Welp, we knew it was going to happen this week, and there were rumors that it might be Red Dead Redemption (which were of course wrong, especially with a sale this week), but this June’s selection for Games with Gold is pretty good for the later part of the month.  Trust me, nobody really cares (over the age of 12) about Goat Simulator or Super Meat Boy.  The most important thing here?  XCOM!  XCOM!  F’ing X-Com.  1 of the 2 games that I have been wishing most for (other being Skyrim of course) is coming to BC.  I am not sure what that means for Enemy Within but you have to think it can’t be too far behind.  The only question that remains is whether they wait until the 16th or start the BC sooner.  Hopefully the later.  Great day kids, great day.

There are a ton of deals this week and that actually includes some backwards compatible titles.  I spent my entire week last week playing Project Spark.  Playing is probably not the right word, participating would be a better choice.  Anyway, I’m now well over 1,000 gs in the game and while I know I won’t get all of the achievements, I am aiming for level 50 (currently level 26) by August.  Truth be told, a week in and I remember why I stopped playing, it’s only enjoyable in short spurts.  It’s more fun to mess with creations that others make and that’s slowed down to a trickle for the most part due to the inevitable closure.  I miss Borderlands 2.

Anyway, without further adieu, we will jump right into the deals.  On the X1 side, I’m only really interested in Rogue Legacy (though Golf Club is pretty darn good for those looking for a very realistic interpretation of Golf).  On the Xbox 360 side, there is tons to be interested in.  There was a rumor late last week that Red Dead and Bioshock Infinite would be the GWG choices for next month (and thus giving us backwards compatibility on both titles).  Well both of them are on sale this week so that dispenses with that rumor.  I could very well be tempted to buy a few of these if they are made BC this week including the Saints Rows and Asura’s Wrath.  Oh and it’s nice to see Puzzle Quest 1 (and the DLC) and 2.  Those games are a steal at that price.  I’ve beaten them both to death and don’t regret a minute of it.  On a final note, let’s hope that Oblivion and Skyrim pull a sale/BC moment.  That would be epic.  Anyway, have a good week, hopefully something catches your eye this time around.

BC Sales for this Week

• Borderlands $6.59
• Dark Souls $4.99
• Dark Souls DLC – Artorias of the Abyss $7.49
• Fallout 3 $7.49
• Lego: Pirates of the Caribbean $4.99
• Mirror’s Edge $4.49
• NBA Jam: On Fire Edition $4.94
• South Park: The Stick of Truth $9.99
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2 $9.99
• The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings $6.59
• Wolfenstein 3d $2.49

Welp, it finally happened.  Call of Duty: Black Ops has been added to the backwards compatibility program.   Everybody can now stop their complaining.  Correction.  All of the fanboys and Call of Duty whiners can stop their complaining.  I personally could care less, but I’m happy for them.  I will also go ahead and update the deals post since Black Ops is $10 this week hence pulling the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 BC Sales move (trademark pending).

Hello there, it’s another week.  Before we get to another decent list of deals (some even BC), I’m not doing very well and I will tell you why.  They are cancelling Project Spark.  Project Spark was one of the first games I fell in love with when I bought an Xbox One.  It was free, but it was a good kind of free because people built all of these wonderful games and then you could play them.  Furthermore, it wasn’t as if they were all the same game either, there were shooters, puzzlers, rpgs, and all sorts of wonderful madness built into one.  Now they are removing all of the servers which essentially makes the game unplayable.  But they are giving a deadline with this one, and that’s the August timeframe.  So, the plan is to stop playing Borderlands 2 (Handsome Collection) in the next couple of weeks and focus myself solely on Project Spark until August.  Or until I get really bored :).  It’s still unsettling and upsetting me though.  Microsoft has basically been cutting loose every studio under their banner that is not a big AAA producing title.

