Microsoft Apologizes with Undertow

As I'm sure many of you are well aware, Microsoft has announced that the XBLA game, Undertow will be available for free download sometime this week. This comes on the heels of the public apology from Xbox Live GM, Marc Whitten, for the poor performance of the Live network during the busy holiday season.

I don't have too much to say about the chose of game to "make amends" with the many dissatisfied Live customers. I wasn't particularly taken with the demo for Undertow. I'm not fond of "capturing and holding control points" game play which this game is built around and really think it only fits well with genres like RTS's. I can't imagine it would have been hard to issue a coupon code for Live subscribers to use to download any Arcade game they wished. Offering up a game that's already been available for several weeks is uninspired, lazy and instantly rubs owners who already purchased the game the wrong way, right away.

As for Whitten's apology, well, keep apologizing. Xbox Live is still in shambles. I'm plagued by frequent disconnects, slow sign-ins and perpetual loading icons for the Marketplace, Live and Game blades of my dashboard. Quite frankly, they could have offered Xevious as their free game and I wouldn't care, so long as Live is functioning as it should be.