A Gamer's Week: July 24

Hello and welcome to a new edition of A Gamer's Week, our own special feature where we look back on the last 7 days and highlight the most important gaming news from the industry, as well as the original content we posted here at the Games section of Softpedia.

Once again, we've been quite busy, posting a review of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, a quick look at Bastion, as well as continuing the ongoing Pro Cycling Manager 2011 Tour de France gamer diary. What's more, you can also check out a weekend reading piece on the necessity of economic simulators.

After all that content, let's recap some of the biggest news of the week, starting with Monday, when we heard AMD pitched its view of the next Xbox 360 console, saying that the presumed Xbox 720 would have graphics like the Avatar movie. What's certain, however, is that only Xbox 360 owners will be able to enjoy the Call of Duty Elite beta, as PS3 owners need to wait, while PC users might not even get it at all, until the service is officially released.

On Tuesday, Neil Burger, the new director of the Uncharted movie, talked about the project and how he is aware fans want Nathan Fillion to play the protagonist, Nathan Drake. Modern Warfare 3 bragged a bit with its pre-order figures, which are even bigger than last year's Black Ops, so, if it wasn't clear already, a huge amount of gamers are keen on buying the new shooter from Activision.

Wednesday saw the release of a new patch for The Witcher 2, taking it to version 1.3 and resolving lots of issues, while adding a new quest. BioWare also posted a few more details about Mass Effect 3, and how it will look great on all platforms next year, when it's finally released.

On Thursday, EA finally opened up the pre-orders for Star Wars: The Old Republic, offering three distinct versions to the legions of Star Wars fans out there. Konami also surprised a lot of people by releasing the first details on PES 2012, the first soccer simulator that lets you control two players at the same time.

Friday saw L.A. Noire developer Team Bondi speculate on whether the oft-rumored Grand Theft Auto V might use the MotionScan technology seen in the detective simulator a couple of months ago. Star Wars fans were in for another treat, as Microsoft presented the limited edition Star Wars Xbox 360 Kinect bundle, with a R2-D2-like console, a C-3PO-like golden controller and a white Kinect.