I have become amazed at what XBLA has done in the past few weeks. It started with Geometry Wars 2, a game Jim Canapa described perfectly in the previous column (he should know, since his high scores are far better than mine). Bionic Commando, another great game I will go into detail about later, was the most recent addition. But in the middle was Braid, the first game to ever cause an internal conflict for me.

There used to be a lull in summer releases. I almost welcomed it; there was finally time to catch up on the games I missed during the previous November crunch, or at the very least pad my gamerscore with marginal releases. XBLA and the advent of console digital distribution has brought an expensive end to that.

I admit I was disappointed when Microsoft didn’t have any surprise XBLA releases during E3. All’s not lost however, since they announced some exciting new games for the service that will arrive later this year. But before I get into that, let’s talk about this week’s nice pair of releases: 1942 Joint Strike and Go! Go! Break Steady.

Hey guys, I’m back from a long hiatus, which involved me trying to get Live working again and doing some other actual work. Big thanks to chamberlain who wrote the last article, and will now be alternating posts with me. To celebrate my return, Microsoft has decided to release two quality games this week: Schizoid and Golf: Tee it Up!

Happy Tree Friends the web cartoon is an incredibly violent, cringe-inducing spectacle that I am embarrassed to watch and occasionally nauseated by. It takes cute characters and puts them through sadistic torture, including but not limited to scalping, being crushed by vending machines, skinning, immolation, loss of limbs, decapitation, evisceration, defenestration and any other –tion you can think if. I love it.

This week’s XBLA releases are Wolf of the Battlefield: Commander 3 and Frogger 2. Just by looking at the names, you can probably tell that one is pretty good and the other is terrible.

The dust from the furious thunderstorm of last week has settled, leading the way for a more peaceful, yet boring post. I could delve further into the reasons why the XBLA de-listing process is one of the stupidest decisions of all time, but I won’t.

Hey everyone, this is your friendly Saving Progress writer Jay Aphale. As is evident by my reviews, I’m a 360 only owner, which certainly makes things tough this generation. One thing that eases the envy I have of other platform owners, however, is the Xbox Live Arcade.