This is it, the last week of the drought.  Aside from a brief reprieve last week this summer drought has been relentless and, once again, there will be no full retail games this Friday.

On the plus side, hopefully you’ve all improved your completion percentages by revisiting some old games and picking up a few achievements.  For me, it’s been a summer of Kingdom Under Fire (ignore the reviews, the game rocks), EDF (EDF!  EDF!) and Rainbow Six Vegas 2, but damn...  I’m jonesing for some fresh goodness on my 360.

Actually, scratch that.  I’m jonesing for Mercenaries 2.  That’s some way off yet though, and we’ve got all sorts of filler between now and then.  Madden, Hellboy, Tiger Woods, Too Human… at least insomnia won’t be a problem.

Anyway, what about this week?  We’ve got an XBLA game, some DLC and even a couple of demos to be getting on with.  Well, seeing as this is the “Summer of Arcade,” let’s start with Braid, this week’s offering on XBLA.

Before we get into the game itself, I can’t help feel a little ripped off at the price.  1200M$P (roughly a tenner) may be fair for the game itself, but you can’t help worry that before long Microsoft will release all their trash at 800M$P and all the good stuff at 1200 or more.  The Summer of Arcade promises five great games, and if they’d been 800M$P a piece  I’d be tempted to grab them all.  At these prices, I’ll have to be a bit more selective...

That said, Braid has well and truly won me over and snatched that 1200M$P straight out of my account.  Gaming Verdict’s review will cover the game in more detail, but let’s just just say that it feels like a very polished Amiga platformer with a smart time-manipulation gameplay mechanic.  The time stuff doesn’t feel tacked on at all and that the game itself is beautiful to both look at and play.  After a relentless stream of shitty Atari ports, twinstick shooters, and puzzle games it’s hard to not be a little enchanted by this one.

Fans of the XBLA game Ticket To Ride (think Carcassone with trains) are now able to purchase the ‘Europe’ expansion which adds one whole map and some additional gameplay elements for the Virgin Trains-esque price of 600M$P.   It kind of makes a guy happy that he never bothered.  Stick with the Carcassone, people.

A very interesting piece of DLC this week is the ‘Cagney’ expansion to EA’s free-roaming racing game Burnout Paradise.  The expansion which adds three new Freeburn modes and seventy timed challenges, is free (with other premium content to follow).  Still, that’s fair enough considering how much advertising they’ve crammed into the game, yes?

Also from EA, is another piece of free content (seriously, what the hell is happening to EA?).  This time it’s for Battlefield: Bad Company and it adds a new game mode, ‘Conquest’, which be a welcome addition for anyone who’s starting to become bored of guarding crates from the assorted racist youngsters who make up the Battlefield community.  It probably should have been in the game already, but hey… it’s free, so fill your boots.

Aside from all this DLC goodness, we’ve also got two demos this week.   First up is Wall·E, which is based on the kid’s animated feature film of the same name.  Face it - Wall·E is a poor man’s Johnny 5 and, frankly, I’d rather slice of my old chap than bother with this piece of substandard movie license bollocks.  Unless, of course, there’s an easily rinsed thousand gamerscore to be had.

The full game got a Gaming Verdict-tastic two out of ten anyway, so if you fancy punishing yourself for something grab the demo, but don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Also up this week is the demo for Alone in the Dark which, for me, was the surprise package of the summer.  Sure, it had issues with the controls, camera and hateful driving sequences, but overall I enjoyed the game thoroughly.  It’s classic survival horror with good combat and some epic set-pieces.  It’s no Resi 4, but then what is?  Approach the demo with an open mind.  You might just be surprised.
   
Well that’s it for now.  Yes there’s been some Rock Band DLC and, as I didn’t mention it last week, Namco are making you the offer of a lifetime by selling the original background music for Soul Calibur as downloadable content for Soul Calibur 4 at the bargainous price of 1200M$P (only 400 M$P less than the XBLA title that has all the music anyway).  Come the revolution, I can assure you that Namco’s board will find themselves on their knees with a shotgun barrel in their gobs.

Richie Harkness - www.peoww.co.uk