game selibacy - not!

Dear Gaming Diary,

I'm sorry that I've ignored you for the last 6 months (!!). I have played some, though, which makes the matter all the more serious, I know :(

To make up for it, here's a quick summary...

We've enjoyed Ticket to Ride: Europe tremendeously with Satu. Especially as a two player game, it does not really have conflicting goals, so it's quite laid-back fun.

Ingenious by Reiner Knizia we've only played once. It definitely desevers more of our attention. Caribbean is rather nice and simple fun that we've tackled a number of times. We've also gotten some collectible card games but they still await testing.

On the digital front, I enjoyed Resident Evil 4 quite a lot. Then, as so often happens for me, I just quit, probably 3/4 through it. Just can't fnd time or energy to continue. Partly due to Winning Eleven 8 LE coming out I have to admit.

Oh yeah, we completed Halo 2 on co-op with my buddy Fernando. It was fun but rather unspectacular. We began Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory on co-op as well, but got frustrated early on, as our attention span just was not enough for all that stealth. Been thinking of getting my hands on Jade Empire but just haven't gotten around to it.

Haven't purchased neither DS or PSP. I guess I'm becoming old because seeing (and trying) Wipeout on yet another platform does nothing for me. Lumines was pretty ok. Game-wise Ds is lot more interesting but I hate the design of the thing. Once Nintendogs comes out I have to do something, though. Meteos seems interesting as well.

Oh yeah, and I probably will get Killer 7 for my summer holidays in the end of July. I'm a sucker for that style - well actually anything out of the ordinary particle masturbation, really.

New year's gaming galore

Dear Gaming Diary,

There was plenty of gaming during the holidays! Quick impressions, if you please:

- Betrayal at House on the Hill -- quite enjoyable tile-placing with a horror theme and role-playing aspects! We played a two-player variant with Satu and ended up with a Ouroboros scenario. Will definitely give it more tries!

- Alfapet (aka Scrabble) -- Played with Satu and my father and mother-in-law. This classic was more fun than I remembered!

- Samurai -- Reiner Knizia's game has intereseted me for a long time due to its theme, but now I finally got a chance to play it. It was more than ok, but sadly the theme was quite weakly implemented - only the board (with a map of Japan) reminded me that I was supposed to make decisions of a Samurai warlord.

- Pirate's Cove -- we played this over at Oxford with Heidi & Syksy after watching Pirates of the Caribbean on DVD. Easy to get into, nice board, little too much dice-rolling to my taste, but quite a good fellowship journey on the Caribbean seas.

- Modern Art -- at Oxford, again. I definitely like it - for once, something other to bid for than medieval barrels or other boring stuff ;)

- Scarab Lords -- tried to learn this under our hosts guidance. Quite sophisticated, I believe, but rather too strategic for my taste. Playing started to feel like working - too heavy on the challenge and problem-solving pleasures. Give me explosions!

- Fearsome Floors -- Had a go at this once, should've tried another time. The first effort was kinda grim as we misunderstood the monster's movement phase...we did get a decent game going on another try, though. Promising but I wasn't left with an urgent need to get it.

- Fluxx -- I've had this for some time, but finally we managed to play it. I liked it quite a lot: quick and fun emergent gaming!

- Carcassonne: The Count -- Mixed bag of feelings with this extension. I think it makes the game just a bit too complex for its own good, and also the game becomes nastier. Still, the tension remains to the last tile, as our session illustrated. Yet I don't think we'll give the Count many more chances.

I believe I remembered each and every one :) We did get the Da Vinci Code game for Christmas too, but did not get around to try it yet. When you consider the list above, I guess it's no wonder!

San Andreas & board gaming

Dear gaming diary, I'm so sorry that the last months have been so hectic at works that I haven't reported my habits. I'll make up for it after the new year, as the holdays will give plenty of opportunities for board gaming. Not least because we're traveling over to Oxford to see Heidi and Syksy :)

I bought a couple of horror-themed board games for the Holidays: Fearsome Floors and Betrayal at House on the Hill. I'm looking forward to trying these very much!

On the digital front, I've enjoyed GTA: San Andreas quite a bit. At first it seemed same old same old, but once you get going, it's really cool. There are too many glitches remaining from the previous installments, but mostly the gangsta stuff and hip-hop/soul soundtracks and wonderful voice acting make up for it. The truth is however, that some 10+ percent into the game, the missions start becoming quite difficult for me, so we'll see how long my enthusiasm lasts. And the first girlfriend is terrible. But OG Loc makes up for many lacks :)

Speaking of SA, I've been enjoying a HBO series called The Wire which portrays same themes, albeit situated in Baltimore, in suitably gritty fashion. There was this episode where a couple of young gang members killed their long-time friend because he was suspected of snitching to the police. The scene was quite heart-breaking, and even though SA is fine, it fails to capture these kinds of moral ambiguities. And I believe there will be a way for digital games to do that.

