Xbox 360 DLC Roundup Review

It's been a while since we last did this - just over four months in fact - so it seems like a good time to dip back into Microsoft's Game Store to see if anything of interest has been added. This won't be a complete list of every new bit of downloadable content released since April, but rather a closer look at the bits and pieces that caught our eye - whether it's for all the right, or all the wrong, reasons.

As always, we'll be breaking down the cost of each item in real money so you can gauge the relative value of your precious Microsoft Points, and also giving you the lowdown on what you get for your outlay and whether it's worth the effort.

Ninja Gaiden 2

Team Ninja's rock hard hacknslash might have struggled to carve a name for itself at the checkout, but that hasn't stopped Microsoft extending the experience with some additional content. That wall isn't going to piss money all over itself.

In terms of new gameplay, those with the testicular fortitude should direct their attention to Mission Mode, an 800-Point (GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.60) offering which adds 24 standalone challenges to the game, much as the original Xbox version of Ninja Gaiden did back in 2005. Your virtual pennies buy you sixteen Karma Attack missions, eight survival missions and ten new Achievements worth an additional 250 Gamerscore points.

Both modes are fairly self-explanatory. Karma Attack is a score attack mode by any other name: frantic battles against a finite number of enemies in an enclosed arena drawn from the main campaign. You do get all the weapons and some health refills, but it's still pretty fearsome. Get the highest karma score you can, then upload it to the leaderboards and whimper at how crap you are. The battles get progressively tougher, as you'd expect, and often feature the bosses from the story mode - sometimes one after another.

We're so rubbish at this we can't even get the disc out of the box.

Survival is even more straightforward - stay alive for as long as possible against waves of enemies using just one of the games weapons and no health items. Of little use for the novice player then, but a solid - if rather pricey - way of prolonging the punishment for grizzled veterans.

7/10

Also available are three costumes for Ryu, all of which have been hurriedly swept into our Horse Armour file, where all pointless and over-priced features must reside. Clocking in at 200 Points (GBP 1.70 / EUR 2.16) each, you can choose from Biometal Hayabusa, Shadow Walker Hayabusa or Fiend Hayabusa. Each comes with five colour variations and changes Ryu's appearance in game, but does precious little else. Plain old re-skins, then, with no impact on the gameplay whatsoever. It would have been nice if each outfit could have been tied to a specific ninpo magic attack, or given you some status effect, just to make the choice a tactical one rather than merely aesthetic, but there you go.

Halo 3

There's no doubting that Bungie knows how to work this online malarkey. With a rabid fan-base to placate, all clamouring for fresh content, new maps, old maps, more, more, more, Master Chief's overseers have made a clever little niche for themselves in the world of downloadable content that has left other shooters falling over their invisible feet to catch up.

Rob already ran his fingers lasciviously through the tousled hair of the Legendary Map Pack, which has now dropped in price from 800 Points to 600 (GBP 5.10 / EUR 6.48). That's because of Bungie Day, the annual holiday that doesn't require you to leave the house. This celebration also brought with it the latest remake of a classic Halo map, Cold Storage, better known to old people as Chill Out from the Halo: Collector's Edition. And because Bungie was playing at Santa, Cold Storage is absolutely free - and will remain that way.

Do you invert your sticks? Think carefully.

The layout will be instantly familiar to anyone who battled across the electronic frontier of the old Xbox Live servers, or lugged consoles and tellies around for LAN matches. It's almost exactly the same as Chill Out in design, even though there have been some minor tweaks to allow for Halo 3's different physics, control and speed. The biggest overhaul has been in the look of the map. The original had a Covenant theme, but for this new version that's changed to a spooky Flood containment facility.

With eerie storage pods filled with twitching samples, and the creepy sight of infected things scuttling about outside the windows, it's a fun place for a deathmatch. Fairly small in size, the map doesn't really suit anything more complex than an old-fashioned Slayer frag-out, but there's nothing wrong with that. It's a great map for that sort of play, and if you pull it into the Forge you can even liven things up with some new energy blockers, a flamethrower or even a Mongoose or Ghost - even though they're more hindrance than help in this claustrophobic interior.

Of course, just because something is free doesn't mean it's good - although it does mean you have less to moan about if it's bad - but in this case there's little to grumble about. It's a classic Halo map, it's perfect for back-to-basics deathmatches and it costs you absolutely nothing. Yay.

9/10

Army of Two

Believe it or not, Halo 3's Cold Storage isn't the only freebie to have slithered up the internet drainpipe in recent months. Even harder to believe for some will be the revelation that it's those notorious corporate bread-heads at EA who have been dishing out the presents. Okay, so the Veteran Map Pack for their man-crush shooter Army of Two is only free because it's been sponsored by Pontiac, but - hey - gift horses, mouths and all that.

