Xbox LIVE’s MajorNelson has broke the news that the code jockey’s at Microsoft have finished with another batch of Xbox 1 games that are now playable on the Xbox 360. None of the titles are really terribly exciting other then The Guy Game, and Playboy The Mansion. But I am sure there are plenty of 360 owners that have many of these titles in their game libraries and like to occasionally pull them out every once and a while and enjoy a blast from the past. Although I am not sure how many gamers could find the time right now to go back to Xbox 1 games, when the 360 has just a sick amount of brand new shinny games just released.

Below is the latest list:
Freestyle Street Soccer
Future Tactics: The Uprising
Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee
Godzilla Save the Earth
Goldeneye Rogue Agent
Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball Max’d
High Heat MLB 2004
Hunter: The Reckoning
Indiana Jones And The Emperors Tomb
MLB Slugfest Loaded
MVP Baseball 2003
MVP Baseball 2004
MVP Baseball 2005
Nascar Thunder 2002
Nascar Thunder 2003
NBA 2k3
NBA Ballers
NBA Inside Drive 2002
NBA Street V3
NCAA College Basketball 2k3
NCAA March Madness 2005
NCAA March Madness 2006
NFL 2k2
NFL 2k3
NHL 2005
NHL 2K3
NHL Hitz Pro
Nightcaster: Defeat The Darkness
NTRA Breeders Cup: World Thoroughbred Championships
Playboy The Mansion
RLH Hunt or be Hunted
Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown
Rocky
Rugby 2006
Shattered Union
Shrek Super Party
Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter
Starsky & Hutch
Syberia II
Techmo Classic Arcade
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Test Drive
The Bard’s Tale
The Chronicles of Narnia The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
The Guy Game
The Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age
Thousand Land
Thrillville
Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers
Turok: Evolution
Van Helsing
WarPath
Worms 3D
Zathura

For a complete list of list of Xbox 1 games that are backwards compatible game with the Xbox 360 click here

Via MajorNelson

Anyone who follows video game news knows that Jack Thompson is to video games what mold is to food. But it seems that his shock jock techniques of flamboyant methods of practicing law may have finally caught up with him. Game Politics is reporting that this week the lawyer who is suppose to be persecuted by Rockstar studios has found himself on the wrong end of a lawsuit. In fact the state of Florida isn’t looking to just slap Jack on the wrists this time, they are talking about Mr. Thompson being permanently disbarred. If that were to happen I would expect Take-Two and Rockstar Studios to declare a company wide holiday and take the day off to celebrate.

I my humble opinion it is too bad that it has come to this. While I do not agree at all with the methods used by Jack Thompson to increase public awareness about violent video games, I do see some benefit has come from it. Now it seems that many of the major retailers are verifying age for Mature rated games. I believe that the message that we need to help parents keep inappropriate material out of the hands of kids is a valid message. But sometime I think all the circus antics that Mr. Thompson used overshadowed that simple powerful message.

It looks like the court will be hearing evidence all week, and Judge Tunis has until December 21st to make a final decision. As more information becomes available we will post about it right away.

Link

Recent new announcements and updates from Sony have not exactly thrilled gamers. While the updates are appreciated, and some offer cool features. Very few really seem to address the desires that gamers are screaming for. Well now that may be starting to change.

Sony announced today that starting November 20th PSP owners will be able to download content from the PLAYSTATION store straight from their Computer. No longer will only the those lucky few that own both a PS3 and a PSP be able to enjoy the goodness that is out their on the PLAYSTATION online store, but now everyone with a PSP and a computer that is attached to the Internet can bask in all the downloadable goodness there is to be had.

There will be full games that are only available at the PLAYSTATION store. PSP classics that were previously only available on UMD media, will be available for purchase. Games like B-Boy, Go ! Sudoku, Crazy Legs, and Fired Up. Speaking of classics out there will be PS-One games. Now right from the comfort of your desk you can download old favorites like Crash Bandicoot, Medievil, and WipEout. Not sure if you want lay down the money for one of them nice new PSP games. Well now you can try before you buy with download playable demos of some of the big releases available on the PSP. Games like Syphon Filter, WipEout, and LocoRoco are already for you to try your hand at. Take in a little eye candy on the go with game trailers from recently released games and the popular up and coming titles that you are just dying to get your hands on.

Hop on over to the store and check it out.

Via Press Release

Before Atari 2600 and even before Pong machines people use to play board games. I know that for some of our younger readers this might seem like an impossibility to play games without some sort of an electronic device to display stunning visuals or waving a controller in the air to mimic real life movements in game. But it is true just a few decades back, people would gather around cardboard squares and roll small cubes with numbers on them and move small metal pieces around these cardboard squares in predefined patterns. This would actually bring hours of enjoyment and bonding between friends and family. Before gathering around the controllers, people use to gather around the board games. Yes one of the great past time of yester year was the board game.

The Wall Street Journal Online published a great article about the history of one of these board games. Probably one of the most famous board games of them all a game called Monopoly. The article explains how this game actually helped Allied World War II prisoners of war escape from Nazi war camps. It is a really interesting article, and I encourage anyone who is into gaming to pay a little tribute to the past and check it out.

Via Wall Street Journal Online

Special thanks to MajorNelson for posting this little tid bit on his twitter blog.

With the release of Manhunt 2 all the usual suspects are taking this opportunity to cash in on some easy publicity. They make statements about training children to become killers and all the other psycho babble they routinely parrot every time a game comes out that involves anything other then a Disney character running around on the screen. Creating unreasonable fear and blaming most of the world’s problems on the imaginary video game boogey man does not do help fix anything, but it does increase publicity and boost ratings. In reality what many parents need is help in identifying what games, movies, and music their children are consuming. In this article we will focus mainly on monitoring video games but many of the same principles apply to other forms of questionable media.

