Last month, we reported on a story in which famed Sony representative “Kevin Butler” (real name Jerry Lambert) appeared in a commercial for Bridgestone which advertised the Wii as part of a promotional deal. The initial consequence of his actions was fan outrage, but it seems now Lambert may be facing an even greater ordeal.

Sony Computer Entertainment America has filed a lawsuit against the actor who portrays the fictional Butler, as well as Bridgestone and Wildcat Creek, Inc., an advertising firm of which Lambert is president. As reported by Sony to Venture Beat, “The claims are based on violations of the Lanham Act, misappropriation, breach of contract and tortious interference with a contractual relationship.” The report goes on to state, “Use of the Kevin Butler character to sell products other than those from PlayStation misappropriates Sony’s intellectual property, creates confusion in the market, and causes damage to Sony.”

Did somebody say games? No? Well, I’m gonna, so whatever. The weekly latecast of me bringing you fine people the latest games late continues unabated, with a full two day lateness this week! I swear, one day, I’ll get my schedule sorted out so that I have time on Sundays but until then, enjoy the guessing game.

Of note, I actually followed up on my comment last week about The Testament of Sherlock Holmes and…yeah, that game isn’t great. Probably coulda called that, but hey, you never know until you try it, right?

Anyway, that’s old news. Onto this week!

Coming out this week:

Carrier Command: Gaea Mission – October 2nd for PC & X360
This remake of the original 1988 Carrier Command is curiously being developed by the same developer, Bohemia Interactive, that created the first, leading me to wonder whether or not this is a real remake, or more of a reboot. But, hey, who am I to argue with Bohemia after the revitalised success that Arma II had had since DayZ‘s release, not to mention the impending DayZ retail release?

NBA 2K13 — October 2nd for PC, PS3, PSP, X360 & Wii
You guys like Basketball, right? Well here comes the biggest Basketball release of the year to not come packaged with a free basketball! Hell, it’ll still probably be bigger than NBA Baller Beats, because really, who the hell bought NBA Baller Beats?

New Little King’s Story — October 2nd for PSVita
The sequel to the Wii’s Little King’s Story will, according to Japanese magazine Famitsu, have “love elements, along with new visual stylings for its characters.” Without delving into press material, that’s all I could find about NLKS (although, let’s face it, that quote is just about the press-iest thing anybody could ever say about a JRPG.)

NiGHTS into Dreams… — October 2nd for PSN, October 5th for XBLA
One of the top selling games from the Saturn era comes to your Hard-Drive on digital platforms! Includes levels from some weird expansion thing called Christmas Nights! Can you tell I have no interest in this game at all?!

Resident Evil 6 — October 2nd for PS3 & X360
Speaking of games I (and the rest of the OWNT staff) have no interest in, there’s Resident Evil 6. In the coming months, we’re planning to get reviews out for all the major releases, but honestly…I don’t think there’s any point to an RE6 review. From what I understand of the series, you need to have a longstanding relationship with Resident Evil to comment on this title, which I don’t think any of us have, and the reception it’s received so far has been polarizing enough that if you’re really on the fence (after what I understand was an utterly abysmal demo), you should probably read the review from somebody who actually knows what they’re talking about. Might sound like some sort of a cop-out, but hey, full disclosure is a thing, so there you go.

Sonic Adventure 2 — October 2nd for PSN, October 5th for XBLA
I’m gonna go out on a professional limb here and make what other people have led me to believe is a controversial opinion: Fuck Sonic. I hate Sonic. I’ve never liked Sonic and I don’t get the appeal. Maybe my reflexes just kinda suck and I’m looking to blame the game, but I’ve never had a great deal of difficulty with other games based on speed, like say Burnout. If you do like the little furry hedgehog, though, here, take some classic Dreamcast era Sonic, and enjoy! Wait, when did the Dreamcast become classic? Sheeesh.

Port Royale 3 — October 4th for PS3 & X360
Port Royale is apparently a business simulation game and I’m already bored. Except for maybe you can be a pirate! Which isn’t boring. But if you can’t, this is probably a game solely for the businessy sorts, like OWNT’s founder Coop, because I guarantee he’s the only one on staff who knows how to turn a profit. The only one.

