I'm curious; do pre-order bonus offers do anything for you? It seems these days that every new game has some sort of promotional offering that comes with a pre-order. For me, I've always been adverse to pre-ordering games. I don't like how if I put my $5 down, it's basically now store credit; can't get a refund. You never know when a store will miss a shipment or not receive their full allotment; and because I've never had a problem finding a game day one, I see no incentive. However, lately I've been tempted to lay down the cash. The bonus content for the pre-order only Halo 2 Limited Collector's Edition seems to be worth the risk. But nothing yet has had me truly "excited" where I made it a part of my to-do list to hit up the local game store.

	Halo 2 Gone Gold Halo 2 is officially finished. Community liaison Frankie posted on Bungie's site, "We finished every line of code, every pixel of art, every frame of animation, every phoneme of dialog and every note of music. And we're kinda proud of it. We think it's 'fun.'" The game is currently being manufactured for shipment to 27 countries. All is a go for a November 9 North America launch.
	Midway Acquires Inevitable Entertainment Midway has acquired the studio that is currently developing Area 51, Inevitable Entertainment. It was an all-stock transaction, offering a little more than 200,000 shares of Midway stock for the company. Midway has been looking to open a studio in the Austin, Texas area and found it much more suitable to acquire one that is already up-and-running. Inevitable Entertainment has now been renamed to Midway Studios - Austin.
	Nintendo Holding Back 'Revolution' Until PS3 The new poster boy for Nintendo, Reggie Fils-Aime, has told IGN that the company is taking a conservative approach with its next-gen hardware, currently codenamed Revolution. Nintendo wants to release at a time that is competitive with Sony's PS3, saying "We are driving our timetables based on what we believe Sony will do." At the same time, Reggie scolded Microsoft for rushing to bring out the successor to the Xbox. "Not that I want to ignore the Xbox," he said, "but certainly we believe that a rush to a new system is a mistake."
	The REAL Bungie Weekly Update Due to some confusion on Friday, Frankie had to hold off on the Bungie Weekly Update which was to be presented in video form. The weekend has offered much clarity and now we are treated with what we were waiting for; a tour of the Bungie offices! Get it fresh off of FileShack!
	Chainsaw Controller You've seen the dual pistols for Final Fantasy X-2 and the samurai sword for Onimusha 3... now behold the chainsaw controller meant for use with Resident Evil 4. NubyTech expects to ship the product in January. In the mock-up graphic provided, it appears to be a large, yet functional, controller fashioned after the chainsaws used by one of the game's enemies.
	Baten Kaitos Pre-order Bonus If you're looking forward to the upcoming Namco RPG, Baten Kaitos, better get that pre-order in; many retailers will be offering special promotions. One such deal is through Toys R Us. Pre-order either in-store or through its online site at Amazon.com and you'll score a mini-CD that features select tracks from the game's soundtrack. More deals through EBgames and Gamestop are to be revealed next week.
	Misc. Q&As/Features EuroGamer talks with Kevin Hendrickson about TRON 2.0: Killer App.
	Misc. Media/Previews
	Game Informer has new screens and details regarding Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GameSpy previews the game here). They also have a trailer for Sega SuperStars. GameMethod runs down some hot titles for us: Killzone, Jak 3, and Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal. Gameplay footage of Under The Skin can be found at GameSpot. IGN has all the details on Shining Tears and screens of Tenchu: Fatal Shadows.
	IGN goes twelve hours with Dead or Alive Ultimate. GameSpy updates their preview of Jade Empire. TeamXbox takes us hands-on with GunGriffon: Allied Strike. Game Over summarizes Blinx 2: Masters of Time & Space for us. GameSpot has shots of Spikeout Battle Street.
	IGN delivers a whopping fifty new movies of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. They also have all the media you can handle for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
	GamerFeed takes a hands-on approach with WarioWare Inc. DS. GameSpot posts more shots of Feel the Magic: XY/XX.
	More multiplayer impressions of GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (PS2, Xbox, GCN) can be found at IGN. They also have some shots of Mercenaries (PS2, Xbox). GameZone gives us a quick rundown on Crash 'n' Burn (PS2, Xbox). GameSpot shares new screens of Super Monkey Ball Deluxe (PS2, Xbox) and Sonic Mega Collection Plus (PS2, Xbox).