Xbox Live DLC Roundup

Turok

• Multiplayer Map Pack - 400 Points (GBP 3.40 / EUR 4.80)

Apparently this limp shooter has sold over a million copies worldwide. Assuming most of those didn't find their way into the pre-owned bin within a week, that means there's a sizable audience out there for this generous selection of five multiplayer maps.

Or at least it looks generous...

Of the five maps, only three are actually new. The co-op map takes place in a dinosaur holding pen, and sets the Whiskey Company team the task of escaping from captivity to a waiting helicopter before Wolf Pack troops unleash the dinos. It's actually quite good, provided you can get enough players to make it interesting, and at least a little different to the usual co-op missions.

Desolation and Sentinel are two more traditional multiplayer maps, neither of which hold up particularly well against similar offerings in other shooters, but are decent enough by Turok standards. Sentinel is probably the better of the two, simply because its mountain-top location offers more variety and there are some larger dinos roaming around to keep things busy.

Finally, we have Inconclusive Tests and A Rivalry Continues. These are what the blurb coyly describes as "re-lit" maps - in other words, these are maps you already have, but they've turned the lights off. Both Testing Ground and A Heated Rivalry are reused, but now they're played at night. While this does make a difference to how you play, it's rather disingenuous to claim they add two to the map total.

Of course, even three maps for 400 Points compares favourably with yer Halos and Calls of Duty, until you remember that those games are vastly superior to Turok in the first place. These could be the best multiplayer maps in the world, but they'd still be hamstrung by the fact that you have to play them using the still-clunky Turok engine.

5/10

Two Worlds

• Tainted Blood Pack - 600 Points (GBP 5.10 / EUR 7.20)
• Curse of Souls Pack 2 - 600 Points (GBP 5.10 / EUR 7.20)

And talking of games that probably can't be saved no matter how plentiful or generous the downloadable content is, here's Oblivion's mutant cousin.

That the game looks "like a sack of rotten crabs" was one of the nicer things Rob had to say about it, and so having failed to win over the solo adventurer Two Worlds is focusing on its lightweight MMORPG trimmings for downloadable entertainment.

Two new packs have appeared in the Game Store over the last few weeks - Tainted Blood and Curse of Souls. At a wallet-pinching 600 Points each, you get four new maps per pack, containing between 35 and 50 new co-op quests, along with a new PvP team game. Sadly, the co-op maps still suffer from the same problems as the online elements of the packaged game - namely poor design, sparsely populated lobbies and unacceptable frame rate issues.

The PvP game is simply a matter of stomping around four additional maps, collecting more orbs than the other team. "There is more strategy to winning than you think," declares the pre-download text. No, there really isn't. It's a mindless collect-'em-up with no depth whatsoever.

These half-baked offerings may placate those with no concept of what online role-playing is capable of in 2008, but even then 600 Points is far too much to ask. With a file size smaller than many Xbox Live Arcade games, it's clear that these are not the sort of expansions that a high-definition RPG requires. Really, how many worthwhile maps and quests can you fit into 46MB? There's precious little chance of these flimsy selections redeeming a very sloppy game.

2/10