Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Posted on by Viljami

Shadow of the Tomb Raider joins my list of finished games in the year 2026. I have beaten already several games this year. What did this Tomb Raider game have to offer and how it was like to play it? These are the questions I am right here trying to answer to you so you can decide if you want to play it also at some moment.

I have to say that it took some time for me to finish this game. I spent almost sixteen and a half hours playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I played it on my Xbox Series X. The game was released already in 2018. It is the third game that we saw on this series of games that started with “Tomb Raider” back in 2013. This game I do remember very well because it was the first game I bought for my PS4 when I got it back in 2014.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider includes some very neat graphical experience. The scenery looks very beautiful. There is a lot of playing with some light effects that makes the screen look amazing at times. The game includes lots of puzzles and also thinking. There are some action and also role-playing elements. You actually get to update your different weapons and your character gets updates too. Everything in this game seemed to work well. The game has received good reviews on Metacritic. The overall rating for Xbox One game is 82 out of 100.

The game isn’t perfect. Some puzzles are frustrating to try to figure out. You easily can get stuck for even some hours to some puzzle that you must figure out to proceed in the game. I felt frustrated also at times in some climbing scenes. I felt down many times and the character died. I have to say that saving a game works decently and you don’t have to replay a part over and over again a lot. This makes the game a smooth one to play.

I can say that I do prefer to play Shadow of the Tomb Raider over playing any of the remakes that have been released just recently. There was the first three Tomb Raider games and also the collection of fourth, fifth and sixth game. I really think that these games were neat back in the day but I really don’t miss the way you had to play them.

There are tens of Tomb Raider games that have been released in the course of the history. The first game that started it all was released in 1996 for PC, PlayStation and Sega Saturn. It was among some of the first games that offered us gamers a truly three-dimensional experience. This was the time in the history of the video games when the games started shifting towards three-dimensional presentation and experience more and more.

There have been already tens of games released in this series since everything started back in 1996. There have been some discussions about the future of the series. We are going to see some Tomb Raider content in a form of some TV series and movies, soon. We are going to see what kind of a future this franchise does actually have. Are we going to see some more games? Time will definitely tell.

Also this game, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, is currently available for a very cheap price as it isn’t the most newest game. It is also available for PC and PlayStation 4 and 5. I think it offers a solid gaming experience and I do recommend getting into it if you like modern Tomb Raider games. It also reminds me of the game Uncharted 4 that I played through earlier this year. They do have some similar elements.

Thoughts About Buying New Games

Posted on by Viljami

This is the blog post about my thoughts of buying more new games. I wanted to let you, my dear readers, to know that I have already a huge amount of games. Some of them can be considered retro games and some of them are newer releases. I do play modern games on my PC, Switch 2 and Xbox Series X. To this day I haven’t bought a PS5 gaming console. Now my selection of video game consoles that are in my setup and connected to my 4K television is huge. There simply isn’t room anymore for a console like PS5 that takes loads of space. I read somewhere that the unsual height of the PS5 console is due to a heat sink solution used in the console.

I do play also retro games like NES, SNES and Mega Drive. I also have a GameCube hooked on my TV. I am not sure if it works. I haven’t played it in a while. Last time I played something on it I think I got a disc read error. I also have a PS4 and a PS3 hooked on my TV. I have also a Raspberry Pi 5 that holds Recalbox that I use for retro emulation. Finally on the left side of my TV I have a PC that holds Batocera as its operating system. I use it to run Xbox and PS2 emulation. For Raspberry Pi and the PC I use Xbox Series S/X game controllers. I like them and I think they are of a great quality.

I have loads of games. I took the image that is presented as this blog posts “Featured Image” to demonstrate the situation. Just some days ago I sorted all the games that I have on these two large shelves. I did make some room as I got rid of all DVDs that were sitting on these shelves. DVDs aren’t so precious to me today. I do watch some DVDs sometimes but having hundreds of them lying on a bookshelf is kind of wack thing to have in your living room. We are living the year 2026 after all.

So, I don’t have a lot room for more games. I don’t necessarily need new PS1 games. I have some very good games in my collection. I haven’t played all of them. I don’t necessarily need more PC big box games. I have over ten big boxes already along with some modern games as “collectors editions”. I actually very much like to play all the games that I end up buying. Its been a long time since I finished some game. I think the piles are getting bigger and I seem to have less and less time to play video games. Remember the post I did about some PS3 and PS2 games that I bought. I have barely touched those games. I did play 15 hours of the Need For Speed Most Wanted but that was all I got to play. That purchase included many games that were also very interesting.

