Deep Silver and 49Games have revealed the release date of the upcoming sports game Summer Stars 2012 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii. Summer Stars 2012 lets players experience a large variety of events, special challenges and competitions at exciting venues around the world. With more than eighteen different disciplines & challenges, Summer Stars 2012 covers a whole range of summer sports.

Players can prove their talent in disciplines like Triple Jump, Mountain Biking, Diving or Sprinting and become a top athlete in the career mode. In multiplayer mode, they can compete directly with up to three friends or family members on split screen. Summer Stars 2012 also leaves it up to the players to decide how far they will be physically involved in the gameplay: the game supports traditional arcade-style controls style controls as well as motion control via Kinect for Xbox 360, PlayStation Move or Wii.

Summer Stars 2012 is scheduled for release on the 1st June for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii.  Electronic Theatre will keep you updated with all the latest details about Summer Stars 2012.

Article Sources: DiasFlec | Summer Stars 2012 Release Date Announced | (2/22/2012)

Unlike the last game, however, which featured Pikachu only, players now have the option to control Tepig, Snivy, and Oshawott, and swap from one to another at any time. Each of these new Unova starters has its own set of helpful abilities: Oshawott is the only one that can swim, Tepig can break down boulders, and Snivy can jump over tall obstacles.

Players can also befriend and accrue backup Pokémon (spanning all generations) for use in battles by completing Skill Games. Chase (where players must capture or tag the other participating Pokémon) and Battle return as Skill Games for PokéPark 2. Additionally, players can participate in a 10-round Battle Tournament.

While players can explore the initial PokéPark, they also have access to a new area called Wish Park, a magical place full of cakes and candy that also contains some strangely acting Pokémon. In this area, Pikachu and pals must find out what’s going on. Other known locations include Cove Area, Flora Area, Crag Area, and Scrap Area.

Players are able to battle other Pokémon in real time in order to befriend them. PokéPark 2 also focuses more on battling and exploration than the Attractions. This time around, there are only four of these mini-games (down from 14 in the previous game). In Dance Inferno, players manipulate the Wii remote to match the motion and measure of icons scrolling across the bottom of the screen. In Power Bash, the goal is to knock out as many Pokémon as possible while avoiding bombs. In Sweets Factory, players use the Wii remote to target and shoot a variety of confections moving past on a conveyor belt. In Wonder Flight, players tilt the Wii remote to move themselves as they collect gems in the sky. Though players are free to experience these Attractions alone in single-player mode, up to four players can now participate in them to compete for the highest score.

Article Sources: PokéPark 2: Wonders Beyond Preview – Preview – Nintendo World Report

Nintendo’s Wii U will be out in time for the 2012 holiday season and will feature NFC technology, according to the company.

The next-generation Nintendo Wii will have a handheld controller with a touchscreen that can interact with what’s showing on the TV screen. The new device will also come equipped with NFC technology, allowing users to create cards and figurines that would allow users to connect to other users and the system in new ways. In addition, the technology could allow players to buy in-game items or apps without having to enter credit card information, a possible advantage over gaming competitors such as Xbox and Playstation.

The technology is popular in Japan and other East Asian countries and is slowing making its way toward smartphones in the U.S. as a way to quickly pay for items at retail locations.

In addition to NFC technology, Nintendo aims to expand the networking experience for gamers. The company uses an online competition mode called “Communities” for players of “Mario Kart 7,” a Nintendo 3DS game. Players can add users from different systems and personalize their experience within their respective “Mario Kart” communities. With Wii U, Nintendo plans to expand those networking capabilities to all users.

Details about Wii U were first revealed last June at E3. More recently, company officials said more info about the product will be announced at this year’s E3 and that the console will go on sale in the U.S., Europe and Japan for the holidays.

In Nintendo President Satoru Iwata’s briefing about its quarterly results and the Wii U launch, he said

Nintendo wants to ensure the system is fit for consumers and will come out in time for the holiday retail season, President Satoru Iwata said. The value of timing, he added, was a “bitter” lesson learned from its launch of Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming system. The 3DS came out last March and has seen much lower sales than the company had expected.

