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.

Graffiti Entertainment, Inc. has just gone gold with Air Conflicts: Aces of World War II for the PSP. This means that all testing and functionality of the game has been completed and the game is ready for manufacturing. Details and the release date in the full article.

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.

If you enjoyed Aces of War on the PlayStation Portable, then you might be interested in Graffiti Entertainment's World War II arcade flight simulator called Air Conflicts. To find out more about this upcoming video game, head on over to the full article.

Like World War II games? If you do, don't worry. You won't run out of World War II games as far as Gearbox Software is concerned. Randy Pitchford, one of the founders of the development company behind Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway ((PC, Xbox 360, PS3) explains why they won't quit making World War II games. Check out the full article to find out why.

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.

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!

 

Enjoying your copy of Medal of Honor: Heroes? Good, because for the troopers in Europe, we bring you news all the way from the higher ups. The EU PlayStation site (the aforementioned higher ups) has just announced that  there is a new demo out for MoH, and since it's a free, we thought you might want to hear about it.

The demo will feature the "Belgium Ranch" single-player map, and will allow players to use characters like Jimmy, William, or John from the game's full version. Just make sure to have a registered account with the site and ample memory space for your download (26.2MB). For first-timers to the game, take the opportunity to enjoy a free sample of one of the PSP's more highly-rated World War II FPS titles. Merits go to Eranmane for the intel.