Intensive Gaming Diary

The blog about videogames.

Category: 2000s

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.

What Has Burnout Paradise (Remastered) to Offer?

Posted on by Viljami

Burnout Paradise was first released back in 2008 for PS3, Xbox 360 and Windows/PC. This isn’t for me an introduction to this game. I haven’t yet finished it but I do have it for PS3. I also have a digital copy of the remastered version of Burnout Paradise on my Xbox Series X. I decided to purchase this game once more and this time for Nintendo Switch. I am playing this game on my fresh and still shiny Switch 2.

This game is something that I like to play on my Switch 2. The game offers a large open-world area of roads and intersections to explore. The map is large but compared to some newer open-world exploration games it might already seem to be a bit small. The gameplay concentrates on different events and objectives. All in all there is a lot to explore. The game is said to have content for about eleven hours.

While we are talking about Burnout series I have to mention a very good game that also belongs to this series. That game is Burnout  3 – Takedown. That is a very good racing game that was released for PS2 and Xbox in 2004. If you like Burnout Paradise you probably like Takedown too. And you can also say that if you like Takedown you will like Burnout Paradise also.

I purchased a while ago a new game that is optimized for Switch 2 or you could say that it was released as a Switch 2 game. That game is Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 + 4. I did play some hours but the gameplay just seemed to build so much around trying to hit a perfect combo of tricks that I decided to have a break in playing the game. There is a lot to explore and you should give some time for the game to also be explored. I also don’t have so much nostalgic feelings on THPS 3 and 4 as I do have against the first two games of the series.

We are still going to have to wait for some new games to be released for Switch 2. The new Donkey Kong game might relieve this matter a bit. Donkey Kong Bananza is already available for Nintendo Switch. Some titles that I am personally waiting to be released are the new Metroid Prime game and Hades 2. The first Hades game was very nice action roleplaying game. I had some fun playing it about a year ago. I played it on my Xbox Series X:

While waiting for some new games you can actually play some a bit older games that were originally released for the first Switch console. Burnout Paradise Remastered can be one such game. Since I already have owned a Nintendo Switch console for several years already I actually own many good games that are backwards compatible with Switch 2. Burnout Paradise Remastered might not be a game that is widely available at least when you are talking about the actual physical copy of the game.

All-in-all I can recommend Burnout Paradise Remastered for someone who likes racing games. I definitely recommend it if you already have some experience about other games in the series. I don’t recommend this game if you totally hate open-world games. The game offers steady and exciting racing and lots of achievements and objectives to get into.

Burnout Paradise might not be as nice as a video game as Burnout Takedown was. I think it takes a steady second place if we compare different games in this whole series. I am definitely going to play it some more while I am waiting for some new Switch 2 games to be released,

As you can see from this picture there is a very nice weather here in Finland today. I really appreciate these sunny days. We don’t have these kinds of days all the time in here.

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.