Xbox 360 back-compat update

Those jolly, secret-keeping experts at Microsoft have revealed that the list of soon-to-be-backwards-compatible Xbox games leaked earlier this week was in fact quite genuine. What's more, the update that makes them work on your Xbox 360 is now available. Hooray!

That means that instead of just playing Halo 2 all the time you boring man, you can now play the likes of excellent platform game Psychonauts, excellent action-adventure Fahrenheit, and the Xbox port of Shenmue II, without having to dig your Xbox out from under your bed (or, in some cases, to remove the bed-sheets from your recycled Xbox).

Also on the list are some relatively recent games that have also been released on Xbox 360 itself, meaning that you can now choose to play the Xbox versions of Splinter Cell: Double Agent or Far Cry Instincts instead of buying the 360 versions, if you're that sort of person.

The full list, including some Japan or North America only caveats (like, annoyingly, the fact that Soul Calibur 2 only works on US consoles), can be found below. Don't forget, either, that you can now play them in high definition, which is particularly handy for us Europeans, since we were only able to do that on the original Xbox if we stuck a chip in it.

Best of all, you don't even need to have your Xbox 360 hooked up to Live to take advantage, with the December 2006 update available as a CD image from the Xbox website.

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Burnout 3: Takedown (Updated)
• Conker: Live & Reloaded
• Dead Or Alive Ultimate
• Destroy All Humans!
• Dynasty Warriors 4
• Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick
• Ex Chaser (Japan only)
• Family Guy
• Far Cry: Instincts
• Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy
• I-Ninja
• Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude
• Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
• MotoGP
• Incredibles
• Muzzle Flash (Japan only)
• MX Unleashed
• Open Season
• Pariah
• Plus Plumb 2 (Japan only)
• Psychonauts
• Psyvariar2 Extend Edition (Japan only)
• Rainbow Six: Lockdown
• Rapala Pro Fishing
• Rent-A-Hero No. 1 (Japan only)
• Scarface: The World Is Yours
• Shark Tale
• Shenmue II
• Soul Calibur 2 (North America only)
• Splinter Cell: Double Agent
• Tenerezza (Japan only)
• The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
• Ultimate Spider-Man
• Wakeboarding Unleashed: Featuring Sean Murray
• Whacked!
• Winback 2: Project Poseidon
• Xiaolin Showdown