14 DAY TRIAL // It's been a busy week here at Softpedia. We have a review of Singularity up, complete with a series of gamer diaries, and a look at Tales of Monkey Island: LeChuck's Revenge, the revival of the classic adventure series. We've also put up a Weekend Reading piece talking about how hard it is for shooters to succeed these days and an EndWeekGame about our own gaming habits. And, of course, there's a selection of the news from the week that was.
On Monday, rumors popped up, later confirmed that FIFA 11 would be launching on September 28, earlier in the year than previously thought, in order to make room for the launch of EA MMA. On the same day, Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision, talked about how a lot of Xbox Live accounts exist just in order to allow gamers to play Modern Warfare 2.
On Tuesday, the probable downloadable content for Crackdown 2 was inadvertently revealed by Microsoft when they showed the Avatar awards linked to the fresh open world game. At the same time, the French Amazon website unveiled the existence of an Ultimate Edition for Gran Turismo 5, which might come for 199 dollars.
Wednesday was the day when Blizzard officially announced that its forums for Starcraft II and for World of Warcraft would begin requiring use of real names for those interested in posting. This just as Battlefield: Bad Company 2 received another map pack, again free to all those who got the game new.
On Thursday, Blizzard admitted that it was open to feedback from gamers related to the idea of using real names on forums but that it was set to go ahead with the move when Starcraft II launches on July 27. This just as Activision talked about sales numbers for Blur and motivated why the game could still be a success in the long term.
On Friday, BioWare gave a date for March 2011 and a name for the main character, Hawke, in relation to Dragon Age 2, while Guild Wars 2 offered more information about how healing is being handled in the upcoming MMO.