Also, there should be GTA: Hill Street Blues where you start as a beat cop and progress to a detective, with moral choices - corruption, loyalty etc. - along the way. Definitely.

summer summary

Ok, I did play quite a bit of games during the holidays, even though there was some quality time spent in summer cottages etc.

Let's see, dear gaming diary...I played some Metroid Prime! Yeah, I had this idea of finishing one game during my holidays, and made some progress with Prime but it turned out too vast and difficult.

Then I played some Boktai (finally!) on the GBA while the sun was shining. Did not get that far, but it was quite enjoyable. Now that the autumn is looming I guess it will be left gathering dust...the story of my gaming life.

On a more uplifting note, Animal Crossing is finally being released in Europe - yippee! I wrote a review of this wonderful game for Pelaaja magazine.

Oh yeah, Riddick is a fine one. Should try to continue this vindieselesque FPS.

Then, there was some card and board gaming: We bought some expansions to Carcassonne, and also the two-player Castle variant, which I liked quite a bit. Then we had friends, Heidi & Syksy and Frans & Laura over, and played a couple of rounds of Reiner Knizia's Lord of the Rings game. It was pretty good I think, as Heidi & Syksy were experienced players and so the game progressed quite smoothly. It had been slightly cumbersome with two players only and definitely improved with more players. The Sauron expansion was nice, too. We saved the Middle Earth twice! :D

At the moment, it's mostly digital gaming: There is Winning Eleven 8, of course, but I have a review task on NHL 2005, so that has taken most of my time. Satu has been playing Beyond Good & Evil, which seems quite refreshing and fun.

I'm pretty sure I forgot something...

wonderful life & football

Ok, since my last entry I've written reviews of Read Dead Revolver (good) and Mario Golf (a bit lazy, me thinks) - but following Euro 2004 has taken up most nights, so there has not been that much gaming. I've played some WE7I with a Serie A patch, though :)

The biggets news, however, is that Satu has mostly taken over gaming in the family. She has been tending her farm in Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life with at least as much care as her countless Sims scenarios. However, she seems find HM even more gratifying. The sense of agency is evidently more conrete.

I would still prefer Animal Crossing. Nobody beats Pinky!

too many games, too little time...

...again, dear gaming diary :( I just got copies of Thief: Deadly Shadows and, finally, Harvest Moon, and I'm also writing a review on Red Dead Revolver . Then again, each of them is quite good :) More notes later!

finished another one!

I finished another game. It's becoming a habit!

Well ok, I know that both BG:DA2 or Prince of Persia are not that long nor difficult, but hey, they both managed in something that too few games today do - they fitted into my personal time slot dedicated for gaming, without being overtly expansive and hardcore difficult. This, and the emphasis on environmental rather than combat challenges, is what makes PoP much more enjoyable for me personally than Ninja Gaiden. Despite the katanas and oriental settings, even!

We also played Reiner Knizia's recent card game Spy over the weekend. Simple game with light strategy. It's rather good, and works quite fine for two players! A week earlier we got Manga Manga, another card game with a theme to die for. It's quite ok too, but its real-time nature does not work as well with only two players... still, card games serve for a refreshing change every once in a while.

ball games

My Atletico Madrid finally won the division one championship in WE7I. Just in time for the announcement of WE8 (due in August), so I might as well start waiting for that.

I've been playing some Katamari Damashii, the Japanese roll-around-and-attach-things-to-a-ball from Capcom. It is so weird. But fun :)

Also, I began Ninja Gaiden. I find it hard, as was expected...and find myself comparing it to the recent Prince of Persia. Both are incredibly polished, but still I prefer the latter. Even though the Ninja theme is certainly my cup of tea, much more so than one with Persian royalty, I find some of the old school stuff (invisible walls, boss fights) in NG a bit tedious. Gaiden does not seem to have any of the environmental puzzles of Sands of Time - everything is geared for combat. But ok, it's early days for me, so I'll give it a some more tries - juts don't expect me to be able to finish this one ;)

a game diet?

Dear gaming diary, this is a first! I can honestly tell you that we completed a game! Me and Satu's co-op odyssey of Baldur's Gate 2 resulted in magnificient victory :) (and a lame sequel teaser...)

It's so typical that its the last game I've finished in ages. Ok, you don't really finish the game I play the most, Winning Eleven. You just start another season or change the club, even after winning a triple ;) But still, there are just too many nn-hour games in proportion to the time I have. Even the most captivating ones often kind of get forgotten when something new comes along. At the moment, Prince of Persia is something like +60% completed, but I haven't played it in like three months...

I know, dear gaming diary. I'm a spoiled brat with too many games. Maybe I should take a game diet, and finish my plate for once before leaving the table.

