So, it’s been a whole month into 2022, and I haven’t written a word.  Work has been busy and the home life has been busy as well.  My wife is still recovering but getting better with each day.  It’s a marvel really what pneumonia has done to her, even more so than the actual COVID itself.  But we are surviving and moving forward which is fantastic.

Anyway, on to some site news.  So the bill came due for my website hosting this past month.  I pay for every 3 years and then of course I pay a domain renewal every year.  The good news since you are reading this, I paid my bill.  I will admit however, there was some pause this year due to everything going on and the extra money would have helped even if I do set it aside in the ole budget.  I can’t guarantee that come 2025 I will keep going unless some things really change.  I love having my own website, but let’s face facts…the pandemic (I take full blame but the timing is uncanny) has taken a big ole crap on my creative strain and I spend most of my time taking care of my family, not searching for new content.

What am I doing with my time, well watching wise I am watching a few tv shows including Peacemaker (fantastic so far) and finishing up season 5 of Endeavour (I know I’m two seasons behind) along with whatever movie the missus and me decide to throw on. Oh and the usual dose of pretty much anything that’s on Discovery+ except for those really bad reality shows (I’m sorry, I can’t get behind 600+ lb life or east la hollywood wives or whatever that garbage is).  But if its Cooking Related (Alex vs America is great or anything with Guy Fieri), True Crime or the Paranormal, I’m all about it.  Though to be fair, my wife just makes fun of me when I watch the Ghost shows so those tend to be at a minimum.

Books, I am currently reading Legends of the Dragonrealm Vol. 1 by Richard Knaak and have finished the first two books in that anthology.  I should be done with that tomb by mid February.  I’ve enjoyed it a lot but honestly I think I like the Turning War trilogy a little better than these three books here.  In gaming, I am currently playing Lego: Pirates of the Caribbean (almost done with the second film) and Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart (point and click from Artifex Mundi).  There was an announcement about a week ago that Nightmares from the Deep was delisted, and while I wasn’t worried about my copy suddenly disappearing, I was concerned about me forgetting about it.  So rather than let it get swallowed up by the backlog monster, I decided to just go ahead and start it.  It’s okay, but there is nothing unexpected as of yet.  It actually seems to be one of the easier Artifex titles.  But I’ll shut up in case it starts getting a lot harder.

I also am still playing Hades even though I royally suck at the game.  Something like 70 escapes and I’ve only beaten Hades twice.  But I’m making my way through the story and actually have over half of the achievements.  I also am trying to finish Murdered: Soul Suspect though I think I missed a collectible so I got to go back and figure out what that is before I finish it out because I’m right before the last major part (aka the point of no return).  So it’s now or never and I really don’t want to play the game again.  In January, I did a bit of backtracking as well and finished up the remaining achievements for Scott Pilgrim (both 360 and Xbox One versions) as well as the first Sam and Max game.  I also played a game on my X1 called Omno which required some good hands in order to make it through the various sections.  But I finished it and didn’t miss anything.  Though I start to wonder at my age is if these type of games will start to allude me.  I already play a lot of games that require more thinking than any sort of quick reflexes.  Though I do play a ton of beat em ups still but let’s face facts, those games were never really are that hard for me.  I dunno, I just see how frustrated I got with Omno (though I never quit), and wonder.

I do need to do a little more with this site and figure out a theme going forward.  Whether it’s reviewing a game every couple of weeks or perhaps review 2 films a month and a game while I am providing news about what is going on.  So let’s do this.  Starting this month, I will review at least one game and 2 movies (blu-rays) a month starting this month here in February.  Then usually what happens is other things spawn from that.  The problem is I don’t really want to review Lego: POTC or Nightmares from the Deep, lol.  I’ll figure it out, and there should be more content soon.  Enjoy.

It’s been a rough month and a half on the ole household.  Arguably the worst Thanksgiving I’ve ever had (even surpassing the one where I ate Chinese with my mom and dad in a very cramped one bedroom apartment in the middle of Houston).  Not so much for the Thanksgiving itself, but for what went on directly after Thanksgiving which was 100% attributable to the occasion.

