Xbox Live Update: Trenched digs in tomorrow

Though today marks the summer solstice and the official start to summer, today's Xbox Live update does not kick off Microsoft's 2011 Summer of Arcade promotion. However, that doesn't mean new games and content aren't available from the storefront.

Trenched leads the week's new releases.

Leading the pack this week on Xbox Live is Double Fine's Trenched, which will be released on Xbox Live Arcade tomorrow. The game drafts players into the Mobile Trench Brigade, which has been charged with protecting Earth from an evil invading force of television-like technical terrors known as the Monovision. To fend off the electrical invaders, players will jump into giant mechanized mobile Trenches that they can customize to their tastes.

A hybridization of the third-person shooter and tower defense genres, Trenched sees players erecting stationary defensive constructions and lurching about in their mechs. Trenched will also feature an online co-op mode, where gamers can join up with other players throughout the world to battle the invading force.

Duke Nukem Forever--despite a 14-year development cycle--got a cold reception when it shipped last week. Now, gamers looking to try before they buy can pick up a free demo for the title before heading out to potentially buy the game.

Gamers looking to add to their copies of Rockstar Games' L.A. Noire can grab a new arson case today. The Nicholson Electroplating Disaster DLC (320 MS points, or $4) is now available to download from Xbox Live. It tasks players with solving the case of an explosion in Los Angeles.

Microsoft added three new titles to the Games on Demand hub today, the first of which is film tie-in game Tron: Evolution ($40). The other two new full-game downloads are the simulation game Tropico 3 ($20) and Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon ($40).