Easter dwelling

Not much new, dear gaming diary. Easter was mostly spent watching season seven of Buffy, so not _that_ much gaming going on. We did play a round of Starship Catan (Satu won, again), and we're nearing the finish in our co-operative odyssey of BG2.

Other happy notes: My Atletico Madrid finally got promoted to division 1 on WE7I! And, I paid all my loan off in Animal Crossing! A Silver statue for my Ogami. Needless to say, the golden one has been there for Satu's Akane for some time already :)

AC reminds me that we should check out the new Harvest Moon - actually, I shoud have bought it while in the States for GDC... It also occurred to me that we don't have Forbidden Siren. Come payday, should do it. Also, I'm looking forward for the reissue of Tikal, a board game suitable for two.

...Then again, there is not enough time in the world to play all of these, my dear diary.

gaming as usual

Dear gaming diary, I did not bring Ninja Gaiden from the States as promised. (Why? Well, I spent too much money on anime...The Fry's store at San Jose had a surprisingly good collection of it!)

Instead, I bought Pac-Man Vs. which I haven't had a chance to try out yet. Also, I finally got Mario Kart DD, a game I need to play and analyse before the Copenhagen Design Research Symposium.

Otherwise, nothing spectacularly new to report: I've been getting my daily fix of WE7I since getting back, and yesterday we also embarked on another session of BG2. For the first time, we got a bit stuck...

BG feva!

Breaking news: No, it's not the Bee Gees but Baldur's Gate that is captivating today's youth!

You see, Dark Alliance (the sequel) seems to be gotten a hold of my friends, too! Besides myself and Satu, at least Frans, Laura, Paula and Joni are cleaning up the caves! And the game is average at best...but what the hell, people obviously seem to enjoy it. Actually, all these guys started playing it without knowing the others did, and I've learned about this virus from comments among casual conversation. There's an emergent gaming community for ya :)

Oh, I hope Paula's hack'n slash thumb is already doing better ;)

baldur's eleven

Yep, I got the new Winning Eleven 7 International. I do not quite know how I feel about the tweaks Konami has made...have to play more. I took the challenge of guiding Atletico Madrid to European fame and fortune. Folks in Madrid need all the support they can have today, anyway.

Oh yeah, we played some board games in Tampere last weekend. A round of the Buffy board game, which was fun, but it lasted quite long as most people hadn't played before...Then there were some rounds of light card gaming: Guillotine. Finally we played a round of Sunda to Sahul, but our posse was becoming pretty tired at that stage. Overall it was nice - should try to organize these things more often!

We continued the cave dwelling in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2... in small doses it's good fun, but the there are some definite design flaws in the levels which tend to add to the already repetitive nature of the game. The cut-scenes suck, by the way. Still, it's quite ok, and as Satu likes it, I'll tag happily along with my flaming arrows ;)

On Sunday, we'll play some hockey and football with the guys from Pelaaja magazine! We're doing a piece on the up and coming ice hockey world championships, and Euro 2004 in Portugal this summer, by playing different games of both sports and trying to get at which one is the best to simulate the actual events. Should be good fun :)

broken wings & dungeons

My week in the 'studio' got me back to Vice City. Fittingly as Rockstar just announced GTA: San Andreas, I've tried to make some progress on VC, another game left to gather dust due to lack of time some year or so ago...What can you say: the game feels fresh as a daisy. Broken wings sounds better than ever. Driving into a blinding sunset still gives me the vibes - or cruising in a thunderstorm with Crockett's theme as the soundtrack.

Oh, and we've played some Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (the sequel) with Satu. It's pure hack'n'slash, but the co-op mode is good fun, especially when you play with your loved one :)

Other notes: I see that Ninja Gaiden has gotten rave reviews. I promise to pick it up from the States during GDC, my dearest diary.

In the studio

This week my research diary is truly a gaming diary. I'll be on a research leave for the rest of the week to work on a specific task regarding my thesis: recording gameplay footage for my case studies. I intend to compile a DVD to accompany my thesis and illustrate my theories, so now it's time to gather the raw material.

I've already recorded some sequences from Halo, Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, Frequency, Half-life, Rez, Alchemy, Pac-Man, Galaga (the last two from the Namco museum collection)...

Still to be done: Shenmue, Chu-Chu Rocket, Heroes of Might & Magic, Knights of the Old Republic, Tekken 4, Vice City, Bejeweled, Activision Anthology, and some others...

The only setback so far is that the DV recorder I'm using (borrowed it from work) does not handle NTSC signal, so at the moment I am unable to record any Gamecube stuff :(

We'll have to see what part of the material ends up in the thesis anyway - for now, I'm trying to make sure that there is enough!