Remington’s Super Slam Ultimate Sportsman Challenge — October 5th for PS3 & X360
Hey, you! Are you so sports?! Yeah, but are you ultimate sports?! Yeah, but are you SUPER SLAM ULTIMATE SPORTS?! Then go out and buy this goddamn light-gun game. Maybe lay off the adrenaline inducers as well, the veins in your neck are freaking me the hell out.

Pokémon Dream Radar – October 7th for 3DS
This downloadable Pokémon game barely seems to be an actual game, and more a sort of AR-enhanced DLC for the real Pokémon game that comes out this week. See below.

Pokémon: Black & White Version 2 — October 7th for NDS
Well, they made another Pokémon game. This one, believe it or not, is a Japanese Role Playing Game in which you collect pocket monsters and utilize their varied skills in pitting them through inhumane duels with their kin, before enslaving them within miniature balls that would fail to pass Geneva Convention standards for Prisoner of War containment! You know if you’re buying this or not already.

OH! Before I forget, I think The Walking Dead: Episode Four is coming out this week. Just watch me be wrong.

Well, that’s Your Week in Games. See you next week. Maybe on time this week.

I know, I know, I’m a day late. Cut me some slack, I broke 3 toes today. No punchline here, only pain, kinda like this weeks releases, amiright?! Yeah? No? Psch, whatever.

Coming out this week:

Dead or Alive 5 — September 25th for PS3 & X360
If you like women in bikini’s kicking the living shit out of each other, you’ll probably like this! If you’re more into ‘the art’ of fighting games, though, you might wanna skip this and keep to Tekken Tag Tournament 2, which I hear is pretty good.

Disney Princess: My Fairytale Adventure — September 25th for PC, Wii & 3DS
What with the growing general interest in broniism and whatnot, I imagine any degrading comments I could make about these sorts of kid-friendly games will sooner or later result in management calling down to me from their cloud of dollars and telling me to cool down a little. That day hasn’t arrived yet, though, so if you’re expecting any real information about this game…what is wrong with you?! Ah, I kid, I kid. I actually watched a couple of episodes of My Little Pony with my niece a few months ago and you know what? That show is entertaining enough that I get why some people would be attracted to it. Apart from obscene animated crushes, though, I don’t know what people’s deal is with Disney Princesses…

DragonBall Z for Kinect — September 25th for X360
Namco Bandai refused to respond to my query as to whether DBZ for Kinect would cost “OVER NINE-THOUSAND (DOLLARS)”.  I probably wouldn’t have responded to such a question either, to be fair.

FIFA Soccer 13 – September 25th for PC, PS3, PSP, X360, 3DS
Over here in Britain, this game is just referred to as FIFA because ‘soccer’ is not a word. You crazy Americans.

Final Fantasy III —  September 25th for PSP
In Square Enix’s eternal quest to bring every FF game to the PSP, no matter how out-dated the hardware may seem to the rest of us, FFIII follows suit.

Grand Theft Auto III — September 25th for PSN
A part of me is still trying to comprehend how GTAIII wasn’t already on PSN. Does this mean that Vice City and San Andreas aren’t on there either? WHAT SORT OF WORLD ARE WE LIVING IN?!

LittleBigPlanet PS Vita — September 25th for PSVita
New rule: I’m not going to comment on any title that includes the name of the system it is being featured on within its title because you probably already know what to expect. Starting…Now.

One Piece: Pirate Warriors — September 25th for PS3
Apparently One Piece is a manga, rather than a swimsuit, as I first assumed. However, because that manga is not Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Battle Royale or something, you know, recognisable, I can’t say I care about this game. Probably doesn’t matter because word on the vine is that it’s not very good.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 — September 25th for PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, X360, Wii & 3DS
That’s right…they’re still making games for the PS2. Inorite?! I was surprised too.

Realms of Ancient War — September 25th for PS3
RAW (okay, that’s kinda cool) sounds pretty blase, so let’s take a look at one of Wizarbox’s previous titles, So Blonde.

