Which is kinda what this game is like! Though, sadly, not exactly like; as this artwork shows, cues have been taken from the fan-favourite prequel series, but it's not quite the same. Ah well. Still looks a million times better than the spiky look-a-likes the films have been "blessed" with.

These two shots are just a sample; there's plenty more to be found at the Game Informer link below.

Transformers: War For Cybertron Art Gallery [Game Informer]

I think a lot of that comes from the fact that we are using the same engine - the Unreal Engine - and that we are third-person," Tieger, High Moon's game director, told TFW2005. He added:

However there are some notable differences. One, we are not a cover-based shooter (you think Megatron would take cover?) Two, transform anywhere. Three, special abilities add an additional layer of strategic depth. Four, finally, Transformers has always been a team based property and each character has unique abilities so teamwork becomes pivotal. None of this should take away from the awesomeness that is Gears. Honestly, if gamers compare us positively to one of the all-time best games ever, I am thrilled!

You can see more of the interview, plus a picture of the no-cover-takin' Megatron at the link.

TFW2005 War For Cybertron Interview with Aaron Archer and Matt Tieger [Transformers World 2005, thanks Darth Mallrat]

That makes it five platforms for the game - including the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions we already knew about. A news release says Hasbro and developer High Moon Studios will be cooperating on the prequel's story, which will establish much of the Autobots' and Decepticons' stories before their arrival on Earth. Hasbro's Aaron Archer, senior design director, said the game's story will be "used as canon for future storylines in a way we could have only dreamed of a few years ago."

And, of course, the visual appeal will be in tooling around the metallic homeworld of both factions, and meeting and greeting iconic Transformers characters in their native forms.

As for the game itself, an Activision representative said it will feature online competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes. It will also be broken down into two campaigns, one Autobot and one Decepticon. "For the first time in a TRANSFORMERS title, fans will be able to play the game with their friends through team-based online co-op, or go head to head in a variety of intense, online multiplayer game modes," the Activision release said.

The title's release date is still TBA, but Transformers: War For Cybertron will be hitting the PS3, the Xbox 360 and the PC.

According to the newest issue of Game Informer, Transformers: The War for Cybertron is a third-person shooter that chronicles the Autobot's battle waged against the evil forces of the Decepticons. And vice versa, as early reports from subscribers and serious Transformers fans indicate we'll play as both robotic factions.

The game is said to be in development at High Moon Studios, developers of Darkwatch and The Bourne Conspiracy, and due for a 2010 release.

Transformers: The War for Cybertron apparently falls outside various Transformers continuities with a look that's less blocky than the Generation One style of 'bot, but not as visually offensive as the Michael Bay version of the classic Takara toy. Allspark.com forum members peg the visual style as resembling the Transformers: The War Within comic book series. Seen in the mag are Optimus Prime, Megatron—tank-style, not handgun-style—Soundwave, Ironhide and more.

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC versions of the new Transformers game are said to be in the works. And if we know Activision, it won't stop there.

Transformers: The War For Cybertron - New TF game slated for 2010! [The Allspark - thanks, Destin!]

I'm not sure how I can tie this together with Thanksgiving Day, so we'll just mutter incoherently about turkey or something and move on to the main event. Transformers heads - 240 Microsoft points apiece. You've got hideous Michael Bay Megatron, slightly less hideous Optimus Prime, and Bumblebee, which I don't have a picture for and will be too busy sleeping or eating by the time you read this to look for one. I'd imagine it is yellow.

Activision is also releasing a trio of t-shirts for both factions, along with a Transformers logo tee, each running 80 Microsoft points a pop.

Someone email me and remind me to buy a Transformer head tomorrow. This is something I believe I need.

Like who? Like Megatron.

Joining the Decepticon leader in Revenge of the Fallen's upcoming DLC pack are old-school favourites Starscream and Optimus Prime (who we knew were coming), plus "G1 Sunstorm" (which is a bit of a stretch) along with some G1 "colour schemes" for Ratchet and Sideswipe.

The pack will also introduce three new maps, and be out on August 27 for 800MSP/$10.

My mother, a 5'11" tall former dance instructor with long, dark hair (it's reddish now, but don't let the dye fool you), used to tell me a story of being chased through the Los Angeles airport by Japanese tourists who thought she was Linda Carter of Wonder Woman TV show fame. So while you folks are oogling the above costume and readying your comic book-based sexual references, I am thinking about my mom.

Stop that.