The Veteran Map Pack is actually quite interesting, and in-keeping with the co-op nature of the game. While most games stick with multiplayer maps for killing each other, this is the first shooter in a while to offer new campaign missions as DLC. Two such missions are included, with the first taking you and your big buddy, with his lovely muscles and guns, to a Kiev subway where you have to take down a militia group in-between bumping fists and being all manly with each other. The second mission is even more interesting, taking you back to Miami and the SSC headquarters where you get to do things that would constitute spoilers for those who have yet to complete the game, so I'll simply say that it offers an all-new ending for the game.

I'm a fan of storytelling in games, and while Army of Two may not be the most promising game in this regard, I'm still intrigued by the possibilities on display here. Hopefully more games will start to use DLC to extend the narrative experience as well as the bloodshed.

8/10

For those who prefer to pay for their DLC, Army of Two also offers the SSC Challenge Map Pack for 600 Points (GBP 5.10 / EUR 6.48). A curious combination of deathmatch and timed obstacle course, it contains four new maps designed for team-play, with you and your friend competing against another duo for the chance to join the SSC.

Shooting the other players is a secondary, and sometimes even tertiary (look it up), concern however. You'll be too busy negotiating traps and obstacles - many of which move, flip and shuffle about to keep you on your toes - while fulfilling military-style objectives as part of this rather brutal training exercise. Lugging crash test dummies to safety while under fire may not sound like much fun, but it's a cool twist on the expected multiplayer DLC and does a good job of offering fans something familiar yet different.

8/10

Lost Odyssey

Early preview of Tom's wedding invitations.

While Lost Odyssey and Mass Effect may be almost completely different in the way they approach role-playing, they seem to share a similar attitude towards downloadable content. Mass Effect offered an additional mission for 400 Points, and here's Lost Odyssey's latest - an additional mission (or dungeon, if you want to be picky) for 400 Points (GBP 3.40 / EUR 4.32).

Seekers of the Deep is the name, and it allows players who have reached the fourth disc of this mammoth JRPG to voyage in the Nautilus to the cryptically titled Experimental Staff Remains. Half the fun of exploring a new area in an RPG is the element of surprise, so I'm not going to spoil any details. Suffice to say that it's a passable side-quest, but nothing particularly thrilling.

It offers more for your Points than Mass Effect's Bring Down The Sky expansion, if only because it offers the opportunity to face more new enemies, find more unique items, earn more Achievements and has a generally more satisfying structure. The final boss of the dungeon, however, is a massive pain in the arse if you've not got your immortals levelled way, way up.

6/10

Lost Odyssey fans can also invest in the Triple Bonus Pack for 200 Points (GBP 1.70 / EUR 2.16), offering three new items. One is an antique which contains a new dream, Shattered Bond, further fleshing out Kaim's back story.

The Memory Lamp, meanwhile, allows you to revisit previous cut-scenes once you reach disc four and the Killer Machine is a new ring to equip and admire and use to smash monsters and stuff. All three are fairly limited in scope, even for the pennies they cost, and it's hard to justify buying them at any price. When you look at what other games are giving away, this sort of miscellaneous bric-a-brac really needs to be offered free. But it isn't, so boo.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

Let's make one thing clear - I love me some Puzzle Quest. Yelping with excitement like a puppy at the news that the expansion was finally here, I gladly - though rather too hurriedly - forked over the 700-Point (GBP 5.95 / EUR 7.56) asking price. To put that into perspective, the game itself now only costs 800 Points - reduced from 1200 - so you'd expect a seriously hefty basket of new content to make it worthwhile.

We still fancy the dead woman from near the end.

Revenge of the Plague Lord sadly disappoints on that score. It opens up a series of new quests, starting at the bottom of the familiar game map, but with just 25 new missions to undertake it should only take a reasonably skilled player one evening to finish off. There are new creatures to battle - the Storm Giants are a notable addition, along with various plague-themed ghouls - and they bring with them some new spells and magical items that can be earned. The Storm Giants also provide the only real challenge of the new quests, with the villainous Antharg - brother of Lord Bane - proving pathetically easy to defeat. The level cap has been raised to 60, and by the time I faced Antharg his health was almost half of what I'd reached. Defeating him was, inevitably, more of an obligation than a thrill.

The addition of four new character classes may be enough to prompt long-serving players to start over. Bards can sing songs that create or extend status effects, Rogues cast spells that use gold coins for damage, the Ranger specialises in arrow attacks that target all gems of specific colours while the Warlock comes with a mouth-watering selection Mana-affecting spells. However, for those who've got a character that they've levelled up and are looking for fresh challenges to pit them against, this is a feeble and pricey addition to a wonderful game.

6/10

N+

How's this for generosity? 200 new levels for 200 Points (GBP 1.70 / EUR 2.16). That's one point per level. Admittedly, a level for N+ isn't quite the same undertaking as a new map for an FPS, but I'd wager the design work is no less impressive and the result is infinitely more charming.

