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.

Major Nelson's buzzing in to say that there are Major League Baseball 2K7 media packs if you want them on Marketplace. Now, depends, really, on whether you're a fan of the following teams:

Name: Major League Baseball 2K7 Picture Pack

Price: 60 Points

Availability: Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

Dash Details: Download this picture pack.

Name: Major League Baseball 2K7 -- AL West Picture Pack

Price: 100 Points

Availability: Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

Dash Details: Major League Baseball 2K7 -- AL West Picture Pack (Los Angeles Angels, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers)

Name: Major League Baseball 2K7 Theme

Price: 150 Points

Availability: Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

Dash Details: Download this theme

Name: Major League Baseball 2K7 -- San Francisco Giants Theme

Price: 150 Points

Availability: Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

Dash Details: Major League Baseball 2K7 -- San Francisco Giants Theme

Name: Major League Baseball 2K7 -- Oakland Athletics Theme

Price: 150 Points

Availability: Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

Dash Details: Major League Baseball 2K7 -- Oakland Athletics Theme

Of course, it's such nice timing to release these packs in the middle of March Madness. Nice timing, we tell you.

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)]

For the Xbox 360 owners who think they have the hard disk space to spare, we announce the presence of two free demos up for grabs on Xbox Live Marketplace. The first title is Major League Baseball 2K7, which should give the fans a teaser of how 2k Sports' title will feel come its February 27 release.

Next up is a long-awaited Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 multiplayer demo, giving players a chance to try out the game's Outpost map "with 16 players, new game modes, and a coop mission. Experience 8 new MP maps and a 6 mission campaign," according to its dashboard description. The game rappels to retail this March 9. The GRAW2 demo is available to Gold members in all Xbox Live regions, while the MLB 2K7 demo is available to Gold members in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. only.

Buy: [Major League Baseball 2K7]
Buy: [Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2]

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.

First for the bad news, or good news, depending on how you look at it. 2K Sport's Ben Brinkman is letting the Wii hopefuls know that they will not be getting Major League Baseball 2K7 for this year - look out for a 2008 release.

Ben explained that 2K had decided to hold back on the Wii release because of the Wiimote - they needed more time to make the most out of its innovative controls system (uh-oh, get those helmets ready, boys).

Moving on, Ben did provide some more interesting tidbits of info for their upcoming title, such as player characteristics. As Brinkman explained, while the devs worked overtime to ensure that the characters were spot-on with the real-life counterparts, gamers were still allowed to alter them as they wish, be it the accessories they wore, or the way they carried their mitts.

Brinkman then followed up with some extra tidbits for two other features: franchise and game achievements. For Franchise mode, Ben said the game can carry up to four players.

As for the Xbox 360 version of this title, Ben was unable to spill anything in terms of the game's Achievements list, although he hints that there are 33 of them just waiting to be found. Still feeling anxious? Wait it out just a bit longer, as the game demo makes ready for its release...