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.

The sequel to Tripwire Interactive’s Red Orchestra, Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad, has been unveiled, albeit a bit unexpectedly, according to the developer.

The game was meant to be unveiled in an article in PC Gamer magazine, however, the publisher unveiled the details earlier than the developer expected, leading to some confusion (and a lot of PR work).

The only piece of information released is that the new game will be build using the Unreal Engine 3, which is always a safe bet when it comes to game development.

To help boost their market share, Microsoft Corporation will reportedly lower the price for its famed game console Xbox 360, hoping that the move can place them in better footing with Nintendo Co. Microsoft, locked in a three-way game console battle with Nintendo’s popular Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3, has been struggling to stir up demand for its Xbox 360 in Japan.

Microsoft will lower the price of the Xbox 360 Arcade model by 8,000 yen ($73.92) to 19,800 yen. The Arcade does not come equipped with a hard drive and is the least expensive of the three Xbox 360 models, the Nikkei said.

The new price will make the machine cheaper than Nintendo’s Wii, which sells for about 25,000 yen, and the PlayStation 3, which sells for 39,800 yen.

(Source) Canada.com

For the people who have heard of the coming of Overlord 2, you can mark your calendars now. Codemasters is bringing back hoardes of minions with the release of Overlord II on June 23 in North American for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, a date much sooner than anyone had anticipated.

Overlord II wraps itself around a brand new story, more combat options and a whole new breed of minions out to capture blood and laughs. No word on an improved camera which plagued the original, but an on-screen map has been added as detailed in one of the new screens below.

(Source) The HD Room

Developer Relic has announced a patch for Dawn of War 2 that should be released later this month. The patch will include UI tweaks, improved AI in skirmish matches, and the added feature of two-on-two versus mode. In addition, two new four-on four player maps will be bundles with the patch. More information about the patch will be released in the upcoming weeks.

Hot off the heels of the rumors of a PS3 motion controller unveiling at E3, new rumors suggest that the Xbox 360 will be getting its own motion control system at E3.

According to a tipster at Engadget, Microsoft is working on a Wii-like motion sensor bar, which will also feature a camera and a microphone. Unlike Nintendo’s motion bar, Microsoft’s version will be able to detect full body movements, e.g. in fighting games, players will actually, physically kick and punch.

None of this is official of course, but we can expect much more at E3 in just over a month.

WoW player accidentally recieves dev item, one-shots final boss
Activision Announces Availability of X-Men Origins: Wolverine Video Game
Need for Speed: Undercover gets PS3 DLC
Activision Wants More of Your Money: Second World at War Map Pack Announced, More Zombies Incoming
Resident Evil 5 Confirmed for PC, to Have Exclusive (Stupid) Feature; SF4 and Bionic Commando Due Out This July
Ferdinand, “Smooth Criminal” Make it to Rock Bands
Valve drops Left4Dead price 40%
Barracuda, Raining Blood Make it to Smash Hits
Arkham Asylum Lunatics to Escape Later
Thrustmaster’s T-Standee Charger DSi docking station
World Series of Poker 2008 Game Review–It’s A Niche Definer
Sony to debut motion controller at E3?
Valve sues Activision over royalties

Now here’s a funny story — A World of Warcraft user by the name of KarateChop recently was found to have been blowing through some of the game’s hardest instances without even breaking a sweat, even one-shotting the boss of Ulduar. But how?

Well, as the story goes, KarateChop logged on one day only to find a peculiar item (pictured above) sitting in his mailbox. Low and behold, the item was the Martin Fury, a developer only item that was accidently mailed to KarateChop.

Once Blizzard got wind of this they quickly proceeded to ban the offender’s entire guild; even guildies who weren’t present during Mr. Chop’s escapades. So a word of wisdom, if you find an item in your mailbox that gives you the possibility to take over the World of Warcraft, contact a GM.

Read (WoWInsider)

It didn’t take long for Activision to launch a game from the explosive movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In fact, it is now available globally. Developed by critically acclaimed studio Raven Software, the game allows players to harness Wolverine’s brute strength, regenerative mutant abilities, and indestructible adamantium claws as they battle powerful forces and uncover the mysteries behind his origin.

Inspired by the feature film from Twentieth Century Fox released in theaters everywhere on the same date, the X-Men Origins: Wolverine video game also features the voices of some of the film’s leading men: Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Liev Schreiber (Sabretooth) and will.i.am (John Wraith).

“X-Men Origins: Wolverine features the most authentic Wolverine experience ever in a video game,” said Rob Kostich, vice president of global brand management, Activision Publishing, Inc. “The game captures the uncaged nature of Wolverine and allows players to uncover an incredible storyline that will appeal to comic book and gaming enthusiasts, as well as fans of the action-packed feature film.”

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is an epic action-adventure game featuring a true-to-character Wolverine gameplay experience that takes gamers through and beyond the movie’s storyline. Set in a variety of vivid real-world locales, the title challenges players to hone their animal instinct as they uncover hidden dangers, hunt and defeat enemies, and take on seemingly insurmountable situations while discovering the truth about Wolverine’s tragic past.

With razor-sharp adamantium claws unsheathed, the future X-Man enacts lightning-quick combat, evasive maneuvers, in-depth combo attacks, and an array of brutal finishing moves. Wolverine doesn’t just deliver massive damage, either – he also takes it, thanks to his mutant regenerative power that heals him in real time right before the player’s eyes.

(Source) Press

EA has released word that the PS3 version will be getting an exclusive (for now) pair of DLC packs for EA’s Need for Speed: Undercover.

First up, the Challenge Series pack which EA is giving away for free and includes a bunch of new cars, 60 new story events featured in 2 new high speed game modes.

Next up is the premium Boss Car pack, priced at $5, which unlocks every boss car featured in the story mode available to the player.

This content won’t be exclusive to the PS3 forever with EA stating that the abovementioned DLC packs will be hitting the Xbox 360 and PC versions of Need for Speed: Undercover “soon”.

Read (Joystiq)