Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Tag: xbox

What Is So Special About Xbox 360?

Posted on by Viljami

Xbox 360 was originally released back in 2005. So, what was so special about it and how it seems to be relevant even this day when we are living currently the year 2025? For me personally the console was a huge part of my gaming setup for a long time. I had it hooked on my television for several years before, a bit sadly it finally refused to run any game discs at all. The problem with the console was dust. I actually tried cleaning it with pressured air but finally I decided to remove it completely from my setup as it didn’t work anymore. I got my Xbox 360 back in 2017 as I bought it from a close friend who had decided to sell the console.

Xbox 360 was a fun case in that you could play a lot of original Xbox games on it also. I am now able to play every original Xbox game on Batocera. I wrote about my adventures with Batocera just last month. I think its a very good gaming operating system. It is possible to run Xbox 360 emulation also on Batocera if you happen to have a very powerful PC. Raspberry Pi, even if it is the latest device, is not currently able to run games like these. So, it is very much possible to emulate Xbox 360 on a device that can run an emulation system like Batocera.

Xbox 360 was as a gaming console a follow up to the original Xbox. It actually sold 84 million units and was finally discontinued in 2016. The sales are so good that any Xbox console hasn’t come close to selling as many units as Xbox 360 did. Its toughest competitor, PS3, sold also well. PS3 managed to sell 87,4 million units worldwide. Many of the most popular games of this era were released for both of these consoles, Xbox 360 and PS3. There were some exceptions also. Xbox 360 saw games like Forza Motorsport from 2 to 4, Gears of War series (first three games), Fable 2 and 3 and Halo 3 and 4 while we saw games like Resistance series, Metal Gear Solid 4, God of War III and Gran Turismo 5 and 6 only on PS3.

Technically Xbox 360 was a huge jump compared to its predecessor original Xbox. The game discs had about 7-8 GB of space which was a slight upgrade if compared to original Xbox that used DVD discs that have about 4,7 GB of space. There were different options and models when it comes to hard disks. The size varied from 20 to 500 GB. Later, when Xbox 360 had been in the markets for two years, there was also a model available that utilized HDMI connectivity. This is how I got my Xbox 360 hooked up to my television to be a part of my gaming setup back in 2017.

Controller was nice. Games were good. The lifespan of the console was long. There were some technical issues as the console was somewhat rushed to production. The problem was largely know as the “red ring of dead”. In this situation the console wasn’t fully operational and expressed a red circle on the consoles front panel. I haven’t experienced any issues and the problem was finally fixed. Consumers that faced this problem did get their console finally repaired or replaced. If you find this topic interesting, please search more information since I don’t have all the details. Lets just say that there were some major issues but the developer of Xbox was able to overcome the issues and finally everyone was somewhat comfortable with the situation.

Many Xbox 360 games can still be enjoyed as Microsoft’s Xbox Series X is very much backwards compatible with over 600 games out of all over 2000 Xbox  360 games. Only 63 out of all original Xbox games are compatible with Xbox Series X. You can also keep in mind  the possibility to play Xbox 360 games on an emulator like Xenia. System requirements for Xenia are: operating system should be preferably Windows 11, CPU should have more than 6 cores, GPU should be NVIDIA GTX 980 Ti or later, the PC should have at least 6 GB or more RAM. Xenia is available also for Linux.

Yesterday’s Purchase

Posted on 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.

The Push for New Hardware

Posted on by Viljami

What is the push for new hardware and where does this kind of thinking fit? What are some options for getting your hands on the latest hardware? Are you playing video games with older hardware? Where does emulating retro video game consoles fit right in this discussion? These are only some of the questions I am trying to answer in this latest blog post. I am happy to have you on board!

I was recently playing some PS2 games on my current PC setup. I started thinking about some modern games and how were they compared to these old PS2 games. There is just some deeper appeal in these so called retro games for me. I have also played lots of Xbox 360 games recently. One of these Xbox 360 games is Dirt 3 and there are many other good games that you can actually play on the latest Xbox, Xbox Series X, through its backwards compatibility.

For me the golden era of video games was, or is, the 2000s. Back in the day we had consoles like PS2, PS3, original Xbox and also Xbox 360 along with GameCube. Sega Dreamcast has to be also mentioned when it comes to the hardware of this golden era of gaming. There are also ways to run these games on emulators. So even after the hardware might be broken, that being the console or the actual game disc, you can still get back to playing games from this era. Today we are getting lots of power out of PCs. It is today possible to emulate Xbox 360 and PS3 hardware with a decently powerful, new, PC.

Why are we getting pushed for new hardware? This is a very good question. The hardware manufacturers have to sell some products. After all there would be no manufacturers if there weren’t new hardware products for them to sell. Also the software is getting sold mainly for same reasons. Without mentioning any specific company we can say that there are some facets that get profit from pushing the new hardware to us consumers that also are the gamers in this world.

What is enough when it comes to performance? We could have a device that would be roughly as powerful as a PS4 and that would actually provide all the power needed to run modern video games. One particular gaming console that has made a difference when it comes to performance was the first Nintendo Switch. in the recent years it couldn’t stand up against its greatest competitors.

Do we need new hardware so badly? For me the answer is actually no. You can have a ten year old PC that you would connect to a screen of any type and play the best games from 2000s with a brand new Xbox One controller and enjoy the golden era, according to my viewpoint, with this kind of a setup. We have some hobbyist that actually like to play with and fix old computers. Also many old PC games cannot be run with a modern PC at all. You might need an older operating system and also some old drivers for older hardware like graphics processing unit or an audio device.

I have had some tough luck with my older video game hardware. I have broken two PS2s, one original Xbox and also one Xbox 360 console. The main issue I’ve had was that the console isn’t somehow able to read the game disc anymore. This has everything to do with dust. Also original Xbox has some electrical components, condensers, actually, that are very sensitive to wearing down when time progresses. So, for me it is way more easier to just abandon a broken down console and turn to some emulation on a suitable PC.

These were some thoughts that I had in mind. They were appearing to me as I was playing some PS2 games as I told you in the beginning of this blog post. I ahve to say that I was actually playing Need for Speed – Hot Pursuit 2, but I just couldn’t find the original game to take a photo of. So you are going to have to be content with another great PS2 racing game Burnout 3 – Takedown. I actually do play my PS2 emulator games with this fresh Xbox Series S/X compatible game pad. It is very handy as a controller on a Windows PC.