It's just Jon and myself this week as Carl was off investigating WildStar (stay tuned for some big articles on that very soon). We eviscerate Nintendo's depressingly meagre Wii U Direct this week and discuss the implications of Ninty's new deal with SEGA; we take a look at EA's abdication of Nintendo's ailing console; we dance on the grave of the Online Pass and delight in the news of GT6 and Putty Squad's return, 20 years after it was never released for the Amiga; and we take a look at the recent formation of DICE LA, and what it might mean for EA and Star Wars.

Game Buzz | Episode 32 - So Long, Online Pass! Recorded 17th May, 2013.

Parental Advisory: We've tried to keep it as conversational and informal as possible, and you should be warned that there may be some instances of strong language.

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Platform: PS3

Developers: Naughty Dog

Publishers: Sony Computer Entertainment

Lincoln unfolds before us, a lush, verdant landscape of dilapidated, crumbling buildings succumbing to nature's throttling embrace. “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” says Ellie, commenting on a little patch of woodland. Her relatively cloistered life up to this point, not to mention her age (she's fourteen), has given her a certain childlike wonder when it comes to the calm, still surroundings. Little creatures dash about here and there, somehow having escaped the clutches of the virulent fungal infection that has starved the city of humanity.

Whereas the demo we played previously was a very tense, rather linear affair, with a number of claustrophobic, interior sections, this new build manages to evoke a sense of openness, particularly when we manage to overcome our first obstacle: a chain-link fence.

Where Nathan Drake would have leapt over the thing, probably slipping halfway for a quick QTE, The Last of Us' Joel simply picks up a plank nearby and uses it to bridge a gap between buildings. It's a simple, effective solution to a pleasantly organic puzzle of sorts that subtly highlights the fact that this game is all about the simple things: scavenge what you can, make use of the environment. There were no heroic acrobatics to be had here, but there's a pleasant solidity to everything, Joel seems to  handle a little heavier than Nate, and that physicality will become impactful in time.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced during today's Nintendo Direct presentation that Nintendo and SEGA have entered into a worldwide partnership for Sonic the Hedgehog titles.

I wouldn't worry if you missed today's Nintendo Direct presentation, you really didn't miss much. However, on the off chance that you'd like to watch the 20 min vid (there's lots for Pikmin fans to be excited for), we've embedded it after the jump.

The Wonderful 101 Platinum's bonkers action-arcade-platforming extravaganza has finally got a release date: August 23rd!

Stick it in your diaries.

If you don't know what The Wonderful 101 is, well Nintendo don't really care, as they completely failed to explain or market or draw any kind of attention to it whatsoever.

Thankfully we have you covered. Read this immediately.

The US will have to wit until September 15th.

Game & Wario and Resident Evil: Revelations were each handed new trailers  in today's Nintendo Direct presentation.

Check them out after the jump.

I really liked the initial idea for Project Ten Dollar. Here was a forward thinking initiative that had everything we've been banging on about with regard to consumer relations:

1. Incentivise people to buy new, thus helping the industry grow
2. Reward loyal early fans by essentially making them feel like premium customers
3. Turn the used-games market into something that works for everyone

It was a brilliant plan, and one that EA actually delivered upon to an impressive degree. Ok, so the free little extra bits of DLC that we were privy to in the likes of The Saboteur (boobs) or Mass Effect 2 (Zaeed) weren't mindblowing, but they were enough. Actually, in the case of Project Ten Dollar, the first game to utilise it -- Dragon Age: Origins -- provided us with one of the best characters of the entire series in Shale the Golem. She wasn't essential, but she was awesome, her storyline was meaningful, and she didn't cost us any more than we would have paid normally.

Contrast that with Mass Effect 3, where EA decided that new buyers could actually cough up an extra tenner to receive From Ashes. It doesn't make sense. EA screwed the pooch, and they only have themselves to blame.

Nintendo have announced that there'll be a special Wii U Direct presentation coming tomorrow that will take a look at the line-up of games coming for Wii U this spring and summer.

You'll be able to watch the presentation right here on Dealspwn from 3pm tomorrow.

12 Months Xbox LIVE Gold Membership | £25.64 | CDKeys

The listed price at the moment is £26.99 (which is still seriously awesome), but if you click the 'Like' button near the top (or here), you'll be taken to CDKeys' Facebook page where you'll receive a 5% off voucher (ours at the time of writing is CDK6767) to drop the price.

Please note, you're paying for a digital code, not a boxed card. We preach caution with sites like this, but we've never had any issue with CDKeys in the past, usually receiving codes within an hour (often immediately), and the buyer protection offered through Paypal is certainly welcome.

Shoutout to TimJWL @ HUKD for bringing this to our attention.

