Xbox 360 owners will be pleased to know that Square Enix has decided to honor them this week with a sale. Certain downloads are reduced until February 14, 2012. These aren’t huge discounts, as the most you’ll save is about 50%, but at least you’re getting a handful of games, DLC packs and avatar items more »

Gears of War 3‘s Fenix Rising DLC drops this week, with five new maps, four multiplayer character skins and a take on Call of Duty’s “Prestige” mode.   The “Re-Up” addition allows those who have reached Level 100 (Gears’ max) to zero out their XP and start over. You will keep the medals and ribbons you’ve more »

Check out this week’s update of new and notable Xbox Live arcade games…

Sega is one of those companies that has no problems discounting its downloadable games. Whenever it has a chance, it’ll usually drop a 50%-80% off the price of its games to get people who normally wouldn’t be interested to spend some money. Since Christmas is coming up this weekend, it’s no surprise that Sega’s iOS, PSN and XBLA games will experience a brief price drop to celebrate the season.

Depending on which platform you’re shopping for, you’ll have more or less time to grab reduced games…

Shooter fans have much to be happy about this week. Gears of War 3 lets us step into the combat boots of a feared villain this week in the RAAM’s Shadow add-on. This prequel takes us back to before Emergence Day and features Zeta Squad, led by Gears 1 character Lt. Minh Young Kim. The team also features Gears 2′s Tai Kaliso. The three-plus hour campaign adds 250 points worth of achievements, six new multiplayer character skins and chocolate weapon skins. If you purchased the Season Pass, this is a free download for you. Otherwise, it’s 1200 Microsoft Points. ($15)

This week’s biggest update is Xbox Live’s dashboard overhaul. You can operate the main interface with Kinect and search through Microsoft’s Bing engine by voice commands. It also comes with 512 MB of cloud storage. Video content includes Netflix, Epix, ESPN, Hulu Plus and MSNBC. Additional video content on the way includes YouTube and the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Microsoft has long touted the Xbox 360 as a total entertainment machine and these steps go further toward that. Beacons are a new social feature you can use to indicate you’re ready to play a game with friends. You can set a beacon that shows you want to play Modern Warfare 3, for example. You’ll get notification as soon as a friend is playing that game.

This is the week of Black Friday, when you can purchase anything short of the Statue of Liberty for the right price. Actually, I know a guy you can talk about the statue. You didn’t hear that from me, though. Xbox Live has a mega sale going, starting with 33 percent off a 12-month Xbox Live Gold subscription for free members. Xbox Live has its Fan Appreciation Sale with deals on a wide variety of content. There are arcade games, add-ons and full-length titles through Games on Demand…

Most of the recent sales covered have been physical deals. Items you’ll actually have to go into a store and buy, and probably won’t even get to until next week. However, there’s one sale now available that you can access immediately and digitally. Sega’s decided to do their own kind of holiday shopping thing over the next two weeks. If you own a PS3, you can get one of four Sega Classic downloads for 50% off until November 29, 2011. If you own an Xbox 360, you can get one of six Sega downloads for 50% between November 22-28, 2011. I guess you could consider it a digital Black Friday sale.

Almost all of the sale games are ports of old Genesis, Dreamcast or Arcade games. So you could look at this as an opportunity to reminisce. Unfortunately, there’s no gifting system on place for either PSN or XBLA, so you can’t take advantage of this promotion to get something for someone you love.

Anyways, here are the sale games…

That Locust Horde needs some more beating down, are you up for the task? Gears of War 3 gets its Horde Command Pack this week, adding new maps, multiplayer characters and achievements. You’ll be able to unleash Bernie, Big Rig Dizzy and the Onyx Guard in multiplayer. New maps include Azura, Rustlung and a redo of Blood Drive, one of the community’s most beloved Horde maps. There are 250 more achievement points and new weapon skins. It’s 800 Microsoft Points to unleash your fury on the Horde.

It’s Halloween time, and zombies are all over Xbox Live. Zombie Apocalypse was a horror-themed dual stick shooter we reviewed back in 2009. The sequel, Zombie Apocalypse: Never Die Alone, is now available. Four new heroes find their Canadian island infested with the undead and band together. This time, the combat is squad-based. Even in single player mode, you’ll can switch between characters to use different special abilities.