It’s impossible to not make this weeks’ Bearly Noteworthy post completely about E3 and E3-related announcements. Since most of the E3 coverage that I consumed originated at GiantBomb.com, I’m also finding it difficult not to make this a post that links solely to GiantBomb.com. So fuck it. They simply killed it on coverage with basically five dudes. Tons of video content, daily podcasts, interviews, wrap-up posts, and very little of the premature, judgmental snark that is endemic to rapid-fire coverage.

Bullet-point highlights from the Microsoft, EA and Ubisoft conferences. My favorites from Microsoft: Crackdown 2, Alan Wake. From EA: Crysis 2, hooray! The Saboteur looks rad. And Ubisoft: I am stupid amounts of excited for Splinter Cell. Rabbids make me sick.

Sequels! More Mario looks good.

Price drop? Aw. Really, though, I was glad to see Final Fantasy XIV will be coming to PC in addition to PS3 just as XI did.

Brink is the game that I most wanted information about when going into E3. I haven’t made up my mind on S.M.A.R.T. yet (it’s explained in the video embedded below), but I think it may make more sense within the context of the game. I hope we get to see some gameplay soon. I’d also like to know what Bethesda’s involvement is with this project; they haven’t said much, only Splash Damage has. I’ve got a feeling Bethesda may just be publishing on this one.

While I always enjoyed swinging with a mouse instead of a toggle stick, the PC versions of Tiger Woods were getting the shaft on features for a few years. I’m very glad to see that Tiger’s coming back in such a “PC” way.

A very interesting development. This is no doubt to cater more to the console audience, as the Sam & Max games have been appearing places like XBLA and WiiWare. But as I recently expressed in my Broken Sword 3 post, I’m not married to the point-and-click control scheme in adventure games, as long as the alternative is well implemented. I’m not gonna lie, I do enjoy leaning back in my desk chair with a gamepad from time to time, when playing an appropriate game.

Dude, E3!!

Death to retail! This kind of problem could be fixed within hours or days, and for a lot less money, if all games were attached to digital distribution platforms like Impulse or Steam. Not that this particular issue affected the digitally distributed versions in the first place.

So Demigod had some problems. I canceled my pre-order a few days before release, so I haven’t experienced them, but they don’t sound fun. Gotta say, though, I don’t think I could be upset for long with how candid Stardock has been about the issues and their efforts to correct them.

Of course it is.

Radashay!

Another Todd Hollenshead interview. This time he’s talking about businessy stuff; the size, success and direction of the company and their projects. He sounds happy with how their mobile games are performing. Why do I care? Well, while I don’t have a phone to game on, I am still holding onto hope for an Orcs and Elves sequel that would eventually make its way to DS!

The next game from Klei Entertainment, developer of Eets for PC and XBLA. Though early in development, Shank is only being shown for the Xbox 360 here. The video has me hooked, my fingers are crossed for a PC version.

In the words of Sam himself: “Bring it on!”

If you ever wanted to know how to completely kill the sales potential of the PC version of your game in an entire region by encouraging piracy… well, this is how. Thanks for the lesson, Sony.

It’s still pretty cool to see that people are paying attention to Broken Sword again. I get sad when I hear people older than me say the Wii and DS Director’s Cuts of The Shadow of the Templars is the first time they’ve heard of the series. Just cast Tim Robbins as George Stobbart and Audrey Tautou (shh! no, that similarly themed movie that she was just in… yeah, that didn’t really happen) as Nico Collard and I’m on board.

Overgrowth’s dev tools are pretty impressive and all (seriously, go watch some of their other videos on GameTrailers), but this video in particular is great because it brings the funny. This video’s worth a look whether you’re interested in the tools or not. Bonus, if you are!

That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!

This could be a blessing in disguise for the Witcher franchise. If you’ve checked out our forum lately (hey, check out our forum!) you might have seen that I’ve been playing through The Witcher on PC. As I play I’m trying to evaluate whether or not I think the RPG playing console audience would be receptive. Much of the game is designed with old-school CRPG ideals in mind that console players may not understand. I’ve been afraid that it would flop. It’s unfortunate that it’s been canceled for financial reasons, but still, it may be a good thing for the brand, much as the cancellation of the Xbox 360 version of World in Conflict was.

And it’s no joke. Not just a sampling, it’s the full game soundtrack. Pretty good music here, check it out. I haven’t listened to it all yet, but I’m keeping my ears open for an AudioSurf video candidate. We’ll see.

Yay! If you haven’t checked out Opera lately, you really should. Opera is currently my preferred browser and has been — for the most part — ever since it went ad-supported (don’t worry, that was about 9 years ago – it’s all free now). Version 9 is a thing of beauty and the alpha builds of version 10 are showing promise as well.

Surprise. Now get off Demigod’s back. I mean, the Rook can dish it out, but he can’t take it.

This trailer appeals to my sensibilities. Hard.

This is big news that you’ve probably already heard, but MaxPC gets the link because they’re the one site that I’ve seen properly acknowledge that the next Fallout game will be made, by and large, by the same folks who made the original Fallout game. This is kind of a big deal.

Ah, well. At least it sounds like Dragon Age development is finished except for PC polish and the console port-job. Regardless, Dan Tudge still has the coolest name in the industry.

Though I would have made a couple different component choices, this article did well to illustrate that you can get a solid gaming PC for not a lot of scratch.

Part one of a five-part walk down memory lane that BigDownload ran (walked?) throughout the week. It’s quite a comprehensive look back, they didn’t leave much out. Here’s part two, part three, part four, and part five.