t's Tuesday, and we all know what that means. It's game release day! Hooray! Yes, we've got the list of today's releases for you, but we'll be starting off with the rest of the day's news first, so here it comes.

The ESA Foundation raises $1.5 Million for charity

It's always nice when we can bring news like this. The ESA Foundation announced today that its 2005 Charity Game Pack raised over $1.5 million in proceeds, which will go to different child ren's charities across the United States. Doug Lowenstein, president of the ESA, was pleased to announce the fund-raiser's success saying, “ This represents a truly unprecedented effort by the video game industry, continuing and extending its commitment to helping America’s youth through the ESA Foundation.” As we mentioned in a previous edition of News Pop!, children's charities like Web Wise Kids, WAVE and PAX have benefited from the funds given by the ESA Foundation, but today's announcement truly shows the power of the programs the Foundation is running. The 2005 Charity Game Pack was a culmination of the work and efforts of various partners who donated services free of charge and/or waved associated monetary fees. The Pack was a multi-disc box which included three top-selling games for Playstation 2: ATV Offroad Fury 2 from Sony Computer Entertainment America; Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild from THQ; and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 from Electronic Arts. Suggested retail price was $19.95 USD and the Game Pack was sold at major retailers across the nation through the 2005 holiday season. In-kind contributions, which totaled approximately half a million dollars in services, were made by the following companies, listed in alphabetical order: American Honda Motor Co., Inc., Bombardier, Inc., CMB Design, Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A., Rainbow Studios and Shorewood Packaging.

Dell announces its first Quad Core XPS system

First Voodoo announced its new Omen Quad Core PC lineup, which is now available. Today, Dell announced its addition to the first batch of quad core PCs with its new Dell XPS 710, which can be built to order with the new Intel Core 2 QX6700 quad-core processor. The XPS 710’s performance enables customers to easily run next-generation multi-threaded games or multimedia applications, high-definition video, or simultaneously watch movies and stream music from the same PC. From what we've seen from demos utilizing quad core processors, like the one for Remedy's Alan Wake, we're really looking forward to the next generation of PC gaming. Thankfully, the XPS 710 will be able to expand as needed, as it has four memory slots, enough bays to fit four hard drives and two optical drives and seven expansion slots for for single or dual video cards and other expansions, like sound cards.

Dell also announced the release of its new 30-inch LCD monitor today. The Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC is said to feature a 92% colour gamut, which is near perfect colour spectrum, and also features up to 2560X1600 (otherwise known as WQXGA) resolution, 8ms typical response time (although that can be as high as 14ms from black to white), a height adjustable tilt and swivel capable stand, an integrated 9-in2 media card reader and four USB ports. The Dell Ultrasharp 3007WFP-HC is set to be an option for select XPS PCs later this quarter and its standalone price will start at $1,699 USD.

Capcom becomes a Rockstar

Rockstar Games announced that it has partnered with Capcom to release Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for Playstation 2 in Japan. Other than announcing the partnership and saying that the game will release in January 2007, not much else was said.

Today's game shipments and releases

Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Warlords for Mac began shipping today and is also already available online at www.aspyr.com for $29.99 USD.

Midway Games' Happy Feet for Playstation 2, GameCube, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance and PC – Prices vary by version – A Wii version will also be available on launch day.

Star Wars Galaxies: The Complete Adventures began shipping today – MSRP is $29.99 USD

EA's NFL Street 3 for Playstation 2 and PSP began shipping today and should be available on Thursday – Prices vary by version.

EA Replay for PSP began shipping today – MSRP is $19.99 USD

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