Nintendo didn’t respond to our requests for further comment.

Nintendo’s Wii was a huge hit for the company when it first debuted in 2006, mostly because of its motion control technology. This time around, though, with similar products already on the market, a launch with the same kind of impact as the first Wii release will be more difficult to achieve.

“The Wii was novel and appealed to a market well beyond the conventional gaming audience. I suspect that the Wii U’s tablet controls will have similar appeal, but they are hardly novel, given that tens of millions of people have tablets, and hundreds of millions have smartphones and iPod touch devices. The touchscreen is well-understood by the target market, so it is a natural progression, but not particularly unique,” Michael Pachter, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, told TechNewsWorld.

The NFC technology could be what sets the Wii U apart from competitors. In addition easing the way for in-game payments, the technology could enable Nintendo to merge the video game and real-life game worlds, for example by making real-life “Pokemon” game cards NFC-capable. Purchasing something in real life could bring advantages to the digital game, enhancing sales on all levels for Nintendo.

“NFC is definitely a slam dunk feature for the Wii U. Its possibilities are substantial and go hand in hand with Nintendo IP. Third parties who have made inroads into smart toys will also enjoy this technology being included with the console,” Ted Pollak, senior gaming analyst at Jon Peddie Research, told TechNewsWorld.

The timing of the release, both around the holidays and around the time the present Wii platform turns six years old, could also work in Nintendo’s favor.

“Nintendo is releasing the powerful console as gamers start to fatigue from older hardware, which is good timing,” said Pollak.

In addition to the news about Wii U, Nintendo also recently revealed its latest earnings report. The company reported a loss for the first three quarters of its fiscal 2011, and it predicts a bigger loss for the fiscal year, which ends in March.

Slow 3DS sales shouldered a great deal of blame for the loss, which Nintendo said could be as much as US$838 million on the year. Although “Super Mario 3D Land” and “Mario Kart 7″ have helped kickstart 3DS sales since November, the company lowered its sales outlook for the devices and are hoping the Wii U will be the boost it needs.

“Nintendo is in a pretty weak position right now, with Wii and handheld sales down each of the last two years, and heading for further declines. Their sales are sufficiently poor that they are unprofitable for the first time in a long time, and they need the 3DS and Wii U to sell well in order to return to profitability,” said Pachter.

Nintendo likely hopes the NFC technology and networking aspects of the new console will give it a competitive edge to stay relevant in the gaming marketplace.

“At the end of the day, Nintendo will be playing on a much more even field this time around, and will need to deliver on many levels for success,” said Pollak.

Article Sources: DiasFlec | Nintendo Greases Wii U Wheels | (2/22/2012)

Xbox Live isn’t just an online gaming service anymore. Microsoft is announcing today that the new version of its Xbox Live user interface will help transform entertainment on the television. The upgrade goes live on Tuesday.

Calling it the future of TV, Microsoft is unveiling a new user interface for the Xbox 360′s dashboard; it is also unveiling dozens of new options for watching movies and TV on the console. Microsoft has also improved the quality of using Kinect voice commands to move from one choice to another, or to search through all of the entertainment options at your disposal in an instant.

The update is one of the biggest in the past five years for the Xbox 360 because Microsoft is trying to improve the experience of watching entertainment. It also includes cloud-based access and storage for gamers to improve the basic gaming experience.

“We think you’re going to use one device for movies, music and games in the future,” said Ross Honey, general manager of Xbox Live entertainment and advertising, in an interview.  “We want to make the content accessible and enhance the actual experience. We think you will want to watch it on Xbox as it is more social and more personal.”

The update will be live on Tuesday for Xbox Live users, and it will greatly multiply the entertainment options that people have in their homes, providing access to on-demand TV, movies and user-generated videos. You can, for instance, get access to 26 TV channels from Verizon’s FiOS TV services, or the complete library of 10,000 On Demand movies from Comcast. You can download the new update in a matter of minutes.

