Those who missed out on the early Xbox 360 mania may get a second chance this week to find the new game system in stores. Meanwhile, among those who managed to purchase the first systems, a small percentage already are shipping them back to Microsoft for repairs. Major retailers such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy ran out within hours of last Tuesday's launch.

EA today announced that Burnout Legends has shipped to North American retailers for the Nintendo DS, setting the standard for on-the-go automotive anarchy, combining the series' trademark speed, destruction and depth with new features, gameplay refinements and connectivity.

Is the video game on your son's holiday wish list too violent? What types of messages is your daughter receiving from the game she wants? Who is creating these games and what are their ethical and moral responsibilities? These questions and more will be addressed at "Video Gaming: Playing with Ethics?, which starts tonight. Read more for details ...

Pac-Man World Rally is an original kart racing game for the PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PSP and PC. Pac-Man World Rally puts players behind the wheel as Pac-Man or one of 14 other classic Namco characters racing for the checkered flag while using unique power-ups and items to prevent their opponents from claiming victory.

Heed the call of the open road, throw the gears in motion and take off in a tractor trailer. Be your own boss behind the wheel of your big rig. Meet many trucks on the road to form long convoys on your way to fame and fortune! Valusoft has released a patch bringing your retail only version of the game to v1.02 and no details are available to what it fixes, only says what it doesn't fix (ATi driver issues).

Activision announced today that it has signed an agreement with Spider-Man Merchandising to extend its exclusive worldwide publishing rights to the Spider-Man motion pictures through 2017, granting Activision the right to publish games based on subsequent Spider-Man movie sequels or new television series.

DropTeam is a truly Sci-Fi multiplayer tactical simulation of mechanized ground combat using a new groundbreaking and powerful 3D engine. DropTeam is all about fun, fast and furious tactical action – but not at the expense of realistic physics and a credible combat experience, and now with even better graphics due to advanced lighting and postprocessing effects including High Dynamic Range rendering and full-scene glow.

UFO: Aftershock follows directly from one of the endings of UFO: Aftermath, where the player agrees to hand over the Earth to the Alien scientists, who are trying to change the planet into a giant living organism. Cenega has released the first patch bringing your retail game to v1.1 and addressing some localization issues, but mainly fixes for bugs & crashes and balance tweaking (thanks Patches-Scrolls). Read more for detailed fix list and download links ...

Th3 Plan introduces an entirely unique style of gameplay. The first single player multiplayer game enables gamers to control up to three characters at once. The innovative split screen gameplay offers new ways for characters to work in precise coordination, from setting up clever deceptions to distract security guards to timing anti-security measures down to the split second.

Sony has released yet another new update for its PSP firmware, bringing it to v2.60 for the Japanese, North American and European PSP editions. The new v2.60 update adds Windows Media Audio (WMA) audio support, RSS Channel has been added as a feature under Network, copyright-protected video data can now be downloaded directly to a Memory Stick Duo, and volume adjustment has been added.

Usually we do not cover mobile phones but VNUNet seems to have a new interesting story that Nokia is stepping away from its N-Gage phone/handheld gaming device. "N-Gage is still being sold but it was not a success in the sense of developing a new category," said Antti Vasara, Nokia's vice president for corporate strategy. "We learnt that people want to play games on all devices. As such we are integrating the gaming software into Series 60 phones." N-Gage devices will still be produced by primarily for the Chinese and Indian markets.

Challenge yourself with four levels of difficultly from easy to fiendish. Relax with a quiet Sudoku challenge or experience the first ever multiplayer Sudoku competitions. Complete with animated background themes, time goals, music and sound, this is the game that introduces PSP to serious Sudoku players - on the Go!

German publisher Frogster announced that the Stalin Subway has gone gold and will be in stores December 8, 2005. The Stalin Subway is a realistic first-person shooter which is set in Stalin's Moscow of fall 1952. Iosif Stalin, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of USSR is now 72 years old, and a group of military officials of high rank decides that the Generalissimo is weak and the power can be taken away from him.

The U.S. Air Force has engaged Stottler Henke Associates to develop a software toolkit called WarCon that for the first time will enable instructors, rather than programmers, to create content for computer-based war games.

THQ has now released the full v1.41 patch for Relic's 3D RTS Dawn Of War/Winter Assault, adding unit balancing, interface enhancements, some optimizations and bug fixes. This version does NOT require the previous v1.40 patch to be installed (thanks Relicnews). Read more for detailed fix list and download links...

Nintendo's PR machine got into gear today with an early bird special, mark May 9, 2006 in your calendar as Nintendo will unveil the Nintendo Revolution. That particular day is of importance because that is the annual day when Nintendo has its pre-e3 conference at the Kodak Theatre (home of the Academy Awards), on Hollywood Blvd, kickoff at 9:30 a.m. Hopefully we'll get to see more than just a mockup, and a tv remote.

Another day, another batch of game trailers was released. Instead of giving them all their own posts, we grouped them, and so far there are trailers for :

• Phantasy Star Universe [PS2/PC] - Japan Trailer
• Prey - G4 TV Trailer
• Prince of Persia The Two Thrones [ALL] - Dev. Diary #5
• 
  
  We will update this throughout the day when new trailers become available. Read more for download links ...

A few months back it was revealed Blizzard closed down the Blizzard North office, responsible for the Diablo franchise. While people were given other opportunities inside Blizzard, several decided to venture out. Hyboreal Games is founded by Diablo developers and former Blizzard employees Eric Sexton, Michio Okamura, and Steven Woo, and several others are said to join them shortly. While details are completely non-existent, their current, and first, project is Starfall.

EA today announced that the The Sims 2 has gone gold for the PSP and will be on store shelves by December 15th. The full 3D world allows gamers to take their Sims through the adventures of Strangetown with five brand new neighborhoods and 20 unique locations custom-built, as well as wireless multiplayer.

EA has released the first patch for FIFA Manager 06, previously known as Total Club Manager 2006. This update brings your French, German or English retail game to v1.1 and addresses a slew of fixes, enhacements, and gameplay tweaks (thanks Blues). Read more for detailed fix list and download links ...