XBOX 360 GETS ANOTHER BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY UPDATE!

Football fans everywhere let out a massive cheer as Microsoft rolled out the latest Backwards Compatibility list for the Xbox 360 and at long last, ESPN NFL 2K5 made the list. That's right, the game that is, in my opinion, still the best football game out there is now playable on the Xbox 360.

Today's update list included quite a few other titles people have been pining for, I'm just overjoyed (as you can obviously tell) that at long last 2K5 has arrived on the 360. Now to wait for people to figure out how to transfer roster updates over…

While I'm waiting, why don't you check out the list of newly added Xbox BC titles below – enjoy!

2006 Fifa World Cup Germany
25 to Life
AMF Bowling 2004
Apex
Arena Football
Armed and Dangerous
Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance
Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu
Bionicle
Blade II
Blinx: The Timesweeper
Blitz: The League
Blood Omen 2
Blowout
Breakdown
Burnout 2: Point of Impact
Cabelas Dangerous Hunts 2
Championship Manager 2006
Colin McRae Rally 2005
Crime Life: Gang Wars
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2
Dungeons & Dragons Heroes
ESPN College Hoops 2k5
ESPN NFL 2k5
Fantastic 4
FIFA 06 Soccer
Fight Night: Round 3
Final Fight: Streetwise
Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone
Freedom Fighters
Freestyle Street Soccer
Future Tactics: The Uprising
Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee
Godzilla: Save the Earth
Goldeneye: Rogue Agent
Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball Max'd
High Heat MLB 2004
Hunter: The Reckoning
Indiana Jones And The Emperors Tomb
MLB Slugfest Loaded
MVP Baseball 2003
MVP Baseball 2004
Nascar Thunder 2002
Nascar Thunder 2003
NBA 2k3
NBA Ballers
NBA Inside Drive 2002
NBA Street V3
NCAA College Basketball 2k3
NCAA March Madness 2005
NCAA March Madness 2006
NFL 2k2
NFL 2k3
NHL 2005
NHL 2K3
NHL Hitz Pro
Nightcaster: Defeat The Darkness
NTRA Breeders Cup: World Thoroughbred Championships
Playboy: The Mansion
RLH: Hunt or be Hunted
Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown
Rocky
Rugby 2006
Shattered Union
Shrek Super Party
Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter
Starsky & Hutch
Syberia II
Techmo Classic Arcade
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Test Drive
The Bard's Tale
The Chronicles of Narnia The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
The Guy Game
The Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age
Thousand Land
Thrillville
Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers
Turok: Evolution
Van Helsing
WarPath
Worms 3D
Zathura

XBOX 360 BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY UPDATE

Microsoft has added another batch of original Xbox titles to the Xbox 360 Backwards Compatibility list. Here’s the list of what titles have either been added or updated this time around;

• America’s Army (New)
• Auto Modellista (New)
• Bass Pro Shops Trophy Hunter 2007 (New)
• Blinx 2 (New)
• Bloodrayne 2 (New)
• Burnout (New)
• Crash Bandicoot 4 (New)
• Crash Bandicoot 5: Wrath of Cortex (Updated)
• Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil (New)
• Drive to Survive (New)
• Drive to Survive (EM) (New)
• ESPN College Hoops (New)
• ESPN NHL 2K5 (New)
• Evil Dead Regeneration (New)
• Exaskeleton (New – Japan only)
• FIFA Street 2 (New)
• Full Spectrum Warrior: 10 Hammers (New)
• Guilty Gear XX #Reload (New)
• Harry Potter: And the Chamber of Secrets (New)
• Harry Potter: And the Prisoner of Azkaban (New)
• Hot Wheels: Stunt Track Challenge (New)
• Jet Set Radio Future (Updated)
• Justice League: Heroes (New)
• King Arthur (New)
• Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders (New – No Xbox Live Access)
• Magic: The Gathering: Battlegrounds (New)
• Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects (New)
• Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (New)
• Mech Assault 2 (New)
• MLB Slug Fest 2003 (New)
• Morrowind (New)
• MotoGP2 (New)
• Myst III: Exile (New)
• NBA Live 2002 (New)
• NCAA Football 06 (New)
• Nobunaga no Yabou Ranseiki (New – Japan only)
• Outlaw Golf 9 More Holes of X-mas (New)
• Outlaw Volleyball: Red Hot (New)
• Outrun 2 (New)
• Outrun 2006: Coast to Coast (New)
• Pac Man World 3 (New)
• Panzer Elite Action: Fields of Glory (New – EMEA only)
• Pro Cast Sports Fishing (New)
• Project Gotham Racing (New)
• Project Gotham Racing 2 (New)
• RoadKill (New – No Xbox Live Access)
• Rogue Ops (Updated)
• Sega GT 2002 (Updated)
• Sega GT Online (New)
• Shadow Ops (New)
• Showdown: Legends of Wrestling (New)
• Silent Hill 2: Dreams (New – US/EMEA only)
• Sponge Bob Square Pants: Lights, Camera, Pants! (New)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Melee (New)
• The DaVinci Code (New)
• The Sims 2 (New)
• The Urbz: Sims in the City (New)
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2X (New)
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 (New)
• Transworld Surf (New)
• Trivial Pursuit Unhinged (New)
• Winning Eleven 8 (New)
• Without Warning (New)
• WWE Raw (New)
• Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dawn of Destiny (New)

