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In accordance with its “games are games are games” philosophy described at the Xbox One Reveal, Microsoft has rebranded the Xbox Live Marketplace as the Xbox Games Store.

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After three years here with the Involved Fans staff, the time has come for me to step back as the Community Manager here at XBLA Fans. The reason for my departure is not negative nor are any relationships here the cause of my stepping down. Sometimes life just happens and you need to take a step back. I simply don’t have the bandwidth to keep up with any day-to-day tasks anymore, and the site is better off if I take that step back and give another staff member a chance to take over the community side of things. Who knows, I may be back at some point in the future at some capacity but for now I’m simply a guy who watches from a distance while others continue to make the site thrive and grow every day. The staff here is excellent. Everything is in good hands.

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The forthcoming free-to-play action RPG, Ascend: Hand of Kul, continues its quiet march toward an inevitable launch date. Since early July, players who were fortunate to score a coveted spot in the closed beta have plummeted the depths of Signal Studios’ impressive landscape, and clashed against one another in the name of their respective gods. As we previously reported, plans are well underway to roll the beta into open release, starting with the latest content update.

Signal Studios’ President D.R. Albright III took to the developer’s blog to announce the update as version 1.1, the changes/features/fixes therein, and outline the future of Ascend. “The 1.1 phase will be released to those who have already been playing first,” he wrote. “Within a few days after release, we will be expanding the beta in larger groups, approximately 15k players is the goal.” If you’re not yet involved in the beta, the next round of invitations could remedy that – head over to official registration site to toss your name into the hat.

For those already engrossed in the ongoing Crusade for total dominion, you’ll be happy to know the playable world has now been expanded, including a long-awaited crack at one towering titan. Additional considerations aimed at improving player experience include: lowered repair costs, spells automatically receiving legacy status, pre/post invader status screens, increased difficulty during boss engagements and additional stats to pore over with each new item acquisition.

“We also fixed over 800 bugs since we last met and probably introduced a few hundred more :)! Let’s all hop on this beta and report any issues to the forums to help improve the public release,” Albright added. “Rest assured, back at the mothership we are already working diligently towards the next phase of Ascend, which is the full public release!” The full collection of changes can be found in list form – everyone’s favorite form – right after the jump.

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Microsoft has officially released the Xbox One marketing hounds in preparation for an upcoming November 22 system launch. At the head of the pack, the first commercial for the next generation console chased down televisions nation-wide to ask, “Are you ready for some football?”

The sure-fire spot focused entirely on non-gaming aspects of the forthcoming hardware, chief among them being Microsoft’s lucrative partnership with the National Football League. The TV spot – which can be viewed after the jump – showcases Kinect-based voice control, live sports streaming, the NFL app with fantasy integration and, of course, real-time Skype.

Xbox fans, who use the system to play games, might be disappointed in seeing the spot as another chapter in the narrative that paints the Xbox One as an all-around entertainment device first, and a gaming platform second. However, this commercial is likely the first of many, many fronts in the war for your wallet, and targeted specifically at the massive football-oriented audience tuned in for last week’s NFL season opener.

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This week’s deal offers up some of the very best Xbox Live Arcade has to offer, dropping names and prices on a couple of the year’s bigger titles and …
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In a recent interview with Polygon, Capy president Nathan Vella said that Super Time Force is “definitely” coming this year, first, to Xbox Live Arcade. The game is currently …
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According to Xbox Director of Product Planning Albert Penello, backwards compatibility is “absolutely” a possibility at some point in the future for the Xbox One. Speaking to GameSpot at …
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows was developed by Red Fly Studio and published by Activision. It was released on August 28, 2013 for $14.99. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is a third person beat ‘em up game utilizing Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3. After a brief introduction starring newscaster April O’Neal (in which she is playable, unlike the majority of the Turtles games), players take on the role of the four famous turtles, hacking, slashing and kicking their way towards a final confrontation with Shredder himself.

The game features more diverse terrain than in previous Ninja Turtle games, forcing the turtles to traverse rooftops, leap over buses, and wind through sewer tunnels while fighting the Foot clan and scientist Baxter Stockman’s endless supply of mouser robots.  In between each stage, the group returns to their lair in the New York sewers to train, learn new moves, upgrade their weapons and play arcade games.

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Whoever coined the phrase, “Too much of a good thing,” likely never played a video game. Sure, mostly because the saying dates back to well before Pong ever pinged a virtual paddle, but in some small part because anyone that’s ever really connected to a great game knows the bittersweet sorrow of wrapping it up. Xbox Live Arcade is no stranger to great games — however you choose to define the word: fun, dense, deep, powerful – there’s something for everyone in our little digital corner of video games proper.

With that in mind, we take a look back at the heavy hitters, the ones that make you set down the controller upon completion and want to know more. XBLAFans’ Friday Top Five is back, bringing you the top five Xbox Live Arcade games (in no particular order) that require a sequel.

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Japanese developer 5pb has teased new downloadable content for the pixelated side-scrolling beat-em-up, Phantom Breaker: Battlegrounds. The developer unveiled its intentions to port the title to Sony’s handheld PlayStation Vita …
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