Previously listed with a May 22 release, Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings is now slated for a June release. No reason was given for the delay, but I heard from the grapevine that Indy slipped on a banana peel. My sources are very reliable.

After years of absence, the new Indiana Jones game is suddenly the next big thing from LucasArts, and will even grace the cover of next month's Nintendo Power. The studio has finally whipped out new details on the Staff of Kings after teasing us with their new trailer.

Details after the link.

One of Russia's most distinguished game developer and publisher, 1C company, has announced two new game projects that will be their first on the next generation consoles. The two games are based on Captain Blood novels and the successful IL-2 Sturmovik flight combat simulation series.  Both are now heading to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (to North America with help), but even handhelds will feel some love as well.

After just a few months of waiting comes the good news that Treyarch's current project, Call of Duty 5 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, DS), is finally playable. Will we have a demo soon, then? We hope that it won't be a long wait until then. More details in the full article!

Long-running British developing and publishing company Codemasters have a lot of goodies already lined-up for everyone in the coming year.

Rod Cousens, CEO of Codemasters announced that the new titles reflect the driving grown in the North American market and will focus on content geared for the American consumer

Check out the line-up right after the jump!

It's been a few days since Halloween, so we'd rather honor the most memorable deaths that made gamers shriek, throw tantrums, and cry. Of course, along the line are deaths so dramantic, shocking, or simply sad that they're difficult to forget. In other words, a list of characters who died in ways that scarred our minds, or those we felt so attached to that seeing them perish became emotional. If it's not obvious enough, we'll have to warn you about major spoilers that await.

It's hard not to be excited about this holiday season when great games are about to hit the shelves. We kid not when we say just looking at Ubisoft's line-up of upcoming titles will give any gamer a field day pondering which one to spend money on. If Assassin's Creed (PS3, Xbox 360, PC) and Haze can't get you riled up, others will.

Ubisoft didn't include solid dates in the list sent through the press wire, but most are coming before 2007 ends. Here are the games:

• Assassin's Creed: One of the most anticipated video games of the year will be coming to the Xbox 360 and the PS3 in November, while the PC version will be out in early 2008.
• Beowulf: Based on Paramount Pictures' and Shangri-La Entertainment's Beowulf, the upcoming feature film from Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis, Beowulf will be released in November on Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PS3 and PSP.
• Blazing Angels 2 Secret Missions of WWII: Currently available on the Xbox 360, experience World War II on the PS3 this coming holiday. Play as an elite pilot in the follow-up to the successful Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII.
• Brothers In Arms Hell's Highway: Previously expected to be released for holiday 2007, it will be released on next-generation platforms and the PC in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 to 2008. Brothers in Arms Road to Hill 30 for the Nintendo Wii will be released in December.
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Hard Evidence: For the first time, CSI fans will be able to play CSI on the Xbox 360 and on the Wii this holiday.
• Haze: Free Radical Design teams up with Ubisoft to deliver the mind-altering, technologically superior game Haze, exclusively for the Sony PS3 this holiday.
• Heroes of Might and Magic V: Tribes of the East: Enjoy the dramatic evolution and conclusion of the Heroes V experience this holiday on PC.
• Nitrobike: Navigate rocket-propelled motorcycles in this arcade-style game exclusively for the Wii.
• Naruto: Rise of a Ninja: In a game exclusively developed for Xbox 360 from the ground up, players will be able to experience becoming a shinobi as the game starts from the series' beginning. The game is given an October release date.
  
• Rayman Raving Rabbids 2: The bunnies are back and are crazier than ever in this new game specially developed for the Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo DS this holiday.

Casual gamers aren't left behind, thanks to Ubisoft's massive library. Chessmaster series fans might want to look at Chessmaster: The Art of Learning (DS) and Chessmaster: Grandmaster Edition (PC). Cranium Kabooki is a party game on the Nintendo Wii with fun minigames like jamming, drawing, and acting. Imagine games are set to capture the ladies with Fashion Designer, Master Chef, and Animal Doctor on the Nintendo DS.

Another line of games from Ubisoft is My Coach which has titles like My French Coach, My Spanish Coach, and My Word Coach that appear on Nintendo platforms to expand our vocabulary. There's also Petz that comes in all flavors of pet training for the DS, PS2, PC, and Wii.

There's a bit of bad news for all of you waiting for Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment's Looney Tunes games. It turns out that the original release date of September 18, 2007 has been scratched from the launch calendar and replaced with October 9.

Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal and Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck were set to ship next month in North America but were delayed by the publisher for undisclosed reasons. Acme Arsenal, due out for the Nintendo Wii and the Microsoft Xbox 360 game consoles, puts players in the shoes of their favorite characters from the classic cartoon line and drops them in locales like Ancient Egypt and the World War II trenches where they'll have to solve puzzles, perform objectives, and drive around with wacky vehicles to proceed to the next level.

Unique to the Wii version is the implementation of  gesture-based controls while the Xbox 360 iteration has the advantage of  online co-op play via the Xbox Live service.

Duck Amuck, on the other hand, goes out for the Nintendo DS and features everyone's favorite animated duck Daffy in a game based on the classic Duck Amuck cartoon. The objective is simple: Use your stylus to drive Daffy nuts in a series of mini games that will have you thinking of clever ways to punk your rival. Like Acme Arsenal, this game was set to go out on September 18 but has been delayed to October 9.

1UP's James Mielke was ranting three weeks ago regarding the blatant use of the words "Call of", "Rise of", "Empire," "Nations," and "Ops" in game titles. (He was talking about Call of Juarez.) Well, we've lived through this type of stereotyping, but it doesn't mean we can't make fun of it right? Makes us wonder, do devs consult some sort of list when thinking of a title?

Anyway, the guys at GameSetWatch set out to come up with the "most stereotypical video game name... evah". The turnout was pretty crazy: Simon Carless (Game Developer/Gamasutra EIC) "Quaternion: The Beige-ning", Jill Duffy (Game Developer managing editor) came up with "Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Call Of Duty: Revenge Of Duty", and Brandon Sheffield (Game Developer features editor) gave the hilarious "Pauly Shore's XTREME Nude Wakeboarding II: The Awakening". The winner was Frank Cifaldi (Gamasutra features editor) with "WWII: World War II".

My fellow QJ staffers gave a few bits of their own. Victor B. came up with two - "Space Shooter: The Star Galaxy Trek Wars of Gradius" and "Final Generic Fantasy RPG Quest XX" - while our researcher R gave me this - "Death Ride Alliance: Blade War XIII". We're sure you have your own game title cliche and we'd love to hear about it. The more trite, the better.

Ready, set, go!

We already told you about the Virtual Console games who joined the growing collection of European and Australian VC titles, now we'll be telling you about the Wii and DS games who are making their way in Australian store shelves. High-profile titles such as Sonic and the Secret Rings and DBZ: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 are in the list. So for our Aussie readers, we give you the game's you should expect this February and March.

Wii games

• Excite Truck - February 22
• Sonic and the Secret Rings - March 8
• Bionicle Heroes - March
• Kororinpa - March 1
• DragonBall Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 - March 2
• SSX Blur - March 15
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 - March 15
• World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions - March 15
• Rapala Tournament Fishing - March 22
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - March 22
• Wing Island - March 29
• Blazing Angels: Squadrons of World War II - March 29
• Prince of Persia: Rival Swords - March 29
• Medal of Honor: Vanguard - March 29

DS games

• Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - February 22
• Kirby Squeak Squad - March 1
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - March 8