Campaign:

Multiplayer:

Pre-Order Characters (for Escalation mode):

Autobots

Decepticons

Starscream

Soundwave

Skywarp

Thundercracker

Brawl

Breakdown

Barricade

Slipstream (female character)

Shockwave (*available from Gamestop pre-order)

Demolishor (*available from Amazon.com pre-order)

Trypticon (one of the "big boss" battles)

Items of note: *pre-order characters Jazz, Shockwave, and Demolishor are only playable in Escalaton Mode.  Omega Supreme and Trypticon are not playable characters.  You play against them — against Omega Supreme in the decepticon story and against Trypticon in the autobot story.  Silverbolt and Air Raid were Aerialbots in the original cartoon.  Brawl was a Combaticon and Breakdown was a Stunticon.

So, what do you think?  Did High Moon Studios do a good job on their character designs or are some disappointing in your mind?  Sound off in the comments section below.

]]> http://jebr0nie.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/transformers-war-for-cybertron-characters-compared-to-g1/feed/ 5 jebr0nie Transformers WfC vs G1 - Optimus Prime Transformers WfC vs G1 - Bumblebee Transformers WfC vs G1 - Ratchet Transformers WfC vs G1 - Ironhide Transformers WfC vs G1 - Jetfire Transformers WfC vs G1 - Silverbolt Transformers WfC vs G1 - Air Raid Transformers WfC vs G1 - Sideswipe Transformers WfC vs G1 - Warpath Transformers WfC vs G1 - Arcee Transformers WfC vs G1 - Jazz Transformers WfC vs G1 - Omega Supreme Transformers WfC vs G1 - Megatron Transformers WfC vs G1 - Starscream Transformers WfC vs G1 - Soundwave Transformers WfC vs G1 - Skywarp Transformers WfC vs G1 - Thundercracker Transformers WfC vs G1 - Brawl Transformers WfC vs G1 - Breakdown Transformers WfC vs TF1 - Barricade Transformers WfC vs Animated - Slipstream Transformers WfC vs G1 - Shockwave Transformers WfC vs Armada - Demolishor Transformers WfC vs G1 - Trypticon http://jebr0nie.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/figure-skating-now-i-remember-why-i-dont-watch-the-winter-olympics/ http://jebr0nie.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/figure-skating-now-i-remember-why-i-dont-watch-the-winter-olympics/#comments Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:18:59 +0000 jebr0nie http://jebr0nie.wordpress.com/?p=310 ]]>

Just Say NO

Figure Skating… now I remember.  Now I remember why I don’t watch the Winter Olympics on NBC.  Don’t get me wrong, I dig snow boarding, ski-jumps, and stuff like that, but what do I (almost) always find on NBC?  Figure Skating.  Ugh.  I’m sure some people can “appreciate” this “sport”, but not me.  Same thing with Gymnastics in the Summer Olympics:  Both are sports that take skill, but both are judged in a political dumb manner.  I just love it (sarcasm) when the commentators act all surprised by a bad score.  As if that’s new to the “sport”.

My Humble Suggestions:  Why can’t they put an obstacle course on the ice and score the skaters on how many flips they can do while jumping over the stuff?  I don’t care how “pretty” they land the jumps, just a mere landing while flipping and spinning over obstacles would be entertaining.  Another idea:  make a half pipe of ice and have the figure skaters do their flips and spins on that.  Or maybe have themed nights for the music.  One night could be 80′s Metal, another night Gangsta Rap.  And lose these stupid outfits!  Lastly, why not have a few of the judges give their opinions after the skater is done with their routine, like in American Idol or Dancing With the Stars?  (NOTE:  JeBr0nie only watches DWTS when guys like Chuck Liddell are competing… cut me some slack)

I don’t know.  I’m sure I’m being insensitive or whatever, but I just think the “sport” needs an upgrade.

What do you think?  Got better suggestions?  Let your voice be heard below in the comments section.

Update (3):  To see better images of ALL characters in the game, go to this newer blog post.

More and more info has been coming out each month on the upcoming Transformers video game, War for Cybertron.  For starters, the game is set to come out in May of 2010.  As said before, the game centers on the autobot vs. decepticon war on cybertron BEFORE they ever went to earth.  Therefore the characters will not resemble earth vehicles, but rather cybertronian modes.  The characters are greatly inspired by Generation 1 (G1), the original transformers from the 1980′s.  The game will include a separate autobot campaign and decepticon campaign.  Also in the game is multiplayer and online co-op.  It sounds to be the best Transformers game yet (but we’ve heard that before — we’ll see).

The following list of characters is confirmed (and some rumored) to be in the game:

Autobots: Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Ironhide, Jetfire, Air Raid, Silverbolt, Warpath, Sideswipe, and Arcee.  Omega Supreme is in the game, but not playable.  Jazz is available for Escalation mode by pre-ordering the game from Best Buy.  Zeta Prime will be another non-playable character in the game.

Decepticons: Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Brawl, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Breakdown, Barricade, and Slipstream.  Trypticon (the big dinosaur bot you see in the trailer) is in it but non-playable. [Update 4]  Laserbeak, Rumble, and Frenzy show up too, but not playable.  You play against them.   Shockwave will be playable in Escalation mode to those who pre-order the game from Gamestop, and same goes for Demolishor when pre-ordering from Amazon.com.

Below you’ll find pictures of many of these characters as they’ll be seen in the game:

(but you can find pictures of every character at this newer blog post)

Optimus Prime (about to unleash his axe)

Megatron (with his mace)

Bumblebee

Starscream (concept drawing)

Soundwave

Shockwave

Ironhide

Ratchet

Omega Supreme

Trypticon

Brawl

A Toyline has been confirmed to go along with the game.  Toy pictures for Optimus Prime and Megatron can be viewed here and Bumblebee on the cover of Transformers Collectors Club can be viewed here.

