Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: Modern

Gears of War – Ultimate Edition

Posted on by Viljami

Gears of War – Ultimate Edition is a remake of the original Gears of War that was released for Xbox 360 back in 2006. It was also released for Windows. It is an exclusive game for Xbox. There has been some discussion about exclusive games and we have already seen a Gears of War game released for a PlayStation 5. We also have seen Silent Hill 2 (remake) getting released as a digital version for Xbox’s latest console which are Xbox Series X and S. Also now when Nintendo also has its very powerful console, Switch 2, it is also possible for it to compete. Nintendo does have these own type of games it likes to release that are quite different from what some other consoles have.

While Gears of War is a already a strong brand among game enthusiasts I personally haven’t played it a lot. I do have some experience on playing the first game in this series on my Xbox. I really cannot remember if I was playing on my Series X or 360. I enjoyed the game but couldn’t beat it after all. I just got stuck and finally lost interest. I hate when I end up in this situation. I would like to play the game with a flow mode and play it all the way to the end. Fortunately it isn’t today such a shame to look up some advice online if you need some.

Gears of War – Ultimate Edition seems to be a perfect game if you want to catch up before trying to play games like Gears of War 4 and the fifth game in the series that is titled just “Gears 5”. There is still a lot for me to play when it comes to Gears of War titles. Ultimate Edition was released in 2015 right before Gears of War 4 was released. That moment was 2016.

I can very much recommend Ultimate Edition especially if you haven’t played any Gears of War games before. It is obvious that in this game it is necessary to aim well and keep yourself in cover almost constantly. It takes several hits to drop an enemy. You also get to throw some grenades. There are many types of enemies that are trying to come and get you. You have some teammates that can die and when that happens you can also revive them. I really only play the single player mode but there is a multiplayer of some sort also available. The camera angle is in third person or over-the-shoulder.

I have only spent something like two hours playing Ultimate Edition. I really like the game. I am playing it now on my Xbox Series X with my Elite 2 controller. It did cost almost 150 euros. The regular Xbox controller does cost if there aren’t any discounts something like 60 euros. I can definitely feel the difference. The Elite controller is more responsive and sensitive enough. It might be also a good purchase if you are into eSports and/or some competitive gaming. It is a bit sad that Microsoft doesn’t offer such a high quality controller as a default but that is just the way it is. You nowadays sometimes have to pay a bit more for quality. I also did buy some years back the official extra disk space unit which was for me the 1 TB version. This was also a very expensive purchase but it also improved the experience in overall.

I was checking a day back or something like that about if I should get an Xbox One console. I found out that consoles One and Series X do support the same amount of original Xbox games. If One would have supported more of these I would have been very interested in getting one. The amount of original Xbox games supported is only 63 out of all over 2500 games. As I do have loads of original Xbox games the only ways for me to play them seems to be buying a working used Xbox or playing these games on an emulator.

I also have lots of Xbox 360 games that aren’t supported by Series X. So I would need also maybe a used and working Xbox 360 console. Question seems to be how long will these consoles last if I purchase them? It seems to me that I will be playing these games on emulator. The options seem to be Raspberry Pi 5 (8 GB of RAM) and Recalbox and my old desktop PC with Batocera installed. I actually think that with Batocera it is possible if you have a powerful PC to play games up to PS3 and Xbox 360. Actually I think that also PS4 emulation might be possible at least soon.

I did find some more games from my gaming shelf. I picked the first Forza Horizon, Xcom UFO Unknown and Army of Two and also one Xbox One game that was Alien Isolation. We are going to see a sequel for it soon I think. I have tens of Xbox 360 games on the shelf just waiting for me to get to play them. I wish I had more time to play also these titles.

 

Splintered Fate

Posted on by Viljami

It has been three days since I wrote about some Turtles stuff and also about Splintered Fate for Nintendo Switch. This game was released already last year and now I finally had some time to really dive deep into it. Splintered Fate is a nice action game with some character development elements. One key part of the game is the run-based system where in order to beat the game you have to complete the run completely. A big part of the game is trying to gather some materials so you can update your character to have stronger attack power and also heavier health points. I managed to beat the final opponent, Shredder, in my last run and it took about 40 minutes. This way of building the plot in the game makes me remember playing Hades some years back.

There are several characters for you to choose from. There are four turtles, of course, and some other characters like Casey. I picked Leonardo and stuck with him for almost to the ending of the game. On my final and also successful run I played with Casey. I was able to finally defeat Shredder. While there is still a lot to play I figured that I at least give a break for playing this game. The total time I did spend was a bit over 15 hours. “How Long To Beat” website tells me that it takes 9 hours to beat Splintered Fate.

If I try to define how good of a game this was for me I think this might be the best Turtles game I have played. At least it is in a long while. I did enjoy “Shredder’s Revenge” that was released some years ago. I also liked to play the Turtles games that were released for SNES and Mega Drive. Names of those titles are “Turtles In Time” and “The Hyperstone Heist”. They are, at least Hyperstone Heist is, very expensive. I have seen these games for sale for some hundred euros. Luckily there is a legit way for you to play these games and that way is obtaining a copy, be it digital or physical, of the “Cowabunga Collection”. But this game that I just finished is a very nice game especially if you are a fan of Turtles.

If we inspect some reviews on Metacritic we can clearly see that it has received mixed and average scores. It might not be a contender if we have a debate about the greatest game of the year. But in any ways I can say that I still enjoyed playing it. If there would be something negative I would have to say about it would be that the progression of the main character could be based more on the experience of that gets gathered along the way. I am missing something like Diablo has as a progression system where every battle gathers up experience points. Also I think there is too much to do with pure luck when you fight through your run trying to beat the game.

The game, Splintered Fate, is currently available for PC (Steam), Switch (1 and 2), Xbox One and Series S/X and PS4/PS5. It has also earlier been released on iOS. I am not aware of any release on Android devices. So, the game is also available on iPhone and iPad if you are into playing video games on these mobile devices. I enjoyed playing this game very much.

As Turtles has been a very popular trademark from the early 1990s and as this era since then has been very much involved in playing video games we have already seen over 50 video games that were themed with Turtles. Turtles has been a strong part of several gaming console generations. I think it all began with NES, it progressed with Mega Drive and SNES, and kept going all the way from PS1 to PS2 and all the way to this modern era we are today facing. We cannot say that every Turtles game would be a good one but if you consider these 13 included in Cowabunga Collection I think you are getting the best retro titles that have been made in history of Turtles games.

 

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!