Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Tag: xbox

Some Reasons for the Success of Nintendo Switch

Posted on by Viljami

Today Nintendo Switch is the third most sold video game console. Only some legendary and popular devices are above it in the statistics. Those consoles are PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS. I am talking about the global top list of consoles sold. The statistics of a specific region, like North America, Europe or Asia, might differ from the ones that I here am writing you about.

The most sold consoles, huh? PlayStation 2 has held this position for a long time now. It dominated the statistics being the first DVD player for many gamers. It has also a very wide selection in a form of a game library. People were expecting something like this already when only PlayStation 1 was available. During this period we saw a great increase in the number of gamers worldwide as new players and groups were starting to get interested in video games.

What about Nintendo DS and its success. Why did it take place? I guess this has everything to do with it being a portable gaming device. You could take it everywhere and it provided solid library of games and a decent three-dimensional environment for these new types of video games. I guess that before the era of smart phones (I think Apple begun this era by releasing the first iPhone in 2007) this was something very attracting for a gamer.

We are taking now Nintendo Switch in to account while we are having a conversation about the most sold gaming consoles. And actually why is it so? Well, there are some quite clear matters that we can think for a while. One of them is that Nintendo Switch has a gaming library that has a very good quality. There are several Nintendo exclusive games being still released that are very good ones and that you cannot play on another console.

We have to take in count also these delivery problems that Sony and Microsoft faced during the pandemic. This is a reason you cannot underestimate in these talks. There was a long period of time that Xbox Series X and both PS5 models, the one with the disc drive and the one without, were totally unavailable. You could find a Xbox Series S if you were lucky but there was no serious lack of Nintendo Switch consoles. The availability might be the biggest reason that Nintendo Switch climbed to such high levels of units sold during these times.

Why is the Nintendo Switch so cheap? The price is today about 300 euros here in Europe while PS5’s and Xbox’s pricier models wear a price tags way higher. You have to consider that Switch doesn’t come with a proper controller so you might have to spend like 70 euros for Pro Controller. This is of course optional. One factor of the low price seems to be that Nintendo Switch is very underpowered especially when compared to its main competitors of this generation of consoles. It is compared to Xbox 360 when we are discussing about pure performance. The upcoming Switch 2 that we are going to get more information from Nintendo by 2nd of April is said to be as powerful as PS4. So, the pure power is not the case when dealing with success here.

We also cannot forget the appeal of Nintendo’s brand. They are known to be a “mega” huge gaming company since the early days of Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES for short, back in the beginning of 1980s. It was the video game console that made home video gaming popular again while many consumers were very disappointed in Atari’s 2600 and especially their games and overall quality that finally caused a big depression of video games consuming and playing in the first years of 1980s. NES was definitely the console that made gaming popular again. You could trust Nintendo and it was something considered to have a good quality.

Today PS2 has sold wolrdwide over 160 million units. Nintendo DS has sold 154 million units. Nintendo Switch is behind these two with 150,8 million sold units. It is very exciting to see how is the Switch ending up to sell as the sales might dive down after or even before Switch 2 is getting released. How many people are going to buy Nintendo Switch if the Switch 2 is already available? The price of this new Nintendo console is predicted to be somewhere between 400 or 500 euros. However the price or other details, like release date, are not yet officially announced.

My First Hours With Black Ops 6

Posted on by Viljami

The newest game in Call of Duty series, Black Ops 6, has been released exactly one week ago. I have spent a total of four hours playing this first-person-shooter. I am playing it with Xbox Seiries X. It did take some time for the game to be delivered as I wanted a physical copy of the game. It would have been possible to order it in advance as I know lots of us gamers actrually did. I got this in a very cheap price of 55 euros with shipping included. I could have supported a smaller local game shop but instead I went for the lower price this time. I think I saved 20 euros.

After spending some hours playing I checked as I was curious about what other gamers think about the game what was the score for Black Ops 6 in Metacritic. It didn’t come as much of a surprise that it had an average score of 85 out of 100 at the moment that I checked. I am very glad that the game wasn’t a huge flop. We have seen some games that have not proved their worth in the eyes of a true video game player.

