14 DAY TRIAL // Freeverse, the people that brought Marathon: Durandal to the Xbox Live Arcade, have announced that they are preparing to release a new "major downloadable content pack" for the game. The announced release date is June 18 and the price is set at 250 Microsoft points, which translates into around 3 dollars. The original XBLA game Marathon: Durandal download costs 800 Microsoft points, which is 10 dollars.
Apart from being an excellent platform on which indie game developers can offer their creations, the Xbox Live Arcade service from Microsoft is also a way for old titles to get more playtime. The average age of Xbox 360 gamers is low enough for the possibility to exist that they might have missed most of the early '90s classic games, and XBLA is a good way for a developer to take the game back to gamers in a new presentation, and to make money out of the process as well.
The new content, labeled the "Jjaro Map Pack" will add 12 new multiplayer levels from the original game. They are: Thrud, Vulcan, King of Pain, Spiral Insanity, Dead Fields, Morphine, La Cosa Nostra, Mars Needs Women, 'Fugee Camp, What Goes Up Must Come Down, Arena, and Spline. The new maps are scripted to support the new modes exclusive to the XBLA title, which are King of the Hill, Kill the Man with the Ball, and Tag.
The announced pack is also adding the texture and design set which was first presented in Marathon Infinity. There are also two new Achievements that are exclusive to the new downloadable pack.
Marathon was a very interesting shooter for its time and marked the entry of Bungie on the first person shooter market. Bungie went on to make much better games, like the Halo series which was publishes by Microsoft, and Marathon contained some of the gameplay concepts that powered those games.