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I wonder how extensive Microsoft's BC testing is

I picked up Pariah for 10 dollars the other day and have been enjoying the game thus far on my Xbox 360 using BC.

However, after a certain checkpoint on mission 6 the textures get all screwed up and the game is unplayable. It always happens at the same time. I even tried triggering the checkpoint again after restarting the whole level and the same issue happens in the exact same place.

This sucks because I cannot transfer a save from the 360 to the original Xbox, so I would have to start over again if I wanted to continue playing through the game.

This worries me when it comes to starting to play through another game on the 360 BC list. I guess my dreams of selling my original Xbox are pointless. If I need to play a game on the BC list, I'll just play it on the regular console.


 
For all practical purposes, the Xbox 360 is not backwards compatible. At best, it serves as a minor convenience (not having to plug in an old Xbox) for a few games--but I can't imagine many people discarding/modding their old Xboxes because of the BC, or the BC being much of a selling point for people who missed the original console.
 
So many games that are supposedly BC are just absolutely abysmal when it comes to actually playing them. MK Deception is another casualty of Microsoft's lazyness in the BC department.
 
FirstInHell said:
I guess my dreams of selling my original Xbox are pointless.

Yes.


Chairman Yang said:
For all practical purposes, the Xbox 360 is not backwards compatible.

Yes.

Even though I absolutely adore my 360 so far like few other consoles after just one month, the BC is a disaster of Titanic proportions. I gave them way too much credit in assuming they had a workable solution for BC. They don't. Unless this is miraculously all cleared up someday, but that's hard to believe.
 
Laziness? You are talking as if this is an easy thing to do. Isn't this the same sort of topic that was posted before the last update? How many of you thought MS had dropped BC? I too would like the BC cleaned up significantly, but I understand this may take some time. Unfortunately, by the time that happens, no one will care.
 
Exactly and this is why Microsoft hasn't done anything yet to subside the insistent complaining of gamers. They do release certain patches for Xbox 360's BC list but nothing substantial has come about the new effort Microsoft has made.
 
I think the moral of this thread is that BC on the Xbox360 does not work and it is just a marketing ploy.

I had high hopes too, but at this point I am not going to bother.
 
DD-11 said:
Isn't this the same sort of topic that was posted before the last update? How many of you thought MS had dropped BC?
No this is about poorly implemented BC, not the "dropping" BC.
 
DD-11 said:
Laziness? You are talking as if this is an easy thing to do. Isn't this the same sort of topic that was posted before the last update? How many of you thought MS had dropped BC? I too would like the BC cleaned up significantly, but I understand this may take some time. Unfortunately, by the time that happens, no one will care.

It isn't so much being lazy as it is them rushing stuff out with little to no testing done. That looks bad on them. Freedom Fighters was taken down because the very first enemy in the game didn't die or move at all. 15 seconds into the game. That is lazy testing, or no testing at all. It would have only taken a tester actually going past the menu screen to see this. They shouldn't release anything unless it runs well.

It seems they went more for number of games and the option to add a bullet point feature to their console, than actual quality and care of emulation. That said, this isn't exactly an easy emulation to pull off. Either do it right though, or don't do it at all.
 
Crimson Skies, Halo 2 and Jade Empire have worked pretty well for me. Crimson Skies only has some slow down when looking over the entire level, but Jade Empire has slow-down all the time when talking to people and moving about the larger environments such as the imperial city.

What about loading times? Do you think they're slower or faster than the original Xbox? All the damn loading in Jade Empire makes me think that I'd be wasting less time waiting for it to load on an original XB.
 
I'm sure it's pretty extensive as far as they can commit their work-force (1 person, perhaps? ;)) - but obviously not extensive enough for us. That pretty much says it all.

That's why I'm keeping my origina Xbox... although I am being tempted to mod it hell out of the current one.
 
