Dave Gargan, Havok’s VP of Engineering, told the world a bit about the Wii U implementation of their famous engine, which Nintendo are making available to all Wii U developers free of charge. From the sound of it, I honestly don’t think we have anything to worry about, horsepower-wise.

The platform has its own unique features, and has its own challenges as well. When we come across any new particular platform, we optimize specifically for some of the advantages that those platforms offer over other platforms, and Wii U has specific advantages that no other platform has, and we optimize directly for those, right down at the level of accessing the hardware.

I think we’ll see things done on the Wii U that we won’t see on another platforms… I think people will be genuinely excited with the range of titles they’re going to see come out.

So, you can now add Havok to the growing list of third-parties that are enthusiastic over and supportive of the Wii U.

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The above tweet from Spike TV’s Geoff Keighley suggests that the Wii U will only support Unreal Engine 3. This has been going around the Internet as “confirmation” that Unreal Engine 4 support is out of the question.

However, it should be noted that Unreal Engine 4 has not actually been confirmed for any platforms other than the PC yet. Speaking to NowGamer, Epic Games confirmed that they’ll talk more about the next generation of their engine at E3 next week.

Speaking in an interview, THQ’s Mark Madsen revealed that the Wii U version of Metro: Last Light never began development, and it would be “correct” to say that it is no longer a confirmed title for the system.

This is disappointing news, as Metro: Last Light looked to be a rather promising game. While there is still a chance that THQ may reconsider a Wii U port, it’s likely at this point that it will not happen.

EuroGamer got the chance to sit down and play through the first half hour of Darksiders 2. In comparison to the original Darksiders, the opening involves much less “hitting things” and more interesting navigation and exploration. Death is a much more agile character than his predecessor War and his combat style focuses on “dancing in and out of range, switching weapons, [and] finding openings.”

Their impressions seem largely positive, and it looks like Darksiders 2 is going to be quite a solid addition to every library it comes to.

THQ produced a chillingly gritty, live-action short film based on Metro: Last Light. They sent over the following quip to describe it, along with the film itself:

The Moscow Metro. A monumental feat of Soviet engineering, with a dark secondary purpose – to serve as a refuge in the event of an atomic attack. As the Cold War thawed and the threat of nuclear annihilation seemed to fade, this purpose was forgotten – except by a few, waiting for the signal, ready to open the vaults… the last refuge for the remnants of mankind.

It’s a well-made teaser for the game, which, unfortunately, won’t be hitting stores until next year. I’ve uploaded it for you after the break

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Slightly Mad Games have released another awesome batch of Project CARS screenshots, which look brilliant as usual. Feast your eyes on them after the break!

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Nintendo have launched the official Wii U Facebook page, giving the growing Wii U fanbase a central official home. There isn’t much to see there yet, but I’m sure Nintendo would appreciate your support if you gave them your like.

The creation of this page does, however, carry some weight in that it more or less confirms “Wii U” as the console’s final name. Those of you who were hoping for a name change, I’m sorry to say that you’re out of luck. On a more selfish note, this means I won’t need to move my sites to new domains yet again.

While you’re over on Facebook, why not give our own Facebook page a like as well?

While Nintendo have all developers locked down under NDA agreements until next Tuesday, Gearbox’s Brian Burleson has stated that “[the] Wii U is a powerful, powerful machine”.

Rumours we’ve been hearing over the past year or so have placed the Wii U’s power everywhere from less powerful than the PlayStation 3 to six times mightier than the Xbox 360. Given, this latest statement doesn’t bring us any closer to a resolution; but if anything, it proves yet again that developers are very happy with what they’re working with.

Nintendo have sent out the fifth and final version of the Wii U development kit to third-party developers, according to an insider at NeoGAF. We don’t really have any further details beyond this, but it does mean that the hardware is finally locked in and developers are now working with the complete power and feature set of the final Wii U console.

And it’s about time, too – it was confirmed a while ago that the Wii U model we’d see at this year’s E3 will be the final retail unit.

It has been confirmed that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Metro: Last Light will launch within the first quarter of 2013, but the Wii U version is a bit further off according to a statement by THQ’s Huw Beynon:

We’ve been working on the Wii U version. At the moment we’re focusing on current-gen or existing platforms and PC, so it’s unlikely that the Wii U verson will come out at the same time as those formats.

It’s unfortunate that the Wii U version of the game will be late to the party. But on the bright side, it’s extremely likely that the delay of that particular version means THQ plan to put additional development into it – ergo, it will be more than a direct port of the first release. Hard to complain about that, isn’t it?