Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Playing Some Onimusha 2 (PS2)

Posted on by Viljami

I put some hours into playing Onimusha 2. This game was released by Capcom back in 2002 for PlayStation 2. This game was part of a purchase I made recently (maybe a week ago or something like that). That time I bought seven games for PS2. These games weren’t so expensive and Onimusha 2 had a price of 25 euros alone. It was the most expensive game out of all the games I bought. I also bought one “loose” game for PS1. That game was Ridge Racer Revolution.

I played Onimusha 2 for a bit over eleven hours. A bit sadly I got stuck badly to a point very near to the ending of the game. It was a very tough part and I just couldn’t get past it. I spent maybe half an hour alone in that part and decided to give up for now. This is not a rewarding way to end playing and trying to beat a game. But I want to be honest and tell you this fact.

Onimusha 2 is a good game. There are however some slight flaws in it. The camera angles make it a bit difficult to navigate at times. Luckily there are some maps in the game that make this a bit easier. There are several puzzles that might be difficult to figure out and solve. I can thank modern internet for being able to solve these issues very quickly. So, I actually didn’t get stuck with them at all. It is a bit difficult to try to figure the progression but I was able to manage to progress all the way to near of the ending of the game.

We can discuss a bit about the gameplay and how the character is getting involved in the action parts of this game. You have several melee weapons in the game and also some projectile weapons can be used. There are endless amounts of enemies and there is no point in trying to kill every enemy you see. Sometimes killing all of them in some area might help you to explore it more thoroughly. You get some health points from killed enemies. You don’t have to use an item every time your health is getting low.

Onimusha 2 is a bit old game. Some retro fans probably can feel some real nostalgia playing this game. You also have this view of how Capcom has developed itself as a game company all the way through the history of video games. You can compare this game to some of the latest games that have been developed by Capcom. I am of course talking about games like Pragmata and Resident Evil Requiem. You can rally see how the technology and also game design has been developing all the way from 2002 all the way to 2026.

At this moment I have many games only waiting on my gaming shelf for me to get my hands on them. Just yesterday I bought the new Halo remake. That game is titled “Halo – Campaign Evolved”. I was going to buy the physical copy but ended up buying it as a digital version. At least I don’t have to wait for the game to be delivered. I also bought “Atari Flashback Classics Vol. 1” since it featured a very interesting Atari 2600 game named “Saving Mary”. I might write something about it to this blog some day. This collection of games has in total 50 games for Atari 2600.

I haven’t yet touched the other PS2 games that I bought a bit over a week ago. Maybe I do have time for them at some moment. There are also some games that are going to be released that I am waiting for. We have already in this blog touched GTA VI. Also I am waiting for Control Resonant and Rayman Legends Retold. There are also many other exciting games going to be released soon.

What Kind of a Video Game Shopper I Am?

Posted on by Viljami

In this blog post I am going to describe what kind of a video game shopper I am. What games, devices and/or consoles I do buy? I make purchases often from different web shops and also sometimes from actual physically existing stores and I also sometimes buy games from flea markets that are located near where I live.

I got some inspiration from a recent purchase of some PS2 games. You can see the titles that I purchased in the featured image of this blog post. I did buy seven PS2 games and also one PS1 game that was a bit cheaper one since it was in a mediocre condition. It didn’t have the front cover and also the box was a bit damaged. Although the disc was in a good condition. That game is not visible in the image but I can tell you that the game was Ridge Racer Revolution. That game alone cost me nine euros.

I buy sometimes used PS2 and PS1 games. I currently don’t have a working PS2 in my setup. I do have a PSOne console that works just fine. I mainly use it when I do want to play something on a real hardware. It is nice to play some games that need several discs with it. After I have bought a PS1 or PS2 game I rip it with an external DVD drive to an ISO file and then transfer it to my retro computer. I have a Batocera setup and also Recalbox for Raspberry Pi 5. I use Recalbox for PS1 games and a bit more powerful PC for Batocera with which I play my PS2 games.

I have a medium sized collection of Sega Mega Drive games. I have only some tens of games that many of are the ones I already owned back in my youth. I did have also some PS1 games and a console that I unfortunately sold just before getting into studying into high school. I am still a bit confused about selling all that stuff. Back then I though I wouldn’t play games and I was thinking more towards my studying. I was thinking very differently back then because now I seem to still love playing video games and also retro games.

