Every week I sit down at my 360 and download any and all new community games I find on the XBLM. Every week, I play at least five games that range from mediocre to terrible before finding one I find to be worthy of promoting. This week’s entry, Blow, has apparently been hiding right under my nose since November 17th, and I’m truly sorry I didn’t stumble upon it sooner.

Let’s assume I was trying to run homebrew applications on my PSP. For this hypothetical scenario, my sole purpose for doing this would be to play PSone games on my PSP. Likewise assume that I own all of the games I will be using an emulator to play on the PSP and the programs I will be using to do so are free to use. The only thing stopping me from doing so would be the software running on the PSP. Is this at all fair? Is it right that the manufacturers of both handheld and home consoles control nearly every aspect of how we use them?

CaveIn - Miner Rescue Team puts you in the shoes of either Johnny Red, or Parker Blue as they attempt to rescue miners from a dangerous, collapsing mine full of puzzles. The object of the game is to get from one room to the next by solving a series of puzzles that require you to connect three rocks of the same color.

World Molder puts you in the shoes of a character who looks suspiciously like Death, the big difference being that instead of killing with the touch of a boney finger, the main character in this game can reshape the world around him. Each block of land can be bent and molded to suit your platforming needs. This leads to some interesting puzzle solving, and challenging platforming.

The Wii has continued to shatter sales and industry expectations throughout it’s two year lifespan by selling over 41 million units, easily becoming the sales leader in the current generation console wars. Even with the year advantage held by the Xbox 360, the sales of the Wii have been a juggernaut during both the holiday seasons, as well as the traditional low sales periods of the year such as the spring and summer. While the Wii has brought a breathe of new life into an industry that had an arguably stagnant consumer base previous to it’s launch, it is important to look at the other profound effects that the Wii has had on the industry, predominantly the hardware sales of the previous console leader, Sony.

Epic surprised gamers last night during the VGA’s by announcing that the Combustible Multiplayer Map Pack for Gears of War 2 would be hitting the Xbox Live Marketplace just a few hours later. As no price was officially announced during the VGA’s, fans began speculating that the map pack would be free. This, of course, turned out to be untrue, as the map pack costs 800 Microsoft points ($10 USD). Cautious optimism turned to palpable rage as angry gamers voiced their opinions on forums and blogs everywhere.

Ever since I was a little kid I dreamt of being a singer. Yes it’s lame I know. And even though I suck at singing I never lost any enthusiasm… I just invented a new dream where I become a professional karaoke singer and travel the country singing at various seedy bars. I eventually gain a small following of college students, red-neck swingers and middle aged divorcees looking for a new life. I eventually marry my body guard who is a biker named Bobby that everyone assumes is my husband, but she’s really mah waife.

But that’s only a dream… so instead I spend my free time playing karaoke games at home wishing for a better life. Recently I had the opportunity to try out Lips for the 360.

Our latest community game of the week will provide some much needed relief for 360 owners pining for a tower defense game. Tower Revolution consists of 9 levels, in which you have to stop your enemies from making their way from one side of the screen to the other by placing armed towers and obstacles in their path.

If the Japanese demo for Resident Evil 5 is any indication of what the final product will turn out like, I can safely say it’s on track to be a huge success. The demo provides a small part of two different levels. While it’s not very telling as far as plot is concerned, it does provide a solid opportunity to get a feel for the gameplay.

Alright, I know what you’re thinking: “Snowman’s Dilemma?? Is he serious??” Yes, I am serious. Despite the fact that the protagonist is a snowman hell bent on collecting all the presents he can find, this game is actually a lot of fun.