Rez HD may have been a foregone conclusion but the running mate in all those rumors came along for the ride as well. This week marks the release of the afformentioned Rez HD alongside the also capable Chessmaster Live. Both come in at 800MSP.

We've talked plenty about Rez HD, so let's discuss Chessmaster Live a bit. Chessmaster will follow in the footsteps of its mighty PC ancestry with 5 chess variants (including Message Chess which I think is a great touch). Expect a deep range of challenging AI and some clean visuals. And on that note, here are some screens of Chessmaster Live in action.

Usual press release type stuff after the break. Enjoy!

[via Press Release]

If you are bored of the AI in Spyglass Board Games, Ubisoft has the title for you as it is set to release Chessmaster Live in January 2008 for Xbox Live Arcade. [quote]"Bringing the Chessmaster series to Xbox LIVE Arcade makes the game accessible to a whole new audience,” said Peter Helm, business development associate at Ubisoft. "Chessmaster LIVE is not only a comprehensive chess program, but it is also one that has expanded beyond the traditional game to include exciting features for fans, both old and new.” Chessmaster LIVE will feature: Hundreds of AI opponents to play in ELO-ranked matches Voice-chat and LIVE Vision capabilities for head-to-head matches New 3D chess sets inspired by luxury board designer, House of Staunton Five original chess variants, including the all-new Message Chess option, which will allow players to engage in a match over the course of days, weeks or even months Chessmaster LIVE will be available for download in January 2008.[/quote]Anyone care to guess how similiar this will be to their Xbox Chessmaster title? [Via Next-Gen Archive]

Our trusty tipster JDUDE11 has been holding out on us. Seems SPFIITHDR isn't the only unreleased game with its very own Xbox.com page. In fact, there are at least five others. If your appetite for XBLA teasers (and delays) has yet to be satisfied, feast your eyes on these.

Fatal Fury, War World, Tron, GEON, and Undertow

Of course, I should have realized that there were easier ways to find these pages than trying to type in every game title as an URL. All I needed was to go here and scroll. Stupid me.

A bunch of tidbits have trickled their way to us here at XBLArcade over the course of the weekend (and this morning) so here's a quick and dirty rundown of the latest word in XBLA.

And remember, we here at XBLArcade love tips! Even if it does take us a little while to get around to them. Here we go down the rabbit hole.

War World and Speedball 2 rated. No fanfare or big surprise there (since we already knew they were coming) but it's good to know nonetheless.

War World garnered what I take to be a 12+ rating and Speedball 2 gets a 6+ rating. (Although, German is not my strong suit.) No word yet on the ESRB.

[via our trusty friend, the USK website]

I bring you word of a massive XBLA achievement update (the shamlessly stolen headline probably tipped you off, huh?).

Xbox360achievements.org has come through again with achievement details for Hexic 2, Marathon: Durandal, and War World. No pretty pictures to look at, but plenty of interesting things to ponder after the break.

The visual bar for XBLA just got a whole lot higher! GameSpot has a hands-on preview of the Third Wave Games developed and Ubisoft published War World.

We had word around 6 months ago that this game would be coming and reported so. Back then, the worry was squeezing a game with a 149MB demo down into 50MB. Well, I imagine that Third Wave was jumping for joy when the limit was raised to 150MB.

The gameplay looks to be easy to learn with "Halo-like" controls and sports 10 highly unique and specialized battle 'bots which you can take through 100 arcade-mode levels of Mech-tastic shooting and destroying.

The game is slated to arrive sometime in "late summer" but let's hope it's sooner rather than later. As good as this game looks and with 8-player multiplayer confirmed (sorry, did I forget to mention that), anyone think it will join the ranks of 1200MSP games?

[Update]: Here's a link to the official site for the PC version, a link to the PC Demo (nice idea Blue_Falcon) and also here's a link for videos too. Enjoy!

[via GameSpot]

Prince of Persia Classic is now available for download. That's it. No song and dance.

Buzz for the game on Major Nelson's blog is very positive but the comments are now devolving into a discussion about XBLA's flawed DRM scheme (read: you got a refurb and can't play your games offline anymore).

Think you can rescue the Princess? And in less than 60 minutes? Without dying?

[via Major Nelson]

Well, everyone here already knew, but the official-official confirmation (via Ubisoft press release) has been made. Even John Porcaro of GamerScoreBlog acknowledges this as old news.

Hopefully this revamp of this classic game will live up to the hype. Anyone spending some more points this week?

[via GamerScoreBlog + AceyBongo]

[Update]: GamerScoreBlog now has the usual release details on their site. Read more for a rundown of game features

Well, we posted the "rumor". Now the rumor is confirmed. (Go figure.)

Ubisoft confirmed to Eurogamer that Prince of Persia Classic is coming to Xbox Live Arcade next Wednesday, June 13th.

Wanna know more about the game, check out our previous coverage.

Now how much is it? (I assume 800 MS Points) And will it be sharing the spotlight with anything else (retro title release possibly)?