The Tuesday Cap is a new regular column capping of and commenting on game news for the past week.

Yeah, sure, I could be playing Batman Arkham City right now like every single person on both my Xbox and PSN friends lists. But I'm a pretend journalist, and that means I have pretend obligations to you (hopefully not pretend) reader. Like Batman has obligations. And like Batman I'm going fullfill those obligations. Although sitting at the computer wearing tights is going to raise some awkward questions if someone comes in.

I'd better type quickly.

(incidentally, aren't all these monochromatic Batman images promoting the game just radical? When they release an Arkham City art book I am buying the hells out of that thing).

Australia Gets Boned Again News

Not so much Big News to lead of this week, but bad news. Stars Wars The Old Republic, probably the most anticipated Star Wars game of all time. Has confirmed its global release date will be 20^th December 2011. Unfortunately this announcement doesn’t apply to Australia and New Zealand. In horror I quickly checked Google Earth to confirm that, yes, we are still part of the globe.

As for Australia and New Zealand, we’ll be getting the Star Wars MMO some time later on. Assuming EA still finds us worthy of being included in the global community.

And here’s an extra slap from Microsoft. Turns out the secret Kinect functionality for Halo Anniversary is…. Kinect voice control. Players can shout grenade and reload to carry out those activities, or analyse to record a visible object into the game library. Other voice commands will be available, if you have voice control in your country. Which Australia as yet does not.

Crap.

Trailer News

Not one, but two games I love beyond the appropriate level they should receive affection are slated for upcoming sequels and both have released gameplay trailers in the past week. Checkout the trailers below for Hitman Absolution and Prototype 2.

As with most fans I’m slightly disturbed by the linear structure of the Hitman trailer, just as, like most fans, I was extremely annoyed by the first linear hand holding walkthrough level of Hitman Bloodlines. I want to see the social stealth and elaborate traps the game is known for. I’ve always loved that the game was more about reconnaissance and studying your target, the final hit almost seems arbitrary after all the preparation, and the highest scores are awarded for making it look like an accident.

I took some flack for giving Prototype quite a high score way back when I first started writing for That Aussie Game Site. But I adored the ‘you are the monster’ element of the game. It was all about you giving the army a massively hard time and tearing round New York like an unstoppable Resident Evil boss monster. The sequel casts you as a new character but overall looks like more of the same. Plus you still regain health by eating people. Fantastic.

7 Minutes of (Final Fantasy) Heaven News

The videos are falling out of New York Comic Con like similes don’t immediately fall out of my brain.

Here’s an extremely lengthy look at Final Fantasy XIII-2.

More Syndicated News

Syndicate is also getting the extended gameplay Comic Con trailer treatment. I still refuse to admit this game might actually be good.

Comics to Games News

Superman, undoubtedly the most popular illegal immigrant anchor baby in America, is getting a computer game.

WAIT! Don’t scroll down; this one might be good, maybe. It sounds good. Firstly, it’s a relatively simple to play iOS game. You move superman with one thumb and with the other thumb you can make him move super fast or use a context related super power.

Superman’s real enemy in this game is time, this is how I’ve always believed Superman games should work, you basically try to fly around the city stopping natural disasters, robberies, super villains and all that stuff, darting between dangers as quickly as you can. It’s one of those simple but genius ideas that should have been implemented in a Superman game years ago.

Sure it doesn't look like much, but the hell do you think Angry Birds looks as a screenshot?

Think about when you were in a mission in GTA IV, cops were shooting, you needed to get a stolen car to a location and the clock was ticking. In mid firefight you get a picture txt from your current girlfriend of her buttocks and suddenly you only have an hour to get there as well. Now instead of a Serbian gangster, imagine you’re Superman. You’ve just foiled a robbery and are rocketing back to Lois Lane, desperately looking for a phone booth to change back into Clark Kent, for a dinner date you’ve previously arranged. You have five minutes when your super hearing picks up a nearby mugging and a helicopter that’s lost control over the city. That sort of game would capture the Superman experience we’ve seen in cartoons, comics and films, a man of almost god like power trying to be every where at once while juggling a normal life.

This Superman game, simply called Superman, isn’t quite the game of my dreams, it’s only 2D for a start, but it’s pretty damn close to what I’d like a Superman game to be. Plus it’s written by practising wizard and incredible comic scribe Grant Morrison, responsible for the amazing series All Star Superman, which was recently made into a cartoon movie that your inner child demands you watch now.

Dark Horse comics has also whipped out a game based on an old and likely unfamiliar franchise to most people, Ghost, about a spectre of a journalist named Elisa Cameron trying to solve the mystery of her own murder in the fictional city of Arcadia. The comic was popular for being an intelligent and mature title, and possibly also because the character of Ghost dresses like a sexy nun and there’s a bit of John Woo style shooting action as she fights demons and evil ghosts in the afterlife. Despite this the game being made looks like some kind of point and click first person detective title with lots of object finding. Might be interesting.

