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The NPD Group released sales figures for the month of September, and there are a number of surprises.

First, the PlayStation 3 has outsold the Xbox 360 for the first time in 32 months. While this isn’t necessarily a major turning point, it is still a milestone for Sony’s once beleaguered system. Released later than its competition and at a significantly higher price, the PS3 long struggled to make headway against the Xbox 360 in North America. That extra year allowed Microsoft to establish an early lead and to later widen that gap through studio acquisitions, exclusivity agreements and some very smart targeting of specific developers and publishers.

High-profile, big name releases like BioShock, Mass Effect and The Orange Box all hit the Xbox 360 first. These were massive, massive titles that could truly justify the “Only on Xbox 360” stamp, and if they were to appear on PS3, it was anywhere from two months to a year later. Microsoft also successfully lured away the single biggest former third-party PlayStation-exclusive franchise: Final Fantasy.

Unfortunately, there was little Sony could do to stop the bleeding. It had to focus on making the PS3 profitable. This meant lowering production costs and resisting the calls for significant price cuts. The past year or two, we’ve seen the strategy starting to work, with the system starting to turn around. That said, this generation has been tough for the PS3, so it’s nice to see the September sales bump.

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Today, in a post on the Hello Games site, new details were shared about the Undead Movie Pack for Joe Danger 2.

The add-on pack features 15 new levels …
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Players have been waiting for more of Telltale’s The Walking Dead ever since the first season ended. Not much is known about Season 2, but that may change as soon as tomorrow. Today Telltale tweeted “Keep …
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Good news for fans of Minecraft, a special Halloween Texture Pack is now available to download for free here. The download is available until the end of this week (November …
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Happy Wars, XBLA’s first free-to-play title, celebrated its first birthday this month and Microsoft have revealed that the number of players has now reached six million. Toylogic, the game’s …
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Xbox Live Arcade began its life on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 simply enough. When eager gamers bought up Xbox 360s on launch day (November 22, 2005), they found a free copy of Hexic HD pre-loaded on their hard drives. Of course, it was another launch title that secured the platform’s success. Bizarre’s Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved both gave birth to the twin-stick shooter craze and demanded gamers take Xbox Live Arcade, which started in disc form back on the original Xbox, seriously as a digital games platform. Bizarre’s side project paved the way for the enormous variety of retro revivals, HD remakes, original indie projects, major studio releases, free-to-play games and more that have come to call XBLA home in the years since.

Today, we’re approximately one month away from the launch of the Xbox One, which will signal the end of XBLA as we have come to know it these past eight years. While Microsoft’s Xbox line will continue to be home to myriad low-cost downloadable video games, the XBLA moniker will not make the transition to Xbox One. It’s going down with the figurative (and literal) Xbox 360 boat. So what better time than now to count down the best XBLA games to ever grace the Xbox 360?

It wasn’t easy, but our staff has sorted through all of the best XBLA releases over the years and picked the ones that we feel are the true standout stars of the platform. Check back with us throughout the week as we run down five of Xbox Live Arcade’s top games every night. And don’t forget to head to the comments to let us know how much you love (or hate) our picks.

(Editor’s Note: Voting was conducted in early September. No games released post-Summer of Arcade 2013 were considered eligible.)

5.) Minecraft

Nathan Bowring, Reporter — Minecraft’s impact on XBLA has been huge; it’s been beating sales records ever since its release, and it continues to top the Xbox Live activity charts. There’s just something magical about that simple, blocky world that’s hard to resist. Every new, randomly generated world is the start of a new adventure. In Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition, you’ll map out the landscape, explore deep caverns to collect precious diamonds, fight terrifying nocturnal monsters and build to your heart’s desire. The resources you collect may turn into your new house, or maybe you’ll turn them into weapons to fight the Ender Dragon. The only thing that limits the game is your imagination, with every new title update adding so many more possibilities.

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Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death was developed by Zootfly and published by 505 Games. It was released on September 20, 2013 for $14.99. A copy was provided for review purposes.

With the end of the current console cycle staring many gamers in the face, some have moved their attention to either the new consoles or the handful of the triple-A titles still coming out on the 360. If that is the case, fans of the action-adventure genre are missing out on a sleeper Xbox Live Arcade title called Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death.

The developer, Zootfly, worked on Marlow Briggs for quite some time. First they had an agreement to release the game with 505 Games, but financial issues prevented that from happening. Microsoft briefly expressed interest in releasing the title but changed its focus to the Xbox One. Having secured more money, 505 Games came back into the picture and was eventually able to assist Zootfly with the release of the game. However, as of this writing, Zootfly has left the video game industry and switched its focus to casino gaming under the new name IBzoot, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Interblock. But be thankful that before Zootfly left the industry, it was able to leave gamers with Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death. It is a better than average action-adventure title that provides quite a punch for such a small price tag.

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Star Wars is in many ways the ideal environment for pinball. The space battles of the movies invite gameplay focused on delivering armaments (torpedoes, pinballs) to a target (a …
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Xbox Live Arcade began its life on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 simply enough. When eager gamers bought up Xbox 360s on launch day (November 22, 2005), they found a free copy of Hexic HD pre-loaded on their hard drives. Of course, it was another launch title that secured the platform’s success. Bizarre’s Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved both gave birth to the twin-stick shooter craze and demanded gamers take Xbox Live Arcade, which started in disc form back on the original Xbox, seriously as a digital games platform. Bizarre’s side project paved the way for the enormous variety of retro revivals, HD remakes, original indie projects, major studio releases, free-to-play games and more that have come to call XBLA home in the years since.

Today, we’re approximately one month away from the launch of the Xbox One, which will signal the end of XBLA as we have come to know it these past eight years. While Microsoft’s Xbox line will continue to be home to myriad low-cost downloadable video games, the XBLA moniker will not make the transition to Xbox One. It’s going down with the figurative (and literal) Xbox 360 boat. So what better time than now to count down the best XBLA games to ever grace the Xbox 360?

It wasn’t easy, but our staff has sorted through all of the best XBLA releases over the years and picked the ones that we feel are the true standout stars of the platform. Check back with us throughout the week as we run down five of Xbox Live Arcade’s top games every night. And don’t forget to head to the comments to let us know how much you love (or hate) our picks.

(Editor’s Note: Voting was conducted in early September. No games released post-Summer of Arcade 2013 were considered eligible.)

10.) 1 vs 100

Ryan Thompson, Contributor — One of the promises of the Xbox 360 console that went largely unfulfilled was the idea that Xbox Live would expand to a point of truly joining together the entire community of players. The truth is that not a lot has changed since players began playing Halo 2 online almost a decade ago: we still join lobbies and play with small groups of people.

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A new hero will soon be added to the Marvel Pinball lineup, coming to save Earth from the greatest powers from the darkest dimensions. Doctor Strange must stop rival sorcerer Baron Mordo, who plans to …
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