A Gamer’s Week: Aug 5

The Softpedia reviews this week are for The Secret World, the MMO from Funcom and Electronic Arts that asks the player to join a secret society and explore a supernatural assault on real-world locations, and for Orcs Must Die 2, the quick sequel that delivers more traps, more levels and bigger monster attack challenges.

When it comes to Gamer Diaries we have a whole new one for the Gods & Kings expansion for Civilization V, which focuses on playing as the Mayans, and another one linked to Pro Cycling Manager 2012.

The Weekend Reading features for the week include one article about the Uplay security debacle and unnecessary software and another about Skyrim and Dawnguard.

We also have our customary EndWeekGame segment, where at least one of us goes back in gaming time, and a solid selection of the news from the gaming week that was.

On Monday, a leak from Sony showed a number of new fighters and stages that would be included in PlayStation All-Star Battle Royale, while the developers of Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 talked about the new features that would drive the football simulation towards success.

Thursday, the Robomondo team behind Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD fantasized about a potential skating genre revival and Hideo Kojima compared creating a new Metal Gear Solid title to taking part in the Olympics.

Wednesday, BioWare and Electronic Arts officially announced what everyone was suspecting, that Star Wars: The Old Republic was going free-to-play during fall, while Vigil Games and THQ offered more screenshots and information about Darksiders II.

Thursday, one analyst estimated that the free-to-play Old Republic might attract as many as 50 million gamers and EA Sports confirmed an aggressive launch plan for the rebooted NBA Live 13.

Friday, BioWare announced the Leviathan DLC for Mass Effect 3 and The Creative Assembly talked about emotion in Total War: Rome 2.

Saturday, we found out more about the Wii U version of FIFA 13, while id Software gave more information about Doom 4.