forza horizon Archives - Intensive Gaming Diary

Another Game Finished (Forza Horizon 3)

Posted on February 3, 2026 by Viljami

I have now finished another game, Forza Horizon 3, for this year (2026). I have already posted about this game earlier as I was telling you how I purchased it from a flea market for maybe three euros or something like that. I wanted to play this racing game for a reason or another. I think it’s nice to play a game that you were at least somewhat excited about when you bough it. I did notice that there is going to be another game released in this series this year. This game is Forza Horizon 6 and it will be available on May 19th this year.

“What was Forza Horizon 3 like to play?” one might ask. It is a racing game but it also has many other kinds of features that make it very diverse as a video game. It was released as an exclusive for Xbox. You basically get to explore huge amount of tasks that differ from a racing competition, finding and breaking different plagues that give you experience points and other rewards to strictly exploring the huge map and driving around discovering different places and roads. So, there is racing but with lots of other stuff to do also. The game basically doesn’t have an age limit. It is recommended for people older or as old as three years. There isn’t violence in this game. It might be a good choice for some younger audience also as a video game.

It did take me a bit over 16 hours to finish Forza Horizon 3. It was estimated, by “How Long To Beat” website, that it would take 17 hours to finish the game. There is still plenty of content to play in the game also after winning the final event against an airship. It is a bit tempting for me to keep playing this game but I think I’ll skip this and start getting ready for the next Forza Horizon game (Forza Horizon 6).

Thank you, again, my dear readers, for keeping reading this blog! I haven’t been writing too many blog posts this year but just hang in there because I think that I still have a lot to say and to write about. I have been busy playing and trying to finish some more games. I am also happy that the visitor counter tells me that there have been almost 200 000 visitors here on this website and on this blog.

There are also plenty of things waiting to get released soon. I am waiting for Resident Evil 9. We are going to see also Valve’s gaming console or computer or what ever it can be described as, to get a release soon. Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade was already launched for Nintendo Switch 2. I still have loads of games in my backlog and I have made also some recent purchases. I just have to concentrate and try to finish the next game.

The next game that I am going to soon start to play is Clair Obscur – Expedition 33. I have already installed it on my Xbox Series X. I bought, this time, the physical copy of this game. I got it for a cheap price of just some euros under 40 euros. The game has received lots of good reviews and it has received some awards also. There was some debate on if there was some artificial intelligence used while developing this game. I don’t know if this matters at all when you think about the game and its overall feel as entertainment.

There are many games getting released this year. I think that we aren’t going to see the next PlayStation console, PS6, yet, this year. Still there is something to wait for. PS5 still has some very good games to get into. We are going to see, soon, how Xbox is playing it cards in this game this year. I think it’s going to be an exciting year as the year is, right now, 2026 already. Think that for a second or two!

Yesterday’s Purchase

Posted on August 12, 2025 by Viljami

Just yesterday I made a tiny purchase from a local flea market. I bought a pocket book titled Resistance – The Gathering Storm. It was only two euros. I also found a driving game for Xbox One. The game was Forza Horizon 3. It is an open world racing game. I have just recently finished Forza Horizon 5 and I very much enjoyed playing it. The game was three euros.

This is why I like going to flea markets. You never know beforehand what you will find. I had to think for a moment several times, yesterday, when I was walking inside the flea market. They had some neat programming books, some hardcover books, many Tom Clancy titles, and also several very interesting pocket books. Pocket books had mostly a price of one euro. I came across also some Ilkka Remes books. He is a Finnish writer that writes these popular thrillers and has tens of books already written. Also there were many Stephen King books.

I had to hold back a little bit since there were many interesting things available. At the beginning of this year (2025) I handed over lots of books that I didn’t have time to read since I do have lots of books that I haven’t had time to read yet. This time, while visiting the flea market, I didn’t find any audio CDs or movie DVDs. At this particular flea market CDs have a price of two euros and DVD movies are one euro. There are some exceptions of course. Sometimes a CD or a DVD has a bit higher price tag on it.

Lately I have noticed that there aren’t as many video games available in our local flea markets. I think this has everything to do with that some people do this kind of “scalping”. They try to find as many games for as low price as is possible and then they resell them with a bit higher price. Also, if you are going to buy these games from a dedicated game shop you are going to have to pay a bit more. This is of course understandable and it happens to be so because game shops have to pay rents and salaries of their employers.

The pocket book, Resistance – The Gathering Storm, was a nice find and purchase. I think that scalpers aren’t so interested in buiying and then reselling books. I hope I get to read this book through sometime. The author of the book has also written a Halo themed book titled “Halo – The Flood”. My yesterday’s purchase has over three hundred pages in it.

I haven’t read the book yet but its plot centers on fighting against an army of aliens and/or zombies that are trying to wipe out whole human existence from planet Earth. I have Resistance as a video game for PS3. I bought it and started playing it also but really didn’t get into it. I hope the book is going to be a good and exciting one to read.

I don’t have high expectations about Forza Horizon 3. It was also a nice purchase. I am expecting to experience some exploration and easy to handle driving from this purchase. It was originally released in 2016. It is released for Xbox One but since Xbox Series X has a wide backwards compatibility it is playable also on the now latest Xbox gaming console, also. Xbox Series X is fully compatible with Xbox One games. You can certainly find some good titles from the game library of Xbox One.

Going to flea markets now and then is a fun activity. I just hope that I would find even more games as I visit these places. The prices are usually low. There seems to be more and more people interested in making a purchase or two and the popularity of flea markets seems to be rising.

Nothing Special to See Here

Posted on May 27, 2023 by Viljami

This image here is a screenshot from Forza Horizon 5. I am playing it currently on my Xbox Series X. I bought it recently as a digital copy. It cost me about 40 euros. I was happy that I didn’t have to pay more for it. It isn’t the newest racing game after all.

I bought also some other games. I noticed that there are some Xbox 360 and original Xbox games available as digital copy and they were on a discount also. So, I picked up some more games. There were 9 games all in all. I picked up Red Faction II, The Darkness, Contra, Vampyr, Flashback, Call of Cthulhu, Crimson Skies – High Road to Revenge, FH5 and Gears of War 4. This cost me only about 75 euros. I saved over 100 euros. If you can call spending money saving money. Well, I think we can.

Some people are talking and even worrying about spending too much money buying gaming stuff. I don’t think gaming would be different from any other hobby that you have to spend money in. You need equipment in sports. You need money if you drive a car. How is gaming different? This talk about money makes me think about some of these big game releases. We can take the latest Zelda game for example. It is Tears of the Kingdom. I think they have a huge marketing budget. This is reality. It is so because I did saw a commercial on a bus stop just some weeks ago. I don’t remember seeing a game advertised on a bus stop here in a long period of time. If this has happened earlier, I don’t remember what the game might have been.

Forza Horizon 5 is already an old game. It isn’t actually old. Its just not the newest game providing racing and entertainment. I decided to start playing it because I hadn’t done it earlier. It has received some good ratings. It would take me at least 20 hours of time to finish it. Or so tells the well-known website named “How Long to Beat”. This is my preferred website if I want to seek information about how long does a game last. Some times, like in the case of Diablo II – Resurrected, I have noticed that it takes me some more time to complete a game than what is told on this website. If you want to see the website, just use your favorite search engine. As you might have noticed I don’t promote any special search engine.

I am hoping to enjoy some more Forza Horizon 5. I hope that I can finish it some day soon. I have spent already maybe 5 hours playing it. There is, as is usual today, many different areas of interest in this game. There’s a lot going on. We have definitely more than a racing game here. I hope to continue playing it and to explore its content as thoroughly as is possible.