This week's The MMO Report from G4tv! In this episode, Casey covers the trailer for the upcoming EVE Online expansion Apocrypha, the story that Sony released four years of EverQuest 2 server logs to the scientific community for research purposes, and the fact that someone who won an Oscar last week plays World of Warcraft. See? We CAN contibute more to society than new and interesting smells! So start twitching that right finger, warm up your battle laser, and lay waste to your alien nemisis. Nemisi? Nemisises? This is...

NCsoft's sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa finally reaches its planned shut-down date today. But the development team at NCSoft Austin seems to be taking the opportunity to create something almost unheard of in video game story: a final, absolute ending to the narrative in which the good guys ultimately die. According to an in-character message posted on the game's official site, the world of Tabula Rasa (which apparently dropped its Richard Garriott's prefix in the wake of the designer's departure following his return from outer space), will become overrun by an unstoppable tide of alien enemies, with humanity's only response being mutually assured destruction.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King has been nominated for yet another award -- this time, Wrath has received a nod for Best Game of the Year by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Videogame awards. UK residents can vote for the game right now over on their site, and a nice set of prizes, including a big TV, a Playstation 3, and copies of all ten nominated games going to one lucky voter. Voting is closed on March 9th, and the winners should be announced soon after that.

Higher Learning is one of the most peaceful achievements in the game (all you have to do are read a few books that spawn around Dalaran), but it's no less desirable for that -- the achievement grants a miniature Arcane Elemental pet that looks awesome. Teniblue over on WoW Ladies has a few good tips if you're trying to get all edumacated in Dalaran -- she's got links to two addons (including the perfectly-named Dalaran University) to use to help you track spawn times, and she's got a link to Breanni's great guide over on WarcraftPets.com (which our own Allison R. touched on briefly in a recent OverAchiever post).

The official World of Warcraft community site has added a couple more galleries of the cool Wrath of the Lich King mounts for those of you who love a little eye candy now and then. You might recall that they posted a gallery of the Hog/Chopper mounts last week or so, and this week they've continued that trend with a gallery for Flying Carpets and a gallery for Proto-Drakes.

A group of alien races called the Covenant is wiping out human bases and colonies across the galaxy. You and a few fellow soldiers are all that's left of a devastated colony-world called Halo. Built for combat, trained for war, you'll do the only thing you can -- wage guerilla war on the Covenant and help other humans escape!

Incredible graphics bring the alien world of Halo to life, as you explore it and unravel its many mysteries

Control your Character during massive firefights as you eliminate as many Covenant soldiers as possible

Use your tactics skills to command squads and eliminate the enemy as you engage in guerilla warfare, using whatever weapons you can find

Incredible all-new multiplayer maps for up to 16 people, with brand new armaments you've never seen before

Create Your Universe from Microscopic to Macrocosmic - From tide pool amoebas to thriving civilizations to intergalactic starships, everything is in your hands.

Evolve Your Creature through Five Phases - It's survival of the funnest as your choices reverberate through generations and ultimately decide the fate of your civilization.

Explore Other Players' Galaxies - Will your creature rule the universe, or will your beloved planet be blasted to smithereens by a superior alien race?

Share with the World - Everything you make is shared with other players and vice versa, providing tons of cool creatures to meet and new places to visit.

Dual Guitar Shredding: Guitar Hero II™ takes the guitar rock experience to new volumes by allowing players to play 3 different guitar tracks: Rhythm, Bass, and Lead .

Follow up to an Award Winning Soundtrack : Guitar Hero II™ follows up on the award winning soundtrack of Guitar Hero™ with over 55 new tracks.

New Modes: Guitar Hero II™ introduces all new multiplayer modes like: cooperative, pro-face off, and face off, letting 2 Guitar Heroes conduct their own symphonies of destruction.

Shred School: Guitar Hero II™ features an all new practice mode, allowing Guitar Zeroes to become Guitar Heroes with enough practice.

Play as Miley or her best friend Lilly

Collect clues and combine items in order to uncover 3 original mysteries with unique adventures

Uncover hidden clues using helpful gadgets

Talk with your favorite characters from the show using an interactive branching dialogue and gesture system to make your choices

Ride the streets of Malibu with Lilly on her skateboard, rollerblades or scooter in time-based challenges

It looks like you will have to wait just a little bit longer for the first Sins of a Solar Empire "micro-expansion" to be released. Originally the plan was to release the $9.99 download, Entrenchment, by the end of 2008, and then it got pushed back to Feb. 11.