If you were at all worried about the recent confusion surrounding the Rock Band release rest assured that a firm street date has now been set. This November 23rd Rock Band will be shipping for the PS3 and XBox360 consoles with a PS2 version following December 10th.

The MTV Multiplayer blog is also reporting that the next-gen versions have been set to retail for $169.99 while the PS2 version will be $159.99. If you've missed previous announcements both PlayStation versions will sport a wireless guitar while the 360 version will be tethered (a separate wireless guitar is rumored to be in the works for future release.)

FYI: November 23rd is the day after Thanksgiving and is also known as "Black Friday." If you're dying to get your hands on Rock Band be ready to brave one of the busiest shopping days in the US.

If you've pre-ordered Harmonx's upcoming rythm party game Rock Band you may have gotten an email from Amazon this morning announcing that the game is getting pushed back to 2008.

Well - it's not.

Joystiq is reporting (and this comes straight to them from Harmonix) that the game is still slated for release in November. Harmonix followed up the assertion with the following:

We have asked Amazon to address this and we'll be coming out November of this year. We've requested they update their information. We have no idea where that date came from.

My guess is that if you got one of these delay notifications you should probably be getting an appropriate retraction sometime soon. In the meantime you can ignore the "August 11, 2008" listing on the Amazon product page.

For those wondering the XBox360 listing shows November 20, 2007.

LucasArts has been teasing Star Wars fans and Wii owners with the promise of a Wii-mote lightsaber mashup for sometime now. As a Star Wars fan AND a Wii owner I've been more than taken by the idea.

Previously LucasArts had hinted that the first Wii-mote lightsaber pairing wouldn't come until after the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed game - but no more.

Yesterday LucasArts confirmed that Star Wars: FU ... wait ... Star Wars: tFU would be hitting the Wii and utilizing the Wii-mote and nunchuck to pair lightsaber work with force powers.

"Wii is a great platform for The Force Unleashed, because the console's motion-oriented controllers really bring the game to life," said Jim Ward, President of LucasArts. "We've worked hard to make the Wii version of the game unique in order to truly let you unleash the Force."

Bits Bytes Pixels and Sprites spotted an interesting new figure in this month's Toyfare magazine. The figurine is none other than Altair from the upcoming Ubisoft title Assassin's Creed. While relatively little is known about the game right now it's interesting to note how much the character of Altair, at least in this figurine, looks like Orlando Bloom.

Don't believe us? Check the side by side below.

Up until now most screenshots from the game have featured Altair but have done relatively little to expose his face. As Bites Bytes Pixels and Sprites points out this is our first real glimpse at the character.

So - what do you think? Is this or isn't this Altair Bloom?

Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion remains THE RPG to own on the XBox 360 console. Despite promising titles like Blue Dragon and Two Worlds coming more than a year after it's release there is no comparable RPG experience on the 360!

Until now most of the expansion content has been limited to the XBox Live Marketplace which is both disappointing and annoying. I don't know about anyone else but I tend to avoid downloadable content thanks mostly to the fact that many of the best offerings (including Mehrune's Razor) eventually became free anyway.

The good news for anyone who's been waiting to grab Shivering Isles for the 360 is that it'll be getting a retail release in the near future. Bethesda has announced that Shivering Isles will be hitting retail, packaged with the new Knights of the Nine expansion, in October 2007. Along with the 30 hours of gameplay included in Shivering Isles Knights of the Nine will introduce more story based content concerning the Ayelid ruins throughout the game. It will also feature a new faction as well as new armor and Achievements.

If you're an Elder Scrolls fan be ready to spend a lot of time getting back into the game in the next few months.