Welp, Super Bowl Sunday brought us lots of things like a boring Super Bowl, lots of stomach aches and backwards compatibility on a few unexpected games. Here is the story that basically sums up what happened and the fallout that occurred. Basically, if you owned the games in some form or fashion (digital or disc), you could have gone ahead and played certain games well ahead of their release window for backwards compatibility. I tested this personally on both Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (via the follow method), and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Konami Classics Volume 1) and was able to download both (and get to a boot up screen). Supposedly if I try to play either one from today going forward I will go into an offline mode. I have some hopes that everybody forgot about Symphony of the Night being a part of a compilation disc and I might have that for a bit longer. The point here is though that Red Dead Redemption, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Halo Wars, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, and Left 4 Dead 2 (another one I heard) will soon be OFFICIALLY backwards compatible. If they leaked it, accidentally or not, it means it is in the final stages of testing. Give it two weeks and everybody will be able to play it. We will make updates to the spreadsheet and put them up as tentative waiting the official announcement.
By the way, I did want to give a quick update but I went ahead and downloaded Peggle digitally since I could not find my Plants vs Zombies disc. Honestly, I have no idea where it is and I’ve been through about a dozen boxes in the last week to try and find it. I am also missing the two Lego Harry Potters which make me think I might have sold it. In the event it does turn up, I’ll just put it up for sale since I also have PvsZ digitally due to Games for Gold and I’ll never play Zuma. But it runs beautifully on Xbox One (no surprise), and loading times are a lot quicker. I ran through about 10-12 stages with no issues.
Also, even though I primarily talk about Xbox 360 BC Games, I do want to give mention to a Xbox One game that might get overlooked by a lot of people because its not a major retail release. That game is named Fortified and its a tower defense game where you play one of four classes (Captain, Rocket Scientist, Agent and Spaceman) in an attempt 1950’s sci-fi style to fight off a bunch of aliens. Basically, you have structures (and unlock upgrades as you progress in levels) and place them based on available money in the level. After that point, you control one of the four classes and then fight off wave after wave of the aliens. While your character has a lot of firepower, this game does depend on knowing which structures to use and where to put them in order to keep the pressure off your character and most importantly, the base with the rocket. if I have time, I might put together a quick review, but its well worth the digital Xbox money.
Anyway, that’s my quick rant and weekend. The game/movie room is coming along nicely, Xbox One, 360, original and PS2 games are all on display along with my movies. Hopefully once I get a little bit of more storage (the movers kinda shattered some of my bookcases), I’ll be able to take a couple of pictures for wide consumption (still have a lot of books on the floor and older systems still in the boxes). Enjoy kiddoes.
