Halo: Combat Evolved and others coming to XBLA

KNiVES

KNiVES

KNiVES

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http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=175527

The fall update - the start of Microsoft's rivalry to the Playstation Network's PS1 games library. If the download of Halo:CE is optimized with no framerate problems like the backwards compatibility is, it just may be enough to convince me to buy an elite at last.

Games coming initially will be:
Halo
Fable
Farenheit
Crimson Skies
High Road To Revenge
Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex
Burnout 3

Films on demand also becoming available soon. It's like an online rental service.

The Fall Xbox 360 dashboard update has been revealed to our colleagues at OXM from Microsoft and it's looking very good indeed with gaming classics and films on demand.

December 4 is the date you'll need to watch out for; that's the day you'll be able to download and play Halo. Yes, Halo as in the Xbox game, through Marketplace, on your Xbox 360.

Microsoft is introducing games it has published for the original Xbox on XBL Marketplace, with the eventual plan to bring as much of the back catalogue across as possible.

Games cost about 1200 Microsoft points (about ten quid), which according to us puts them a little over what you'd pay for them second hand.

The initial list of downloads includes Halo, Fable, Fahrenheit, Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex and Burnout 3. All good then, apart from maybe Crash.

And if that wasn't enough, films on demand, though not confirmed for the December 4 date, aren't far away. Studios such as Warner Bros are potentially lined up for the service, so we can look forward to films such as The Dark Knight, The Assassination of Jesse James and I Am Legend appearing eventually.

Films will cost less than a fiver and come in 720p resolution. You have 14 days to start watching a film once it has downloaded. Once you started watching a film, you have 24 hours to finish it. After that, the film deletes itself from your hard drive. It's basically an online rental service then, like the US Video Marketplace.

What do these new additions mean for the future of Xbox Live Arcade? Does the PS3's PSOne download service now look horribly dated? It's going to be an exciting 2008 in the download space, for sure.
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Id get Fahrenheit and Halo :D

I can't really see the point in renting movies these days though when you can buy copies for just a few more quid.
 
Thats great news. Only thing is you can get a hard copy for cheaper which doesn't take up download space. Unless you have a elite your not going to have much room for games either.
 
Sounds like a good idea to me. If they add achievements to the games (as I'm sure they will) then I'll definitely start looking at getting some. Good job I just got my Elite really, the HDD could come in handy! :)
 
Fahrenheit is an awesome game, everyone must download it on Dec 4th :p

If they do all have achievements, I know I'll end up buying most of them through this :o Otherwise I'll probably just stick to buying them cheap in shops.
 
Awesome idea MS! I do hope they put a few of the 'cult classics' up. Could be a great way to play some games that many people have missed out on.
 
Bungie has been pestered for ages to rerelease Halo with online multiplayer, coop and achievements now. I REALLY hope this is it. Games released on the XBL always had modifications, achievements and touchups including online modes - I hope Halo is treated to the same courtesy. Bungie would be CRAZY to miss this opportunity.
 
It's a bit easy to add on things to a 40mb old game, to do that with Halo they would probably need to re-code the full game, basically making a new game, I really doubt it will be anything like that, my bet is they will be the original games, with no achievements.
 
Mr Men said:
It's a bit easy to add on things to a 40mb old game, to do that with Halo they would probably need to re-code the full game, basically making a new game, I really doubt it will be anything like that, my bet is they will be the original games, with no achievements.
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Yeah, Ockham's Razor and all that. Still, it would be brilliant if it indeed did happen. MS plans to bring out as many games as possible, and I doubt they will be able to poke all the developers into taking the time away from current projects to add achievements and online modes (for pre-Live games) and such.
 
I was just thinking about that; now that Microsoft seems to be shifting some focus back on its older library, maybe they will also start to take a closer look at the backwards compatibility of the console?
 
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