Stimulate your mind with Chessmaster and your senses with Rez HD

On top of a polished, cheaper version of Rez HD, Chessmaster Live will appear on the Xbox Live Marketplace this Wednesday as long as you are not in Japan or Korea. Ubisoft’s online enabled Chessmaster title has one feature to make a standout over Spyglass Games, message chess. Similar to e-mail chess, you can play a game of chess over a number of weeks through a messages sent through Xbox Live. Not exactly the most compelling feature to warrant twice the price over Microsoft’s mega bundle of board games. But in the case of Chessmaster Live you’re paying for branding and hopefully more challenging AI.

Unfortunately for Chessmaster Live, it will be competing against a graphically/aurally enhanced version of Rez, which is also priced at 800 Microsoft Points ($10). Between the two, my money goes to Rez HD, even though I own a physical PlayStation 2 disc.