Throughout this week 360Sync will be updating their website with their exclusive preview of the upcoming DLC for Marathon: Durandal.

The first part of the preview is up, with a video of a new multiplayer map called Duality, taken from Durandal's sequel Marathon: Infinity, and to Halo nerds - the precursor for the Halo 2 Multiplayer map Gemini.

Click this link to watch the video. It's currently unknown when this DLC will pop up, but going by this Press Blast it shouldn't be too long.

Source: 360Sync.com

Lost Cities comes to life on Xbox LIVE Arcade this Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. GMT (1:00 a.m. PDT).

True to the original adventurous card game, “Lost Cities” transports players to exotic destinations where riveting adventures await. Before players embark on their trips they must choose how much to invest in the expedition in hopes of increasing their investment. Players then play their cards with the goal of amassing the most points and making prosperous expeditions through the various lost cities: the Himalayas, the Brazilian rain forest, the ever-shifting desert sands, ancient volcanoes and the mystifying depths of the oceans. Don't journey alone, invite up to three friends to join in the journeys over Xbox LIVE!

Two new Xbox Originals have been added to the Xbox Live Marketplace. Not XBLA, but they should be toted anyhow!

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
Price: 1200 Microsoft Points
Availability: Not available in Japan and Korea
Players 1-2, System Link: 2-4, Xbox LIVE Multiplayer 2-4, 5.1 Surround Sound.
Size: 5.39 GB

The next installment of the critically acclaimed stealth-action franchise, Tom Clancy's Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Chaos Theory™ sends Sam Fisher on a perilous mission to stop a cyberterrorist plot that threatens worldwide war.

Content: Metal Arms: Glitch in the System
Price: 1200 Microsoft Points
Availability: Not available in Japan
Single Player, 5.1 Surround Sound.

Blast your way to victory as Glitch, the gun-slinging, half-ton menacing bot of Droid City. Found as scrap metal, but transformed into destructive machinery, Glitch is determined to free his people from the evil clutches of General Corrosive and his maniacal army of Mil bots. Unleash a world of pain as you annihilate the General’s sinister plan to dominate the world and salvage the robot race in Metal Arms!

The Australian Classification website has had a late night update with a new entry - Zombie Wranglers, with all the details seen above. While not officially announced for the Xbox 360 - the Author for the rating is Sierra Online. All previous entries by Sierra Online have been for Xbox Live Arcade titles - Including Aces of the Galaxy, Assault Heroes 2, and Carcassone.

So we have a name and a publisher, so who is the developer? Doing a quick Google finds... well, very little shows up. What does show up is a small website called DOOM3D Poop Art. The site itself has 'closed down' but before that, it was a gathering place for Wisconsin indie game developers, gathering together to discuss their games. Though they've since moved onto a new website there are a few puzzle pieces to be found.

Noticeably this topic discussing the name of the group, which mentions the game in passing. It appears that that the game was a student project at one point - but also features some help from the current Wisconsin developer Frozen Codebase - known for their XBLA game Screwjumper last year.

One could put both together and determine that it is Frozen Codebase which is now developing the game - their website does specify they have more than one team working on games - however they previously worked with THQ for publishing Screwjumper, while it appears Sierra is doing so for Zombie Wranglers. Admittedly things didn't go so well with THQ, and Sierra's such a nice publisher. We're not jumping to conclusions just yet!

Until it's announced, or it starts showing up on the USK and ESRB, who knows what the game is. Hopefully it's not going to hide in the shadows until two weeks before release like things have been lately.

Source: OFLC - ZOMBIE WRANGLERS

5 brand new shots of Capcom's 1942: Joint Strike surfaced over the weekend, showing off some new Boss screenshots, including the giant plane above, as well as a huge, flamethrower-toting tank on train tracks.

Click here to see the new images.

EDIT: Update on this story here

The latest issue of the GamesTM Magazine (issue 69) has a two page article discussing the PC / Steam smash hit Audiosurf - a game which allows a player to 'race' along psychedelic courses made entirely out of the song itself while connecting blocks coming down the line - and you can plug in any MP3 file you like to create a new level!

At the very end of the article, it mentions that it will be coming "soon to the Xbox Live Arcade."! Can't wait!

Source: GamesTM Magazine issue #69. Thanks to Gowans007 for the scan.

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions)
1 Ikaruga (-)
2 Battlezone (debut)
3 Brain Challenge (+1)
4 Rocky and Bullwinkle (debut)
5 DOOM (-2)
6 UNO (+3)
7 N+ (+1)
8 Worms (-1)
9 Bomberman LIVE (+1)
10 Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (v)

The above arcade list is based on full versions purchased.

