A Gamer’s Week: August 19

Welcome to A Gamer’s Week, our regular 7-day recap of the most important news in the gaming industry.

Gamescom 2012 took place this week and it’s been a veritable cornucopia in terms of news, as many big companies made important announcements during the expo held in Cologne, Germany. You can follow our complete coverage at this link.

We also posted two reviews this week, for Prototype 2 and for Hybrid, and we also had a quick look at The Political Machine 2012.

In case you want some more extra reading, you can check out our ongoing Crusader Kings II diary and a special Weekend Reading piece about Valve and how it doesn't need to release a Half-Life 3 to please fans.

Let’s start our weekly recap with Monday, when we heard Blizzard detail some of the changes it’s going to make to the classes of Diablo 3 with the release of patch 1.0.4. Sony also took the chance to defend its PlayStation Vita handheld console and revealed that its sales figures are quite acceptable.

Tuesday saw the pre-Gamescom 2012 press conferences of both Electronic Arts and Sony. The highlight from EA was the full-length multiplayer trailer for Need for Speed: Most Wanted, while Sony opted to show off the new Cross Buy system for the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita.

On Wednesday we heard Valve publicly dismiss a rumor that said it was going to present the long awaited Half-Life 3, or at least Half-Life 2: Episode 3, at Gamescom 2012. EA also took the chance to show off the Match Day feature that will be included in the upcoming FIFA 13.

Tuesday saw the long awaited release of the Team Fortress 2 Mann vs. Machine update, which finally adds a cooperative mode to the multiplayer-only shooter. Blizzard also released the opening cinematic of its upcoming World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria expansion.

Friday was when we heard about the special Contracts multiplayer mode from Hitman: Absolution and that EA will release an impressive Battlefield 3 Premium Edition, which includes the shooter, the Battlefield Premium DLC bundle, and another add-on.

On Saturday, we heard about OnLive's tough situation, as the cloud gaming company might be taken over by another corporation. We also got to see the stunning cinematic trailer Valve released for its upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

That's it for this week but continue visiting the Games section of Softpedia as we've got an array of great content planned for the following weeks.