SPORE FINALLY GETS A RELEASE DATE

Yup, you read that right, Electronic Arts has finally stuck a date on Will Wright's highly anticipated god-game Spore. While there's always room for another delay or ten, if all holds to plan, gamers will be taking their creations from microbes to rulers of the galaxy on September 7th of this year.

While I've seen the descriptions of each stage of creature evolution, I'm still a little fuzzy on exactly how the game will play out across them. My hope is that more details will be forthcoming now that the game has been dated.

• Spore – Official website 

GRAND THEFT AUTO IV GETS A NEW RELEASE DATE

Ever since it was delayed from it's original October release date, things have been a bit hazy for Grand Theft Auto IV. Diffferent theories regarding why the game was being delayed bounded across the internet and Take-Two/Rockstar was eerily non-committal about when fans could expect to see the title.

Well, at least some of the mystery surrounding the game has been lifted. In a quick little e-mail, Rockstar announced that Grand Theft Auto IV will be making it's debut on April 29th, 2008. Mark that date on your calendars now, because if you think the media circus around Mass Effect has been bad, you haven't seen anything yet.

• Grand Theft Auto IV – Official website 

RUMOR MILL – UNCHARTED: DRAKE’S FORTUNE RELEASED EARLY?

Just a quick note here for those of you waiting on Sony's Uncharted: Drake's Fortune – some retailers (and Gamefly) are now listing the game as available. I'm not sure if Sony moved the launch date up at the last minute, or if some locations have decided to break the release date, but it appears the game is, at least unofficially, out in the wild.

• Uncharted: Drake's Fortune – Official Website

THE HALO 3 MIDNIGHT LAUNCH

As I mentioned yesterday, I had made the decision to head out to my local game shop’s midnight launch for Halo 3. Now, I’ve gone out to these things in the past, and every time I go, I swear that rather than standing on line for hours, next time I’ll just show up at 12:45am and get in with the back of the line. Once again I ignored my own advice and headed out approximately 2 hours before midnight, and once again, the line had already stretched to the end of the block and turned the corner.

(The store is on the far left of the pic & the line turns the corner just past the far right of the pic)

Making matters worse, I had forgotten to charge my cell phone, which left it with little power for me to take pictures or talk with friends who were braving the lines at other stores, my DS was sitting at home on my desk and the nearest WiFi access point was just far enough away to make connecting to the internet via my Palm T|X an impossibility. Things were looking pretty grim.

Fortunately, I was surrounded by a good group of gamers, and since we all share the common language of gaming, the time passed relatively quickly. Relatively being the operative word here – no matter how engaging any conversation was, nothing was going to take one’s mind off the fact that we were lined up like cattle awaiting the slaughter. In talking with the people around me, and observing those coming out of the store after midnight, I was a bit surprised to see just how many people had ordered the Legendary Edition of the game – guess I’m not the only sucker out there. I somehow think that with at least 250,000 of them made that there will be any sort of aftermarket rush for these. (I base that number on the numbering on the back of my Master Chief helmet)

The store itself did an admirable job of running the show – during the course of the night, they ensured that everyone on the line paid their reserve in full so that once midnight came, it would be a relatively quick process of getting people in and out of the store. A raffle was held for the store’s Halo 3 standee and soft drinks were provided free of charge.

Midnight did come, and the line did indeed move more quickly than normal. That said, It still took me 45 minutes to actually get into the store once midnight came, but again, once inside things went pretty quickly. I took my new shiny box and went home to enjoy the unpacking…

Two last things to note here;

1.) I should have a post about the contents of the Legendary Edition (with pictures) up shortly. I wound up massively oversleeping and am currently racing to try and get several things done at once. Don’t blame me, blame Bungie.

2.) To the people who feel the need to perform burn-outs and then tear out of the parking lot at 90 mph, contrary to what you may think, no one thinks you’re cool – we all tend to just say “what a moron” in unison. Sorry to disappoint you.

