Water enthusiasts who're also Xbox Live Gold members will be thrilled by discounts on Hydrophobia, Aqua - Naval Warfare and Hydro Thunder Hurricane in the latest XBLA 'deal of the week,' unveiled by Xbox Live puppet master Larry 'Major Nelson' Hryb.

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Forecasting & Analyzing Digital Entertainment (FADE) is reporting that Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade enjoyed its best month to date in August, built on the strength of the Summer of Arcade promotion.

According to the report, Microsoft brought in $17.5 million in August 2010 over $16.5 million in August 2009, which was the second year of the Summer of Arcade promotion. The report presents a top 10 list of games sold, ranked by revenue generated, and includes the total number of copies purchased. Note that some titles were not included in the Summer of Arcade promotion or were released before August. Read more »

The watery Xbox Live Arcade racer Hydro Thunder Hurricane will score new courses, boats, skins and events this October in the paid downloadable content 'Thunder Pack,' developer Vector Unit has announced. Read more »

Now that July is behind us and Xbox Live's 'Summer of Arcade' is in full-swing, it's a good a time as any to check out the initial sales figures for the various XBLA titles released over the past several weeks.

GamerBytes editor Ryan Langley has taken a look at Xbox Live Arcade Leaderboards for July to determine which games have been played the most since their respective release dates. It's worth noting that his figures are based on Leaderboard activity, so these sales-approximations only reflect those who've purchased and played on XBLA. Six new XBLA releases came out in July: Monkey Island 2: Special Edition, Blacklight: Tango Down, Deadliest Warrior: The Game, DeathSpank, Limbo, and Hydro Thunder Hurricane. Read more »

It's true -- crime in Hong Kong has been put on hold until next year, as the upcoming reboot of the open-world franchise True Crime has been pushed to sometime in 2011. The Activision-published True Crime: Hong Kong was originally slated to hit stores in fall 2010.

The delay was revealed in Activision's Q2 2011 investor's report, where the publishing giant said the push to 2011 would "give the development team more time to deliver the high-quality entertainment experience they envision for the game." Essentially, the equivalent of "no comment" when detailing a reason for a video game delay. Read more »

Starcraft 2 released! How strange does it sound to finally hear those words? Brian begrudgingly pulled away from the game long enough to share his impressions with Garnett and Jeff who've also been playing it. Knowing it will be part of the conversation for some weeks, the guys also bring Hydro Thunder Hurricane and the Medal of Honor multiplayer beta now out on 360 for some variety in Whatcha Been Playin? Your comments on music, teaching friends games, and being the anti-Cannata lead the Warning before and excellent track from Module, who did the Shatter soundtrack. And in the Front Page negative financials can't dampen the enthusiasm for the dual Street Fighter and Tekken crossover games announced.

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Xbox Live's Major Nelson has released the schedule for Xbox Live Marketplace content from July 22 to August 2, noting discounts on Borderlands and Forza Motorsport 3 DLC and new Avatar Marketplace Gear. Next week brings the second game in the Summer of Arcade, Hydro Thunder Hurricane for 1200MS Points ($15).

Avatar items from the fantasy realm of Dragon Age: Origins and the sci-fi world of Halo: Reach are incoming on July 22 and 23, respectively. Next week, all Borderlands DLC will drop to 400MS Points each (50% off from 800MS Points) for the Deal of the Week, followed by discounts on multiple Forza Motorsport 3 DLC packs. As always, sale pricing is limited to Xbox Live Gold members. Read more »

According to Microsoft, the best way to beat the summer heat is to stay inside and spend $15 every week.Today, Xbox.com updated its Summer of Arcade promotion page to reveal the dates and prices for each of the titles included. Each title in the promotion is priced at 1200MS Points ($15 earth dollars). Earlier, Konami seemingly jumped the marketing gun and revealed Castlevania: Harmony of Despair's date and price.

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"The third annual Summer of Arcade will kick-off in July," Microsoft announced today, revealing that it will see the following downloadable Xbox 360 games released:

• Castlevania: Harmony of Despair

• Hyrdo Thunder Hurricane Read more »

With the "Summer 2010" release window of Hydro Thunder Hurricane approaching, developer Vector Unit has passed along six new videos, detailing more of the tracks and modes found in the downloadable racing sequel.

The first game out of Vector Unit--founded by Blood Wake veterans Ralf Knoesel and Matt Small--Hydro Thunder Hurricane is exclusive to the Xbox 360. Alongside single-player, the game will pack eight-person online play and four-player split-screen. Read more »

Kotaku reports that a full sequel to Midway's arcade classic Hydro Thunder will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade this summer from developer Vector Unit.

Vector Unit was founded by Ralf Knoesel and Matt Small who both worked on Blood Wake, a boat combat game released in 2001 with the launch of the original Xbox. Here is Hydro Thunder Hurricane's first trailer: Read more »