Max Payne 1 & 2 on Xbox Originals

One of the lesser noticed features on Xbox Live is something called "Xbox Originals". This is a feature where complete Xbox 1 games can be downloaded from the Marketplace, and you can play them on your Xbox 360. If you'd like to read more about the details of the originals program, you can do so here. Microsoft used to give this away for free for awhile via "Backwards Compatibility", and that still does work, but they stopped working on free updates to that right about the time that Originals came out on the 360.

Anyway, available now on Xbox Originals are the first two Max Payne games. These games were both released some years ago when the Xbox 1 was the current console from Microsoft. They've been out of print on physical media for some time now. You can occasionally find them for sale cheap still when a store decides to clear out old inventory. But starting now, you can get them any time you want digitally for 1200 Microsoft Points each.

If you click on the two box art images below, you will be taken to each game's respective page on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. From there you can use another little known, but very cool feature where you can buy the game online, and then the next time you turn on your 360, it will start downloading immediately. That works for anything in the Marketplace online. Check 'em out:

Posted by Joe Siegler at 10:47 AM | Discuss this story on our forums

Duke Nukem 3D XBLA now on Amazon.com

For those of you who haven't bought Duke Nukem 3D for Xbox Live Arcade, or wished you could buy a copy for a friend, there is a new option available to you.

Effective immediately, you can buy Duke Nukem 3D for Xbox LIVE Arcade via Amazon.com. Amazon has an Xbox LIVE store where you can buy the game through them and you get a coupon code which will allow you to download the game over XBLA. This has a couple of advantages over buying directly through your Xbox 360.

• If you want to buy a copy for a friend, you can do that now.
• You don't have to use "Microsoft Points" (this uses real dollars), so you only have to spend exactly the amount of money you want, not have all those extra points unused in your MS account.
• You can use Amazon.com gift certificates to buy the games.

So if you are in need of Duke Nukem 3D, check out the page for it on Amazon.com, or their entire Xbox LIVE store here.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 4:08 PM | Discuss this story on our forums

Duke Nukem 3D's Toilets Featured

One of the thing a lot of people remember about Duke Nukem 3D is a gag that turns up in the first level, that being an alien trooper sitting on the toilet when you open the door in the bathroom. Apparently the folks over at Crispy Gamer remember that too. Today they're launching the high class look back at games entitled "The World's Greatest Videogame Toilets". In this series, they plan on covering the 30 greatest toilets in videogames. They started the series with the toilet from Duke Nukem 3D, which you can see below. We checked, this is not an April Fools' joke from Crispy Gamer, they're apparently going to spend 30 days talking about potty humour. Here's what they said about Duke 3D:

For many gamers, Duke Nukem 3D represents the very first time we discovered a toilet in a videogame. I honestly can't recall seeing a toilet in a game prior to this. And you never forget your first time. The toilets you're about to see can be found inside the movie theater in the game's opening level. Yes, this was the age of sprites, so the game's urinals, while functioning, appear to be drawn onto the game's walls with an old, dried-out Sharpie. Warning: Brace yourself for the surprise behind Door No. 2.

They also have a video showing the toilet in action. You can check that out here.

Posted by Joe Siegler at 4:02 PM | Discuss this story on our forums