This week will no doubt see gamers go ballistic over Rockstar North's highly-publicized and critically-acclaimed title, Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3). But this week is not only about Niko Bellic's (mis)adventures, since Mario and the rest of the gang will also start racing off with motorbikes and karts in Mario Kart Wii. This week is pretty much an exciting one, so don't tarry and go to the full article for the complete list of games to be released this week.

 The year 2007 ends with a big bang of memorable titles for all the consoles and genres. And for the more intellectual gamers among us, one thing to look forward to as this year ends is the upcoming Twilight of the Arnor expansion for Stardock's Galactic Civilizations II.

Wondering how the beta version of the game looks so far? Check out our review at the full article and find out!

Dark Avatar, the newest expansion pack for Stardock's Galactic Civilizations franchise, has gone gold and will be released on Valentine's Day, February 14th (ah, if only my girlfriend could read this and learn to take a hint). You can pre-order it on the official Galactic Civilizations II website (just click on the via link below) either as a download or have a CD sent to you.

A multitude of new features and options that further enhance the strategic depth of the game await players in Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar. There's an all new single-player campaign that sees two of the game's alien races are eliminated, making room for several other new races (oh dear Lord let the Snathi be playable!).

Dark Avatar also allows players to create their own custom opponents, tweaking their behaviour, what they look like, what their ships look like and play style to develop truly unique enemies. Resource-rich asteroid belts, unique planets requiring advanced technology to colonize, spies to assist or prevent destabilization and sabotage, an Epic Generator that creates a unique story from each game played, advanced diplomatic treaties, new ship components, improved AI options also make their debut in Dark Avatar.

Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar, the expansion pack to the hotter-than-an-O-type star Galactic Civilizations II, is almost ready to explode on the gaming scene.

Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar adds a multitude of new features and options to the original universe. In the new single-player campaign, two of the game’s alien races become extinct making room for more intergalactic species. Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar gamers also get to customize opponents from their behavior and appearance, and their ships.

The literally star-studded expansion pack introduces resource-rich asteroid belts, unique planets to colonize, and sneaky spies to assist or prevent destabilization and sabotage. The Epic Generator creates a unique story from each game played, advanced diplomatic treaties, new ship components, improved AI options and much more.

Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar will be released digitally by Stardock - without the hassles of copy protection — via TotalGaming (linked below). You can place your pre-orders there right now for US$ 29.95.

See those unexplored screens after the jump!

This is going to be an interesting thanksgiving. It seems the folks at Strategy First are giving a discount blowout in honor of the season.

Strategy First is offering discounts on every game they've made, whether it be their space sim Galactic Civilizations II or the fantastic Disciples series of games. You get 20 percent off on all their published games so long as you order them through their website between now and November 30. Better yet, you get free shipping for games worth at least US$ 30.

Sounds like a good deal for strategy buffs, and something to please the young gamers who haven't heard of strategy games before. If you're old enough to own a credit card, then this is a thrifty way to stock up on Christmas gifts as well. Enjoy the purchases, gamers!

Stardock Corporation has announced that the Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar beta will be coming to PC users on November 16, 2006. Of course, with this being such a large-scale release, Stardock isn't letting just anybody in on the beta. There is a catch. Beta slots will only be allocated to those who have pre-ordered Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar through totalgaming.net for $25.

The full version of the expansion pack is due to ship in February 2007, and therefore this beta gives gamers the chance to play the game before everyone else.

Dark Avatar expands the gameplay of Galactic Civilizations II in a big way compared to most expansion packs, introducing custom opponents whose play styles can be completely defined by the player, espionage agents to engage in sabotage and destabilization, special worlds which require specific technology to colonize, and much, much more. Here's a few of the features:

• Custom Civilization Opponents. Players can now design their own opponents within the game and then play against them. This includes both what the opponent looks like but also how it plays.
• Espionage Agents. Many of the reviews of Galactic Civilizations II have made mention of how the game allows players to win through many different strategic paths. Espionage agents give players the ability to win through covert operations. Spend money on espionage to hire agents who can sabotage production, research, morale, farming, etc. on enemy worlds. Or use them to snuff out enemy agents on your worlds.

We did say there was a big feature list in this expansion. Check out the full list after the jump!