A Night at the Arcade: Heavy Weapon

When I think of the Xbox 360, I think "next-generation" and "cutting-edge". I do not conjure up images of dinky casual games that you can play for free on your web browser. Yet why do I find myself regularly checking the new downloads on the Xbox Live Marketplace? And why, just a mere week after bringing my 360 home, did I spend several late nights exploding gems in between psychedelic interludes in Bejeweled 2?

I continue to ask myself this question after happily downloading the full version of Heavy Weapon, from PopCap Games. While I begrudgingly accepted the fact I would eventually be buying those nefarious Microsoft Points, I didn't expect to succumb so soon. I was really holding out for the XBL version of Double Dragon, which was recently confirmed for release but no specific date has been set aside from "2007".

To its credit, I must admit that Heavy Weapon has been a fine introduction to Downloadable Content (DLC) on Xbox Live Marketplace. The game is an unabashed throw-back to the hectic, arcade shooters of the 1980s, complete with cheeky humour and bright, attractive cartoon graphics. At 800 MS Points (roughly $10 USD), it isn't the cheapest, value-packed casual game around but it more than makes up for it with the additional play modes, coupled with 2-4 player offline and online co-op.

What ultimately sold me on Heavy Weapon was its basic similarity to Geometry Wars, minus the insanely brisk ramp up in difficulty! You are only attacked from an 180 degree range of angles, as opposed to Geometry's 360 degress of twitch-reflex madness. It's a fun, quick game to jump into and it provides that nice, light snack in between my regular, hefty servings of Gears of War and Rainbow Six: Vegas.

Credit also goes to Microsoft for making it so devilishly easy to purchase more MS Points the next time you find yourself tempted by more retro arcade diversions.

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R6 Map Pack - 800 MS Points, Give or Take

There's a rumour printed in the March issue of the Official Xbox Magazine about a map pack for Rainbow Six: Vegas headed for Marketplace. This would be a collection of 10 new maps and 2 additional multiplayer modes, Assassination and Conquest.

This map pack is supposed to cost 800 Microsoft Points. As someone who's held out on buying any MS points thus far, I really hope that's not the case. Gears of War impressed fans with their free map pack release last month, although to be fair, they were only giving away 2 maps, not 10.

Oh well, unless I totally fall out of love with R6, looks like I'll be caught in a bind. There's obviously enough players out there who'd shell out the cash for the map pack and I'm sure a lot of them would be on my friends list, thereby forcing me to step up or step down.

Damn you, micro-transactions!

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