Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: Modern

My Huge PS4 Backlog

Posted on by Viljami

Yesterday I went through my PS4 backlog. I found actually nine games that I haven’t really properly even tried to finish. Also, I would like to at least play these games for some hours. So, I could define if I really even want to play them. Maybe I could finish some of them? This all happened after I played Art of Rally for some time. I wanted to play something else. Also, what I forgot to completely tell you about was that I earlier spend about 80 hours trying to finish Gran Turismo 4. I actually gave up since at he end of the game it was starting to get difficult. I gave up on trying to finish it. I think I had already seen enough with that game.

The game that I started with my task to get into my PS4 backlog was God of War that was released already in 2018. About a year ago I was close to finishing God of War Ragnarök. I actually made it to the final boss and that’s where I lost my interest finally. It was a good game although. I did remember that I didn’t finish the God of War. So, I decided to start playing it again. I am thinking that I could try to finish it this time.

Why do I have so huge PS4 backlog, you might ask me. It’s just that I have had the opportunity to buy every game in this pile for a reasonable price. Only game that I do remember that did cost a bit more was, I think, Blair Witch, which did cost me about 35 euros. It was a sealed copy but also a used game. Final Fantasy collection was also a bit more expensive. I might have paid over 40 euros for it. Grand Theft Auto V has been in this pile for many years. I think I bought it for under 30 euros. I don’t fully remember every price of every game in the pile. Some of them I have owned for many years already.

Some of these games are still sealed. Final Fantasy collection actually holds six games. The Last of Us Part II had a really cheap price. I bought it from flee market for 5 euros last summer. There are at times many people that some would call “scalpers”. They buy games for a cheap price from flee market and then they sell them to some individuals that are willing to pay more of them. This actually bothers me a bit but I think some people are not so much into collecting games. They are more into making some small amount of money out of this and they are most likely buying some newer games. Some people actually have only a few games. Could you imagine? I have loads of games and good ones but also some bad ones that I don’t so much play anymore.

So there’s a lot to play for me in what it comes to my PS4 backlog. I really should play GTA V. I really haven’t played it which is a somewhat embarrassing thing. I had a conversation about this some months earlier with a friend of mine. It is a bit awkward to say that I haven’t, yet, even started playing it. It is already an old game. Maybe PS4 version of it would be the perfect way for me to experience it.

I am waiting to install all these games and try and figure if I could finish even some of them. I wonder how many people actually have this problem that they have way too many games in their backlog. I think many people have to face this issue. The industry is pushing new games to the markets all the time. This isn’t actually a bad thing. We as game consumers would just have to adjust to this. Maybe I should think if I really need every game that I do buy. And there is also the matter that prices of games do drop heavily some months after they got released. If you wait a year or two you get the game for a very cheap price. At least that’s what many times happens. The games start to pile up and there we are.

Going Back To Art of Rally

Posted on by Viljami

My details indicate that I have played Art of Rally for over fifteen hours. I noticed this matter as I went back to playing this rally game again. I wanted to play something new on my Switch 2. So, I bought Hades II maybe a week ago. I didn’t buy it right when it was released. I also noted that it is a tough season to buy video games from web stores since it is Christmas very soon. They don’t have enough time to deliver fastly these basic items that I very regurarly need and do order from these web shops.

Art of Rally is a very good rally game. It is very original. The game is called “art” for a reason. You actually don’t so much compete in the campaign mode but you actually enjoy this game – its graphical display, the unique gameplay and the pleasurable audio or should I say music. In order to progress in the game you need to figure out the style of driving. Graphics are nice but, I have to say this, they also aren’t that realistic. The game isn’t trying to compete with games like Dirt Rally or WRC series. Instead it brings you a very inspiring gaming exeperience. I must also say that Art of Rally is definitely an indie game.

There are options to adjust the difficulty or AI cleverness of opponents and you also get to adjust the level of damage that crashing causes. The driving style is a bit different with every car. Now, I don’t get so much, in this blog post, on about how the car acts and how the actual driving experience is programmed. I do not have a clear view on how this is achieved inside the lines of code that has been written. Driving the car works nicely and after some hours you get to understand how you can handle the car better.

It is actually very nice to come back to this game. I already finished playing this, I played the campaign through once, and just installed it again to my Switch 2. I had the game installed on my old Switch 1 console. The Nintendo account holds all saved game information and data so I didn’t have to start playing the game all over again. What I did was I continued playing with every track unlocked and kind of actually went to playing this game again. The game asks if you want to race the season and all tracks involved again. After you anser “yes” you get to play the season once again.

