Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Trying to Beat Ghost of Tsushima (PS4)

Posted on by Viljami

I have recently spent some hours playing Ghost of Tsushima on PS4. This game is actually a PlayStation exclusive game. It is also available for PC through Steam. Ghost of Tsushima was originally released in 2021. There is also a “Director’s Cut” version available that is a bit newer release.

To this day I haven’t bought PS5. This wasn’t actually a decision from me. I just happened to pick Xbox Series X instead of PS5. I have thought about buying a PS5 but really haven’t. And now when game console prices are very high I don’t feel like spending hundreds of euros to buy another console. And of course I have to say that I don’t have any room left in my gaming setup for a PS5.

So, I am playing some video games still on my PS4. Ghost of Tsushima is a great PS4 game. I have some games that I would very much like to play on PS4 but haven’t just had enough time. I have played Ghost of Tsushima for about 17 hours. The game takes about 25 hours to beat. It didn’t cost a whole lot. I bought it for 20 euros as a used copy from a local gaming shop.

I have been thinking about a topic that I would very much like to write some more about. That topic is buying and selling used video games. I think that at here in Finland we have a bit under ten gaming web shops that have been functional for several years. There is clearly a market here for used video games. I have thought about writing a whole blog post about this. I would also like to write about abandonware and copyrights. Maybe I’ll write a post about this later. Lets see and find out.

While Ghost of Tsushima offers some challenge it isn’t a brutally difficult game to play. There are also some difficulty adjustments that can give you some challenge if you need some. Also I think there is some replay value here if you want to play the game through with a higher difficulty level over again after you have beaten the game on a lower difficulty level. The story is very nice to follow. Also the scenery and the characters are interesting and can keep you concentrated while you advance through the game.

I did buy my PS4 back in 2014. I have to give some props for Sony for releasing such a good quality gaming console. I haven’t had any issues with the console. I did upgrade the storage HDD from a 500 GB to 2 TB HDD back in the day. I had to make this upgrade since 500 GB is such a low space for video games today. This operation was easy. I really don’t remember how much this HDD did cost. It wasn’t an expensive upgrade after all.

So, Ghost of Tsushima offers you melee and also some ranged fighting action. You also get to take down enemies in a sort of a stealth mode. There is a lot of strategy to consider in this game. The main character keeps getting some upgrades and you can unlock some special moves while you keep progressing in the game. The story is also an interesting one. You actually appear in this game as a samurai soldier. So, there are also some dialogs and you even have to make some choices while having these conversations between the characters.

I would prefer playing this game with a PS5 instead of a PS4. I prefer also playing video games from a sharp television screen while sitting on a sofa instead of sitting really close to the screen playing on a table of some sort. I am talking about PC gaming and that I don’t like it as much as console gaming. This can be a matter of taste and not so much something that I would like to have a debate on.

I have bought some more games. I hope to be able, soon, to write some more about my achievements in this matter. I am still waiting to get my hands on the new Onimusha gmae that was released last Friday. The new Metal Gear collection is also waiting for me on the list of what to play next. See you in another blog post. Lets hope that this will be sometime soon!

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.

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.