There's universal ammo and I feel fine

Dear gaming diary, I've been playing Deus Ex: invisible War. It's great, despite so many less than favourable reviews. At least on xbox it works. I'm not that big of a fan of the first game, although I liked it I did not play it that much...thus, I actually like the sequel better.

Why do I like it? The mechanics are low context-wise, so that the game favours parallel solutions to challenges. There's a complex physics engine for the game's sake, not a physics engine for the sake of a physics engine. There's universal ammo and I feel fine. I truly feel that DX:IW shows the way for more nuanced and intelligent games regarding their subject matter: the WTO vs. Order conflict is complex and intriguing, not irritatingly black and white.

I'm going with the Order now, but I'd definitely like to see how the game shapes out with favoring WTO objectives. And it's not supposed to be that long - maybe, for once, a game I have time to actually finish.

I'm really looking forward to Thief III now :)

possible soccer worlds

I've been finishing another Master League season in WE7, with four star difficulty. It came to a bitter end, my Juve losing the division 1 championship to Roma on even points, due to one less win, or one goal less in goal difference...I don't know which of those actually decided it, but bitter it was, I can tell you, dear gaming diary.

But I did not end without titles! A comeback victory, 3-1, against Lazio in the cup final was something to saviour. I did not have champagne, but congratulated myself with opening a bottle of red wine.

Yes, as you can probably gather, this game has some personal significance for me ;)

I - the omnipotent player manager puppet master, that is - am confident that my off-season purchases, Pavel Nedved, Gianluigi Buffon, and, most of all, return of the prodigal son, Christian Vieri, will make the next season glorious in all competitions!

Satu just wrote an article about 'narrative mindset' that is characteristic to playing role-playing games. However, one of the points of the article is that one is able to adapt the mindset to other forms of gaming as well so that the game experience gets a different flavour.

I believe the above is me adapting it to my soccer gaming experience: when I purchase Christian Vieri in the game, I construct, with the help of the game, a possible world where Vieri returns to Juve, the club where he in real life made his breakthrough, and this fictional element adds to the experience. For the same reason, I will not purchase Roma icon Francesco Totti, or someone like Raul or Paolo Maldini. It just would not be feel right in my we7-enabled-possible-fictional-soccer-world. I guess this is also an instance of the 'half-real' that Jesper, or Dr. Juul, talks about in his thesis.

Any other gaming? Yes, Deus Ex: Invisible War finally arrived for my Xbox - and I'm quite impressed. Today, as its off-season, I'll have time for that :)

Our days in Oxford

A fine New Year it was that we spent in Oxford! Our hosts had a fine collection of board and card games, so, between shopping and sight-seeing, we had a chance to play some.

Honor of the Samurai is a card game with a theme that most certainly fascinates myself. And the game was pretty good, also. Nice cards with some great touches of detail re: the Japanese warrior culture. We played this one twice - I didn't quite yet figure how the game operates, but this goes on my wish/shopping list!

Munchkin was a card game that parodies RPGs. It was ok, although some of the humor was lost on me. Probably also due to the fact that I was pretty tired when we played it.

With Satu, we played a couple of two-player games: Lost Cities, which I liked a lot, and Hellas, which was ok, but a bit boring with too many rules, I think. Lost Cities was very symphatetic and although Satu did not like the way you had to count stuff in order to choose your strategy, we're deifinitely getting this one. I found it especially fascinating that the cards describing the success of one's expeditions were arranged into a sequence that actually makes up a story. Non-electronic cut-scenes!

Then there was Risk. *sigh* I have to confess that I've never played any edition of the game. This was the one with Lord of the Rings theme. I feel bad for probably ruining the others' game, but I just felt it was awful. Fight, fight, fight - fight more or fight less, there's a flexible and diverse set of game mechanics for you. Satu liked it, so I guess I'll have to give it another chance...which I won't to the final, rather tedious part of the movie trilogy.

That's a brief summary of our Oxford gaming days :) Tomorrow is another holiday - I plan to return to the digital front, and especially Prince of Persia!

2003 in review

The holidays are ideal for gaming, of course :) On the digital front, I've been playing mostly Prince of Persia. It is excellent, even though the combat is a bit tedious. But the atmospheric locations, nice puzzles and platforming galore more than make up for it!

Another note, on board gaming: We've played a couple of rounds of Starship Catan with Satu. It's quite nice, with the space exploration theme especially to my taste :)

Finally, I thought I'd post my digital favourites of 2003. It's always difficult to make these lists, but what the hell, here goes:

1. Winning Eleven 7 (Pro Evolution Soccer 3)
2. Animal Crossing
3. Metroid Prime
4. Viewtiful Joe
5. Silent Hill 3
6. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
7. Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
8. SSX 3
9. ESPN NHL Hockey
10. EyeToy: Play

bubbling under:
- Wario Ware
- Soul Calibur 2
- Burnout 2
- Tenchu III: Wrath of Heaven
- GTA: Vice City (wasn't this 2002, technically?)

