Weekly Recap Aug. 22nd: PS3 Slim, Xbox 360 Price-Cut, Diablo 3 Releases 2011

An absolutely huge week for gaming news and media starting on August 16th and leading up to August 22nd. We kick things off with a few reviews, including one of Shadow Complex. Release dates have been set in place for Diablo 3 and M.A.G, amongst many others this week. Microsoft also announced Fable 3 during this year’s GamesCom event and the real news-piling, eye-peeling buzz of the week came from Sony’s camp and the revelation of the PS3 Slim and a new price-cut for the standard PlayStation 3. Not to be one-upped, Microsoft also let loose some information about Xbox 360 price-cuts.

With GamesCom this week we have a ton of new trailers available throughout this edition of the Weekly Recap. These stories and more in the Blend Games Weekly Recap for August 22nd.

Sunday

Pokemon HeartGold And SoulSilver Announced For DS. And yet another Pokemon game is on the way. Nice. There has to be like thousands of those little Pokemon critters available for capture by now.

Review: Real Heroes Firefighter. Rich Knight of Blend Games puts out an honest review for this semi-realistic Wii game.

Serious Sam HD: Epic New Trailer. It’s not overly epic but it’s epic enough.

M.A.G. Release Date Revealed; Sony Avoids Holiday Season. No competition with Halo or Call of Duty for this new shooting game IP.

Xbox 360 Elite Price Drop To $299. And the price-wars begins…again.

Monday

Bethesda Says Five Fallout 3 DLC Episodes Is Enough. This means no more additional content for Fallout 3 and Bethesda should be thanked by gamers for doing so.

Wii Now Supporting Full Movie Playback Via SD Kit. Watching DVDs on a Wii is now a possibility.

Aion Goes Gold And Gets Ready To Topple World of Warcraft. NCSoft announced that the most highly anticipated MMO of the year has finally gone gold.

BioWare Explains Why Dragon Age Was Delayed. It includes taking on a whole bunch of triple-A RPGs at once and trying to make sure each one doesn’t suck. But that’s just a guess.

No Subscription For APB. These are the words many MMO gamers have probably been waiting for. The only problem is that Realtime Worlds doesn’t say how gamers will be paying for All Points Bulletin.

Review: Shadow Complex. Ryan Rigney from Blend Games reviews the highly talked about side-scrolling, 3D platform game. Find out how he scored the game.

Tuesday

Fable 2 Episodes Coming To Xbox Live. New content to prolong gamers until Fable 3 hits store shelves. Not a bad plan.

Why PS3 Slim Doesn’t Have Backwards Compatibility. And why gamers will still need to either re-buy PS2 games or a new PS2. More money for Sony, either way.

Gran Turismo PSP Free With Registration. Buy a PSPGo and get Gran Turismo for absolutely free. Wow.

PS3 Slim Announced And PS3 Price-Cut Finally Announced. It’s more like a pseudo price-cut but more hardware for less money is never a bad thing.

PSP Muscles Into Kindle’s Turf With Digital Reader. More ways to store data for gamers on the go is definitely a step in the right direction for the PSP.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Release Dates Revealed. How long will you have to wait to get it on in Bad Company 2? Not long at all.

JoWood Announces Yoga For Wii; Hardcore Gamers Celebrate. It’s all about butt-twisting, thigh-numbing fun. Who needs an FPS game when you have Yoga?

Wednesday

Infinity Ward Says Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer Beta Is Possible. Thank goodness. For a minute one might think that this game wasn’t going to be over-promoted.

Saboteur Trailer Causes Havoc In Paris. It’s an awesome new trailer for one of the most innovative new games to come out.

Dead To Rights Retribution Standoff Trailer Turns Into Gears of War. When Namco said they were taking the game in a new direction, no one would have suspected that they meant Gears of War.

Uncharted 2 Among Thieves Stunning New Trailer. And “stunning” just might be an understatement.

Army Of Two 40th Day Trailer Offers No Escape. There is only no escape for the bad guys.

Left 4 Dead On PS3 Isn’t Needed Now That Dead Nation Is Coming. Some gamers agree while others disagree. It’s completely up to the gamer whether they think it’s cool or not.

Dark Void Release Dates Revealed. Capcom finally puts a final date and day to this sci-fi shooter.

Napoleon Total War Announced; First Screenshots Released. The toughest little man in history gets his own game.

Rumor: 250GB PS3 Slim To Be Announced.

Fable 3 Announcement And Trailer. The third (and hopefully) final game in the Fable series.

Thursday

Failoc-alypse Flash Game IS A StarCraft, Diablo, WoW Mash-Up. It’s like all your favorite Blizzard games rolled into one giant cluster-game.

Crysis 2 Website Launches With New Videos And Images. Everyone said Crysis 2 wasn’t coming to game consoles, but now the website just further rubs that in the faces of naysayers by showing that it is coming to consoles.

Batman: Arkham Asylum Shows History Of Amadeus Arkham. This is one cool trailer for one sick doctor.

CDV Kicks Crappy Economy In The Nuts With Sacred 2. Some people just know how to get what they want.

Final Fantasy XIII Is Simultaneous Xbox 360 And PS3 Release. No more fanboy-debates about when these two titles will drop for either console, because it’s going to be the same time.

2029 Online In-Game Instant Messenger To Rival MSN Messenger. Pretty big news for this MMO as it may change the entire face of how gamers communicate within MMOs.

R.U.S.E. Beta Accepting Applications. And there s no trickery in this announcement whatsoever.

Friday

Diablo III Monk Class Introduced With Trailers And Screenshots. Everyone has been geeked about the new classes in Diablo III and now it’s time to take a look at one of them.

Splinter Cell Conviction Vs. Uncharted 2: Round 1 – Multiplayer Versatility. Gamers may complain about comparisons but that doesn’t mean they aren’t fun to participate in, nonetheless.

Bungie Says Halo Reach Has Been In Development Since Halo 3’s Release. At least we all know that the game won’t be shovelware.

Smackdown Vs Raw 2010 Debut Trailer Features Randy Orton Vs John Cena. Summerslam comes early for SD Vs. Raw fans. The trailer isn’t bad but it looks an awful lot like SD Vs Raw 2009.

Mafia II Demonstrates The Art Of Persuasion. 2K Games gives gamers a glimpse into persuading some unfriendly foes with some equally unfriendly methods.

Battlefield 1943 PC Version Delayed To 2010. The wait is long but not as long as Diablo III’s 2011 release.

Avatar: The Game Official Trailer. James Cameron’s Avatar game trailer finally surfaces. Is it worth the hype? Check it out for yourself.

Saturday

ToeJam And Earl Coming To Xbox Live. Now gamers can pay to play something that’s over a decade old and free on emulation.

StarCract II Marketplace Sells User Maps. Because making a profit is making a profit, even if it’s some lousy user-generated maps.

Full Details On The New Goblin And Worgen Races Coming To WoW. It’s like a man-nerd’s fantasy dream come true.

StarCraft II Beta Will Begin In 2009. Blizzard finally starts delivering the goods for StarCraft fans.

Diablo 3 Coming In 2011 Or Later; World of Warcraft Cataclysm Due Next Year. Good and bad news all wrapped up in one nice little news package to round out the week.

That wraps up this edition of the Blend Games Weekly Recap. You can check out the official debut trailer for Guild Wars 2 below. Enjoy. And remember to stay tuned in with Blend Games for further news, insight and media regarding all things gaming.

Will Usher

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.