Anyway, as for me this week, probably nothing to buy. I might grab Unravel for the Xbox One which is a great title (and even better at 50% off).  There are some interesting titles over on the 360 side of things but nothing to make me jump for joy even if they make them backwards compatible.  We’ll see.  Anyway, have fun kiddoes.  BTW, one quick thing…I am calling it right now in prediction land.  Next week (or the following)….Costume Quest for the original 360 will go on sale, and it will also be made backwards compatible.  Later.

• Deus Ex: Human Revolution – 75% off – $3.74
• Dungeon Siege III – 75% off – $4.99
• Just Cause 2 – 75% off – $3.74
• Kane & Lynch 2 – 75% off – $6.24

11:45am Edit  – Incoming Black Ops.

• Call of Duty: Black Ops $9.99

Four games hit the wire today, and it is certainly an assorted bag.  Tweets can be found here and here.  I only own one out of the bunch and that would be the Final Fight game which also includes Magic Sword (which is really the standout of the package).  Really well done retro-package.  The achievements aren’t too bad until you get to the last one (which I’m still missing) which is unlock EVERYTHING in the vault.  Yeah, that’s when I knew to move on to something else.  Frogger 2 is a poor followup to the original and should be avoided unless you are just really curious.  Puzzlegeddon by the same token is a really poor puzzle game (but gives me hope that Poker Smash will be BC at some point).  The only one with some interest here is Faery: Legends of Avalon which looks like some light faire rpg’ing.  At $7.49 (it had a price drop back in 2012 after releasing as a $15 affair), it seems reasonably priced.  The achievements seem doable and I am a sucker for XBLA rpgs since they only usually last about 8-10 hours.  Enjoy.

12:45 pm Edit: Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Director’s Cut is now Backwards Compatible as well. 

Welp, another week.  These week’s deals for me personally are really a bust. Mostly cause of the headliner, Call of Duty.  I can’t stand the franchise and I routinely make jokes about its very existence.  It’s right up there with Minecraft and at least Minecraft is appropriate for children (even though about as many children play COD which is pretty alarming).  However, there is one BC deal buried in this mess and that is the GRID 2 season pass.  I will admit I am interested by the WWE 2k16 pack deluxe pack too for X1, but $36 is a bit much.  I will stick it out personally with Borderlands 2 (Handsome) for another week.  Hopefully we get a few BC announcements this week.  Hey, Deadpool comes out today on Blu-Ray/DVD (Steelbook reserved at BestBuy), how about we push that out for BC.  Oh right, port on X1, I forgot.  Not really, just hoping Activision did.  Have a good week kids.

BC Sales

• GRID 2 All-In Pack $17.49

Wait..what, $17.49 for a bunch of cars and tracks…and the download is only 3 megs.  Can we say unlock?  Geez, yeah I’m going back to playing my Psycho.  Later.

As you are aware, Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection is not backwards compatible at this time.  While I think it is a possibility it will make BC eventually, it is much easier for them to make all of their numerous other XBLA games BC first since they take little effort.  Well, I saw a couple of posts this week that suggested that the Collection will actually install several games on the Xbox One that are naturally backwards compatible.  Well, I tried it, and lo and behold it installs 4 games.  Golden Axe (the discontinued XBLA release), Sonic 1, Sonic 2 and Sonic 3.  The interesting thing about this is that all 4 of those games were part of the original 104 released games.

August 21st, 2016 UPDATE: They probably did it sooner but I noticed this today.  If you are reading this, the glitch has been corrected.  It lasted a few months though, but the sad part is I will not be able to finish Golden Axe now.  I should have realized it was temporary and kept playing it until I 100%ed it.  Sorry, if you are reading this past the fact, it was nice while it lasted :). 