This guy made himself an amazing Bumble-Bay costume, but found he had little energy left over to make his lady friend anything nearly as elaborate. This is generally how things go with men. Nice body suit though.

"Don't you guys get tired of people asking you to stop every other minute to pose for pictures?" I ask these two gentlemen. "No, we love it." the both answer in unison.

So I followed them around for the next 2 hours, asking them to stop every minute and a half for another picture.

Okay, I didn't do that, but I thought it.

Does wearing a Starfox costume make you a furry? The wearer seemed horrified when I suggested it, but then I explained that I was with Kotaku, and he resigned himself to his fate. Someone is going to call him a furry. It might as well be you guys.

Or maybe I'll stick around. I still haven't decided. The point is now I have a great many more bags to carry around, and will need to borrow a great deal more money from my brother at the end of the month for rent.

Still, it's a triumph of the human spirit. Cue the Final Fantasy victory music while I pixel-dance.

And since we're in the midst of celebrating all things summer and all things gaming, what better time to honour – and shame – the games of the biggest summer blockbusters of all time.

The Star Wars Series (1977, 1980, 1983, 1999, 2002, 2005)

The Movies: Star Wars needs no introduction. The most powerful force in popular culture of the past generation, its six movies were released across four decades, the first in 1977, the last in 2005. Some of them are great! Some of them, not so great.

The Games: There are just too many Star Wars games to mention here. Though, remarkably, for all the franchise's success, very few have been directly related to the events of the movies. And the best of those by far were Lucasarts Super Star Wars series, released in the mid-1990's for the Super Nintendo. Re-telling the events of the original trilogy through a combination of 2D platforming and vehicle sections, they stand as an example of movie licenses done right (even if they were a little late).
The Dark Knight (2008)

The Movie: The Dark Knight sits at #4 on the all-time box office charts, having taken in a whopping $1,001,921,825. It also holds the all-time record for the biggest opening weekend in cinema history, making $155,340,000.

The Game: Despite the immense interest in both the film and the franchise brought about by this movie (and, admittedly, the death of co-star Heath Ledger), in a rare showing there was never a console Dark Knight game. Well, there was never one released.

Pandemic's Australian studio were working on a tie-in game, which was destined to be an open-world title (GTA meets Splinter Cell), but publisher mismanagement and quality concerns led to the game's (and the studio's) demise.
Jurassic Park (1993)

The Movie: Just squeaking into the top 10-grossing movies of all time, Jurassic Park saw Steven Spielberg bring Michael Crichton's novel about dinosaur cloning gone mad to the big screen. With spectacular results. Sure, it wasn't as gritty as the source material, and those kids were annoying, but it still ranks as one of the most visually impressive films of all time.

The Games: While there have been many games based on the franchise over the years, at the time of the original film's release, only two tie-in titles were put out, one for the Super Nintendo, one for the Genesis. And in a rare move, both games were completely different. The Mega Drive game was a woeful platformer, while the SNES game was a surprisingly brilliant title, blending top-down exploration with first-person combat sections.
The Lion King (1994)

The Movie: Many would argue that The Lion King was Disney's last truly great in-house movie, and it's box office takings bear that out, as at #24 it's the highest-ranked Disney cartoon on the list of the top-grossing films of all time. A simple tale of a cub's difficult journey to adulthood, it's given surprising depth and maturity from some excellent casting and bleak visuals.

The Game: Lion King had a lot to live up to, following Shiny's amazing Aladdin title, but for the most part it lived up to those lofty expectations. The art and animation was handled by Disney, while the game was worked on by none other than Westwood Studios, of Command & Conquer fame.
ET: The Extra Terrestrial (1982)

The Movie: Spielberg's film about an alien that comes to spread love, and not destruction, is still fondly-remembered, even if that fondness is restricted to a silly catchphrase about phones and the fact Drew Barrymore was in it.

The Game: Oh boy. When you want to talk about crummy games based on movies, they don't get much worse than ET. Rushed out in a matter of weeks so it could cash in on the film, the game bore little resemblance to the movie, and was a sales disaster. Things were so bad, in fact, that in 1983 Atari - reeling from the video game market crash it helped create with games like ET - filled a truck full of ET cartridges and buried them in a hole somewhere in the New Mexico desert.
The Back To The Future Series (1985, 1989, 1990)

The Movies: Marty McFly. Awesome Nike sneakers. Time-travelling locomotives. The Back to the Future series was perhaps the best example of the feel-good 80's blockbuster, with Michael J Fox and his time-travelling companion, the bonkers Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) managing to screw with the space-time continuum not once, not twice, but thrice.

