Yakuza 1 & 2 HD is coming to the Wii U. That's right, the Wii U is getting a new game! SEGA have finally confirmed it!...

For Japan.

Still, we Westerners can drool over the fresh new trailer and an assortment of screenshots and thne pray and petition the game ends up releasing over here too.

According to a new tweet from Nintendo, they plan to properly reveal three of their biggest first-party Wii U titles in a Nintendo Direct presentation before E3. "We will discuss new Smash Bros., 3D Mario game, Mario Kart and other Wii U titles in our #NintendoDirectNA before the start of E3," reads the missive, which is music to our ears since the console doesn't really have any confirmed system sellers on the horizon as yet (sorry Pikmin 3).

We'll naturally keep you posted with the date, links and on-site embed code for the presentation. There's less than a month to go until E3, so expect firm details soon. Also this.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut | Argos | £23.99 (pre-order)
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Nintendo has finally put a firm release date on Pikmin 3, one of the Wii U's most anticipated (and annoyingly delayed) first-party heavy hitters. The approachable strategy game has been slated for July 26th, while a few new details about storyline and features were also outed by today's Nintendo Direct presentation.

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.

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

Check them out after the jump.

Rayman Legends | WOWHD | £26.39 (Save £7.50) | Wii U price comparison

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Science and art collide when making videogames, and Watch_Dogs will need to lock both down in order to fulfil its ambitious remit. Creating a living, breathing, simulated city full of believable people is no mean feat, especially when it's home to versatile mechanics and sophisticated AI designed to react realistically to everyday situations. Not to mention a vengeful hacker who can cause massive devastation with a single tap of a touchscreen.

So after interviewing Lead Game Designer Danny Belanger, I naturally jumped at the chance to talk to cinematic animation lead Lars Bonde about the artistic challenges Watch_Dogs poses, motion capture, his influences and what the next generation promises beyond shinier graphics.

That said, we're not above talking about Drive, guns and car chases either...

Jonathan Lester (Dealspwn): Thanks for talking to us, Lars. Watch_Dogs must pose a massive challenge compared to other games. To my knowledge, no-one's ever had to animate someone getting splashed by a taxi before, discovering that their bank account has been hacked and his wife's leaving with the kids. That must be fun for you as cinematic animation lead!

Lars Bonde (Ubisoft): The challenge has been fun! Partially because, a lot of times in games, there are so many restrictions in terms of technology and how far you can go. But Ubisoft have been really great in saying, “you know what? Go as far as you can and then whatever you can do, we can always scale things down.” Everything has been built in layers. The AI programmer Eric [Baillargeon] has really provided a lot of those opportunities for us.

We've done a lot of motion capture, shot a lot of data, have a lot of actors and we work really closely with them on what we can do. When the car runs by [in the rain], someone has to be splashed. Yes, we're not putting water in the motion capture studio and spraying it up on them, but we have all kinds of other artefacts we can use like foam or whatever. We make sure that we have a little projector or a cannon that can blow it up on them and they can react to it. We can have something race by them so they can react to it as if it's a car.

After taking E3 2012 by storm and then disappearing off the grid, Watch_Dogs has taunted us for months with its promise of totally open-ended action gameplay on an open world scale. Hacking. Shooting. Sneaking. Driving. All of it, all at once, the way you want to play it.

Thankfully Ubisoft are starting to talk specifics. Having taken a long look at their latest production build, I was able to sit down with lead game designer Danny Belanger for a long discussion about Watch_Dogs' numerous gameplay systems, sophisticated AI, unique mechanics and next-generation potential. Look out for our second interview with Cinematic Lead Lars Bonde tomorrow.

Please note: Some of these questions have been submitted by our own community and members of watchdogforums.net. These questions have been clearly credited , and many thanks to everyone who got involved!

Jonathan Lester (Dealspwn): It's difficult to imagine a new IP getting a warmer reception. How exciting is it to be working on an entirely new property, and have such a strong following already?

Danny Belanger (Ubisoft): It's really exciting. When we revealed [Watch_Dogs] last year at E3, the team were super-excited by the reception. We honestly did not expect that much.

Dealspwn: You crushed E3 2012, basically.

Danny Belanger: For us, it was just...it's fun, we like the project, but you never know how it's going to be received. It's fantastic and the team is hyped!

