It's that time of the week once again for GameStop's weekly deals. This week GameStop is offering price drops on Viva Pinata: Party Animals, Clive Barker's Jericho and Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure. Also this week is the announcement of the Wii Sweepstakes, a chance for you to win a Wii. Details in the full article.

Year 2007 is almost done, and Microsoft has expressed its brimming pride with how things went in the past 11 months. Powerhouse shooters like Halo 3, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, BioShock and The Orange Box have flexed the genre's muscles wider than ever, while Madden NFL 08,Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, Mass Effect and more have provided additional firepower. If you own an Xbox 360 and missed out on some of these, the holidays could be a nice time to get them.

Microsoft Game Studios and Krome Studios have announced that the Xbox 360 title Viva Piñata: Party Animals will be arriving in European stores on November 16. The game hits North American retail today.

Unlike Rare Ltd.'s Viva Piñata, this game is based on the Saturday morning animated series. It also introduces several new characters, including the trendsetting Hailey Horstachio and the quiet but deadly Petunia Pretztail.

Viva Piñata: Party Animals features over 40 mini-games and a dozen footraces to compete in and earn achievements. Players can also go on Xbox Live or play with up to three others in local multiplayer.

Game designer Justin Cook and software engineer James Thomas expressed their thoughts about Rare and the Viva Piñata franchise in a recent interview. According to them, they wanted to blaze a new trail on the Xbox 360, and Viva Piñata was the fruit of that desire. Despite the risk of the game being overshadowed by Gears of War, Rare went ahead and did the best job they could, and it shows.

Thomas and Cook also mentioned that a DS version of Viva Piñata is due for release sometime in the future. Both men were particularly pleased with the DS version, and they mentioned that the modified game menu systems fit well with the stylus and the touch screen system. The result? Added accuracy and flexibility to an already wonderful game.

A sequel entitled Viva Piñata: Party Animals is also scheduled for release on October 30, 2007. Rare has passed the development torch to Krome for this installment, as the former is busy with a new hush-hush project. There appears to be a good working relationship between the two developers; Cook and Thomas said that both Rare and Krome are pretty much on the same team. In fact, Krome has been sending courtesy test versions of the sequel to Rare as a professional courtesy, and from what they've seen, both Cook and Thomas think that Krome has done a pretty good job so far.

One question that's probably on everyone's minds is: Can and will Rare revisit old favorites like Killer Instinct, in spite of the fact that Rare is now Microsoft-owned? That is certainly a possibility, as Rare Ltd. is still on good terms with Nintendo. While Nintendo has the option of releasing certain old titles for their Wii's Virtual Console, Cook and Thomas stated that certain titles remain entirely theirs (Banjo-Kazooie, for instance). In fact, Nintendo has actually asked them to do ports of games for Nintendo's format, a testament to the quality of Rare's titles.

To read up on the rest of the Rare interview, feel free to visit the read link below.

The achievements list for Microsoft and Krome Studios' Viva Pinata: Party Animals on the Xbox 360 has just been released. While some of it looks like it can be unlocked by playing through the game once, others seem to be much more difficult to attain and will probably require hours of playing.

The exact amount of achievement points for each one haven't been disclosed yet. Hopefully they won't be giving a mere 20 points per achievement since goals like Get to Know Everyone (which is only unlocked when a player finishes the game with all eight characters) seems like a really daunting task. Here are all the achievements as well as what you'll need to get it:

• Whirlm Streak: Win 3 Challenge Events in a row.
• Kittyfloss Streak: Win 5 Challenge Events in a row.
• Chewnicorn Streak: Win 8 Challenge Events in a row.
• Hi-yaaaa!: Destroy 10 objects in a single race while playing as Petunia Pretztail.
• King Roario Award: Win all Challenge Events and races in a single game.
• Int'l Piñata of Mystery: Use each power-up at least once in a single game.
• Coulda Been a Contender: Win 1 race.
• Get to Know Everyone: Finish the game in any place with each of the 8 characters.
• Girl Power: As a female character, finish a game while never losing to a male character.
• Boy Band:As a male character, finish a game while never losing to a female character.
• Rashberry Gluttony: Collect more than 1,000 pieces of candy while playing as Fergy Fudgehog.
• Popularity Contest: Complete a game with all 4 characters playing as Hudson Horstachio.
• Think Fast!: Never get hit in an entire contest by a Fiesta Missile while playing as Paulie Pretztail.
• No Wipeouts: Never fall down in a single race while playing as Franklin Fizzlybear.
• Mama's Boy: Lose to Fergy Fudgehog while playing as Francine Fudgehog.
• Bear Hug: Never use a power-up on Franklin Fizzlybear while playing as Florence Fizzlybear.
• Scene Stealer" Beat Hudson Horstachio while playing as Hailey Horstachio.
• Classic Gamer Reward: Enter the classic gamers code while on the START screen. For a hint, go right into your manual%u2026
• Keep Your Friends Close: Complete a multiplayer game offline.
• Pacifist: Win a race without using a Fiesta Missile, Colored Water Bomb, or Smoke Bomb.
• Scenic Route: Win a race without using any shortcuts.
• Artful Dodger: Avoid the snowball in Snow-bowl Dodgeball.

The rest of the achievements can be found in the full article!

Another batch of video game rumors are included in this month's issue of EGM. This batch of Quartermann rumors is a pretty mixed bunch, so we're just going to list 'em up for easier reading.

• No more Bioshock for PS3? - Quartermann says that apparently, the game's success has led to Microsoft acquiring rights to keep Rapture on the Xbox 360. The content in the planned PS3 version may show up as DLC on Xbox Live or as part of a special Game of the Year edition.
• After Warhawk comes... Jet Moto? - Sony is rumored to be looking at bringing Jet Moto to next generation consoles. Will the game get a full-fledged update? A PSP remake? A PSN release? No word on that yet.
• Viva Pinata: Party Animals for Wii? - This Xbox 360 original is already heading to the DS, and Quartermann believes that a Wii version of the party game collection Viva Pinata: Party Animals couldn't be that far off.

Well, there you go guys. Please keep in mind that these are all just rumors. We'll bring you updates as soon as more details - either confirmations or debunkings - come out.

Do you need a break from Call of Duty 4 multiplayer beta or BioShock? Too much gore can't be healthy for you, so here's something you can try out just for the wholesome goodness.

Major Nelson has announced that a demo for Krome Studios' Viva Pinata: Party Animals has gone live on... well, Xbox Live. So what's new with the insanely colorful animals? Well, they're going against each other in more than forty party games plus about a dozen races. According to the Major, up to four players can go head to head in the demo, either over Live or just your living room.

Anyway, the Viva Pinata: Party Animals demo weighs in at 971.17MB and is available everywhere (read: all regions). Enjoy!