EA Montreal's arcade-style racer Need for Speed Nitro will be in stores a few weeks earlier than expected, Electronic Arts has revealed.

Once slated for November 17, the racer is now due on Wii and Nintendo DS come November 3 in North America and November 6 in Europe.

The date was accompanied by a new trailer and word of the game going gold.

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"Pain Is Back," declares this trailer for Homegrown's frantic shooter sequel Painkiller: Resurrection (PC). Other points? "New & Improved Monsters." "New & Improved Weapons." "New Co-Op Mode." "Dynamic Light Sources." "Destructible Environments."

The game went gold today, and will be at North American retailers on October 27. A downloadble demo should be available "shortly," according to publisher JoWooD.

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Joining Tekken 6 and Ratchet & Clank Future, Gearbox today revealed that its colorful shooter-RPG Borderlands has gone gold and entered manufacturing on all three platforms.

The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 editions of Borderlands hit North America on October 20 and Europe on October 23. The PC version follows a week later--October 26 in North America, October 30 in Europe--due to optimization. In its mailing, Gearbox noted that the console versions had "already gone off to the presses" while the PC edition was just "wrapped up."

On the plus side, various shops are currently offering Borderlands PC for $45--$15 less than the console versions--provided you don't mind the wait and have a capable rig.

For more on the game, check out our preview or the official fact... Read more

In what's shaping up to be a golden Friday, Namco Bandai just announced that Tekken 6 has joined Ratchet & Clank in going gold and entering the manufacturing process. Word of the fighter's completion only applies to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 editions, both of which are due October 27 in North America. A handheld version is slated to arrive on PSP later in the fall, though Namco has yet to provide an exact release date.

In addition, Namco outlined the "online features" of the ... Read more

Insomniac's latest sequel to its Ratchet & Clank series of action platformers has officially grown by one, as Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time was sent off to manufacturers today.

The PlayStation 3 game is set for release on October 27.

To celebrate the completion of SoftMax's Magnacarta 2, publisher Namco Bandai has issued several new screenshots from the sequel to Magna Carta: Tears of Blood (PS2). Yes, the sequel uses different punctuation in its official title. No, I don't know why.

The Xbox 360-exclusive RPG arrives in North America on October 13.

A downloadable demo of Turn 10's Xbox 360-exclusive racer Forza Motorsport 3 will hit the Xbox Live Marketplace come September 24, publisher Microsoft announced today.

The single-player demo will let players race five different cars on the Camino Viejo track, and then compare their lap times to those of others care of the online leaderboards.

Microsoft also noted that the game, which boasts "more than 400 cars on over 100 tracks," has now gone gold and is such "entering its final lap" before... Read more

Cryptic Studio's superhero MMO Champions Online and NCSoft's fantasy MMORPG Aion have both gone gold, threatening to crush the social lives of gamers everywhere.

Champions Online is slated for release on September 1, with a limited open beta beginning today, while the CryEngine-powered Aion is due to arrive on September 22.

NCSoft hopes Aion will not only take second place in the MMO world behind World of Warcraft, but "Erase the memory" of Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, which it published.

Cryptic recently unveiled two Champions Online subscription offers with the perk of access to the Star Trek Online closed beta, including a hefty $200 lifetime subscription.

Techland's western shooter sequel Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood celebrates going gold in the old cowboy way-- with a mournful country song apologising to the singer's mother.

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Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is released June 30 for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Confirming that The Sims 3 will "street in 60 countries June 2," EA has revealed that the long-awaited PC and Mac lifestyle sequel is finished and has enterted manufacturing.

Alongside the $49.99 regular edition, retailers will also be stocking a $69.99 Collector's Edition, which packs the game itself, one Sims-styled 2GB USB drive, a tips guide, plus the "bonus in-game European-styled sports car unavailable elsewhere."

Replay Studios' stealth-action video game take on the real-life WWII exploits of British agent Violette Szabo will has gone gold, publisher SouthPeak has announced. In celebration of the accomplishment, a handful of new screenshots were provided. With Velvet Assassin now in manufacturing, the publisher noted that the PC and Xbox 360 title will ship to North American stores on April 30. However, several retailers currently list the game as shipping out a few days earlier, on Tuesday, April 28.

