The definitive tower defense game for Xbox LIVE, Defense Grid: The Awakening is easy to pick up, engrossing to play, and hard to set down. Strategically place your towers on the map to prevent alien enemies from stealing your power cores. Play for just fifteen minutes or several hours! This award-winning game includes 10 hours of story play with 20 unique maps in the Awakening campaign, four bonus Borderlands maps, a wide variety of tower and enemy types, an interactive soundtrack, plus over 100 unlockable challenge modes adding dozens of hours of additional fun. Protect the Cores!

“Defense Grid: The Awakening” starts defending on September 2nd at 9 a.m. GMT (2:00 a.m. PDT).

Published and developed by Hidden Path Entertainment, “Defense Grid: The Awakening” will be available for 800 Microsoft Points everywhere, and is rated E10 for Everyone 10+ by the ESRB. For more details on “Defense Grid: The Awakening” you can visit: http://www.xbox.com/games/d/defensegridxboxlivearcade/

As one of the leading consumer brands to successfully cross over into the world of video games, Doritos tortilla chips -- a flagship snack brand within PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay division -- today announced it will once again offer the creative opportunity of a lifetime to video game lovers with the chance to design a new Xbox LIVE® Arcade game. Today marks the return of “Unlock Xbox,” a ground-breaking video game design contest that puts the creative control to design an Xbox LIVE Arcade game in consumers’ hands.

The Unlock Xbox contest, which is driven by a collaboration between the Doritos brand and Microsoft, originated in 2007 and lead to the creation of the record-breaking “Doritos Dash of Destruction,” the first consumer-created Xbox LIVE Arcade game, which went on to become the fastest Xbox LIVE Arcade game to reach one million downloads. It's currently unknown whether either of the next two title will be developed by NinjaBee like the previous game.

Starting today, people in the 50 United States can submit game concepts that embody the big, bold and intense spirit of the Doritos brand in the following categories: Action, Shooter, Racing, Puzzle, Retro, Strategy, Role-Playing, Vehicle Simulation, Music / Rhythm and Sports. Simply send in a video of you discussing your idea and you can win up to $50,000 and get your game made.

According to Rlan from GamerBytes.com, the XBLA intends to publish a remake of the 2001 PC classic Serious Sam on the Xbox LIVE Arcade sometime after this Summer, and for the nice price of 1200 Microsoft Points.

Dubbed Serious Sam HD, the game will include the entire first game (PC) with completely remade visuals, and will also feature 4 player co-operative play.

If you don’t know, then you know now that Serious Sam is a completely over the top shooter in the vein of the hundred-of-enemies style of gameplay that the original DOOM with a bit of Duke Nukem 3D added to the mix.

The game is still being developed by Croteam, the original creators of Serious Sam, and as mentioned previously, will be published by Majesco.

Check out the classic "As Seen on TV" infomercial that seems more than fitting for the self-parodying, Croatian-developed FPS. Serious Sam -- now that it’s more serious-ier than ever, aside from the infomercial, you must be wary of all the numbers and testimonials used. Is it really the classic in HD? Does the game really run at "6005 polygons per krundle?

Everyone who's played games like Xbox LIVE Arcade’s Texas Hold'em knows how fun it can be to compete against fellow players over the Internet.  But there is definitely a big difference between the type of gameplay you’ll see featured in Xbox poker games and that of Texas Holdem online. 

For one thing, many of the people in Xbox games will play wilder - and by that, we mean worse - since they’re only using play money.  Online poker rooms, on the other hand, use real money so people are more conservative with their play. The players will however still play pretty passively after the flop, no matter their holdings. This means you should tighten up your range of starting hands, not bluff as much, and you'll have a much better shot at becoming profitable at the low stakes tables.

Another thing to be aware of is that XBLA poker doesn’t offer all of the different variations and poker games you’ll find online at many of the top poker sites.  This means you need to be a well-rounded player before making the switch from the Xbox 360 to online poker, or at least stick within your comfort zone and hone your skills at Holdem before switching games.

PopCap Games, the leading developer and publisher of broadly appealing video games, recently announced the upcoming launch of Peggle™ Nights on the Xbox LIVE® Arcade (XBLA) online service of Microsoft’s Xbox 360® video game console.

Peggle Nights is specifically tuned for the XBLA player and is an expansion for the original Peggle, already available on the Xbox LIVE Arcade. This new expansion will include all 60 levels and 60 challenges from the PC and Mac versions of Peggle Nights – along with the ability to play all the new Nights content in the exclusive multiplayer modes found only on the Xbox LIVE Arcade and will add three new Xbox 360 achievements worth a total of 50 gamerscore, bringing Peggle up to a total of 250 gamerscore. The Peggle Nights expansion pack will be available for download exclusively on Xbox LIVE this Autumn.

“The addictive and fun gameplay of the Peggle franchise translates extremely well when tuned for the XBLA platform,” noted Sukhbir Sidhu, co-creator of Peggle and studio chief at PopCap. “Since launching earlier this year, Peggle for XBLA earned top awards from industry critics while taking full advantage of the XBLA multiplayer format to deliver an incredible gameplay experience. Peggle Nights essentially doubles the size of the Peggle XBLA universe for players everywhere.”

Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao™ & © is the first 3-D kung fu game on Xbox LIVE® Arcade and the ideal game for fans of martial arts movies and classic beat-'em-up action games. Feel like you're part of a classic 70s kung fu film as you defeat waves of ruthless enemies and cunning bosses with a variety of unique attacks and combos.

“Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao” starts kung-fu fighting on August 26th at 9 a.m. GMT (2:00 a.m. PDT).

Published by Namco Bandai Games and developed by Blitz Arcade, “Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao” will be available for 1200 Microsoft Points everywhere, except Korea, and is rated T for Teen by the ESRB. For more details on “Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao” you can visit: http://www.xbox.com/games/i/invincibletigerlhtxbla/

From blockbuster developers Epic Games and Chair Entertainment comes the next evolution in Xbox LIVE Arcade games. Powered by the industry-leading Unreal Engine 3, Shadow Complex™ is the height of old-school side-scrolling design combined with modern, cutting-edge gameplay.

In Shadow Complex, gameplay is centered on exploration and fast-paced combat as you gather game-altering power-ups and an arsenal of futuristic weapons to overcome obstacles, thwart legions of enemies, and delve into a mysterious open game world. The original single-player adventure is set in a compelling universe based upon the best-selling novel, Empire, by Orson Scott Card.

“Shadow Complex” starts it’s engines on August 19th at 9 a.m. GMT (2:00 a.m. PDT).

Published by Microsoft and developed by ChAIR Entertainment, “Shadow Complex” will be available for 1200 Microsoft Points everywhere and is rated T for Teen by the ESRB. For more details on “Shadow Complex” you can visit: http://www.xbox.com/games/s/shadowcomplexxbla/

It's been a long time coming, but during the opening day at QuakeCon 2009 it was revealed that a version of id software's 1994 shooter Doom II: Hell on Earth will finally be making its way to the Xbox LIVE Arcade sometime in the near future.

The game will sport all of the original content from the original game as well as all of the extra content that the original DOOM on XBLA was given in 4 player split screen as well as online multiplayer. The game will also include a whole new DOOM episode for this release, however this might be the Master Levels of DOOM expansion or the levels from Final DOOM - it is not clear at this time.

The game, being ported by Nerve software who previously ported DOOM and Wolfenstein 3D to XBLA, will be similar in style as the other titles with the same simple black borders with no extras.

Neither release date nor price are currently known for the port, which is being handled by Doom XBLA porter Nerve Software. It is currently an Xbox LIVE Arcade only release.

 

Also spotted at QuakeCon: further proof of the long-anticipated, Quake Arena Arcade!

Twisted Pixel Games and XBLArcade.com have teamed up to give away one free redemption code for ‘Splosion Man, the exciting new platform game available now on the Xbox LIVE Arcade! This action-packed adventure takes you through 50 unique single player levels, and 50 unique multiplayer levels (2-4 cooperative play), at a blistering pace! Easy to play, and fun for all ages, ‘Splosion Man will have you sploding off the walls, and other players with familiar, yet innovative gameplay.

Fools they were, to tread where knowledge should stay forbidden. For what emerged was not a man—it was ‘Splosion Man. "And all who saw him were 'sploded, for he was the fire and they were but meat." Able to 'splode himself at will, ‘Splosion Man launches his way through levels, an uncontainable force. From Twisted Pixel Games, developer of the award-winning The Maw, comes a single- or co-op multiplayer experience that 'splodes like no other.

‘Splosion Man includes an unlockable premium dashboard theme, free gamerpics, and even avatar accessories! You’ve sploded the rest, now splode the best. ‘Splosion Man has a fifty level single-player campaign and a separate fifty level multiplayer cooperative campaign. Download the trial version now.

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Sega Genesis, Sega is putting the power back in the fans’ hands and letting you determine the next title they’ll release on Xbox LIVE Arcade! Just pick from the Genesis classics Earthworm Jim, Golden Axe II, Shining Force, Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage, Toejam & Earl, and Wonderboy. Just remember, you have to cast your vote between August 14th and August 21st.

You can vote once per day, and you can go back anytime to check on how your favorite game is faring. Remember to cast another vote every 24 hours to help push your game over the top, or recruit your friends to stuff the ballot in favor of any one of these landmark titles. Don’t forget to write a comment to this post below to let us know what title you want to win and why! Then be sure to return to genesispoll.com on Saturday, August 22, 2009, to see which title the fans chose to see on XBLA as part of this 20th anniversary celebration!

VOTE HERE: http://www.genesispoll.com/

[UPDATE] On a related note, Gameloft, a leading developer and publisher of downloadable video games, announced a multi-year licensing agreement with Interplay to develop, distribute and publish Earthworm Jim, a popular run and gun platform video game featuring an earthworm who dresses up in a Super Suit to fight evil. The game will make its way to mobile, WiiWare(TM), PlayStation Network, with an exclusive one month run on Xbox LIVE(R) Arcade.