My wife, mother in-law, and father-in-law all caught some form of COVID.  I was spared because I got jabbed (due to my work requirements).  My son did catch it as well but he shook it off like nobody’s business (that kid is a freaking tank).  My wife easily had the worst of it, spending ten days at the local hospital.  She was home for Christmas, but she is still having major issues, just less of them as she continues to improve.

While my wife was fighting for her health, I was busy trying to juggle a full time job and take care of my son who is not nearly old enough to take care of himself.  Oh, and clean/wash a few things so the house wasn’t a total pigsty.  I sorta succeeded on the last one.  At least I bathed the kid on a regular basis, lol.  I can laugh about it now to some degree but it was extremely stressful.  Mostly I am worried about my wonderful wife who used to run circles around my old and middle-aged self.  That’s not the case anymore, and I feel horrible about it.  Of course, I help her (and my son with what he needs) as much as possible.

Now, I have to worry about the incoming bills despite being insured (don’t worry, the site’s not going anywhere, I need this outlet) and keep my job at the same time so I can take care of my family financially.  It drives me bonkers on most nights and rather than play a game or watch an interesting movie, I tend to stare at the tv, watch Discovery+, Peacock or maybe some wrestling but nothing that requires brain power as it were.  I don’t even find any interest in my book.  Of course, it could have to do with the fact that the book I read during this crisis was the biggest piece of woke garbage I had read in quite sometime, but I digress.

I still struggle with the fact that outside of a few scattered reviews, I don’t really write creatively anymore.  I can’t really call this “creative”, since all I’m doing is passing along the events as they happened.  It’s writing, but nothing more than an exercise to make me feel better and gets words onto a page.  It really is a form of therapy for me even if no one ever quite responds.

That’s really it for right now.  I do have another article to write for this site involving the game Time Pilot which deals more with backwards compatibility and really isn’t part of “THIS”.  I’m not going to end this article with any sort of sappy thing like “Go Get a Shot”, because up until several months ago I was against it and still believe in free will of the individual.  I have zero ill feelings towards my wife and only wish for her to get better.  I need my wife for her warmth, love, and also selfishly for my sanity (which is a fragile thing).  We’ll try to keep it upbeat for the New Year and know that 2022 will be a much better year.  Enjoy.

So….we had a major drop this week in terms of backwards compatibility.  76 games in all including Xbox 360 games, Xbox Original, Games that were Physical releases, digital releases and everything in between.  The full list from just Monday is below with notes regarding their physical and digital (with pricing) status.  I also updated the main list which is right here.  – Main List

There are a lot of great games here, most of which I would have never expected.  Binary Domain, the FEAR series, the Max Payne series, a couple of Mortal Kombats, NIER, Risen 1 & 2, Sacred 2, more Star Wars Games, Timesplitters, and One freaking chanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad.  Yes I own that.

Outpost Kaloki X which was a ridiculous fun little strategy game is on the list.  If you were paying attention to me during my numerous articles back when weekly BC adds were a thing, I stressed that you should have already bought a copy of Xbox Arcade: Volume 1 Unplugged on disc.  It’s cheap, goes for $5 to $10 and there were already 4 BC games (Hardwood Backgammon, Geometry Wars, Bejeweled 2, and Texas Hold Em) on this thing.  Well here is one more, tested it on Monday and it has no issues at all.  Now if I can just remember how to play the darn thing, I’d be set.

I always told myself I would get around to playing games like Conan (on sale for $5.99 at the Xbox Store this week btw), Max Payne 3 (remember this one has a ton of FREE DLC) and NIER all of which have been on my backlog longer than some of you have had your driver’s license.  Well I no longer have an excuse.  I might be adding a few more as well with the likes of The First Templar, Risen, and a 50 Cent game of all things.  I had to also laugh and chuckle at RAW – Realms of Ancient War which has been on sale about 20 times and how many times I passed over it because I didn’t think it would be BC.  I was wrong.

