Jonesing to play Lode Runner, Castle Crashers, Galaga Legions, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, or Braid?  Have I got some great news for you.  The wait will soon be over. 

One of Microsoft's many XBLA evangelists was live on E3 Live on Gamespot (thanks to being on the road with glitchy internet, I missed his name) talking up the "best content lineup" on XBLA ever and told the world that all these games would be out "by the end of the summer."  And more specifically he said, "in the next two months."

If all goes as planned I'll likely be at least 4000 MSP poorer in two months time (though no price points have been announced).

After the break I'll hit on a couple of points that were covered about each of those games.

As the clock ticks inexorably toward Microsoft's big E3 press conference the biggest question remains: did every secret get spilled? 

It seems the past days and weeks have been filled with leaks, squeaks, and outright floods of information covering all the aces up Microsoft's sleeve.  But might there be some nugget undiscovered?  For just that reason I will be here ready to pounce on any information exiting their mouths (and video streams) relating to XBLA and will report it as fast as possible here in this post.  Will there be a release date for community games?  A surprise release this week?  New game announcements?  Absolutely nothing interesting?We'll know soon.

I'll keep things brief and to the point and do more thorough stories on individual topics as the days go on.  So sit back and enjoy.  Everything interesting will appear after the break.

Microsoft (via Gamerscoreblog) has declared that Coffeetime Crosswords is a lock for the E3 week release this Wednesday.  Cue the complaining about how this isn't a "worthy" release followed by crossword fans snapping the game up in droves.

But could it be that Coffeetime will be sharing the E3 spotlight?  X360F speculated that Shred Nebula would be starring alongside the puzzler but have since updated their post.  I guess not every E3 mystery will be solved before breakfast.  We'll have plenty of answers in a few hours though.  Stay tuned.

Oh, I almost forgot.  We'll also be getting some Buku Sudoku DLC (It's out now and includes 1200 New Puzzles for free!) and Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords will be hitting the Arcade Hits library with a price drop down to 800 MSP.

PR post break.

[via X360F]

You Reviewed It, Where Is It?

Apparently OXM has realized that they've reviewed a bunch of XBLA games that still have yet to be released into the wild.  Two games that fall in that category are Tron and Discs of Tron.  Despite the gap between review and release, the games are not going to change at all according to OXM.

But when the heck are they coming out anyway?  And if they haven't changed, why delay?  Especially since games aren't held back according to one David Edery.

Kick Ass And Chew Bubblegum

OXM points us in the direction of Shacknews.com which recently (aka 2 months ago) heard 3D Realms' George Broussard spouting about an XBLA version of Duke Nukem 3D.  He said that 3D Realms is "just waiting on the good word from Microsoft to continue."

But our forumites already told us that.  Silly print magazine, rumors are for blogs.

[via OXM #76 November 2007]

After months of fruitless searching for anything (and trust me I did a crazy amount of searching) on a mysterious game called GEON coming from Eidos New Media (part of Eidos Interactive), we finally get some questions answered.

Continue below for details and screenshots!

GameSetWatch has created an indepth opinion analysis of the results of E3 from the eyes of the downloadable fan.  Skipping ahead to ruin the piece for you GameSetWatch feels that XBLA while it had the most titles didn't necessarily have the more interesting titles.  Can you blame them though?  In terms of the lack of "major" new titles being announced for the system at E3, everyone will probably point to titles like Everyday Shooter and Elefunk on Playstation Network over titles like Marathon and Poker Smash on Xbox Live Arcade.  Take away the fact that we're fanboys, who would you say won the E3 downloadable war?

As shown in tuesdays XBLA montage, a new tile-based puzzle game will be hitting the service sometime in 2007 titled: Poker Smash.  Drew Card of Void Star was kind enough to answers some questions about their upcoming title.

Click "read more" to see his answers:

Alex Seropian, formerly of Bungie and currently of Wideload, has a crack team of coding hippopotami (always wanted to use that word in a post) focused on bringing a digital nugget of gaming pleasure to XBLA. 

He spoke with Brandon Sheffield of Gamasutra earlier this week and admitted (under duress, mind you) that Wideload "[has] a game right now that is destined for Live Arcade."

This announcement comes at an interesting moment considering the recent announcement of Marathon: Durandal.  The original Marathon was co-designed by Seropian, who also helped give birth to the Myth series as well as that little game called Halo: Combat Evolved.  But Seropian is not one to linger on the past as he left Bungie in 2003 to found Wideload and develop Stubbs The Zombie.

Hopefully, that irreverent sense of humor over at Wideload appears in their XBLA game (humor is majorly underused/absent in games).  But, the real question on my mind is this: how could this game possibly live up to the sheer brilliance of the tease on Wideload's home page:

COMING SOON! Project: Hot Sauce And The Rainbow Space Car

[via Gamasutra]

As per usual, our keen-eyed rumor mongers were right.  Marathon: Durandal is coming.  As if the USK retraction could fool us.  C'mon people, give us some credit.  But that is just the tip of the iceberg.  And now that the feline entity has escaped its papery cage we can finally talk details.  Let's start with the basics and work our way though everything, shall we?  Join me after the break for more words than a post should ever have.

Turns out that Sonic the Hedgehog and Golden Axe are merely the tip of the iceberg.  SEGA has formally announced their SEGA Vintage Collection for XBLA.  What it breaks down to for us is this: more vintage SEGA games; In HD;  With online multiplayer (where appropriate), achievements, and leaderboards.

Sounds pretty good right?  (Actually, it sounds pretty amazing to me personally.) 

The scoop is that the next set of games out of SEGA for XBLA will be Ecco the Dolphin, Streets of Rage 2, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (the latter two sporting online multiplayer).

Keep 'em coming SEGA.  Or as Destructoid says "MOAR PLZ!"

[via Destructoid]