wal-mart posts

Duke Nukem Forever fans will be able to get their hands on some pre-order bonsues if they put down their money early for the upcoming and long awaited first person shooter. Developer Gearbox Software announced that GameStop and Wal-Mart stores will offer different pre-order bonuses for people who buy the game before its release on May 3.

GameStop pre-orders game some extra downloadable content for the game including a EGO boost, a t-shirt pack and (our favorite) a 'Big Head" mode. Wal-Mart pre-order buyers of the game will be able to get a real world Duke Nukem Forever trucker-style cap to wear proudly while they shop at their local store.

Square Enix has now confirmed that the US release date for Dungeon Siege III will be on May 31, a few days after the next game in the fantasy action-RPG series shows up on European shores on May 27. More importantly, a number of retailers have announced their own pre-order incentives for putting your money down early to get the game from developer Obsidian Entertainment.

Perhaps the coolest pre-order incentive is if you get the game via the Steam download service. Those folks will get free single player versions of both previous Dungeon Siege games (developed by Gas Powered Games) for free. Pre-orders at GameStop get two exclusive in-game items (Burning Band of Scorch and Talisman of the Grand Mage) while Amazon.com pre-orders get the Bite of the Arakun in game item and Best Buy pre-orders get the Sacred Heart of the Legion in-game item. Wal-Mart pre-orders will get a mini-strategy guide for the game along with a Dungeon Siege mini-comic produced by Dark Horse Comics.

We've already reported on GameStop's and Amazon's special pre-order offers for the upcoming MMO Star Trek Online but today Atari revealed all of the retailers who will be offering their own pre-orders specialsfor the next game from developer Cryptic Studios.

The other retailers and download sites participating in the pre-order program include Best Buy, Walmart, Target, Direct2Drive and Steam. Each retailer offers up their own unique pre-order special and all of them give their customers access to the game's upcoming Open Beta event and the Early Start event which lets players get online three days before the official February 1 launch. You can check out all of the retailer's pre-order specials after the jump.

[Via email press release]

A few weeks ago we reported on rumors that Champions Online would begin its open beta on August 17. Soon after that a team member from the game's developer Cryptic Studios posted up this message on their official forums, "These dates are by no means finalized, and are working dates that are most likely going to change." Well, Cryptic has officially announced when the open beta for their super hero MMO will actually begin . . . . and shocker of shockers, it happens to be . . . August 17.

Wow. Sometimes rumors can be true.

In any case, Cryptic also announced which retailers will be selling some pre-order bonuses for the game. Each retailer will get some unique pre-order items so make sure you order your game from the store or web site that you want to support. You can check out the pre-order plans after the jump: