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Best games for 360 backward compatibility?

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Kingpen

Member
Thinking of going and snagging GTA: San Andreas to re-add to the collection (had old PS2 version)... Also wondering who the Halos hold up, and if they have any enhancements to them.

God I wish they would add Mercenaries and tell EA to make Black backward compatible. Everything else I could live without probably.

What are your experiences with backward compatibility? I've heard nothing but bad with Ninja Gaiden as well
 
Of the games I've tried -

Halo - works fine. Still full-screen though, but I thought it was going to be anamorphic widescreen :(

Halo 2 - fine, but a bit of slowdown. Now has proper widescreen and 720p support. Textures still pop-in though (didn't Bungie claim this would be fixed?)

Half Life 2 - HORRIBLE slowdown. Don't even bother trying it

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland - works good. Bit of slowdown. Can't use custom soundtracks for some bizarro reason?

I'm disappointed with BC so far. Not enough of the games I like/own, and the ones I've played are far from running 100% smoothly. I think if it can get to the title screen then it's given BC certification (ok so that's a lie, but that's what it feels like)
 
Kingpen said:
Thinking of going and snagging GTA: San Andreas to re-add to the collection (had old PS2 version)... Also wondering who the Halos hold up, and if they have any enhancements to them.

God I wish they would add Mercenaries and tell EA to make Black backward compatible. Everything else I could live without probably.

What are your experiences with backward compatibility? I've heard nothing but bad with Ninja Gaiden as well
Click to expand...

NGB has been the only bad experience(c'mon BC Ninja's!!!). Splinter Cell:CT looks great. Halo's are awesome.
 
I'll do pretty much anything (even that...possibly) if they got PGR2 working on the 360.

PGR2 online>>>>>>PGR3 online

DenogginizerOS said:
S________LOW___________________D______________O_____WN!
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I see :lol I guess that was to be expected. I've still got my original Xbox so I could just get that out if I want to play Gaiden. tbh I think that's the only sensible option until BC starts working properly, because almost every XBox game on the list so far has had some problems
 
DenogginizerOS said:
NGB has been the only bad experience(c'mon BC Ninja's!!!). Splinter Cell:CT looks great. Halo's are awesome.
Click to expand...

I thought this was running smoothly after the last update?
 
DenogginizerOS said:
Nope. Still broken.
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Odd... I played it for about an hour and didn't notice any slowdown. There was a noticeable stuttering when loading a new area, but it would quickly go away. Didn't seem to be slowdown really.
 
IJoel said:
Odd... I played it for about an hour and didn't notice any slowdown. There was a noticeable stuttering when loading a new area, but it would quickly go away. Didn't seem to be slowdown really.
Click to expand...

I tried playing NGB the weekend of XMAS and it still had a ton of slowdown. I saw no improvement over the previous version.
 
DenogginizerOS said:
I tried playing NGB the weekend of XMAS and it still had a ton of slowdown. I saw no improvement over the previous version.
Click to expand...

Were you connected to Live when you did this and did you download the December patch? I saw a significant improvement from the previous version to the new one.
 
DenogginizerOS said:
Nope. Still broken.
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It's not that bad, though. It mostly holds 60 fps from what I played. I played through the first three chapters and most of the slowdown was of the very minor variety. Nothing like the first reports. It looks amazing running through 360.

Halo 2 and Chaos Theory look fantastic too and run just fine.

I don't like the game, but I did try Fable out and it is unplayable. It was like playing Quake on a 486. REALLY bad framerate (less than 10 fps when looking at the main village areas). It did, however, run in 32-bit color now...
 
IJoel said:
Were you connected to Live when you did this and did you download the December patch? I saw a significant improvement from the previous version to the new one.
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Yes and Yes. There was a slight improvement but it was no where nearly as good as it was on XBOX. There is still a lot of slowdown.
 
dark10x said:
It's not that bad, though. It mostly holds 60 fps from what I played. I played through the first three chapters and most of the slowdown was of the very minor variety. Nothing like the first reports. It looks amazing running through 360.

