I am not aware of any actual scene releases with AP2.5 compatibility (more accurately- using SSv3) but there were a couple of repacks (be they from the scene or on p2p networks) doing the rounds though. ABGX360 should help and there are simple patching methods available otherwise. Burning is the same as ever though but just in case you missed it LT and so LT+ need games to be using splitvid- ABGX360 will happily add this though (no need to download anything).
At present it is still only the six games that use it ( assassin's creed brotherhood, need for speed hot pursuit, fable 3, cod black ops, cod modern warfare 2 and halo reach ) but I will also note that the next dash (betas of which are presently doing the rounds) appears to have AP2.5 activated for all games (the actual concept has been around for a year or two now) so all games will shortly need to have AP2.5 compatibility although there might be some really old ones that do not use it. Things are a bit up in the air right now regarding all this (not to mention another disc format also seems to be appearing alongside it but that is a different matter for a different day).
Modding a slim- there are three versions of the slim DVD drive out there right now
liteon 9504
liteon 0225
hitachi 0500
Only the first has a firmware out, the second has one in testing and the last is still being fiddled with (no ETA).
No special measures should be necessary like the old liteons although they now have fairly easy modding methods (see pogo ma thoin).