Fall may be a traditionally pre-holiday slump for video game releases, but there’s still plenty of good stuff on the near horizon. Here’s what’s coming out.

Spore is coming out September 7, and is already available for pre-loading on the online store. Another EA title, Mercenaries 2, lands today and is already on store shelves.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky was supposed to come out on the fifth, but is currently being recalled. Apparently all of the boxes accidently went out without CD keys. So, will the digital copy on Steam be pushed back as well? I guess we’ll see.

Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise comes out Sept. 2nd, for those who who care abound that sort of thing. I mean, I don’t personally, but I’m not begrudging those of you who do.

A little further down the road, Dead Space made headlines by having its release date moved up instead of back. The console versions arrive on Oct. 24th with the PC version a week later.

Looking even further into the mists of time, Left 4 Dead had its release date pushed back from Nov. 4 to Nov. 20, deep into the holiday season. Besides being the tenth anniversary of the release of Valve’s original Half-Life, it also avoids competition with Gears of War 2 being released Nov. 7. Hey, it’s Valve. If you don’t expect delays, you obviously don’t know them.

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