Marathon and board games hit XBLA this Wednesday @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on July 30, 2007

News: Get ready to run that Marathon.

With this week's Virtual Console releases... let's say lacking... Microsoft steps it up with two highly anticipated Live Arcade offerings.

First up is the completely redone and reimagined Marathon: Durandal from Freeverse. One of Bungie's first classic games is coming to the XBLA with the following features:

Seventeen years ago, you survived a vicious Pfhor assault on the U.E.S.C. Marathon. Now you have been awakened by the enigmatic, sentient A.I. called Durandal and sent to an alien world to uncover the mysteries of their advanced technology. In Marathon: Durandal, armed with only a pistol, you are humanity's last champion!

Epic story: Exclusive to Xbox Live Arcade, Marathon: Durandal is a cult classic first-person shooter (FPS) that continues the tradition of great gameplay while remaining faithful to the spirit of Bungie lore as the predecessor to the Halo franchise.

Upgraded visuals: All images in the game have been redrawn in high definition.

Modern networking: Marathon: Durandal features a new modern networking layer built with Xbox Live in mind.

Superior control: The redesigned controls take full advantage of the Xbox 360 Controller and enhance playing a first-person shooter on a home console.

Marathon: Durandal will be available for 800 Microsoft Points.

Also available this week is Spyglass Board Games. Spyglass includes Chess, Checkers, Mancala and Reversi (AKA Othello) all in the same package. The game features customizable pieces for all of the games and fully integrated video chat. All I can say is it's about time Microsoft added a Chess game to the XBLA.

Spyglass Board Games will be available for a wallet friendly 400 Microsoft Points.

We'll have more on both of these titles soon.