Welp, it’s your favorite backwards compatibility guy back with another week of deals.  Actually, am I not the only BC guy…I mean the only one who deals with just that and nothing else.  Anyway, this week I’m operating from a remote location so links will be a little slow this week.  But come on, don’t you know how to use Xbox.com by now.  There is a fair amount this week to look at but it does feel like dejavu since Activision often has sales.  Enjoy!

• Call of Duty: Black Ops $14.99 (really?…you can buy a card off Ebay for less than $10)
• Capcom Arcade Cabinet: All in One Cabinet $6.24 (if you were smart enough to purchase the base three weeks ago, you were rewarded this week)
• Gears of War $4.94
• Gears of War 2 $6.59
• Gears of War 2: All Fronts Collection $4.99
• Gears of War 3 $6.59
• Gears of War 3 $9.89 (they don’t learn, for old games the DLC should be the same as the base game or lower)
• Gears of War Judgment $6.59
• Gears of War Judgment VIP Pass $9.99(and again)

Even though most people will write this one off (I almost did), Joust is important for BC purposes. I actually had to go check on TrueAchievements and see if I had even played it.  Well, about 9 years ago, I did.  LOL.  So, yeah I’ve got a digital copy and I will benefit from this.  Achievements are pretty nuts too, and I don’t expect to see myself spending too much time with it.  But…this serves two purposes.  1)This is a delisted game.  True, the assets were scooped up by Warner Bros, but this might give hope to other Midway games making it to 360 BC (Stranglehold, I’m looking at you).  2)This might or might not play if you insert Midway Arcade Origins in your Xbox One, a compilation 360 title that was released in 2012.  I’ve played that one as well and the only reason it might not load is that Midway Arcade Origins had its own set of achievements, therefore it might considered a separate game.  Anyway, I’ll include a brief update later when I’ve tried the Midway Origins disc.  I’ll give it a 25% shot.  Later.

Friday morning edit:  Midway Arcade Origins will not load Joust in your Xbox One.  Tried it last night and welp, sorry.  Didn’t think it would because of the different achievements, but I tried.

Well, it was coming this week, just wasn’t sure which day and that’s the announcement of Games with Gold.  It’s really good for the first part of the month, but kinda disappointing for the later.  The best news is that this means one more game for Backwards Compatibility in Forza Horizon.  Earthlock for the Xbox One is certainly my biggest interest and an automatic download.  I wish I was better at racing games not named Burnout but still happy about the games for September.  Enjoy.

Xbox One

Earthlock: Festival of Magic – September 1st-30th

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China  – September 16th – October 15th

Xbox 360 (BC with the One)

Forza Horizon – September 1st-15th

Mirror’s Edge – September 16th – 30th

Personally, I think some people really need a heavy dose of help.  Call of Duty fans should be pretty freaking happy today but yet all some of them can say is where is my Black Ops 2?  I get the where is Bioshock (still supposedly coming despite the Collection release for Xbox One) or where is the Dragon Ages or even Skate 3.  But Call of Duty fans, you have the original Black Ops and COD 2 as of today.  Shut up and sit down, seriously.  But for the rest of you normal folk, it should be pointed out that this is another retail release.  It feels a little slow (but it’s probably not), but this is coming along.  Enjoy folks.

The deals with gold are suffering from a severe case of deja-vu.  Well, at least the Xbox 360 portion which sees titles we are very familiar with from the last 6 months.  The good news is that if you missed Faery or Mars or SSX before, you are in luck.  The bad news is if you were expecting something different, well I don’t have much for you.  I will also say that RAW (which I’m close to pulling the trigger on) and Skate 3 should hit BC fairly soon.  In addition, I still hold a pretty good possibility that Bound by Flame will as well since it is a Spiders title.  Though, I bought a sealed copy for $10 not too long ago and asked Spiders through their Twitter page if it was coming to backwards compatibility.  I never got a response :(.  Anyway, enjoy your week.  We’ll see what happens.

• Faery: Legends of Avalon $1.49
• Mars: War Logs $2.49
• SSX $6.59

They keep coming with these odd releases.    This is not the normal Bomberman Live with which most of us include myself are familiar with.  This is actually the sequel and goes for $9.99 and keeps a lot of what we love that is Bomberman (Lots of bombs, mayhem and powerups).  It does also have three DLC packs as well (with achievements) for those who care about such things for $2.99 a piece.  A sale I could see myself buying it fairly quickly.  As it stands right now, this would be a $19 investment….I’ll pass but good for those who already have it.  Enjoy.

This would be one of those weeks that you can skip, call it a hunch.   In fact, there is only one deal for BC fans (well besides Beyond Good & Evil HD does go free with GWG today) and that’s a game you really should be snagging the GOTY copy instead (and at the same price). Anyway, I’m more interested in the fact that WWE 2k16 also goes free for X1 owners and is currently downloading on my own X1.  That sucker is 42 gigs by the way, so it will be a while.  On other sales, I might pick up Blue Estate (since it looks to be my kind of crass humor) but achievements look borderline ridiculous.  Anyway, have fun and we’ll see what this week brings.

• Red Dead Redemption $19.49 (really bad sale)

In what could be described as a surprising but great announcement, we now have support on three Xbox 360 games (Dirt 3, Dirt Showdown and Grid 2) that support the Xbox One wheels when played on Xbox One.  I’ve always fancied myself to get one of those, but alas the only racing games that really ever interest me are the Burnout series.  But this announcement is perhaps more important as Microsoft might be able to support other Xbox One peripherals down the road for other BC titles.  We shall see.  Take care and have a great weekend.

In the land of I didn’t know that game existed nevermind a freaking sequel was made, Shank 2 is added to Backwards compatibility. 

Shank 2 – Normally $9.99, this looks to be a pretty fun beat-em-up.  It looks like a cross between Rush N Attack and Metal Slug.  The original game isn’t supposedly half bad either (but not BC).  Achievements look semi-difficult honestly.  I would be more than willing to give this a try, but will probably wait for a sale.  And I’m one of those people who would want to play the first one too.  Anyway, that’s our BC for today.  Enjoy.

This one was kinda expected, it was just a matter of timing.  Here are my thoughts:

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon  – $14.99 (occasionally has sales), I played the trial quite a bit but never bit on it.  It’s hilarious, in fact it is one of the funniest games I have ever played.  But it’s 100% Far Cry, meaning once you get past the funny, the game is extremely hard.  Pin point accuracy is a must and things get difficult quick.  My advice is that if you are still itching to play it, wait for a sale or buy the compilation disc.  The compilation disc will probably be made all BC compatible at some point and at $15 used is quite the bargain.