Ignore the horrible voice work in this new trailer's narration, simply bask in the piratical splendour of Assassin's Creed IV. It might be because I heard the Royal Philharmonic busting out Pirates of the Caribbean last night, but I'm feeling more up for this and optimistic than ever before.

Of course, that might also have something to do with the little teaser at the end of the trailer that suggests this might be yet another Ubisoft game that lets you punch a shark. As we all know, such a feature is the true barometer of awesomeness when it comes to this sort of thing.

Matt Gardner (Dealspwn): I saw the first incarnation of this game back at E3 2011, what's changed for the team in that time. Obviously everything went rather quiet for a while, now it's back it's a third-person game rather than a first-person game, the name has changed. Can you tell us about the journey this game has taken up to this point?

Nico Bihary (Producer, 2K Games): Sure, so back in 2011 we gave this presentation for a game with a first-person perspective. But it's funny, we always talk about what's changed, but I'd like to start with what's remained constant: a focus on squad-based, tactical combat, which was evident even in 2011.

As you'd go around in this first-person perspective, which was to serve an exploration and research need, every time you ran into an enemy, or a combat situation, you'd pull back into a third-person perspective, and UI would pop-up that was kind of like a less elegant version of the Battle Focus wheel we have in place now. There were similar mechanics between the two versions. But as we evaluated that mechanics, and really started developing those battle encounters, it really started to emerge as the “bullseye” of the gaming experience. So we looked at it and said that if third-person allows for a greater tactical-perspective, if it augments and enhances Battle Focus and makes using it intuitive, then the first-person perspective really became unnecessary.

As you're in development, there are times when a game will speak to you, and it'll become clear and tell you what's good about and what's perhaps not. And that was one of those moments: we realised that the first-person perspective was almost completely superfluous, and we came away with a more refined game, and something really good because of it.

Having dropped another trailer for the game earlier today, Codemasters have now announced the full track list for upcoming racer GRID 2.

Platforms: PC (tested) | PS3 | Xbox 360

Developers: 2K Marin

Publishers: 2K Games

The year is 1962. The Bay of Pigs Crisis has just happened. Paranoia is rife on the US mainland as the Cold War begins to kick off, and the world is plunging into a quagmire of paranoia, secrecy, mistrust, and clandestine ops.

Only the Communists aren't the real enemy at all.

The above forms the basis for 2K Marin's tactical action title, and if it sounds eerily familiar, well that's because it is.

"There wasn't a “Big Bang moment” where the [XCOM] service just came into being, so we really wanted to tell an origin story, and we really liked the idea of setting the game in 1962, just after the Bay of Pigs incident," producer Nico Bihary tells me. "So you have this global atmosphere of paranoia, it's the start of the Cold War, and set against that backdrop we have this really believable story about how XCOM could be formed.

"So we have this clandestine organisation, constructed to defend against enemy threats and covering them up, but it takes time. So we wanted to zero in on the Bureau as this organisation that really hasn't matured yet technologically or organisationally to fight off a massive alien threat, but was really established early on to be a counter-intelligence group."

A handful of our peers and some selected motoring journalists have trotted off to Silverstone today for an incredibly poorly kept secret event where Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi will discuss the future of the series.

Mega Shock: The future of the series is Gran Turismo 6.

Drums. Strings! Explosions!! INCEPTION HORN!!! We're still eagerly awaiting the two copies of the game that Deep Silver have apparently stuffed in the post for us to review, mainly because we couldn't be more excited for this one. The first game was a masterclass in atmospheric, narrative-led, incredibly tense FPS action, and we have high hopes for this.

It's out later this week for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Ah Putty Squad. The Amiga gem that never was. Released on the SNES, but famously absent from any other platfor, Putty Squad is finally re-emerging to celebrate System 3's 30th anniversary.

"Working on such a prestigious title again and to bring it up-to-date, brings back many great memories. Fans of the original are excited to get their hands on the return of the morphing blue blob hero,” the studio's CEO Mark Cale. “Putty Squad will be available on multiple platforms, where gamers can reconnect with their classic hero, discovering Putty unlike before."

We've played it. Expect a preview very soon. It's awesome, and you can check the game out in action after the jump.

Clandestine ops. Alien cover-ups. Waging a struggle against an extra-terrestrial foe without letting the general public's proverbial hit the fan. The new trailer for The Bureau: XCOM Declassified touches on how the story of XCOM got started.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified releases for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on August 20th in  the US, and the 23rd everywhere else. We'll have our monster preview for you in a couple of hours.

GRID 2 (Digital Pre-Order) | £17.99 | Simply Games
PC Price Comparison

There's a preview coming this week, but we've found GRID 2 to be pretty impressive from what we've seen of it. No-one told Codemasters that you can't have a good racing game with a good narrative element to it, because they're shaping up to knock it out out of the park.

Thanks BTL.