The Games: For a movie trilogy that wasn't exactly big on action, Back to the Future somehow spawned around half a dozen games. Here, we're paying tribute to the worst, a vertically-scrolling game for the NES where you, as Marty McFly (apparently) have to run up a street collecting clocks, all the while avoiding men carrying panes of glass. And...that's about it.
The Pirates Of The Caribbean Series (2003, 2006, 2007)

The Movies: Based on a theme park ride of all things, Pirates of the Caribbean was one of the surprise hits of 2003, so much so that two further movies were released in 2006 and 2007. A fourth film is in pre-production. Johnny Depp steals the show as slightly camp pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, though we're equally fond of Bill Nighy's portrayal of fish-faced Davey Jones, partly because he's Bill Nighy, and partly because he's Bill Nighy with a giant pet squid.

The Games: Not much to speak of here. A game based on the third film, At World's End, came and went without troubling many people. More interesting is the game based on the first film. Or shall we say, "based on", since it has absolutely nothing to do with the events of the movie. It was, in fact, the sequel to PC Pirates! clone Sea Dogs, and was hastily repackaged to cash in on the first movie. And was about as successful as you'd expect such a venture to be.
The Transformers (2007, 2009)

The Movies: Michael Bay & Steven Spielberg (we're seeing that name a lot in here) team up to bring the most beloved cartoon series of the 1980s to life. Despite both being poor films - the second especially so - they're cashing in on 80's nostalgia and feature giant robots fighting, so it's no surprise the two films have already grossed over $1 billion combined.

The Games: The Transformers franchise has always been marred by poor video game adaptations, and these two films are no exception. Both tie-ins have been sub-par, generic action titles, only notable for the fact they managed to get the original Megatron voice actor to reprise his role, rather than Hugo Weaving, who voices the Decepticon leader in the films. Our advice? Go play the 2004 Transformers game, based on the Armada universe and developed by Melbourne House. It's actually good.
Independence Day (1996)

The Movie: One of the biggest summer blockbusters of the 1990's, ID4 may have featured silly characters and a silly plot by aliens to destroy humanity, but it had a memorable scene involving the White House, alien face-punching and a drunk Randy Quaid as the hero, so shut up. It's a great flick.

The Game: Sadly, the same can't be said of the adaptation, which appeared on the PS1 and Saturn. You fly an F-18 around shooting aliens, your view constrained by a technical cop-out squishing the playing area between an alien mothership and the ground, and...that's it. No face-punching. No smoky alien body snatching. No motivational speeches. Shame.
The Indiana Jones Series (1981, 1984, 1989, 2008)

The Movies: Ah, the Indiana Jones trilogy (there was never a fourth movie, got it?)!! Harrison Ford plays an adventurous archaeologist who has to stop Nazis (and creepy Indians) from taking over the world. While opinions are divided on the second film, the first and third go down as all-time classics, with Last Crusade also known as "the last good thing George Lucas ever did".

The Games: There have been a ton of Indy games released over the years, but like many older film franchises, not many dealt directly with the plot of the movies (LEGO Indy doesn't count as it was released so long after the fact). Lucasart's adventure game take on Last Crusade did, however, and being a Lucasarts adventure game, is pretty damn good. For some reason Last Crusade always gets forgotten in the wake of the later, superior Fate of Atlantis (also a Lucasarts adventure game), but it's worth checking out regardless.
The Jaws Series (1975, 1978, 1983, 1987)

The Movie: Jaws is remembered not just for the fact it made whole generations afraid to go near the water, but also because it was the very first "summer blockbuster." Spielberg's story of a giant shark terrorising a seaside community was so successful it spawned three sequels, which contrary to popular belief, are all good, Jaws 3 for the dream team of Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett Jr., Jaws 4 for teaming Oscar-winner Michael Caine with...Mario Van Peebles.

The Games: There have only been a few Jaws games, one on the PS2 which was terrible, and one for the NES, pictured above. Which was also terrible. Though terrible in a good way, as it's based loosely on the events of Jaws 4, meaning you can play the game narrating the events in your best Michael Caine accent. It would have helped if either of the games was even remotely scary.
The Spider-Man Series (2002, 2004, 2007)

The Movies: Spider-Man is the king of the summer blockbuster this decade, and held the record for the biggest opening weekend of all time until beaten last year by The Dark Knight. A modern depiction of Marvel's classic comic character, the Spider-Man movies have benefited from not only amazing special effects, but a sexy, memorable cast as well. Who could ever forget the way James Franco eats that pie?

