E3: Bungie shooter to hit XBLA

By GamesIndustry International Published 11 July, 2007

Marathon coming this summer.

An updated version of Bungie's first-person shooter Marathon: Durandal is to be released over Xbox Live Arcade later this summer.

The game was originally released in 1995 for the Apple Mac, and is currently in development at Totemball studio Freeverse.

During Microsoft's E3 Media & Business Summit presentation, Jeff Bell, VP of marketing said Microsoft intends to release a total of 100 XBLA games on the service before the end of the year.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 5 years ago

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  • ccfb #1 5 years ago

    "No-one wants this game yet." heh

  • sanctusmortis #2 5 years ago

    It's been added to my list, so...

    Could this be the little extra given in Legendary Edition Halo 3? I hope so...

  • DanWhitehead #3 5 years ago

    I only know this as the game the designers played at lunchtime while all the journos were on Quake.

  • Rayn #4 5 years ago

    This is one of the best FPS games ever. Can't wait. I'm more excited about this than Killzone 2 and Halo 3 to be honest.

  • SomaticSense #5 5 years ago

    "Jeff Bell, VP of marketing said Microsoft intends to release a total of 100 XBLA games on the service before the end of the year."

    I'm quoting him on this one and remembering it, because I really doubt they will live up to it. 100 in 6 months? That's approximately one every other day according to my calculator.

    Not happening.
    Edited by SomaticSense at 11/07/07 @ 11:01

  • mouse Verified Graphic designer, Eurogamer Network #6 5 years ago

    That 100 includes the titles they've already released.

  • SomaticSense #7 5 years ago

    How many have they released so far? Because so far they've been at the most one every week, so are we to expect about 2 a week from now on?

  • Totoriko #8 5 years ago

    Shooter? Durandal is a sword

  • DanWhitehead #9 5 years ago

    There are about 70 games already on there, so another 30 by the end of the year seems perfectly feasible.

  • Xerx3s #10 5 years ago

    It MUST have coop.

  • NegativeZero #11 5 years ago

    Shooter? Durandal is a sword

    And a completely insane AI.

    Durandal was the subtitle for Marathon 2, and from the footage they briefly showed it looks like this is indeed a remake of the sequel rather than the original. A shame in some ways, since it was the original which was more groundbreaking, but Marathon 2 always had the best single player campaign. I hope we also see Marathon Infinity, though, since it had a fantastically well-written non-linear plot.

  • Paleface #12 5 years ago

    I thought I saw a reference to this!

    As pointed out, Durandal is Marathon 2, which probably ports better to a telly because it doesn't have the tiny viewport of Marathon.

    It's a very fine game; great plotting, fun to play. And definitely better than Doom. If they include the knockabout multiplayer, it'll be fab.

    (And a half-ton of Halo fanboys will start posting "hey, this shitty XBLA game ripped off all these weapons/designs/ideas/logos from Halo!!!!1". Morons.)

  • SomaticSense #13 5 years ago

    "There are about 70 games already on there, so another 30 by the end of the year seems perfectly feasible. "

    Ahhhh! So 70 since the console was released right? So yeah, 30 does sound doable.

    Is is just me then, or could he have worded that statement a little clearer?

  • mouse Verified Graphic designer, Eurogamer Network #14 5 years ago

    Seems pretty easy to understand to me :)

  • kangarootoo #15 5 years ago

    Loved the Marathon games. But this has retro gaming nostalgia disappointment written all over it. Stuff is so often best left to memory. I'll certainly check it out, but I just have a bad feeling about it.

    Plus if they don't put a proper amount of effort into the stick controls the end result will suck regardless of the rest of the game.

  • Rirekon #16 5 years ago

    Game of win!

  • reflux #17 5 years ago

    I hated it back then, I'm prepared to hate it again.

  • MrGrumpy.au #18 5 years ago

    This is one I can't wait for as I've been continuously told over the years this was leaps an bounds ahead of Doom, hope it lives up to the hype the Mac users keep spouting on about.

    And also l think I'll finally be able to play Minters new XBLA Tempest clone "Space Giraffe" as they seem to have toned down the psychedelic effects. Reduced risk of seizures FTW!.

    Microsoft we really need a controller that combines a trackball and spinner for Missile Command, Centipede/Millipede and "Space Giraffe" respectively, please!
    Edited by MrGrumpy.au at 11/07/07 @ 13:28

  • Beano #19 5 years ago

    "There are about 70 games already on there, so another 30 by the end of the year seems perfectly feasible. "

    Alsolutely - that's basicly 1.5 game every week like today.

  • Durandle #20 5 years ago

    (no poking fun at my username, k)

    Glad to see this coming out, I gave the opensource project a spin a while back and it was still as fun as it was in '95.

    As for ground breaking, I'd have to agree. I mean, lets face it, it had voice communication built into the network play, which it's self had some pretty entertaining games modes - like 'Kill the man with the ball'. Plus you could play the whole game co-op, I think with 8 people (I can't remember there being a limit other than the max a network-game would support at the time).

    Its a shame though that the Live version is unlikely to support the user content that was produced - the game was very very easy to modify with some great tools, so a ton of total-convertions - most of which were of commercial grade - and multiplayer stuff. I guess we'll see :)

  • mcmonkeyplc #21 5 years ago

    let the Bungie love fest comense!

  • krokomkiller #22 5 years ago

    And I am soooo gonna buy it

  • AHiFi #23 5 years ago

    Disappointed that they won't port the original, but ah well...I've got the original lying about somewhere anyways.

  • morriss #24 5 years ago

    At last!! Great news!

  • Stilicho #25 5 years ago

    More crap retro nostalgia gaming. How much more can Microshaft devalue this service?

  • morriss #26 5 years ago

    devalulol

  • bengray66 #27 5 years ago

    come on microsoft, forget all this shit, when we going to get sensible soccer?

  • quedex #28 5 years ago

    Details from the press release:
    * Ported by Freeverse, not Bungie
    * Multiplayer for up to 8 people over Live
    * Offline 4 player splitscreen
    * Graphics improved, uses full widescreen (not using crappy borders)
    * 27 single player levels, 13 multiplayer levels, 1 survival mode
    * "Utilises the familiar Halo control scheme", whatever that means.
    * 800 points, rated M, released summer worldwide.
    Edited by quedex at 11/07/07 @ 16:53

  • dr_faulk #29 5 years ago

    Best. Game. Ever.

    When most of you retards were suckin' on ID's wang, myself and some others were playing this to shit. Co-op play with CPU and amazing sound-bytes on a 33Mhz Mac with 8Mb of RAM. This was the shit, and it's still a better game than Halo ever was.

  • kangarootoo #30 5 years ago

    @MrGrumpy.au

    You could dual weild shot guns and pistols in Marathon 2 as I recall. Well ahead of the game in that regard I guess :)