What’s up, readers of the Circle! Donovan here with this week’s roundup!

‘Tis the week after E3 2017 and with all these great games that have been announced, it will be pretty exciting to see all the news and gameplay trailers coming out for games like Anthem, God of War, and Destiny 2. I’m especially interested in hearing more about the Xbox One X and seeing how it revolutionizes console gaming. As a PS4 owner, I’m even more interested to see how Sony plans to compete with it.

And with that, the Roundup!

Allegra Frank gives us her impressions on the demo for the upcoming game, Super Lucky’s Tale. In the midst of all the Triple-A titles with hyper-realistic graphics and glorious open worlds, Super Lucky’s Tale provides a breath of fresh nostalgia as a new 90’s style mascot platformer. It’s not the only one to come out in recent memory, but it does set itself apart by being a good decent game that doesn’t get in its own way by relying too much on the nostalgic elements. Read Allegra’s article here.

Heather Alexandra gave us a close look at her favorite game of E3 this year, called Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin. If, before Heather’s story, someone told me about a cross between Final Fight and Farmville, I’d be a little skeptical, to say the least. However, developer Edelweiss has actually managed to put together a pretty solid combination of both together in this new title. Check out Heather’s impressions here.

Jordan Minor provides an interesting commentary on the difficult control schemes of most modern fighting games. It’s no secret that complicated button inputs and joystick maneuvers like the infamous quarter-circle are the biggest deterrents for casual players that pick up fighting games. Jordan calls for an end to the age of the traditional fighting game control scheme in favor for more simple inputs. Read Jordan’s thoughts here.

Christopher Byrd reviews Platonic Partnership Ltd’s release, Lydia. Despite what most people believe, videogames aren’t all fun ‘n games. A videogame is a work of art a developer uses to express his or herself, aiming to make the player think. Lydia does just this in just a couple of hours–short, I know– but packed with plenty of substance. Read Christopher’s review here.

Michael Andronico & Sherri L. Smith rate the 14 best games to play on the Xbox One. After Microsoft’s amazing E3 conference, it looks like Xbox fans are going to see some pretty awesome games come to the system. Luckily, they don’t have to wait at all to play some great titles. See Michael and Sherri’s list here.

Harold Goldberg put together E3’s 7 most promising kids games in his role as Boys’ Life’s Game Guru. He was particularly intrigued by Moss, a VR game that balances a witchy creepy aspect with a sweet joyousness. Read it here.

And now for news outside of the Circle…

As most of you may know, this year marks the first that E3 was open to the general public. When this was first announced it came to mixed reactions. E3 was pretty crowded enough as is and many were afraid of the Expo becoming overcrowded. Now that the newly open show has ended, it’s received pretty much the same mixed reactions from the fans. Polygon interviewed fans and got more on what they did and didn’t like about the show. Read more here.

For every school teacher and politician trying to rid the world of those “infernal” videogames, there’s always someone willing to speak up for why we should actually be doing the opposite. Adam Frank, an astrophysics professor at the University of Rochester, was that someone when he explained why we should play more videogames in an NPR article. The reasons might not be what you think it is. Check it out here.

I’m sure that many devoted Playstation 3 owners will remember the classic, awe-inspiring game, Journey. Well, a former producer of Journey, Robin Hunicke, is back again with another game simply called, Luna. This time, she is developing the game with studio Funomena, which she cofounded with Martin Middleton back in 2013; and instead of releasing on the next PlayStation, she’s decided to take this project to the VR platform. Find out more about it here.

PC gamers, rejoice! Valve has finally released all of the dates for this year’s Steam Summer Sales. For those new to Steam, it means that your self-control will be put to the ultimate test. For the veterans out there: maybe you’ll get through this without emptying your pockets too much this time. Check them out here.

That’s it for this week’s Roundup! Come back next week to get an update on gaming news in and out of the Circle!