Welcome to the economic stimulus edition of This Week In Downloads. It is quite an exciting time for me now that Congress has announced Americans will be getting $600 checks in the mail. I’m really hoping that Microsoft will release the all new 48,000 MS Point Card to make spending my check very easy. It’s just a thought.

Speaking of Microsoft, let’s start off with them and the Xbox Live service. As you know, there have been a few issues with the service over the past month. Microsoft feels your pain and has apologized by offering all gamers a free Live Arcade game through January 27th. The game is Undertow, and boy, that is quite the stimulus package because it is a very good game. Gamers who had already heeded my remarks about this game and purchased it already shouldn’t fear – they just need to call 800-4-MYXBOX and ask for a refund of the 800 points. All you need to do is give them the gamertag that purchased the game and you’ll be all set.

Although there were no original live arcade games out this week, there were three new game demos on the service. First, there was The Club, which is a very quick demo but looks like a promising first person shooter. Everyone else in the world was already able to play the game, and finally it hit America. Make sure you try it out.

The next demo is Capcom’s Devil May Cry 4. The full game comes out in about two weeks and the demo is definitely worth checking out. The disclaimer at the beginning of the game is rather interesting – although most demos are pre-release games, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a disclaimer that it’s a work in progress. Unfortunately it’s a time limited demo, but it’s still gives a very basic taste of what’s to come.

The demo of Turning Point: Fall of Liberty was released for the 360 as well. This game is made by the developers of Call Of Duty: Finest Hour which I did enjoy for the last generation consoles. It looks good and plays well – not to mention I jumped a few times while trying to side step on scaffolding.

It’s a pretty good week for Xbox 360 owners but we’re not done yet. We have the music to talk about! Both Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band got some new tracks as well. On the Rock Band front, thanks to Microsoft’s gaffe, we already knew we were getting the Oasis track pack, which was gonna be the one that saved me. Come on, it’s Wonderwall. Gotta love old Oasis, don’t you? Well I enjoyed all 3 songs but I was more than thrilled to get a new track pack for Guitar Hero, which seems to get a new release quarterly or so. But – with quality like we got this week, I’m willing to wait. Let’s see – first there’s Journey’s “Any Way You Want It,” which is also known as “The Song Rodney Dangerfield plays from his golf bag in Caddyshack.” There’s also Boston’s Peace of Mind which is another rocking tune. Finally, Foreigner’s Juke Box Hero makes it to Guitar Hero, making it one of the few songs you get to play in both Guitar Hero and Rock Band. It’s pretty scary that I dropped 940 points on six songs…but I do it for you.

Moving along to the Nintendo Wii, even though they seem to be rolling in dough thanks to the sales of their Wii and DS consoles, Nintendo has apparently thought it would be worth cutting back on the weekly virtual console releases. For the third consecutive week, we only get two new virtual console games. The first game is the answer to all those unanswered questions from the original Lolo game – that’s right – it’s Adventures of Lolo 2! Try to contain yourself. For those who prefer a bit of action Capcom’s Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers was the other game released.

Just for the record, you’ll not that neither of those games is Earthbound and my quest to play it on Virtual Console continues.