"We're looking forward to launching Wrath of the Lich King and finally giving World of Warcraft players a chance to take on Arthas and his minions," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "Until then, we'll continue to refine and playtest the expansion content to make sure it provides a highly polished and entertaining experience."

The expansion will be available in Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on November 18.

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"I had a great time doing the voice for my own animation,” said Gordon Ramsay. "Being in a video game is a new experience for me and I'm very pleased with the results.”

After executing the three phases of an order – preparation, cooking and service – Chef Gordon Ramsay will score each meal. As they progress through the game, players will be rewarded with access to recipes from Chef Ramsay's own repertoire.

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WINDOWS XP
• 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
• 512 MB RAM
• A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
• At least 6 GB of hard drive space

WINDOWS VISTA
• 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
• 768 MB RAM
• A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
• At least 6 GB of hard drive space

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After something like a 42-year development cycle and 100 gameplay presentations from Will Wright, Spore finally has a release date.

Via a very brief teaser video posted on the Spore website, EA has announced a confirmed release date of September 7th, 2008 for the PC, Mac, and Nintendo DS.

"The wait is almost over," Chief Designer Will Wright said in a press release. "We're in our final stages of testing and polish with Spore, and the team at Maxis can't wait to see the cosmos of content created by the community later this year."

The seven months until release gives plenty of time for conservative, religious, and parents groups to get up in arms about the "pro-evolution" content of the game.

THQ hasn't released the official achievement ratings just yet for WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2008 on the Xbox 360, but Achieve360 got the skinny on what they will be. GameBump will be attendance this weekend for the WWE THQ event, so expect full hands-on impressions of this game.

Hit the jump to view the entire list since it is quite long.

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This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Brian Mohr.

Growing up I remember being a big fan of Micro Machines. Those little cars were a ton of fun to play with and collect since they were much smaller versions of matchbox cars, but still had a lot of detail. The only problem seemed to be that they’d always get lost around the house. Now you can relive those experiences in a way with Micro Machines v4. In this game by Codemasters, players race small cars through a solid single player campaign to regain their collection.

Micro Machines v4 features a very large single-player experience with over 40 tracks. The goal like in almost every other driving game is to beat your competition in a variety of game modes including time trial, race and battle. As you venture through the game you’ll build up your arsenal of cars by going through various levels from learner to legend. Of course the trial and race modes are pretty self explanatory, but battle is a little different. In this mode, players battle the computer to get enough distance between them to earn a point; whoever wins the most points wins the game. Overall this mode is fun and keeps players interested.

Of course, the game wouldn’t be fun if it were just racing so Micro Machines included a nice variety of weapons and power-ups to challenge you and your opponents. Players are able to pick up items such as shockers, heat-seeking missiles and machine guns as well as more unique weapons like dice bombs and hammers. There are health and energy power-ups too.

To go even further in the single-player experience, there are plenty of Micro Machines to unlock in the game. Version 4 has 750 cars total to collect in a variety of styles including lowriders, sports utility, and more.

The quick and fun experience in Micro Machines is perfect for multiplayer which the game does very well. Players are able to race against three other friends or play a team game. One other nice feature included in this mode is a track editor to create maps in various environments, although this is only available through multiplayer. Sadly there is no online support for Micro Machines v4.

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"We are pleased to bring our highly successful WWE SmackDown vs. RAW franchise to next generation consoles," said Kelly Flock, executive vice president, worldwide publishing, THQ. "As the publisher of the number one wrestling video game brand in the world, we are eager to take this franchise to new heights by offering the game to current generation, next generation and handheld gamers."

"We are excited about the next groundbreaking release in the multimillion dollar SmackDown vs. RAW franchise," said Nelo Lucich, vice president of interactive, JAKKS Pacific. "WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2007 combines ambitious, exciting features, such as the interactive fighting area within the crowd and a brand new analog control grappling system, which enhance the WWE video game experience. We are confident this debut will offer a compelling sports entertainment experience for the next generation of gamers."

WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2007 is expected to make its debut on both current and next generation gaming systems beginning this fall.

"We were thrilled with Empire Earth II, with its reception from the fans and press, with its innovations, and with its take on the series," notes Dr. Ian Davis, CEO of Mad Doc. "Yet there's always something more you want to do, always some way to make a great game even better. We were aching to add the Fealty and Tug-of-War Modes, and I think fans are going to have a lot of fun with these. Those, and the other features we've put into play here, really make the Empire Earth II experience complete."

Empire Earth II: The Art of Supremacy is scheduled for release in Spring 2006.