Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Some Thoughts About Nintendo

Posted on by Viljami

This blog post is dedicated to some thoughts about Nintendo. First of all I have to respect this company. Back in the 1980s when NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) was released it really brought video games back to life again. There was a huge depression on video games. This was mainly because many low quality titles were getting released and consumers were disappointed in the overall quality of games. Nintendo showed the way for Sega and many other companies while we started to head for the video game competition of the early 1990s.

In my mind Nintendo is a company that has deep roots in gaming historically and also even today. Now I am a Sega fan and my first console was Mega Drive. That doesn’t mean that I couldn’t like some stuff that Nintendo has released. I have had a keen interest in past consoles, like NES and SNES, with some GameCube and Wii stuff also and I do have Switch, Switch Lite and Switch 2. I also do like some Game Boy titles that have been released through the history of video games. For me it isn’t all about Nintendo. I am a huge fan of Sega, Xbox and PlayStation also.

Last year I did buy Switch 2 very soon after it was released. When I had my latest vacation I brought my Switch Lite with me while I was at our summer cottage. Switch Lite is a very nice handheld type of gaming device that has some very good games. During this trip I played some Disney Illusion Island. IT was a good game and I played it for maybe three hours. Somehow I didn’t continue playing when I was back at home. I really don’t know why. The game is a good platformer type of game.

When thinking about the whole history of Nintendo you definitely have a huge library of games on several gaming consoles. Nintendo has been a bit strict against its old titles. It is a known fact that Nintendo doesn’t like its retro titles to be shared freely. This is a difficult issue to think about. Nintendo has tried to solve this with its online service that offers many retro games if you pay for the service. The price of this service is 20 euros for a single user. This service offers also some other features that I am not going to go so deeply into. There has been some serious debate about some GameCube emulators. The most popular of them seems to be Dolphin emulator.

I have really enjoyed Switch 2. When it was released last year (2025) it was thought to be an expensive product. If you think about the price today it seems to be a low price for such an advanced console. We have seen the prices of PS5 and Xbox Series consoles rising recently. We shall see how high the price of PS6 is going to be when it gets released. It is considered that the release will happen maybe at late 2027 or early 2028 or something like that. We are not going to get PS6 or a new Xbox this year. That can certainly be said at this stage.

I have really liked the Switch 2 Pro Controller that I bought with my Switch 2 back in the last year. It is of a very good quality. We have seen many awesome games already getting released for Nintendo Switch 2. I have really liked titles such as Donkey Kong Bananza, Resident Evil Requiem and Pragmata. There are many Switch exclusive titles. Someone might say that Nintendo’s exclusive games are a bit childish. I don’t really have an opinion about that.

What more can I say? I very much enjoy playing every game that I own for Switch 1 and 2. I do have maybe one hundred (I really haven’t counted them) games for Switch 1 and some tens of games for Switch 2. I also like very much of the fact that Nintendo is keen on releasing some games from smaller or independent developers. The library of games is convincing. This is all from me this time. See you soon!

Thoughts After Playing NHL 27 for Five Hours

Posted on by Viljami

NHL 27 was released exactly one week ago. I bought it almost instantly as I noticed it was offered for 50 euros. The discount for such a new game was a good one and I ended up buying this game. The normal price would have been something like 73 euros. I got it for Xbox Series X. I did have to wait some days for the delivery. I got to play my NHL 27 just maybe three days ago.

How is this newest NHL and ice hockey game? I have spent already a bit over five hours playing this game. The graphics look really nice. The gameplay feels somewhat comfortable. I did set the game controller settings so that I have a slap shot mapped to B button and wrist shot mapped to X button. This is for me a more comfortable way to play. You also have the option to shoot with analog stick. I really don’t like playing with this controller setting but the setting is there for the player to choose.

Defending in this game takes some time to adjust to. You have to be careful not to take a penalty. I found it to be a good strategy to try to not slash with your stick in any way and rather just try to see where the opponent is trying to pass the puck and where are its players trying to move and in this way try to defend and maybe try to intercept a pass and get the puck to your own team.

Attacking takes some adjusting also. You have to remember that the latest NHL game I have played was NHL 21. I remember also the huge disappointment that I had with NHL 20. In NHL 27 you can try to pass the puck to your teammates while also trying to get a good chance to shoot and trying to make a goal. Sometimes you pass badly and you loose the puck. Your players get at some point also tired and you need to make sure to give your players a chance to substitute with a teammate.

