I love Microsoft Points. All you have to do is click a couple of buttons and they just kind of… appear. They aren’t like real money, they’re just made up numbers that make games appear on my tellybox. And when those numbers run out? Just add more!

If you feel like me you’ll be pleased to hear that we’re going to be exercising our Points thumbs again next week, with the release of two top-quality games on Xbox Live. On Oct. 20 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas jet-packs its way onto Microsoft’s virtual marketplace, courtesy of Xbox Originals. It hasn’t been officially announced yet, but there is a full page on Xbox.com telling us, amongst other things, that it will cost 1200 magic numbers. No achievements though unfortunately, as is usual with Xbox Originals.

Then on Oct. 22 Gamerscore reliably informs us that Portal: Still Alive hits XBLA. It’s the same game as the one in the Orange Box with the addition of 14 exclusive challenge maps, 6 advanced maps and a few new achievements (that’s more like it). This one will also cost 1200 of my favourite imaginary currency.