Second of Bungie's Marathon Trilogy, Board Games Hit XBLA

Freeverse will bring Bungie's Marathon: Durandal, a forerunner to the developer's Halo games, to Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday for 800 Microsoft Points ($10). The title will arrive alongside Freeverse and Strange Flavour's Spyglass Board Games for 400 Microsoft Points ($5). An enhanced port of the second title in Bungie's cult Marathon trilogy, Marathon 2: Durandal, the Xbox Live version features entirely redrawn HD graphics and a constant 60fps framerate. In the single player campaign, you've been sent to explore an alien world by Durandal, an A.I. on the starship Marathon where you're stationed as an officer. Freeverse has also added support for four-player offline splitscreen and eight-player online play over Xbox Live. The Marathon trilogy comprised 1994's Marathon, 1995's Marathon 2: Durandal, and 1996's Marathon Infinity. Marathon 2: Durandal marked the only game in the series with a PC-compatible version, as the other titles were released exclusively for Apple Macintosh. Spyglass Board Games, the other title available for download Wednesday, includes Xbox Live-supported chess, checkers, mancala, and reversi. The titles support video chatting during play with the Xbox Live Vision camera and allow you to play with custom game pieces such as "a furry checkers piece with cute gleaming eyes," according to Microsoft.