Watch_Dogs' mysterious multiplayer functionality is getting slightly clearer. A structured competitive mode has been briefly hinted at, but more excitingly, singleplayer sessions can start to bleed together while other players synchronously enter your version of Chicago via a companion app from anywhere in the world.

"Ambitious" might be a bit of an understatement, but don't worry, you can play offline.

Platforms: PC | PS3 | Xbox 360 | Wii U | PS4

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal | Ubisoft Reflections

Publisher: Ubisoft

Watch_Dogs could well be the first truly 'next-gen' game.

We're not talking about graphics here. The latest build of Ubisoft's ambitious cross-generation title looks shiny enough running on a PS4-specced PC, but we can take detailed textures and lighting for granted. Rather, Ubisoft Montreal seems to be obsessed with creating a true sandbox using dynamic systems-upon-systems that allow players to affect a simulated city, which in turn reacts to their every decision. Everything and everyone is connected, from the single mother on benefits you walk past in the street to the police car on patrol and the suspected criminal you discover while hacking a security camera. Instead of dominating players with scripted situations, Watch_Dogs plans to offer us problems and opportunities, the tools to deal with them, then challenge us to find our own solutions on the fly.

Emergent, unpredictable and open-ended gameplay made possible through "systemic" design and sophisticated AI. Gunplay, stealth, hacking, traversal, profiling, driving and media control are all just tools at our disposal, and all have their uses in what's shaping up to be a staggeringly ambitious proposition judging by the 30 minutes of live production code Ubisoft brought along to the Parisian preview session.

Watch_Dogs revolves around Aiden Pearce, a man shaped by violence and obsessed by electronic surveillance. Having made a questionable living through cyber-fraud, identity theft and hacking bank accounts, he's a streewise and tech-savvy individual, but a "violent family tragedy" makes him strike out against the shadowy corporations that dominate a dystopic near-future Chicago. His fixation with surveillance escalates into full-blown vigilantism, and a desire to stamp his authority on the city by any means necessary. Whether he becomes a hard-edged antihero or detested villain will be entirely down to you.

DualShock 4 Touchpad Features Hinted

Though Ubisoft promises that the core Watch_Dogs gameplay experience will be identical regardless of platform, Ubisoft have revealed that the next-gen version will pack more than just prettier visuals. The simulation itself will be more realistic, allowing for advanced weather effects and fluid modelling.

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• What: NBA 2K13
• Where: Zavvi
• Current Price: £14.98
• NBA 2K13 Price Comparison
• NBA 2K13 Review

If it's been a while since you played a basketball game, this is a great time to come back as 2K's series has been going from strength to strength over recent years. So much so that EA keep cancelling their own NBA titles. The Wii U version is selling for a fiver cheaper than the other consoles and Zavvi are selling it for more than half as much as their competitors. Now that's a steal.

Thanks to urbansaint1609 at HotUkDeals.

Platforms: PC | PSN | PS Vita | XBLA | Wii U (eShop)

Developer: Pwnee Studios

Publisher: Ubisoft

Cloudberry Kingdom has an unfortunate name. Even the most open-minded gamer will probably be beset with visions of cutesy iPad apps designed to cheekily flog microtransactions to your mewling infants, or the kind of shovelware that infested the Wii a few years back.

However, I'm thrilled to report that this adorable title masks a procedurally-generated platformer of deceptively hardcore proportions; the kind of thumb blistering, retina shredding, instantly engaging technical experience that will challenge even the twitchiest Super Meat Boy veteran. Throughout hundreds of stages, not to mention a randomly-generated mode that ramps up the difficulty the better you play, you'll brave a nightmarish gauntlet of spikes, pits and lasers while getting to grips with new mechanics on the fly.

After a successful Kickstarter, Ubisoft have stepped forward as a publisher for this brave indie proposition, which kicked my arse seven ways 'til Sunday in an hour of hands-on time.

Rayman Legends, which notoriously missed its original February Wii U release window in order to eschew exclusivity for a multiplatform launch, has finally been officially dated for August 30th. It will release simultaneously on PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U - and the delay has allowed Ubisoft Montpellier to add 30 additional levels.

A weighty challenge mode demo will be available to download on the Wii U eShop today.