“A lot of people have said they’re going to reinvent television,” Honey said. “I’m going to say it as well.”

When you say “Xbox,” the Microsoft Kinect motion-sensor and voice communication system springs to life. Then you can say “Bing” to activate the Bing search function across the entire console and ask it to find anything related to the word “X-Men.” Bing will show you X-Men movie, TV or game selections. Then you can choose an option, such as Zune or Netflix, to view the selection. The Kinect system generally works better than it did with voice controls last year.

The new visual user interface is borrowed from Metro, the square tiles and buttons from Microsoft’s user interface for Windows Phone 7 devices. The Windows 8 operating system arriving next year features the Metro interface in smartphones, tablets and PCs. The point is that you will be able to use the interface to get to the entertainment you want more quickly. And you won’t have to relearn different interfaces to access lots of content.

You can use your voice to find the games, movies, TV shows and music. The results come back and then you can choose the service that can best deliver the entertainment to you at the lowest cost. Bing search on Xbox with voice commands will be available at first in English in the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom. Text search works if you don’t have Kinect. Microsoft has sold more than 57 million Xbox 360s and it has more than 35 million Xbox Live members.

You can also use your Windows Phone 7 smartphone to cruise for shows, select the one you want to watch, and then see the movie appear on your screen as your Xbox 360 fetches the movie from the cloud and streams it to your TV set. All you have to do is get the Xbox Companion app for Windows Phone.

That leads us to one of the cool things about the Xbox Live update. Now you will be able to log into your gamertag identity on any Xbox 360. You can then play your saved games or watch your in-progress movies on any Xbox 360, thanks to cloud storage.

If you want to watch new release movies, you’ll have choices such as Zune, Epix, and others. Among the catalog of services available are Hulu Plus, Last.fm, Netflix, Zune music and video and ESPN. TV providers include AT&T U-verse TV in the U.S., Telus in Canada, BSkyB in the U.K., CANAL+ in France, Vodafone Portugal, VimpelCom in Russia, and Foxtel in Australia.

Microsoft has made a lot of progress on its original vision of turning the Xbox 360 into a gateway for all living room entertainment. The console was introduced as a game machine in 2005 with the cool Xbox Live online gaming service. The next year, Microsoft added the ability to download high-definition movies on demand to the console. In 2008, Microsoft added interactive TV services with BSkyB and Canal Plus. In 2009, the company added “the New Xbox Experience” with Netflix and other streaming movie services as well as social networks. Last year, it added Kinect voice controls for TV viewing, and this year, it added services such as Hulu Plus and enhanced ESPN. With the improved ESPN, which launched in August, you can see the status of friends and find out who they are expecting to win your favorite game.

On average, Xbox 360 users are watching 60 hours video entertainment per month, or two hours per day on the console. Now Xbox Live is adding 40 new entertainment platforms on a global basis.

Microsoft is rolling out the services slowly to make sure they work right. The new apps debuting on Dec. 6 are Epix in the U.S.; ESPN on Xbox Live in the U.S.; Hulu in Japan; Hulu Plus in the U.S.; Lovefilm in the United Kingdom; Premium Play by Mediaset in Italy; Netflix in the U.S.; Sky Go in Germany; and Telefónica España Movistar Imagenio in Spain.

Later in December, you’ll be able to use Xbox Live to watch 4 on Demand (C4) in the U.K.; ABC iView (Australian Broadcasting Corp.); AlloCiné. France (AlloCiné); Germany (Filmstarts); Spain (Sensacine); United Kingdom (Screenrush); Astral Media’s Disney XD (Astral Media) in Canada; Blinkbox in the U.K.; Crackle (Sony Pictures) in  Australia, Canada, U.K. and the U.S.; Dailymotion in 32 countries; Demand 5 (Five) in the U.K.; iHeartRadio (Clear Channel) in the U.S.; Mediathek/ZDF (ZDF) in Germany; MSN om Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and the U.K.; MSNBC.com in the U.S.; MUZU.TV in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the U.K.; Ninemsn in Australia; Real Sports (Maple Leaf Sports) in Canada; Rogers On Demand Online (Rogers Media) in Canada; SBS On Demand in Australia; TMZ (Warner Bros.) in Canada and the U.S.; Today (MSNBC) in the U.S.; TVE (RTVE.es) in Spain; UFC on Xbox LIVE (UFC) in the U.S. and Canada; Verizon FiOS TV in the U.S.; Vevo; and Vudu; and YouTube in 24 countries.

