Megan Fox Loves The Wii

June 25th, 2009 3 Comments   Posted in Casual, Console, Culture, News, Nintendo, Wii

Shia LaBeouf’s assertion that the Wii is for amateurs didn’t help his image as a goofy awkward nerdy type, but Megan Fox is probably going to make some more fans with the acknowledgement that she is in fact something of a gamer. You won’t see her tossing grenades in an online Halo match or anything like that, but according to an interview in WhatTheyPlay.com she’s into the Wii: ”I’m totally a fan of the Wii, I’m just not good at it”.

The Transformers eye-candy admits to a prediliection for Lego licensed games and says the Star Wars games are her favorite of the bunch. She also claims to have memorized most of the fatality moves for Mortal Kombat and spends some of her time in virtual gardening with Rare’s Viva Pinata games and plays Wii Fit, defending it against claims that it’s only for girls.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Game Review–Better Than Its Predecessor

The punchline on that headline is, better than its predecessor, but not by much.

I had to admit, after the sludgy wreck that was the original Transformers game, I wasn’t expecting much of anything out of its sequel.  It’s a general rule, at least in movie circles, that the sequel is almost never better than its predecessor.  In fact, a lot of games behave that way too–how many people played Resident Evil 2, for example, and were disappointed to discover that the house would have nothing to do with what they were playing?  I was, and I doubt I was alone.  Not that it wasn’t fun, it just wasn’t the same.

However, in the case of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the fact that it isn’t the same actually works in its favor.

This time, you’re once again put in the role of either the Autobots or the Decepticons (you’ll get to choose when you start a new game).  Megatron’s been long since blasted and the Allspark is just plain old out of the picture, but the Decepticons aren’t exactly curling up and dying since losing their leader.  In fact, if Michael Bay was actually paying attention for twenty seconds to the source material for a change he’d have realized that everybody’s favorite obsequious toady Air Commander Starscream was probably waiting for a moment like this with baited breath.  Anyway, old Megatron may not be as dead as everyone thought, and this is all badly timed for the Autobots, who now find themselves not only taking on the still very active Decepticons but also trying to protect Spike Witwicky and dealing with the arrival of a mysterious object from space that looks like it might tip the rather fragile balance of power squarely into the hands of the Decepticons.

So this time, you’ll be launching back into a full-on action title just like the last one, only this time you’ll also get RPG elements on the side.  You’ll run and jump and blast things and even occasionally fly, all in the name of pounding Decepticon chassis and protecting humanity.  When you do break open a Decepticon, you’ll collect actual Energon cubes that can be collected and used to buy options and expansions between stages.  Those would be the RPG elements, an interesting way to shake up otherwise predictible gameplay (do you add on to your maximum health first, or do you focus on your gunnery?) and a downright welcome addition.  Oh, and those rare times you’re allowed to fly?  Great fun.

This time around, however, there are some new problems.  For instance, battling in Singapore I found it rather difficult to keep track of where my enemies were at any given time.  They had a tendency to blend in with the many buildings, and, despite the radar, it was tough to tell if they were at ground level or running along rooftops. And if so, WHICH rooftops were they on?  Also, I definitely didn’t like the new transform mode, where now you hold down a button to remain in your vehicle form and release it to come out.  The problem is, the button you have to hold down is your throttle button.  Thus, in order to slow and go around corners you MUST use the brake.  There’s no other option.

So yes, it’s true–Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a vastly better experience than its predecessor, with a deeper storyline and deeper gameplay and some really fun flight scenes.  However, it’s far from perfect, and thus should only be intended for those who really enjoy Transformer games or clearly action-based games.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen multiplayer caught on film

Despite being based on a movie of the same name, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is definitly shaping up to be a great game. Included above is a video walkthrough showcasing the multiplayer component featured in the game.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will apparently feature 5 different multiplayer modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Team Leader, Control Points and Battle for the Shards. Featured in the video is Control Points which looks to be a King of the Hill, Territories type game mode.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be out for the Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, PC, Wii and Nintendo DS on June 23rd.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen gameplay trailer

If you’ve always wanted to cause all sorts of chaos as giant robots, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen may be your ideal game.

Featured in the above trailer recently released by Activision is real gameplay that will be featured in the upcoming title.

What’s truly unique about Revenge of the Fallen, however, is the fact that you can actually experience the story from the Autobots perspective or Decepticons. Cool. 

