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In the UK, Microsoft has initiated the Xbox Ultimate Collection program, a gathering of Xbox Live Arcade top dogs with biweekly battles where fans can vote to add a new game to the list. The winner is then available for purchase at half-price the following week.

The Xbox Ultimate Collection spans six different categories, each comprised of the top five games within said category. Games such as The Walking Dead, Peggle, Full House Poker and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD are all represented here, with five open slots of the total 60 awaiting fan-chosen games in the biweekly voting campaigns.

The full list of current Xbox Ultimate Collection games is available past the break. The Xbox Ultimate Collection program will span eight weeks in total. We've contacted Microsoft to find out if the program will be extended outside of the UK and will update this post with what we find out.

Ubisoft has a remake of Flashback in the works for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. This Unreal-powered version is helmed by VectorCell, the French studio behind horror game Amy. It is owned by the original Flashback's lead designer, Paul Cuisset.

Flashback was first developed by Delphine Software and released over 20 years ago on the Amiga. The stylized platformer, which was later ported to Genesis, Mega-CD, PC and Mac (amongst others) centers on Conrad B. Hart, an amnesiac who finds a message - recorded by himself - warning of an alien plot threatening Earth.

Every week, a group of friends and I get together to watch the television show, The Walking Dead. By "watch" I mean we make fun of the terrible acting and bemoan the missing parts that made the comic so good. It's a joyful, heartfelt tradition that we look forward to each week, and not much distracts us from this routine. Except, of course, a really good excuse to beat each other up.

This week we started our screen session with a local co-op round of The Behemoth's Battleblock Theater in Arena mode. Arena mode features a handful of four-player mini-games, all of which are co-op, two-on-two or every man for himself. We started with "Ball Game." After two hours of passing the controllers, running through various levels, rolling in laughter and punching each other whenever a sweet move went awry, someone suggested we start up The Walking Dead. The response was immediate.

"No way. We're playing this." And so we did, all night long.

Another sale has spread across Xbox Live Arcade, running until April 9. The sale's highlight is 50% off Mark of the Ninja from Klei Entertainment - one of Joystiq's favorite games of 2012 - bringing it down to 600 MS Points ($7.50).

Other cheap contenders include Trials Evolution for 800 MS Points ($10) and some discounted Pinball FX 2 tables. There's also Dust: An Elysian Tale and Deadlight for 600 MS Points ($7.50) to consider.

On top of this promotion highlighting Microsoft Studios games, there's also the ongoing Xbox Live Arcade Deal of the Week sale. Retro City Rampage has been knocked down to 600 MS Points ($7.50) and Quarrel is 200 MS Points ($2.50). The full list of both sales can be seen through the source links below.

Klei Entertainment's expanded edition of its masterful stealth game has new content. Check it out.

The manic side-scrolling shooter A.R.E.S. Extinction Agenda, originally developed for Windows by a Thai developer named Extend Studio, is making its way to the Xbox Live Arcade in an extended version, courtesy of Origo Games and publisher Aksys Games. The console version of the title (which placed second in Microsoft's 2010 Dream.Build.Play. competition) will feature new controls, a new UI, redesigned maps and enemies, and new high resolution textures and animated cutscenes.

The XBLA version, called A.R.E.S. Extinction Agenda EX, will also include both the original soundtrack, and a new soundtrack for the second campaign by Peruvian heavy metal guitarist Charlie Parra Del Riego. Aksys hasn't announced a date or price for the game yet.

#snoopdogg Disclaimer: Considering that the game is called Way of the Dogg, I'm gonna go ahead and call the rapper in question Snoop Dogg instead of Snoop Lion. Anyway, the man himself has gone ahead and made a video game, or at least lent his likeness and music to one. While it may lack the production values of that other rapper-starring video game 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, it still looks… well, interesting. More »

Serious Sam 3's Xbox Live Arcade port has received a permanent price reduction, down from 1200 MS Points ($15) to 800 MS Points ($10), a savings of $5. The Jewel of the Nile DLC has also been reduced to the same price.

Serious Sam 3 originally launched on the PC in late 2011, a game our own Ludwig Kietzmann says "is like a dam filled with cookies." Last year, Serious Sam 3 was ported to Mac and Linux before its Xbox Live Arcade debut in October.

Zen Studios has been working on its tower-defense game CastleStorm for well over a year now. During an appointment with the developer, Joystiq has learned the game is currently set for launch on Xbox Live Arcade and Windows 8 sometime in April.

CastleStorm is essentially a 2D, physics-based destruction game with tower-defense elements tossed in. As the Knights, you defend your castle from waves of attacking Vikings; players can defend with ranged weapons such as ballistas, or choose to put their boots on the ground and get right into the conflict as a hero.