In early 2012, the new services include Antena 3 (Antena 3 de Televisión); BBC (BBC); CinemaNow (Best Buy); DIGI+ (CANAL+) in Spain; GolTV (Mediapro) in Spain; HBO GO (HBO); MLB.TV (MLB Advanced Media); Telenovelas/Sports (Televisa); and Xfinity on Demand (Comcast).

Article Sources: DiasFlec | Microsoft upgrades Xbox Live with 40 entertainment services, live TV, and Kinect voice control | (2/22/2012)

Developer Gearbox also unveiled a pre-order “Premier Club” for the sequel to its four-player cooperative shooter Borderlands. The pre-order bonuses include a downloadable Gearbox Gun Pack, a Golden Key and the Vault Hunter’s Relic: The Gearbox Gun Pack is a collection of unique guns; the Golden Key is an in-game item used to unlock a rare item in the Golden Sanctuary Loot Chest found in Borderlands 2; and the Vault Hunter’s Relic is an in-game item that boosts players’ gear-hunting fortune.

In Borderlands 2, players have to hunt down Handsome Jack and his corrupt Hyperion Corporation on the world of Pandora. The game will support a single-player campaign as well as up to four-player cooperative play. The game will support both local split-screen play and online drop-in-drop-out gaming.

“The addictive gameplay and shooting and looting mayhem of the first Borderlands is back and better than ever in Borderlands 2, taking the franchise to an entirely new level,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “With more guns, more enemies, more missions, an engaging story and all-new characters, Borderlands 2 promises to bring a new era to gaming this fall.”

Article Sources: Borderlands 2, ‘bigger, better, more badass,’ hits this September

Think of it as cramming for a final: The Oscar show is airing in eight days, and you’re going to enjoy it a lot more if you’ve actually seen some of the contenders.

So here’s a quick guide on what to see, based on how they stand in the six top categories (picture, acting, director) along with whether they’re worth your time. Most are still in theaters, some on DVD.

1. “The Artist.” This black-and-white, mostly silent comedy was nominated for 10 awards, and what puts it at the top of this list is that it’s a strong contender, if not the favorite, for best picture, best actor (Jean Dujardin) and best director (Michel Hazanavicius). Also nominated for best supporting actress (B

Article Sources: DiasFlec | What to see before Oscar night | (2/22/2012)

+ darkedgex on February 10th, 2012 at 12:06 pm said:

3) No HDMI output: a device capable of HD video decoding and gameplay, and you can’t hook it to a TV. Ideally you’d be able to pair a DualShock3 to your Vita, hook it to a TV and use it like a home system while at home (or in your hotel room, or at a friends), but instead you’re stuck with the screen on the device (and holding it while gaming instead of a more comfortable controller).

4) No way to get your UMD games at a discount. Way to tell your PSP fanbase that you’d rather they bought everything they already own at full retail guys, that’ll make you really popular for sure! *thumbs up*

5) And while I’m not sure on this, I’m pretty confident that there’s still no MKV/FLAC support for this device, meaning you can’t use modern audio/video containers on a Vita.

Please PLEASE fix this device. Something with broad appeal and use will have a much better chance than something unable to do even the most basic portable device tasks.

Article Sources: DiasFlec | Welcome to PlayStation Vita | (2/22/2012)

• Sony’s PlayStation Vita gaming device hits U.S. stores Wednesday
• Vita allows for eight different applications to run simultaneously
• The front has a touchscreen and two analog joysticks, a first for a portable gaming device
• Our verdict: Vita is a promising device whose success will depend on quality of its games

(CNN) — Sony’s PlayStation Vita, which hits stores in the U.S. and Europe next Wednesday, is much more than just another portable gaming device.

