When it comes to Joystiq and Bungie's seminal shooter, Marathon, you can always count on two things: unbridled praise from us and someone mentioning it's complete lack of cost. Back in January 2005, the entire trilogy went freeware, opening the floodgates to a whole new generation of gamers enraptured by the seemingly parallel universe of Halo.
This past week at E3, Marathon: Durandal was officially announced for Xbox Live Arcade, complete with online co-operative, as well as competitive play. Of course, none of this is actually new to the game itself and there are still folks playing it online to this day. Just last night we casted away the shackles of Santa Monica and stood up well past our bedtime just to "kill the guy with the ball." We blame our need for a Marathon fix on our brief time with the XBLA version.
Naturally, the question is still "why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?" Getting Marathon up and running on your PC or Mac isn't the most terribly accessible, nor convenient feat in the world, especially when taking online play into account. And while the community has taken it upon themselves to upgrade the graphics over the years, it's still not as nice as what we're seeing with the XBLA version.
So take the ol' girl out for a good time and should you be willing to settle down, you can come courting when it arrives later this Summer on Xbox Live Arcade.
Reader Comments (14)
Posted: Jul 14th 2007 9:27AM (Unverified) said
As someone who downloaded the entire trilogy about a year ago, I gotta say it's worth the MS points, but why do that when you can download it free with superior PC controls? The Marathon trilogy is surprisingly good for its age, and I'll even go so far as to say that I had a better time playing those games than I have playing half the modern games of today.
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Posted: Jul 16th 2007 4:32AM (Unverified) said
Frankly, I've always been one for controllers in 'two-and-a-half-D' games. Pure 3D is necessary for a mouse, but games such as Doom, Duke 3D, and Dark Forces always seemed more fun to me with a controller, as oddly as that many sound.
I can't wait to use my 360 controller to play it. Hell, I might plug in my wired controller and get practicing on Aleph one before the release.
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I can't wait to use my 360 controller to play it. Hell, I might plug in my wired controller and get practicing on Aleph one before the release.
Posted: Jul 14th 2007 10:20AM Stevorino said
I'm hoping a bunch of people get the XBLA version simply because it'll be easier to deal w/ than the PC version (other than the controls). It'd be fun to have a bunch O'People playing it online...I've never played it, but I'm definitely downloading it!
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Posted: Jul 14th 2007 10:07AM Maxathon said
I already have the whole trilogy, plus the awesome Marathon:Rubicon total conversion (I, uh, wrote the story for it--plug!) on my computer, but the mere fact that Durandal is coming to XBLA makes me want to buy a 360 just to play it there. How ridiculous am I? Mo' ridiculous!
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Posted: Jul 14th 2007 10:04AM (Unverified) said
Superior controls my ass, I dislike using keyboard and mouse simply because I use them so much for working and browsing the internet, superior aiming, sure, superior feel, debatable.
But yea, i'll download this to play against some buddehs, fun times ahead, achievements and a slight graphical update. (that was mentioned before I think)
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But yea, i'll download this to play against some buddehs, fun times ahead, achievements and a slight graphical update. (that was mentioned before I think)
Posted: Jul 16th 2007 4:31AM (Unverified) said
This release is going to be awesome. The crisper graphics are really appealing, the controls are guaranteed to be stellar, and the easy-access online play will be without all the hassle you find with the Aleph One applications.
The wonderful thing, tho, is that Marathon will finally get the exposure it has deserved for far, far too long.
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The wonderful thing, tho, is that Marathon will finally get the exposure it has deserved for far, far too long.
Posted: Jul 14th 2007 11:47AM sand0789 said
Maxathon, if you buy a 360 for Marathon, you will officially be my hero.
Bungie has basically said their sick of making Halo and Halo3 will be the last one in that story arc. How cool would it be if their next big shooter was a Marathon game.
I'm sure when it comes down to it, they will make another Halo game that just takes place at a different time, but it is still fun to speculate.
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Bungie has basically said their sick of making Halo and Halo3 will be the last one in that story arc. How cool would it be if their next big shooter was a Marathon game.
I'm sure when it comes down to it, they will make another Halo game that just takes place at a different time, but it is still fun to speculate.
Posted: Jul 14th 2007 12:41PM Accessgranted said
Yeah i downloaded the Marathon trilogy to like about a year and a half ago.... and i've got to say i really enjoy playing it! :) but i only played the campaign mode lol. I love all the weapons and catchy music! :) i might get the xbox download just to see what the acheivments are and play with my friends...(that never appreciated this awesome game btw because they only like games with superior graphics) But i bet they will get the 360 arcade version.... so yeah this should be really fun!
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Posted: Jul 14th 2007 1:07PM Maxathon said
Yeah, Jake, they know where their lunch money's at in terms of fan base... On the other hand, Halo's gameplay is very similar to Marathon's. It was the deeper plot and atmosphere that made Marathon the superior experience, for me at least.
Anyone know what Greg Kirkpatrick is up to now? I heard he was an english teacher or something.
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Anyone know what Greg Kirkpatrick is up to now? I heard he was an english teacher or something.
Posted: Jul 14th 2007 1:35PM (Unverified) said
http://source.bungie.org/get/ has this, plus extras in a much easier to obtain fashion.
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Posted: Jul 14th 2007 5:38PM (Unverified) said
The word "its" doesn't take an apostrophe in the first paragraph, as it's possessive. Ta-da!
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Posted: Jul 14th 2007 5:38PM Lord Minogue said
Improved graphics and co-op are why I will buy this game through live. "Gears" online co-op changed me; story mode is so much better when you are sharing it with someone.
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Posted: Jul 14th 2007 9:20PM (Unverified) said
Maxathon represent! I cowrote Rubicon,t hough relatively little of my story ended up being used in the final product. It's mostly Max.
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Posted: Jul 15th 2007 3:52AM Maxathon said
What up Ace, IIRC you wrote one of the two original scenarios (Dan, yeah?). Scott Brown did a lot of plotting as well of course, not to mention the project management. The guy's a whiz with that. But this is looking like the b.net forums :)
Well, for those of you who don't know the game, just goes to show you how good it was--an active fan base well over a decade after release!
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Well, for those of you who don't know the game, just goes to show you how good it was--an active fan base well over a decade after release!
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