September 7, 2008, to be more precise. This is now the official new (tentative) release date for Spore, as announced in the game's first newsletter, signed by Will Wright, that popped into my inbox just now. Ironically enough, Maxis and Electronic Arts even felt the need to make a special teaser trailer for this "joyous" moment. You can watch it right here on Playkon, but there's absolutely no in-game footage, just the above release date. "Thanks again. You'll hear from us soon", he says. The nerve...


Will Wright's message: "check out our launch date teaser".
(Because it's too fucking infuriating when written down!)

Along with the expected confirmation of a "re-designed" PC version of BioWare's sci-fi role-playing game, Electronic Arts announced today that they'll be releasing Mass Effect on the PC in May 2008, after having struck a publishing agreement with Microsoft. Great news, certainly, even though the rest of their press release isn't exactly inspiring. Among the cutting-edge optimizations listed below, those "fully customizable controls" are an epic wonder of PR stupidity, much like rest of the so-called features. Bravo, EA, you have outdone yourself once again! What's next, telling us we can actually play it with a mouse and keyboard?

Optimized for the PC, Mass Effect for the PC incorporates the following features:
- Optimized controls designed specifically for the PC.
- High resolution visuals - Mass Effect for the PC features highly detailed textures, characters and environments.
- Fully customizable controls - PC gamers can re-map the control scheme any way they like.
- Run & Gun Control - Players can assign biotic powers or skills to 'hot keys' allowing them to play Mass Effect with a heavier focus on action.
- New decryption mini-game.
- New inventory screen GUI and functionality - The enhanced inventory system makes it easier for players to equip and modify their weapons and armor.

The only real novelty there is that "new decryption mini-game", which they're not elaborating on at this point. Probably just a cheap, worthless gimmick, anyway. Still, great news.

Update: We now also have the first screenshots.

- Red Faction III was confirmed during THQ's latest investors call. Exactly one year after CEO Brian Farrell practically said the same thing. Only this time, we know with relative certainty that it's developed for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. By Volition, duh.

- Steam reaches 15 million accounts. For some odd reason, players keep making new accounts after getting their asses banned, or forget their password. Or username.

- Activision confirmed various sequels for their top franchises, from Call of Duty, to Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk, Spider-Man, Bond and other kiddie games. Or we could've just said "Activision confirms Call of Duty 5", since we don't give a crap about any of the others.

- The Club demo is out of for the PC. So is the full game, but only on the PS3 and Xbox 360 momentarily. Good luck clearing 2 GB for the demo!

- "We at EA blew it" (with Bullfrog, Origin and Westwood). No, you didn't blow it. You fucked it up. You fucked it up!

- Okami Wii is completely playable by now, but Capcom is still not giving a firm release date. March? Maybe. By the way, this game should've been made for the Wii from head start.

- StarCraft II and WoW: Wrath of the Lich King also playable, if you can hold your breath until the end of June, and find your way inside Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational event from Paris.

- The reason why 2K Games cancelled Civilization Revolution for the Wii is now elucidated. The reason why MTV writes about games remains a mystery.

- Devil May Cry 4 (PS3, Xbox 360), Assassin's Creed DS, Sins of a Solar Empire and others are releasing this week. Next week, Duke Nukem Forever. Or when it's done.

X³: Terran Conflict was announced with a small bang by the self-centred devs from Egosoft, along with their partners from Koch Media. Ze Germans enjoy deluding themselves into thinking that the game will be ready to launch in Q3 2008, but by that time they'll probably decide they want to do another "full blown sequel" again (remember X²: The Threat X³: Reunion?), and go straight for X4.

The only conceivable logical reason why they would stop at X³ is that there is no special superscript character for the number 4, like there is for 2 and 3. Pretty clever, huh? And with that imba argument, I rest my case. Now let's see what they have to say:

"X³: Terran Conflict is a brand new, stand-alone game set in the universe of X³. It is the culmination of the X trilogy, with a grand finale that takes us all the way back to Earth's own solar system. Gamers can take on the roles of different characters in the X universe, or of a Terran military pilot, and experience a multitude of stories in the largest X universe ever featured - for X³: Terran Conflict will offer more missions than any other X game before. Meanwhile, X³: Terran Conflict will pose questions such as: How has Earth changed in all these years? And how will relations between Earth and its counterparts in the X universe develop?"

In space, no one can hear you snore.

Yeah, right! Actually, we just needed some random placeholder thingie to break the ice, now that we're expanding our "network" with this new website. Gaming website, obviously enough. It was in fact supposed to be the first one we should've opened two years ago, but being the lolicons that we are, we started off with Animekon, then one thing led to another and... well, here we are today, at last.

So, expect the usual gaming news and rumors, unusually relayed by two longtime gaming journalists from some obscure Eastern European country. We'll also have various trailers streamed from our little-sister website TVkon, and a purely symbolic games database to keep things tied together, but without much detailed info - I'm sick and tired of maintaining a website with over nine thousand games, keeping track of release dates, official websites and all that crap. We'll let others do the grunt work for now, until we're prepared to turn this thing into a real gaming website (hopefully prior to the release of Duke Nukem Forever). Until then, enjoy it as it is, and welcome to Playkon!

As if it weren't bad enough that NCsoft's E3 2006 line-up was somewhat lacking in quality titles, their most promising MMO project - Aion: The Tower of Eternity - was first announced for the Asian market only. Fortunately however, even though the game is being created by NCsoft's Seoul studios, it will actually be aimed at a worldwide market. A most logical decision, given that none of their other titles managed to attract an excessive amount of attention: nor Dungeon Runners (give me a break), nor Tabula Rasa (a second re-design wouldn't hurt), nor Exteel (mecha just ain't my thing), nor even Soccer Fury showed any big potential, like the titles they presented a couple of years ago (Lineage II, City of Heroes, Guild Wars). And so, all we're left with is the high-fantasy, oriental-styled MMORPG, Aion.

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