June 14 - June 18

Section: 

E3 week is historically a wasteland for new games, at least those focused on traditional gamers, and this year is no exception to that rule. Whether you are among the crowd that can not look away from the alluring siren songs emanating from the left coast, or you pride yourself on being monumentally disaffected by the ridiculous machinations of the endless hype machine, this week is about E3 and E3 alone for the games makers.

It is at least worth noting, though I don't really list direct download titles in The Week Ahead, that Magic the Gathering, Duels of the Planeswalkers hits Steam, and if I were going to pick a game of the week, this would probably be it. Without the burdensome nonsense of deck creation and the constant need for costly booster packs, Duels is the common man's Magic.

Other than that, it's going to be a long and glorious week of trailers, previews and saturated gaming news. I hate to admit it, but I love it!

PC
- Toy Story 3: The Video Game

Xbox 360
- Naval Assault: The Killing Tide
- Toy Story 3: The Video Game

PS3
- Toy Story 3: The Video Game

Wii
- Dance On Broadway
- Kid Adventures: Sky Captain
- Let's Play Ballerina
- Let's Play Garden
- Toy Story 3: The Video Game

DS
- 100 Classic Books
- I Spy Universe
- Legend of Kay
- Let's Play Ballerina
- Let's Play Flight Attendant
- Let's Play Garden
- Toy Story 3: The Video Game
- Yard Sale Hidden Treasures: Sunnyville

PSP
- Toy Story 3: The Video Game

Coming Soon -
- Crackdown 2 : July 6
- Starcraft 2 : July 27
- Mafia 2 (PC, 360, PS3) : August 24
- Metroid Other M : August 31

Comments

I used to play Magic back around fourth edition. I miss deck-building. On the other hand, I don't miss paying for booster packs. DotP is a decent tradeoff.

I have a friend who owns something like 6000 cards. He has tons of big long boxes full of them and he lets me go through them to find cards that I want to trade.

Last time, I had a hard time finding 20 good cards for my black deck. There's just so much crap in Magic sets (not counting the lands), I really can't understand how I could buy boosters upon boosters of that stuff back in the day. I can't believe it never occurred to me that buying only the cards I needed as singles would have saved me hundreds of dollars.

On the other hand it's true that it's fun to open a pack

You mean you're not nominating Let's Play Ballerina as GOTW?

For shame.

Duels is my game of the week. I played a game of Magic maybe 13 years ago, so it's all fresh to me. A CCG without the collecting, and with visual feedback to I can tell what is going on, seems made for me.

Dude. 100 classic books? For 20 bucks, that actually sounds pretty neat. My only concern would be how small the text might be on those little screens. If it were DSiWare I'd be all over it.

Elysium wrote:

100 Classic Books

Product Description wrote:

A hundred classic tales of adventure, mystery, romance, and suspense, all in the palm of your hand! The system that already plays your favorite games now holds your favorite books!

Reading novels on a 3-inch screen? I'd love to!
[/sarcasm]

interstate78 wrote:

On the other hand it's true that it's fun to open a pack :P

I think they put some chemical in the ink that is released when you open the packs.

Amoebic wrote:

Dude. 100 classic books? For 20 bucks, that actually sounds pretty neat. My only concern would be how small the text might be on those little screens. If it were DSiWare I'd be all over it.

Ditto. And even with the small screen concerns, it's about time we see this sort of release on the handheld gaming devices.

Duels is a blast on the 360, im sure it translates perfectly.

edosan wrote:
interstate78 wrote:

On the other hand it's true that it's fun to open a pack :P

I think they put some chemical in the ink that is released when you open the packs.

There's definitely a certain smell to brand-new Magic cards. Maybe that has something to do with it.

Cocaine?

The NBA finals is going to be going on next door at the Staples Center, guys. Plan for traffic accordingly. The game tip off is at 6pm and the convention floor hours end at 6pm.

Also, there was a bit of mayhem when the Lakers won the finals last year. Boston is ahead 3-2 and if they win the championship tonight, I'd expect some poor sports to do worse tonight.

You guys might want to stay indoors tonight or at least be inside before 8-9pm.