I guess the list reflects my taste pretty accurately... No strategy games, for instance - if AC is not understood as one ;) Seven sequels, oh my oh my. No PC games, by the way! In, say, 1998, there wouldn't have been any console games. My personal gaming practices and media have changed indeed.

party gaming

Even though I was travelling for the weekend, my man Jesper guaranteed that it would not go without gaming. On Saturday, I was playing Bomberman, Chu-chu Rocket, Burnout 2, Mario Party 4, and some Frequency with Jesper and his friend - Jesper! Even though I ended up losing quite a bit, it was fun :) I did not remember how good Burnout 2 was - should give it a couple of rounds over the holiday. Nothing's better than creating some artificial traffic chaos!

ssxed

My weekend was a bit of downer, coming down with a flu, but SSX3 helped a bit. The game is quite good fun, even though some irritating stuff - like, what do you mean I'm 'off limits'! - becomes apparent once you've played it a bit more. Still, the courses, the speed and generally the audio and visuals are impressive as hell.

Yesterday, we had some great duels with Satu, twice racing to dead even result on the finish line - great gamer-relationship moments! We simply had to record the replay for our grandchildren ;)

lost virginity

Ah, almost forgot, dear gaming diary. I lost my virginity during the weekend! Well, my table-top-RPG virginity that is ;)

I guess its by accident that I did not know rpg-players in my youth, so I never ended up starting to play or even try. Well, now the opportunity presented itself, and even though I hesitated a bit I was glad I took it. It was a so-called one-shot, a bit of a half-lifeish scenario. Even though I don't think it's my cup of tea, it was very enlightening - if I try a couple times more, I might even say something about RPGs in the thesis...that was one of the reasons to participate anyway. Thanks to Mikki the GM for having me.

crime fu

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to try out True Crime: Streets of L.A. It's a crossing between GTA and Getaway, and seems to fall between the two in terms of quality as well. Actually it got me pretty excited at first, but slowly some irritating things - interface, AI, incoherencies in the game-world - started to bugger.

Analysis-wise, it might present a suitable point of comparison when I'm updating my theories and analysis on simulation & Vice City. In any case, there are lots of interesting things to keep me going at solving crimes at least for a while. The Chinese-American main character is quite well sketched, and the hip-hop/nu metal soundtrack rules. And having spent one's childhood watching crime series on tv, there's few things that beat chasing criminals on urban streets with a siren wailing. I wish they made a game adaptation of Hill Street Blues... Let's be careful out there!

The Ring has power!

As a consumer of games, I've been really confused with the string of Lord of the Rings games. Not being a fan of the phenomenon as such but having enjoyed the movies I was slightly interested in the game adaptations, but reportedly the first game sucked. Well, I've been reading that the following games are better, and yesterday I had a chance to try out the Two Towers on the xbox.

I was really impressed! The game itself is your better-than-average fighting, but what fascinated me, both as a gamer and a theorist, were the ways in which the film scenarios and narrative had been implemented into the game. The game looks and sounds awesome. Besides the movie footage, the film score was there to enhance the experience. Moreover, the game dynamics seemed carefully temporally structured - the variation between narrative sequences and gameplay felt enjoyable, and the cutscenes were thankfully short. I have often frowned at the 'play the movie' ad slogans, but for once, a game actually managed to convey that very feeling. Kudos to Stormfront studios!

...so I guess that after seeing the final film, I should check The Return of the King game as well...

Animal Kamakura!

I'm glad to report that after the Summer memory card tragedy, we have built a new Animal Crossing village with Satu, and even regained our most beloved friend, Pinky the little bear :)

We decided to name the new village Kamakura, after visiting this wonderous historical area near Tokyo last month. And now that we're not learning the ropes of the game anymore, we've pretty much reached the stage where we were last time around, in just a few weeks! It is a truly captivating, heart-warming game.

Otherwise, I've played some Wario Ware on my GBA. Its single-mechanic games are great for me to illustrate my game mechanics theories!

On the non-electronic front, I found Sunda to Sahul board game from a shop in Akihabara...Just played it once, but it seems definitely promising, and actually enables solitary play as well.

Jap stuff

Here's the game-related stuff that I bought from Tokyo: Boktai Bundle, i.e. special edition GBA SP + Boktai (the vampire-slaying "Sun is in your hand" game with a solar panel, by Hideo Kojima), Taiko No Tatsujin + the drum peripheral (Namco's original arcade game now released for PS2 with a special taiko-drum-set!), and picked up Sega's latest Cube-platformer Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg.

