There’s a new demo up on the Xbox Live Marketplace for PGR4. Major Nelson reports that the demo in all regions for once.

Race three exotic cars and two beauteous bikes through the streets of Macau and a snow laden Nürburgring. Includes an exclusive Nürburgring Snow Challenge and unique PGR Arcade Events.

The demo should give you a good feel for the game and decide if you want to pick this one up. I’m still on the fence, especially with the bikes. With all the other amazing games this Holiday season and me getting married, I highly doubt I’ll have time for PGR4. Maybe I’ll pick it up around Christmas.

Anyway, the demo weighs in at 1.27GB, so make sure you have some free space on your HDD.

If you’ve had any trouble over the past 36 hours connecting to Xbox Live or the My Xbox section of xbox.com, you can freely blame the Master Chief. Players have been utterly hammering the servers playing Halo 3, and has caused some downtime and hiccups.

Major Nelson reminds up to check out the Xbox Live status on the official website (here) to see what’s going down. Everything should be back to normal now, as most people have Halo 3 already.

I guess that downtime earlier this month didn’t include beefing up the servers for the Halo 3 launch.

Major Nelson sent word today that there is a minor update available for the Xbox 360 dashboard. The update (which is NOT the upcoming Fall Update) brings support for the Big Button Pad controller that will be released later this year. That’s it, nothing else.

The reason the support for these controllers is being added so early is so the development teams can test on retail hardware for any issues before release. Not a bad idea.

No word on when to expect the Fall Update, but I’m going to guess either October or November.

Major Nelson dropped word letting us know that there’s now a demo for FIFA 08 on the Xbox 360. The demo is available in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, United States.Oddly enough, EA didn’t make the demo available in THE biggest market for soccer in the world, Europe. According to the Major:

EA has told me this demo is coming to Europe ‘very soon’. The moment it is released in Europe I will make a post. I don’t know the exact date.

The demo weighs in at 702.7 MB, so it should take a decent amount of time to download. The demo is also available today on the PS3, but again, not in Europe. EA really dropped the ball there.

The long anticipated Puzzle Fighter HD has dropped in on Xbox Live Arcade today and chimes in at $10. This classic puzzle game mixes together two great things, Street Fighter and Tetris, together they make an awesome team. I spent many hours in high school playing this against friends and my wife, (who is better than me) nothing beats watching super cute versions of Street Fighter & Capcom characters pummel each other as you destroy gems. I am looking forward to seeing how this plays in both HD and with new drop patterns made specially for the new version.

From Major Nelson:

Content: Puzzle Fighter HD
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Hit the jump for more…

With all the hype surrounding the launch of Puzzle Fighter HD on Xbox Live Arcade everyone ignored the release of Streets of Rage 2. Coming in at $5 and providing both online and offline co-op play, this is a must pick up. So once you finish gettign Puzzle Fighter go grab this title as well.

From Major Nelson:

Content: Streets of Rage 2
Price: 400 Microsoft Points
Hit the jump for more…

The Windows LIVE Skydrive Beta is now open to the public and gives users 500 MB of space to store things. I wonder what the full extent of space will be after the Beta?

Here are some of the features:

*An upgraded look and feel — new graphics to go along with your new features!
*”Also on SkyDrive” — easily get back to the SkyDrives you’ve recently visited
*Thumbnail images — we heard you loud and clear, and now you can see thumbnails of your image files
*Drag and drop your files — sick of our five-at-a-time upload limit? Drag and drop your files right onto your SkyDrive
*Embed your stuff anywhere — with just a few clicks, post your files and folders anywhere you can post html

From Major Nelson:
Hit the jump for more…

There’s a minor dashboard update today for the Xbox 360, as reported by Major Nelson. This update adds support for the new wireless Guitar Hero III guitars that will be coming out in a couple months. And also… nothing. That’s all we get.

I’m willing to bet the farm that there’s a few other issues going on with this update that aren’t being reported. Microsoft has a track record of doing that, so why would this update be any different?

I can tell you one thing they didn’t sneak into this update… I still can’t auto sign-in to Live since the Spring Dashboard Update. Me and tons of other people with the official Microsoft wireless network adapter.

Well Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday update is upon us and we have two titles coming our way, Wing Commander Arena and Super Contra! I can’t believe I almost let Super Contra go un-noticed, this will consume most of my Xbox 360 time tomorrow and look for me to stalk all the achievements! Yes I am a Contra wh0re! If you want ot get a Co-op game in just drop me a FR.

From Major Nelson:

Wing Commander Arena will cost 800 points and includes features such as:

The first Xbox LIVE Arcade title featuring multiplayer gameplay for up to 16 players over Xbox LIVE
Four gameplay modes: Single Player, Multiplayer Team, Free for All, and Duel
Players can choose from 18 different ships that can be customized with cloaking devices, mines, energy weapons, missiles and more!
Skill-based matchmaking for ranked games
Earn up to 12 Achievements and 200 Gamerscore
Hit the jump for more…

Here is the new list of BC games, thanks to our friend MajorNelson for the update. For a complete BC list, see xbox.com.

Full updated list after the jump.

Hit the jump for more…