I know it isnt easy... but what pisses me off is they list games that DONT work. I gave my Xbox to my little cousin who's parents dont spend money on that kind of stuff. I kept a few games I really really like that are either backwards compatible or I hope get added someday. However, I also went out and bought Ninja Gaiden black because its supposed to be backwards compatible and I loved the first game (I wasnt going to buy it for a system I was about to get rid of). Then the fucking game is hardly playable.

Halo and Halo 2 look really pretty on Xbox 360. I think I speak for everyone when I say I would be happier if they had support for 4-5 games and they were all done as well as Halo and Halo 2.
 
DD-11 said:
Laziness? You are talking as if this is an easy thing to do. Isn't this the same sort of topic that was posted before the last update? How many of you thought MS had dropped BC? I too would like the BC cleaned up significantly, but I understand this may take some time. Unfortunately, by the time that happens, no one will care.

While I wouldn't blame it on laziness, the problem is still ENTIRELY MS's fault.
 
DD-11 said:
Laziness? You are talking as if this is an easy thing to do. Isn't this the same sort of topic that was posted before the last update? How many of you thought MS had dropped BC? I too would like the BC cleaned up significantly, but I understand this may take some time. Unfortunately, by the time that happens, no one will care.


Well, don't say games work when they know that they don't.
 
Halo 2 (and I assume Halo) work flawlessly, to my eyes. I haven't seen anything wrong with Rainbow Six 3 or Ghost Recon Summit Strike so far. This would indicate that emulation of both early and late Xbox titles is achievable, given sufficient effort. So, WHY DON'T THEY PUT FORTH THAT EFFORT? Having games on the list that don't work well is far worse than not having them on there at all. I'm sure they could get volunteer testers (especially before launch) to just play each game until finished.
 
Not trying to spin the perfomance of X360 emulator but...you should keep your original xbox, I mean if you can buy a X360 why not keep your good and old xbox...heck you can even mod it for almost nothing and have a superior media player than the X360 dahsboard and a very good emulation center, anyway maybe MS will continue to update the emulator on the X360 and fix this kind of bugs,imho they should block the execution of certain games until they're playable 100%.
 
Im just hopping the overall amount of titles that are "completely" emulated/supported is alot more stable by the time I pick up my x360 around mar/april
 
adamsappel said:
Halo 2 (and I assume Halo) work flawlessly, to my eyes.

Halo 2 has a problem, actually. When it does its checkpoint save, sometimes the screen carries a sort of overlay of what you were looking at in that moment, that ghosts on top of everything until you restart the game.
 
While BC on X360 is fucking SHIT, I was able to play through SC:CT without any problems...and for that alone I'm happy that there was some BC for the system.

That said, it still sucks...but what can you do (Black not being BC is a fucking travesty) :(
 
check out ign's Backward Compatibility Playtest here
they say their testing team were pretty pleased with bc the results(with some exceptions such as fable,njblack,halflife2) Plus Todd Holmdahl said the bugs with some bc games are known and they will be fixed in a timely manner.360 has only been around for couple of months give it some time ppl.
 
It's nice to play certain games on the Xbox 360 like Halo and Halo 2 flawlessly, but other games which are just as good like KOTOR run like absolute garbage at times... it's times like these when I wish I had an original Xbox still lying around...
 
Tamashii Sensei said:
It's nice to play certain games on the Xbox 360 like Halo and Halo 2 flawlessly, but other games which are just as good like KOTOR run like absolute garbage at times... it's times like these when I wish I had an original Xbox still lying around...

As do I, as now I have to play fucking Black with a DualShock2! ARRRRRRRRGH.
 
the true POWER of true backwards compatibility

pbc1.jpg



BC done right.
 
I think it is amazing that they accomplished what they have, but I just feel burned by the whole thing.

Let's face it, Pariah is not a great game, but I was enjoying it enough to want to finish it and feel like I got my ten dollars worth. Now, I am faced with a half finished game in my collection, that is not good enough to start all over again on the original Xbox.
 
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