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)

Xbox Live Gold members now get to show whether they are properly aware of when to hold them and when to fold them in Full House Poker. After Microsoft pulled the plug on 1 vs 100, it promised we hadn’t heard the last of the Primetime Network. You can play poker against Xbox Live friends or play in Texas Heat, a game show with up to 30 players. Texas Heat is available on Windows Phone 7 as well as Xbox Live.

Hard-traveling hero DeathSpank returns in an all new adventure, Thongs of Virtue, this week in the Xbox Live Arcade. Avenge evil and even sail you very own pirate ship. This game is 1200 Microsoft Points ($15) and if you buy before September 29, 2010, you will receive a Tankko The Warrior add-on for free.

The Deal of the Week is Left 4 Dead 2 add-on “The Passing,” the expansion that unites the L4D survivors with the sequel’s cast…

Hut, hut, hut! That distinctive call is familiar to any football gamer of the 80s and 90s who spent hours racking up the tackles in Tecmo Bowl. The legendary football game returns this week through the Xbox Live Arcade in Tecmo Bowl Throwback. This game is a remake of 1993′s Tecmo Super Bowl that includes the option for high definition play…

This weekLeft 4 Dead 2 gets a long-awaited piece of downloadable content, The Passing. If you’d like to go more cerebral in gaming pursuits, Puzzle Chronicles is the new puzzle RPG on the block. Also, Lost Planet 2 has been making a considerable amount of headlines, and now we can actually play a little of the game with a multiplayer demo.

There’s been a lot of retro gaming available on the Xbox Live Marketplace recently and this week the trend continues with Final Fight Double Impact.

This release actually contains HD remakes of two Capcom classics: Final Fight (of course) and side-scrolling fantasy game Magic Sword. This game casts the player as “The Brave One,” a sword-wielding barbarian type battling the dark lord Drokmar. Throughout the game’s 51 levels were computer-controlled allies that could be unlocked to help you.

The Deal of the Week is “Crash Course,” an additional campaign for Valve’s zombie-killing smash Left 4 Dead, available for 320 Microsoft Points. Crash Course is sort of a “lost chapter” that picks up after the survivors’ helicopter escape from Mercy Hospital. The two chapter campaign adds ten new achievements and includes Survival and Versus mode action.

The Xbox Live Arcade House Party continues this week and now they have let in the racecars with weapons fully attached. Because it is simply not a party until somebody straps a rocket launcher to the hood of their car. Scrap Metal is a racer with heavy car combat elements and it’s drawing favorable comparisons to the Twisted Metal series.

This week the Xbox Live House Party begins and before you ask, Kid and Play are not involved in this one.

The House Party is a promotion in which Gold subscribers who purchase three specific arcade titles and download the free Game Room application between March 3 – 30 also get 400 Microsoft Points and a free month of Xbox Live. The first of those games, Toy Soldiers, is available March 3, 2010, for 1,200 Microsoft Points.

The other Block Party titles are Scrap Metal, out March 10 for 1,200 MP and Perfect Dark, out March 17 for 800 MP. The Game Room application is a free download out March 24, allowing gamers to play classics such as Centipede and Asteroids in a virtual arcade. It will include leaderboards and give an entire new generation of players a chance to experience…

The high profile release on Xbox Live this week is an add-on to surprise RPG hit Borderlands, as Gearbox Software dares you to raid The Secret Armory of General Knoxx.

Coming to Star Wars:The Force Unleashed is the Hoth Bonus Level. On February 25, 2010, FIFA 10 will receive the Ultimate Team add-on which challenges players to build the, well, Ultimate Team by collecting player cards. And hitting the arcade on February 24, 2010 is Fret Nice, a 2-D platformer that asks you to defeat heavy metal bosses with “Riff Combos.”