I must say that the Taiko drumming game is fun as hell. But not for those beloved ones watching & listening, I was told ;) Of course, my black and red SP is cool, though the pink one Satu bought is way cooler, I guess. Anyway, with the SP I regained enthusiasm over Metroid Fusion and was playing it quite a lot on the flight back home.

Also, I'm writing a review on ESPN NHL Hockey, so not much time for other games - for instance Jak II and KotOR are laying unopened somewhere among the japanese paper wrappings that have invaded our home. I'll be back with some impressions on Billy Hatcher as soon as I get around to it, though.

quiet... before storm?

Unfortunately not that much to report, dear gaming diary. Steady success with WE7 and FC Porto, a quick peek at Buffy: Chaos Bleeds - seemed fine, although Satu complained about the slightly different controls compared to the first game.

Ah, almost forgot: I have been playing the excellent Super Monkey Ball minigames - especially Monkey Target and Monkey Bowling, as me and a colleague recorded some game sessions on video for research purposes.

But things should get busier after all those yen spent at Akihabara the coming week! :)

winning eleven!

WE7, WE7, WE7... resilience is starting to pay off. I've started to win with FC Porto due to some successful transfers and trades. Now I'll just have to buy the player that has impressed me most lately and who plays for the team: Deco.

losing eleven

After my work-related trip to Visby (that's in Sweden) I had some time to recover by playing games. Well, a game, to be exact. As my Love had to work, I pretty much played Winning Eleven 7 throughout the two days...and it was a two-day struggle. Losing Eleven it should be called. Somehow I just can't get grips with the game, they've somehow changed it so that most of my old skills just don't cut it. Every time I think I start to learn it I end up on a losing streak... My Master league history is tragic :(

And there just is not a suitable difficulty level for me in the game (especially playing the ML): level 2 is ridiculously easy, and then, all of a sudden, on level 3 I begin to struggle. Level 4 seemed ok for a while, but then I started losing, again, bad. It's on the verge of not being fun anymore. I will give it one more try. With FC Porto, perhaps!

Well, on a more positive note, yesterday I returned to Viewtiful Joe, as I had to finish my review for it. I still think it is brilliant. Hard, relentless, but brilliant. Somehow it should be, too, and WE7 shouldn't quite be. Weird :/

work, no play

...but hey, I'm supposed to play games as part of my job! What is going on! :/

Anyway, lot's of sporadic moments spent playing various stuff, but haven't really had the time to concentrate on anything. I ended up reviewing EA Sports' latest NHL game (pretty good), checking out Sega's similar offering ESPN NHL Hockey (better), played a round of the board game Puerto Rico , which is a bit too hardcore strategy for my taste, but at least it was played in good company :).

I should write a review of Viewtiful Joe before other busy things kick in. Next week I'll be travelling, and I'll be away on the coming weekend as well. Maybe I should get a title for my GBA...I've been interested in the minigame-extravaganza Wario Ware for sometime now. If there are some 200 minigames in that one, it would be interesting to analyse how many different mechanics there actually are!

too tired, too busy

Terribly busy with other stuff, so other than some nearly-obsessive sessions with Winning Eleven 7, I haven't had time to play much of anything. Even Dark Chronicle (that I'm in the process of reviewing) has been shadowed by other things. I have to confess that I should've done the review _before_ WE7 came out... :P

Kinetics, Zeroing in

My wrist is aching from too much Viewtiful Joe bullet-time-mach speed-combo-kinetics (- well, my daily 25 km bicycle trip to work might contribute to the ache as well...).

Yeah, I'm wondering if 'kinetics' would be a fitting title for mechanics that are not only the players' means to access the formal structure of the game, i.e. play within the rules, but also fun to execute because they produce kicks in the form of eye-opening animations and impressive sound effects. Like in Rez, or the frantic action in any multiplayer deathmatch. Anyways, the mechanics of VJ keep on fascinating me, even though the going is getting a bit tough for me now on the later levels.

I realised that with a little bit of learning, F-Zero begins to rock. Once you learn to bend those turns in high speed the velocity of the game really kicks in. And some of the tracks are just ill :)

I'll have to start Dark Chronicle today to get the review process going. It also serves as a good reminder of the Japanese RPG mechanics at this stage. I remember playing Grandia II on the DC, and getting completely frustrated with the 'press-the-button-a-zillion-times' dialogue 'mechanics'...

Absolutely viewtiful

Ok, I got two Japanese import games for the Cube on Friday: F-Zero GXand Viewtiful Joe. The former is fast as hell with some stunning graphics. But, at the end of the day, it's run-of-the-mill futuristic racing stuff, me thinks. Optimisation of a genre - perhaps - but nothing more, nothing less.

Then there was the other game. I bough it just out of general interest, after reading some favourable rants on import sites. And oh my god I love it. I can't remember the last time I've been so enthusiastic about a game (ok, Winning Eleven does not count ;).

