And they own the Wii avatars!

Back at E3 2008 Microsoft announced that they would be improving and expanding the Live experience with a new dashboard system and personal avatars for your gamertag. At first glance they seemed to be carbon copies of the Nintendo  Miis but have turned out to be have much more depth to them and it’s looking like there will be many developments for the avatars and community as a whole in the future. So now NXE (New Xbox Experience) is here and I must say that I am very impressed. The system for building your avatar is great, there are plenty of options for hair styles, clothes and accessories. The overall layout now for the dashboard looks much better too. If you haven’t updated yet then sign in now and get yourself a funky avatar built!

New Cars for Burnout Paradise - Great scott Marty!

Jansen 88 Special – Ok so it will have fire coming out the back and oh yeah one other minor detail, it’s wheels will retract so that it can fly! So yes basically it’s the Delorean from Back to the Future so that’s me sold

There will also be the  Calvary Bootlegger, Manhattan Spirit and the GT Nighthawk. DLC for Burnout Paradise is just getting better and better it seems!

A resurgence in interest for Goldeneye on Live Arcade? - I hope so…

So I was browsing through the Live section of IGN.com this week when I noticed that Goldeneye was listed in the top 10 that week, more developments maybe? I had a search for some fresh news but didn’t come up with anything really. I still can’t beleive that Nintendo, Rare and MS haven’t come to an agreement over this as it would surely bring in some huge revenue for all of them, seriously what would you pay for this on Live Arcade?

DLC for Dead Space released on 13th

So a hefty bunch of DLC has just been released by EA including: Astronaut pack, Big gun pack, Military pack and also some exclusive content for Xbox live. I still haven’t completed the game yet either!

2001 board game coming to Live Arcade in 2009

Twilight Creations recently revealed that the classic board game Zombies!!! will be coming to XBLA sometime in early 2009. Zombies!!! was first released in 2001 as a tiled based board game and was an instant success selling over 300,000 copies to date. It’s easy to play and can be enjoyed by a variety of ages. Big Rooster, who are also working on War Wing for XBLA, will be handling the development.

I seriously hope so! Recently in an interview Marvel vice president of interactive media Justin Lambros intimated that he would like to see classic Marvel fighting games hit game download services suc as Xbox Live Arcade. When he was asked aboout it coming to XBLA, Lambros said, “Yeah, those are among my all time favorites. I’m a huge 2D fighting fan… the Marvel Vs. Capcom stuff has a definite close place in my heart, so we definitely wanna see that stuff live on.” Right now that’s all the info we have, I hope this is true as I am a huge Marvel fan and all the Xmen/Marvel/Streetfighter mashup games were probably some of the best 2D fighting games I’ve ever played.

Will keep you all posted!

I brief message in the middle of the hiatus… Don’t forget to download Undertow, it’s free from Live Arcade until Sunday, as a “sorry, we screwed up during the Holidays” from Microsoft. I’m nabbing it now.

EA announced the development of a new Wing Commander title built exclusively for XBLA.  Wing Commander Arena will sport up to 16 players in ranked online play, as well as a single player campaign we hope you’ll just use for practice.  The game boasts upgradeable ships and a bevy of multiplayer maps.

Voodoo Extreme even has some early screens up!

OK, so that’s a ridiculous title, but we couldn’t help ourselves. Announced yesterday, Vivendi completed the purchase of the Assault Heroes developer Wanako, stating that the Latin American developer will be rolled into the Sierra Online division. Give us Assault Heroes II and nobody gets hurt!

Major Nelson point out that there is nothing scheduled for release on XBLA this Wednesday. Bummer, no? Look at the bright side, now you’ll be able to spend a little more time unlocking the Paperboy achievements!

DaKing240 breaks the news about these six games being on PartnerNet:

Centipede

Milipede

Jetpac

Pinball FX

Alien Hominid

Ikaruga

While I feel I’ve had enough of both Centipede and Millipede, the other games are pretty interesting. We wrote about Ikaruga previously so that’s known. Alien Hominid should be great and I can’t wait to play Pinball FX, which we covered previously. Also, Jetpac being up there more or less confirms that it’s the game that Rare are working on.

Being sick sucks. That means Live Arcade Review missed out on some heavy duty coverage. Bummer. Luckily, the community does the work for us!

• EGM’s March issue confirms Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for release this month, as in March then? I’m not sure. EGM have been wrong before though…
• Operate your Xbox 360 with the Zune Remote. Yay? Nah…
• Apparently there where some issues with the Achievement Rewards program. More here.
• Sierra Online will release a Battlestar Galactica Live Arcade game this fall. Fans of the serious should scream with joy. I for one thought Serenity sucked… Whatever that has to do with anything.
• Catan will hit Live Arcade Q1, according to IGN who spoke with Big Huge Games.
• Bizarre Creations have a post on Boom Boom Rocket up, with screenshots and info. Check it out!
• Galactrix announced! (Via XBLAddict)

Oh, and don’t forget that Paperboy is out now. A review is in the works.