The Games: Each modern Spider-Man flick has spawned adaptations, but these for the most part have been terrible. With the exception of Spider-Man 2, on the Xbox, PS2 and GameCube. It took the key appeal of Spider-Man - his web-slinging - and applied it to an open city, giving us a watered down version of Grand Theft Peter Parker. Successive titles have failed to strike the same balance between action and exploration that this game managed so well.

Okay, let's be realistic...your ass is most likely never getting close enough to Megan Fox for her to kick it, but in that bizarro dream world where you accidentally run into Megan alone and bored with a console and a Mortal Kombat game nearby, she would totally plant heel in your rear end, as What They Play discovered when they asked the actress which games she was badass at.

Anything Mortal Kombat. I have that down and I don't cheat. That game just works well with my brain. The way my brain fires signals works well with how that game works. And I'm just really good.

So in that situation you'd be in for a beating, unless you somehow tricked her into confronting her own ironic Kryptonite.

The Mortal Kombat that just came out (Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe), I hated playing as Superman. His combos were so weird. I don't know, I just thought it was lame.

Megan apparently began playing back on the Super Nintendo, where she mastered Disney's Aladdin, which is an excellent choice of game names for a celebrity of drop. Nowadays, when she isn't kicking ass or tending her garden in Viva Pinata, Fox spends her time trying to play with her Wii, but it's hard.

I'm totally a fan of the Wii, I'm just not good at it. I actually have a Wii Fit and it's actually a really hard workout. It's pretty interesting. I think it's amazing you can combine exercise and gaming. There really are games like Raving Rabbids and there are these little missions that you have to do where you run. You're running with your arms but I swear to God I was so out of breath after every time I completed a mission. It really gets your cardio workout and it's a video game, which sounds crazy. But I think that's amazing. I hope we keep heading in that direction.

Just to take the wind out of you guys' sails, we've already come up with every possible iteration of the Wii being hard for Megan Fox joke imaginable, so you couldn't possibly impress us at this point.

Megan Fox: Celebrity Gamer [What They Play - Thanks Joon!]

The Bumblebee starter kit comes with a yellow, vaguely Bumblebee-ish DS case and an absurdly over-sized stylus. The case folks open and closed and has a sliding panel on the back to hold two DS games. The stylus, despite its preposterous size, is just that, a stylus. The stylus is so big that I spent a good 10 minutes trying to get it do something, convinced that there is no way that i can just be a bunch of extra plastic wrapped around a normal stylus.

I'm putting this down in the no thank you column, I think.

Seems that while Shia LaBeouf - the star/destroyer of both the Transformers and Indiana Jones franchises - is a big-time gamer, he's only a big-time gamer on the 360 and PS3. Which he seems to quite enjoy. When it comes to the Wii, however...things get trollish.

Speaking with Big Download, he says:

(BD) Have you checked out the Wii Transformers game?

(SL) I haven't been able to play the Wii game because my hand is broken. I've just been playing Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. I would imagine that the Wii experience will be like...I don't mess with the Wii, to be honest with you. It's kind of an amateur console. I'm not into the Wii thing.

(BD)What's wrong with the Wii?

(SL)This is how in a simple way you can find out if it's a gamer you want to play with. Ask them if they have a Wii. If they say yes, get the f*** out of there.

He later follows that up with "Who wants to play the Wii version of LEGO Star Wars. I'd rather eat glass.". Even though the Wii version is, well, for all intents and purposes identical to the other ones.

Bet Activision and Krome Studios, the people behind the Wii version of the upcoming Transformers game, are just delighted with his promotional abilities..

Interview: Transformers' Shia LaBeouf on games he loves [Big Download]

That's today!

While I'd have preferred Lion's rendition of the 1986 film's theme, or even NRG's Instruments of Destruction, I know not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Esepcially when, knowing Activision, we could easily have gotten this version of the song instead.

Unfortunately, my theory is blown when one realizes that the same box art is being used for the PlayStation 2 version. Arguments about it being employed on the Wii and PSP versions will have to be made amongst yourselves.

Say what you want about Michael Bay's take on the Transformers, but at least the video game adaptation of the movie sequel's box art hides the goofy mouths on Optimus Prime and... is that the Fallen back there? Afraid I can't say the same for the Nintendo DS versions, which feature a snagletoothed Megatron and a deer-in-the-headlights look from the Autobot leader.

The Cut Scene reckon that Activision are working on a Transformers game due for release in 2010. Which makes sense, since they like to exploit their franchises, and exploit them annually.

