The Sims, with their “Simlish” language, has always defined bizarre. Now, EA today announced that Depeche Mode has re-recorded “Suffer Well,” a popular track from their “Playing the Angel” album, in Simlish which will be made available through The Sims 2: Open for Business, the third expansion pack for the insanely popular simulation title.

Depeche Mode’s lead singer, David Grahan, had this to say: “Depeche Mode has always been open to new ways of sharing our music, but re-recording a Simlish-language version of ‘Suffer Well’ just sounded completely bizarre. Of course, that’s why couldn’t resist doing it.”

A video of the song, featuring footage of the band and gameplay from Open for Business, will be available on The Sims 2 website, as well as on the band’s website. The song, as stated before, is present in the Open for Business expansion pack which is now available. Also making musical appearances in the game are “Things Can Only Get Better” by Howard Jones, “Too Shy” by Kajagoogoo and “Synthesized” by Epoxies.

According to EA, Simlish was created by experimenting with fractured Ukrainian and Tagalog, the language of the Philippines, as well as Navajo, inspired by the code talkers of WWII. All that was an interesting read, but what is more interesting is that an EA executive feels that Simlish is an “emotion-filled language that defies translation.” It surely does, Mr. Schnur.

Quenching the thirst for massive-RPG experiences, Bethesda and 2K Games finally announced that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has gone gold and will be available in stores throughout North America and Europe starting March 20. Oblivion will be available for the PC and Xbox 360 in both regular and collector’s edition versions.

Rated “T” for Teen by ESRB, Oblivion is an open-ended single-player RPG, offering “unprecedented” graphics and freeform gameplay to shape the game world to their style of play.

Microsoft has released a mandatory software update for the Xbox 360, preparing it for “future system and title updates.”

Finally, an update for updates! Only Microsoft can do such a thing…

South Koreans have filed a lawsuit against NCSoft, charging the company for identity theft. Lawyers in the country have filed the lawsuit on behalf of over 230,000 victims, claiming damages of about $1,000 for each plaintiff whose identity was stolen.

The identity thefts took place over the past few months as underground syndicates stole victims’ Korean ID numbers in hacking attacks and used them to register fake accounts in Lineage. These accounts were then ‘farmed’ by low-paid workers in Chinese gaming sweatshops to generate ‘gold’ and other items which were then sold as real-world items for real-world cash.

NCSoft has denied responsibility for the thefts, saying that they registered the accounts in ‘good faith’.

GamersReports talks of a new law that might make the EA-NFL exclusivity deal void. Here’s a bit:

Now, pay attention, because this is a bit complicated. The current problems in the NFL between the league and the players association might make the EA/NFL contract void. This is because if the union decertifies, then anti-trust rules will apply. If this happens, then EA is out of luck. Antitrust laws would be in effect and the contract would be voided. (EA signed a deal with both the NFLPA and NFL so at the least, other companies could use the players, but not the actual team names. Not a big deal really, since we know who they would be referring to.)

However, this won’t be happening until 2008. So, you’ll have to put up with two more years of EA if you are into football games.

Can’t get enough of “atmospheric suspense-adventure” games? Got Game has shipped Scratches, the type of you game you really want, for the PC across North America. Set in and around Blackwood Manor, a lonely Victorian mansion “concealing a terrible secret,” the game has players solving a dark mystery.

You can get Scratches for $20.

Japanese site Aniplex is offering information on the Final Fantasy XII Limited Edition Soundtrack that will be hitting Japan on April 19. To retail for 3,900 yen, the soundtrack will feature 100 songs on 4 CDs, some of which will not be in the game itself.

An image of the set has been included, showing off the casing and the extras. The site also states that the music have been composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto instead of Final Fantasy veteran Nobuo Uematsu. Hitoshi’s credits include Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story.

Setting a new precedent of the number of question marks in a headline, TVG reports that it has “learnt from a close source” that development on Ubisoft’s Killing Day, a title shown at E3 2005 to showcase the PS3’s power, has been put on “indefinite hold” following an absence of information on the project.

Predictably, Ubisoft representatives were silent on the matter, but it can be expected that the company will showcase next-gen titles at this year’s E3, be it Killing Day or other projects.

Through a press release on its website, Cenega Publishing announced that it will publish UFO: Afterlight for the PC in Q1 2007. Third in the UFO series, Afterlight will improve on its predecessors in the gameplay department, as well as extend the current storyline of the series.

More details can be found in the press release.