After five hours of playing NHL 27 I feel like it is a decent hockey game. It isn’t a great game. It is a decent one. I don’t know how much I am going to play it in the future. I did like that I could choose Carolina Hurricanes as it has some Finnish players. It has Sebastian Aho and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Ice hockey is very popular here in Finland and almost everyone is talking about ice hockey when the world championships are going on. This happens every year. We also have the national hockey league that some of the people I am in contact with are enjoying to watch from television or being actually at the stadium.

I got this game for this discount. I think it is a good game to buy. I can recommend it if you are really into ice hockey. There are many game forms and NHL 27 might be a fun game to play with a friend on the same screen or maybe even through an internet connection. I am not so much of a multiplayer person. I am usually only playing the single player campaigns be it a shooting game or a sports game that is in question.

NHL 27 does feature the latest players and teams. I don’t think it brings many changes to how then last NHL game was. I think this was NHL 26. I would like to see something that would make this game an addictive to play. It is now a game that is a bit frustrating to play. Maybe I haven’t found some of the ways that the game offers a challenge for a video game player. I just hope it isn’t such of a disappointment for me as NHL 20 was. I played NHL 20 for tens of hours only to find out that it was a plain disappointment as a sports game.

Trying to Beat Ghost of Tsushima (PS4)

Posted on by Viljami

I have recently spent some hours playing Ghost of Tsushima on PS4. This game is actually a PlayStation exclusive game. It is also available for PC through Steam. Ghost of Tsushima was originally released in 2021. There is also a “Director’s Cut” version available that is a bit newer release.

To this day I haven’t bought PS5. This wasn’t actually a decision from me. I just happened to pick Xbox Series X instead of PS5. I have thought about buying a PS5 but really haven’t. And now when game console prices are very high I don’t feel like spending hundreds of euros to buy another console. And of course I have to say that I don’t have any room left in my gaming setup for a PS5.

So, I am playing some video games still on my PS4. Ghost of Tsushima is a great PS4 game. I have some games that I would very much like to play on PS4 but haven’t just had enough time. I have played Ghost of Tsushima for about 17 hours. The game takes about 25 hours to beat. It didn’t cost a whole lot. I bought it for 20 euros as a used copy from a local gaming shop.

I have been thinking about a topic that I would very much like to write some more about. That topic is buying and selling used video games. I think that at here in Finland we have a bit under ten gaming web shops that have been functional for several years. There is clearly a market here for used video games. I have thought about writing a whole blog post about this. I would also like to write about abandonware and copyrights. Maybe I’ll write a post about this later. Lets see and find out.

While Ghost of Tsushima offers some challenge it isn’t a brutally difficult game to play. There are also some difficulty adjustments that can give you some challenge if you need some. Also I think there is some replay value here if you want to play the game through with a higher difficulty level over again after you have beaten the game on a lower difficulty level. The story is very nice to follow. Also the scenery and the characters are interesting and can keep you concentrated while you advance through the game.

I did buy my PS4 back in 2014. I have to give some props for Sony for releasing such a good quality gaming console. I haven’t had any issues with the console. I did upgrade the storage HDD from a 500 GB to 2 TB HDD back in the day. I had to make this upgrade since 500 GB is such a low space for video games today. This operation was easy. I really don’t remember how much this HDD did cost. It wasn’t an expensive upgrade after all.

So, Ghost of Tsushima offers you melee and also some ranged fighting action. You also get to take down enemies in a sort of a stealth mode. There is a lot of strategy to consider in this game. The main character keeps getting some upgrades and you can unlock some special moves while you keep progressing in the game. The story is also an interesting one. You actually appear in this game as a samurai soldier. So, there are also some dialogs and you even have to make some choices while having these conversations between the characters.

I would prefer playing this game with a PS5 instead of a PS4. I prefer also playing video games from a sharp television screen while sitting on a sofa instead of sitting really close to the screen playing on a table of some sort. I am talking about PC gaming and that I don’t like it as much as console gaming. This can be a matter of taste and not so much something that I would like to have a debate on.

I have bought some more games. I hope to be able, soon, to write some more about my achievements in this matter. I am still waiting to get my hands on the new Onimusha gmae that was released last Friday. The new Metal Gear collection is also waiting for me on the list of what to play next. See you in another blog post. Lets hope that this will be sometime soon!