Written by John Scalzo  on November 01, 2005

Specials: The month that was at Gaming Target. Think of it as a cheap (FREE!) magazine of all October's gaming stuff.

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October has always been a good month in the video game world. This October has been no different as a ton of new information has been revealed on a lot of anticipated titles and a flood of new releases is proof positive that the Christmas buying rush has begun.

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Nick took a tour down memory lane as the Xbox will soon be no more. Start humming the theme to "The Wonder Years" and try not to get teary-eyed from reading Best of the Xbox: A Retrospective (2001-2005) in three easily digestible parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Going further down memory lane brings us to the fifth birthday bash of the PlayStation 2. The history of the console is covered in the appropriately named It CameЕ It SawЕ It Kicked AssЕ And Still Does: Part 1 and Part 2. After that the PS2's fascination with the weird and the wonderful was explored in Carving a New Niche. The birthday celebration ended with a look at the top ten of everything PS2 related including Heroes and Villains and Babes and Bad Games

If you'd rather look to the future, Glenn expounds on the future of downloadable content in Remixing the Xbox Live Arcade. Of course, we know your heart really belongs in the past (and carefully dug out of your chest with a BFG), so Kyle bit the bullet and schlepped to the theater for Doom: The Movie. The horror...

The Month That Was
The month started with Microsoft's European odyssey in Amsterdam, X05. And what did this big event bring about in Xbox 360 news. Not a whole lot actually. BioWare announcd their new one, Mass Effect. And with a little digging, a pseudo-official Xbox 360 launch lineup was uncovered.

Meanwhile, the portables almost showed up Microsoft's big festival of love with a few announcments of their own. The GTA series is finally getting multiplayer as Rockstar revealed the first batch of multiplayer modes in GTA: Liberty City Stories. There was even bigger news on the future of the DS as Nintendo held a quiet little press conference in Japan where they revealed new info on a veritable ton of games including Mario Basketball, a Tingle RPG, Children of Mana and the new Pokemon titles. This was followed up by details on the American launch of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. They followed that up by unveiling their plan to put free wireless DS access in over 6000 McDonald's restaurants nationwide. More DS news would leak out over the course of the month including a Mario Kart DS bundle, a release date for Electroplankton and the addition of handwriting recognition software to the DS. Closing out the month was the revelation that Rockstar is hard at work on another PSP GTA game.

Moving away from portables and on to the big screen, Steven Spielberg has signed a deal with EA to create three original games. All three games are going to come to next generation consoles and the first game is already well into production. Let's just hope that next year's Jaws adapatation doesn't sully Senor Spielbergo's good name in the video game business. Of course, it does help that he has nothing to do with that one.

In other Hollywood news, Destroy All Humans will get televisionized by King of the Hill producer Jim "Don't Call Me Bill" Dauterive.

Namco talked Pac-Man for a little while and it looks like the little yellow circle is going go-karting and will finally speak for the first time. And he's going to be British! A British Pac-Man, I can't get over this. Maybe I wouldn't feel so weird about it if Namco wasn't making up movies credits for the guy they picked.

Let's see, what else. Oh, THQ delays Saint's Row and The Outfit. No one is surprised. Also, Blizzard has given World of Warcraft the expansion OK. It should be out soon. Even fewer people are surprised.

Finally, Jack Thompson is up to his old idiotic, ridiculous and possibly illegal antics again. I've decided to sit out this episode of The Jacks of Life, so all of those links will take you outside Gaming Target. However, I'm not above getting a little dirty in the grassroots and telling CNN we don't want BanMan on their channel anymore.

A Few Good Reviews
Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
Virtua Tennis: World Tour (PSP)
Madden NFL 06 (PSP)
More Reviews...

A Few Good Previews
Okami (PS2)
Top Spin 2 (Xbox 360)
Black (PS2)
More Previews...

Next month...
Golden Girls Season Three is coming to DVD.

Oh, and we'll see the release of Dragon Quest VIII, The Movies, Gun, Mario Kart DS, Need For Speed Most Wanted, King Kong and something called the Xbox 360.