There will also be a host of other modes to play outside of the campaign's 12 different environments, including online multiplayer and co-op, plus a castle editor - you can set up your own look and weapon loadouts for your castle, and test weapons within the editor to see how they'd bring it down.

Zen Studios hasn't announced a price for CastleStorm yet, but with only around a month left until launch, we're sure the developer will lob a price point over toward us soon.

If an alien intelligence agency got a hold of this "Top Xbox games of 2012" list, it might come away with the conclusion that humans are really, really into mining. The aliens might also conclude that we enjoy warfare, including the kind that affects extraterrestrials, so let's hope that they focus on the harmless digging thing and keep their lasers to themselves.

Major Nelson breaks down 2012's top 20 games of the following categories: Live, Arcade, Indie and Games for Windows Live. The top Xbox Live games of 2012, determined by average unique users per day, are Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Modern Warfare 3, Halo 4, Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition and Black Ops. Following that is a round of sports games, including FIFA Soccer 13 and 12, and Halo: Reach, Assassin's Creed 3, Battlefield 3, Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3 and Skyrim.

The top five Xbox Live Arcade games, determined by full versions purchased, are Minecraft, Trials Evolution, The Walking Dead, Pinball FX2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Castle Crashers is hanging out at No. 6, followed by Fez at No. 13. Indie games are ranked with the same method, and they carry a familiar theme, headlined by CastleMiner Z, CastleMiner, Total Miner: Forge, Avatar Deathmatch and FortressCraft Chapter 1.

Games for Windows Live games get ranked by average unique users per day, and the top five are Grand Theft Auto 4, Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition, Age of Empires Online, Batman: Arkham City and Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition. Remember, aliens, humans sure do love the smell of fresh, pixelated dirt. See for yourself with the full lists, provided by Major Nelson, after the break.

#crimsondragon Yesterday, a demo for upcoming Kinect action game Crimson Dragon was accidentally released on Xbox Live in Japan before being swiftly pulled. But not before people could download it and record it being played. More »

Today's Xbox Live deal offers 50 percent off of Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown, Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection, Dungeon Defenders, Street Fighter 3: Third Strike Online Edition and Dungeon Fighter Live, all for XBLA. Virtua Fighter 5, Dungeon Defenders and Street Fighter 3 are each 600 MS Points, while Mortal Kombat Arcade and Dungeon Fighter Live are 400 MS Points. You could say today's deals pack a real punch.

These sales mark the latest installment of Xbox Live's really long New Year's countdown, which offers daily deals on a variety of games until that big, reflective ball falls out of the sky on January 1.

The Xbox Live Arcade version of Minecraft is selling at a good clip, shifting between 40,000 and 60,000 copies a week - it's just below Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Halo 4 in the weekly Xbox Live activity charts. As of November's end, total XBLA sales are at 4,476,904.

This is data according to Mojang itself, as reported by Gamasutra. This would indicate the Xbox Live Arcade port has exceeded half the total sales of the PC version, which reached the eight million mark back in the middle of November. Minecraft version 1.5 will be released in January.

Xbox Live's Major Nelson has released the list of content coming to Xbox Live over the next few weeks. It all kicks off today with a trip of Sega fighters launching on Xbox Live Arcade: Virtua Fighter 2, Sonic the Fighters and Fighting Vipers. You can take your pick at 400 MS Points ($5) each, half the initial asking price.

Guardians of Middle Earth will make its trek to Xbox Live Arcade on December 5. The Revert DLC for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD also drops in on December 5 for 400 MS Points ($5). Finally, that week will also see the debut of Skyrim's second DLC pack on Xbox Live, the 1600 MS Point ($20) Dragonborn expansion on December 4.

On the savings front, this week's Deal of the Week revolves around GTA IV - the vanilla game starring cousin Niko is available through Games on Demand (price varies by region) with the Lost and Damned and Ballad of Gay Tony expansions being offered until December 3 for 400 MS Points and 800 MS Points each, respectively. Next week, from December 4 to the 10th, Deadliest Warrior and all of its DLC will be discounted.

Additional Kinect-focused deals are available through Xbox Live's Sales & Specials app - this week Burnout Crash is on sale for 400 MS Points ($5) with next week's deals focusing on Ubisoft's stable of Kinect games.

Pid, the puzzle-platformer from ex-Grin folks at Might and Delight, is now available on PC, PS3 and Xbox Live Arcade for $10 (800 MS Points). But you don't have to spend a dime to watch this launch trailer - well, okay, you pay for internet but you know what we mean. Yeah, you get it.

