EA has announced that February 20, 2009, will mark the rather momentous occasion of stereotypical gamers finally venturing into the brightly lit outside world ... in the game. It's the day The Sims 3, the latest interactive simulation of an annoying, fickle, selfish and lazy race of creatures, will be distributed -- both physically and digitally -- to a bunch of annoying, fickle, selfish and lazy creatures.

If you'd like to append "supercilious" to that list of adjectives, you should consider purchasing The Sims 3 Collector's Edition, which will include an exclusive in-game "Italian-style" sports car for you to maneuver through your envious neighborhood (no wonder those floating diamonds are green). Also included in the package will be a Sims Plumbob USB drive, a tips and hints guide, The Sims 3 Plumbob stickers and, oh yes, the game.

Speaking at the outset of this year's Leipzig Games Convention, Crytek boss Cevat Yerli revealed that the developer's graphical tour de force, Crysis, cost an estimated $22 million to create. Yerli has previously lamented the effect piracy has had on the title, but reiterated that it's still recouped the development costs, saying, "If it wasn't profitable I wouldn't be able to stand here."

Best known for their stunning visuals, Crytek's game engines are also guilty of bringing even the mightiest of gaming PCs to their knees. While the upcoming, heavily-optimized Crysis: Warhead promises a significant performance increase even on mid-range systems, Crytek is already cooking up its next GPU melter, which Yerli says should be ready by 2012. That's when he anticipates GPU tech making the next major leap in its evolution; until then, he expects fellow developers to focus more on what they already have to work with, by means of stylized graphics and hardware accelerated physics.

Source – Crysis cost 22 million to make, IGN
Source – Crytek: New engine in 2012, IGN

From making rival gangsters offers they can't refuse, to using your voice to command soldiers not to refuse orders, these fresh-off-the-editing-computer videos from EA's The Godfather II and Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's EndWar are presented for your viewing pleasure (and "Should I pre-order either of them?" evidence pool). The EndWar trailer is the same one being trotted out at the Leipzig Games Convention 2008; the first look at EA's gangster sequel was shown to the press last week at the publisher's annual Studio Showcase. But you don't have to travel to Germany (or even the Bay Area) to watch 'em – just click through after the break.

Source – Godfather II at GameTrailers
Source – Tom Clancy's EndWar at GameTrailers

Just a little while ago, Take-Two announced that EA has agreed to sign a confidentiality agreement and review the object of its hostile financial affection's business plans for the next three years, turning this hostile takeover into something more ... amicable. Take-Two has also confirmed that it intends to let the clock run out on EA's $25.74 per share takeover offer, which expires today at midnight.

At face value, what this means is that EA still wants to buy Take-Two, and that the current offer still isn't reasonable to the Take-Two board. Meanwhile, the FTC will have finished its anti-trust probe on the issue this Thursday. Perhaps once EA gets a look under Take-Two's hood the two companies can come to a mutually agreed upon price to end this saga -- or some other publisher could come out of left field and scoop Take-Two up.

If you can't wait to get your hands on Warhammer Online, EA announced today that an open beta for the game will kick off Sept. 7, giving you a whole 11 days to play before the general populace sullies it on Sept. 18.

So, how do you get in? Just pre-order the game with one of EA's "select retail partners." (We don't know who they are yet, but even money says GameStop is one of them.) Also, those who are already in the closed beta will automagically be invited. So, are you getting in on the ground floor? Or have you been burned one too many times by start-up MMOs?

Listen, we don't care how this ends anymore. We don't care if EA buys Take-Two and forces them to manufacture toilet paper before shooting them into space. We worried about the potential harm to the industry like a hundred years ago, but now, we just want it to be over, so we never, ever have to write about it ever again. We got into this business to talk about potato chips that sort of look like Dr. Robotnik's head, stuff like that. This financial news makes our brains hurt.

Keeping that in mind, here's how we understand the latest missive from EA, with some help from the Silicon Alley Insider. The company says that it's actually going to let its most recent offer to purchase company shares at $25.74 a piece expire tonight at midnight, largely because it couldn't integrate Take-Two before the holiday season. But, Take-Two is offering to come and give EA a presentation that shows just how valuable it really is, if only EA can keep its trap shut about it.

So, that's the skinny. It sounds like it's sort of over and it's sort of not. Now, if someone could please fetch a napkin to catch the blood and brain goo seeping from our ear canal, we'd be forever in their debt.

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure combines a block-matching, DS puzzle game--think Panel de Pon/Planet Puzzle League--with a side-scrolling platformer. This puzzling mash-up keeps the blocks on the bottom screen, Hatsworth jumping up top, and you toggling between each to maintain progress. We recently played this stylish title, due at the beginning of 2009. With so many small things to get right, we're uncertain that the puzzle-platformer will work, but we're impressed by its potential.