With the Vita, Sony is trying to combine the power of its PlayStation home console with the interface, portability and social media features of a smartphone. With its innovative touch controls, OLED screen, motion sensors, social apps, GPS capability and dual cameras, it has most of the bells and whistles that today’s gamers could want.

Some industry observers question whether gamers will spring $250-$300 for another portable gaming device — plus potential monthly fees for a 3G data plan — when smartphones already handle many of the same gaming functions. But Sony is counting on the Vita’s appeal to hard-core action- and first-person shooter gamers who want a designated mobile gaming system, not just another gadget on which to play “Angry Birds.”

CNN spent a week testing out the Vita on a handful of games. Our verdict: It’s a powerful and promising device — better suited to some games than to others — whose ultimate success will depend on whether developers make enough worthy games for it.

A social device

Sony’s gaming sequel – the PS Vita

The successor to the Sony PSP hand-held console, PS Vita was started three years ago at the Sony Corporate Design Center by a team led by Takashi Sogabe, who designed the original Walkman. The goal was to bring richer and better gaming enjoyment than was available with the PSP.

While members of the development team knew they’d be making upgrades to the hardware and gameplay, Shuhei Yoshida, president of SCE Worldwide Studios, said he knew social media capability was going to be just as important.

“It has Twitter. It has Flickr. Portable music applications. These are here to enhance your gameplay experience,” Yoshida told CNN. “What (Twitter) does as a player is, it lets you take a screen shot of a game you are playing. You beat the boss or you get the high score, (and) you can show the world what you’ve done with that screen shot.”

Other social media applications, like Facebook, Foursquare and Skype, will also be available for download.

The processing power in the Vita allows for eight different applications to run simultaneously. During our hands-on experience, we could download a new game while playing another and listening to music from the media player. There was no detectible slowing of the action or the music.

PS Vita also raises the bar on mobile gaming by offering voice chat and text chat through the Party application. Party isn’t tied into specific games, but allows players to communicate with their friends no matter what each person is doing.

However, AT&T, the exclusive broadband provider for the Vita in the U.S., does impose some restrictions. Yoshida said voice chat will only work if one person is on a Wi-Fi connection and the other is on a 3G connection. As he reminded us, the Vita isn’t a phone.

Don’t have many PlayStation friends online? Vita can help you find new connections with Near, a program that uses GPS to search your area for other nearby Vita devices. You can see what other people are playing, maybe join up for a multiplayer match or challenge a friend to top your high score. If you’re concerned about privacy, there are ways to block your location, yet still see what’s going on around you.

Other features

All these additions to the gaming experience mean little if the core gameplay is lacking. And that’s where the Vita really delivers. The seven-inch device is chock full of processing power, multiple controls and a 5-inch OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screen, all designed to make games look and play as well as they do on a PlayStation home console.

The front of the Vita has two analog joysticks, a first for a portable gaming device, as well as a directional pad and four buttons. The front screen is also a touchscreen, allowing for direct control during a game.

The back of the device is a touchpad, which can create some unintended gaming consequences when gripping the Vita. Because Sony wanted the back screen to have a one-to-one relationship with the game action, the rear touchpad takes up the same amount of room as the front screen. But it takes some creative holding of the device to play some games without accidentally tapping on the back.

Yoshida said that while Vita does have a lot of input devices and functions, there were many others that didn’t make it to the final design. He said the team focused on three things for the Vita: the size of the device, the price and its battery life.

“A certain group of us wanted a stylus,” he said, laughing, about one feature that didn’t make the cut.

There are also two cameras, front and back, that are designed more for augmented reality (AR) gameplay than for taking quality pictures of your vacation spots. Three games that take advantage of augmented reality — using a camera to overlay real-world objects onto a device’s digital screen — will be available at launch next week.

