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Shippin' Out July 26-August 1: Wii Sports Resort

Nintendo's sports bundle sequel due out Sunday, with Gears of War 2: All Fronts Collection and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 slamming onto Xbox 360; KOFXII PS3/360-bound; Bionic Commando and East India Company sail to the PC.

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Although this week is host to a series of notable titles--like Gears of War 2: All Fronts Collection, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 on the Xbox 360, and Bionic Commando for the PC--they will likely be dwarfed by Sunday's release of Nintendo's Wii Sports Resort. The sports game debuted in Japan in mid-June with nearly 360,000 units sold in its first week and has received ample critical praise.

It seems
It seems "Dude" Lebowski makes a cameo in Wii Sports Resort.

Bundled with the Wii MotionPlus, the minigame collection offers over 20 activities--more than double the number of its predecessor, 2006's Wii Sports. Many of the included sports games take advantage of the expanded control provided by the MotionPlus, such as Frisbee Dog and archery. Other new sports include swordplay, basketball, canoeing, cycling, and wakeboarding.

Deploying from another popular franchise is the sci-fi shooter Gears of War 2: All Fronts Collection. The add-on will bundle the "Dark Corners" expansion, which includes three new multiplayer maps (Flashback, Snowblind, and Combustible) and the "Road to Ruin" single-player chapter, and all previous map packs into one MSP1,600/$19.99 package on Xbox Live. (A proposed boxed retail product was canceled just before last month's Electronic Entertainment Expo.) Dark Corners is also available a la carte for MSP1,200/$14.99.

Xbox 360 users might be glad to learn that the classic fighter Marvel vs. Capcom 2 will hit the Xbox Live Arcade this week, two weeks before its release on the PlayStation 3. Although Capcom's arcade game hit the PlayStation 2 and Xbox several years ago, the Xbox 360 release will feature three graphics settings--classic, crisp, and smooth--and remains faithful to the purist-favored Dreamcast edition of 2000.

Gamers can also duke it out with The King of Fighters XII. In this 12th installment of the brawling series, developers at SNK Playmore have redrawn the characters from scratch, first creating a 3D model of the character, posing it, and then using it as a guide for traditional, "hand-drawn" 2D pixel art. The release of King of Fighters XII marks the 15th anniversary of the fighting franchise, which first appeared on SNK's own arcade hardware, the NeoGeo. The game retains the trademark three-on-three fighting action of the series and boasts a roster of over 20 characters.

Although Capcom's prolific arcade fighter carries on, its sci-fi adventure Bionic Commando is limping to the PC. The series was hamstrung by poor sales and lackluster reviews on its Xbox 360 and PS3 editions released last May. The Windows edition will support higher screen resolutions than their counterparts and touts remappable controls, mouse-and-keyboard support, and DirectX 9 and 10 compatibility.

Rounding out this week's releases is a voyage back to the 18th century. From the Finnish developer Nitro Games is the naval game East India Company, which is a unique combination of naval trading and warfare, exclusively for the PC. Players can control colonial markets by trading such commodities as tea, spices, gold, and silk and can wage war on the high seas in real-time strategy battles.

For further details on the week's games, visit GameSpot's New Releases page. The full list of downloadable games on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace, and the Wii Shop Channel will be revealed later this week. Release dates are based on retailer listings and are subject to change.

JULY 26, 2009
Wii Sports Resort--Wii--Nintendo

JULY 27, 2009
No new releases scheduled.

JULY 28, 2009
Bionic Commando--PC--Capcom
East India Company--PC--Paradox Interactive
Gears of War 2: All Fronts Collection--X360--Microsoft
The King of Fighters XII--X360, PS3--Ignition Entertainment
My Secret Diary--DS--O-Games
Rockin' Pretty--DS--Aksys Games
Space Bust A Move--DS--Square Enix
The Humans--DS--Deep Silver

JULY 29, 2009
Marvel vs. Capcom 2--X360--Capcom
Memento Mori--PC--Got Game Entertainment
Watchmen: The End is Nigh Part 2 (download only)--PC--Warner Bros.

JULY 30, 2009
Watchmen: The End is Nigh Part 2 (download only)--PS3--Warner Bros.

JULY 31, 2009
No new releases scheduled.

AUGUST 1, 2009
No new releases scheduled.

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