To describe me as a video game shopper a bit more thoroughly I should tell you that I do buy new games also. I have also a PS4 for which I own maybe one hundred games. I really haven’t properly counted them. I also have a collection of games for PS3. The newest consoles I own are Switch 2 and Xbox Series X. I also play some games on my Windows PC. Sometimes I play DOS games and I do have a small collection of big box games. So, I do buy new games and also PC big box games. Sometimes I even buy a game that is in its CD case only.

I bought a GameCube some years ago. I have some tens of games for it. I really actually play GameCube games today on an emulator. That goes with Xbox and Xbox 360 games also. I have owned an original Xbox and also a Xbox 360 but they eventually broke down and I decided to remove them from my setup. Luckily today there are good emulators for these consoles on a Windows PC that you can play many good games on.

Flea markets are fun places where you can find almost anything. I just recently found for example Need for Speed Payback for Xbox One for a cheap price of about six or five euros. Aside of being a video game shopper I also buy movies as DVDs, Blurays and 4K discs. I also like buying books from flea markets for a cheap price.

I like to buy some cheap games. As prices of retro games are going up I am going to try to keep the games that I own to myself and buy some more cheap games. I am not a person that would buy games that cost hundreds of euros. There is also a place in my hearth for emulation and game roms. If you are somewhat like me I can recommend to you a good website that holds many game roms and that site is called “Vimm’s Lair”. You can probably find it from your favorite search engine online.

Video Games Transition from Toys to Entertainment

Posted on by Viljami

Video games might have been considered to be somewhat childish back in the days. We gamers of course know a lot about this matter and might have a better point of view on the topic. What I am going to write you about in this blog post is how the large audience was thinking about video games.

With playing video games we basically went from games being considered to be some kinds of toys for small children. This was the popular way to think back in the early 1980s to maybe the middle of 1990s. The gaming console that actually made video games to be a seriously taken entertainment that was suitable also for adults was PlayStation 1. It was released in 1994. One the games that defined the new role video games was that game on this blog posts featured image. The game is Metal Gear Solid.

There were also many other good quality games that were released for PS1 when it was the most newest and most powerful gaming console on the markets. You can find a list using your favorite search engine but let me make a brief list of some of them right here. Games I want to include here are the first three Resident Evil games, first two Gran Turismo games, Final Fantasy series, Crash Bandicoot and Colin McRae Rally games. There are many others also that I haven’t included here.

The hardware was developing quickly. Suddenly it was possible to save your game. The optical CD-ROM discs could offer more space for a video game. It was possible to offer some tens of hours of playing time. This wasn’t the case with some earlier gaming consoles like Nintendo Entertainment System or Sega Mega Drive. However PS1 didn’t have a hard disk. It relied on memory cards that could be purchased for your PlayStation console. This was how PlayStation 2 also handled saving games. The capacity of a PS1 memory card was 1 MB while PS2 had 8 MB memory cards.

The graphics of video games were moving strongly towards three-dimensional environments. The graphical content was improving in quality while professionals tried to do their job while the technology was improving in a fast pace. This was also for me personally a period of time that I started to think about some day being able to make a video game by myself. This can tell you just how strongly I was beginning to have a this sort of feeling towards gaming. I wanted to be involved in some way.

For me a dream like making your own video game has been in my mind since those days. I was 14 years old when I bought my PS1 console. Exploring these games three-dimensional environments was a very fun thing to do. I was amazed how now also some persons that were over ten years older than me had an interest towards gaming. The shift from being considered as toys to being a seriously taken form of entertainment had begun.

For me playing video games has been a hobby. Programming a full game is a project that takes a lot of work. There are many easy to use tools available today. Today I am working in the field of information technology but making video games is not my current job. I have actually found some other ways to be involved. I know a bit about programming but I am not so confident in being a professional programmer today.

It can be a subject of debate if SNES or PS1 was the first console to have games that could be considered as serious entertainment also for adults. One console that is usually mentioned in this discussion is Sega’s last console Dreamcast. Dreamcast was more powerful than PS1. It was on the markets only for some years and then it was discontinued by Sega. It is a common matter to say that playing PS1 was like listening to rock while playing Dreamcast was like listening to jazz.