Rez HD and Chessmaster on Weds News

Xbox Live Arcade will be athumping and achin-stroking this Wednesday as Xbox Live fans tuck into Rez HD and Chessmaster Live from 9am GMT. That's 30th January, in case you're dozing.

As usual, both games will be flanked by trial versions, both come with 12 unlockable Achievements for a total of 200 Gamerpoints, and helpfully for this particular sentence both will set you back 800 Microsoft Points (GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.60).

Rez HD is the one we know more about, not least because it's a sharpened-up port of a Dreamcast and PS2 rail shooter that many of us rather liked.

As you will know from our giddy first impressions of the Xbox Live Arcade redux, the original jaggedy version is included alongside a new high-definition version which looks so sharp you could stick an 'e' on the end of its name and use it to tell Napoleonic War stories about a self-made man.

As for Chessmaster Live, we're interested in seeing whether it succeeds where Wii Chess failed in letting us compile our own Eurogamer Chess Team, although since we wrote about its Nintendo competition we have rejigged the line-up in our dream chess team so that Rupert is king all hail Rupert and despair.

Look out for reviews of both in the near future.