Some of us senior citizens are having a blast now that Marathon: Durandal is out for Xbox Live Arcade. I'll post later in greater length about how this adaptation is simultaneously absolutely faithful to the original while still timely and fun, and how its design teaches lessons still relevant a decade after its release.
However, many Halo fans have never played Marathon. Many may not have heard of it until now. Some, as ridiculous as this sounds, were not even born when it was released. Is Marathon still for them?
It sure is. But before playing, it's best just to do some fair warnings about some quirks in Marathon's design that might frustrate a player whose only exposure to Bungie so far is the Halo series.
It seems that Luke Smith first dropped the one-word bomb of confirmation in the NeoGAF forums, but in case anyone had any doubts, Smith immediately followed up with an official post on Bungie.net, which was then posted about just about everywhere, including HBO,
Major Nelson says that Marathon Durandal is one of two games that will hit Xbox Live Arcade this week; specifically, on Wednesday, when XBLA gets its weekly update.
Durandal wll cost 800 points. For more information and screenshots, check the Marathon Durandal page at Xbox.com.
Luke Smith has posted an interview with Freeverse's Bruce Morrison over at Bungie.net to explain how and why Marathon is coming to the Xbox and the role that the Bungie community played in it:
Earlier this week at E3 Lite, Microsoft and Bungie showed a video of campaign gameplay and cinematic footage from Halo 3. I've planned two pieces as a result. The first one examines the trends in the nature of campaign trailers from Halo 1 to Halo 3, and the other will break down the Halo 3 Campaign Trailer scene by scene, and will be ready later this week.