Halo 3, Tomb Raider: Legend going downloadable

With a new 250GB hard drive accessory available and USB memory support just added to the Xbox 360, gamers on Microsoft's system have more storage options than ever before. To help gamers fill up all that extra space, Microsoft today laid out its Xbox Live Arcade and Games on Demand plans for the next few weeks.

Next Tuesday, Microsoft will add Tomb Raider: Legend to the Games on Demand section of the North American Xbox Live Marketplace, with gamers in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand getting Devil May Cry 4. The following week, Bungie's 2007 sci-fi shooter Halo 3 will be available for all Xbox 360 gamers around the world, with Europeans also getting the THQ open-world action game Saints Row for the first time.

This week also saw new options added to the Games on Demand service, as Microsoft launched Fable II worldwide and Fallout 3 in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Fable II was already available to download (except in Korea and Japan) in an episodic format, with the first chapter given away for free and subsequent portions of the game carrying a charge. Fallout 3 has also been seen on the service previously, as Bethesda's postapocalyptic role-playing game launched on the North American Games on Demand service last month.

Things are quieter elsewhere on the Xbox Live Marketplace, with the biggest launch being Capcom's Final Fight: Double Impact on Wednesday, April 14. The 800 Microsoft point ($10) game pairs the original arcade edition of Final Fight together with another of the publisher's quarter-munchers, Magic Sword. Both games will include high-definition graphical filters (like in the recent downloadable editions of Marvel vs. Capcom 2), with the option to view the games in full-screen mode or to see them surrounded by the original arcade bezel art. Capcom is also adding online multiplayer action to both games, incorporating GGPO netcode designed to disguise latency for arcade-quality online play.