More Xbox Titles Added to 360 List

Eurogamer reports that Microsoft will be adding more titles to its list of backwards compatible games. From the article: "Microsoft has made a minor update to the Xbox 360 backwards compatibility list, adding patches to allow three new titles to run on the new console - namely Black, Star Wars Battlefront II, and Winning Eleven 9. The update, which is the first change to the list of backwards compatible titles in several months, also fixes issues with a number of games which previously worked with the Xbox 360 but had bugs in the compatibility code, including Ninja Gaiden, Fable, Half-Life 2 and GTA San Andreas."

KOTOR, KOTOR II are lumpy on 360...

[otis wildflower]

... At least when I tried them, there were pretty constant hiccups in camera movement and pauses when trying to do real-time style combat.. Halo 2 is pretty tight though, even in splitscreen.

I was thinking of getting a 360 to play XBL Call of Duty with the nephews, but they'll have to live with Halo 2 until I get a HD 1080p set..

Re:I miss real backwards compatibility

[wampus]

Given the radically different architecture between the two consoles, I think it is damn impressive that they were able to achieve the number of titles that do play on the 360.

Would you rather see an Xbox 360 that is nothing more than a faster Intel CPU with a faster Nvidia GPU and more RAM? It may hurt a bit at first to break full backwards compatibility, but you can't drag your legacy stuff along indefinitely, eventually the cruft builds up. I'd like to think that MS learned this lesson with Windows.

Re:SSX3

[Osty]

I also see they updated Forza, which had some minor slowdowns, and when racing at 150 mph, that did not help my already questioable racing skills.

The only slowdown I saw on Forza prior to this update was when I raced in an in-car view with the rearview mirror turned on (which is how I race, so it happened all the time). Turning off the rearview mirror removed all of the slowdown issues I had. This update fixed the issue so now I can race with my rearview mirror turned back on, but the game was definitely playable before. You just to be OCD about looking behind you since you had no rearview mirror.

Still missing the bets

[fahrvergnugen]

Still missing, the two best titles on the console:
Psychonauts
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath

Damn.

Re:You know you're in trouble when...

[SilentChris]

I'm going to put this nicely. You're an idiot.

MS decided to go with emulation because the hardware alternative (sticking an Intel chipset and nVidia graphics core) was unpalatable. It's the exact same technique Revolution is going to use to emulate 20-year old consoles, and Sony will likely do the same thing.

There's no way to get an emulator completely right the first try. Period. End of story. There's always going to be an instruction here or a game there that doesn't work the way it should. Emulators need updates. Why do you think the NES emulation scene, for example, still releases updates for palattes?

Software emulation is the best solution to get older games to play without spending the extra money to include older hardware. Software updates are the best way to keep those emulators up to snuff.

In the case of the Xbox 360, the updates are completely seamless. You start the machine up, it says it needs an update, it installs it, you get back to gaming. Nintendo will likely do the same thing.

If the choice is between that and having a buggy emulator (remember, no such thing as a perfect emulator when it's released) or driving up the price of the console, I'll take the seamless updates, thanks.

Re:I miss real backwards compatibility

[drewmca]

Like on the old Nintendo and Sega systems? Oh right, they weren't BC.

Backwards compatibility is a relatively new idea with gaming consoles. The only major system to have done it before now was PS2 with PS1. So there really weren't ever any good ol' days for this feature.

I hate to say it but...

[Hamster Lover]

I was extremely confident that Microsoft could pull a rabbit out of the hat and that the 360 would offer, at the very least, workable compatibility for their "A" list of games. As anyone can tell you, most of the "compatible" games are barely so and some listed as compatible just aren't. There are a handful of games that are playable, notably Halo 2, but the level of compatibility for some games, such as Ninja Gaiden, is so bad that they're basically unplayable. In time Microsoft will probably get the compatibility up, but there are going to be some games that will never be compatible regardless of Microsoft's commitment to do so.

I hate to say it, but if you're going to buy a 360 based in part on the ability to play existing Xbox games as I was, hold off, because it just ain't there yet. Those without an Xbox and waiting for the 360 to come down in price should really check out the existing Xbox, which currently sells for as little as $177 Canadian with two games.