However, I would be amiss if I didn’t mention some of the bad from this drop.  There is no Saboteur, no Gun, no Two Worlds, no Risen 3 (which seems a bit odd considering 1 & 2 made it through).  Certainly there are titles missing that would have been nice.  I mean, were people really clamoring for Chicken Little and Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?  But BC has always been full of questionable choices.

Second, not everything works.  I’m having a problem with TimePilot right now.  It shows that I own it on the Xbox Marketplace page (and I certainly remember buying and playing it), but wants me to pony up the $5 on my Xbox One.  I even tried installing it from my app on my phone and then when I try to start it, it’s looking for a license.  I have contacted Xbox Support on that one and still waiting for an answer. I’ve heard that Elements of Destruction and Warlords have had similar issues.

Screwjumper! is on the list and was previously only available digitally.  But now, it’s not even available which means only people who bought it previously will get to replay it.  If you are into TrueAchievements stats, that’s a grand total of 236 people on that service who have played it.  Not a whole heck of a lot.  Also there was an announcement earlier this week that the Skate 2 online servers would be closing.  That is such an Electronic Arts announcement if I ever heard one.  The Max Payne 3 servers also closed in September which is when I pretty much gave up on the game and basically discontinued half of the achievements.   So much for new players discovering that one.

Overall, I realize I am nitpicking just a tiny bit.  But then, this is what I lived and breathed for years and it was nice really to just reflect on this wonderful thing we call Backwards Compatibility.  It also made me sad because it’s also been confirmed by numerous sources that this is the LAST DROP.  Out with one big push and then we are done, back to work on other things.  Anyway, take a look at the list, I tried to provide as much information as possible and hopefully you’ll find as much enjoyment as I did writing about it.  Take care and enjoy.

(if you are ready this thru the summary, please click the continue Reading link for the full table)

Continue reading “Xbox Backwards Compatibility News for November” →

About 2 1/2 years ago, I wrote about the final batch of 360 and original Xbox games going backwards compatible. I thought I had closed down that chapter of this site and that’s when the site started changing into more of a blog and review site. I wasn’t bagging out weekly reports anymore, and honestly content has never quite been the same despite my efforts otherwise.

Well, October was an interesting month for backwards compatibility. There were a couple of articles that I am linking here for you to read about.

Strange MS Store activity could suggest new backwards compatible OG Xbox games

A lot of news to absorb here, the first being that we should be getting actual official news on new titles in November, just a few days away. The second being that titles from OG games are popping up on the Xbox store which usually is an indicator that they will become BC.

Dead or Alive 3, Dead or Alive Ultimate, Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers, Gladius, Gunvalkyrie, Advent Rising, and Chicken Little were found in the MS Store in their original form as placeholders which used to be a sign that BC was coming for those titles.

The Dead or Alive games are always exciting (outside of the obvious male reasoning) but Gladius was an interesting tactical rpg that I will certainly look into.  Advent Rising and Gunvalkyrie were third person shooters that probably don’t get a lot of love but are worth looking into.  The two least worthy titles are probably Full Spectrum Warrior and well, Chicken Little.  Chicken Little could very well be just a red-herring and that Xbox was testing something.  Hopefully the others are legit.

And then this article today:

Two more Xbox 360 titles spotted on Microsoft Store with backwards compatibility IDs 

The first game mentioned was The First Templar, a hack and slash adventure that from the looks of it was a decent amount of fun and even had a piece of DLC in the Arena.  It is available both digitally ($14.99) as well as physically (an used copy should run you about $10).  As someone who plays a LOT of hack and slash, I’m really surprised I haven’t at least given it a try.

The second game is Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?  which I hope is something of a joke.  Not that I don’t support all BC because I do…but come on.  It’s not available digitally at the moment and physical copies vary wildly in price from $10 to $25 and higher.  Are people really paying rare prices for Jeff Foxworthy gameshow adaptations?  Anyway, I’ll probably try to grab First Templar at some point.