From the previous week (which I've admittedly been skipping the past few weeks, too busy unfortunately) we can see that Ikaruga is still on top for the second week in a row. Mr. Driller Online, which last week was at No. 2 last week, has suddenly dropped off the map and out of the top 10. Surprising since it stayed quite high in its second week.

Dissapointing debuts for Battlezone and - more surprisingly - Rocky & Bullwinkle, since it was meant to appeal to a wider demographic. Poor reviews aside, I think Zen Studios were expecting big things from Bullwinkle.

Brain Challenge continues to sell well - and unlike Bullwinkle appears to have found it's niche and has done well for itself.

Source: Major Nelson - LIVE Activity for week of 4/14

Yesterday we found that Audio Surf was supposedly making its way to the Xbox Live Arcade via GamesTM Magazine. Well apparently that's not so much the case, as Dylan - developer of Audio surf - had this to say on the Audio Surf forums:

Must have been a miscommunication. I didn't say that.

Little late for the update, sorry!

Developer: Sierra Online Shanghai
Publisher: Sierra Online
Genre: Action
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Availability: Not available in Japan and Korea

Click here for the NeoGAF forum topic!

Click here for Images of Lost Cities!

Click here for the Official Xbox.com webpage!

There are four levels of difficulty with descriptors ranging from cake walk to suicide mission. We went all in to see how far our skills could take us. The first level starts out on a beach and isn't much of a suicide, but things quickly ramped up once you take down the first tank boss. The second level is a prison breakout several years later, and then it was on to the mountain stage before our legs finally gave out. The endless onslaught of enemies was too much even for us -- particularly the backdoor bros that kept creeping up from the rear as we plowed ahead.

The Bionic Commando Crew over at Capcom have recently hosted a little get together of Game Journalists to have a go at a complete (or near complete) version of Bionic Commando Rearmed. In the first of 3 updates over the weekend, Capcom has announced the final mode for Rearmed - a 4 player Multiplayer mode!

In this mode players can choose 4 different characters - the main character RAD Spencer, the Captured POW Super Joe, the main protagonist Commander Kilt, and.. some dude called Groeder.

In Deathmatch you can play in a free-for-all or play on teams while you collect 7 different weapons and shoot the crap out of your enemies, or pick up shields and health to become even more dangerous.

There are 10 stages with all sorts of traps and hazards, all seem to be based on certain areas of the game - we can already see the first level as well as the construction level. Unfortunately still not online - but this looks like a whole lot of fun to play with friends on Local play.

The videos can be viewed below from Gamevideos:

Gamevideos: Bionic Commando Rearmed 'Grenade'
Gamevideos: Bionic Commando Rearmed 'Machine Gun'
Gamevideos: Bionic Commando Rearmed 'Rocket' gameplay
Gamevideos: Bionic Commando Rearmed ' FFA' gameplay
Gamevideos: Bionic Commando Rearmed 'Team Deathmatch'
Gamevideos: Bionic Commando Rearm. 'Multiplayer Trailer'

Along with these brand new videos, the large gamer sites have posted new previews of the game:

1UP.com - Previews: Bionic Commando
IGN.com - Multiplayer Hands-on
Gamespot - New Features Hands-On

To add onto this, IGN have a new Q&A with Producer Ben Judd about Rearmed. It's a fantastic read since Ben makes it his mission to be as honest as possible to his audience. I liked this bit:

Q: If you succeed, what are some of the next titles that are in the back of your mind?

Judd: Let's just say that I'm a huge Capcom fan. I like Ghost and Goblins, the Mega Man series, Strider, D&D... I like a lot of the games. Let's just say that if this works out, there's a very good chance that there may be another similar title in the future. We'll see.

Q: We're hoping for Strider.

Judd: Strider was a good game. Anytime you fight a gigantic robotic ape and then a bunch of senators that turn into a worm, that's kinda cool.

But, to be honest, none of our 2.5D games have worked out. None. Mega Man Powered Up -- nope. Ultimate Ghosts & Goblins -- nope. Again, I'm probably fighting a fool's task here. For something that cheap, something that already has failed three times, and in a genre, 2.5D, that has never been successful. But that's what I like about Capcom. They're willing to give a crazy foreigner like me the chance to try.

When updating the game for Rearmed we didn't want to go with the standard, "lazy" approach to difficulty tweaking -- i.e., we didn't want to make the game artificially more difficult by just giving the enemies a longer life bar and the ability to do more damage.

Additionally, rather than making the game harder, we needed to find a way to make it easier without totally redesigning the classic level design that fans would demand.

Fortunately, the BCR team has got some really creative people on board and they developed the concept of "Assist Blocks" for Easy mode. For example, look at the screenshot to the right. Fans of the original might recognize this location as being underneath the first "big swing" of the game from building to building. In the original, if you missed when trying to hook on to the spotlight, it usually meant you fell to your death.