Fans of J.K. Rowling's uber-successful series of wizardly novels received some heartbreaking news Friday -- the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been delayed from its initial release date of November 21, 2008 to a distant July 17, 2009. Electronic Arts has yet to announce how this major delay will affect the release window of their similarly titled video game adaptation of the film/book, though many gaming industry analysts, such as Signal Hill's Todd Greenwald, are predicting that EA will follow suit, with hopes that the film will whip up a Half-Blood frenzy that will boost sales of the game.

The repercussions of a Potter game delay could be bad for Electronic Arts, as both their holiday profits and fiscal 2009 revenue could take a hit without the title -- however, it could mean good news for those waiting on a truly stellar Harry Potter video game. Greenwald claims the title is "pretty much done and ready", meaning a delay would give EA an extra eight months to perfect the movie tie-in. We'll let you know what EA decides to do once they make an official statement.

Australians love the rock music just as much as the inhabitants of any other country, but did you know that they've yet to receive Harmonix's rock star simulator, Rock Band? According to an unidentified retail tipster on IGN, Aussies may remain Rock Band-less indefinitely -- it seems retailers are hesitant to transport and shelve the bulky bundles, especially since the title is nearly a year old. The same tipster also disclosed that Australian stores are much more likely to sell the cheaper and newer Guitar Hero: World Tour when it drops later this year.

It's great news for Activision, but EA may be in a heap of trouble Down Under -- further speculation from IGN's tipster states that for similar reasons, Rock Band 2 may skip over the sunburned country, making the Commonwealth of Australia a strictly Guitar Hero territory. It's regrettable that they might not have the faux-rocking opportunities afforded to the rest of the gaming world -- though we're certainly jealous that they may not have to suffer the Battle of the Band Simulators that has nearly torn the rest of the planet asunder.

[Via X3F]

As any respectable Don will tell you, serving as the CEO of a powerful crime syndicate is not an easy thing to do. You won't find any classes on racketeering at your local community college. Finding a reliable bulk supplier of fedoras and pinstripe suits is nigh-on impossible. Teaching your underlings the fine art of stallion decapitation requires amounts of patience and equine physiology that very few men possess.

Luckily, the upcoming sequel to EA's well-recieved adaptation of Coppola's magnum opus, The Godfather II, looks to be an in-depth survival guide on the nuances of mafia management -- perfect for that up-and-coming kingpin in your life. The above trailer shows some of the finer points of Donship, and gives a great look at some of the lovely locales we'll be viciously extorting come February. That little Cuban restaurant would look so charming with a prostitution ring in the back room, don't you agree?

Developer Black Box's nitro button must be worn down to a nub. The studio announced today that its upcoming Need for Speed sequel, Undercover, will ship this November, pulling up to the starting line well before the 2009 release previously mentioned by EA CEO John Riccitiello.

In development for every platform under the sun (yes, even mobile phones), Need for Speed Undercover will also sport what Black Box describes as "big-budget live-action sequences" starring Balls of Fury and Mission Impossible III actress, Maggie Q, as a federal agent who recruits drivers to take down a criminal syndicate. While recent Need for Speed racers have all but siphoned our tanks of what enthusiasm we once had for the series, those who care can look forward to race with Ms. Q in North America on November 18 and in Europe on November 21.

Casting players as a soldier of the Corleone Family, the original The Godfather from EA took the open-world formula of GTA and introduced some unique fist fighting and intimidation mechanics fitting of its namesake. It reviewed well enough, but its creator decided that, for the sequel, it would take a different approach: the Don's approach.

As we've previously reported, The Godfather II is indeed a blend of action and strategy gameplay. Taking some liberties with the plot of the famous film, Michael Corleone has appointed the player's character as a fill-in Don. It's in this role that they plot against other families – each with their own ambitions – in an effort to rule all of the rackets in Havana, Miami, and New York City.

Peter Moore is on a mission. In an interview with MCV, the EA Sports president is looking to poise his company as "the leading sports brand in the world." That's a rather ambitious claim, given the brand dominance of sports industry companies such as ESPN, Nike and his former employer Reebok.

Said Moore, "We need to globalize our business, provide even more opportunities for our customers to interact with us online, knock down the barriers to those who find the learning curve of our games too steep, and discover new areas in sports – and health and wellness – in which our brand can truly make a difference." In other words, Moore is looking to expand the demographic and potential audience of EA Sports titles to every human in existence. May we suggest Michael Phelps Pro S-wii-ming 2009 for the Nintendo Wii?

Goichi Suda has nothing but good things to say about EA Partners in the press release, praising the group for sharing Grasshopper's "commitment to quality and innovation," all the while respecting its "independence as a studio, which is very empowering." EA Games' Frank Gibeau is equally polite, saying, "It is an honor for EA to sign Grasshopper Manufacture and help bring their new franchise to gamers worldwide. Franchise, you say?

Of course, neither of them say anything about the actual game. Way to leave us hanging, guys!