Polyphony Digital has officially announced that a Gran Turimo 5 demo will become available on the PlayStation Store on December 17th. Check out the video below for information on the upcoming International Gran Turismo Academy competition which will take qualifications from the Gran Turismo 5 demo.

Consumers and developers alike have been talking about the variety of issues that have plagued Microsoft's Xbox 360 console since launch. The infamous Red Ring of Death was something that millions of consumers have had to deal with over the past few years. Although these issues are well-known, the exact failure rates are still unknown, and numbers range anywhere between 33-84%.

G4TV's very own Morgan Webb is no exception to the rule. Apparently she purchased a new Xbox 360 Elite recently and it has already given up on her. Morgan Webb posted the following on her Twitter account earlier today:

Yup. Say goodbye to my second xbox. Awesome. http://yfrog.com/1ydiejj

Only minutes later she posted the following:

Its a fairly new elite too. I know it's broken cause it makes a horrible noise when it tries to play any disk.

It's hard to believe that an issue that has not only been around for years, but has also been declared as "fixed" by the new Jasper chip which became available this year on all Elite consoles is still prevalent. While Microsoft has been under scrutiny for their decision to release their current console platform early at the expense of the consumer, it is hard to defend their position.

Only 2 years ago when the title Mass Effect was released for the Xbox 360, not only was it well-received but it was contender for Game of the Year. Mass Effect followed the footsteps of previous Bioware titles with a strong story mixed with only the deepest character customization in the videogame industry. Its rich mixture of gameplay and RPG elements made it one of the best RPGs on PC when it was released for PC only months later.

For today only, Direct2Drive is selling Mass Effect for the PC for an unbelievable price of only $5. Direct2Drive allows you to purchase a wide variety of games and immediately download them from the site with a valid CD-Key. The download instruction also include instructions on how to download the "Bring Down the Sky" expansion DLC.

Today is the national deals day event titled Cyber Monday, which is similar to Black Friday but usually only applies to online deals. Look out for more deals that become available throughout the day.

This week has been a great week for gamers and entertainment fans alike with the unbelievable deals of hardware, games and accessories. Only yesterday it was revealed that BestBuy, GameStop and other large retailers were going to provide the PlayStation 3 Slim 120GB model with 2 games or more for the standard price of $299. As expected, sales of the exclusive Black Friday bundles have been staggering as consumers across the country rush to get their hands on Sony’s next-generation platform.

The exclusive PlayStation 3 Black Friday bundles have officially sold out nationwide. Amazon, BestBuy, GameStop and Walmart are all reporting a total sellout both online and in-store as well. It only took roughly 8 hours for the bundles to sell out, and while a few remote retailers might still have a few bundles available, the future looks grim for anyone who is interested in picking up a bundle and hasn’t already.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 console has managed to sell record numbers worldwide since the official Slim announcement back in August this year. With the PlayStation 3 Slim once again on the top of the hot seller list of Amazon.com, this holiday season is already looking to be an outstanding success for Sony.