Welcome to the latest edition of the VGB Week In Review from Sunday July 8th to Saturday July 14th.
As everyone should know, last week was one of our busiest weeks ever! Or at least, since last year’s E3. From July 11th to July 13th was the brand new E3 2007 Media & Business Summit which took place in Santa Monica, California (USA). We of course had all the games covered and we’ll continue to cover what was at the show in the weeks ahead.
Due to the glut of updates in this period throughout all of last week, I have decided not to include in the VGB Week in Review specific game previews that were shown at E3 2007. Those you will all find in our E3 2007 page! So check there to see everything we posted about all the new games at E3 2007. Despite that, there was still PLENTY of news to cover for last week, both before, during and after E3. Including the winner of our latest VGB Competition who won himself a copy of Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition!
So click on “More” below for easy access to all of the stories we did during the last week. Have a great day!
SUNDAY – JULY 8TH
* We posted our Brain Age 2 review, which is known as More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain? in the UK and Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day elsewhere.
* We posted the Top 5 Game Sales worldwide per system for the last week.
MONDAY – JULY 9TH
* The Xbox 360 version of Virtua Fighter 5 gets an online mode for the both the American and European versions! This is a big-deal as it marks the online debut of the popular Sega Virtua Fighting series!
* Sierra announces three new Xbox 360 Live Arcade games: Battlestar Galactica, Switchball, and Commanders: Attack!
* Sony announces that they are bringing coverage of E3 home to Playstation 3 owners via the Playstation Network. The E3 Media & Business Summit ran from July 11th to July 13th.
* Three new games hit the Wii Virtual Console. They are: Mach Rider (NES), Yoshi (NES) and Air Zonk (TurboGrafx-16).
* Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy and founder of Mistwalker Studios (the Japanese developer behind the huge upcoming Xbox 360 RPGs Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey) announces in an interview that he has a brand new game in the works. It is 50% MMO and 50% RPG and is not Blue Dragon 2 or Cry On, which means it’s an all new title. Unfortunately nothing more of this new game was learned at E3, so we’ll just have to wait and see for more on the game.
* Steven Spielberg reveals two of his three games that are in the works. First title for the Wii (a puzzle game) later gets announced during E3 as a title by the name of “Blocks“.
* Sony drops a pre-E3 bomb (that would later fizzle out) when they reveal a PS3 price drop from $499 while revealing a new 80GB PS3 that will ship with their big-seller Motorstorm.
* Namco cancels Beautiful Katamari for the PS3, while announcing that they will instead be bringing it to the Wii! This is in addition to the game coming to the Xbox 360.
* We post the newest US video game releases for the week.
* Sega announces it’s planned E3 2007 line-up of games.
* Paint by DS is announced for the Nintendo DS. A brand new art/drawing/painting game!
* Motorcycles are confirmed for inclusion in Project Gotham Racing 4 for the Xbox 360.
TUESDAY – JULY 10TH – Day of the Microsoft E3 Press Conference!
* Square Enix reveals their upcoming E3 2007 line-up and announces Front Mission DS.
* A guy plays World of Warcraft on his iPhone.
* Tetris makes it’s appearance in the popular animated series Family Guy.
* The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – Game of the Year Edition is announced by Bethesda and 2K Games for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
* We announce the winner of our VGB Contest to win Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition! Congratulations to Zoot Suit Jedi! Please feel free to let us know what game you’d like to win in our next competition!
* Nintendo announces Sheeta Puzzle for the Nintendo DS.
* Atlus reveals four new games for the Wii and the DS. They are: Trauma Center: New Blood (Wii), Touch Detective 2 1/2 (DS), Ontamarama (DS) and Draglade.
* We posted some E3 rumor videos by GameTrailers.
* Konami reveals it’s E3 2007 line-up of games.
* Microsoft announces that they are releasing the long-awaited Xbox 360 Instant Messenger Keyboard in September.
* Ubisoft announces War World for the Xbox 360 Live Arcade.
* First in-depth look at Soul Calibur IV!
* Microsoft has their E3 2007 Press Conference! Read our article for all the details on games and services that were revealed and announced at the show.
WEDNESDAY – JULY 11TH – 1st Day of E3 2007
* Video montage from the E3 2007 Microsoft press conference. Lots of titles shown.
* Xbox 360 Live Arcade video montage. Tons of games shown.
* Xbox 360 Live Arcade gets Sonic the Hedgehog and Golden Axe, while a bunch of E3 content also hits the Xbox 360 Marketplace.
* Nintendo has their E3 2007 Press Conference! Read our summary article to see what was revealed and the wacky new peripheral from Shigeru Miyamoto.
* See the Wii Zapper for yourself in this video from Nintendo’s E3 2007 Press Conference, as well as the games that will support it.
* Sony has their E3 2007 Press Conference. Read the article to see all the newest titles hitting the Playstation 3 and what Sony has in store for their newest system (and a portable update!).
THURSDAY – JULY 12TH – Second day of E3 2007
* Video shows how the Wii Zapper will work with Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles.
* Paper Mario (N64) and Air Zonk (TG-16) hit the Wii Virtual Console in PAL territories!
FRIDAY – JULY 13TH – The last day of E3 2007!
* Disney Interactive announces that they have acquired Warren Spector’s (of Deus Ex, Thief: Deadly Shadows and System Shock fame) Junction Point Studios as well as announce that they are bringing the DGamer social network to all their DS and PC Disney games in the United States.
* Sony announces the 60GB PS3 “Starter Pack” for Europe and Australia.
* A price cut for the Xbox 360 is hinted at for 2007 in the US by Shane Kim in an interview.
* Last week for the Playstation Network in the US and Europe . . . All the updates that hit the Playstation Network during the E3 rush.
* Microsoft updates the Xbox 360 compatibility list with 60 new titles, for a total of over 300.
* Video shows the Super Mario Galaxy “co-op” gameplay in action.
* The 1-Up crew discusses E3 2007 in these videos.
SATURDAY – JULY 14TH
* Assassin’s Creed direct-feed video of the Microsoft E3 2007 Press Conference demonstration.