Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Tag: ps5

Xbox Series X Has a Nice Backwards Compatibility (But Far From Full)

Posted on by Viljami

My Xbox 360 has been suffering. It doesn’t read game discs anymore. Otherwise it is fully functional. I tried opening it a bit through the disc unit as was insturcted on an official guideline I found from internet. I read from the guide that you should first power the device off, remove all cables and then try to push the wheel of the disc unit so that it opens up a bit. This was instructed to do with paper clip that has been straightened. Then you should bloww some compressed air to it.

I did mangae to do this and it fixed the problem. I was able to start a game once again. Then some weeks went by. I wasn’t playing anything with my Xbox 360. I played my other game conmsoles. As you might know Xbox 360 has a backwards compatiblity with original Xbox games. 463 games out of all 996 published are backwards compatible. We can make a quick calculation and find out that this makes 46,5 % of all games that were published for original Xbox.

If you think about PS3 and PS4 and their backwards compatibility you can propably figure how differently Microsoft and Sony deal with this issue. PS4 wasn’t at any moment backwards compatible at all. This pissed off some people. You were able to play PS1 games on PS3. Some PS3 models you are able to play also PS2 games with. PS5 however has limited backwards compatibility for PS4 games.

Xbox Series X, the latest Xbox, is fully compatible with older Xbox consoles’s games. However every game is not supported. There are 63 original Xbox games out of 996 and 633 out of 2155 Xbox 360 games compatible with the latest Xbox console. Xbox Series S doesn’t even have a disc drive so apparently it doesn’t support older consoles’s game discs. All Xbox One games are compatible with Series X.

With this information available I decided to remove my oddly acting Xbox 360 from my current setup. This meant actually that I had to remove also tens of games from my lineup. I like to keep every game that I am able to play with any console in my setup in this huge shelf. I had to remove many Xbox and Xbox 360 games.

I have now only six original Xbox games left in that shelf. The picture related to this post shows my current games that I am able to play with my Xbox Series X. I didn’t count the games that I removed so carefully. I think I set aside maybe 70 games in total. I had to put games like Halo 1 and 2, Tony Hawks Pro Skater 4 and many others to storage. These were games that I haven’t had time to get into thoroughly.

I would like to be able to play every game that has ever been released for any Xbox system. This is just the way that things go. You are updating your setup and getting into some new or retro consoles. You don’t actually play every game that you own. Some games and systems you just have to set aside at least for a while. Xbox 360 is an old gaming console. It was first released in 2005. I bought my Xbox 360 as a used copy. This was about six years ago. So maybe it was time for me to move on.

Games do get old. Systems do get old. There are many games that you just can’t play, buy or enjoy in any way no more. I think there should be something that could be done to this issue of great games just disappearing somewhere. We seem to be still moving so fast forward that we can easily completely forget a nice old game.

I don’t know the exact answer to this question. Will there be in the future some websites or collectins of old games. Are we going to be able to finally play these games with an emulator? Would it be nice to have a museum that could hold many old games? I know that there are already some websites that are dedicated to old Commodre 64 games. They have archived thousands of games which are also available as downloads.

There cetainly is some knowledge about gaming that also I as a gamer have been able to develop in myself. From the moment when I first gazed at a video game in some arcade I have been curious to find out more about games. I went as far as studying the field. I dreamed I would be able to make a game or something similar. And I think I am not alone with my knowledge and I think this is an interesting topic all in all.

Silent Hill 2 Remake

Posted on by Viljami

So there is a new remake of Silent Hill 2 in the makings. I was thinking that in this post I wouldn’t go so deeply into what is coming for us gamers but I thought I should write something I feel about this series of survival horror magnifiency that Silent Hill has delivered and what is my relationship with it.

My first memories are about the first game of this series. I think I never owned the game. I did play a short demo of it. I liked it. Later I have played it but I never completely finished it. The latest connections between me and Silent Hill are made by playing PS3. I own the HD collection and also Silent Hill Homecoming. I had Downpour but I decided some years back to sell it. I also have Silent Hill 3 for PS2.

There is always a comparison between Silent Hill and Resident Evil. Both of them are survival horror games. They do differ a lot. While Resident Evil offers a constant feel of anxiety, Silent Hill does take you deeper into characters and how they feel and how the story keeps forming. I wouldn’t like to say that Silent Hill is in some way better or worse. Instead I would like to think that they are just different games. And they are good series of games all in all.

My history with Resident Evil is a lot closer. I started with Resident Evil 2 on PS1. I have completed also RE 1, RE 3 and RE 5. I almost completed RE Revelations and I am talking about the first in the series of two games. So I have some experience but I am not the master that has completed every game and every game in the whole world. There are lots of games in these series’s.

Silent Hill 2 is definitely a legendary game. Currently we know that it will be released for PS5 and PC. There will be no Xbox or Switch versions. There has been also some conversation about the game’s system requirements. They are going to be high. What is there to be for us? I think the time will show us. I am waiting to see something more out of this game.

Gran Turismo 7 – After Ten Hours of Playing

Posted on by Viljami

Gran Turismo 7 was released 4th of March. I got to play it early since I had ordered it in advance from a local game shop. Gamers all around the world have been waiting for this game to be available. Gran Turismo 6 was released on PS3 just before PS4 was getting to markets. So, we have been waiting for this for a while.

I would definitely like to play this racing game with a PS5. The circumstances are what they are and I have to satisfy my needs of some Gran Turismo racing with my PS4. I can see how a somewhat more advanced controller and better graphics would enhance my whole experience about this game. But even played with PS4 instead of PS5 I can be very satisfied how this game feels like.

I have to warn you. I usually play games longer compared to what is the average completion time expressed in for example How Long To Beat website. I have played already 48 hours of Diablo II Resurrected. It is said on How Long To Beat that its main story takes 18 hours to complete. Maybe I am a slow player or maybe I am a comletionist.

So, I have played Gran Turismo 7 for a bit over ten hours. This game made an impact as I started playing it. I had played a bit of Forza Motorsport 3 for Xbox 360 lately. It is older game but I immediately understood how good of a racing game the Gran Turismo is. You can set the difficulty level suitable for yourself. There are assists for breaking, steering and changing gears.

Gameplay is not simulation and it’s also not also arcade. It is somewhere in between. This can probably raise a question if it is a good game for some eSport sessions. Playing against your mates through network is an option if you like to play games that way. In the beginning of the game I chose intermediate skill level. I soon wanted to turn off automatic breaking. I tested a bit the settings and finally found ones that I liked. So there is a challenge for every racing fan that wants to play this game.

Graphics are amazing. Driving is fun. I don’t know how long it takes to finish the game since you can play it, I think, eternally, if you wish to do so. This is definitely the best we can get out of a racing game for PS4. I would like to try this game for PS5 but as you know there is a limited availability for a PS5 still. So you can play Gran Turismo 7 for as long as you want.

There are lots of goals in this game. You can try to called all the cars and unlock all the tracks. There is a cafe in GT7 from where you get missions, or menus, that give you something to achieve. You get a reward from achieving a goal. It is usually some new tracks or cars. You don’t immediately get to drive the fastest sport cars in the beginning of the game. You have to drive some time with some slower or not so sporty cars first.

After ten hours of playing Gran Turismo 7 seems to be everything I expected it to be. I have talked about this game with some of the persons I know since I heard that it was going to be released. It’s finally here. Now it’s time for me to enjoy it. I can definitely recommend this game.