TR: Anniversary on Live

By Robert Purchese Published 23 November, 2007

Download for Legend owners.

Eidos has whipped the downloadable version of Tomb Raider: Anniversary onto Xbox Live.

It lets those of you with a copy of Legend download the game in two packs containing two episodes. Each are around 1.5GB and will cost 1200 Points (GBP 10.20 / EUR 13.96).

Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a remake of the original Lara Croft outing and is highly recommended by us - probably why we put it on our Christmas list for Xbox 360.

It was released in shops last month, so all that is left is for you to pop into our Tomb Raider: Anniversary review to find out why you should buy it.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (15) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • L42yB #1 4 years ago

    If it costs money to download then why can only people who have TR:Legends dl it :( I don't have a copy of Legends, but I wouldn't mind buying the Anniversary pack... come on M$, don't u want my money?!

  • Darren #2 4 years ago

    I read that it's not possible to run a downloadable game on the 360 if it's more than 150 MB in size but it's possible to run them from another game as expansions, something like that. I don't understand the technicalities of it but if it was possible to sell the game as a separate download than I'm sure the publisher would have as having it only accessible through Legend restricts the market somewhat as it's such an old game now that most people, like L42yB, won't own it anymore. And considering you can buy the boxed version for £25 online, it's pointless buying Legend second hand and then downloading the two "episodes" as it would work out more expensive.

  • Penguinzoot #3 4 years ago

    @L42yB

    TRA uses the Legend engine. Omitting the engine (and maybe other stuff) from the download probably reduces the size of the download considerably.

    Anyway, I couldn't wait and bought the retail copy. Loved it. And it's trade-in-able when I've had enough. Which of course the download isn't.

  • Darren #4 4 years ago

    @CabbageCase - D'oh! You're right, ignore my stupidty. I think Penguinzoot's answer is far more plausible! /oops LOL

  • homerramone #5 4 years ago

    I bought legend just to get this. Then found out it was going to be out on retail first AND it was only £5 cheaper.

    So either I can buy the game, and get the disc, box the lot which of course I can play on any 360, or trade it in if I dont like it (which infact I dont - its getting really tiresome now)
    OR
    I can save a whole £5 and have it taking a chunk of space on my 360 HDD (which isnt exactly brimming with free sectors!) and not be able to trade it or play on another 360.

    Hmmm let me think ....

  • Darren #6 4 years ago

    P.S. Does anyone else think TR: Anniversary looks kind of lo-res and blurry looking or is it just me? I believe it's another one of those non-HD 600p games! The poorly scaled text in particular looks dreadful and overall the game lacks the sharpness and clarity of the game on the PC (which I played and loved earlier on this year). I find it amazing that the 360 cannot run this game at the same resolution and detail as the PC version, especially considering my setup is mid-range these days and less capable than the 360 but can still run at Anniversary at 1680x1050 with 4X AA on max. detail @ 60 fps with barely any slowdown. :?

  • Kon #7 4 years ago

    I have no idea if TRA runs in 600p or whatever. What I do know is that it's a terrible conversion.

    Compared to the PC version the frame rates on the 360 version are appalling. The game chugs in just about any scene that isn't a tight corridor even though effects such as depth of field and water transparencies are nowhere to be seen. For god's sake, they even took out the dripping effect when Lara gets out of the water. Not really understandable after seeing COD4 run at a near constant 60 FPS.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #8 4 years ago

    The reason it's only available as DLC for the other Tomb raider is that Microsoft doesn't allow full games to be downloaded from Xbox Live. Eidos doesn't appear to have enough clout to persuade them otherwise.

    If this DLC experiment is a success, maybe Microsoft will change their minds. Certainly the multi-gigabyte Xbox 1 game downloads would suggest they're coming round to the idea.

    Mind you, there's a whole TON of politics in this area, take a peek at MCV magazine and you'll see there's a whole (very vocal) industry of distribution and retail people who make a lot of money for Microsoft (and the other platform holders) and who object to publishers cutting out the middleman.

  • stepneg #9 4 years ago

    If you want the all the achievements you have to buy the hard copy as well. When I saw that legend had been updated it just adds another 250 to that rather than have a 1000 of it's own. With that and the pricing I can't see why anyone would rather download than buy the disk version.

  • Gnort #10 4 years ago

    @Mentalist(air)

    Surely it's not Eidos' clout that matters here? Eidos shouldn't care if the game is released as DLC by Microsoft, I'm sure they receive the same amount from each sale either way. The games retailers are the ones who stand to lose out if digital distribution becomes the norm.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #11 4 years ago

    and Microsoft, being the modern gent of business it is, will no doubt be sitting down with the minions and seeing how best it can share the wealth with them... :flyingpig:

    No, they'll be wondering how much money they can screw out of downloadable games without cutting off their established retail revenue stream by pissing off the shops.

    Shelf space in Game and page space in Argos killed the Xbox 1 and Gamecube as much as their parent companies did.
    Edited by 1 at 23/11/07 @ 13:19

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #12 4 years ago

    Eidos shouldn't care if the game is released as DLC by Microsoft, I'm sure they receive the same amount from each sale either way.

    Actually, I think you may have misunderstood me above, I was suggecting that they didn't have enough clout to persuade microsoft to let people download it as a standalone playable downloaded game. Their downloadable game would be available to a much wider audience if it didn't need a Tomb Raider Legends disc. Which would mean they would sell a lot more copies of it.

    The games retailers are the ones who stand to lose out if digital distribution becomes the norm.

    Yes, but somebody has to sell the consoles in the first place. Microsoft will still need the shops for a long time to come.
    Edited by 1 at 23/11/07 @ 13:23

  • The_Inquisitor #13 4 years ago

    I'm not wasting what limited space I have on the 360, just to save a tiny amount of space on my shelve. I'll buy the game proper, if and when I get round to it.

  • DrDamn #14 4 years ago

    @Penguinzoot
    The engine is a very tiny proportion of the game in terms of size. Space is largely taken up with artwork, models, textures, music etc. So this is not the reason.

  • Jel #15 4 years ago

    I paid £19.99 delivered from Game last week, came with bonus DVD too. A solid 9 in my book.