GTA: San Andreas, Portal opening on XBL next week

Winner of multiple GameSpot Best of 2004 awards, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas continued the open-world action adventure gameplay established by Rockstar with GTAIII and GTA: Vice City. The M-for-Mature-rated game will be available Monday, October 20, as an Xbox Originals at a price of 1,200 Microsoft points ($15). GameSpot's review of the original game has the lowdown on what gamers can expect from the XBL download.

Trumping Valve's Half-Life franchise is no easy feat, but Portal arguably managed that Herculean effort when it debuted alongside Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 2 last November. The first-person puzzler with a mordant bent walked away with a Game of the Year award at the Game Developers Conference, beating out such highly acclaimed titles as BioShock, Call of Duty 4, and Super Mario Galaxy.

With the original Portal already available by way of the Xbox 360 edition of The Orange Box, Portal: Still Alive is an expansion of sorts. In addition to the original game, Microsoft said today that it will include 14 new levels exclusive to the XBL release, as well as another six "advanced maps." Portal: Still Alive will be available on Wednesday, October 22, for 1,200 Microsoft points ($15).