Games

To consumers, all these features won’t mean much if there aren’t good games to play. Available at launch will be 25 titles, with many others scheduled for release shortly after.

Sony is counting on some big franchises to help the Vita make a splash in the U.S. “Assassin’s Creed,” “Madden NFL,” “Uncharted,” “FIFA,” “Little Big Planet” and “BioShock” are a few of the powerhouse series that are developing games for the Vita. Some are available now, and others are coming soon.

Sony also is making some original games, mainly shooters and action-adventure titles, available at launch.

At a recent demo in Washington, the new “MLB 12: The Show” showed how gamers can use the Vita’s rear touchpad to throw the ball around a baseball diamond. Designer Ramone Russell said the PS3 version of the game will have 70 new enhancements and Vita will have 65 of those as well.

He explained that the PS3 version and the Vita version of the game were designed with cross-play between the two consoles in mind.

“You dump 20, 30, 40 hours into a mode, and it’s time to go on a business trip,” Russell said. “You save that file up into a Cloud. Pick up your PlayStation Vita. Take it on the road. Download it from the Cloud and you keep going. And it works vice versa.”

After about a week of hands-on experience, the PS Vita feels less like a mobile gaming device and more like a new gaming console that is also portable. The social features and functionality are exciting, and their integration into games seems smooth.

It takes a period of adjustment to avoid tapping the backside touchpad at the wrong time during a game. Even using the front touchscreen requires a bit of juggling, but it isn’t anything that gets frustrating or awkward.

Overall, the Vita’s power, social integration and presentation make the device worth a look. But the lingering question is whether developers will create enough great Vita games to make it worth the money.

The Wi-Fi version of the PS Vita will cost $249, while the AT&T 3G version will sell for $299 (plus a data plan). Two monthly data plans are available through AT&T: 250MB for $15 and 3GB for $30. There’s also a first-edition bundle package that includes a PS Vita 3G/Wi-Fi model, 4GB memory card, “Little Deviants” game and a limited-edition case for $350. The deal expires at the end of March. Memory cards are needed for some Vita games, but not for all.

We recommend From around the web

Article Sources: DiasFlec | Hands-on with the new PlayStation Vita | (2/22/2012)

A Texas boy claims that while playingXbox 360 Call of Duty online, someone in a chat room threatens to hack his information and get a SWAT team to his house. The SWAT team duly arrives. Panic ensues.

This is a public service announcement for anyone playing Call of Duty online on their Xbox 360: if anyone interrupts your game and tells you they’re going to hack your information and send a SWAT team to your house, they might actually be serious.

I base this announcement on the tale of a teen in Lewisville, Texas. He was, according to CBS Dallas-Fort Worth, playing “Call of Duty: Black Ops” online on Monday with friends. Suddenly, someone interrupted him in a chat room to give him a message.

“Some dude just popped out of nowhere, and basically said he’s going to hack me, he’s going to get my information, call the SWAT team over to my front yard,” he told CBS.

The boy thought nothing of it. Imagine, then, his and his family’s surprise when what must have seemed like a very bad Hollywood movie unfolded outside their window.

For there was a fully-armed SWAT team, answering the call of duty.

A local police operator had received a call from the AT&T Instant Message Relay Service, which was created to help the hearing impaired to contact a standard telephone. The message said that someone in the boy’s house had been shot and there was still shooting to be heard.

Which, in its way, was true–save for the fact that those people were in a video game.

The boy and his family (mom, dad, three kids and grandparents) were, understandably, petrified when they heard the police bullhorn and saw the SWAT team.

They came outside, then, still scared, went back inside–and, again understandably, called 911. Fortunately, reason prevailed and no one was hurt.

Police are reportedly getting a subpoena in order to root around the Xbox and online worlds for whoever might have been responsible for this.

There seems–at least from reports–to be no specific reason why this boy was targeted. Perhaps it was a prank that was more successful than the perpetrator had imagined.

Oddly, though, this is not the first time such an allegation had been made. Last year, an apparent Xbox dispute led to police in Eugene, Ore., getting a call to report a murder-suicide at a player’s house.

