Are you The Batman?

Easily one of 2011’s most anticipated game releases is available this week in the form of (The) Batman: Arkham City, and this blockbuster action title is flanked by a number of other awesome titles, including that four-player co-operative PlayStation 3-exclusive, a new addition to the Sims family and some football titles for you armchair managers out there.

Find out what brand new games you can expect to release around the world this week, below:

Releasing in North America: October 18th

• Batman: Arkham City (PS3, Xbox 360)

• PowerUp Heroes (Xbox 360)

• Professor Layton and the Last Specter (DS – Releasing October 17th)

• Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One One (PS3)

• Rocksmith (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

• Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, 3DS, Wii – Released October 16th)

• Tropico 4 (Xbox 360)

• The Sims 3: Pets (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, 3DS)

Releasing in Europe, the UK and South Africa: October 20th and October 21st

• Batman: Arkham City (PS3, Xbox 360)

• Dance Central 2 (Xbox 360)

• FIFA Manager 12 (PC)

• Football Manager 2012 (PC)

• Jagged Alliance: Back in Action (PC)

• Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One (PS3)

• Tetris (3DS)

• The Adventures of Tintin: The Game (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, 3DS)

• The Sims 3: Pets (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, 3DS)

• Tropico 4 (X360)

Downloadable Games

PlayStation Network (PlayStation 3)

• Beat Hazard Ultra – Welcome to a new experience in gameplay mechanics: Beat Hazard Ultra – Gameplay Powered by YOUR Music! Experience your music collection like never before with this intense music driven arcade shooter. Each of your songs will have its own unique ebb and flow based on the music. Power up your spaceship and watch as the music boosts your firepower. Unleash hell on the enemy ships when you max out with weapon pickups! Beat Hazard seamlessly mixes the love of gaming and music. Together they become greater than the sum of their parts.

• Dungeon Defenders – Developed by Trendy Entertainment, Dungeon Defenders throws action-RPG and tower defense gameplay into the proverbial blender to create a seamless mix of leveling, looting and high-action territorial combat for casual and core players alike. Dungeon Defenders features a lovingly-rendered watercolor art style and allows up to 4 players, online or locally, to take one of four distinct classes into fierce battle against ever-increasing waves of baddies and bosses across 15 arenas and multiple modes.

• Okabu – Okabu follows the adventures of Kumulo, Nimbe and the cloud-flying heroes as they battle to save their people and their world from the industrialized threat of the Doza. The world of Okabu is a hyper-tactile toybox filled with a huge number of puzzles, playthings, adorable creatures and devious machines –all spread across an epic co-op campaign

• Payday – The Heist – Payday: The Heist is a high-intensity squad-based first person shooter where players take on the role of a hardened career criminal pulling death-defying heists in the never-ending pursuit of the next “big score.” Quick wit, an equally fast trigger finger and above all teamwork are the rules of engagement as players will embark on a spectacular crime spree of six heart stopping heists, including blasting their way through a downtown bank vault robbery, managing hostages in an armored car hijacking and even a midnight infiltration of a top-secret, high-security facility.

• Real Steel – In Real Steel, the player assumes the role of an owner of a fighting robot, and must battle against many different rival robots in an attempt to become champion of several levels of fighting tiers. Players earn in-game money by winning matches and, using this money, must periodically improve their robot, making it stronger and more fit to compete in the higher level match tiers. The vast amount of customizable parts and selectable equipment makes for over 100 million possibilities of custom robots!

• Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken – Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken builds upon the critically-acclaimed browser-based game Rocketbirds: Revolution!, with new characters, missions, puzzles, exclusive music videos, retro cut scenes, stereoscopic 3D support and more.

• Street Fighter Alpha 3 (PSone Classics) – Street Fighter Alpha 3 gives you the choice from 34 different characters including four brand new characters, all with three different fighting styles. All of the characters from the previous games in the ALPHA series have returned, while many old favorites like Guile, E. Honda, Blanka, Balrog, Dee Jay, and Fei Long make their fist appearance in the ALPHA series. There are also four new characters: Karin Kanzuki, Rainbow Mika, Juli, and Juni, making 34 characters in all.

Xbox LIVE Arcade (Xbox 360)

• Dungeon Defenders

What can we look forward to next week? Here are the highlights:

• Battlefield 3

• Dance Central 2 (US release)

• Disney Universe

• Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi

• Kinect Sports: Season Two

• Kirby: Mass Attack (UK release)