Halo 2 and Chaos Theory look fantastic too and run just fine. After seeing Ryu's Ninja Gaiden costume in DoA4 I can't wait to see Ninja Gaiden 2. :D

I don't like the game, but I did try Fable out and it is unplayable. It was like playing Quake on a 486. REALLY bad framerate (less than 10 fps when looking at the main village areas). It did, however, run in 32-bit color now...
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Ninja Gaiden Black does look amazing through the 360.

I do have some slowdown problems in the city. It is usually when you go around the bend in one of the alleys where it slows down, but when you hit the big open area things are fine. Confuses me.
 
DenogginizerOS said:
Yes and Yes. There was a slight improvement but it was no where nearly as good as it was on XBOX. There is still a lot of slowdown.
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Sorry, if dark is saying it ain't bad.... then it ain't f'in bad.
 
Fable isn't *that* bad. It's no worse than something like JFG or PD on a n64. It does get pretty laughable when animations don't load though.

I tried Fable, GTA:VC, and SC:CT. Like others said, Splinter Cell looks fantastic and doesn't suffer at all. GTA gets absurd. It's fine for the most part on foot, but jump on a vehicle and everything goes to shit. There's an absurd amount of motion blurring, even making a slight nudge causes the entire screen to shake. The framerate enters chopcity too, as if the terrible vehicle controls in GTA weren't bad enough. It's barely playable.

Fable is okay. After you get out of the first village it gets better. Or maybe you adapt to how crappy it is. I can't tell.
 
Does Fable The Lost Chapters run ok on 360?

I've been wanting to pick it up for awhile but I have not heard anything yet on how it runs. Or does it run the same as Fable?
 
Mrbob said:
Does Fable The Lost Chapters run ok on 360?

I've been wanting to pick it up for awhile but I have not heard anything yet on how it runs. Or does it run the same as Fable?
Click to expand...

Runs like poopie.
 
a friend of mine bought NGB after xmas because of the 'fixed' reports and after a few hours of playing he pretty much said "if this is fixed, i cant imagine how bad it was before"... despite the slowdown, he trooped it past alma even with the slowdown, but he said it just became too unbearable to continue...
 
Mrbob said:
Ninja Gaiden Black does look amazing through the 360.

I do have some slowdown problems in the city. It is usually when you go around the bend in one of the alleys where it slows down, but when you hit the big open area things are fine. Confuses me.
Click to expand...

I see a lot more slowdown in alleys, corridors, etc. I have wondered if it is the Anti-Aliasing. Anyway, I sent an email last week to the BC people at xbox.com and they sent me a response saying they were aware of the problem and were working on a solution.
 
Halo 1 - runs in 50hz only (PAL version) and bordered on a widescreen tv.. framerate is kind of bad.. the framerate was not really that great to begin with though.. playable at least

Ninja Gaiden - LOOKS great i 720p.. still a lot of slowdown, the patch fixed the worst of it but the game is a lot slower than before.. still it is kind of playable.. i you have not tried it on the Xbox1 at least :)

Halo 2 - singleplayer looks great but suffers from a lot of frameratestuttering as soon as something explodes et c... multiplayer seems to be where the put all the work, which is a good thing. Multiplayer Halo 2 runt at least as good as it did on 360 (with the exception for maybe Backwash), even better in some cases. Singleplaer - frameratelag, but playable. Multiplayer - almost perfect actually (this is the most important part of BC for me and I am glad they consentrated on this)

Fable - 5-10 fps constantly, Quake1 on a 486 is a good comparison. TOTALLY unplayabe. They should not let you start this.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory: Looks good and the framerate seems at least comparable to Xbox1.. almost perfect. Havent tried multi though..
 
Mrbob said:
Does Fable The Lost Chapters run ok on 360?

