Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Gears of War – E-Day

Posted on by Viljami

Today I finished Gears of War – E-Day. As you can see from the featured image I used my new controller (Razer Wolverine V3 Pro). Playing this game took me almost sixteen hours. It was released already about a month ago. I decided to get it as a physical copy. I am kind of running out of shelf space which makes me look into digital video games. I think that you should at least have a chance to get games as physical copies. However we are going to see how this matter forms in the future. Sony has already announced that they are moving to digital releasing of games in coming years.

Gears of War – E-Day was a really nice experience. It brings the series to modern day with stunning graphics and smooth gameplay. The fact that I used my new game pad made the experience even more enjoyable. It was a bit expensive but I guess good quality has its price. I took lots of screenshots and I am going to share them on my Instagram account. Be sure to check them out (the link to my IG profile can be found at the left side and bottom of the layotu of this website).

Lately we have witnessed several huge releases when it comes to video games. There is of course the upcoming release of GTA VI. We have also seen games like Control Resonant, Silent Hill – Townfall, Zelda – Ocarina of Time and also Star Wars – Galactic Racer just  to name some of them. I have to admit that I haven’t had so much time, once again, for playing video games. At least not as much as I would want and desired. By the way – I have read some news about some companies allowing their employees to have some more free time that is dedicated to playing video games. That’s just how valuable they actually consider gaming today. It can clearly take your mind from stress and now some employers have actually comprehended this matter.

Gears of War – E-Day is an exclusive game and it hasn’t been released for consoles other than Xbox. It is available on Steam, so, you can play it on a PC. I have in some earlier published content explained about how I like to play video games mainly on a couch and from a television screen. So, this is the main reason I’m sticking to my Xbox Series X when it comes to playing Gears of War – E-Day. I really haven’t played it with a PC. It is available for a price of 70 euros currently. It does take some disk space and the amount is 115 GB. This is a small space considering that GTA VI is said to take over 200 GB of disk space.

The setting and plot of Gears of War – E-Day is simply that the earth is getting attacked by alien life form and Gears is going to try to defeat them and prevent the killing of the whole mankind. You get to use several weapons. Also you get to use some powerful guns that have to be operated. There are some moments in the game in which you get to shoot with weapons like this. I used mainly the shotgun and also the sub machine gun. I used thew shotgun in close combat since it is powerful while used in that way. With the sub machine gun you can take out some monsters from a distance. Enemies can take a lot of hits and this probably is very familiar to gamers that have played some earlier releases of the series.

You get to use grenades and also some rifles that can enable you to do some sharp shooting from really long distances. Also there are some grenade and also rocket launchers. You really need to consider how you are going to take out each enemy. Some enemies are easier to kill from up close while some are easier to defeat from a distance. There is a nice choice of difficulty settings if you want to adjust the challenge that the game offers.

Living Colin McRae Rally 2.0 Again (and Again)

Posted on by Viljami

Colin McRae Rally 2.0 was released in 2000 for PlayStation 1 and also for PC. I really don’t remember if I played this rally game before I got to try and play the first Colin McRae Rally game. There is something very special about this game that keeps me coming back to it. I keep starting a new career and suddenly I realize that I have spent already one and a half hours playing it. What could be the reason for this? Let me try to explain it to you my dear reader.

There is a lot to play in Colin McRae Rally 2.0. You get to drive in 8 different countries. One country has 8 stages and some of them come with an additional special stage. You can choose your difficulty level from easy to intermediate. When you beat the game with intermediate you unlock the expert mode. The expert modes’s championship gives you 8 countries now with 10 stages and also a special stage on some countries.

Handling of the car is made as precise and you can succeed in this game without a wheel and a pedal. You can apply different settings to the car. You have only limited time to tune your vehicle. So, you should apply well working settings for your car before the first stage of a country so you won’t loose all of your time. The settings can be a bit difficult to figure out. If you are like me and want to go to just driving you can try to search the best settings for every country online. I bet you can find the best settings. I figure this isn’t any sort of cheating at all.

