This Week in Xbox: June 11-18, 2008

New Releases

Three new major releases come out this week: NASCAR® 09, the significantly updated twelfth entry in the NASCAR series, which I imagine will be the top-selling Xbox 360® game among my old friends in Greensboro, NC; Dragon Ball Z®: Burst Limit, which pulls you into the anime series for fast-action fighting (including Xbox LIVE® multiplayer), and Don King Presents Prizefighter™, which doesn't just take you to the big fight, it lets you live an entire boxing career. Check out our links for the full scoop on each game.

Jeff Gordon's NASCAR 09 advice is bound to be way better than mine, which amounts to "Keep turning left."

Two New Xbox LIVE Arcade Games

On the Xbox LIVE® Arcade front, we have Wolf of the Battlefield™: Commando 3, which isn't just a graphic update of an old 2-D side-scroller. This game features a full 3-D engine, non-stop battles, slick weapon power-ups, and co-op armed vehicles. Plus, buying the game gives you access to an exclusive beta version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. (Remember when you bought Crackdown™ just to get into the Halo® 3 beta and then discovered that Crackdown was an awesome game on its own?)

Also new on Xbox LIVE Arcade is Frogger® 2, which is a true sequel to Frogger. No unwelcome 3-D-ification here, it's old-fashioned top-down jumping-and-getting-squished action.

Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 includes co-op vehicle combat.

Demo Mania

Be sure to head up to Xbox LIVE Marketplace and browse the awesome selection of new demos. The Sid Meier's Civilization: Revolution demo proves to me that my family had better not make plans with me in July. Or August. Or September. I lost most of 1991 to the first Civilization, and the demo sure makes it look like Firaxis has perfectly adapted Civ gameplay to the console. Uh oh.

Civilization: Revolution adapts Civ to console play—there goes my free time.

Also out now is the long-awaited Battlefield: Bad Company demo, as well as demos for Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars™, NASCAR 09, Ninja Gaiden II, and Crash Time. And don't forget all the recently released Xbox LIVE Arcade games, all of which have free demos. If you haven't checked out Xbox LIVE Marketplace lately, now's the time.

Wrapping Up

What are you playing now? Head to the This Week in Xbox feedback topic and let us know.

Article by Denny Atkin