Three great games will become available on Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 this Wednesday, May 2 at 0900 GMT (2:00 a.m. Pacific): Catan and the two-for-one Atari combo of Centipede and Millipede.

This coming Sunday, Xbox 360 Elite, will hit retail shelves in North America. Shellacked in black with metallic detail, the ultimate console features a 120GB hard drive, a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) port, HDMI and component cables, Xbox LIVE headset, and an X360 wireless controller.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance features total team customization, the ability to create your own team name, icon and vehicle, as well as team reputation as you play throughout the story. Activision has released the DLC containing 8 new playable characters, each with new signature powers, skins, dialog, conversations and achievement points.

Two additional games will become available this Xbox LIVE Arcade Wednesday: Eets: Chowdown, mixing 2D puzzle game elements with a surreal sense of humor, and Pinball FX, combining the arcade thrills of traditional pinball with enhanced gameplay and exciting, innovative features not found in any other pinball game.

Adds layers of strategy to your gaming experience by building mobile bases, wielding the power of terrifying Ion Storms on the battlefield, or customising your armies by combining units. A day later than expected, EA has released a 1 Gb demo for CnC3: Tiberium Wars on Xbox Live, allowing you to try out a tutorial and 2 missions.

Microsoft has released the spring backwards compatibility update, adding 38 original Xbox games that you will be able to play on your X360. At the time of writing it is not yet available on Xbox Live, so you need to download it here, and burn it to DVD. Titles of note are Call of Duty 2/3, Jet Set Radio Future, Mercenaries, Oddworld Munch's Oddysee, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Tiger Woods 07, Republic Commando and plenty more...

Thrillville queue-jumps previous theme-park games with its access-all-areas pass to adventure and enjoyment, placing a fully interactive and customizable amusement park at your fingertips, allowing you to experience the joys of creating and playing within their very own theme park.

Microsoft announced that Certain Affinity's remake of the two most popular Halo: Combat Evolved maps (Desolation and Hang'm High) to work with Halo 2 are now available as premium downloadable content ($4) for Xbox and X360. Since original Xbox titles do not work with Microsoft points, you are advised to read these instructions first ...

Two great games will become available this Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday. Gyruss (400 points) is Konami's classic tube-shooter, while 3D Ultra MiniGolf Adventures (800 points) is an all new mini-golf experience with mind-bending courses and animated 3-D characters. Both titles will be available Wed., April 18 at 0900 GMT (2 a.m. PDT)

Microsoft and the New York Television Festival today announced the Xbox Live Originals contest, granting aspiring television producers the opportunity to create a pilot that could be chosen for the first original series developed specifically for Xbox Live.

Guitar Hero II arrives with a new track list, new venues and additional play modes – including the ability to transform the original Guitar Hero SG Controller into a rhythm, lead or bass guitar. Various gamers reported an issue with GH II's whammy bar on the guitar controller, which Red Octane recognized, and now the issue apparently has been resolved through an auto-update.

Experience frantic cooperative gameplay in SouthPeak Interactive and Artificial Studios' Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia, an Unreal Engine3 powered top-down shooter. Four players can team up on one Xbox 360 to slash, shoot, and drive through a menagerie of monsters in the campaign mode, or take battle onto Xbox Live for networked cooperative play.

Certain Affinity is working with Microsoft on remaking two of the most popular Halo: Combat Evolved maps to work with Halo 2. The maps will be available as premium downloadable content for Xbox and Xbox 360 on April 17.

Boom Boom Rocket is a hypnotic rhythm music game conceived by EA’s casual games design team and Bizarre Creations, known for the Project Gotham Racing franchise. Boom Boom Rocket will be available for download on Xbox Live Arcade beginning Wed., Apr. 11, at 0900 GMT (2:00 a.m. PDT).

Shrek The Third will take players on an all-new adventure filled with fun and exciting new challenges, never-before-seen characters and environments, plus the same humor we've come to love from Shrek and the gang. After the PC edition earlier, Activision has now released a 760 mb demo on Xbox Live Marketplace, allowing you to play the Far Far Away levle as either Shrek or Puss.

The ESRB has been the revealing source of various titles coming to the Xbox Live Arcade, and today a listing was spotted for id Software's multiplayer sci-fi shooter Quake III: Team Arena. If the listing is true, the Xbox Live Arcade version is being ported to the Xbox 360 by Texas-based Pi Studios, known for various Activision titles (Call of Duty) and currently working on the Halo 2 Vista Editor as well as porting Pandemic's Mercenaries 2 to the PS2.

A recent 1UP podcast with editor Shawn Elliot included an interview with Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney, revealing that Microsoft is not letting them release free Gears of War maps. "We already released two (maps) and we have four more maps that we've built. We've been wanting to give them but actually Microsoft has been pushing back on us. They're trying to build this business model around selling additional content for games and that's a valid idea, but we would definitely like to release more stuff for free, and we haven't been able to do so yet."

UPDATE: According to Epic's Mark Rein, both parties have made a compromise. The maps will be sold at first, then made free after a few months, much like the previous Halo 2 map pack.

Lost Planet is a sci-fi action shooter set within the merciless frozen tundra of a hostile planet. As promised, Capcom has release the 2nd multiplayer map pack (Hive Complex and Trial Point), coming in at 161mb, and setting you back 400 Microsoft points.

Microsoft recently announced that it had changed the Xbox 360 warranty in the United States and Canada from 90 days to one year from the date of purchase, and now it's adding additional service enhancements.

Armored Core 4 will allow you to create your own mech from a few hundred components, including color, to give it an exclusive looks. Successfully completing missions, and purchase even more powerful parts to make your mech stronger. SEGA has released a playable demo on Xbox Live Marketplace, featuring 3 full levels and a handful of mechs to customize and test drive.

Why just walk like an Egyptian when you have a mystical winged scarab at your disposal? The smash-hit action puzzler, Luxor 2 will be available for download on Xbox LIVE Arcade for X360 beginning Wednesday, Apr. 4, at 9:00 a.m. GMT (2:00 a.m. PST).

Microsoft and Bungie confirmed the upcoming release of two new, downloadable maps for Halo 2. The maps will be available as premium downloadable content for Xbox and Xbox 360 on April 17.

Crackdown is an action-driving hybrid introducing a 3-dimensional persistent playground, highly innovative co-op gameplay and an extensive prop interaction system all while taking place in a massive and stylized urban center. Microsoft has released a new patch through Xbox Live improving the online gameplay experience, and increasing the number of ambient gang vehicles that populate Pacific City.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 will feature changing climate, improved AI, an advanced Cross-Com system, air strikes from jet fighters, new weapons and a new soldier class, the Medic.