Another Gaming Blog

Here it is, organisation fans – this year’s E3 schedule. The whole shindig will run from 11 July to 13 July, with Microsoft kicking off the conferences the evening before E3 will start a-proper, followed by Nintendo and then Sony the next morning. Other companies will then get their go, and all conferences are due to last one hour.

It seems like 13 July has either been left entirely spare for media types to sample the games on show, or spaces for that day just hasn’t been filled yet. It isn’t entirely clear, but the absence of conferences from the likes of SEGA and Square Enix can be explained by their recently self-hosted “Gamer Days”.

Hit the jump to see the timetable - and just remember that the times listed are for Americans. The timezone used was unspecified, so unfortunately I can't GMT-ize them for you.

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Bizarre Creations are taking their manic Geometry Wars series to the Wii and DS, it has been announced.

The Nintendo versions of the game will remain as colourful and as zap-tastic as the 360’s Retro Evolved (which will also be fully included in Galaxies) was, as well as introducing plenty of new modes.

A mission-based campaign mode is promised, where players “blast-off on quests across the galaxy”, taking on various waves of menacing shapes on “new and classic Battle Grids”. A multiplayer mode is also on the cards, with hot seat, co-op, simultaneous and versus modes to be included. Eager Geometry Wars enthusiasts who buy both versions of the game will also be able to unlock bonus content through the Wi-Fi.

As usual, the press release also takes a moment to say how the Wii and DS’ unique control capabilities will be fully taken advantage of. In other words, expect to control your ship by Wiimote movement for the Wii version, and stylus movement for the DS version.

Galaxies is likely to be released before the year is out, but that’s only a personal guesstimate.

Yay! Traveller’s Tales announced today that their excellent Lego Star Wars series will return for one last outing before Lego Batman gets underway.

Sub-titled The Complete Saga, the new game is set to span all six episodes of the sci-fi masterpiece (as explained by the wonderfully succinct tagline – “kick some bricks in one through six”). The game has been announced for the PS2, PS3, 360, Wii and DS, and is said to contain new characters, features and levels as well as some of those featured in the two previous games.

Traveller’s Tales also commented on each platform’s merits, and how the game would change to suit each of them. The 360 and PS3 versions will have online capabilities, allowing players instant drop-in play, and the Wii and DS versions will have suitably waggly and touchy control systems.

You can see the announcement-accompanying trailer after the jump. Enjoy!

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Thar be a big list ahoy this week, ye landlubbers. Arr, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is being released on almost every platform, and has unsurprisingly been met with poor to average reception when facing up against The Critics. Oh, and look at that, I slipped out of pirate speak. Nevermind. I guess the moral of the story here is - don't buy Pirates of the Caribbean as you won't want to stick with it for very long.

What you should be concentrating on is the excellent all-nonsense fun of Mario Strikers Charged Football (Wii) - an upgraded continuation of the GameCube's Mario Smash Football (no colour due to the GameCube being dead, consistency fans). Also definitely worth a punt this week is the finally released Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (PSP). It has the BBFC gubbins on it that prevented its release previously, and is another stellar foray into Solid Snake's world. I'd also recommend Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales (DS) - an interesting card-battle action-adventure with the second most adorable animals in the world of Final Fantasy (Moogles being first, obviously).

As a final note, PS3 owners with their old PS2 memory cards might find the release of the Official PlayStation 3 Memory Card Adaptor quite useful.

Hit the jump to see the full list of games that will be gracing us with their presence this week.

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