Next wave of XBLA releases exposed

Recently, Microsoft has made a habit of announcing its Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday titles the Monday before they release. Today, though, the software giant gave gamers a rough idea about what's on the immediate horizon.

Three more games were confirmed for release by the end of August, headlined by the sequel to the Xbox 360's original puzzle game, Hexic HD. While Hexic HD came free with hard-drive-equipped Xbox 360s, Hexic 2 will be available through Xbox Live Marketplace and will include a new two-player battle mode. Also set for this month are Sega's Ecco the Dolphin from the Genesis days, and Ubisoft's mechanoid battler War World.

Microsoft also listed another slate of "summer launches hitting in the coming weeks," but didn't commit to having them out by the end of the month. Those titles include Eidos' pellet-gobbling "sport" Geon: Emotions, D3Publisher's PSP and DS port Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Llamasoft's psychedelic shooter Space Giraffe, Sega's Genesis beat-'em-up Streets of Rage 2, and Capcom's Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix.

The one game announced with a definite release date was this week's Live Arcade release, Konami's Track & Field. Originally released in the arcades in 1983, the joystick-less game was controlled with just three buttons: two run buttons that would build speed when pressed in succession, and an action button for jumping or throwing. The events included the 100m dash, long jump, javelin, and more. Track & Field will be available for 400 Microsoft points ($5) when it is released this Wednesday at 2 a.m. Pacific time.