Microsoft announced that Xbox One would be getting backward compatibility for several Xbox 360 titles in 2015 and pushed out the same in November last year. The architectural differences between the two systems notwithstanding, more than 100 Xbox 360 titles now work with the Xbox One as well.
The folks at Digital Foundry delved into the performance of popular titles such as Halo: Reach, Fallout 3, Gears of War, Mass Effect and more. Digital Foundry put the backward compatibility through several technical tests in the past few months to see if it could meet expectations.
The report sheds light on the performance of the backward compatible titles. How well does it work you query? The results are mixed.
"More demanding titles can prove hit or miss with certain games offering an experience better than the original while others fall behind. Games placing a greater demand on CPU tasks tend to suffer the most with strenuous situations often falling well behind an actual Xbox 360," notes Digital Foundry.
Games such as Mass Effect, Gears of War and Halo: Reach frequently suffer from lower frame rates or frame rate dips and drops, owing to the vertical sync that negates screen tearing but in the process brings this problem. This issue usually occurs when the gameplay has plenty of action and movement from the on-screen characters. The action tends to put more stress on the tri-core CPU of the Xbox 360, and even more on the Xbox One, which attempts to simulate the architecture.
The frame drops also lead to the problems with the controls. The report reveals that the system basically misses out on several controller inputs in the midst of dipping frames during action-oriented sections.
The performance of several games on the Xbox One and the Xbox 360 varies as several sections run smoother on the former, whereas some are faster when compared to the original.
For instance, the Gears of War 3 benefits from improved and speedier streaming. A boost in performance was noticeable in the real-time cut scenes. Interestingly, on the Xbox 360 the title has minor snafus such as screen tearing and performance dips, whereas these are eliminated completely on the Xbox One. Shadow Complex is described as "almost perfect" and the real-time scenes were smoother on the Xbox One when compared to the Xbox 360.
Hydro Thunder too is better on the Xbox One, N+ was perfect and Assassin's Creed 2 was also playable. The hitches in Fallout 3 are reduced; however, Gears of War: Judgement was not as lucky and was "nearly unplayable" on the Xbox One. The same goes for Halo: Reach, which had an unstable performance throughout.
While Mass Effect benefits from improved exploration and cut-scenes, the combat sequence is a complete "mess."