Many parents work long hours and have very stressful jobs, it is understandable that after a hard day at work all you want to do is unwind with your favorite television program or head down to the gym and work out for a couple of hours before heading off to bed. The easy way to parenting is to let a DVD or video game entertain your child and keep them occupied while you unwind from the stresses of life. But really, isn’t parenting about guiding and preparing your children to be responsible adults? Face it most of the content in television, movies, music and definitely video games is not going to do that for you. You need to be the one who decides what is good and what is not so good for your children to consume. Remember the age old adage of an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Keep unwanted content out of the house as much as possible. Look at the covers of all the video games that your children want you to buy while they are still at the store. Video Game companies are not trying to hide anything from you. Look for a big white box that says “ESRB”, below that will tell you what group this games was designed for and all the different kinds of content that are in the game. It is spelled out in easy to read language. Also you can go to the ESRB’s website at www.ESRB.org to get more information.

Another suggestion is keep video games in common areas of the house. If kids can go down in the basement or hide out in their rooms to play video games this may give them a sense they may be able to get away with something they are not suppose to. But having to play in a living room or other common areas will let them know that you are watching or that you could walk into the room where they are playing. This will help deter them from smuggling in content that has been forbidden. When you know children are playing video games check in on them regularly. Watch the actual game play, if every time you come in there is nothing happening on the screen and it looks like they are in a menu system you should hang around there is a good chance they do not want you to see what they are actually doing inside this video game. That said ask to play the game with them. Many games today allow two or more players to play at the same time by splitting the screen in half or even into four pieces. This is something that a parent and a number of siblings can all enjoy together.

If children are asking for a game, research it. This site, as well as thousands of other sites on the internet are created to provide you with information about games and the content within them. Do a Google search on the game title and chances are you will come back with more information then you could ever read in one setting.

There are many different game renting services that will allow you to play a game before you buy it. This is one way to be absolutely sure of what your child is playing. If your children are asking for a specific game you may want to rent the game and play it before buying it for your kids. This will also help with picking out the crappy licensed material games that are actually terrible games that have popular television or movie characters in them.

Civil rights are for adults who can afford lawyers. You as the parent should never feel guilty about going through your children’s room and looking for inappropriate material or eavesdropping on conversations and looking up titles of games, movies, or music that they are listening too. Your job as a parent is to make sure your children become responsible adults. Bending what your children may perceive as civil liberties is nothing to be ashamed of. Besides if you do not find anything then you know that your child has a sound basis of what is right and wrong and you know you are doing a good job in parenting. Or they are really good at hiding stuff!

Once you feel your child is old enough it may not be a bad idea to sit down with them and explain that there are things that are acceptable to do in video games, but in the real world those things are not acceptable. If they are able to understand that games are make believe, a way to live out some exciting fantasies but when they quit the game the real world rules come back into play then you may want to take that fact into account when deciding what is acceptable for them to play and what is not.

Let the Tech lend a Helping Hand
Most console manufactures are trying to help parents out as much as they can. Both the Xbox 360, and the Nintendo Wii have some pretty good parental controls built into them. The Playstation 2 had them in but I myself have not researched the PS3 parental controls enough to speak about them.

Do not be shy about looking into how these controls work, and how to use them. If you feel over whelmed by them go back to where you purchased the console and ask for some help, or consult the manufacture’s webpage on how to use these controls.

Here at AroundtheController.com we are going to do more articles in the future to help parents monitor their children gaming habits. But it really does fall back on you as the parent to be informed and stay on top of this situation. Do not let the government parent your children for you. Looking at most politicians and seeing what they do at their jobs and in their free time makes me scared as to how my child would turn out if they were allowed to raise my child. Try to also parse out what people on Television and the internet are saying. Some of it is good information, but allot of it is just them trying to boost their ratings or get more attention for themselves.

Sam & Max™ Season Two: Episode 1: Ice Station Sant
2007 | Adventure | Originals | GameTap / Telltale Games | 136.3MB

Anyone looking for humor in a video game has to check this out, I was crying before the first act started, total gold!

Shadow Watch ™
2000 | Strategy | Windows | UbiSoft | 565.9MB

Interesting art style, but really this game is pretty horrible, some of the other isometric shooters are far more deserving of your time.

Virtua Fighter™
1995 | Fighting | Saturn | SEGA Corporation | 51.7MB

A little slice of history in the best 3D fighter of time time.

After the break is the listing of the new and current free ad supported Gametap games.

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Today only Amazon.com are selling Guitar Hero 2 Guitar Controller for the Xbox360 at $44.99, reduced from $59.99 with free shipping.

If you’re needing an additional Guitar this is a pretty good deal, apparently it’s also Rock Band compatible if you plan on picking up the Bundle and don ‘t want to fork over $80 for a second wireless guitar.

Today only Amazon.com are selling Wii HD Link Component Cable for the Nintendo Wii at $9.99, reduced from $19.99 with free shipping if you add another $15.01 to your cart

The unofficial version of the component cables are now on sale today at Amazon, as these are unofficial these run the risk of being inferior to the ones sold previously. One Amazon review reports colour distortion also, so check reviews before you buy

Today only Amazon.com are selling The Sims Life Stories for the Mac at $9.99, reduced from $19.99 with free shipping if you add another $15.01.

A fine last gen Rainbow six game

Today only Amazon.com are selling The Sims Life Stories for the Mac at $10.99, reduced from $29.99 with free shipping if you add another $14.01.

The Sims life stories is your basic Sims 2 package without any of the numerous expansion packs available, this would make the game worthless if it wasn’t for the addition of multiple story lines, much like you’d expect from a console version. Collectors of Sim games will likely get a kick out of something new, even if they are missing many of the items and additions they are used to.