Sunny Blonde is a 17-year-old teenager who has been spoiled by her rich parents. On a cruise with her parents who are celebrating their wedding anniversary, the ship is struck by lightning, and she is knocked overboard. She finds herself stranded on a beach of a remote “Forgotten Island” in the Caribbean Sea.

Holy crap, did they create the upcoming Tomb Raider 6 years before Crystal Dynamics?!

She is totally alone and worrying about her nails and messy make-up

…maybe not…

 The Testament of Sherlock Holmes — September 25th for PC, PSC, X360
Alright, that’s it. After seeing the Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper game cover all over the place for years, I’m officially hella curious as to what these games are. I’ll probably take a look at some point later this month/week/year/sometime in the future. I promise.

 Tokyo Jungle — September 25th for PSN
From what I understand Tokyo Jungle is set after humans have left planet Earth and follows the plight of the animals left to fend for themselves against each other in the streets of Tokyo. This sounds half bizarre, half awesome, all Japanese.

Warrior’s Lair — September 25th for PS3
If you didn’t already get your isometric RPG fix from Torchlight 2 last week, Sony got your back with…well, another isometric RPG…

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria – September 25th for PC, Mac
I do not care for WoW but the CG trauker they released for MoP really had me curious as to how Blizzard would handle the opportunity to make their own WoW movie, because hey, I think it’d be pretty awesome.

Bad Piggies — September 27th for iOS, Mac, PC
Anybody here ever play Angry Birds? A couple of you, yeah? Here…have a sequel. Then tell me how you play this on a PC?

The DENPA Men: They Came By Wave — September 27th for 3DS
Uhhh… this is a role playing game in which you play as the DENPA men and is that supposed to mean anything to anybody? Oh, Japan…sometimes I just don’t know what to do with you!

Everyone Sing — September 27th for PS3, X360 and Wii
Until a karaoke game includes the following, I don’t care about karaoke games:

Catch you guys next week.

In a move that may surprise many, at Nintendo’s press event today – during which they revealed the official launch date and price of their upcoming console – the House of Mario also made a shocking announcement: Bayonetta 2, the sequel to Platinum Games’ 2010 hyper action beat-em-up, will be exclusive to the Wii U. The original starred the game’s titular hero, the long-legged femme fatale, and featured a blend of highly stylized combat and aggressive enemy AI.

While this play by Nintendo may seem quite startling at first, it makes a lot of sense. Firstly, Nintendo needs to capitalize on the hardcore market, a network of gamers they’ve tended to neglect for the last few generations. Secondly, Nintendo and Platinum have a bit of history together: the Japanese developer created MadWorld for the Wii, one of the console’s first truly “mature” games. They also co-developed the strategy RPG Infinite Space for the Nintendo DS and are the sole developers of the now officially titled The Wonderful 101 (formerly Project P-100) for the Wii U. The move may upset fans of the original who had no intent on purchasing the Wii U, but if Nintendo wants to starts distinguishing themselves from the competition and pose a real threat to Microsoft and Sony, this is exactly the kind of stuff they need to focus on.

Also announced at today’s event is Capcom’s Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Edition for the Wii U and 3DS. As stated in the press release:

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate utilizes the functionalities of Wii U and Nintendo 3DS to provide players with a truly intuitive hunting experience. The touch screen feature of both platforms allows players to quickly access in-game books, weapons, field maps and mini games while the high quality graphics of the Wii U and 3D visuals of the Nintendo 3DS powered by the latest iteration of Capcom’s MT Framework delivers a unique and stunning world for players to explore.

In a move that may surprise many, at Nintendo’s press event today – during which they revealed the official launch date and price of their upcoming console – the House of Mario also made a shocking announcement: Bayonetta 2, the sequel to Platinum Games’ 2010 hyper action beat-em-up, will be exclusive to the Wii U. The original starred the game’s titular hero, the long-legged femme fatale, and featured a blend of highly stylized combat and aggressive enemy AI.