After all these Switch 2 games that I have already acquired I am currently enjoying very much playing, again, Art of Rally. We are going to see, soon, some more games released for this console. Yesterday Metroid Prime 4 was released. We are going to see the new Terminator video game in this month. There is also the Mortal Kombat collection going to be available soon. Also I am waiting for Resident Evil 9, or Requiem, that is going to get released next year in the end of February. I think right now that I am going to buy the Generation Collection that features Resident Evil 7 and 8 also for Nintendo Switch 2. They cost pretty closely the same amount of money. So, why wouldn’t I spend maybe ten euros more for the collection?

Actually the version of Art of Rally I have is “Deluxe Edition”. I also have this game for PC. I bought it from Steam a while ago. This game looks and feels amazing on a 4K display. It can be called, and actually is called, Art. Also, the Switch 2 Pro Controller works fine with this rally game. The controller is a bit expensive but I think it was well worth the price. It costs right now actually about 90 euros.

PS5 Is Way Ahead of Xbox Series S/X

Posted on by Viljami

Xbox Series S/X has sold since its release only about 28 million units to this day. This means sales all the way from the end of 2020. It has been five years. Do you know how much Xbox Series’s main competitor, PS5, has sold? Sony’s newest gaming console has sold about 84 million units. It was also released in the end of 2020.

What about Nintendo? Nintendo Switch has currently sold about 154 million units. It was released already in 2017. So, it has had some more time to sell than its competitors. These figures describe worldwide sells. I am not so often offering links to any material. I don’t know why. I guess I am not used to it. But, this time, I am making an esception. You can find the figures from THIS Wikipedia article.

There have been many rumours. Some people are referring to times when Sega dropped out of the console markets. That time its main console was Dreamcast that was able to sell only 9 million units during its few years that it was available. To compare the sales to something measurable we can take PS2. It managed to sell 160 million units during the time it was manufactured and available as a new console. This comparison is descriptive since Dreamcast and PS2 belonged in the same console generation.

There were many reasons why PS2 was so successful. First matter that comes to mind is that it featured a DVD player. Many consumers would need to buy a DVD player anyway at that time. So, it was comfortable to buy a PS2 since you got sort of two devices at a one price. PS1 had been a success and PS2 would seem to continue the path that its predecessor started. There were many games released to PS2. “How many, actually?” one might ask. I would make an online search and find that there were almost eleven thousand games released for it worldwide.

We can think for a moment about how gaming is popular as a hobby right now. There are new games and retro games. There are gamers that have been gamers for all of their lives. There are young gamers and there are old and middle aged gamers. Actually, today, there aren’t anyone at any age that wouldn’t be active in playing video games at some level. Even my parents have a relationship with games since they have to hear my speak and maybe even read my words about video games. To say it simply I can only say: “Gaming is now more popular as a hobby than it has been ever”.

Lets return to the beginning of this topic I had in my mind when I started writing this blog post. Why is it that Xbox Series S/X has sold only so little compared to its main competitors? One thing that comes to mind is games. We haven’t seen a lot of Xbox exclusive games in this console generation. PS5 has offered some. It has featured Silent Hill 2, Astrobot and the latest Ratchet & Clank game just to name some of them. Well, we could mention also God of War. So, the lack of exclusive games can be one reason.

Xbox Series S/X is not the lowest selling Microsoft game console to this day since original Xbox sold fewer units during its lifespan. Xbox One sold about 58 million units and Xbox 360, being the most sold Xbox console ever, about 84 million units while the original Xbox sold only 24 million units. So, Xbox Series S/X has sold 4 million units more than the original Xbox did.

Original Xbox has its special place in the history of gaming. It also has a special place in my hearth among some other legendary consoles, like Mega Drive, NES and PS1. The thing I remember from back in the day when Microsoft first got into video game business and released their original Xbox console was that everyone hated Microsoft. It was absolutely amazing factor that seemed to push the sales down. That console just couldn’t, at least not yet, compete with Sony.

We are going to see what will happen with Xbox Series S/X. We are currently waiting for more information about PS6 and some details about when it is going to get released. Sony has stated that there might be PS5 support until as long as 2031 or something that. We might not see a new PlayStation yet in a long while. Right now also gamers have confirmed that our PS4s are still actually very much functional. “Why to release a new console so often?”, one might ask. This might be the question that leaves us pondering some more. So, have a nice rest of the week for all of our dear readers of this blog!