Indeed, settling disputes by so-called “swatting” is apparently de rigueur in certain quarters. There was another case last year in Florida where the accused hacker was from Canada.

Naturally, the greatest concern for some will be just how easily the hackers were able to get hold of sufficient personal information in order to succeed in their amusement.

Can anything be done when games are being played on the Internet, a place where even the CIA and Mexican Senate–merely recent examples–are also vulnerable?

Article Sources: DiasFlec | Xbox 360 threat leads to SWAT team raid | (2/22/2012)

In the next major Transformers video game, you will be able to issue orders to a massive, rampaging Metroplex.

You will be about to control Bruticus.

You will be able to transform, as Grimlock, from robot to Tyrannosaurus Rex. You’ll breathe flames from your jaws.

You will be able to fulfil the fantasies not of a 21st-century Transformers fan but of a kid who grew up in the ’80s and marvelled that there was such a thing as a half metre tall plastic robot who could transform into a city. The fantasies of a kid whose toy space shuttle, helicopter, tank, truck and jeep could transform into robots or merge into one massive, if a bit lanky, one.

Yes, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron appears to be the Transformers game made for me, or more specifically for my brother.

Our mother spoiled us with Transformers when we were kids. For a few years, we got them all. Every Autobot. Every Decepticon. Somehow we divided them up without rancor. I got Omega Supreme, Soundwave and Megatron. He got Trypticon, Blaster and Optimus Prime.

I got the Aerialbots. He got the Stunticons. And so on.

My brother doesn’t make video games. He definitely doesn’t work at High Moon Studios, which is putting out its third Transformers game in three years with Fall of Cyberton. But, what do you know? The first time I see this new game, it’s pretty much all his Transformers. Metroplex was his. The Combaticons, who formed Bruticus, were mostly his. Grimlock was his Dinobot. I had other Dinobots.

This game takes me back to my childhood, when who “owned” which Dinobot mattered and when the Transformers were the coolest things in my life.

I can’t see this new game without looking at it through the eyes of my youth. I think that’s the point. People like me are a target audience for High Moon’s even-year Transformers games, which are the ones not tied to the Michael Bay movies. These games, starting with 2010′s War for Cybertron are throwbacks to the beloved 80′s Transformers, the originals who started in weekday-afternoon cartoons that usually involved Megatron scheming to make more energon cubes and Starscream screwing things up.

The Cybertron games take those original Transformers and put them in a new fiction set on the robots’ home planet. To 21st-century fans they may simply be interesting robot-centric shooters with a transformation gimmick. For me, they’re an ark of nostalgia.

The first one, War for Cyberton was a surprisingly good robot-icized Gears of War. It was made with the Unreal Engine — Gears‘ tech-and brought players through a pair of campaigns, one as various Autobots, one as Decepticons, leading to climaxes against the massive Trypticon and Omega Supreme, respectively.

I enjoyed that first game, and I could tell you what I wanted from a sequel from a gamer’s perspective. I could also tell you what I wanted from the perspective of a boy who loved owning the Protectobots.

But this is the game designer’s perspective: Matt Tieger, the game’s creative director, told me this new game needed to look better than the first one. That first one looked too same-y. It neeed more gameplay variety and better artificial intelligence.

Yeah, sure, Matt Tieger. It needed a combiner. It needed five robots merging into one.

Good thing Fall of Cybertron appears to incorporate both his needs and mine.

Tieger showed me the new game in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago. He showed me the better and more varied graphics, as one of his High Moon people first played through a level made for the Combaticon Vortex. This level was bright and open, more of a combat arena than a combat hallway. (Watch the video up top for a look at this and other levels from the game.) Vortex blitzed through a range of shootable Autobots as a helicopter, jet and robot. He could transform at any time. His level had a lot of tan and open space. A Jazz level — hey! Jazz was mine! — was more blue and grey and designed for Jazz’s specialties in sniping and use of a grappling hook. When Jazz transforms from robot to Cybertronian-not-officially-a-Porsche-space-car, he does a little breakdance, by the way.