What about buying more digital games? Look. I have hundreds of digital games. I have over huhdred games in Steam and almost hundred games also on my Xbox Series X’s Xbox Store. The reason and also the way that I have bought so many of them seems to be somewhat common for any digital video game consumer. You get  ahuge discount and you buy tens of games at one sitting. Then you wonder around thinking which one of these games should you install. Even if you end up installing something interesting you don’t actually get to play it a lot. That’s the way I view this situation. People have more games but less time to play. If you are a young person, for example a student, you don’t have money and that seems to be a limiting matter.

I am interested in some new releases that we are going to have available soon. There is System Shock 2 Remastered getting released 29th of May. Forza Horizon 6 is getting released 19th of May. There are some other interesting new releases also. There have been some conversations and presentations about the new Neo Geo console. It might be interesting too. I just don’t seem to have aany space left for a new console.

What about retro games? Am I going to buy annything new soon? I think no is the answer. I have loads of retro titles sitting on the shelves. Also prices of older video games are going up and up. You don’t even find that many games from flea markets because someone is making a side hustle with buying every retro game for cheap and selling it at a higher price. I think also that I have invested, if that is the right word, my money already enough to support my local game shops.

Sometimes I turn to emulation. I don’t so much see that it would be harming the game business so much. It is good to keep consumers interested in also retro gaming. There are many good ways to buy totally legitimately retro games. I mean the collections for modern consoles and remakes and also mini consoles. I think some games are so expensive that gamers cannot afford them. Sometimes I think that for preservation means it is signifant that we have ways to share old games. After all the developer that developed the game in the first place cannot receive in many cases any more money because the game isn’t availalbe legitimately.

I think this is enough about me and my slight frustration against my ever growing collection of games. I do have this dear hobby. If it costs me some money so be it. Some people buy cars. That’s an expensive hobby too. Have a nice end of the week and see you again soon!

Going Back to Diablo IV

Posted on by Viljami

Diablo IV has gone through some serious updates already as it has been available since 2023. I remember how it felt to play it for the first time. I was already a bit disappointed since I got the game just maybe two days after its official released date. I sent back then an angry email to the local game shop that I ordered Diablo IV from. I got an appropriate message back that they were really sorry but there was no way for them to post it any time earlier. The game had I tight release schedule and they weren’t actually allowed to post it sooner.

I was after all happy that I was finally able to experience Diablo IV. There was nothing wrong with the game’s graphics, look and feel and also the overall design. There just was something missing with its game play. I didn’t feel hooked. I didn’t feel any passion towards playing it. This feeling lasted all the way through as I played the game for over 30 hours.

There have been many updates to Diablo IV. A friend of mine mentioned this game as one good game that he now was able to play on his new laptop computer. He asked me if I had already tried it out. I had to tell him that I really gave it a try back in 2023 and I didn’t like the game back then. He was sure that this game was really good.

I started thinking about if I should give Diablo IV a second chance. The game would be available from Steam or Battle dot net. The price would be 50 euros. I thought this seriously for a moment. If I would pay 50 euros I would be able to play Diablo IV on my powerful and mighty Windows PC that I had acquired at the end of year 2025. I thought about it. I still had the physical copy of the game for Xbox Series X. I decided that I would give it a try. I had really nothing to lose.

So, how did Diablo IV feel like to play almost three years since it was first released? It does take about two and a half hours to install. In decided to install it yesterday just before I headed to sleep. The first thing today I did after drinking some coffee was to fire up Diablo IV that was already installed. I did play it for maybe three hours or something like that. It felt a bit different. I kind of enjoyed playing it. At the same time I am thinking how was this game even released as it has gone through some very serious updates. It feels sort of like an experiment that the developers have been doing with this game.

I do have very warm feelings towards Diablo game series. My history with this action RPG series did start with the first game that In did play on PS1. Later on I discovered Diablo II which I played on a PC. Diablo II was the game that got me really hooked. I later played through also Diablo 1 on PC. The PS1 port is a bit like reduced version of the game. If you want to experience the first Diablo game I recommend getting it for PC. There was also a game released just some years ago and it was called Diablo II – Resurrected. It was released just maybe a year or so before Diablo IV.

I really don’t know what else to tell you about Diablo IV. I only played it today for some hours. I don’t know as I am writing this if there is going to be another Diablo game released and when would this release see a daylight. The thing I want to stress is that Diablo IV might not be for you. It is a bit different as an experience. I am not saying that it is totally a waste of time. It is just different. Maybe I too learn to like it some day.

My day has been a typical Saturday as it is a day off work for me. We are currently enjoying some sunny weather here in Finland. I just installed Shadow of the Tomb Raider for my Series X. I hope to get to play it and I might do so later. I am wishing a nice weekend to all my dear readers worldwide!