One of the more substantial pieces of news from Microsoft's X10 megaton clusterbomb: A release date for Remedy's psychological thriller Alan Wake has been announced. The game's seemingly endless development cycle will finally terminate on May 18, when the game lands in US retail outlets. Our friends overseas won't have to wait much longer than that to get their Wake on -- it's being released in Europe on May 21.

In addition, X10 brought word of the game's attractive pre-order bonuses, which include "exclusive content such as avatar gear, an Xbox LIVE theme, and a 'making of' video." We're not sure we want to deck out our Xbox 360's background with shadowy monsters. We're big fans of our current, non-terrifying theme.