While this play by Nintendo may seem quite startling at first, it makes a lot of sense. Firstly, Nintendo needs to capitalize on the hardcore market, a network of gamers they’ve tended to neglect for the last few generations. Secondly, Nintendo and Platinum have a bit of history together: the Japanese developer created MadWorld for the Wii, one of the console’s first truly “mature” games. They also co-developed the strategy RPG Infinite Space for the Nintendo DS and are the sole developers of the now officially titled The Wonderful 101 (formerly Project P-100) for the Wii U. The move may upset fans of the original who had no intent on purchasing the Wii U, but if Nintendo wants to starts distinguishing themselves from the competition and pose a real threat to Microsoft and Sony, this is exactly the kind of stuff they need to focus on.

Also announced at today’s event is Capcom’s Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Edition for the Wii U and 3DS. As stated in the press release:

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate utilizes the functionalities of Wii U and Nintendo 3DS to provide players with a truly intuitive hunting experience. The touch screen feature of both platforms allows players to quickly access in-game books, weapons, field maps and mini games while the high quality graphics of the Wii U and 3D visuals of the Nintendo 3DS powered by the latest iteration of Capcom’s MT Framework delivers a unique and stunning world for players to explore.

Yesterday, Nintendo made the announcement that everyone has been waiting for: the price and release date of the Wii U. Along with that, they made the shocking reveal that Bayonetta 2 will be a Wii U exclusive. Among the handful of other games discussed during their live press event in New York City, Nintendo and Capcom announced Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate for the 3DS and Wii U. The details right now are sparse, but here’s what we know.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is going to be a graphically enhanced port of the original Monster Hunter Tri which was released exclusively for the Wii in 2010. In addition to the updated visuals and a reconfiguration of controls to support the gamepad, the game will include all of the content updates found in Monster Hunter 3G, which was the handheld version of Tri released exclusively in Japan for the 3Ds in 2011, as well as several features from Tri that were cut from 3G (including underwater battles and Free Hunt mode). In other words, Ultimate is going to be the complete package for Monster Hunter fans.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate will also be the first game in the series to feature dynamic shadows and implement a new “Target Camera” setting that centers the camera on the monster rather than the direction the character is facing. The latter is an experiment Capcom is hoping to fine tune and adapt for the next iteration of the series. Perhaps the biggest news about the game is the cross-play between the Wii U and 3DS versions. Players will be able to cooperate and team up with friends and go out on a hunt together. Save games can also be shared between versions.

The game is set to launch early next year, with a tentative March release date for Europe and North America.

Good news for anyone gunning for a Wii U, as we can now tell you when you can get your hands on it. Unless you’re Australian, in which case, yeah, you guys always get the short end of the stick.
Bad news for anyone gunning for a Wii U, as if you’re not based in North America, you have longer to wait. Although not as long as Australia, because yeah, those guys always get the short end of the stick.

If you’re based in North America, you need only wait until November 18th to get your hands at the upcoming future-device. The base cost for the console will be $299.99. This will include precisely the console itself, the gamepad and a HDMI. If you want any Wii Remote Pluses for multiplayer games, then you’d best have some ready from that two week Wii excursion you put yourself through last year, or be willing to buy some with your new console, because Nintendo aren’t providing anything there. The console will have 8 GB of storage.  If you shell out a little more cash and spend $349.99, you can buy the premium Wii U package which gives you a black Wii U with 32 GB of storage, a game pad stand and a charging cradle for the gamepad, as well as the coveted Nintendo Land software. I couldn’t honestly tell you if that last statement was sarcastic.

European audiences will be treated to the new console release on November 30th and Japan gets super screwed over this time, with a December 8th release (which is my Dad’s birthday, so now if only we were Japanese, that might mean…something.) There’s no explicit confirmation of prices in those markets, but expect them to be slightly pricier than an exact currency conversion based on the U.S. prices to fit a more rounded number…that’s usually how it works.

So, now that you know when you can get a Wii U, are you planning to? Or are you hoping to be part of the revolution that abstains from purchasing a Wii U, inevitably bringing down the power-house of Nintendo? Or do you just not particularly care? Comments! Below! You know the business.

Batman: Arkham City is heading to the upcoming Wii U.

Yes the caped crusader, the dark knight, the man who travelled the world to become a ninja, a detective and a superhero, is headed onto the Wii U in this revamped version of Arkham City.

