Marketplace Update, March 21, 2006

There's always a little something new to find on Xbox Live® Marketplace, it seems, but occasionally there comes a week crammed with loads of new content. Lucky for us, now is one of those times. A windfall of goodies has dropped onto the service. Here's a quick breakdown of what you can find.

At last, the demo is here.

Playable Revenge
New to the downloadable demo scene is the Burnout Revenge™ demo, and, like all before it, it's free to download. Unlike the multiplayer-only The Outfit™ demo, this free download is playable for both Xbox Live Silver and Xbox Live Gold members.

If you're new to the series, this Burnout Revenge demo provides an excellent fast-paced, crash-heavy introduction to the chaotic racer. For veterans of the series or the original Xbox® version of Burnout Revenge, you can get a taste of the visual and presentation improvements that fill every nook and cranny of this next-gen version.

Themes and Pics
It's the Themes and Gamer Pictures section that has received a massive set of additions. Here's what's new:

• The Outfit picture pack and theme: Those enamored with the destruction-filled exploits of The Outfit can rejoice with both a dashboard theme and picture pack. The theme highlights each hero individually for three of the dashboard blades, as well as a beauty shot of one of tanks used in-game. As expected, the picture pack boasts portraits of your favorite heroes, as well as an icon of a 40's style pinup girl riding a bomb, and a few army style insignias.
• GRAW theme: Fans of newly released Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™ (and according to a recent sales report, there's a ton of you) can enjoy a new dashboard theme released by Ubisoft. The theme highlights action shots of the single-player squad leader behind an almost sandy veneer, befitting the Mexico City setting. The fourth blade boasts the Ghost icon for the titular squad.
• St. Patrick's Day picture pack and Theme: Though the holiday has come and gone, you can still celebrate the luck of the Irish with a set of gamer pictures and a dashboard theme that sport a whole lot of green and three-leaf clovers.
• Battlefield Bonanza: Not one to shy away from both quantity and quality, the folks at DICE and Electronic Arts have unleashed a slew of gamer pictures and themes for Battlefield 2: Modern Combat™ on Xbox 360™. Save one, each gamer picture pack highlights the classes from each faction, and each theme (except one) highlights action shots specific to a certain class. You'll find the following available for download:
  • US picture pack
  • Chinese picture pack
  • European picture pack
  • MEC picture pack
  • Standard picture pack with a shot of a soldier sporting a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and one of a jeep
  • Engineer theme
  • Sniper theme
  • Special Ops theme
  • Support troop theme
  • Action theme

This last theme showcases some highly stylized shots from the game. Fans may recognize them as different renders of recently released screenshots for Battlefield 2: Modern Combat on Xbox 360.

Boys with toys.

Trailers
This week offers a little bit of everything, with a brand new music video to get down with, a sneak peak at the Tiburon-developed Superman Returns, an Advanced Warfighter trailer set to a Jimi Hendrix classic, and a feature video from GameTrailers.com.

• Natasha Bedingfield video: Fans of the pop start are in for a treat as a high-definition version of her music video for Unwritten is now available for download free of charge. The video is nice enough, but, more importantly, this marks the first step in the new Xbox Live Artist of the Month feature, where you can not only download videos via Marketplace, but also have an opportunity to play against the featured artist on Xbox Live, participate in a monthly sweepstakes, and gain access to behind-the-scenes interview via Marketplace as well.
• Superman Returns trailer: This first trailer for the upcoming game developed by Tiburon (makers of Madden) and based on the movie offers fans a glimpse of the next-gen world built for the game, as well as some gorgeous action from the Man of Steel himself. Of particular note is that while this isn't gameplay footage in the strictest sense, it's put together from in-game assets. Truly impressive.
• Watchtower trailer: This in-game trailer for GRAW highlights some tense action from the third-person tactical shooter and is set to the classic "All Along the Watchtower" song made famous by Seattle's own Jimi Hendrix.
• GRAW feature: Courtesy of GameTrailers.com, you can download a narrated feature video that highlights the best that Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter has to offer.

Beware the swordfish.

Xbox Live Arcade
The library of Xbox Live Arcade games continues to grow. The newest addition to the family is Feeding Frenzy™ from Sprout Games. This colorful action/puzzle title has you generating massive high scores by dexterously nabbing smaller fish while avoiding the larger predators. Similar in gameplay to old-school classics like Robotron but with an attitude and design all its own, this game is available for download as a free trial, or you can unlock the full game with 800 Microsoft Points.

Article by Ryan Treit