Or, Don King releases a boxing game.

It’s been while since EA’s Fight Night Round 3 blew us away as an Xbox 360 near-launch title. For awhile, it seemed like that franchise was going to remain the only real contender in what used to be a crowded field. No more, though, as no less than three new boxing games are on the horizon, including the Fight Night followup, Facebreaker and now Don King’s Prizefighter.

On the eve of Prizefighter’s release as a 360-exclusive, I got a chance to participate in a conference call with a few of the gang behind 2K’s newest brawler, including Executive Producer Matthew Seymour and Mr. Don King himself. Turns out that Prizefighter isn’t aiming to be just another good-looking fighter, but also toss in a couple of new ideas that’ll separate it from the pack.

First and foremost, the single player career mode is presented as a documentary, replete with full-motion video featuring news reporters, fellow boxers, and maybe even a few celebrities. These folks help narrate the tale of your created pugilist, based upon his successes and failures. Turns out the ring isn’t the only place you need to excel either, as some of the trappings of the celebrity life offer themselves to you. At times, you’ll need to make some choices that’ll directly affect your fighter – even if you won’t know exactly how at the time.

The online aspect of Prizefighter gets some special attention, too. In addition to the standard take-your-boxer-online mode, you get to play the part of a virtual Don King and build a stable of up to five fighters in various weight classes to battle foes for bragging rights. A sizable cache of current and historic boxers are also present to play as and against, including some of today’s brightest stars like Kelly Pavlik and Shannon Briggs and legends from yesteryear such as Max Baer and Joe Louis (among many others).

Any time a developer builds a new engine for a fighting game, it’s bound to be controversial. 2K Sports is claiming that Prizefighter sports true-to-life boxing tactics, including the ability to spot openings and sidestep opponent attacks. There’s always a delicate balance to be had, of course, since real-life boxing is almost always 100% less interesting than the video game kind. After all, who wants to clutch and grab for 12 rounds?

Between 2K’s strong sports track record and the promise of some innovative modes and controls, I’m looking forward to lacing up my gloves in Prizefighter this month. Look for a complete review soon.

Game for free on your little 360.

Okay, it’s not exactly free when you have to pay for Xbox Live, but lately the service has been giving people their money worth with a plethora of free content. I’m not talking just about Xbox Live Arcade, though last week it saw probably one of it’s best releases in some time. Aces of the Galaxy is a sweet on rails shooter with amazing graphics and intense action that’s sure to give your right thumb a workout. You also have Rogoo, a falling block style puzzle game with a cute premise and split second timing. Either one is worth your point bank, but there’s more to play without paying.

You can ignore the Crash Time demo. It’s pretty much awful in every sense of the word as a car chasing game with graphics worse than the accents. Also, you probably shouldn’t bother with the single player portion of the Battlefield: Bad Company demo. If you’ve played Call of Duty 4, you’re bound to be bored with this stripped down imitation. Where the game really shines is in multiplayer, where you can assume a variety of kickass classes like demolitions and blow the hell out of the enemy team, while either attacking or defending your gold supply.

Ninja Gaiden II is a must play. The action is vicious and visceral with four fully maxed weapons to reduce the enemy to bloody chunks. Yep, the camera is pretty bad and the occasional platforming is annoying, but there’s simply no other action game that does decapitation better. Another surprising must play is Civilization Revolution, ironically not coming to the Wii (so far). This is the turn-based empire building strategy game completely redone from the ground up for consoles, and it’s intensely addictive. Build and establish cities, raise armies, ignore the advice of your cheeky advisers, gain new technology, and prove yourself to be the greatest leader the world has ever known. This can be played both offline alone and online against a random opponent, though of course the full game will let you choose to confront your friends. Let’s hope they stay that way.

There’s also a demo of Quake Wars that just popped up, but I haven’t had the chance to try it yet. With this many demos, who needs full games?

After months of waiting, the saga finally returns.

For those unfamiliar, Red vs. Blue was a bunch of guys (and a few girls) who took the Halo series and turned it into their own virtual movie studio, developing characters and stringing along a surprisingly complex storyline over a hundred short episodes, loaded with plenty of humor. What could have gotten old fast, especially when the only visible difference between the characters is their color, was kept fresh through sharp writing and some professional quality voice acting that humbles some big studio efforts.

With all the tricks they pulled off in Halo 1 and 2, I’ve been itching to see what they can do with the Forge and the ability to record anything in Halo 3. Now the wait is almost over with the first episode of Reconstruction:

If you’re a lapsed fan who needs to catch up, a box set of the entire series complete with bonus DVD is available on their store site, along with RvB T-shirts and other assorted goodies. Even if you have all the seasons on DVD, I’d definitely recommend snagging the bonus DVD that includes Recovery One and just about everything else they recorded for Red vs. Blue that wasn’t included elsewhere. Their store is here.

While you’re there, make sure to pick up some headlight fluid.

The legend returns, albeit without online love.

This evening, Namco released new gamplay footage of Soulcalibur, one of Namco’s most sensational titles set to make its debut for the Xbox Live Arcade. The new footage reveals the classic 3D fighter’s graceful transition in HD bliss. Diehard fans should expect a faithful port, joined by the standard arcade, survival and training modes. The XBLA edition will also include an online leaderboard, which will be the only aspect of competitive flair fans can look forward to other than having to settle for local sessions. Yeah, we’re not too thrilled about that either but it’s still going to be exciting to revisit an all-time favorite. Look forward to its release this summer.

Enjoy the short video montage of Soulcalibur featuring personal favorites like Taki, Ivy, Kilik, Maxi and more. Oh and we wanted to embed the video but our skills to do that have gone rusty.

The Legend NEVER Dies… (Right-click “Save Target As…”)

Now the excitement truly begins.

Viewers who tune in to watch the CBS EliteXC Saturnay Night Fights will be treated to the first-ever television commercial of Street Fighter IV. The program is scheduled to air this Saturday, May 31 at 9pm. According to the press release, the trailer will make its debut immediately following the bout on the StreetFighter.com (featuring a countdown to the trailer set to run simultaneously with the commercial) along with an official GameStop prorder campaign for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. All customers who receive a limited-edition collectable Street Fighter Tribute artbook, illustrated by top artists from the comic book and video game industries.

It just keeps better guys - we can’t wait to finally get our personal hands-on session with SFIV this year at E3.

Editor’s Thoughts: Back when the game was still in its 2% phase, it was hard to keep my optimism up. However, all the recent updates that’s revealed a massive rehaul of Chun Li and Ryu’s designs, new original characters and an upcoming announcement to follow on May 30 has clearly made raised my enthusiasm beyond words.