100 followers!

Wohoo! You guys are great. Didn't think there would be so many of you so fast, but here we are. I would like to thank mom and dad, my fifth grade teacher, all of my neighbours, the guy I met at the bar few weeks back and my cat. Well, maybe you guys too who have the time to read my blog. You made this possible. Thank you.

But what's left after this epic accomplishment? I was thinking of writing about something else too than just about the games I'm currently playing. That would allow faster updates on the blog and could be fun to write about other stuff in general. Although the posts would still be game related, more or less, but it would make the blog richer. We'll see in the future.

And the murderer is...

Finished the game yesterday. I liked it from the beginning to the end. Although the story is pretty normal for a psychological thriller (mysterious killer killing people with a twist), it still was a much needed change to the stories I usually see in the games I play.

One of the multi-view scenes. Looking good.

There really isn't much to add to my previous post. The lazy controls were there to the end and also "shake the controller" parts started to annoy me a little. (I have to add that although my game was the "move edition" I used the normal controller, so everything I say about controls is just about the pad.) Still I have very little bad to say. I'm now playing the game the second time and it's nice to have so much things that can change during the second playthrough. Almost all episodes have things that can go a different way.

At this point I guess I can reveal that I knew who the murderer was before playing the game. I accidentally got spoiled on some forum where idiots like to spoil other people for fun (f*cking lamers). So the moment where the game reveals the murderer didn't have the effect it should have had on me. But I have to admit that during the game I was starting to think that maybe I don't remember right, that person can't be the killer.

I also have to say that there may be some sides of the story that I still don't know. At least one thing comes to mind that was left unanswered. I'm hoping maybe the second playthrough and different decisions will tell me more. Anyway I'm quite happy in the way the game ended for me at the first time, there was only one thing which I failed. I got my happy ending though, just the way I like it.


Some final words: Heavy Rain is for people who like psychological thrillers or just enjoy a good story, or for people who want to play something a little bit different than the usual CODs and GTAs. Looks very nice but has some trouble with the controls.

My first post about this game is here.

Shake it baby!

I received the Dead Rising 2 in the mail today, so as soon as I'm done with Heavy Rain I'll start on that. I'm little disappointed though. Didn't read the description closely enough and I thought I'll get all that stuff in the picture I posted, but instead I just got the steelbook box, making of DVD and the cool pen. Well it was cheap although it would have been just a normal game, so I won't complain.

Heavy Rain

After Riddick maybe a little different game. Heavy Rain is a game where you try to catch the mysterious Origami Killer. But instead of controlling just one character, you in turns control four persons. All with different aspects to the killings.

I've heard a lot of good things about this game, and being a person who likes good stories, I just have to try it. Right at the start the game made a great first impression. During the installation you are guided to make your own origami with the paper that came with the game. Great innovation! Just love this kind of things. It would be great if installation/loading screens could offer you something else than the usual and boring "loading" text. Too bad that none of the other loading screens in this game has nothing interesting to offer.

Ethan Mars. Trying to save his son.

So the game begins. First I noticed the great graphics. It surely does look amazing, even after many hours staring at it. Second thing I noticed wasn't so nice. The way you control the character is too clumsy. You have to push R2 to walk and choose the direction with left stick. I don't feel like being in control at all. This not being an action game that ain't so big of a thing, but it still bugs me from time to time. Other controls in the game are quite simple. You interact with the world by pushing a button, waving the controller, keeping some buttons down and things like that. One funny thing related to that happened today. I was in a spot where I had to keep several buttons down. I think six at the most. Well, the combination was so difficult that when it came time to push the sixth button my fingers couldn't do it, so I used my tongue. :D But it worked and I did get forward in the game.

Norman Jayden. FBI profiler trying to catch the killer.

What about the story then? After the start it has opened up and I like it. Trying to guess who the killer might be, collecting evidence and trying to save one of the main character's son is entertaining. The game also has some way getting under my skin. It really felt good when I got Ethan's son to smile in the park playing with him. Or the part where you are arresting one of the suspects. I pointed my gun on him thinking I'm gonna talk my way out of this (in every game I always play character who's good in talking and not shooting). I talked and he was going to surrender when BAM! It seemed like he was going to attack another police officer and I shot him. This happened in a second so the shot was a pure reaction to the suspect's movement. I was really disappointed having killed him. First time ever when something like this happened to me. I did something I didn't want to do.

Scott Shelby. Private investigator also trying to find the killer.