The Xbox Live Arcade outing for Metanet's limber little ninja is already assured a spot in my favourites of the year, squeezing a well-earned 8/10 from my calcified heart back in March, so 150 new single-player levels and 50 new multiplayer maps - the first of four such packs - are a most welcome addition to the family.

The solo levels open with an apology directed towards "everyone still stuck on Master Control", referring to one of the more brutal levels in the original game. The first level, taking place beneath a giant "SORRY" is as easy as walking left to right. Things get considerably trickier, but this batch is deliberately less taxing than the rather daunting levels that came with the game. Even so, 150 of the buggers is more than an evening's work - and that's before you tackle the fifty multiplayer levels. Those are "regular" difficulty, by the way. You also get some new costumes for N himself, or rather two fetching hairstyles - Afro and Mohawk.

For 200 Points, it's the perfect amount of fun, intelligently parcelled up in just the right portions. Even if dedicated players will find the new solo levels none too challenging, there's a joy in simply seeing what ingenious new layout they'll come up with next.

9/10

Rock Band

And so we come to the part where I list a bunch of songs that you can download for guitar games, and you decide if you like them or not. Rock Band is at least mixing things up a little, with two new albums added to the line-up recently.

If you're not excited by the prospect of playing Doolittle by Pixies in its entirety, from Debaser through to Gouge Away, then I fear for your soul. Not only is it a great album, but a sign that the people choosing tracks for Rock Band are looking for more than just big stadium riffs. Doolittle is a great pop record, but it's also a weird pop record - constantly shifting the musical dynamic, with songs that come together in unexpected ways. It's a great choice and one that's both fun and challenging to play, without being impossible. God help the poor sods who have to try and match Black Francis on the microphone though. Theirs is the toughest job, and I Bleed and Tame both earn their throat-mangling high-tier status for vocalists. Doolittle is 1520 Points (GBP 12.92 / EUR 16.43) for fourteen tracks, and all tracks are also available separately for 160 Points (GBP 1.36 / EUR 1.73).

9/10

We got 100 per cent on Californication in a hotel in Vegas once. It's all been downhill since. And prior.

For the more traditional rocker, The Who joined the fray in the middle of July with the 12-track Best of The Who collection for 1600 Points (GBP 13.60 / EUR 19.20). Yes, that's 80 more Points than Pixies with two fewer tracks - looks like Roger Daltrey is getting his conservatory done. It's a good selection, including essentials like Baba O'Riley and My Generation, but it feels like a bit of a mixed bag. Personally, I think the chance to play along to the whole of Live At Leeds would have been more satisfying - and more in keeping with the whole Rock Band concept of virtual performance. What better way to live out that fantasy than by recreating one of the most legendary live recordings ever? Again, all tracks are available separately.

8/10

Recent weeks have also tracks brought us fun playalong tracks by Rush, Red Hot Chili Peppers and speccy indie faves Weezer. The most recent addition is the second Nine Inch Nails pack, boasting Burn, Capital G and Last - still no Head Like A Hole? For shame. There's also a track by earnest plod-rockers Staind and if you download that I will hunt you down like a dog. I mean it.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

While Rock Band has been coming up with entire albums, and smatterings of single tracks, Guitar Hero is still strumming away with the ol' three-track pack routine. The fixed 500-Point (GBP 4.25 / EUR 5.40) price-tag seems little rigid when compared to Rock Band's more flexible approach, where such packs vary from 240 points to 440. Whichever way you slice it, Guitar Hero is both pricier and less varied. With that said, here's what they've offered in the last few months.

The Isle of Wight Track Pack sounds like it should appeal to the old groovers in the house, but these tracks are taken from the revived festival, not the seminal 1970 shindig. So instead of Hendrix, Miles Davis and Sly Stone you get Shoot the Runner by Kasabian and I Predict A Riot by Kaiser Chiefs. Hmm. Also included, rather bizarrely, is a live recording of The Sex Pistols. Performing in Brixton. Hmm again. So the concept is basically that these are three acts that played at the Isle of Wight this June. Apart from Kasabian, who were on last year. It's a muddled selection, basically, and one that reeks of a rushed promotion.

5/10

Do we still play this? Alright then.

If you're focused on the riffs, then you can't go wrong with the beer and chips leather anthems of Motorhead. As tracks go, (We Are) The Road Crew, Stay Clean and self-titled headbanger Motorhead are all fine examples of Lemmy's no-nonsense rock but you'll really need Ace of Spades from Guitar Hero II for the obvious-but-essential neck-snapping finale.

7/10

Other track packs include three from twiddly-fingered heavy prog-rockers Muse (Exo-Politics, Stockholm Syndrome and Supermassive Black Hole) and a trio from the shiny golden manes of Def Leppard (Nine Lives, Photograph, Rock of Ages). And maybe I'm just showing my age, but a Def Leppard Guitar Hero pack without Animal hardly seems worth the data it's printed on.