I've been wanting to pick it up for awhile but I have not heard anything yet on how it runs. Or does it run the same as Fable?
Click to expand...

/casts Protection from Fire

Get the PC version, runs like a lucid dream in high-res + FSAA. I finished it and even liked it.
 
I popped in Star Wars Revenge of the Sith the other day and it seemed to work just fine, with minimal slowdown/glitches, granted I only played up to the last duel and didn't play any of the unlocked content yet.

Nice to have a good mindless brawler to jump into, since my original XBox is on the fritz.
 
Borys said:
/casts Protection from Fire

Get the PC version, runs like a lucid dream in high-res + FSAA. I finished it and even liked it.
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Peter Moore?!?!?! ;)

I wouldn't mind the PC version, but I would rather play the game with the 360 pad. Also, PC version is $49.99 while Xbox version is only $19.99.

Oh and Borys, BUY A 360! :D
 
Mrbob said:
Peter Moore?!?!?! ;)

I wouldn't mind the PC version, but I would rather play the game with the 360 pad. Also, PC version is $49.99 while Xbox version is only $19.99.

Oh and Borys, BUY A 360! :D
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Aw shit man, sorry, I forgot about the price difference.

Get the Xbox version + another Xbox game for the $30 bucks left!

FTW!
 
Rainbow Six 3 looks like crap and doesnt run that well either, Chaos Theory looks ok, both halo's are fine, Forza Motorsport looks like ass, Amped is fine, and Ninja Gaiden is awesome, but with slowdowns.
 
KOTOR 1 - seems fine. Only ran through the training level ultra quick, but everything looked a bit more crisp upconverted in 720p, the loading appeared faster, and there were no visible glitches that I noticed yet. The framerate was in the 20-25 range, but that was almost identical as to what it was on Xbox right?

Thief 3 - Performed decently, strange glitch where torches, fireplaces, and similar lightsource clip through walls. Spin the camera around and you can see all the torches in the level, irritating, but the game is playable. Framerate seems slightly lower, but it's been ages since I tried it on Xbox to compare.

NGB/Halo/Halo 2 - pretty much in agreement with commentary above. Ninja Gaiden is very playable, but the slowdown is noticeable. Halo games seem fine.
 
Borys said:
/casts Protection from Fire

Get the PC version, runs like a lucid dream in high-res + FSAA. I finished it and even liked it.
Click to expand...
I don't really think that's necessary. It DOES run great on 360 *AND* looks near as smooth as the PC version at a decent resolution. Virtually no serious aliasing.

If you own it on XBOX already, there is no reason to switch if you have a 360.
 
Raiden said:
Rainbow Six 3 looks like crap and doesnt run that well either, Chaos Theory looks ok, both halo's are fine, Forza Motorsport looks like ass, Amped is fine, and Ninja Gaiden is awesome, but with slowdowns.
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DAYUM, Rainbox Six 3 was something I was going to try on the 360. That and Forza. If there are this many problems with these games, why did M$ put them on the list of games that work?
 
KOTOR 2: 20 hours in; froze on me 2x, several audio glitches, faster loading and moderate slowdown. From what I understand, that's pretty good.
 
Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is almost unplayable. To say there are graphic glitches would be a n understatement.

How this one made the BC list is beyond me.
 
Stuff I've tried:

Halo 2 looked nice in 720p, though did do a nasty lockup on me in the middle of a firefight (the only lockup or performance hitch I've seen on 360). But it otherwise ran nicely.

Pariah - Interesting enough but short FPS (ok for $9.98), first started on 360 but shifted it back to native Xbox. It ran fine but showed off-putting glitches. On 360, the grenade launcher had the weapon offset from the left hand of the character, so you see a cupped hand sitting empty next to the weapon it is supposed to be holding...bah.

Futurama - Low priority for most, but nice to see it ran spot on as far as I sampled it.

