Here's hoping that the rumors coming out of Japan regarding the Nintendo DS means we're getting close to actually hearing some official about the device. I mentioned a couple weeks ago that it's a bit odd that we're in the middle of summer and we have yet to know all, or least close to all, of the details about the portable system that should be available prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. Although I had hoped for more than five or six games at launch, most, if not all, should be Nintendo titles worth monetary consideration. $180, however, won't help it much in the beginning, especially with all three consoles available for less. But lets not speculate too much at this juncture, something official should be coming down from Nintendo shortly.

	Nintendo DS Release Date and Price? The big rumor going around this evening stems from an article found at gamesindustry.biz. Citing unconfirmed sources out of Japan, the Nintendo DS will hit the Japanese market on November 4th and a week later (11/11) in the US. The unit will retail here for $180 and will launch with either five or six titles and have eleven available by Christmas. No other details were included, such as the DS' final name or which titles it would have at launch.
	Fable Dated; Pre-order Bonus Announced Microsoft announced today that the long-awaited RPG Fable will be released on September 14th. Also, if you pre-order the title from select retailers, it'll come packaged with a bonus DVD that has a "making of" documentary of the developmental process, game trailers, and playable demos of other Microsoft titles such as Sudeki and Rallisport Challenge 2.
	New Releases This Week Some nice titles are in stores now for you guys. NCAA Football 2005 rushes out across all consoles. The GameCube has an active week with Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and the much-anticipated Tales of Symphonia. Xbox gets their version of Samurai Warriors while the PS2 sports Athens 2004, Karaoke Revolution Volume 2, and Pool Paradise.
	Misc. Q&As/Interviews IGN talks with Scott Sanders and Aaron Ludlow of Intrepid about B.C., which is chock-full of new information. On top of that, they speak with a rep from Sonic Team, mostly about the new Puyo Pop. They also put up the final portion of their interview with game composer legend Nobuo Uematsu. GameSpot speaks with Rob Huebner, president and lead designer at Nihilistic; they discuss the Ghost situation and allude to their next project. They also have a developer interview video with Chris Susen regarding LucasArts' Mercenaries. TotalVideoGames sports an interview with some of the crew behind Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal.
	Misc. Media/Previews
	First, IGN has a ton of new screens of Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3 and they follow that up with a dev diary on Killzone.
	IGN got their grubby mitts on Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders and reports in.
	Planet GameCube contributes with a preview of Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2: Bush Rescue.
	GameSpot takes a look at Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm (NG) and posts new shots of Star Wars Trilogy: Apprentice of the Force (GBA). IGN previews Tron 2.0: Killer App (GBA).
	New shots of Mercenaries (PS2, Xbox) are at GameSpot. GamerFeed administers discipline in this preview of The Punisher (PS2, Xbox). They also play ball in these previews of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 and FIFA Soccer 2005, both for PS2, Xbox, and GCN. IGN has five new screens of GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (PS2, Xbox, GCN), a new video of Burnout 3 (PS2, Xbox, GCN), and a preview of King Arthur (PS2, Xbox, GCN). TeamXbox makes us do a double-take in this video for Second Sight (PS2, Xbox, GCN).