It's that time of the week again: time for GameStop to dish out their deal of the week. This week's offerings will expire this coming October 11 so you have a few days to sit on it. Halo 3 is no longer part of the GameStop offers this week but times moves on and new games come in every week.

This week, pre-ordering The Orange Box will save you US$ 5 from the original price (US$ 59.99 for the Xbox 360, US$ 49.99 for the PC and US$ 59.99 for the PS3). The game bundle will be available on October 10 for the 360 and the PC, and on December 12 for the PS3. You can also get 20% trade-in credit when you trade any game for reserving a copy of Super Mario Galaxy.

It doesn't need any help, but The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass sales could be boosted with GameStop offering a free Art Cell of Link upon the purchase of the game and a new DS. US$ 20 have also been knocked off from Major League Baseball 2K7 (US$ 39.99 for the Xbox 360, US$ 29.99 for the PS3) and Stranglehold for the Xbox 360 (US$ 59.99).

2k Sports second annual Hit-n-Run Tour for Major League Baseball 2k7 will be arriving to your college campus for a video game batting showdown pitting your school's best virtual bat hurlers for a chance to win a trophy and prizes. Starting April 9, the public will be invited to compete in the Home Run Derby mode of Major League Baseball 2k7 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

Coming from the Take Two Interactive's official press release, all participants will be receiving a gift bag loaded with select 2k Sports games, 2k Sports soundtrack CDs, ISO50-designed t-shirts, limited edition Rawling baseball mitts, retro style baseball jerseys, and a whole lot more.

While waiting for your turn to swing at the home mound, you can listen to the antics and arrangements to be brought to you by Shade 45's DJ Statik Selektah.

And because Major League Baseball 2k7 is redefining the the musical repertoire of sports games today, following the tourney will be XL Records' Tapes 'n Tapes to deliver rocking alternative tunes to your campus grounds. Starting April 16, The band hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota will be performing select songs from their album, including MLB 2k7-featured "Insistor," to present the new face of MLB 2k7 to the musically inclined public.

Take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd... And while everyone's singing cheers of going to the baseball match, here we have Albert Pujols who's taking it all the way home. All the way to home base that is. He's stepping up to the plate and showing you how the pros do it in this GameTrailers video from Major League Baseball 2K7 (for the PS3, 360, PSP, Xbox, and PS2): Swing for the Fences, Pujols!

In fact, if you watch the vid straight through to the end, you'd see a hilarious clip when the pitcher gets irritated and suddenly throws the ball directly at Pujols. Haha. Someone's a sore loser.

Download: Major League Baseball 2K7 "Swing for the Fences" gameplay vid

IGN reports that 2K Sports has pushed Major League Baseball 2K7 out of the dugout and up to bat as of right now. That's the PS3, Xbox 360, and PSP, as well as pre-gen PS2 and Xbox, available in stores. turns out that little hint that MLB 2K7 would bat earlier than expected came true, after all.

And only what, a day or two after the Xbox 360 demo hit Xbox Live? 2K must be interested in hitting one out of the park. That depends, of course, on whether they've got enough juice in 2K7. MLB 2K6 is generally regarded as passable, but certainly not Babe Ruth territory (hard numbers: 66% for the 360 version and 69% for the PSP, according to Metacritic - are we being too kind?).

Only time, reviews, how many times people have played and liked the demo, and sales will tell if 2K's managed to ramp this game up to a "well-worth buying" rating.

Buy: [Major League Baseball 2K7 (PS3)]
Buy: [Major League Baseball 2K7 (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Major League Baseball 2K7 (PSP)]

Well, it looks like GameStop and EB Games got it right again. A few days back, we reported that the game retailers have changed the ship date of Major League Baseball 2K7 (PSP, PS3, Xbox 360) to February 27. Well, baseball fans should be happy because 2K Sports had just revealed that the game has gone gold and that it is ready for its February 27 release date.

Aside from that piece of tidbit, they also took the wraps off the game's soundtrack. Tim Rosa, 2K Sports' Director of Brand and Lifestyle Marketing said that "producing this soundtrack was like making a mix tape for a friend, especially considering the profile of the artists and the quality of the songs." So with that, check out the track listing for MLB 2K7.