• Halo 3 – Official website

MASS EFFECT COMING NOVEMBER 20TH

Microsoft has announced that BioWare’s Mass Effect will be hitting retail on November 20th, 2007.

"Today, Microsoft Game Studios and BioWare Corp. announced that the highly anticipated action role-playing game (RPG) “Mass Effect” will ship to retailers throughout North America on November 20, 2007. The recipient of more than 50 awards, including the 2007 Game Critics Awards for “Best Console Game” and “Best RPG” at the Electronic Entertainment Expo last month in Los Angeles, “Mass Effect” is poised to become the must-play RPG of 2007." – Microsoft press release

Mass Effect will be an Xbox 360 exclusive release. Not much else to say at this point – November is looking to be a very expensive month for gamers.

• Mass Effect – Official website
• Critically-Acclaimed RPG “Mass Effect” Begins Epic Journey to Retailers on November 20 – Gamerscore Blog

SONY DATES HEAVENLY SWORD

That little taste of Heavenly Sword that Sony gave us a little over a week ago gave us may have been short, but it certainly left us wanting more. Thankfully, it looks like the wait for the full meal is almost over. IGN is reporting that Sony’s most anticipated PlayStation 3 title of 2007 will be hitting retail on September 12th. I’ve got my pre-order in – do you?

• Heavenly Sword – Official website
• Heavenly Sword Date Set – IGN
• Lazy Day Trailers: Heavenly Sword Demo Footage – nylatenite.com

ELECTRONIC ARTS DATES CRYSIS

Electronic Arts has announced that Crysis, the game that will make your video card cry for mercy, will be hitting retail shelves here in the U.S. on November 16th of this year.

This gives most of you almost three and a half months to have that break-up talk with your current card. Just remember, it’s not them, it’s you.

• Crysis – Official website

SONY CONFIRMS LAIR IS COMING AUGUST 14TH

In a post over at PlayStation.Blog, Sony confirmed that Lair has gone gold and will be releasing for the PlayStation 3 on August 14th, 2007.

• Lair Dev Complete, August 14th Release Set! – PlayStation.Blog
• Lair – Official website

MASS EFFECT TO SHIP ON JUNE 5TH?

That’s at least the word over at Destructoid. According to this story, Mass Effect, the highly anticipated opening to Bioware’s sci-fi trilogy, will be gracing Xbox 360 owners with it’s presence on June 5th, 2007. While the folks over at Bioware aren’t confirming the date, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this one turns out to be true.

While we’re on the topic of Destructoid, I’d also like to give a huge shout-out to them on celebrating their first anniversary just two days ago – you guys make me feel so inadequate, it’s not even funny. Congratulations on building an awesome site and community!

• Mass Effect (finally) has a release date – Destructoid
• Destructoid says June 5th release date, is this right? – Mass Effect forums
• Mass Effect – Official website

2K GAMES DATES THE DARKNESS

The folks over at 2K Games dropped me a line to announce that The Darkness, a first person action game based on the comic of the same name, will finally be hitting retail shelves on June 25th, 2007 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

MOMMY LOVES YOU MORE THAN ME

Kotaku reports that Nintendo has announced that 2 new models of the ever so sleek and shiny DS-Lite will be made available in Japan.

The first of the 2 new models will be the Final Fantasy III branded DS-Lite. This model will be released on August 24th and should retail for 22,780 Yen (appx $199). The unit will come bundled with a copy of the remake of Squaresoft’s classic game Final Fantasy III which releases on the same day.

The second model will be colored Jet Black, exactly as the european DS-Lite is. This model will go on sale on September 2nd at a cost of 16,800 Yen ($146). As this is just another new color DS-Lite, the contents of the box will remain unchanged from other regular edition DS-Lites.

