What do you mean first original Xbox game? Xbox came out in 2001, this game came out a few years later, I think. Or do you mean first original Xbox BC game? Because they’ve released over 25 Xbox games on BC so far…
None of the above. I mean that we have our first original Xbox game released as a Games with Gold option.
I guess that brings up the question: Will this game be permanently added to our accounts, like 360 games, ours forever even after Gold expires. Or will be like Xbox One games and PS+ games, that are only “yours” while you have an active Gold subscription?
My understanding is that the Xbox One’s architecture is set up in that it allows granting of a temporary license for its games, so for the duration of your membership on Live. But the 360 and OG Xbox were not built that way, and so they can only be given away completely. So I would expect you’ll keep old Xbox games, just like 360 games, though I could be wrong.
Doh! I totally missed that it was a GWG - just thought it had been a new BC release. That is pretty cool.
But they should have kept the two 360 releases and just added one original Xbox release. Ok, I’m being greedy.
Never heard of the Xbox One titles.
I know Mutant Year Zero was already announced for Game Pass, but Strange Brigade is also coming a couple of days later and I can’t remember anything about that.
Neat. I wanted to give Strange Brigade a try.
Hey look, an increasingly rare appearance of the Thursday Back Compat release! And not only that -
Holy crap, Kingdom of Amalur is now backward compatible, I did not see that coming. I realize EA owns the property but I figured with all the legal grief that game had going on that it would never show up.
I had Amalur on the PC. I know I was supposed to only do a few quests per area and then move on, but I just couldn’t help but finish all the quests in the first two areas, and it just made me lose interest in the rest of the game.
I played it wrong, I know. I just couldn’t help myself.
To me, the impression I had in my brief time with Amalur is that they had lifted a lot of WoW conceits and put them in a single player game (it’s been too long and I don’t remember the details of why I felt that way). I would have thought I was supposed to do all the quests for that same reason!
Also, I’ve never played an Aliens v Predator game, is this one any good? My understanding is that the series varies pretty wildly in quality.
My own opinions on them:
Aliens vs Predator (1999/2000 release): In the Marine campaign, aliens were put into the level and allowed to roam freely through the level, so each time you ran through the level, you’d encounter them in different places. This was incredibly scary. That campaign was one of the best things I’ve ever played. The Predator campaign made me really feel like the Predator. Just so powerful. The Alien campaign, I never could finish the first mission.
Aliens vs Predator 2 (by Monolith): This was really different. It had the cartoony looking Monolith characters and dialog. The Marine campaign was really tense and excellent. The Alien campaign was also really tense and fun in a different way. The Predator campaign, for some reason had a lot of jumping puzzles because the Predator could jump really high, and I never finished the Predator part. The rest was aces though.
Aliens vs Predator (the one that just became backwards compatible): Not as good as the above two games, but not too bad either. I know it got really poor reviews, but it wasn’t a poor game necessarily, just nothing special. It had the standard linear single player campaigns that you find in most shooters that are decently fun to play through. I’d still recommend it if you like Aliens and Predator franchises, and shooters in general. Just don’t set your expectations too high.
Cool, now I should definitely finish it.
One of these days.
YES!!! I was thinking about this game recently. I only put about 7 or 8 hours into it on the 360 and could agree with all the negative criticism (single player MMORPG, generic setting and non-gripping story, etc.) but I remember enjoying the combat a lot more than the Elder Scrolls games and it was a good looking game. Pretty sure I stopped playing it to play something newer and meant to get back to it but then got the Xbox One.
What a nice surprise. Say what you will about Xbox lacking exclusives, the Backward Compatibility program makes it worth owning for me. Besides replaying or getting back to unfinished games in my 360 library, there are still quite a number of 360 titles I never played and plan to pick up eventually. And I still own a few 360 games that I bought and never even played that are now BC, like Fable 3, Bayonetta and a few others.
Yeah, I’m playing through Dead Space 2 now. It’s surprising how easy it is to go back to 360 era games on the Xbox One. They don’t really feel all that different from Xbox One games. And even original Xbox One titles Ninja Gaiden and Psychonauts felt so great on XB1.
As luck would have it, all three games are on sale this week. I recommend The Bureau, that was a pretty cool little game.
I’d love to play The Darkness (originally on the 360 I played it for about 4-5 hours when visiting my brother) to completion. It wasn’t as good as the sequel, but it was pretty darn cool. At least for the time. Maybe it doesn’t hold up these days?
I always meant to check out the Bureau, but never found the time.
Nice. Still loving the backwards compatibility. Finally got all the achievements in Lumines Live last month.
Missed this one earlier, but heads up: no more back compat releases until next year.
Well, hell. Someone else made a thread about Below, a weird, neat looking dungeoncrawler that’s finally being released in a few weeks after years in development. And now just tonight, completely out of the blue, a different weird, neat looking dungeoncrawler that’s been in development forever, Ashen, has been released. And added to Game Pass for immediate download for users of that service.
I’m downloading and installing right now. Said to have a strange, intermittent, Souls-like online component, I’m excited.