Release This: Rock Band, Mass Effect Helm Holiday Release Blitz

Gamasutra's regular round-up of worldwide video game releases, "Release This!", takes a look at every game title we know to be shipping to stores this week, in an exclusively compiled list. This week will see the release of many of this year's most anticipated titles, with Rock Band making its awaited debut in North America, while Mass Effect and Unreal Tournament III take on both the U.S. and the UK. Europe will additionally enjoy the release of Guitar Hero III, while Japan eagerly awaits a Nintendo DS remake of Enix's popular classic Dragon Quest IV. The following list covers all of the game software we know to be available -- across all platforms and regions -- for the week ending November 24th, 2007. Games Released in the United States:

The flood of high-profile new releases continues in the United States this week, with last week's Super Mario Galaxy and Assassin's Creed seeing new competition in titles like Rock Band and Mass Effect. Online retailer Amazon.com reports that the PlayStation 3 edition of Rock Band leads in current preorder sales among all of this week's upcoming titles, and the Xbox 360 version has proven to be so popular that Amazon's stock has been entirely sold out prior to the game's release. Third-party sellers are already marking up their prices in anticipation of a busy holiday season, throughout which Rock Band is expected to remain in short supply. Other awaited titles making their way to U.S. store shelves this week include Unreal Tournament III for the PC and Mario Party DS, which currently leads weekly cross-platform software sales in Japan. Final Fantasy fans will also find a lot to like this week, which will see the Nintendo DS release of the Final Fantasy XII spinoff Revenant Wings, while a new Final Fantasy XI expansion pack will be released across multiple platforms. Games Released in Europe:

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, and Need for Speed ProStreet are some of the more popular titles that will make their way to Europe this week after previously enjoying a successful North American launch. Amazon.co.uk reports that the Nintendo Wii release of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games ranks as the week's most-preordered title across all platforms, though Mario Party DS has earned a large number of presales as well. Games Released in Japan:

Japan's release schedule resumes its usual brisk pace this week, following several weeks of low activity. Few of this week's titles appear to be garnering as much prerelease attention as Dragon Quest IV: Michibikareshi Monotachi, however. The original 1990 Famicom release of Dragon Quest IV is fondly regarded by many in Japan, and regularly appears among the top ten responses whenever Japanese gamers are polled on their favorite games of all time by Famitsu or other publications. This week's Nintendo DS remake of Dragon Quest IV has remained one of this year's most highly anticipated Japanese titles since its initial announcement several months ago, and is expected to lead Nintendo DS software sales in the region for weeks to come.