But there's no Transformers movie due in 2010. Which means the game - apparently being worked on by High Moon, the team behind the Bourne Conspiracy game - won't be based on either of the movies.

Which could be good! It could mean High Moon will be given the freedom to come up with their own levels and design decisions. It could also mean that, without a movie to cash in on, they could go and make a Transformers game based on, oh, Gen 1. Or the original film. Or even Beast Wars.

Then again, it could not. We don't know! We're just speculating. Sorry, that tends to happen when Transformers are concerned.

Activision has High Moon working on Transformers, Radical on Spider-Man [The Cut Scene]

Call me a purist, call me an asshole, I don't mind, but when a Transformer looks like a Bionicle with a bone disease, it's not really a Transformer. This ruined the last film for me, I wasn't going to work to unlock them in the last game, and it even ruined the 2004 PS2 game based on the "Armada" series, which part of me knew was excellent, but other parts reviled because it starred the "wrong" Optimus Prime.

So it's heartening to hear that the developers behind the second Transformers game - the one based on the second live-action Transformers movie - will be incorporating a wide range of downloadable characters into the game. Not "unlockable". "Downloadable".

Sure, this will include characters from the Michael Bay film, but it's interesting that publishers Activision refused to confirm with MTV that these would be the only ones. Leaving us with the very real possibility that there would be downloadable characters from other Transformers timelines/mediums.

Like, say, the original series. Or, in my dreams, multiple series, from which I can build a Prime menagerie like the one above.

UPDATE - Yes, you could unlock some skins in the first game. But they were just re-skins. This sounds more like the (downloadable) introduction of all-new characters, which if Activision know what they're doing, will include Soundwave, Huffer and Seaspray.

Activision Planning ‘Transformers' Character DLC [MTV]

The first prank to come across our desks this morning was the P1mp My Mount feature from the World of Warcraft European website, which while a bit amusing, really didn't seem up to Blizzard's generally high April Fool's standards. Adding racing stripes, neon hooves, and cannons to your mounts might have been funny a few years ago, but now it's a bit stale. Was Blizzard slipping?

No way.

Just as we were asking ourselves that question, the new Archivist character was introduced on the Diablo III website. A frail old man who fights with the power of knowledge, his Lorenado, Quest Bolt, and Shush attacks are as devastating as he is weak, killed by monsters or his own powers at the end of each demonstration video. The only thing more epic than his skills is his Radial Dialogue Tree, featuring such awe-inspiring phrases as "Have you seen my pants?" and "I smell like bacon and summertime." Brilliant.

They could have simply stopped there, but no. On the StarCraft 2 webpage they introduce Terra-Tron, the most powerful Terran unit ever created. With a role listed as "Omega Supreme Defense", Terra-Tron is an entire Terran base that transforms into a giant robot. It is a thing of beauty to behold, sure to bring a tear to the eyes of Transformers, Voltron, and StarCraft 2 fans alike.

So that's two out of three. Not bad, right? Not good enough for Blizzard, however. Just as I was writing this up, the North American World of Warcraft page updated with the new PVP Dance Battle system, complete with custom user interface and crew-based tournaments.

While some of the other April Fool's jokes we've gotten so far have been nice, I'm calling this year for Blizzard once again. Be sure to check out each individual page for videos and hilarious flavor text.

Confirming what was reported on Transformers fan site Seibertron.com Monday, Stan Bush passes along his thanks for all of your efforts to get his classic song into Guitar Hero.

Thanks so much for all your support! Because of the overwhelming enthusiasm from fans like you, "The Touch" will soon be available for Guitar Hero! Activision will be offering it as a free download. We did it!

We did it indeed! I was off doing some last-minute moving stuff when the initial announcement was first posted, so I missed out on the initial celebration of the end of our long struggle, but I'm at my best when the going gets tough. I mean, I've been put to the test and it's never enough.

Check out Stan's full message below, and give yourselves a nice pat on the back.

Dear Kotaku fans,

Thanks so much for all your support! Because of the overwhelming enthusiasm from fans like you, "The Touch" will soon be available for Guitar Hero! Activision will be offering it as a free download. We did it!

All the best!

Stan Bush

Not only that, if the robots from the 1980s actually did look like this, they'd be the ouchiest, finger-pinchiest, consumer-product-safety-commission-recallingest mofos ever - rivaling even the Shogun Warriors for their pop-off appendages.

Luckily, in a video game, you don't have to worry about a piece of Bumblebee breaking off and sliding under the fridge.