The Xbox 360 version of Ascaron Entertainment's Sacred 2: Fallen Angel has gone gold and will be released on May 12, publisher cdv Software has announced. The multiplayer-toting action RPG, released on PC last November, features a massive open world to traverse riding mounts, pummelling native fantastical monsters for loot.

The PlayStation 3 version, while not yet announced as gone gold, is also due May 12.

The announcement that Sucker Punch's super-powered open world sucker-puncher has gone gold was made, like so many others in this 2.0 age, through Twitter.

Now producer Brian Flemming has revealed how Sucker Punch will be celebrating the end of over three years of development and 70,000+ checkins of code and assets:

It's a tradition here to bust out old builds and videos of the game and laugh at ourselves for how *crappy* the game was 2 years ago. It's a strange combination of humiliation at how we ever showed those builds to people, appreciation to Sony for believing in us even... Read more

Gas Powered Games' action RPG/RTS Demigod has gone gold and will arrive April 14 on store shelves and publisher Stardock's Impulse digital distribution platform for $40.

The $50 Collector's Edition sports a pewter figurine of the walking castle Rook demigod, a soundtrack CD and poster, though probably not a sample of the Stardock office carpet.

The latest game out of Dawn of War II developer Relic Entertainment is off to manufacturing and will hit retailers on April 9, publisher THQ announced today.

A stand-alone expansion, Tales of Valor (PC) adds three campaigns and three new multiplayer modes, along with new maps and units, to the studio's WWII strategy series.

Though it does not require the past two Company of Heroes games, Valor will interface with them so that owners of all have "complete access to the battles of World War II."

Electronic Arts announced today that EA Redwood Shores' open world action sequel The Godfather II has gone gold.

The game will hit the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on April 7.

Major additions in the sequel include The Don's View, an overworld strategy component (pictured right) that tasks players with managing properties and taking territory.

The Godfather II also allows players to customize their own crew of AI-controlled family members. The crew members can be used in the game's multiplayer modes, which mainly center around various class-based specialties, such as demolition and arson.

Monolith's spooky shooter sequel F.E.A.R. 2 (PC, PS3, 360) has gone gold, publisher Warner Bros. announced today, confirming that the game will ship on February 10.

With the game now in manufacturing, those eager to get an advance look can check out the PC demo that's now available on FileShack, with Xbox 360 and PS3 demos available for download through each system's respective online marketplace.

A new trailer, dubbed "Intel Briefing," accompanied the gold announcement:

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Joining Microsoft and Sony in this week's gold announcements, Sega sends word that Headstrong Games' House of the Dead: Overkill is done and off to manufacturing.

In celebration, the publisher provided a new trailer examining the story of the Wii-only light gun-style shooter, which hits North American retailers on February 10.

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Ensemble Studios has wrapped up work on its final game, publisher and studio owner Microsoft announced today, with Halo Wars now complete and off to manufacturing.

The Xbox 360 real-time strategy game launches in North America on March 3. A downloadable demo will be available through the Xbox Live Marketplace on February 5.

The demo will pack two optional tutorials, beginner and advanced, the game's first two campaign missions, and a multiplayer map for offline battles against the computer, in which players will be able to control either UNSC or Covenant forces.

Guerrilla Games' anticipated PlayStation 3 first person shooter Killzone 2 has gone gold in North America, meaning that the game is done and has entered manufacturing.

Killzone 2 will hit North American store shelves on February 27. A playable demo is slated to hit the online PlayStation Store the day before the game hits. However, those that pre-order the title from GameStop will be able to access the demo a bit earlier in the month with the help of an exclusive pre-order download code.

"I couldn't be more ecstatic with what the fine folks at Guerrilla have accomplished and we cannot wait to get this thing into your hands," associate producer Mike Graham wrote in a post on the official PlayStation.Blog.