Call of Duty is a video game series that has already a strong legacy. The first Call of Duty was released in 2003. It was actually 2006 when I first played this game. I was in a moment in my life that playing some video games started to become again a reality for me. I played it with my original Xbox. I have always liked very much of the experience that Call of Duty offers. I soon also completed the first Call of Duty as I did spend many hours playing it and also continued to play Call of Duty 2.

The other day I had a short conversation about Call of Duty with a connection or should I say a friend of mine. I had shared a photo of every Call of Duty game that had been released. The pile was huge and consisted of 24, or was there even 25 games because there was also one PS Vita game, titles. My friend actually asked how many of these have I completed. I made some calculations and came to a conclusion that I have played through only six out of 24 CoD games. This gives me some edge to write about the game series while I have to say that I have some more games to play also.

What bad there is to say about Black Ops 6? I don’t have,  at least currently, anything to complain about. I think I am almost half way through the game since it takes, according to my information, about 8 hours to finish the game. I like the feel of my game pad. I couldn’t imagine playing actually any FPS with a mouse and a keyboard but I think that is possible. My experiences of this controlling method seem to be minor but I have to say that I have played at least the first CoD in this way.

The plot might not be the most interesting matter when it comes to this game. Of course like fans have come to know there are these political matters that really deepen the way that a soldier in a battle has to come think about his or her view of the world. I think these themes have become a bit stronger when it comes to Black Ops games in Call of Duty series. So, there is a plot but I don’t think that it would fit a game like this. It is a game where you shoot and move and also where the gameplay is filled with quick responses and constant action. That is everything I like about this game. I am continuing to play the game as soon as possible.

All Original Xbox Games I Own That Are Playable On Series X

Posted on by Viljami

I have exactly only nine original Xbox games that are backwards compatible with my Xbox Series X. There are only 63 games in total out of every almost 1000 Xbox games that are backwards compatible. These games that I own are Black, Manhunt, Dead or Alive 3, Dead to Rights, Max Payne 1 and 2, Oddworld Munch’s Oddysee, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Full Spectrum Warrior.

The fact that you can play these games with a modern hardware seems amazing to me. Owning a working original Xbox would be another way to get to play these games. The controller of modern Xbox just feels much better than the original Xbox’s controller. You don’t have to concern yourself with poor video output quality or a need to use an adapter to get an HDMI out of your gaming console. The poor quality of original Xbox’s can lead you to buy many Xbox consoles if you aren’t able to repair them by yourself. But what kind of a gaming console would last over twenty years and still work? After all the device would need some maintenance.

Now I have tens, maybe even over a hundred, original Xbox games. I have had to move some of them to storage as I have had issues with consoles getting to malfunction. I have a broken original Xbox and also a Xbox 360. The issue with my Xbox might have had something to do with a broken condenser. These things can start to leak and cause some internal damage. The symptoms were that the console wouldn’t turn off. I had to unplug the power cord just to shut down the console. Otherwise it worked fine. The problem I had with my Xbox 360 was that it didn’t read any game discs no more. This was caused by some dust that had gotten into the console. I tried to solve the issue with compressed air but didn’t eventually succeed.

Over twenty years old gaming console can have many different issues. These devices aren’t actually today made to last tens of years. I don’t think that software developers and manufacturers of electronics were really thinking in the future for such a long period. This is somewhat understandable. Today there is this scene of old games that can inspire you in many ways if you just find yourself spending some time with them. After all there are so many games and so many systems to explore. This richness should be truly acknowledged.

Xbox Series X supports many Xbox 360 games also. There are 632 games out of a total of 2155 games that are playable. What happens when we move always to more modern consoles? Are we forgetting our past? Although the original Xbox can be emulated it seems today to be a difficult task while we are already seeing emulators that you can play Xbox 360 games with on our PCs. My current PC system just isn’t powerful enough to operate an emulator of this kind. The emulators name is Xenia.