V8Arcade.com has updated with a new levels shown - Meteor Crater!

Meteor Crater is a level in the Vigilate 8 sequel Second Offense, however they've tweaked things up a bit, bringing in bits and pieces from not just that level, but from Ghost Town and Canyonlands from the original game.

We’ve got canyons, dust devils, tunnel teleports, meteor showers… No giant space ant this time, but there’s still something way cool inside that giant rock!

On Todays 1UP Yours podcast, in their "What'cha been playing?" segment, one of this weeks guests discussed Ticket to Ride on Microsoft's Partnernet.

Partnernet is an closed online service which can only be accessed by owners of Xbox 360 Development Kits or Test Kits. On this service are most of the Xbox Live Arcade titles currently available, but allow developers to test online code (interesting note: Mr. Driller Online never showed up on there, which might explain things...) as well as allow game journalists to play the games before they are released, and receive feedback.

One of the fascinating things about it is that there are games that do pop up there which haven't been announced yet, but of course, cannot be talked about (as much as everyone wants to).

Ticket to Ride - a highly acclaimed German board game which XBLAH found on the German rating board last month, is now apparently up there, and some people on 1UP Yours got a little addicted to it on the weekend. Let's hope Microsoft announce this game soon!

Source: 1UP Yours Podcast 04/25/2008

Team Xbox seems to be all nice and snug with Sierra lately - Sierra's online branch has exclusively announced Gin Rummy, Sea Life Safari - which XBLAH did some digging about some months ago - and Zombie Wranglers which we discussed just four days ago are all coming to the Xbox Live Arcade.

Gin Rummy is a classic card game, which is being brought to the XBLA supposedly by Sierra Shanghai - who just last week brought us Lost Cities, another card based game.

Gin Rummy for XBLA will feature the original game for playing over Xbox Live, along with many variations including Oklahoma Gin, Hollywood Gin, Three-hand Gin, as well as your own Custom Gin game. It will also support 4-player multiplayer with some Gin variants - which you can read up about in this page.

Secondly, Sea Life Safari is a photography game similar in design to the Nintendo classic - Pokemon Snap. As the player, you must go through different environments trying to get sea wildlife to 'show their best side' for the camera.

As mentioned in XBLAH's previous article, Wanako Studios are behind SLS (just like.. well, almost everything else for Sierra) and is already available for the PC, and had an achievement system set up inside it. Probably not too big of a job to port - certainly helps the casual demographic Microsoft wants!

And Lastly, Zombie Wranglers. This game allows the player to run around as one of 4 characters as you... well, Wrangle Zombies. It actually looks a little like Monster Madness that came out as a retail title last year (which really should have been XBLA material). It looks okay - it needs to be seen in action before any real comments can be made, at the moment they've just shown off the equivalent of a Ghost Buster Proton Pack or Luigi's Vacuum which turns Zombies into energy.

We can now confirm that this game IS being made by Frozen Codebase - the people behind Screwjumper last year and the upcoming Elements of Destruction sometime this year. Both their previous games were published by THQ - it's a little odd that this has now been picked up by Sierra. I may have stepped on a few toes with the last post too, since the blog and websites were taken down. Apologies to those involved! It'll be interesting to see how it holds up against Wiiware's Animales de la Muerte, which also seems like a lot of fun. Hopefully Sierra will spill some beans soon.

Check out Team Xbox for all the new images and previews for each game. Each of these games is currently slated for a Summer release.

Source: Team Xbox Sierra’s Summer ’08 XBLA Lineup Hands-On Preview

Edit: Fixed some information regarding Zombie Wranglers.

Shacknews has gotten a hold of a Sierra press release stating that the sequel to the popular twin-stick, cooperative shoot-em-up Assault Heroes will be dropping on May 14th!

Along with the news - in Sierra's PR blowout on TeamXbox they've released a whole slew of new videos:

Access Multiple Weapons On-Foot

Destroy the Rainforest

Hijack Enemy Choppers

Extended Trailer

They've also got a quick rundown of features, which you can view here

Assault Heroes 2 and Commando 3 are coming out very soon... hopefully they don't cannibalize each others sales since they're both from the same genre. Even if they're both quality titles, the pure fact that Commando 3 comes with a Street Figher II HD BETA will very likely destroy AH2. Let's hope Sierra and Microsoft know what they're doing.

Speaking of releases.. pure speculation, but there's probably a good chance that nothing will be released this week. Why? A little game called Grand Theft Auto IV. Same thing happened with Halo 3, and anything released this week might get sent to die, so to speak.

Source: Team Xbox, Shacknews - Assault Heroes 2 Hits XBLA May 14