Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: 2010s

Playing Some Mafia (Definitive Edition)

Posted on by Viljami

I started this morning spending two hours of my time playing Mafia – Definitive  Edition. As you can see from the featured image I have now a new controller for my Xbox Series X. It is the Microsoft Elite Pad 2. Yes, it did cost some money but I am very pleased in its performance. At least I am for now.

It has battery and I keep it connected with the cable that came with it when I am not playing. When I am playing I do take the cable off. The cable has to be connected before I shut down the console. Otherwise the console gets powered on again. Also for taking a screenshot you have to first press Xbox button and after that you have to press Y button. Regular game pad offers a screenshot with one button press. Elite game pad did cost me something like 155 euros I think.

Mafia has been on my list of games to play since I read about it from a gaming book. The book was “Pikselipölyä” that was written in Finnish. The name can be translated to something like “pixel dust”. I don’t think this book has been translated or even available outside Finland but it was an interesting book that I borrowed from a library. In where I live we have very nice libraries. There are many of them and they have lots of new and good books to borrow. I like it a lot.

So, Mafia was recommended in that book. The game was first released on PlayStation 2. Also, in the book, it was mentioned that the Definitive Edition, the remake, would be a better opportunity if you can choose the version that you want to play. I didn’t have the game for PS2. So, I just bought the whole Mafia Trilogy collection of Mafia games. I have only played Mafia – The Old Country.

Mafia – Definitive Edition offers straight from the beginning some driving, shooting and very much discussion between the other characters and the main character. From the beginning you are starting to wonder why would a person like to work in a mafia. Well, there are some reasons why the main character just ends up on a mafias payroll. So, the plot starts to form from the early moments in this game.

There might be some other games that many gamers are playing right now. Forza Horizon 6 was released under two weeks ago. There was the new Bond game released just some days ago. The game is titled “007 – First Light”. I just yesterday watched some content on YouTube about the new Bond game. It was said that it is very good as a video game. Many of us are already also waiting for the next Grand Theft Auto Game – GTA VI. Well, I don’t care so much about actually playing games that are somewhat straight from the oven so to say. I just like to play any good game that I have missed and haven’t put so much time in. This makes my mind pretty much why would I want to play a game like the first game in the Mafia series. I might play the second or the third game next. I really don’t know yet.

Since there are so many good games out there you really have to try and think what to play next. I do, as you might notice from the blog post that I wrote yesterday, play some retro games also. I like to play some PS2 games and also Mega Drive games. I end up casually playing some good games also for NES and SNES with not forgetting PS1 games. Sometimes I like to escape the limitations and when I feel that kind of a sense I turn to some more modern games. In this way I can really see how the technology and also the design of video games has improved.

I could go on about some movies that are going to be available soon in 4K disc format (the next Avatar and also the Silent Hill movie) or tell you about how it uplifted my moods to see Finland win Canada yesterday in ice hockey’s World Championships but I think this is enough from me right now. See you next time my dear reader!

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.

My Latest Game Purchase

Posted on by Viljami

My latest game purchase, that I collected from the mail locker just yesterday, includes two PS2 games and four PS3 games. I bought Midnight Club 3 – DUB Edition (PS2), Sonic Heroes (PS2), Bayonetta (PS3), Spiderman 3 (PS3), Aliens vs. Predator (PS3) and Need for Speed – Most Wanted (PS3). They did cost me 109 euros with shipping included. I am waiting to have a chance to get into these new purchases. I am going to have to knock on wood while I’m saying that I am glad that my PS3 still works. It has served already over 16 years in my video game setup. I have faced some issues with hardware earlier. I have two broken PS2 consoles, a broken original Xbox and also an Xbox 360 console that doesn’t work.

Somehow these consoles don’t seem to last forever. I am also not so good at maintaining or repairing stuff like these consoles. I think they actually aren’t even meant to last for tens of years. That is the main reason why I am trusting more and more on emulation. So, I am going to rip these two PS2 games that I just bought and play them with an emulator. I have two different devices that I am running emulation on. One is a Raspberry Pi 5 with 8 GB of RAM. It is running Recalbox. I use it to emulate mainly Sega Mega Drive, SNES, NES, PS1 and also some more exciting consoles while I use another device (a desktop PC) that runs Batocera to play PS2 and some other consoles that require a bit more power.

So, there are two racing games included with my latest game purchase. Midnight Club 3 is a classic racing game. There is really no words necessary for the introduction of a game that belongs to Need for Speed series of video games. This title is labled with “Most Wanted”. It think it will be eventually a good game that might take some hours to get into. Usually I have somewhat liked almost every Need for Speed game that I’ve played.

Why did I pick up Bayonetta? I heard a word or two about it as I was reading a book that desrcibes different video game characters. Bayonetta is a strong female character and it seemed an interesting game and I wanted to purhcase it. I am going to try to find some time to get into this game. I also bought Sonic Heroes because Sonic games just rock. I also bought Spiderman 3. I think there are very few bad games that feature Spiderman. So, why not give it a try. The last game in my latest game purhcase that I haven’t yet mention in this paragraph of this blog post is Aliens vs. Predator. It must be a decent first person shooter.

I made this purchase because I found these games interesting. The price was also cheap. I mean I got these six games for a price lower than what it would have been for two new games. Actually I think you couldn’t buy two new games with 110 euros. It might be possible if the games wouldn’t be brand new releases. I am content with yhis game purchase. I am waiting to get to enjoy also these new games.

I have been lately still playing Gran Turismo 3. It takes some time to finish it. I have spent already over 15 hours on playing GT3. The game might take a bit over 40 hours to finish. Also I have a confession to make. I haven’t, yet dived into plaiyng the new Resident Evil game Resident Evil Requiem. I have read that it is a very good game. I am waiting to get into playing it also soon.