Viewtiful Joe is absolute gaming bliss. Moreover, it serves my research needs with beautiful harmony of game mechanics that work in combination and relation to the game environments. It's also a showcase of how digital games' mechanics deliver not only means to achieve the games' ends, but top them with audiovisual sensations: cool graphics, sound effects, gimmicks, etc. I believe this is one of the characteristic that makes digital games particular when compared to other forms of games. Viewtiful Joe could not be any other kind of a game.

hot weather, hotter games

Every once in a while my freelance writing for Pelaaja magazine gets me nice stuff. I' m going to review Dark Chronicle (known also as Dark Cloud 2), a cel-shaded Japanese RPG, so I'll have to spend some serious time playing it the following couple of weeks. I also got Amplitude, which I just raved about yesterday. Cool :)

And, I'm definitely having a Christmas in the middle of all this summer heat, as I expect my copies of F-Zero GX and Viewtiful Joe to arrive today in the post. Expect research'y impressions in a few days!

Boards, monsters and beats

Been playing board games, the Buffy one, and finally we managed to play the acclaimed Puerto Rico. The game has gathered dust on a shelf as we were in need of a third player...who was resilient enough to learn the rules with us. Thanks are due to Heidi :)

It was pretty late and I was tired so I really can't give it a fair judgment, but whether it's on computer or a board, I find these 'colonise and trade in a pseudo-exotic pseudo-historic pseudo-Middle-American setting' themed games boring. Pirate stuff or a space colony would be a completely different thing ;) Still, in the end PR was quite easy to play and seemed quite complex underneath. We'll give it more tries.

Then, more Silent Hill 3. It continues to impress with its mood. The sound effects are awesome. Scary stuff that keeps you going back.

Oh, and I managed to snatch a demo disk of Amplitude from the Koneisto electronic music festival. I'm a big fan of Frequency, so it's no surprise that this sequel has got me salivating. And it totally rocks, just like Don Johnson Big Band's cover of 2Pac's 'California Love' on Saturday :D

Slaying on a board

We've been playing Buffy the Vampire Slayer board game (by Hasbro) the last couple of nights. It's pretty good with cool props and the series' flavour nicely intact.

I'm planning to use the game as a case study about the relationship of game theme and game mechanics. Basically I'm interested in how a board game requires certain kinds of mechanics, and how they compare to the ones in a video game that has the same particular theme (in this case, the Buffy games, especially the upcoming Chaos Bleeds with multiplayer modes). That would be included in my thesis chapter on themes and genres, which I'm hoping to write around September...

my mobile lapse

It's funny that it hadn't occurred to me until just now that I haven't posted an entry about some games I've been playing on my phone during the last week. I was writing this article for Pelaaja, a Finnish gaming magazine, on mobile games...but the point is that, even though especially one of the games was quite good (Yo-Yo Fighter by a Finnish company Sumea), I guess subconsciously I did not regard them worth an entry, as I did not consider them 'real' games. Funny, that.

Say No to boss fights

No games at the weekend until Sunday. Then, plenty of WE6FE (I'll let it rest now until WE7 arrives), some EyeToy stuff (Wishi Washi was quite fun, especially for those watching...) and finally, after too long a pause, more Silent Hill 3.

The atmosphere of SH3 is really something. It's a pity, then, that the boss fight I got into was more frustrating than anything else. In terms of challenge structure, I can understand boss fights, but as a player I do not enjoy them. Largely because I'm not good at them - they seriously disrupt my sense of immersion into the game-world. Boss fights are pretty much the only thing I dislike in the latest Zelda and Metroid Prime. Especially in the latter, because I think they break the mood of atmospheric exploration and switch into anxious, sequential repetition. Pretty much the same with Silent Hill.

All mentioned titles are contemporary Japanese games, mind you. Makes one - even a fan like myself - think about the supposed innovativeness of Japanese game design. Then again, for some, boss fights are the culmination of gaming pleasure. Still, they kill me in the marvellous Rez, too :(

I, toy

EyeToy arrived yesterday and we tested it briefly. It was definitely easy to get into and good fun :) But it's pretty hot over here right now, so we were sweating like mad after just a couple of rounds! A late evening round of Carcassonne was soothing.

Countryside Carcassonne

A weekend away at the Finnish countryside without even a GBA. But, not without games :) We played a couple of rounds of Carcassonne, a fine German board game. It is based on laying tiles and occupying them. Once again, playing a board game was useful for my chapter in progress about game mechanics. I guess board game mechanics are often more rigid yet more accessible as they are less ambigious than the interface-riddled ones of most digital games.

Then there was a document on tv about 'hikikomori', the Japanese illness where young people, due to different societal pressures, lock themselves into their rooms and stay there for years. Most of these young men play videogames, extensively. One relatively healthy guy who was interviewed was shown playing Winning Eleven... :O

It was kinda eery. But hey, at least the guy had good taste when it comes to games!

party party, Mario party!