I'm now maybe a little after the mid-point in the game and I have to say that I really like this game. It's not really a game type of game, if you know what I mean. You don't run in some woods or mountains killing monsters and the tempo is quite slow. But that is the thing that makes this game different. Many people say that this is just an interactive movie. Some of it is true I guess, but what I do know for sure is that I must see this to the end.

Madison Paige. Trying to help Ethan. Looks damn hot!

The second time.

Last post about Riddick, I promise. :)

Just finished the game second time. Normal difficulty felt pretty easy now. I died maybe five times during the whole game. Got also all the trophies I was planning to get. Only one I didn't get was the one where you needed to collect all the bounty cards. I found couple new ones but still some are missing. Don't have the nerves to look for them all. All the multiplayer trophies are also no-no for me because don't play online. Overall trophy percentage for Riddick: 60%. Quite low but can't help it. Something else new that I found was a new gun, sniper rifle. Hard to say much about it though. I fired it maybe three times. I guess it could have helped me on the hard difficulty. I did complain not to see enemies early enough.

Well this was a small update now. I'm gonna start to play new game tomorrow, so in a day or two you'll be hearing about that. Not going to tell the name of the game so you'll have to come back and check it out yourselves. ;)

Ding dong the witch is dead!

Wohoo!! Revas is finally dead, and pretty much everyone else too.

Ex-captain of the spaceship Dark Athena.

Last time I complained about the unfairness of the game, but yesterday it didn't feel so bad. Surroundings in the game changed a little darker so it was easier to hide. Also the enemies became maybe a bit easier to kill. Especially those Spider Turrets were really easy targets. So what about the final boss Revas? Eh, after couple of tries to understand how to kill her, it took about 20 seconds to finish her off. Women, they are so easy, right? ;) Not everything was easy though. The part where you had to kill two alpha drones, one bad ass dude with a mech suit and a room full of drones took some effort. Of course they didn't come all at once and you had one autosave after the alpha drones, but no medstation in betweens.

Talking about autosaves. One bad thing about this game is that you can't save manually. You can restart from certain checkpoints, but they ain't always so near. The game autosaves pretty often yes, but the spots aren't always so good. One time the game saved just before a fight with an alpha drone and guess what? I just happened to have one bar of health left. God damn I sweared. The game gives you one extra bar of health after you die several times, but still.

One funny thing I noticed in the game. There's a short part where you control an big alpha drone and carry a little girl on your shoulder from an air vent to another. Heard some other game too where you do something like that...

Ulaks. Would look nice on my dinner table.

Overall feelings about the game are good. Yes I complained it being too hard at some point, but afterwards thinking it took only some relaxing breaths in between tries and then you got forward. In my opinion the game was ment to be about Riddick being an bad ass and sneaking around killing people. Riddick an bad ass? Oh my, with Vin Diesel as his voice you couldn't be any more of that. Actually I think it was even too much. Vin tries to be so cold it sometimes makes me laugh, not to think "man, he's so cool". So the sneaking part? I would have liked even more of it. The shooting is hard cos the enemies kill you in a couple of seconds after they see you, and they see you far away. But the sneaking is fun. Waiting in the dark for the guard to turn his back on you and then snap! His neck is broken. There's the feeling I enjoyd the most in this game. Because there isn't much of a story to enjoy, (you are trapped somewhere, escape) it's important for the game to have some gimmick to give that good feeling. Just next time, even more shadows and silent hallways for me to hide.

The game even has some basic puzzles. To move some boxes with your SCAR gun. Shoot the box and explode the bullet to move the box to the right direction. Sounds basic and it is that, but still adds a little more to just shooting and sneaking. So that's a bonus. The biggest flaw in the game for me is that it's missing a story. The thing I like the most. Another bad thing are unfair guards who don't usually give any time to react. Some like that but I don't. Maybe the third bad thing to mention is Vin Diesel as a voice of Richard B. Riddick. I wouldn't want anybody else to play his role, but still he could have used even a tiny bit more feeling in his lines. It's a shame also because other voice actors are so great. Especially Michelle Forbes who's the voice of Revas.

Last words: Good game if you like Riddick, otherwise you may try it if you get it cheap. There are better FPS games and games to sneak around.

If you didn't read my last posts about this game they can be found here and here.

Now I just have to play the game again on normal difficulty and try to collect some trophies I missed. Although I'll never find all those bounty cards. And no, I won't look from the internet where they are.

Just one last thing. About my last post. Five yes votes decided that I buy Dead Rising 2 so I did. Too bad it's dispatched in a week and it takes 1-2 weeks to arrive, so can't keep that part of my promise that I'll play it next. But after next one maybe. Will later thank you or damn you all to hell, depending on the game. ;)