Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: Modern

Halo – Campaign Evolved

Posted on by Viljami

I just recently finished Halo – Campaign Evolved. This game was released only a moment ago. It took me ten hours to beat this game. It would have been nice to get to play this from a physical release but since it isn’t yet available I decided for this time to go with a digital copy. The game is now on sale. I did pay the full price of 60 euros. I think it is available for a discount now and the price seems to be 48 euros for the Standard Edition. This game is also available for PS5.

The original and first Halo game, Halo – Combat Evolved, is a legendary game that was released for original Xbox back in 2001. The game offered something smooth in the form of a first person shooter that you could actually play with a game pad. This was something that we had already seen in games like N64s GoldenEye. The first Halo game was still something better and even bigger.

So Halo – Campaign Evolved is a remake of the old classic. I have to say that it is a decent game. It isn’t anything special. I still had lots of fun while playing it. Only time will tell what kind of a Halo game we are going to see next. The games or a game (we don’t yet know if there are going to be several Halo games released in the future) that are going to be released will be developed by Activision.

By the way I am sorry that I don’t have any screenshots for this blog post and also on my IG share. I have to admit that I just couldn’t figure out how to take a screenshot with my Elite 2 game pad. It is a good controller but it seems to lack the functionality to take a screenshot quickly. I also didn’t want to play with the regular game pad since the elite one is way more comfortable.

If you check the grades that Halo – Campaign Evolved has received you can tell that everyone wasn’t totally satisfied with the game. I can actually very clearly understand this. If a game is a remake of such a classic video game the expectations are of course high. What do I have to say to this? I think Campaign Evolved isn’t a total failure. I actually very much enjoyed playing it. Is it something that all the fans were waiting for? It probably isn’t a fulfillment of these demanding fantasies after all.

Lets discuss the gameplay a bit. All the familiar weapons are present in the game. You get to use grenades and a bazooka. You have to keep changing your weapon and there is a somewhat limited amount of ammo available. Sometimes you have to pick up an alien weapon since all of your other weapons are out of ammo. There is some melee fighting present but it is nothing like in some recent Doom games we have already seen.

The enemies are numerous. They usually drop some weapons but some enemies don’t. If you fire an alien weapon it actually heats if you keep firing it for a long period of time. Then you have to cool out for a while and after that you are able to shoot again as is normal. This functionality is present only in alien weapons. Sometimes you have to pick a weapon that isn’t as powerful as the weapon you did use earlier. There are many types of enemies around. There isn’t a lot of exploring involved in this game which is also in my opinion a good matter.

This autumn is a busy time for gamers. We have already seen the release of games like Silent Hill – Townfall and Control Resonant. We are going to see the release of games like GTA VI and Zelda – The Ocarina of Time remake. I personally am going to play next some Silent Hill f. Actually just before I started writing this blog post I actually started the installation process with my Xbox Series X. I think I am going to go to play the game now for a while. See you in the next post!

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!