• 311 "Down"
• Bishop Allen "Middle Management"
• Cities in Dust "Emergency"
• Death From Above 1979 "Little Girl"
• Dixie Witch "Set the Speed"
• Editors "Munich"
• Five Horse Johnson "I Can't Shake It"
• Greatdayforup "Man’s Ruin"
• Les Savy Fav "Hold On To Your Genre"
• Nerf Herder "High Five Anxiety"
• Nirvana "Breed"
• Sublime "Summertime"
• Tapes 'n Tapes "Insistor"
• The Jealous Sound "Naïve"
• The M's "Plan Of The Man"
• The Pixies "Mr. Grieves”"
• The Specials "A Message to you Rudy"
• The Stooges "I Feel Alright"
• The Thermals "A Passing Feeling"
• The Walkmen "The Rat"
• Wolfmother "Woman"
  

Major League Baseball 2K7 by 2K Games will hit the shelves on March 5. Since that's just a couple of weeks away, we'll focus on another feature - the Franchise Mode. Many players were turned off by this feature on the previous games, as games from 2K seem to have the ever present cluttered menus. This has been improved to something easier, the menu interface now resembles windows. The menu is divided into four - covering nearly all the information a manager needs.

On the upper right hand corner sits the Buzz Box. This provides you with the league news including contract negotiations, MVP running, and team expectations. This window can be an indicator whether your team is doing well (or not) for that season. The windows on the bottom list team statistics and players can customize what info you want to be shown: team standings, hot and cold hitters or league stats leaders.

Budget can also be shown, as a basic economic system is a new feature. It's essential to have a successful team to be a financial success in the ticket booths. The team owner (read: your boss) will determine the initial team budget, but it's up to the team's success whether the owner will increase the budget for the next year.

Team owners skim off the top of all the revenues so, there really is a need to fill up the stands. And that would depend on your seat pricing, besides - who'd want to watch a losing team? Trade Finder option has been given a makeover for easier use. All you need to do to trade is select three players you want to trade or acquire. This has been added to the Contracts, Free Agents and Call-Up/Send Down for easier accessibility.

Here's few gameplay videos while we wait for the game's release.

 

See the rest of the videos after the jump!

Buy: [Major League Baseball 2K7 (PS3)]
Buy: [Major League Baseball 2K7 (Xbox 360)]

In our previous reports, we mentioned that the 2K game Major League Baseball 2K7 (Xbox 360, PS3, PSP) is set to come out on March 5. Now, it seems that EB Games and GameStop knows something we don't. They recently changed the expected ship date of the game to February 26 - a week earlier if you don't wanna do the math.

Anyhow, if this is proven to be true, then this would now match up with the PS2 and PSP release of the SCEA game, MLB 07: The Show. And if this is the case, they are in for a serious competition. Maybe they're taking advantage of the fact that MLB 2K7 is the only baseball title hitting the Xbox 360. Too many baseball titles, so little time and money.

This is of course not the first time that the retailer confused us or gave us an idea about a game's release date. But then again, they were right about the whole Saint's Row coming to the PS3 issue. Anyway, feel free to check out the link below to see the release dates for yourself.

One of the latest musings of whomever is in charge of updating the Major League Baseball 2K7 blog in 1UP is about the expected demo for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game. That, and he (whoever he may be) now has the time to golf, but as that's another game entirely, we'll let that slide.

The exact words Kush Games (the MLB devs) used were "putting the finishing touches on our PS3 and Xbox 360 demos so they can be submitted to Sony and Microsoft." He tells readers to stay tuned to the coming days and weeks for more info on the demo, though he did say that some details can be found in a message board that, er, "leaked" (he didn't say which message board, though). We're thinking, give it a month, the demo will be ready. Hopefully sooner.

Also, he's mentioned that Kush is now doing pre-production on MLB 2K8, which entails much brainstorming. Much brainstorming. The press release for the new and improved features well see next year is a long ways coming. Anyway, we've got an upcoming demo to tide over the time.

Do you know your favorite baseball players? How about their signature moves?

Player tendencies and general quirks have been included in the game (we're talking about around 150 major players here). Major League Baseball 2K7 by Kush Games and 2K Sports also features true fielding (as shown in trailer 2), dynamic throwing system, franchise finance, and 2K Sports online play. This is just a few winks away as it hits the North American shelves on March 5.

Just how realistic do you think this gets? Click the link below and watch the video to find out.

Download: [MLB 2K7 Trailer 3]
Buy: [Major League Baseball 2K7 (PS3)]
Buy: [Major League Baseball 2K7 (Xbox 360)]

After bringing you a primer from Ben Brinkman on the high-def audio and video you can expect in Major League Baseball 2K7 (PS3, Xbox360), we're back to give you even more details on the game's realistic sounds and graphics.

This time around, we have Joel Simmons, 2K Sports' Audio Director for MLB, to talk about the processes that the sound team went through to bring realism even in sound. According to Joel, their primary focus is to give insanely specific audio details especially in the commentary and announcers, crowd chants, etc.

Art Director George Simmons (no idea if the two are related) also jumps on board to talk about the detailed graphics they worked on in MLB 2K7 including the 750 scans, body scaling, and even the angles of how the players wear their hats. But don't take our word for it, get it straight from the directors themselves by watching the vid below. Major League Baseball 2K7 is prepped for release March 5th this year.