Star Wars: Force Unleashed dated

LucasArts has slapped a fresh release date on its in-house Star Wars action blockbuster, The Force Unleashed. The game will be unleashed on September 19th in Europe, just a couple of days after it appears on the 16th in the US, and the 17th in Australia and South East Asia.

Yes, we know that's technically not simultaneous, but there wasn't enough space in the subhead for a "Near-", and anyway, it's good enough for us.

The Force Unleashed was originally, if tentatively, mooted for a November 2007 launch. Looks like former labelmate Mercenaries 2 won't be the only delayed actioner to be shouldering its way onto the shelves in September.

If you live in the US, you may also care that the game will be featured heavily on Spike TV this month, alongside a run of all six Star Wars cinematographs.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed puts players in the sinister black leather boots of Darth Vader's secret apprentice, and is set in the era between the abysmal Revenge of the Sith (please don't tell Ellie I said that, she'll kick me under the table) and the magnificent A New Hope.

It's the first current-generation game to come out of LucasArts' revamped internal studios, and features some pretty exciting new technologies: the Euphoria animation engine (also used to make you walk like a drunk in GTA IV), and Digital Molecular Matter, a material physics system that blew us away when we saw it back in 2006.

Joining the internally-developed 360/PS3 game will be a version for Wii, PS2 and PSP by Krome Studios, and a DS game by n-Space. All will be based on the same storyline.

Not content with leaving no console format untouched, LucasArts is putting a blockbuster-movie-sized promotional push behind the game, with a full line of Hasbro toys and action figures, and no less than four book publishing partners. Make no mistake, Mr Lucas is betting the farm on this one.

Speaking of Skywalker Ranch, have a look at the recent Eurogamer TV special for a look around, and more on the game.