Unfortunately, ESPN NFL 2K5 is still waiting to join the ranks of the backwards compatible – I had been hoping with APF2K8 on the horizon that the ESPN Football franchise would see some BC love. Click here to see the full list of Xbox games playable on the Xbox 360.

Sorry if today’s posts seem a little short, but my internet connection was down until roughly 3:30am. As you can imagine, I’m now not only trying to get everything online at once, but I’m also tired as all hell. At least it gave me time to finish The Darkness. While I don’t have time to post a full review of the game at the moment, I will say this – The Darkness is a highly enjoyable game that’s bolstered by solid writing and excellent voice acting. If you take your time with the game, playing it the way you can see the developers meant for it to be played, you’ll find it’s going to take you on one hell of a ride.

(Editor’s note 4:37am – I’ve once again lost my internet connection – not sure what time any of today’s updates will get posted, so ignore any confusing references to time)

XBOX 360 BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY LIST UPDATED

Just as the kinder, gentler Peter Moore promised, 21 games were added to the Xbox 360 backwards compatibility list today. looking at the list, I can’t help but think that only a few of the games were actually meant to be on the list, and the rest just happened to work properly with the emulators they made. The games added today were;

4×4 EVO 2, Amped 2, Bad Boys 2, Big Mutha Truckers, DOOM 3, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, Fatal Frame, FlatOut, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Intellivision Lives, LEGO Star Wars, Minority Report, MLB SlugFest 2004, The Punisher, RalliSport Challenge, Silent Hill 4: The Room, Spawn Armageddon, Spider-Man, Star Wars Battlefront, State of Emergency and Zapper.

In addition to the B.C. update, there was also a minor 360 dashboard update today which dealt with issues stemming from Chinese language character support. Check out the full list of backwards compatible games here.

I don’t know about you, but I absolutely cannot wait to play Big Mutha Truckers next-gen style. Oh yeah. *sigh*

MOORE TO BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY: I’M SORRY!

Still stinging from the can of whoop ass Xbox 360 owners and his own employees opened on him when he declared that no one cared about backwards compatibility on the 360 anymore, Peter Moore made an appearance on Major Nelson’s most recent podcast to clear up… and backtrack on the matter. Moore stated that his comments regarding backwards compatibility were misconstrued and that he assures us that Microsoft does indeed care about playing original Xbox titles on the 360.

“I want to be clear that my comments were not about ‘nobody cares.’ Of course we care, and we’re going to continue to get as close as we can to our stated target of every Xbox game being back compatible to the Xbox 360.” -Peter Moore

The oh-so-contrite Moore also stated that the next long anticipated (and apparently) much desired backwards compatibility update should be hitting Live sometime next week and would add about 20 games to the current list of 360 playable titles. While he didn’t name all the games Microsoft will be adding, he did state that both Doom 3 and Lego Star Wars would be part of that group. I do hope that ESPN NFL2K5 made the list, but since I guess Electronic Arts would probably throw a fit if it did, I don’t think we’ll be seeing that happen anytime soon.

Now lets all remember that Moore has officially stated that they plan on continuing to try and make every Xbox game playable on the 360. Why? This way was can all share a chuckle as we watch and wait months and months for the next update after this one. If we’re lucky, we may even go so far as to get some shits and giggles out of it. Check out the Major’s podcast here.