We played some Mario Party 4 on the cube with my Love over the weekend. It was pretty good fun, although we were quite annoyed at the negative feedback mechanics of the game. And we should definitely get two other players involved. The NPCs roll irritatingly high numbers each time!

Onto Silent Hill 3. [small spoiler alert] It's a ride on rails but it's good. Great scary moment in one of the mall lavatories where knocking on a closed door produced a response...and when you turned Heather away from the door, it creaked open!

I've been thinking that these kinds of scipted, environment-based sequences are not just gimmicks that add to the atmosphere but intrinsic game mechanics particular to modern video games. I'll call them 'theme-driven mechanics' for now... anyway, they take the form of small scripted events, like the one in SH3, or longer cut-scenes. The point is that as so many contemporary games do incorporate narrative sequences, why not try to understand their role and function within the game dynamics? I'll have to develop that notion further in my expanding theory of rules, game mechanics, and genres.

silent ponderings

I posted an entry on my brief session with Silent Hill 3 last week...on the subject, there's interesting notes on SH2 at gamedevleague. I agree completely on the control scheme issue. Jamie also refers to Half-life designer Ken Birdwell's notion of experiental density, which I think is very useful when thinking about creating rhythm and introducing challenges into a complex game environment.

a toy in my eye

Just pre-ordered the EyeToy peripheral for PS2. Can't wait to punch the air in front of my console!

Vampires in the Rain

I've been assisting the Finnish gaming magazine Pelaaja, and we were having a party on Saturday. Lots of Winning Eleven - kudos to the We-UK team, too, for a brilliant premiership patch - and a peek at some interesting demos courtesy of E3.

Prince of Persia looked quite amazing, at least audiovisually. I also got a glimpse of the next Buffy game (incidentally we finished watching season 6 on dvd yesterday), which seemed ok. But there was also another vampire-hunting title, Boktai: The Sun is in your Hand, the Hideo Kojima GBA game which has a light sensor peripheral attached to the cartridge. Sunlight produces energy to the player-character in the game, or something along those lines. It seems that it is quite difficult to play the game here in Finland, where the beginning of the summer has been rather cold and bleak! I guess vampires thrive here ;)

Silent night

I tried Silent Hill 3 briefly last night. I was very impressed by its brooding atmosphere. I'm eager to see how the game develops. I'm not too familiar with the series, although my (somewhat waning) interest in all things horror has kept me following the games. I remember buying SH2, trying it a couple of times and generally liking it, but then something happened.

Grand Theft Auto 3 happened. I never returned to the village of Silent Hill, as the game felt terribly constraining in its closedness. At some point, I purchased the original SH for psx, but it has only gathered dust. I have had an idea of playing through the series but there is always the same obstacle: the economy of time :( In the same genre, I should also find time to play Project Zero as well...and continue Eternal Darkness. *sigh*

This all reminds me that I should read Diane Carr's article on Game Studies.

Soccer in the MOD

Ok, so I myself present serious evidence how soccer fandom gets intermedial, i.e. how the enthusiasm seeks comfort in various different media products. I play soccer (on a very low level), I watch it on tv pretty much every chance I get, and I am addicted to the Winning Eleven soccer game series (known as PES in Europe) on the PS2.

Yesterday I patched the game with a WeDoIt Italian club edition patch. This is a marvelous example of fan-based petty producing. The team behind the patch has modified the existing teams into Serie A clubs with meticulous care and detail. Authentic audience chants for the clubs are included. And I can finally play a season on the helm of Brescia, with Roberto Baggio masterminding my offence. My season started with a story-book underdog defeat of Lazio, with the 'divine ponytail' providing a masterful through pass :)

As my friend Thomas noted, it is astonishing that the console industry does not want to purchase these fan productions for distribution, as has happened in PC gaming (Counter-Strike, Gunman Chronicles, Local leagues for EA Sports' NHL series, etc...). Anyway, my respect for the WeDoIt team.

Soul Calibur II brings death to little animals :(

It is unfortunate to open this diary with such a sad bit of news. I own a US/JAP Gamecube (well, actually the Panasonic Q, the coolest console on the planet), so I bought the Japanese version of Soul Calibur II. Sadly, I did not know that the save files from Japanese and US games do not like each other. While saving my game in SCII the console formatted my 251 memory card, wiping off my progress in Metroid Prime and Wind Waker :(

The saddest thing was, however, that apocalypse fell on our six month old, beloved Animal Crossing village and its inhabitants.

Pinky and Hornsby, You are dearly missed by me and Satu.

Whoever claims that games fail to awaken feelings of commitment and loss is gravely mistaken.