Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Remembering PS4

Posted on by Viljami

It has been eleven years already since I bought my PS4. I remember hooking it up back in the day and replacing my PS3 in my gaming setup. Back in 2014 I only used one gaming console. So, I had only PS4 connected to my television for several years. I have lots of games for PS4 in my game library. Today I am thinking about getting a PS5t that was released already five years ago. I am also waiting eagerly for PS6 to drop some day.

Lately I have not focused so much on playing video games on my PS4. It is still a very good console. Although it has its limitations. It doesn’t have a SSD and uses HDD hard drive instead. I remember clearly replacing the HDD that was only 500 GB to one that had 2 TB of space. This was an easy way to update the system and the hard disk I bought wasn’t actually pricey at all. I definitely think that extra hard disk space is expensive on newest Xbox consoles (Series S/X). I do have a 1 TB space unit installed on my Xbox Series X. Series X also has 1 TB of internal disk space unlike Series S that has only half of a 1 TB. There are also some newer models available that have different amounts of internal disk space.

I have been thinking, lately, about buying a PS5. It has some good exclusive games that I would like to play. I did buy a new PC two months ago. It was a bit of a disappointment for me. I paid over 1 500 euros for a new Windows 11 desktop computer. When I started playing Silent Hill f the computer was running the game at 30 FPS. I thought that a computer that has such a high price tag would perform way better. But this was the case after all. I think today a desktop PC can cost over 3000 euros and you are still not going to get a good performance. So, why not buy a PS5 for about 500 euros. I do know that it cannot be as powerful as a PC that cost several thousands of euros but it does save a lot of money.

You can also play PS4 games on a PS5. You cannot listen to music from audio CDs on a PS5. The backwards compatibility is a nice thing for me as a gamer because I do have lots of games for PS4. When PS4 was released back in 2013 (I bought it in 2014) it didn’t have a backwards compatibility at all. Also the release of PS4 was the point when a newest PlayStation didn’t support CDs as a format for games or music. PS4 still outsold Xbox One that had also many problems. As a console generation this was somewhat a dull one I think.

I think that the most interesting games that are available only for PS5 as exclusives are Silent Hill 2 Remake, Ratchet & Clank – Rift Apart, Astro Bot and Spider-Man 2. Some of these exclusive games are available for other consoles or for PC. Some titles I have already enjoyed very much on PS4. These games are Gran Turismo 7 and God of War – Ragnarök and also Spider-Man Miles Morales. I am hoping to get to play PS4 games God of War and Uncharted 4 and also The Last of Us Part II that I already own but haven’t yet played so much.

If we briefly gather here some thoughts about PS4 in this last paragraph of todays blog post we can conclude that PS4 was a remarkable system that sold very well. There were no delays in deliveries as was the thing with PS5 during pandemia. The first game that I played on PS4 was Tomb Raider. PS4 saw many games that were very good. It also had some exclusive games. There is information moving around and it is rumored that Sony would stop manufacturing PS4s in 2026. PS4 has sold to this day over 115 million units world wide.

Tenchu

Posted on by Viljami

I think many of us old school gamers and maybe some retro game enthusiasts do recognize Tenchu. It was released for PS1 back in 1998. I can clearly remember these moments back in the day when I saw some footage from actual television about Tenchu. What made it interesting as a PS1 video game was that you were mainly using a sword as a weapon. The fact that this game was a stealth game more than just a simple action melee game that we saw many times in the mainstream of video gaming during the 90s. So, Tenchu was something different.

I do have played this. Not recently but it hasn’t been many years since I last time played the first Tenchu game. There have been several sequels. In actually had to search for some information. There have been at least thirteen games with some relevance to Tenchu. Tenchu 2 was released for PS1 in 2000. There were games released for PS2 and also to PSP. The latest in this series that I have played is Tenchu – Wrath of Heaven that was for PS2. I think it isn’t a bad way to start getting into this ninja combat series by playing the first Tenchu game on  a PS1.

The game did impress back in 1998 and it is still a very nice game to play even today. Maybe you have to have a certain retro type of attitude to actually enjoy this game. If we make a comparison to modern era there could be some improvements on the controls and graphics. So there is some adjusting in this sense. If you do like PS1 games I recommend this game especially.

So, what is the game all about? You try to move around in this three-dimensional environment and avoid enemies. If you get caught the enemies will call help and you usually end up  fighting too many enemies and you eventually end up dead. So, avoiding contact seems to be a working strategy. Also, when you encounter an enemy that hasn’t yet noticed you you can take that person out with only one stealth attack. If the enemy detects you the enemy will call help and you end up in a difficult fight.