Now that I think of it, I wonder if this whole thing pissed me off so much because it was an ex-Sega executive who was saying they were going to drop support for something… not that Sega ever did something like that before or anything. You know what I’m saying. 😉

PS3 BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY VIA PS2 HARDWARE?

IGN is reporting that Japan’s Ultra One magazine states that despite initial reports, Sony will be achieving backwards compatibility on the Playstation 3 via hardware rather than emulation. According to IGN, the magazine’s article states that each of the initial PS3 units will include the same combo CPU/Graphic chip that is currently found in the slimline PS2. Once Sony perfects the systems previously announced software based PS2 emulator, they would cut production costs by removing the chipset and simply adding the emulator to newer models of the PS3.

While this would certainly add to the cost to manufacture the system, it would also virtually guarantee complete backwards compatibility from the word go. By the same token however, it would also ensure that there would be little to no visual upgrade when playing PS2 games on the PS3. If you ask me, that’s a small price to pay.

The article also details a few other features of the Playstation 3, namely that there may be other, higher priced versions of the console in the works (ed- Sheesh!) and that based on IGN’s interpretation of the article, users will be able to swap out the PS3 hard drive using standard PC hard drives you can pick up in most stores.

“The PS3 comes equipped with, in addition to a default hard disk, a “large amount of flash memory,” the magazine reveals. This is used to house the operating system and all future system updates. Based on the wording in the magazine, it seems that the hard disk is to be used exclusively for multimedia content and will not contain any system features; users will, after all, be able to swap the built in hard drive out with any standard drive they pick up at a computer hardware store.” -IGN

While I’m left to wonder how much the price of the PS3 would drop without the inclusion of the PS2 combo chip, I can’t say that I’m against it. With a user-base and library as strong as the Playstation 2 has, it would be foolish to scrimp on backwards compatibility early on. (are you listening, Microsoft? hint, hint)

Check out the full IGN article here for all the juicy details I may have missed at 4:30 in the morning. *yawn*

GAMERSCORE BLOG TO MOORE: DROP DEAD

Microsoft’s in-house employee blog, Gamerscore Blog has posted an update on the status of the next backwards compatibility update due to the explosion of comments caused by Peter Moore’s recent comments on the importance, or rather lack thereof, of BC on the 360. According to the post, a large backwards compatibility update is currently in testing and should add “a few dozen titles” to the BC list. In what sounds like a direct response to Mr. Moore’s comments, the posting states;

““We know for a fact that there are lots of people who continue to care about backwards compatibility, including the “Emulation Ninjas” who are working full time on the updates. And those of us posting on this blog. And, of course, many of you.” -Gamerscore Blog

Nice to know at least someone at Microsoft isn’t suffering from delusions. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for NFL2K5, Mercenaries & a few other titles.

MOORE TO BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY: DROP DEAD

While we’re on the subject of corporate stupidity, Microsoft’s VP of Gaming, Peter Moore, just couldn’t let Sony bask in the warm glow of bad press alone. While giving the usual company lines about the future of the Xbox 360, the secret location of J Allard and the wonders of Live Anywhere in an interview with Kikizo Games, Moore essentially dropped the F-bomb on Xbox 360 backwards compatility.

“Nobody is concerned anymore about backwards compatibility. We under promised and over delivered on that. It’s a very complicated thing… very complex work. I’m just stunned that we have hundreds of games that are backwards compatible.

More are coming, but at some point, you just go, there’s enough, let’s move on, or people aren’t as worried about a game being backwards compatible – and I like to think we’ve upheld our end of the bargain in making at least two or maybe three hundred games backwards compat.” – Peter Moore

Now if three hundred games were actually backwards compatible that wouldn’t be that bad of a statement. But the current backwards compatibility list stands at 203 games, of which many do not work properly. I’d hardly call that over-delivering – especially when Microsoft has previously admitted that many of those titles are listed because they just happened to work with an emulator created for another game.

Tell you what Microsoft, you get Ninja Gaiden Black working, let me save in SSX3, add ESPN NFL2K5, Mercenaries and Soul Calibur II to the BC list and then maybe we can start talking about being done with BC. Click here for the Kikizo Games interview.