Maybe it was intentional and maybe it was a let’s be nice glitch that we haven’t fixed yet.  I was somewhat hoping Altered Beast, Comix Zone and Phantasy Star II would also show up since they are on the Ultimate Genesis Collection as well, just in their original Genesis forms.  It’s interesting, to this point Sega has released 20 games to backwards compatibility (and probably more in the pipeline).  Now Condemned is a retail release so they would probably omit that, but the other 19 are ripe for a compilation release similar to the Rare Replay that did so well.  Package those up, throw in a Genesis collection (with new achievements) and sell it for XB1 @ $29.99 or even $39.99.  People would eat it up.  Sega you’re welcome.  For the idea I only ask an advance copy.

I can wish, anyway…at some point I might put together a tiny table/spreadsheet that explains out basically the Disc, and what titles will install on Xbox One backwards compatibility.  For the ones that are two or more of course.  That way people would know if they throw in Namco Museum how many games are installing.  I dunno, just an idea.  Take care kids.

PHANTASY STAR…PHANTASY STAR….the heck with the other four games, I could care less.  Okay, well I have Dig Dug as well (and I never got that Dig achievement), but still, it’s Phantasy Star….2222222.

Twitter announcements here and here.

Phantasy Star 2 – $4.99 regularly, don’t expect a sale anytime soon but its one of the best RPGs of all time.  Achievements are reasonable (if willing to put the time in).

Sonic & Knuckles – $2.99 regularly, the achievements aren’t super easy, but not overly difficult either (just as long as you beat the game, you’re fine).

Dig Dug – $4.99 regularly, can be found on the Namco Museum disc (which I’ve said repeatedly is a steal even before they BCed almost everything).  Easy achievements (except for Dig).

Samurai Shodown 2 – $9.99 regularly (but did have a sale back in April of 2015), but much harder on achievements as most fighting games are.

Runner 2 – The last one of our lot and I know absolutely nothing about.  The full name is Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien.  Yeahh…it’s a 14.99 title, saw a sale back in March of 2014 at a 67% off though.  It gets pretty high marks but looks rather difficult for achievement hunters.

Still, a very good showing, and 5 more to the pool of games.  Enjoy.

Well, May the 4th be with you, indeed.  This doesn’t come from Major Nelson as usual, but from a site I frequent called TrueAchievements.com.  This is excellent news (if true) and not just because I own them both on disc (and I believe I still might have the guide books, I’ll need to check).  Both of these games have sales on the same week (including the DLC) as they get released to BC.  Which I’ve mentioned before is the patent pending, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 secret to success.  And it’s the May the 4th as well….it’s win across the board and the games aren’t bad either.  Time for some updating, I will make an attempt to play one of these when I get home to make sure that this isn’t a fizzled out rumor but actual truth.  Enjoy!

3:00pm Edit – The Major has officially confirmed it.  Word is that the disc copies are having some issues but the digital versions are working well.  I’ll let you know by tomorrow since I’ll be trying it tonight on my disc copies.

7:30am (Thursday) Edit – Was able to get my Force Unleashed (vanilla version) disc installed last night and it ran fine.  I actually own the collector’s edition of FUII and it was still sealed…yeah I know.  So I couldn’t bear to open that just yet.  I’m sure I will snag the DLC (with achievements) for the first one and probably just Endor for the second one until I get to it.

Welp, I had a feeling that there would be titles announced today. However, not in a million years would I have guessed these three games.  Jet Set Radio is regularly $9.99 and pretty much has not seen a sale since it was released back in 2012 but that’s Sega for you.  (I lost count how many Sega sales I’m waiting for) MX vs ATV Reflex is a rare disc release game but I would honestly stay clear of it due to the fact it has seven discounted achievements due to closed servers.  Finally Texas Hold Em was basically the first poker game on the Xbox 360 and it might be cheap at $4.99 (also can be found on the Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged disc) but its simplicity explains that in a heartbeat.  Also, it has one of the hardest achievements known to man where you had to get one hand of every type to unlock.  Yes, that includes the Royal Flush.  Basically, you had to put rubberbands on your controller (or be extremely lucky) and just set it up overnight to run through thousands of hands.  Ridiculous.  Anyway, enjoy.