Nintendo currently has no plans to bring either model to the United States. While I’m sure we’ll eventually be seeing the black DS-Lite, my guess if that if you want the FF3 branded model, you’d best get to your favorite importer real soon – with the demand the DS-Lite has drawn in Japan, I can’t see that model lasting all that long on the open market.

Check out the FF3 edition DS-Lite article at Kotaku here and the Jet-Black DS-Lite article here. I guess now we all know how Jan Brady felt, don’t we? Japan, Japan, Japan – all I ever hear is Japan. *sniffle*

FIVE XBOX LIVE ARCADE TITLES DATED

Gamespot is reporting that at their San Francisco “Summer of Xbox Live Arcade” party, Microsoft announced the release date and prices of 5 upcoming Xbox Live Arcade titles. As per Microsoft, starting today and running through August 9th, they will be releasing one new XBLA title every wednesday. Here’s what the schedule looks like;

July 12 – Frogger, 400 points ($5)
July 19 – Cloning Clyde, 800 points ($10)
July 26 – Galaga, 400 points ($5)
August 2 – Street Fighter II’ Hyper Fighting, 800 points ($10)
August 9 – Pac-Man, 400 points ($5)

I’ve got to say that while I’m glad MS is finally getting around to at least releasing something for the Live Arcade, I’m still pretty disappointed in their efforts so far. I’ve said it before, and I’m going to say it again, with the slow summer period upon us and the overall lack of Xbox 360 titles, Microsoft really should be making a concerted effort to get as much Live Arcade content out there as they can. While I’m at it, am I the only one who thinks they really should have kicked off the launched with Pac-Man instead of Frogger?

So what comes after August 9th? While Microsoft wouldn’t confirm anything past the 9th, they did state that from now on Wednesday would be the day of the week that any new XBLA content will appear.

Click here to see the Gamespot article for all the juicy details and consider yourself lucky you don’t have to hear me griping about how “5 Games does not a Summer of Live Arcade make.”

WII TO LAUNCH IN LATE SEPT/EARLY OCT?

CNN Money is reporting that an analyst from American Technology Research has stated that final retail model Wii’s are already in production and could be ready for a late September/early October launch. The article also credits several unnamed “industry insiders” as confirming the possibility of an early launch. I don’t know if this is real or just conclusions based on more market research from people who don’t know the industry, but if you absolutely must have a Wii at launch, I’d suggest you starting to get your money together ASAP.

Check out the full CNN Money article here and pull those red overalls out of storage!

WII TO LAUNCH ON NOVEMBER 6TH?

GoNintendo is reporting that in the latest issue of Sports Illustrated for Kids there is an article that discusses both the Playstation 3 and Wii and their upcoming titles. Normally that wouldn’t be news, but the Nintendo Wii section of the article includes an interesting little tidbit… namely a launch date. If SI Kids is to be believed, the Nintendo Wii will be launching in the U.S. on November 6th. Check out the GoNintendo story here and start limbering up now – you’re gonna need it, you lazy bum, you.

DS-LITE STREET DATE BROKEN?

CheapAssGamer is reporting that both Target and Walmart have broken the U.S. release date for the DS-Lite and have begun selling them to the public via their retail outlets. If you have either store near you and are planning on grabbing one without a preorder, you may want to head on over and see if your store is “participating” Check out the CAG story here.

XBOX LIVE VISION CAMERA DATED

Gamasutra is reporting that in his daily podcast, Xbox Live’s Major Nelson revealed that the Xbox Live Vision camera will be released on September 19th of this year, and that the upcoming Xbox Live update will add the required support for the camera to the 360. In addition to releasing the street date for the camera, the interview confirmed that in addition to World Series of Poker gamers, Rainbow Six: Vegas players will also be able to use the camera to map a players face and add it to the game models. If you have a 360 and a Live account and want to see more on this feature, download the E3 Backstage videos from the marketplace as there’s a short demonstration in one of them. Is the world really ready to see what gamers really look like? Only time will tell. Check out the full Gamasutra article here.