So, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is less than two weeks away. I'm stoked. It's the sequel to one of my favourite games this generation, and it looks set to improve on the first in many different ways. It also makes me angry. Really, really angry.

The last few months have been rather divisive on Xbox Live Arcade. Releases have tended towards extremes, perhaps not so much in quality as in gamers' opinions of them. Some of the platform-within-a-platform's recent offerings have been bona-fide classics, from Rez to Metal Slug 3 to GripShift, all ported games that originally underperformed at retail but were nevertheless much-loved on other systems, for good reason. Original games that have turned out to be remarkable include Poker Smash, Omega Five, and Arkadian Warriors - perhaps not outright classics, but solid games that have their fans. Sadly, some of the recent stinkers have been arcade ports that were actually anticipated: Tempest, Asteroids/Asteroids Deluxe and Tron simply haven't aged as well as most would've hoped, while some original offerings have passed by with barely more than a flicker, like Boogie Bunnies, Chessmaster Live and Screwjumper.