Multimedia Roundup: Lego Batman, Tomb Raider, Blitz II

Was There A Better Way To Pitch A Lego: Transformers Game?

Failure was my middle name when I recently spoke to head of Traveller's Tales, Jonathan Smith.

There I am chatting with him about the upcoming Lego: Batman game and suggesting that a Lego: Transformers game would be fun. He asks me, essentially, for an on-the-spot verbal pitch. As chronicled on my Multiplayer blog, I say

I said, you’d take advantage of the wide cast of Transformers characters and put them in the format started by “Lego: Star Wars.” There are plenty of Transformers for gamers to control and swap, certainly more characters in the pantheon than there were for “Lego: Indiana Jones.”

I said TT coul have all sorts of fun letting the characters transform to get through the levels. You have the existing good mix of character and vehicle stuff in the Lego games, so there’s a blueprint there.

“Sounds like you just want a good Transformers game,” Smith replied

I tried more. He didn't bite. Where did I go wrong? Bad concept?

How I Failed To Successfully Pitch ‘Lego: Transformers - The Game’ [MTV Multiplayer blog] [Pic]

Warner Bros. has just hooked us up with some screens showing off the newest characters revealed for the upcoming LEGO Batman: Nightwing, Bane and Clayface.

If you're like me and know next-to-no Batman lore, you wouldn't have learned until right this second that Nightwing is who Robin became when he struck out on his own. Former actor Clayface is now a shape-shifting bad guy, and prison escapee Bane resists damage and has super strength.

Thankfully, bios and screens follow the jump, which will probably explain all of the things I couldn't tell you.

Ah, Mr. Freeze. I'm still not sure how I feel about you, my glass-domed chum, after that complete butchering you underwent in 1997's Batman & Robin at the hands of the future governor of California. While the Batman animated movie Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero did much to improve your reputation in my eyes, every time I see you I cannot help but imagine you violently urging your henchmen to sing along to a Christmas special in that horrible accent. "Kill da heroes!" Please.

Perhaps your appearance in Lego Batman will finally help me finally move on. While you do lose some of the tragic villain mystique you've built up with the whole frozen wife storyline, you might manage to make it up in sheer Lego adorability. Fingers crossed!

Two-Face Joins Lego Batman's Rogues Gallery

A Questionable Addition To The Lego Batman Cast

50 years ago today the Lego brick as we know it was born, allowing generation after generation of parents to stand in the toy aisle at their favorite retail establishment exclaiming, "How the hell do these cost so much? They're just Legos for chrissakes!" Seriously, I'd be ass-deep in Star Wars Lego crap if the price point weren't so insane. Still, 50 years of Lego history has given us countless Lego video games (if you can't count to 33), so I figured I would take a moment to check out the top five Lego video games of all time, in honor of this special day.

5. Lego Digital Designer

Not so much a game as it was the updating of Lego to the digital age, allowing you to use your Mac or PC online to create your own Lego design and then order the blocks online, bringing your virtual creation to life. For those of us who can't afford the millions of Lego bricks it would take to build their own Lego home, this is as good as it gets.

LEGO Batman Trailer Nothing But A Tease

I want to see the in-game action in LEGO Batman: The Videogame as much as the next guy, so this slow media drip isn't helping quell the shakes induced by a combination of three of my younger nerd pursuits mashed into one product. This all-too-brief teaser for the Traveller's Tales is more cruel than satisfying and I want to share my pain with you.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane...it's Lego Batman