I fully approve of the developing trend of letting you play bits of the game before they come out, with the bits you play actually effecting the full game. The Spore Creature Creator, for instance, which lets get your creatures ready for the full release, and now the Fable II Pub Games. The Fable II Pub Games, which will be available on Xbox Live Arcade next month, will allow players to participate in three lively fantasy gambling games, with the money you earn transferring over to the main game upon release. Earn big bucks playing "Keystone,", "Spinnerbox," and "Fortune's Tower," and your character will be able to start off the game right, ready to purchases weapons, dog tricks...the sky's the limit.

Best of all, while the Fable II Pub Games will be available for purchase at 800 MS points, preordering the game from participating retailers gets you the mini-games for free, my personal favourite price.

Build Your Fable II Gold with Pub Games [Xbox.com - Thanks Peter!]

Just a quick reminder for those Halo 3 fans in the audience (anyone?) that today is Bungie Day on Xbox Live! What does that mean? It means free gamerpics and themes of course, as well as the debut of the all-new, all-icy Cold Storage map, also available as a free download. For those of you who've fallen behind on your Halo 3 gameplay, the Legendary Map Pack has also had its price slashed in honour of Bungie Day, dropping 200 Microsoft points ($US 2.50) to 600 points. It's an excellent day to pull that copy of Call of Duty 4 out of your 360 and get your future weapons on!

Jagex has launched the live beta of their long-awaited RuneScape update, RuneScape High Detail. The popular free browser-based MMO has had its graphics completely overhauled to better appeal to people finally ready to leave Ultima Online behind. The beta is really only a beta to forgive any bugs that might crop up, as subscribers who join the beta do so with their live characters, with anything that occurs in beta carrying over when the beta ends.

While the beta is currently only for paying subscribers, Jagex will be letting everyone else in on the fun in due time. Hit the jump for the new trailer for the title, which features the awesome blurb "Now Playable In Full Screen" which makes me giggle every time I see it.

To celebrate Fourth of July, and perhaps move a few more Guitar Hero IIIs, Activision is giving away the Top Gun Anthem song via the Playstation Store and Xbox Live starting this Thursday.

Anthem is the guitar-heavy song from Top Gun, not to be confused with Kenny Loggins's Danger Zone. Unfortunately the free DLC won't include a heavy metal fro or aluminium parachute pants.

Blockshooter is the third game to come out of Kotaku Australia's Game A Week feature. If Game A Week is new to you, I suggest you give Zafehouse and Wizkill a go. Both of these (and Blockshooter) were coded in seven days by your resident Kotaku AU editor (in other words, me).

Blockshooter is a combination of Breakout and Space Invaders. It's your job to pilot a little ship, shooting at coloured blocks that come your way. Shooting multiple blocks of the same colour will award you a point multiplier. Destroying entire segments will drop a "piece", which can be collected and added to your ship. You lose points by getting hit or allowing blocks to slip past you.

That's the nuts and bolts of it. If you'd like to give it a go, hit the jump for a download link and developer's diary.

PS. Yes, this has come out on Monday instead of Friday. I've decided to shift the Game A Week schedule by two days, so I can have the weekend to playtest and debug. Don't worry, I'm sticking with the whole "seven days to code" requirement.

Nexon has revealed its very first North American-developed game (for the North American market), Sugar Rush Arena, which is now in closed beta. The game is a casual MMOG like other Nexon titles, but was developed in Vancouver as opposed to South Korea. Like Nexon's other titles, the game is free to play, but will offer virtual items and upgrades for purchase:

The title will allow players to fight against each other while trying to collect virtual coins ....

The development team working on Sugar Rush Arena is based in Vancouver, Canada and includes former Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios Group vice president and creative director Steve Rechtschaffner, as well as studio Klei Entertainment.

Headed by Jamie Cheng, Klei Entertainment previously developed and published Eets, a 2D puzzle game for PCs which was later revamped for Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade.

I presume if this is a successful move, we can expect to see more games targeted at the Western market being developed in the West; perhaps this is heralding a new trend?

Nexon Reveals First Western-Developed Title [Worlds In Motion]

Codemasters Online's free-to-play MMO ArchLord is technically getting a bit more free as the company readies the third free expansion pack, Episode 3: Spirits Awakening, which adds "up to 30% new game content". I am assuming they measured that out using suitably scientific methods. The update will introduce 3 new game zones, over 80 new skills, new ArchLord abilities, collectible armour sets, and a bunch of new enemies to thrash soundly about the head and neck, all of which adds up to more or less 30%. This pleases the Relfling.

Ed Relf, Director of Marketing, Codemasters Online commented, "We are pleased to be able to set out our exciting new expansion plans for ArchLord. As recently announced ArchLord is now more popular than ever with thousands of new players taking up the challenge every day to compete to become the games all-ruling leader!

Episode 3 is due to go live "in the coming weeks".

Game A Week 2 is done. Done I say! Zafehouse is ready to be played by all.

As I said earlier in the week, this thing almost killed me. I had an idea that just exploded. I think the end result is quite awesome. Zafehouse has strategy, survival horror and, best of all, zombies. I love shufflers, I just love them to death, and I'm glad I got to put them into a completed game.

I have yet more plans for a version 2, which I'll release when it's done. For now, I have to get started on Game A Week 3. If you'd like to check out Game A Week 1, Wizkill, hit up this post.

Hit the jump for a development breakdown, hints and tips and unimplemented features, or download the game and give it a spin.

Been a while since a game really worth playing (beyond Super Baseball 2020) turned up on Gametap's free-to-play service, so it's nice to be able to report on one. Deus Ex. Starting next week, anyone who downloads Gametap's launcher program can enjoy the game without paying a cent. There's worse ways to get hold of one of the best PC games of all time. Like, you know. Paying for it.

Deus Ex Coming to GameTap's Free Game Roster Next Week [Shacknews]

I said it before, and I will say it again...I need to start attending more daytime talk show tapings. In case you have trouble getting your hands on a copy of Wii Fit today, feel free to direct your blame to Ellen Degeneres, who today gave out not only the sought after fitness device but a Wii to play it on to everyone in her stupid, stupid studio audience. Not only that, but they also received an Indiana Jones DVD 3-pack and the entire run of Sex In The City. Now I'm really jealous.

You can hit up here website to see the giant piles of Nintendo products in action. I'd like to thank Kotakuite dArk_stAr for sending in the tip, all the while wondering what the hell he is doing watching Ellen.

The Ellen Degeneres Show [Official Website]