• Newcomer's Guide to Xbox Live
• Choosing a Gamertag
• Top 10 Reasons to Get XboxLive

The Feature that Keeps on Giving

We know you love your Xbox games. We love 'em too. But we also know that after you've logged300 hours in ANY game (yes, even the almighty Halo), you start to wish for something new. And we all know how long sequels can take to come around. So for those hardcore gamers who just can't wait for Part 2 and are itching for something new RIGHT NOW, we have Content Download, courtesy of Xbox Live.

What is Content Download? Well it's stuff that you can get rightfrom the Xbox Live service straight onto your Xbox hard disk (so that's why we put that in there!). No need to go to the store, no need towrestle withthat insidious shrink-wrap. Just click a couple buttons in the XboxLive Dashboard, and ta-dah! New game content is flowing through those Ethernet cablesright into your Xbox!

What kind of content, you ask? How do new cars and tracks for racing games grab ya? Weapons, skins, and maps for first-person shooter enthusiasts? How about whole new civilizationsand technologies for strategy games? RPG your bag, baby? You'll be able to download armor, spells, weapons, characters, monsters… anything you can think of.

That all sounds great, but what's the catch? Is it gonna take all afternoon to download? Will it cost a fortune? Are any game developers going to take the time to create new content?

The bigger the chunks of stuff are that you want to download, the longer it's going to take. So, downloading a whole orc village is going to take a while, whereas downloading a spell or a broadsword will be done before you can blink. It'll be the same for pricing. Some stuff will cost money, but there's tons of free stuff, too.Don't worry, nothing will ever have hidden charges. Whenever you click the final "Okay" and start downloading, you'll always know exactly how much it's going to cost you.

Downloading stuff on Xbox Live is like going to the best concert you've ever been to, and then getting to go backstage and meet the band. It takes afantastic time and makes it that much better.