Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Tag: xbox

My Latest Purchase

Posted on by Viljami

This right here in this featured image is my latest retro game purchase. It included one PS2 game, Twisted Metal – Black, and two original Xbox games that are actually playable on Xbox Series X due to the backwards compatibility of that console. The two Xbox games I just bought are Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas and Red Dead Revolver. So, both of these games were developed by Rockstar.

The matter that actually led me to buy these three games was the fact that I got Red Dead Revolver for such a cheap price. It cost me alone only 30 euros. Now I have seen this same game available for a price of 80 euros. I actually think that the price has dropped a bit. I already had Red Dead Revolver as a digital copy. Now I have added it to my collection of original Xbox games with this purchase. The digital copy of this game did cost me 15 euros. I think it is still available if you might be interested.

There are only a bit over 60 original Xbox games that are compatible also with Xbox Series X. I am on my way to trying to collect each one of these. The actual amount is 63 games. One game just to name one that is compatible in this way is Manhunt. This game has received many praises and some coverage because of how violent the game is. Just to give you an example there is a way in this game that you can kill an enemy. You can do it by suffocating the enemy with a plastic bag. Besides all the violence there is lots of hiding in shadows and performing some stealth attacks in this particular game.

Some day I just might install my copy of Manhunt and go and play it for a while. I haven’t finished Manhunt but my brother played it all the way through with his good friend. I don’t actually know why I am sharing this type of content here but I just don’t want to think more about it. After all this is my blog isn’t it? Lets continue – shall we?

Twisted Metal – Black was one of the games involved in this purchase. It is a driving game for PS2. I have heard some good things about it. It has been on my radar for a while now and now I finally did purchase it. There were some earlier games in the series that were already released for PS1. This game did cost me 35 euros making it the most expensive game on this purchase.

I also did buy Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas. I bought it because it is also playable on Xbox Series X. It did cost me only about 24 euros. GTA VI is going to be released soon. I think it is going to be a huge success considering how the media and also fans of this franchise have been reacting to some of the information we have actually received about this release. San Andreas can be a nice experience if only I can spare some time to play it finally. It takes about 30 hours to beat San Andreas in reference to “HowLongToBeat” website.

I am very content about the purchase that I have made. I got Red Dead Revolver for a good price. I also have now some more games to play. If only In would have some time to get into also these titles. I am excited about each one of these three games. I am happy that I didn’t at least this time spend so much money on the purchase.

I have been thinking a lot about getting more into digital gaming. I think I might not be yet ready to stay fully digital today or some day in the future. The way things are seeming to go I don’t know if I myself and also my dear game hobbyists are actually ready for a change like this. I hope there will be room for both – the physical and digital.

 

Hyperkin DuchesS Is a Joy to Use

Posted on by Viljami

It has been already almost three weeks since I bought Hyperkin DuchesS. It is a game pad that works on Xbox Series S/X, Xbox One and PC. It is available in three different colors that are black, white and green. The button layout is very familiar to gaming fans that have played video games on original Xbox. IT also has the so called “select” and “start” buttons of a modern Xbox game pad on the left side of the controller. This controller costs currently about 55 euros. So, it isn’t actually a very expensive controller to buy.

The Hyperkin DuchesS is a wired controller. So, you hook it up to your console or computer with a long cable that has a USB-A, as is usual nowadays, connector. I had sligh issues because the cable pressed some of my keyboard buttons accidentally. I don’t think that is a huge matter. The game pad feels light. The button layout feels very nice and the controller works very nicely when you play some original Xbox game on an emulator or with your Xbox Series S/X or Xbox One.

I have had some good gaming moments using this Hyperkin DuchesS with Xemu. It is a piece of software that allows you to play some original Xbox games on your PC. Xemu does have some issues and all the games aren’t playable using it. I was able to play some Forza Motorsport. This game works very nicely. Also Hyperkin DuchesS is a good choice also for modern games. I played Rush Rally 3 for a while. It is a decent rally racing game from this year (2026). I bought it for my Windows PC from Steam a while ago.

The nicest thing about Hyperkin DuchesS is definitely the button layout and also the similar feel to an original Xbox controller. I think this green color was the most appealling at least for me. So, I had the opportunity to buy it. I think this might be the most popular color out of all three of them. The controller really gives you a touch of a real gaming experience with a real original Xbox.

I have recently played original Xbox games mainly through emulation. I emulate Xbox with Batocera or a regular Windows PC. The experience is deeper with my Batocera computer since I have connected it to my television. So, I can play original Xbox games from my couch. It has been several years since I last time had a real working original Xbox connected to my TV. There are a bit over 60 games for original Xbox that actually do work through backwards compatibility on Xbox Series X. Some games are available as digital versions from Xbox store.

I really hope that Xemu keeps getting better. At some earlier times it wasn’t as good of a solution in a way that it currrently is. Some gamers say that it is able to run about 80 percentage of games out of the whole original Xbox game library. Original Xbox has almost one thousand games that were actually released. I think Xemu is a good and solid emulator. It just still has some slight problems and there are some ways it could be improved as an emulator. You can just compare it to PS2 and/or GameCube emulation that works without issues with emulators like PCSX2 and/or Dolphin.

Also you can use Hyperkin DuchesS with Xenia. This is a Xbox 360 emulator. You do need a powerful modern PC to use Xenia. Xbox 360 has 2157 games in its game library. I have played Colin McRae Dirt 2 for some hours with Xenia. You can probably find Xenia and Xemu using your favorite search engine.

Another Game Finished (Forza Horizon 3)

Posted on 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!