I just got my very own shiny copy of Official Xbox Magazine (October 2008) this afternoon.  On the cover -- "Finally! The Return of Duke Nukem on Live Arcade!"

Like many of you, I become extremely dubious of anything Duke Nukem related I see these days.  Duke Nukem Forever is still vaporware as far as I am concerned (despite word otherwise from 3D Realms) and the possibility of an XBLA version of the original Duke 3D seems just as undependable.  We've heard rumors about this game for too long without some sort of confirmation so when I saw the headline I prepped my mammoth sized grain of salt.

Apparently, I was wrong to doubt them this time.  Find details of the "confirmation" after the break.

[via OXM October 2008]

TeamXbox scored some gameplay videos of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 and have also apparently nailed down the release date -- July 30th.

So despite the tease of getting Bionic Commando Rearmed being unfulfilled, we might end up with another treasure to, well, treasure come Wednesday.

Does this speedy release make up for the lack of online coop?

[via TeamXbox, thanks sumhydroponic]

IGN has a feature up about NinjaBee's upcoming XBLA game A Kingdom for Keflings.  All we've heard or seen of the game so far was this teaser video.  Course, for me, knowing it's a NinjaBee game is enough to want it.

Go ahead and check out the new trailer (here or there), screenshots, and the interview with Steve Taylor (president of NinjaBee).  Then, come on back here because we'll soon have our own exclusive Keflings coverage in the coming days.

Any up for some 4-player cooperative kingdom building later this fall?

[via IGN]

360Sync nailed down a date with publisher D3 for the new Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords expansion.  Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords - Revenge of the Plague Lord (could the name be any longer?) launches this week on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008.

The basic details are as follows:

• Four new hero classes: Bard, Rogue, Ranger, and Warlock
• New area on the southern map
• 25 new quests
• 50 new spells
• 40 new items
• New monsters, bosses, and a new archenemy
• Adventure with new or existing characters
• 3 new achievements
• Level cap raised to 60

All that content will set you back 700 MSP.  The expansion arrives on the heels of Puzzle Quest's induction into the Arcade Hits portfolio (which meant a drop to 800 MSP from 1200 MSP).  Good timing or clever marketing?  You decide.

Anyone looking to snap this up on Wednesday or are there other games you'd prefer to play?

[via 360Sync]

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.

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]

NinjaBee, the developers of such awesome titles as Outpost Kaloki X or Band of Bugs, announced earlier that they're developing a new XBLA title.

While the details are scarce right now, A Kingdom for Keflings will be a city-building sim with "light-hearted gameplay and graphics". The game will feature the titular 3-foot tall Keflings, supposedly, as your helpers building while you build your kingdom.

A Kingdom for Keflings is expected to hit XBLA this Fall.

From: Kotaku and Xbox360Fanboy

It looks like the official "rumors" are wrong and Major Nelson has announced that Buku Sudoku (800 MS Points) and Warlords (400 MS Points) will be this week's arcade titles.  For more information, feel free to read the entire media alert or our previous coverage of these titles.  The sudoku title looks nice.  I'll have to demo Warlords as it is a retro remake, which usually means shovelware.  What will you be picking up this Wednesday?

Thanks Paya!

It's Memorial Day here in the United States, which means that no one is working (for the most part).  According to the latest Major Nelson podcast, that also means that we will have to wait until tomorrow to hear what this week's Xbox Live Arcade game will be.  Although, remember that last week we reported that Xbox UK stated that Commando 3 will be this weeks (5/28) title.   We'll let you know tomorrow morning if this does turn out to be correct.

Forum goer tancredo sends us a tip of the next two releases for Xbox Live Arcade being Commando 3 on May 28th and Roogoo on June 4th.  It'll be interesting to see if these release dates actually pan out.  The word on Commando 3 comes from the Xbox newsletter; where as, the Roogoo release date comes to us from a preview on IGN Xbox 360.  Keep your fingers crossed.

[Update]: Image of the UK newsletter with visual proof circled in red added.  Thanks Tim.