IGN learned that all developers have submitted their final code to Microsoft's Quality Assurance team, and the final stages of development - tweaking, polishing, bug-fixing, and optimizing -- has commenced. With an approval stamp from Microsoft's QA team, dev teams can wrap up their games, press gold discs, and begin the manufacturing process. Last, IGN has learned that many Xbox 360 games will ship to retail stores at least one week prior to launch. Meaning that many retailers will receive games 360 games Tuesday, November 15. Will they sell them early too? Several, but not all, publishers had indicated yes.

According to George Andreas from Rare in a discussion with ITMedia that right up until today, the beginning of the X05, all extra detailed work and polishing on Kameo has been finished. Rare will be displaying the final version of Kameo at X05.

The game runs in 720p, so the imagery is sharp and clean, and the action ran at about 25 FPS. We were assured that the frame rate would settle into a smooth solid 30 FPS in the final build. Although the slower frame rate could have affected the turn radius speed, I couldn't tell. But circling around, either left or right, took a lot longer than I wanted it to. The controls also felt a little sluggish, neither as smooth nor as fast as I had hoped for. Again, I'm not sure if this was because I played a preview build, the frame rate was a little slow, or that's just the game plays. We'll have to wait and see how the final builds turns out.

Perfect Dark Zero looks good and is certainly much improved over the sporadic leaks we've seen and those early, rather bleak, screenshots. But even the build we played didn't convince us that Perfect Dark is entirely ready. It looks like Rare will work until the last possible day to put all the finishing touches on it, and in the meantime, we can say it was fun while it lasted. I'm not ready to say it's the killer-app we were hoping it would be. Hopefully, we'll be able to play a near-final or final build in the next month, at which time I hope to have better, cheerier news.

Mass Effect (MGS-BioWare Corp.) Set 200 years in the future in an epic universe, Mass Effect places gamers in a vast galactic community in danger of being conquered by a legendary agent gone rogue. A spectacular new vision from legendary developers BioWare, Mass Effect challenges players to lead a squad of freedom fighters as they struggle against threatening armies to restore peace in the land. Mass Effect is the first in a trilogy of games with an overarching story, where the real conflict between organic beings and artificial intelligence comes to life in startling clarity.

As the first human Specter - sworn defenders of galactic peace - your mission is to halt the advancing armies of a legendary agent gone rogue. But as you lead your elite team across hostile alien worlds, you will discover the true threat is far greater than anyone imagined.

Key Features:

* Immersive RPG: Determine the fate of mankind as you lead an elite tactical strike force as an epic galaxy-wide conflict unfolds. "Mass Effect" will take the player into new depths of an action-roleplaying game, with choice-based gameplay.
* Rich and engaging storyline: While defending galactic peace and earning a position of respect for humanity in the community, gamers will discover that a greater conflict between organic life and artificial intelligence exists. Players' decisions and actions will serve to shape the destiny of all life in the galaxy as you become absorbed in the story that is "Mass Effect," the first game in an epic trilogy from BioWare. They will become the center of an engrossing story as they battle against alien life forms to save the galaxy from threatening armies.
* Player controls the ultimate fate of the galaxy: The player's decisions and actions will serve to shape the destiny of all life in the galaxy, while raising humanity to the pinnacle of galactic civilization via noble means or via tyranny.
* Real-time squad based combat: "Mass Effect" employs a real-time, squad based, tactical combat system. Players will be immersed in intense, challenging and exciting combat.
* Explore uncharted worlds: In addition to the main story arc of the game, players will be able to visit a large number of uncharted, unexplored planets which are not directly tied to the main story. At any time during the campaign, a player can choose to explore one of these planets in an all-terrain rover in order to discover new alien life, resources, ruined civilizations and powerful technologies.
* Digital actors: "Mass Effect" features a huge cast of in-engine digital actors that you will encounter as NPCs, enemies or as party members. Each will have life-like facial and body movements, and an advanced dialogue system will give them engaging personalities.
* Character customization: Players will be able to choose from a variety of stunning, photo-realistic character appearances at the start of the game, and throughout the game can increase various statistics which will have an impact on their performance during gameplay. Equipment, weapons and armor that are acquired during the course of the story will change the appearance of the characters.
* Next-generation gaming defined: "Mass Effect" takes advantage of Xbox 360's hardware providing gamers with exciting new experiences, including photo-realistic, high definition graphics on an epic scale. As the future of gaming goes online, Xbox360 live features, including premium downloadable content and recognition of achievement will be available via the Xbox Live service.