Posts Tagged ‘xbox one’
Backward Compatibility on the Xbox One: How’s the List?
It’s almost time. That famed firmware coming November 12, 2015 to the Xbox One that not only brings NXE (New Xbox Experience/Windows 10) but also backward compatibility with Xbox 360 games. Honestly many users will never use this feature, despite what Microsoft marketing has you believing. Then again, this seems to be the first generation where many of my friends straight up sold off last gen’s console and entire library to help fund their newest purchase, so who knows. Either way you will soon be able to play Xbox 360 games on your Xbox One, which will broaden the library of games you can play and hopefully see you returning to the classics that graced last generation. Oh wait, there’s a catch. You don’t get every game from the Xbox 360 and in fact you don’t even get 10 percent of every game released – digitally as well as at retail – but rather a list of exactly 104 titles available at launch. If you didn’t see a long list of games you don’t intend to ever replay coming, then you probably don’t have much experience with how things like this work. Now given how well the backward compatibility fared on the Xbox 360 for original Xbox (a good majority of the games were eventually playable in some form) we may very well see an impressive list spawn but for now there are only a strong handful of games worth boasting about. They are all long games though so you could probably kill about six months trying to replay what will be available. As of this morning the official list is out, I personally have been using the feature for almost six months, and the following article will tell you how it works, what to expect, and give my take on what games are worth utilizing this feature for.
Opinion: The State of Games
Normally we focus on retro here at Gaming History 101, but I don’t think it’s ideal or responsible to ignore the present either. Despite the handful of modern reviews and the potential plan to re-introduce the Gaming History X podcast, I still think the strength of our site is to remain retro focused. I still get psyched waiting for E3, seeing the new hardware and software on the market, and reflecting on things to come. Right now is a weird time for console gaming. The PC trumps the consoles yet again but I feel this time around there was never a loss of momentum for the complicated pseudo console that has been the PC and from the time of the PS4 and XB1’s release that gap has only grown wider. Meanwhile Nintendo is this awkward dichotomy of complete control over the handheld market and a niche presence on consoles and some disturbing trends that are exploiting retro fans are emerging. When you suddenly see the cooperative gaming development, media, and zeitgeist all get together and remember the games of the past to provoke interest, those of us that never forgot may be tempted to get a bit elitist and a bit resentful. I personally took issue with the concepts of Gex suddenly entering the world of big press podcasts, the fact that IGN is desperately seeking to keep hold of its massive audience while juggling the departure of major talent and the lack of regular game releases of note, and don’t get me started on the people that just plain like to generate revenue on playing emulated games completely without context and making fart jokes over them. Then I realized I have no reason to care. Let everyone do what they want to do, besides I’ve always conceded that retro content is something to be shared and not competed against. Just as there will be indies who give content away for free to the enjoyment of all, there will also be businesses attempting to make a quick buck off of it. Since we here at Gaming History 101 have no ads, no income, and are not a business, we are in the unique position to have, literally, nothing to lose. With that in mind I would like to take our retro context and take a look at the state of gaming – consoles, PCs, handheld, mobile, and potentially VR – and give a quick oversight as we approach the 90 day mark to E3.
Podcast: Gaming History X: This is Next Gen?
This week we celebrate Jam (@Jamalais) coming on board as a permanent co-host, a slew of retro news, and onto the more modern topic of contemporary consoles. Now that the gang’s all here, we dissect the current state, conditions, and factors of the previously called “next gen” and loosely discuss the upcoming future.
Podcast: Gaming History X – Xboned: Microsoft Market Perception
This week we are trying something new. Fred is flying solo (just this week) and he’s talking about Microsoft’s poor messaging of the Xbox One, the way it should have been handled, and in true GH101 fashion the myriad of consoles that have failed in the past.
Gaming History 101 