Warner Brother games Montreal are changing some of the game’s mechanics and controls to better fit the Wii U’s unique controller. Gadgets will be controlled in new ways and new gadgets have been introduced, such as Sonar mode which allows Batman to quickly probe his surroundings.

Apparently the menu systems will all be controlled through the GamePad, thus alliowing players to change gadget, upgrade abilities and more without breaking up the game.

The most interesting new addition, and the source of the game’s new title, is the addition of the Battle Armoured Tech mode. This is a special battle-suit usable by both Batman and Catwoman, and can be used to unleash built-up kinetic energy from combat, allowing the two to deal more damage. Personally I was hoping for the giant robot-suit that batman occasionally brings out to fight Bane, oh well.

Batman: Arkham City Armoured Edition will also be playable in GamePad-only mode. This means that the entire game can be played on the GamePad’s screen rather than on a larger monitor, allowing you to play under the covers after bedtime without mum noticing.

As is rather common with later releases on new consoles, this game will come with all the released DLC. This means that on top of the main game, you also get:

• Harley Quinn’s Revenge pack
• Catwoman Pack
• Nightwing Bundle Pack
• Robin Bundle Pack
• Challenge Map Pack
• Arkham City Skins Pack

Anybody interested in rebooting the Batman, or have you still not played Arkham City yet? Let us know in the comments.

Nintendo have confirmed that the details of the Wii U launch will be announced this Thursday, September 13th via a Nintendo Direct Wii U preview, available to the public online. This coincides with a scheduled event for the media in New York, that very same day, to announce new details surrounding the Wii U.

While it’s been obvious for a while now that the Wii U would hit shelves before Christmas this year (or at the very least, in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2012) the move to release the Wii U at such a time is no-doubt an effort to replicate the holiday success of the Wii.

When contacting media outlets about the NYC event, Nintendo surmised the event as one which will teach us “more about how the Wii U will change the future of gaming and entertainment”, although there’s not been much said on the specifics. Nintendo will remedy that this Friday with the Wii U Preview presentation. The event will be hosted by Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Amie.

Nintendo of Europe president, Satoru Shibata, announced over twitter, “Hi everyone! I’d like to invite you to watch the Nintendo Direct Wii U preview, Thursday 13th September at 4pm CEST [3pm UK]“

The Direct Wii U preview will be viewable here: http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/news/nintendo_direct_47764.html

Jesus, this week is quiet and I can’t say I mind, as I’m having an extremely busy day. So let’s just get straight into it.

Coming out this week:

Critter Crunch — September 11th for PC
Critter Crunch is an iOS game that has been ported to PC and will later be available on PS3. According the the iOS reviews, it’s pretty good. GREAT!

Double Dragon: Neon — September 11th for PSN, September 12th for XBLA
Another game in the utterly ‘meh’ beat ‘em up franchise that is still alive after 25 years. GREAT!…ish.

Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue — September 11th for 3DS
C’mon, everybody loves Finding Nemo. I don’t even need to do any research for this one. GREAT!

NBA Baller Beats — September 11th for X360
It’s a rhythm/basketball game. So it’s a second tier mash up of a dead genre and a mass market Kinect game that…
Nobody cares. GREAT!

NHL 13 — September 11th for PS3 & X360
Hockey. GREAT!

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 — September 11th for PS3 & X360
I almost care about Tekken, in some alternate reality when I never stopped being 13 and Tekken 3 was still the greatest game of all time. Almost. GREAT!

Empire: Total War (Gold Edition) — September 13th for Mac
Something, something, Total War, something, Gold, something. GREAT!

Prince of Persia Classic — September 13th for Android
I’m sorry, I just don’t see the appeal of PoP classic for anybody to young to have played it ‘back in the day’. And for Android? Just…urgh.
But still, GREAT!

Kirby’s Dream Collection: Special Edition — September 16th for Wii
I’ve admitted before that I’ve never played a Zelda game. Is it reputation suicide to admit that I’ve never played a Kirby game either? You know what, just imagine a world where I’ve never heard of Nintendo. Because, honestly, that’s not far from the truth.

Super speedy, like I said. This should counteract the fan-gasm I have next week when Borderlands 2 is released. So, look forward to that.

Comments, below, all that jazz. Lates!