When we first heard that Full House Poker would be at the tail end of XBLA’s spring showcase Block Party alongside the likes of Beyond Good and Evil HD, Torchlight and the spiritual successor to Contra, we were a bit skeptical. After all, how does a virtually unknown poker title fall in with blockbusters like these gems? To our pleasant surprise, the answer is very well.

Gameplay

The primary gameplay of Full House Poker isn’t very different from other standard Texas Hold ‘Em poker games. While the button layout differs, it feels pretty standard to real life poker tournaments. Players have the option to hit, hold and fold in normal play with the added bonus of fast forwarding once they have folded out instead of being forced to watch the rest of the hand play out.

One added feature is the ability to play with emotion. Using the left or right triggers, players can bluff their confidence or anxiety about the moves they make in hopes of both the computer or real life opponents may buy into. Using this creatively can give players an advantage if they properly taunt their competitors into bad plays to take the pot.

Added to Full House Poker however adds the concept of experience points and leveling to poker. Now, don’t worry. This isn’t an RPG-like system where going up levels will earn players perks or special abilities that make players better at poker. Instead, it works as a reward system. For every hand a player deals in on, they earn experience.

Winning hands earns further experience along with risky and smart plays that pan out in their favor. As levels increase, new titles, decks, tables, decor, avatar costumes and game rooms themselves unlock. Not counting in game avatar costumes, there are already 93 unlockable rewards for players to attain.

On Thursday of last week, the gaming world got what they had been waiting for. Microsoft lauds Kinect as the next big leap in video game control (Sort of). Formerly referred to as Project Natal, we got our first hands on with the depth sensing motion camera at San Diego Comic Con and the experience left us wanting more. It also left us wondering how the game would play in a real world environment, not just a perfectly set up demo room.

After a surprisingly quick setup right out of the box, Kinect is ready to go. But there few things of note which Microsoft has been fairly up front about. The first is that the Kinect needs room to work. A player must stand about six feet back from the Kinect sensor, preferably eight to ten if multiple players will be gaming together.

Otherwise a player’s full body isn’t recognized and the camera will spend time recalibrating itself. The other is that once you have started playing with a Kinect game, expect to place yourself in front of the screen for a longer period of time.

If you plan on walking back and forth between minigames you will only cause yourself hassle as each time you walk away, the camera will have to reconfigure. Finally, there is a minimum height requirement for Kinect. Players under three feet tall won’t be able to use the system.

Make sure to keep that in mind when it comes to purchasing Kinect for Christmas for smaller kids as it could potentially lead to a horrible Christmas morning when little Johnny finds out he is too short to play with his Kinectimals or there is only a three foot space between the television and the edge of the coach.

As we reported last week, XBox Live got an update this week featuring the Avatar Marketplace, Games on Demand and Ratings. We’ve decided to put together a list of the newest features, and show you some of the things added with this update.

Avatar Marketplace

The most anticipated addition is undoubtedly the Avatar Marketplace. Instead of waiting for small incremental additions to the Avatar clothing options, XBox Live subscribers will be able to purchase clothing, costumes, accessories and props for their Avatar to wear and show off to their friend’s list and appearing in games likes 1 vs. 100 or Bomberman Live.

For day one, Avatar Marketplace came with a large variety of items from eight different games like Gears of War 2, Halo 3 and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, three different clothing brands like Adidas, and two clothing styles, Steampunk and Recessionista. While there is a large variety to choose from, some items feel very expensive and may be overpriced since this Marketplace is still trying to learn its pricing structure.

Set to go live on August 11th, the Summer XBox Live update adds three new features for players to use to expand their XBox Live experience.

Part 1: Games on Demand

Much like the XBox Originals program which has slowed down as of late, players will be able to download full XBox 360 games to their hard drive after purchasing a digital copy off XBox Live Marketplace. Unlike installing the game from the disk, players will not need to insert a disc in to the drive to play the game as all licenses will be saved to the hard drive as well.

To make transactions easier, players can use credit or debit cards to purchase games instead of being forced to use Microsoft points and causing extra unnecessary steps in the purchasing process. Prices have not yet been released for the following titles which should be live when the update launches.