There are many surfaces from more demanding, like snow or wet mud, to some more forgivable ones, like tarmac or dry gravel. The physics of Colin McRae Rally 2.0 work very nicely. You do get to control the car with your game pad but don’t just think it would be easy to handle your car in this game. There is a lot to learn while you keep playing the game.

Some of the appeal that I do have towards Colin McRae Rally 2.0 can be explained with the effect that pure nostalgia can at times give you while you are playing some retro game. I was 15 or 16 years old when I faced this game for the first time. I also had it for PC and also for PlayStation 1. The PC version gave a bit better graphics while the PlayStation 1 version provided a better game pad support that made it smooth to control the car.

I told you about how much the game can offer in terms of content. However it does take only six hours to beat. There are six cars that you can choose from when you begin playing. You can unlock some more vehicles as you progress in the game.

We are looking at probably the best rally game that was ever made for PlayStation 1. It has been some time already that I played the next Colin McRae Rally game, Colin McRae Rally 3. It is a very good sequel to Colin McRae Rally 2.0. It was released some years after the second game. It was released for PC, original Xbox and PS2. If you like rally games I think you should also play the third game.

The series of good quality rally games that begun from these games that were released back in the end of 90s and beginning of 2000s went on to become an even more legendary. We have seen many more rally games. We have seen also some games that have taken direct influence from these games. If you like this type of games you should check out Rush Rally 3 and Old School Rally. They are indie releses that focus on an experience quite similar to Colin McRae Rally and Colin McRae Rally 2.0.

My Latest Purchase

Posted on by Viljami

This right here in this featured image is my latest retro game purchase. It included one PS2 game, Twisted Metal – Black, and two original Xbox games that are actually playable on Xbox Series X due to the backwards compatibility of that console. The two Xbox games I just bought are Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas and Red Dead Revolver. So, both of these games were developed by Rockstar.

The matter that actually led me to buy these three games was the fact that I got Red Dead Revolver for such a cheap price. It cost me alone only 30 euros. Now I have seen this same game available for a price of 80 euros. I actually think that the price has dropped a bit. I already had Red Dead Revolver as a digital copy. Now I have added it to my collection of original Xbox games with this purchase. The digital copy of this game did cost me 15 euros. I think it is still available if you might be interested.

There are only a bit over 60 original Xbox games that are compatible also with Xbox Series X. I am on my way to trying to collect each one of these. The actual amount is 63 games. One game just to name one that is compatible in this way is Manhunt. This game has received many praises and some coverage because of how violent the game is. Just to give you an example there is a way in this game that you can kill an enemy. You can do it by suffocating the enemy with a plastic bag. Besides all the violence there is lots of hiding in shadows and performing some stealth attacks in this particular game.

Some day I just might install my copy of Manhunt and go and play it for a while. I haven’t finished Manhunt but my brother played it all the way through with his good friend. I don’t actually know why I am sharing this type of content here but I just don’t want to think more about it. After all this is my blog isn’t it? Lets continue – shall we?

Twisted Metal – Black was one of the games involved in this purchase. It is a driving game for PS2. I have heard some good things about it. It has been on my radar for a while now and now I finally did purchase it. There were some earlier games in the series that were already released for PS1. This game did cost me 35 euros making it the most expensive game on this purchase.

I also did buy Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas. I bought it because it is also playable on Xbox Series X. It did cost me only about 24 euros. GTA VI is going to be released soon. I think it is going to be a huge success considering how the media and also fans of this franchise have been reacting to some of the information we have actually received about this release. San Andreas can be a nice experience if only I can spare some time to play it finally. It takes about 30 hours to beat San Andreas in reference to “HowLongToBeat” website.

I am very content about the purchase that I have made. I got Red Dead Revolver for a good price. I also have now some more games to play. If only In would have some time to get into also these titles. I am excited about each one of these three games. I am happy that I didn’t at least this time spend so much money on the purchase.

I have been thinking a lot about getting more into digital gaming. I think I might not be yet ready to stay fully digital today or some day in the future. The way things are seeming to go I don’t know if I myself and also my dear game hobbyists are actually ready for a change like this. I hope there will be room for both – the physical and digital.