Lastly The Darkness sequel continues to look pretty darn good with this recent trailer (in case you were unaware The Darkness was originally a comic):

Future Look Even Worse for Handhelds News

I was pretty unkind to the PSP and DS last week and at least one person (my daughter) has called me an idiot (but that might not have been related to the article). I don’t hate the DS and PSP and I certainly don't want them to fail. I’ve got an original PSP and about three DS’s floating around my house. I just think it’s worth pointing out, that there’s a more than a reasonable chance we’ve seen the last of these kinds of devices, and the next Mario and Zelda handheld games will be iOS/Andriod mobile titles.

Before you come around to my house and put sugar in my gas tank consider this. Last week Scribblenauts launched on the iPhone for $5. A brilliant adaptation of amazing puzzle game Super Scribblenauts, a game that still costs $23 on ozgameshop and likely somewhere north of $40 new on a store shelf in Australia. But you can have the same game, with identical graphics and features, on your phone or iPod, for five dollars.

Oh, crappy puzzle games will never stack up against major release titles with 3D graphics and huge worlds you say?

Well, take a look at GTA 3 for iOS and Android. It looks good, it plays good, it’s big and scary impressive for a mobile game. Wow, what other games could we soon be playing on iOS and Android devices? Metal Gear Solid? God of War? I bet every Gamecube title would be playable on an iOS device.

Of course this is just wild futurist speculation based on observation; but it’s not hard to imagine a lot companies in the hardware biz today turning to a software focus tomorrow.

Bank Robbing News

The Heist is shaping up to be a terrific PSN title. An online coop bank robbery game, how cool does that sound? Just think of Heat or the opening moments of The Dark Knight. You can put a red ring around October 18 (hey that’s today!) for the games official release and the price will be a mere $20 dollars.

Here’s a trailer to whet your appetite.

Science Fictional News

The online version of the Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction is now live and online, albeit in a beta version, which you can read here http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com

If you’re a massive snorting nerd like me you all ready knew that. If you’re not here’s my entirely poor logic as to why this is game news. Firstly, video games, online games, hand held games, playing games with hundreds of people online at the same time, these things were all once science fiction themselves. That’s right; we’re living in THE WORLD OF TOMORROW today.

And second, science fiction has directly inspired a huge swathe of video games. Most of the first video games ever made, and I’d say about half of all games have science fiction settings or themes.

And no the science fiction encyclopaedia isn’t just for books, there’s comic, television, film and game stuff on there as well, go ahead and search for Halo (don’t search for Killzone though).

Endangered Magazines News

So after constant release delays the Official World of Warcraft Magazine has officially folded. Subscribers, including myself, were sent a letter stating that the last issue will be the final issue and they can log on with a code to either receive $60 worth of World of Warcraft in game pets or receive a cash refund.

It’s not a huge surprise. The magazine needed to do something to stand out against hundreds of blogs and message boards that provided instant news and information and it didn’t quite get there. There was never a sense that the magazine provided any real insider information, as some hoped it would, and its attempts to highlight the community and real world aspects of the game were dismally dull. I enjoyed the magazine but I’m surprised it lasted beyond two issues. It seemed too extravagant a publication to sustain itself.

Let me also have moment to whine that the manner in which the online refund is carried out is deplorable. The option to claim six in game pets looks like the only option on the page with a huge button to redeem it; the offer of a cash refund is hidden in size 4 text right down the bottom of the page. And to claim a refund, as I intend to, requires me to write a hard copy letter and mail it to California to then receive a Cheque back in the mail. That’s absolutely ridiculous. The publishers should have just automatically debited everyone’s credit cards with the $60.

Way to reward your faithful fans and subscribers Blizzard.

(No) Sequel News

If you’ve played the game all ready you know that Space Marine is a pretty banging title. Bringing all the epic violence and action of the Dawn of War series to a shooter game has given publisher THQ a big win with some good review scores.

So naturally, they’re going to abandon the franchise now.

Crap.

I would have slapped down money tomorrow to see the further adventures of Captain Titus and see what elements of the Warhammer 40K universe would make an appearance in a sequel, Terminator Marines, Eldar, Necron invasions, Tyranids, Grey Knights, Kroots, Tau, Assassins, Witchfinders, Sisters of Battle, or any of the other dozens of cool elements that make up the vast tapestry of the Warhammer 40K worlds, there’s just so damn much universe to milk. Sadly it seems not to be with THQ saying they don’t have room for another Space Marine game right now, sticking it in the forgotten cupboard with Red Faction. Label games for the UFC and WWE seem to be the companies main focus, alongside the always well selling Saints Row series.

So the next Warhammer game we’ll see will be that *shudder* MMORPG game next year.