Team 17 is adding to its macabre worm murder simulator Worms: Revolution with some new DLC on October 24. The 'Funfair Pack' adds five new puzzle missions, a new backdrop theme for matches and customization options for your worms. The content also includes four new weapons, three of which should be instantly recognizable to veterans of the franchise: Armageddon, Skunk, Napalm Strike alongside a new weapon dubbed Knock-Out.

The Funfair Pack for Worms: Revolution will debut on Steam, PSN and Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday, October 24 for 400 MS Points ($5). Worms: Revolution is an entirely new entry in the series, one our review says doesn't really mix things up too much - but never really needed to.

Pool Nation is a brand new billiards game by Cherry Pop Games that's coming to the Xbox Live Arcade, and while we previously posted that it was due out sometime last week, Cherry Pop has instead confirmed it for release on October 31. That's what the official Twitter account says, so if you were excited to break with a virtual cue already, you'll have to wait just a few more weeks.

Pool Nation allows for online or singleplayer billards play, and will let players use slow-time, rewind, or a number of other powers while cracking the various colored balls around the table. There's also a mode called Endurance, which tasks players with finishing the table quickly to try and earn the most money. When it does arrive, the game will be available for 800 Microsoft Points, or about $10.00.

Trials Evolution's first DLC pack, 'Origin of Pain,' hits the track on Xbox Live Arcade tomorrow, October 5. The expansion pack takes everyone's favorite faceless dirtbiker to a new island where he can clumsily fall around through 36 new tracks, ten of which are new Supercross levels.

Origin of Pain will cost 400 MS Points ($5) and also adds 100 new objects to the level editor suite for all you masochists out there.

'Silver Lining' is a column from freelancer Taylor Cocke dedicated to highlighting moments of real potential in less than perfect games. This week he examines Tequila Works' Deadlight. The following may contain story spoilers.
Scrawled on the wall in a frenzied font a warning reads "The Inferno Begins Here." Just in case you weren't positive the opening scenes of Deadlight from developer Tequila Works were referencing Dante's Inferno, a nearby collectible journal directly quotes the epic poem: "Through me the way into the suffering city, Through me the way to the eternal pain, Through me the way that runs among the lost." In other words, protagonist Randall Wayne will soon be suffering through his own version of Hell.

The scene isn't exactly subtle, and is indicative of a large problem with the rest of the game. Rather than allowing events to play out and ask players to draw their own conclusions about them, Deadlight practically tells you what to feel through a series of notes, diary entries, and flashbacks. Randall's story is a tragic one, to be sure, but it'd be much more powerful if it had been given more room to breathe within the player's own mind.

#callofjuarez There's a new Call of Juarez game in town. It's dubbed Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. Here's the game's debut trailer, which features actors. Good thing this is a movie! Oh wait. More »

Microsoft revealed its first wave of Xbox Live games coming to Windows 8, with 29 games from Microsoft Studios. The first batch will be available October 26 and will span "Windows 8 PC, laptop, or tablet."
Some curious titles that jump out to us in this list are Gunstringer: Dead Man Running and Hydro Thunder Hurricane. There are also some cool ports like ilomilo, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, Toy Soliders: Cold War, Pinball FX2 and... BlazBlue Calamity Trigger?

#supertimeforce It has everything. Gameplay footage from one of the slickest looking games in the pipeline (and it's from the guys behind Sword & Sworcery). A Saturday morning cartoon intro. And dubstep. Plenty of dubstep. Because it wouldn't be a video game trailer without it! More »

Orbitron Revolution developer Firebase Industries today unveiled Arcadecraft, an upcoming arcade management sim for PC and Xbox Live. As the above trailer shows, finally we'll all be able to realize our universal life goal: owning a dingy backstreet arcade.

Arcadecraft, Firebase tells us, chronicles the rollercoaster that was the 1980s arcade industry; the golden age of the early 80s, the mid-decade crash, and the return to glory towards the 90s. While Firebase hopes to include around 100 fictional machines in Arcadecraft, it's the real ups and downs of the 80s that impact how arcades evolve. As time goes on, black and white games progress into color, Laserdisc arrives along with two-player machines, and then the sacred invention of the 'continue.'

Similar to the 'Theme' games of the 90s, subtleties like the pricing and difficulty of machines can affect customer loyalty. There are peripheral influences too, like a home version reducing a machine's popularity, or a classic game riding a nostalgic second wave. Meanwhile, as the above trailer shows, arcades can be customized with pillars, graphics, and neon - lots of neon - while XBLA players can see Avatars gracing their establishments.

While there's no word on a release date, Firebase reckon Arcadecraft should be completed around October. In the meantime, you can find some screenshots after the break.

