14 DAY TRIAL // We've recently received word that we'll be seeing a couple of Xbox downloadable games coming in December, courtesy of Microsoft. This happens as the 360 system gets updated and the oldie titles will be available for $15 or 1200 Microsoft Points. However the Xbox 360's fathering company admitted that "there are some known issues" which will plague the games. Among these, the most prominent problems are choppy visuals, lack of content and sometimes system crashes.
Xbox.com reports that some of the issues are related to specific titles and Halo is one of the mentioned games, featuring frame rate drops, as does Fuzion Frenzy. Crimson Skies will sometimes provide a ruined gameplay experience because of flickering, while Fable gets plagued by audio static and texture issues. Last, but not least, Psychonauts doesn't support 720p, once again losing the original appeal.
All of these Xbox original titles will be available on December 4, arriving at the same time with Microsoft's update. It's sad that a good initiative like this is already facing problems, but at least Microsoft cares enough to allow us to play older titles, unlike Sony and their non-backwards compatible 40GB PS3. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Sony's getting ready to offer us a couple of downloadable PS2 titles for Christmas, specially since the two major console industry players have just announced XviD support at the same time.
It's a cat and mouse game and once you see Microsoft releasing something major, you're bound to receive similar news from Sony, or even Nintendo. For now, the 360 leads the pack together with the everlasting Wii, while the PS3 lags behind due to software issues, its size and even the price tag. Will Nintendo make this day a better one by announcing some new downloadable classic titles?