In the next few hours, City of Villains will be released to hordes of superheroes lining up at the local Game store... What's more the City of Villains European servers will go live at 8am!

City of Villains is the standalone sequel to critically acclaimed MMORPG City of Heroes. Using a staggering assortment of new powers, abilities, and customisable options, players can now experience sinister game play from the other side of the mask. With diabolical craft and guile, players forge new super-powered villain characters in an attempt to dominate the world. Heroes and authorities of Paragon City will do all in their power to thwart these evil plans of destruction, requiring a supreme effort for true domination.

The in a recent news report, the BBC has claimed Microsoft is launching the Xbox 360 "22 months before the Playstation 3". This is in stark contrast to Sony's official line which is that they are planning to launch in spring 2006. If true, it would mean that Sony's next generation console would not arrive in Japan until September 2007. Taking the launches of the PSP and Playstation 2 into consideration that could mean a Christmas 2008 launch in Europe.

While it is possible that the BBC got their information wrong, there is no smoke without fire, and it is entirely plausible that they are in possession of information that the games press is not. This comes just days after Clubskill reported on the claims of a former Gamestop employee. The former employee, who claims he had worked at the US games retailer over the summer said "The PS3 is delayed until 2007; the decision for this came about through the failure of the initial hardware the PS3 Development Team created."

"Apparently, 300 PS3 Units were created and sent to various software developers to begin creating games for the new system. However, design flaws in the PS3 (specifically, not enough coolant) caused the systems to overheat and meltdown after moderate use by the developers." He continued, "According to my DM [District Manager], Sony went and fired the entirety of the PS3 Development Team for this flaw. In short, from what I've heard, if Sony gained anything from this experience, its minor technical knowledge on what the PS3 can handle, but for the most part they were sent to square one."

As reported in our earlier story, a source within the company had claimed that the UK retailer was to receive 41% of all UK Xbox 360 allocations. However, Gamestation has contacted us to clarify the issue, with it dismissing the source's information as wholly incorrect. No further information was given.

Due to it being the weekend, Gamestation was not available for immediate comment, however we hope to bring you a statement sometime this week.

A number of news sites are reporting that Grand Theft Auto: LIberty City Stories for the PSP is likely to be delayed past the already delayed November 4 release date in Europe. Originally slated for release on October 28, the game was pushed back a week by the publishers, however new rumours are claiming Rockstar won't meet the new date either, although no reasons are being given.

The game has already been released in the US, so the reason for the delay is not likely to be a technical one.

Blizzard have confirmed the expansion for World of Warcraft with the launch of the official website. The expansion, named The Burning Crusade will introduce a number of new features to the wildly popular World of Warcraft, including an increased level cap, new playable races, new starting zones, an entire new continent, a new profession, new quests, new items and more.

A date for the release of the expansion has not been announced, nor has plans for any public beta testing. For more information, check out the Burning Crusade website.

Microsoft has spoken on the allocation issue in an attempt to clear up the confusion which has been rampant over the last week. CFO of Microsoft, Chris Liddell told Reuters that Microsoft was expecting more of a "gradual rollout" than many analysts had predicted.

The news supports the latest suggestions that not all of the predicted 200,000 UK allocated consoles will be available come launch day. Lidell's comment seems to have increased the fears of many that come December 2nd they may not be able to secure a console.

UK magazine Xbox World 360 has in its latest issue 'revealed' 23 games they claim are currently in development for the Xbox 360, but that Microsoft don't want you to know about just yet. Many of the games in the list are foregone conclusions, such as Halo 3, Forza 2 and Knight of the Old Republic 3.

Others though bring the authenticity of the list into question. Truth behind claims that games such as The Sims 3 and Half Life 3 are in development for the Xbox 360 are extreme long shots at best and at the least, a way of shifting more magazine.

We are good friends with the guys at Xbox World 360 and know that they are unlikely to bring the reputation of their magazine, and publisher Future into question by making Spong-esque claims.

The full list of games included in the booklet supplied with this month's magazine are as follows:

Avalon
BC
Bioware game
Brute force 2
Riddick 2
Fable 2
GTA 6
Half Life 3
Forza 2
Halo 3
Hitman 5
Man with no name
Jade empire 2
Ninja Gaiden 2
Outrun 2 coast 2 coast
PES 6
Ralisport 3
The Sims 3
Splinter Cell 5
KOTOR 3
Turok
Unreal 2007
Wrestlemania 360

Xbox World 360 claim in the booklet that all games listed above are due for release some time between 2006 and 2007. It also did not mention the exclusivity status of the Grand Theft Auto series.

Microsoft was unavailable for comment at the time of publishing. We hope to bring you their comment as soon as possible.

On Wednesday 12th of October, News0r's Ben Furfie attended the official UK first play of the Xbox 360 in London. At the event we had the chance to not only play on Call of Duty 2, Dead or Alive 4, Kameo: Elements of Power, Perfect Dark Zero and Project Gotham Racing 3.

We now have our preview of both the Xbox 360 and its games up for your enjoyment, so head over to the article and enjoy!

Ubisoft have announced that Peter Jackson's King Kong The Official Game of the Movie has gone gold. The game is set for release on the 17th of November 2005 on Xbox, Playstation 2, Gamecube and Windows PC. The GBA version of the game is also due for release on the 17th of November 2005.

"Ubisoft is extremely excited to reach this milestone in collaborating with Peter Jackson, Wingnut Films and Universal Studios Consumer Products Group," said Yves Guillemot, president and chief executive officer of Ubisoft. "The response among the media, core gamers and the mass-market audience has been tremendous and we can't wait to launch Ubisoft's most impressive and successful game of 2005 – Peter Jackson's King Kong The Official Game of the Movie."

Project Gotham Racing 3, one of Microsoft big three launch titles has had an image of it's faceplate leaked onto the web. The faceplate is likely to be one of many available at launch both in North America, Europe and Japan.

Project Gotham Racing 3 is due for release on the 2nd of December in Europe.