While we do have a review coming up later today, I’m guessing you’re hungry for some reading. And since we’re such lovely chaps we’ll gladly link you up!

• Official Xbox Magazine scores Alien Hominid HD 7.5/10, and XBLArcade has the pros and cons.
• No Live Arcade release for January 31? First the Lumines Live packs, and now nothing? Horror!
• The Xbox Live Arcade Wishlist: The Best Online Titles for Retro Multiplayer, that kind of speaks for itself, right? Overall good choices as well.
• A gameplay vid of Paperboy for Live Arcade. I’m not thrilled.
• Hunting for Achievements? Read the Road to Achievements article over at xbox.com (via Gamingbits).

Enjoy.

We blogged about the Lumines Live packs earlier, and now they’re out – as long as you don’t live in Japan that is. You can also spen 80-150 Microsoft points on some Assault Heroes themes and pictures. Yay.

I like Jeff Minter, he’s cool. He also blogs over at LiveJournal, where he tells us that Space Giraffe is now playable.

I have been playing a LOT of Space Giraffe today and I think I melted them };-). Still – I’m actually playing actual SG levels, just got the first 8 in so far. When I started laying down the level stuff a couple of days ago I realised a few things weren’t satisfying me and needed tweaking.

No shots though, but some inside information at least.

Gamasutra have an interview with PopCap’s Garth Chouteau up, in conjunction with the recent release of Heavy Weapon.

Discussing future PopCap releases for the Xbox 360 over the Xbox Live Arcade service, Chouteau couldn’t specifically name any games, but revealed: “There are of course other titles in the works for XBLA, and based on the success of the four titles we have released to date, in addition to the new one yesterday with Heavy Weapon, I think that it’s safe to say that other PopCap titles will make their way to the service.”

He further noted that some of these games are likely to see a release in 2007, noting, “In the relatively short term, there is additional work going on in that respect, and I would expect to see additional XBLA titles from us to show up this year.”

There are some other tidbits as well, such as sell-through rate compared to PopCap’s PC titles (Live Arcade seems better) and thoughts on casual/hardcore gamers. Go check it out!

Ozymandias did a post asking his readers (which undoubtedly increased due to heavy linkage) what they wanted for Xbox Live in the future. The answer? 1237 comments!

The recently release Live Arcade title Heavy Weapon takes the #1 spot for last week’s most played XBLA full version titles.

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions)
1 Heavy Weapon
2 MS.PAC-MAN
3 UNO
4 Geometry Wars Evolved
5 Texas Hold ‘em
6 Street Fighter II’ Hyper Fighting
7 Contra
8 Assault Heroes
9 DOOM
10 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

If you want to know what the non-Live Arcaders are playing, visit Major Nelson as always.

This is an old and persistent rumor. As most of you know, there’s a 50 MB size cap on Live Arcade games. The limit is there so that people without a hard drive can put purchased Live Arcade games on the Memory Unit accessories that Microsoft sells.

However, upcoming Live Arcade game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a PSone port, will break the limit with Microsoft’s good will, and that kind of “flexibility” from the makers of the Xbox 360 might become more common in the future.

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Personally I find this a bit boring, but hey, if you’re a Lumines Live freak then…

Good things come in threes, and next week’s Arcade Wednesday release is no exception to that rule. Three new packages of Lumines Live! content will be available for download on Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360™ beginning Wednesday, Jan. 24, at 9 a.m. GMT (1 a.m. PST). Two of the add-on packs will be available at special promotional prices, and one of them will be free to Xbox Box Live Gold Members for a limited time!

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ZootFly is the company that put up a Ghostbusters teaser on Youtube, for Xbox 360, without actually having cleared the licensing yet. A bit tacky and probably stupid, regardless of web frenzy, if you ask me. Especially if the game won’t be made…

However, they appear to have a Live Arcade title in the making as well. continue reading…

Curious to see how Electronic Arts’ first Live Arcade title, musical action game Boom Boom Rocket, looks like? We’ve got the first three screenshots of the title, developed by Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved folks Bizarre Creations. We blogged about the announcement yesterday. continue reading…