The Walking Dead: Episode Three: Long Road Ahead arrives on PSN today, and tomorrow on XBLM, PC, and Mac. The PSN price is $4.99, while on XBLM it's 400 MS points. PC and Mac players will have access through Telltale's Season Pass or various online portals, including Steam. International release dates remain unconfirmed, though Telltale Games hopes to have word on that soon.

Telltale announced the news after yesterday teasing the next episode of the zombie-stuffed adventure would drop "very soon." Meanwhile, iOS shuffles along just behind the pack, with Episode Two releasing as an in-app purchase for the Walking Dead game tomorrow.

Developer Mojang continues to dominate the Xbox Live Arcade charts, announcing today that Minecraft for the Xbox 360 has sold 3.6 million copies. Mojang's business developer Daniel Kaplan revealed the latest numbers on the game on Twitter earlier today, saying he was "really surprised" to learn of Minecraft's latest milestone.

Minecraft on XBLA broke sales records when it launched, becoming profitable within an hour of its release. In July, Mojang founder (and Minecraft mastermind) Markus "Notch" Persson revealed the game had surpassed the three million unit sales mark.

On PC, the tree-punching simulator has surpassed seven million units sold. That's a lot of punching.

#xboxlive Last year there was a lot of rumbling about Xbox Live someday offering free-to-play video games. Well, that day is coming soon. Happy Wars, by ToyLogic, will be available for free to all Xbox Live Goldmembers this fall. More »

#naughtybear In June of 2010, 505 Games and developer Behaviour broke my tiny plush heart. Naughty Bear was to be everything I'd ever wanted in fluff-soaked teddy bear gore. Instead, it was simplistic, unattractive and unsatisfying. I wanted Dexter. They gave me Texas Chain Saw Massacre Lite. Can the downloadable Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise give me the carnal satisfaction my empty soul craves? More »

Just in case there weren't enough ways to bug your friends online, Harmonix revealed "Rock Band World" this morning, a new social app for Facebook. The app integrates with both Rock Band 3 and Rock Band Blitz, allowing players to challenge their friends, compare scores, shop for music, and accomplish social goals. Accomplishing said goals can earn players in-game coins for Rock Band Blitz, which can then be used to purchase power-ups.

The app is now available on Facebook. Rock Band Blitz arrives on PSN August 28 and on XBLA August 29.

The only place Joe Danger hasn't ended up is on a Nintendo console. Which made Hello Games founder Sean Murray's statement on the game's inspirations distinctly confusing when he told me this last week during Gamescom:
"What we always talk about is a kind of 'Nintendo-y' feel. The Nintendo thing for me is they make it look effortless - they just throw in things. If you're playing Mario Galaxy, you're like, 'That one five minutes, most people would make that an entire game.' That's what I really want so badly for people to play unicycle - or any of those ... we've got skis and it's only like two levels - you want someone to play that and think, 'This could've been a whole game and I would've played it. You know what I mean? But I've just had this one little nugget, and it's left me wanting more. And they move on to the next thing, and the next thing, and they feel like - when they unlock a level - 'I wonder what this one's gonna be.' So we've really stuck to that."Like Mario Galaxy, Joe Danger 2: The Movie is pocked by one-off (or perhaps "one or two-off") gameplay vignettes. "The unicycle has that unique lean thing to stay upright, and it's a really fun vehicle. But we just use it once, don't put it anywhere else, and it's a really cool thing when you find that," Murray said. Of course, if you're just way into the unicycle, you can always create levels just for it in the game's revamped, online sharing-enabled level editor.

The only place Joe Danger hasn't ended up is on a Nintendo console. Which made Hello Games founder Sean Murray's statement on the game's inspirations distinctly confusing when he told me this last week during Gamescom:
"What we always talk about is a kind of 'Nintendo-y' feel. The Nintendo thing for me is they make it look effortless - they just throw in things. If you're playing Mario Galaxy, you're like, 'That one five minutes, most people would make that an entire game.' That's what I really want so badly for people to play unicycle - or any of those ... we've got skis and it's only like two levels - you want someone to play that and think, 'This could've been a whole game and I would've played it. You know what I mean? But I've just had this one little nugget, and it's left me wanting more. And they move on to the next thing, and the next thing, and they feel like - when they unlock a level - 'I wonder what this one's gonna be.' So we've really stuck to that."Like Mario Galaxy, Joe Danger 2: The Movie is pocked by one-off (or perhaps "one or two-off") gameplay vignettes. "The unicycle has that unique lean thing to stay upright, and it's a really fun vehicle. But we just use it once, don't put it anywhere else, and it's a really cool thing when you find that," Murray said. Of course, if you're just way into the unicycle, you can always create levels just for it in the game's revamped, online sharing-enabled level editor.