On the eve of its debut, the Metal Gear Online US public beta has gone AWOL. More accurately, Konami has announced that the beta has been delayed due to "extraordinary levels of traffic from all around the globe" causing service problems.

Konami did not give a new starting date for the beta, only to say that more information will be coming tomorrow, April 22. The end date, however, has been pushed back from May 5 to May 11. (Update: fixed date.) For those who need a fix desperately can peep the online manual for the game, including a listing of the 16 skills you can choose from to enhance your stealth killer.

Update: Konami has set a tentative start date and time: 04/25/2008 24:00 (PDT) -- more here!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Haze's hazy path to becoming an actual, released game became a little more concrete today, with Ubisoft's announcement of a May PSN demo and yet another new release date for the somewhat issue-prone first-person shooter. Surprisingly enough, the new May 20 date is actually three days earlier than the previously "definite" May 23 release (though that may have applied to Europe only). It might not seem like much, but after more delays than we can count (not literally), any move in the other direction is a welcome announcement. Will this release date be the final one? As the Magic 8-Ball might say: "Outlook hazy, try again later."

BioWare's community coordinator, Chris Priestly, has announced via the official Mass Effect forum that the PC version of the interstellar RPG has experienced a slight delay. Originally scheduled for release on May 6th, Mass Effect's retooled conversion will now arrive on May 28th in North America and June 6th in Europe.

Reasons given for the extra development time include the incorporation of further play-testing feedback, the tuning of additional features and, of course, the ever-popular application of "extra polish." Trust us, PC gamers, the wait will be worth it. You'll forget all about these extra few weeks once you're having a gas with our old pal, Saren.

[Thanks, Matt]

Update: From the moderator: "I do not know when the blackout will end ... When we hear anything from Remedy or Microsoft regarding any kind of new information, we will post it loud and clear. There are no tricks up our sleeves at the moment." Original post is still below.

When was the last time you heard anything concrete about Alan Wake? (Aside from when it announced that it wasn't canceled, of course.) Other than a confirmed 2008 release window, the last details we got from the game look to be from September 2006.

That's what makes this posting from the official Alan Wake forums, from "Super Moderator" Morry, so tantalizing. Responding to a thread aptly titled "Still no updates, its 2008 for crying out loud" (sic), Morry said, "Patience. The media 'blackout' won't continue for too much longer."

We're hoping that's not a relative phrasing of "too much longer," as it's been almost 19 months since the last scrap of information.

[Via X3F]

Eurogamer reports that Atari's technically impressive horror, Alone in the Dark, will be missing its previously planned May release, instead creeping out of its dingy corner the following month. The Xbox 360, PC, Wii and PS2 versions are now scheduled to arrive in the US on June 24th, with Europe getting them a tad earlier on June 20th. The PlayStation 3 edition suffers no such delay, but that's one of the benefits of having a nebulous, "sometime in 2008" release date.

Atari and developer Eden are reportedly utilizing the extra time to further polish the game, no doubt to match the shine emitted by one of Atari's new heads, Phil Harrison.

Forget what Ubisoft announced yesterday about Haze clearing for a May 22 release; now the game's release is back to the full month of May. It's become so convoluted that we can't keep Haze's release date saga straight anymore, but at least there are firm answers about the game's PS3 exclusivity ... oh, wait.

We're starting to wonder if the marketing department at Ubisoft isn't on its own form of Nectar (the psychotropic drug in Haze). It really shouldn't be this hard to craft a message on one game's release date and exclusivity.

Mac gamers can finally play a new demo for Return to Dark Castle, the game that keeps crying wolf about delaying its release date. The delays have gone on for so long that Mac gamers might see this as their personal Duke Nukem Forever. Teases picked up again a month ago, and the game's website uses caps and italics to stress that it'll release "very, VERY soon."

Even if the game never ships, the just-released demo is worth a quick play. It feels almost identical to its Mac gaming canon ancestors, with the same sharp controls. The old sound effects we remember from 1986 and 1987 are back. And while we would have lightly updated some of the basics -- like rats that disappear after being hit with a rock -- the unchanged action holds up surprisingly well.

Look, Return to Dark Castle, stop being such a tease. Even after all these years, your demo makes us miss you again. Come back very VERY soon.

Today Ubisoft gave PS3 "exclusive" Haze a release window of May according to IGN. This takes the previous release window of Ubisoft's fiscal year '09 (starting in April) and cuts it down just a bit.

Haze has certainly lived up to its name between questions of PS3 exclusivity and its ever-floating release date. Not to rain on the Nectar parade, but this would be the second time Haze was given a fairly firm release date. With any luck Haze will make its release date this time and add to the PS3's "breakthrough" year.

