Our typical process involves several weeks of active development on a set of desired titles, followed by at least an equal amount of test time validating the work and checking on the status of other games that might use similar technology. That basic platform has become more capable in the past months, and we're now able to address individual games one at a time. GameSpot: First of all, can you give us a quick overview of what goes into making an Xbox game playable on the Xbox 360? Is each game a case-by-case basis, or do new emulators work for multiple games?Īlbert Penello: In the early days of the project, we spent a great deal of engineering time trying to make a general-purpose Xbox emulator capable of playing as many different games as possible. GameSpot News talked with Albert Penello, Microsoft's director of global platform marketing for Xbox, to find out the ins and outs of backward compatibility, and why some games make the list and others don't.
In addition, some games that were once on the list have now jumped off, such as Freedom Fighters, Sid Meier's Pirates!, and Mortal Kombat: Deception. This technological hurdle yields a list of backward compatible games that includes Barbie Horse Adventures, but doesn't include critical darlings Psychonauts and Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. The Xbox 360's ATI GPU and IBM CPU were vastly different from its predecessor's, which housed a Nvidia GPU and Intel CPU, forcing Microsoft's engineers to rely on emulators. Microsoft eventually promised that the new console would be able to play some Xbox games, and launched with a backward compatible list that included more than 200 titles. This game is broken - graphically and mechanically.Backward Compatibility on the Xbox 360 has been a hot topic among gamers ever since the 360 was announced. However, the universal downside that we can all agree on. The only real point of interest for everyone in the customization tools for Barbie and her horse, a real surprise considering the game feels it was churned out in record time. If you consider that, BHA: WHA is fine - but any other player would not be paying top dollar for this. The concept probably fits into the attention span of the child, though you sense this was unintentional. As a general consensus, yes, it's pretty mundane and not very rewarding. Not much else will happen except some cringing dialogue and secondary objective of collecting coins. You won't be wrestling them - but petting them, lassoing them, and guiding them back to the stables. The player will gather the horses and tame them into returning home. Throughout the game, you will guide Barbie on her horse through the colorful environments. A simple basis for the trivial execution of search and rescue mechanics. The story revolves around horses being scared by a recent lightning storm - and it's up to Barbie to bring them back to safety. Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse adventures adopt all those feats to tailor the game to its market. People judge the simplified mechanics and basic narrative against their complex ideals of a video game. This is a notion that seems to often forget. From a critical perspective, it's important to remember this game is made for children.