First, your Xbox Live Marketplace and general service news.

Mandatory Update: Released on August 11, 2009, a mandatory update to the NXE Dashboard is available. You can refuse it, but you will be disconnected from Xbox Live until you accept the update. Its exact effects will be explained further into this article.

Deal of the Weak - FIFA 09 Ultimate Team: Continuing their trend of letting a premium membership perk be a platform for EA to exploit us, the Deal for Gold Members this week is half off the FIFA 09 Ultimate Team pack; it’s now 400 points instead of 800. Great, except for one thing: FIFA 10 isn’t too far from release, October of this year last I heard. This is clearly an effort to wring every last cent possible out of FIFA 09, and I don’t appreciate it. Why can’t we do more deals like the N+ and Ikaruga offers from previous weeks?

Arcade Release - Trials HD (1200 Points): A motorcycle stunt racing game, preview videos remind me of something not unlike the old Super Nintendo title "Uniracers." Apparently a single-player game but it has support for a level editor, which suggests this one might be worth a shot.

Next: A look at the system update.