By far one of the hottest topics of the day is the explosive launch of the new OnLive service founded by noted technology entrepreneur Steve Perlman (WebTV, QuickTime) that purports to bring the world the following amazing capabilities:

• Connect to OnLive with your TV, PC or Mac and start a game
• Your game runs in a state-of-the-art OnLive game server center
• OnLive connects you to game servers through the Internet, instantly sending your controller actions upstream and the results back downstream at blinding fast speeds
• Enjoy ultra high-performance gameplay on your TV or entry-level PC or Mac

Essentially you will be able to play any game anywhere, anytime over a broadband connection without any downloads.  Similarly, you can play demos for any of these games to check ‘em out before committing to the full game.

If this astounding service ends up delivering what it is promising, gaming will never be the same.  Imagine picking up a round of multiplayer Gears of War 2 from your hotel room in Reno, or testing out a new map in COD – World at War in the waiting area at the airport without ever having purchased or downloaded the game.

For the indie game developer, this could mean riding the Long Tail of the larger games so that a massive global audience can be exposed to your creation.  Watch the amazing HD videos about this new service now at:

http://www.onlive.com/

Released January 2nd 2008, Metal Slug 3 from Japanese developer SNK PLAYMORE CORPORATION, with its fast-paced, multi-path action and gorgeous post 8-bit graphics brings both outstanding and consistently fresh gameplay and legitimately humor entertainment to the XBOX 360 Live Arcade and yet it is conspicuously absent from Microsoft’s own year-end gamers’ polls.  Maybe it is somehow considered a 2007 release, or a an original Xbox re-release, but technically it is a 2008 XBLA release and should have figured in this year’s awards.  Plus playing as a blood-spewing zombie rules.

Braid was an excellent, innovative platform, no doubt about it, as were n+, Portal and the brilliantly conceived Castle Crashers.  In the biggest year ever for Xbox Live there was a lot of stiff competition.  But how did Boogie Bunnies get on the list and Metal Slug 3 not appear even once? For shame!

If someone has the official explanation, we would love to hear it.

Here are all the nominees for the Second Annual Xbox Live Arcade Awards

Best Overall Arcade Game
Braid
Castle Crashers
Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2
Street Fighter II HD Remix
Portal: Still Alive

Best Original Game
Castle Crashers
N+
Braid
Penny Arcade Episode 1
Schizoid
Age of Booty

Best Family Game
Boogie Bunnies
Roogoo
A Kingdom for Keflings
Lost Cities
Meteos Wars

Best Co-operative Multiplayer Game
Castle Crashers
Schizoid
Bionic Commando Rearmed
N+
Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2

Best Competitive Multiplayer Game
Street Fighter II HD Remix
Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2
Soul Calibur
Meteos Wars
Age of Booty

Best Solo Game
Braid
Mega Man 9
Penny Arcade Episode 1
Rez HD
Portal: Still Alive

Best Innovation in XBLA
Braid (time travel)
A Kingdom for Keflings (use of Avatars)
Fable II Pub Games (retail game integration)
N+ (level sharing)
Duke Nukem 3D (dynamic replay)

Best Graphics
Street Fighter II HD Remix
Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2
Braid
Castle Crashers
Bionic Commando Rearmed

Best Classic/Remake Game
Bionic Commando Rearmed
Street Fighter II HD Remix
Mega Man 9
Galaga Legions
Rez HD

Whatever the case may be, cough up the 800 Microsoft points and download Metal slug 3 today.  You can thank me later.

The results of our February poll wherein we asked you to vote on the best Xbox 360 or original Xbox game ever surprised us. The top three games were:

1. Mass Effect
2. Fallout 3
3. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Others close contenders were Gears of War (1), Forza MotoSport, and Fable 2. We were interested to see that RPGs beat out most first-person shooters. Perhaps this is because despite the increasingly impressive design of FPS games, the RPGs linger longer in the memory for their mix of action, story and user experience. We thank you for voting and look forward to the results of our next poll which will be based on XBLA.

Agree?  Disagree?  What is your favorite game ever for the Xbox game platform? (Original or 360)