Video Games

♦Of course one of the biggest stories in geekdom this week is going to be E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo which starts tomorrow. E3 has lost a lot of its thunder in terms of attendance since in went to being an invitation only event in 2007 but it is still one of the most anticipated shows in video gaming. Since the general public is not able to attend there have already been a ton of “leaks” of game trailers that will be showing at E3. Shannon posted the Dead Rising 2 trailer in the post below and we have several others favorited on our YouTube channel including Tekken 6, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood and Saboteur and one I have been particularly looking forward to DJ Hero. You can keep up with all the E3 news at E3 insider.

More news under the fold

Boardgames

♦The nominees for the 2009 Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) have been announced.

• Dominion, by Donald Vaccarino
• Fauna, by Friedemann Friese
• Finca, by Ralf zur Linde and Wolfgang Sentker
• Fits, by Reiner Knizia
• Pandemic, by Matt Leacock (Pegasus Spiele)

The winner of the SdJ will be announced June 29.

The SdJ award is given to games that have broad appeal and high sales, but the jury has also announced a “reommended list” of games that are less available or aimed at smaller markets than the nominees for SdJ. The recommended list this year consists of the following titles:

• Cities, by Martyn F
• Diamonds Club, by Rüdiger Dorn
• Einauge sei wachsum, by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling
• Maori, by Günter Burkhardt
• Mow, by Bruno Cathala
• Poison, by Reiner Knizia
• Valdora, by Michael Schacht
• Zack & Pack, by Bernd Eisenstein

The SdJ jury also awarded two special awards this year, Space Alert, by Vlaada Chvatil was given a special award in the category of “new game worlds” and Gift Trap, by Nick Kellet was given an award for “party games.”

Books

♦June is going to be a big month for vampire fiction fans. Three new books are hitting the shelves that should keep your summer reading very… bitey. Skin Trade, the seventeenth book in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton, Undead and Unwelcome, the eighth book in the Queen Betsy series by MaryJanice Davidson and The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro (yes, THAT Guillermo Del Toro) and Chuck Hogan all come out tomorrow.

Comics

♦The ABC series Pushing Daisies that was uncerimoniously cancelled in its second season is going to live on as a 12 issue mini-series from DC. Creator Bryan Fuller gave an interview to Sci-Fi Wire with details including some spoilers from the final episodes.

Movies

♦People who follow Twitter will probably have seen some of the explosion of outrage resulting from rumors that Fox was going to be remaking the original Alien movie. Fortunately those rumors turned out to be not quite accurate. Tony Scott (brother of Ridley) has confirmed that there will be a new Alien movie, but it is going to be a prequel to the original and not a remake. He also confirmed that Carl Rinsch will be directing.

TV

♦The BBC is reporting on the announcement that Karen Gillan is going to be joining The Doctor as his new companion when Matt Smith takes over the role in the next series. Gillan has apparently already appeared in the show as a Soothsayer in The Fires Of Pompeii in the last series but I wouldn’t know since I haven’t caught up that far yet.