You can use a grappling hook to move to for example up to some roof of a house. You use a sword to defeat your enemies. You also use throwing weapons try to take out enemies. Ther weapon, the sword I mean, is a melee weapon. This gives you a different feel of combat than if there were some ranged fire weapons used. The concept hasn’t been used in my opinion so much. Instead there are tons of shooting games available as retro and also as modern games. I think the idea of Tenchu is very good and original. Being that it is a game from 1998 makes it even more inventive as a video game. It was somewhat a pioneer as a three dimensional sword and melee fighting game.

Financially Tenchu was very successful in Japan and also all around the world in Europe and USA. It sold over 1,4 million copies worldwide. It was also successful as well appreciated game and received good grades in different reviews of gaming media of the time. Actually this many times meant magazines that were printed on paper. That was the method that was used back in the day. The gaming media wasn’t yet so strong on the internet. This particular fact has changed since Tenchu was first released.

Tenchu isn’t a pricey game to pick up. If you do find it from game shop I think it can be bought with a price tag of maybe 20 euros. I haven’t seen a copy available in a long time but that price of twenty euros was the price that I bought it for. It was one of my favorite games back in the 90s. It was also among the first games I wanted to own as I started collecting and buying PS1 games to my collection again about seven or eight years ago.

DmC – Devil May Cry – The Definitive Edition

Posted on by Viljami

Devil May Cry – The Definitive Edition was released already released in 2013 for the console generation that featured Xbox One and PlayStation 4. This game ahs actually been in my game library for all this time until today. I did play it for maybe four hours earlier in my life as a gamer. I played it on my PS4. You can probably figure that I got stuck to this boss fight in “Mission 10 – Bad News”. It was actually a bit silly way to end playing the game but this was actually what happened to me at the first try to trying to beat this game.

If you are stuck on that part of the game I can give you some tips. You have to try to avoid getting hit by the boss’s attacks and try to hit to the ground where there are spots marked. After you hit the floor on the right spot the boss transforms and you get to hit it and you should keep hitting it as long as possible. This way you can eventually progress past the boss and defeat it finally.

I have put in some work playing this game of the Devil May Cry series. There is a more newer game in the series. This game is Devil May Cry 5. The fourth Devil May Cry game is also in my opinion a good game. You can also play the first three games in the series that are available as a bundled collection. While I do have experience in playing games in this series I haven’t finished a single game completely. Some years ago I tried my hand in the first game of the series of Devil May Cry games. I didn’t finish the game but managed to get some experience on the series and how the gameplay works basically. The first game isn’t a bad way to start getting into Devil May Cry games.

Capcom has made very good job in developing this title. There are similarities to other Capcom’s games. You can place Resident Evil 2 next to this game so you can see the detaisl clearly. Devil May Cry was a t first introduced in the era of PlayStation 2. While graphical performance has increased as an overall in the gaming industry the gameplay seems to work pretty much the same way as earlier in the Devil May Cry Series.

Fighting in this game is based on using different melee weapons along with some guns that you can fire from a distance. Guns are not so powerful and while the provide some range, you can shoot flying demons, they don’t make so much damage. You have some attacks that work against enemies that have a shield. Sometimes you have to grab their shields away from them. Actually I am not going to name the enemies in the game so precisely. You can probably find these details from the game itself or from some fans website. I am not going to go so deeply into the plot in this blog post also.

Why did I want to get back to this game? My curiosity against Devil May Cry has increased again. As I saw that this game was available for a decent price (I think it was 20 euros as used copy) I decided, since I had not finished it, yet, to start getting into it again. Also I had played the first game and also spent a lot of time playing the fourth game. So, it was actually very logical decision. I ended up getting the Xbox One version. I think playing with PS4 has experience a somewhat inflation in my setup of gaming consoles. I find it more entertaining to play games with my Xbox Series X. It has been a rare happening for me to fire up and/or launch my PS4. I think this has something to do also with how I have connected all my gaming consoles in my setup. But maybe we don’t get too far with these thoughts now and here. You might think that PS4 is not so nice consoles since it uses such an old technology, like older hard disk, and so on.

I have played Dmc – Devil May Cry – The Definitive Edition for five and a half hours now. I am somewhere a bit over the first half of the game. It is a very good action game that does offer also some character development. You actually gather different kinds of credits that you can use to improve your character. The graphical details are very nice. I am going to try and finish this game and maybe garb another game in this series. I might give Devil May Cry 5 a chance. If you are wondering what happened to me and Silent Hill f I have to say that I did try to play it and actually played it for a while. I am delaying starting to really get into that game to some later time. It seemed like a good game. I had moderate difficulties running it and it seems my new PC isn’t so powerful or so it seems. I am able to play Silent Hill f only with 30 fps. So, lets talk about that more at some other point in the life of this blog.