Players eager to harness their inner mesothorax in Atlus' recently announced Drone Tactics for the Nintendo DS will have to keep their antenna and compound eyes in check, as the game has been pushed back from its previously announced March 25 release. The turn-based strategy game, which promises to give players "a deeply customizable army of mechanized insects," is now expected to land and pollinate Nintendo's handheld on April 8. We'd be upset, but honestly this gives us another two weeks to come up with new ways to shoehorn entomology terms into posts while we wait. Excited yet?

Before Electronic Arts lays down its third quarter earnings in a couple days, Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey believes it "likely" that Spore will move from the guidance EA gave of a March/April release to the second half of '08. This also is corroborated by reports earlier this month when Spore was announced for simultaneous release on Mac and PC.

But what's another Spore delay at this point? We were a bit surprised (and skeptical) when Will Wright said Spore was six months from release last October. Maybe Hickey is totally wrong and Wright will pull a six-legged exoskeletoned gelatinopod from his hat?

In the gaming world, a good rule of thumb is that when a game is delayed once, chances are it could be delayed again. See as examples recently announced "follow-up" delays for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Haze and Age of Conan, to name but a few. Now, after being delayed once to a Feb. 8 target, it seems EA's Mercenaries 2: World in Flames might be looking at a secondary push back to an August release date.

While EA hasn't said anything official yet, the circumstantial evidence is mounting. Exhibit A: A Eurogamer article citing an EA spokesperson as saying we'll see nothing of the game "within the next few months." Exhibit 2: An Aug. 25 release date for the game as listed on Amazon and Gamestop's web sites. Exhibit D: A decided lack of advertising, hype, or review code for a major game that's supposedly roughly two weeks from release.

The verdict? It seems pretty damning, but it's all still inconclusive until we hear something official from EA. We're following up with them and will let you know what we hear.

The name chosen for developer Free Radical's oft-delayed FPS Haze has become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. While we were almost ready to get excited for the game to make its retail debut sometime before April, publisher Ubisoft broke news (and gamers' hearts) today by once more pushing the game out until an unspecified time during the coming 2008-09 fiscal year (read: after April).

The game's release date has become something of a running gag in certain circles, with Haze originally expected for the holidays before being brushed aside for what we were told was a final bit of spit polish. It would seem, however, from this latest news that Haze was in fact more sullied than previously believed. If there is one ray of sunshine to cast on this gloom it's that the delay has caused Ubisoft to raise its guidance for coming fiscal year to €1 billion (or nearly $1.5 billion in Earth currency) up from the €975 million previously forecast – though we're doubtful that Ubi's financial wherewithal will comfort those of you who have been told once again to wait your turn.

[Update: THQ got in touch with Firing Squad and confirmed that the PS3 release is not canceled, but is simply delayed. The Xbox 360 and PC versions are still targeted for February while the PS3 release is scheduled for "later in 2008." Original post below.]

Far be it from us to insinuate that the presence or absence of a game in a retailer's inventory database is proof of anything (short of the internet's collective ability to misinterpret anything) but rumors have arisen surrounding the absence of the already delayed Frontlines: Fuel of War for PS3 from some retailer's listings. Kaos Studios' forums are ground zero, where one staffer didn't help things by refusing to address the status of the PS3 version while assuring readers that "the Xbox 360 version is great!"

Since the rumor broke over the weekend, forum administrator Mitch pleaded with folks to give them some time to address it officially. We're unsure if the developer is also off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day today, which would explain the continued absence of an official response. We've contacted publisher THQ for a comment.

In other news, reader KingOfGods let us know the PC multiplayer beta is now open to all at FilePlanet so it's not all (potentially) bad news, right?



[Via PS3 Fanboy]

The age of Conan will begin eight weeks late. Funcom has announced that its visceral MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, originally due at the end of March, has a new release date of May 20. The company cites further polish as the reason for the delay, but we suspect they just wanted to keep up with a never-ending trend of "final" delays for the award-winning title that had an impressive showing at E3 ... 2006.

The new release date could put the game against another highly-anticipated MMO, Electronic Arts' Warhammer Online, although our sister site Massively points out there are rumblings of a fall 2008 delay for Warhammer. Check out our impressions of Age of Conan from this month's Consumer Electronics Show.

[Via Massively]

Nintendo of America just sent word that the US version of Smash Bros. Brawl is getting another delay, albeit much shorter than the last one. Instead of February 10, Brawl is now expected to come out one month later on March 9. The reason, according to Nintendo, is that "development is taking slightly longer than expected." The official US Smash Bros site has already been updated to reflect the change, as well as include a brief note of apology.

The Japanese SSBB site also notes that Brawl is delayed one week in the region, from January 24 to 31. Europe's release date is still TBA 2008.