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“This is by far the largest and most ambitious XBLA game ever made. No question,” Undead Labs CEO Jeff Strain said matter-of-factly of State of Decay when we spoke at PAX Prime. Though XBLA Fans has been unable to verify that claim, my brief time with the sandbox zombie game proved this much, at least: it’s huge. To put a measurement on it, Undead claims the overworld is 16 square kilometers.

In the demo, the player arms himself with a pistol and walks outside into deserted Anytown, USA. It is quickly apparent that not all living(ish) creatures have actually vacated the municipality. A few zombies shamble towards the player, as zombies are wont to do. Years of zombie games have prepared gamers for this situation; unloading a few shots into their noggins should eliminate the threat with little drama. Indeed it does, but they’ve got friends, and my, what big ears they have. There are small clusters of the undead doing their shambling thing on every block in sight. The unmistakable sound of gunfire alerts a couple of groupings of the town’s 99 percent, and, not the least bit concerned over the prospect of parting with the rotting lumps atop their necks, they quickly converge on the player’s location.

The first ones on the scene go down easily enough, but they just don’t make pistol clips big enough for this sort of job. Thankfully, Detroit was kind enough to make bumpers for just such an occasion. Jumping in an abandoned car, I stomp on the throttle and attempt, unsuccessfully, to make a controlled turn around the block. True to real life, the ’70s-looking muscle car is uncontrollable in anything other than a straight line.

Attempts to regain traction don’t go so well — not for me or for the zombies who thought it was a good idea to hang around in the middle of the road just past the intersection where irresponsible drivers are wont to swerve through, not the least bit concerned about braking for pedestrians. Zombies fly like bowling pins, inspiring another go at the group a bit farther down the road. The Undead Labs representative recommends motoring right on by to the side of them and hitting B. The car’s door is kicked open, and more zombies meet their end. At this point, it wouldn’t have been surprising if State of Decay‘s zombies began chanting “Braaaaaakes!” instead of “Braaaaains!”

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Announced mid-August, Special Forces Team X didn’t have any clear platforms listed out of the gate. This morning a listing snuck (sneaked?) onto Xbox.com, which with games like these usually indicates an Xbox Live Arcade release. If the gameplay looks mildly familiar, that’s because it’s Zombie Studios latest project. They’re the team behind Blacklight:Tango Down and its non-XBLA sequel Blacklight: Retribution. But Xbox Live Arcade has already seen its fair share of multiplayer shooters. Blacklight: Tango Down, Breach, Counter Strike: Global Offensive and most recently, Hybrid. What sets this apart?

Apart from its cel shading and third-person focus, Special Forces allows players to play dynamically generated levels. Each round players vote for one of a number of tile combinations for a given map. It’s like Halo‘s Forge maps, except as near as we can tell you don’t get the opportunity to customize the maps yourself. That may be a slight downer, but no other XBLA shooter has dynamic map generation, meaning that the replay value here is likely to be huge. Zombie Studios boasts over 100 different combinations between the game’s maps. Player characters can be customized, too. Weapons, appearance, player skills and taunts will all be at your leisure to modify.

Hit the jump for a general list of features and screenshots. Oh, and don’t worry about the CENSORED tags in the trailer. Zombie says they were just for fun. They won’t be in the game.

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No Supercross or Skill Games this week, it’s all raw Trials courses. There’s nothing too difficult here, so if you’re a more casual player you’ll still be able to enjoy these little gems. Each one is themed, and each theme has that charm that’ll put a smile on your face. Do yourself a favor and put Borderlands 2 aside for a few minutes to take a spin on these great Trials Evolution tracks.

To download these tracks by entering Track Central, selecting Get Tracks, then pressing X to search. Enter the gamertag below to find the track. Be aware that the search is case sensitive. A big thanks to the Trials Evolution community for the borrowed videos. Hit the jump to see this week’s picks.

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Just one XBLA release for the majority of gamers this week with Marvel vs Capcom Origins releasing today for 1200 MSP. The game is actually a two-pack which includes …
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Been holding out on Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead, the wildly popular episodic downloadable series based on Robert Kirkman’s best-selling comic book series of the same name? Want to wait for the whole season in one tidy package? Lucky for you, Telltale plans to rerelease the game as a retail release by the end of this year.

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Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit was developed by Arkedo Games and published by Sega. It was released September 26, 2012 in North America and a week later in the UK for 1200 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

It’s difficult to classify Hell Yeah! in a single easy statement. Arkedo’s Xbox Live Arcade debut draws heavily upon classic games such as Sonic, Mario, WarioWare, Parodius, Mortal Kombat and just about everything in-between, but remains almost entirely unique at the same time. Put simply, Hell Yeah! is one of the most enjoyable XBLA titles we’ve played this year, despite the occasional flaw and my own reservations about some of the humor.

The game begins with the most tenuous of story lines as Ash (the Dead Rabbit Prince of Hell and main protagonist of Hell Yeah!) is pictured in the act of bathing with his rubber duck by a nosy paparazzi. The pictures are quickly uploaded to the Hell-ternet and much embarrassment follows for our hero. Determined to have his revenge (and to recover the photos) Ash sets out to defeat one hundred and one monsters across a range of unique and interesting worlds.

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City Interactive has released another DLC for Dogfight 1942, dramatically entitled Fire Over Africa. It is focused on claiming air superiority in battles such as Tobruk and El Alamein …
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So, Realms of Ancient War recently launched on Xbox Live Arcade. To celebrate,  Focus Home Interactive decided to present us with this …
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A treat for fans of both pinball and Marvel comics in general will land later today, as the XBLA Deal of the Week features a selection of superhero related …
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