Expect to see this game on store shelves June 15th.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen box art revealed

If you’ve been dying to see what the cover of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen looks like, today is your lucky day.

Activision has recently released the above image showcasing the game’s cover art featuring (who else?) Optimus Prime.

Expect to see this art featured on the cover of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen when it hits shelves on June 15th for the 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS, and PC.

Read (Kotaku)

Transformers The Game Game Review–Only Mostly The Same Old Thing

It’s not every day that I have much of anything good to say about a game translation of a movie, especially one that I have such mixed feelings about to begin with as Transformers.  But the Transformers game, not so ironically entitled Transformers: The Game and now available for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii, PC, and a panoply of portable systems, managed to do something a little interesting, and thus earns a couple extra points.

See, in Transformers: The Game, playing as the Autobots basically lets you go through the movie, where you’re out to recover the AllSpark before the Decepticons do, and you’ve got to protect Sam Witwicky and basically do all those things you did in the movie.  Meanwhile, if you play as the Decepticons, you get to do the exact same thing just from the Decepticon side.  In fact, if you actually WIN as the Decepticons, you’ll manage to unlock a whole new ending, which will not turn out to be a surprise, but the sheer fact that a game translation of a movie took that kind of effort is worth noting.

We all know that most movie to game translations are shovelware of the highest magnitude.  This month’s PC Gamer, for example, refers to those who work PR for licensed games as having one of the “worst jobs in the gaming industry” and describes their work as “unthusiasm” and “soul crushing”.  They’re on par with retail gamer store workers, game testers, mascots, and the poor sucker who works the Xbox Live abuse reports box.  So for a movie to game translation to show a little initiative—like making alternate endings for the two warring factions—is a noteworthy step.  Not a HUGE noteworthy step, but a noteworthy step nonetheless.

The down side, of course, is that the gameplay sucks out loud.  All you do is transform, roll out to a certain destination, transform, beat some robots down, transform, roll out to your NEXT destination and repeat it until either you win the game, your eyes start to bleed or you curl up into a fetal position wailing about how you’ve wasted your life.  Believe me, that sort of thing happens more often than you think.

Yes, it’s the kind of game you’ve played literally over and over again for the last few years now and it hasn’t gotten that much better.  Sure, they went the extra mile and for that I’ll give them due credit but it’s really little more than a massive pile of elephant dung that happens to have an orchid growing out of it.  That one particular part of the whole may be pretty but the rest of it is just crap.

So basically, if you’ve seen the movie a few dozen times, can’t get enough of the ORIGINAL voice of Optimus Prime (that’s another critical area of importance—seems the games brought back Peter Cullen and Frank Welker to handle the original voices,  at least that’s the case on the Wii version), and are willing to put up with a whole lot of more of the same, then this is the game for you.  Otherwise, well, you’re probably better off staying away from movie to game translations entirely.

Transformers pre-orders rewarded with golden

April 27th, 2009 1 Comment   Posted in DLC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

You guessed it, GameStop has secured themselves yet another round of exclusive pre-order content. This time, those who pre-order Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be given access to golden skins for both Optimus Prime and Megatron.

According to GameStop’s listing, after pre-ordering the game online or in person for either Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 you’ll be given a keychain that contains the code necessary to unlock the golden skins. 

Activision’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is currently slated to hit store shelves on June 15th for the Xbox 360, PC, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, and Nintendo DS.

Rumor: Radical Working on Spider-Man, High Moon on Transformers

April 24th, 2009 No Comments   Posted in Action, Adventure, PC, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360

spiderman_valentine Word comes from Variety, who cites anonymous sources, that Activision Blizzard has Prototype developer Radical working on a new Spider-Man game, with High Moon, the studio behind Bourne Conspiracy, working on Transformers.

The site notes that Radical’s work on free-roaming worlds fits in with Spidey’s exploits. No release estimate was provided.

High Moon’s Transformers game was said not to be based on the upcoming movie. It is expected sometime next year.

Transformers Song Coming to Guitar Hero

March 17th, 2009 No Comments   Posted in DLC, Music, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

trans2 Serving to its core geek crowd, the song “The Touch” from the 1986 animated film Transformers: The Movie will soon be available as a free download for Guitar Hero, according to artist Stan Bush.

"Also, I’ve been holding off announcing this, but ‘The Touch’ is going to be in Guitar Hero!" wrote Bush in a note to a Transformers fan site.

No release date was given.