Jade Empire - Looked good. Also was able to reference the LE Monk character.

Genma Onimusha - Seemed fine as far as I sampled it.

Sega GT2002 was embarassingly chunked in framerate, and also with some graphics flickering. I won't embarass the great Forza after seeing this and hearing how that one runs.

Overall, I'm not really going to bother anymore with b/c even out of curiosity, keeping the ol' Xbox up and running right next to 360. I defintely want them to keep working on it for whenever my Xbox phases itself out, but until then...
 
Been having a problem running Chaos Theory over Live. Loads about half-way and then just freezes. Anyone else have this problem? Not sure if it's my 360 of my new wireless network (which plays everything else without a hitch).
 
Kingpen said:
anyone try San Andreas?
Click to expand...

I tried it, but only until the first time you're able to save. It worked very well in 720p. Can't tell you if it runs smoother than on Xbox, though. The main problem I had was that some textures look like crap in high definition.
 
Brandon F said:
KOTOR 1 - seems fine. Only ran through the training level ultra quick, but everything looked a bit more crisp upconverted in 720p, the loading appeared faster, and there were no visible glitches that I noticed yet. The framerate was in the 20-25 range, but that was almost identical as to what it was on Xbox right?
Click to expand...

If you play it for longer, you'll notice voice skipping with some NPC's, and loading lulls where your character freezes, then teleports forward a few feet every now and then. Otherwise it runs good. Doubt they'll ever fix that up though.
 
BuckRobotron said:
Sega GT2002 was embarassingly chunked in framerate, and also with some graphics flickering. I won't embarass the great Forza after seeing this and hearing how that one runs.
Click to expand...

I tried this too, not only does it run slow, but I think the reflection mapping on the cars is busted. I haven't seen it on a real Xbox in a while but I remember the cars looked like they were greased with baby oil - no reflections at all when this game is running on a 360. Did you notice this as well?
 
Wow, is there any case where the 360 actually makes a game look/run better? This seems a far cry from the PS2 backwards compatibility that improved the look of old games. I don't see a single game you wouldn't be better off playing on original Xbox.
 
Teddman said:
Wow, is there any case where the 360 actually makes a game look/run better? This seems a far cry from the PS2 backwards compatibility that improved the look of old games. I don't see a single game you wouldn't be better off playing on original Xbox.
Click to expand...

There's probably a bunch of shovelware crap where the "this game is not supported by the Xbox 360" message is better than the actual game :)
 
Argyle said:
I tried this too, not only does it run slow, but I think the reflection mapping on the cars is busted. I haven't seen it on a real Xbox in a while but I remember the cars looked like they were greased with baby oil - no reflections at all when this game is running on a 360. Did you notice this as well?
Click to expand...

Pretty much. I was fixated on the atrocious framerate and flickering of body panels before turning it off, but can also recall everything looking oddly flat.
 
Teddman said:
Wow, is there any case where the 360 actually makes a game look/run better? This seems a far cry from the PS2 backwards compatibility that improved the look of old games. I don't see a single game you wouldn't be better off playing on original Xbox.
Click to expand...

Halo 2 and Halo look better. But I wish I still had my original XBOX for NGB alone.
 
Teddman said:
Wow, is there any case where the 360 actually makes a game look/run better? This seems a far cry from the PS2 backwards compatibility that improved the look of old games. I don't see a single game you wouldn't be better off playing on original Xbox.
Click to expand...

Yea, it's plainly clear how slapdash the emulation is at this stage, and outside of possibly Halo, there isn't anything better served playing on the 360 yet.

I actually can see myself snagging an old discount Xbox a few years from now to relive Orta, but I'm already drawing up plans to scale back to PS2 renditions of several multi-console releases which made up the bulk of my library anyway. It's almost sad in a way, the Xbox identity practically was it's slightly superior handling of PS2 releases, remove those and you're left with Halo and a scant few obscure action and roleplaying games.
 
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