Hopefully this is a continuing trend and I am excited about the potential come November.  While most would agree that these are some odd titles, I don’t expect the actual releases to be all that mainstream.  All of the truly mainstream and sought after titles are already backwards compatible.  I mean, sure I am still wishing for Saboteur, Max Payne 3, Gun, or the Two Worlds games, but at this point of the game I would be just happy for a new batch of titles to discuss.  Stay tuned as I will certainly follow this and report as soon as I know more.  Take care and enjoy.

I am starting to get back in the groove of things. I want to write again and while it’s probably not where it was say a year ago at this time, but I’m trying to realize that writing only helps my mood. When I don’t write, my depression kicks into high gear and I’m really a bother to about everyone I care about. I know it seems silly, but it’s the absolute truth.

That aside, I should be doing a review for the remastered blu-ray set of Superman: The Animated Series soon. I reviewed the dvd set about 10 years ago and while some of my old comments will carry over, presentation and extras will need to be re-evaluated. Most people know I am way more of a Batman guy, but even I will admit that the Superman Animated Series was very well done. Furthermore, this will be my first introduction of the series to my son who loves just about anything that’s superhero related. So that alone will be the worth the effort I put into it.

Other news, I dropped Hulu recently (my son wasn’t happy but he has plenty to watch) due to the loss of the Food Network, ID, and other networks. I naturally subscribed to Discovery+ which became their own streaming service. It probably didn’t help that Hulu raised their prices as well. So far, so good on the service, it has a huge selection of material (I did not realize BBC and Animal Planet also have material on the service) and I’m only have a minor issue with some of the subtitling. But no longer am I subject to the random seasons that Hulu seemed to have of my favorite shows.

On to video games, and the last couple of months I’ve been going back and visiting older games that I never completed. We aren’t talking AAA titles here, but remasters like the Dig Dug series or Sega Vintage Collection: Golden Axe which I were able to complete after all of this time. I finally beat the heart on Slay the Spire with the Watcher which was the last class I had not done it with. (Was quite proud of that victory). I even went back to Ziggurat, had a successful run and knocked down three more achievements.

However, a couple of those games that I did go back and visits did not wield any success as I tried Crysis 3 again only to fully realize what my trouble was six years ago when I played it last. I basically suck at any first person shooter not named Doom and Wolfenstein but never seem to learn from my mistakes. I also went back and tried the remaster of Galaga and while I did net one more achievement, the challenge stages are much too difficult to 100% as they require a ton of repetitive button mashing (something I was never really good at). So back those two titles went to probably not be seen again for a few years (at least in the case of Galaga, Crysis 3 I am probably done with).

As to what I’m playing now? A combination of two games for the most part. I am playing a game I’m sure a lot of people recognize in Hades which is my current rogue-lite game of choice. I’m not sure if I would put it in the elite company of Slay the Spire and Ziggurat but it is a great deal of fun and I did finally beat it for the first time very recently. I am not consistently winning yet (in fact I still have only won once), but I am getting to Styx a lot even with weapons that I was having trouble with initially. While I am nowhere near the level of player that I have seen on Twitch doing these runs, I am having fun with it which is what’s important.

The second game I am getting through is a game I finally started earlier this year in Murdered: Soul Suspect. I mean the game is seven years old at this point but it does take a bit of dedication and persistence to find all of the collectibles which in my opinion is the game’s only major flaw. I have found 179 collectibles I believe and I just started the museum. I realize I am in the home stretch of the game and hope to complete it by Thanksgiving. A younger Michael would probably go back and play it again on 360 but I have way more things to play. The only game I really am double boxing at the moment is Scott Pilgrim which calls back to my River City Ransom roots.

Anyway, we’ll cut it there for today. Expect to see more of me as I ramp back up my writing/blogging and get out of my funk. It’s better for everyone involved. Enjoy.

It’s been two months since I last posted anything on this site. It came down to one very simple reason, and something I wasn’t sure I would be comfortable sharing on this site. It’s personal after all and while I do talk about some personal things on here, I should be sharing anecdotes about films, video games and music. While I have done all those things in the last two months, there is nothing I really feel like sharing about it, at least not yet.
Continue reading “Musings and Nonsense for October 6th, 2021” →