The Man Who Saved The Dinobots – Transformers gurus at Hasbro have been trying to streamline their various toy, game and movie continuities. That effort was going to snip the Dinobots from Transformers lore — they just didn’t mesh with the new history — until Fall of Cybertron‘s creative lead, Matt Tieger, heard about it and figured out how to weave them into his video games’ part of the timeline.

The solution? It turns out these Cybteron games take place about 70 million years ago. When Decepticon Shockwave goes looking for some new transformation forms for a bunch of kickass robots, he happened to get a glimpse of prehistoric earth and the beasts that roamed the planet then. Tieger cautions us not to get too technical about which dinos were on the Earth then; just go with it. It gets us Grimlock in this game, a double-height robot who only can do melee attacks but turns into a marauding mechanical T-Rex (he looks very fun to play as). It also gets us other Dinobots, such as Snarl, Swoop and Sludge, all of whom I caught glimpses of in a level that started players as Starscream and transitioned into a very cool Grimlock rampage.

After you’ve played some Combaticon missions, the game combines the five Decepticons into Bruticus and you control the 24m monster. You tower over the Autobots, who you blast with laser beams or just smash to bits.

In an Optimus Prime level you run around as the ultimate goody-two-shoes Autobot leader. You can summon Metroplex to transform and take out targets. It’s a shame that publisher Activision hasn’t released images of this, because, you really should see the sight of a robot that was transformed from being a city, now stomping around in the distance, responding to your cues. It’s vey impressive (that might be my 10-year-old self talking. Can’t help it.)

Tieger says he thinks of the Cybertron games as navigation-based shooters, not cover-based shooters, as you’d classify Gears. He wants the game’s levels to feel open and to empower his players to use constant robot-to-vehicle transformation to dart around a battlefield, fighting in both forms, making the action play out in response to their play style.

This new game has no connection to last year’s not very good High Moon Transformers game, which tied into the 2011 Transformers: Dark of the Moon movie. Tieger told me that High Moon split into two teams after War For Cyberton, one to do the movie in one year, one to make this game in two. He didn’t have to tell me which game High Moon is more proud of.

This Cybertron game has some other changes from the first. Now we’re getting just one campaign that transitions players back and forth from being Autobot to Decepticon. They’re doing more with upgradeable weapons, and they’ve moved the camera in tighter, cropping the Transformers legs from view to give, in my eyes, the game a look that’s closer to being a shooter than an action game. They’re also working in more quiet story-building moments into the game to interrupt the shooting and not cram all the narrative into dialogue shouted at you during battle.

They’re bringing back multiplayer, which Tieger admits was a hard sell last year. But they think they’ve got something distinct with transformation-enabled multiplayer, plus I’m sure it’s seen as a viable strategy for selling downloadable content post-release. They’re not showing much of it yet, save for an elaborate Transformer character-creator, which lets players build their own robot from many component parts and then transform that bot into one of several pre-baked vehicle forms (the thing they’re proud of here is how, no matter what kind of robot you build, the transformation to vehicle animates smoothly and convincingly).

I’m an easy audience if you’re showing me a video game that lets me play with the toys I loved as a kid. War for Cybertron did get redundant, but it also had Omega Supreme, for goodness’ sake, so of course I played through it. It played fine, without any all-time –great encounters or memorable levels, but I was content with it. Fall of Cybertron has even more fan service for me, and it looks like it’ll player better. Of course, I’m on board.

I just hope they add more Transformers that were mine and not my brother’s. Where’s Ultra Magnus at? Bring on the Technobots, if you can. Devastator? I’d approve. At least they’re promising the Insecticons and… Cliffjumper? Come on, High Moon, he was my brother’s! Would you consider adding Sky Lynx?

OK, OK. That’s a terrible idea. I know.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron will be out for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 later this year.

Article Sources: DiasFlec | I’m Not Excited About Transformers: Fall Of Cybertron Just Because Of Metroplex | (2/22/2012)