The most recent trailer for the game can be viewed below.

Do you feel a must-have classic Transformers character is missing from the above list?  Are you happy with the current list of names?  Surprised by any?  Sound off in the comments section below.

UPDATE: According to this post on Seibertron.com, Jetfire, Silverbolt & Air Raid (aerialbots), and Breakdown (stunticon) are characters in the game.  Omega Supreme is also confirmed.

UPDATE 2: New gameplay video trailer at http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-gameplay-transformers-war/62342 This brings up more rumored characters, such as Laserbeak, a Quintesson, Sideswipe, Scorponok, and Ultra Magnus.  Only time will tell.

I must admit, UFC 109 was better than I thought it would be.  Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman was actually not a snooze fest.  The Battle of the Old-Timers actually had a finish!  It’s just that you never know when a Pay Per View UFC event is going to have lots of finishes or lots of decisions.  Can I just say how much I don’t like decisions!  Yes, a few still end up being good fights, but most are sleepers.

In today’s economy, paying $50 for PPV UFC event is not high on the priority list.  Sure you still will budget for some entertainment items, but you want to make sure your money has been well spent.  Here’s my humble suggestion(s) to make these PPV UFC guaranteed buys:

1. Give a bonus ($) to any fight that finishes in the 1st round.  I don’t care if it’s 2x the money or 1.5x… a fight that finishes in the first round is exciting (not including a disqualification or a kick to the family jewels that stops the fighter from continuing).  Want more guys to “bring it” and not just pace themselves to a paycheck?  Then give a bonus to those who throw caution to the wind and finish in the first round.
2. Pay fighters only 50-65% of their pay if they go to a decision.  Big names always equal best fights?  Not always.  Title fights equal guaranteed high entertainment?  No… actually quite a few have ended up being 5 round snoozers due to guys being so cautious that they fight to not lose instead of fight to win.  With a 35-50% reduction in pay if your fight ends in a decision, we’d see a considerable decrease of this.
3. Keep the bonuses for fight of the night, knock-out of the night, and submission of the night.  As in all of these suggestions, MONEY TALKS.  Maybe something else can additionally be rewarded for best knock-out, best submission, etc.  Perhaps a commercial spot for the UFC for that month.  (Am I the only one who thinks the UFC could be advertised more to the general public?)  Maybe a free DLC for xbox and PS3 owners of the UFC: Undisputed video game rematching the fight so the fighters get more exposure.  Maybe the fighter could get a guaranteed 10% increase in pay for their next fight.

What do you think?  Are these suggestions right-on or off-the-mark?  Got others?  Sound off below in the comments section.

So, I just bought and downloaded Bulls On Parade by Rage Against The Machine as DLC for Rock Band 2.  This got me thinking:  Is releasing songs through downloadable content the future of music games?  Is it better than releasing a new game on disk with 80 songs or so every year or 2?

The advantage of downloadable content is the user gets to pay for only the songs they want.  They don’t have to download songs from The Pixies if they don’t want to (no offense to The Pixies).  But there are disadvantages.  If you want to play online with friends (up to 3 friends plus you), then each friend has to have downloaded and paid for the same song you did if you want to play it online with them.  Also, in World Tour, downloadable songs are limited to Make a Setlist and Mystery Setlists.  They can possibly show up in the Challenges too or in Battle of the Bands setlists.  They do not show up in Endless Setlists or as single songs in venues in World Tour.

The advantage to releasing new games (on disk) with songs is your friends who are into Rock Band (or Guitar Hero) will buy the game anyway if they want to play online with you.  You don’t have to worry about them downloading the same song(s) as you did and as your other online friends.  If they bought the game, they get those new songs that came on the disk.

I find it rare that the songs I download are downloaded by the friends I play Rock Band with online.  Usually those downloaded songs are limited to being played only in local multiplayer at home.

Maybe I’m overthinking this or overlooking a piece to this discussion.  What do you think?  Sound off below in the comments section.

[update (again): nbc has now taken the video off of their site. I found a mirrored/flipped version of it on youtube. Don't know how long this will stay on.]

Too bad Optimus Prime (Supreme Class, Animated Roll Out and Command toy) wasn’t fully transformed.  The upper body should have been spinned around a couple more times for the head to be fully out.  Funny, still.

Seibertron.com and TFW2005.com bring news from an exclusive conference call with Hasbro and Activision / High Moon Studios, talking about Transformers: War for Cybertron.  Apparently this new Transformers video game is going to be more than just a game… it will be used as “cannon” in the Transformers lore.  The game will tell the story of the civil war on cybertron between the autobots and the decepticons, before they fled for earth.  Hasbro will be working with Activision in the development of this story.

Up til now, most of the story of the cybertron civil war was found in comics and not so much the cartoons.  Only in episodes like “Desertion of the Dinobots, Part 2″, “War Dawn”, “Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4″, and “Forever is a Long Time Coming” from the original G1 cartoon do we get to see back in time to some of the Transformers history from Cybertron.  Of course, Transformers: War for Cybertron may or may not use bits of pieces from these stories and/or from Transformers comics… time will tell.  It seems that the game may be able to fit as pre-hisotry with G1 and/or the Transformers universe in general.  One thing for sure is that it is NOT based on the Transformers Movie-verse, but it will affect where Hasbro takes the Transformers universe in the years ahead.

As far as a toy line, it’s likely coming… we just don’t know any additional details.  As far as characters to expect in the game, Optimus Prime and Megatron are givens, and some screen grabs from the trailer show Ratchet (around 32 seconds into the trailer) and what is almost certainly Omega Supreme at the end of the trailer.  Promotional pics also show Soundwave and Ironhide.  From the conference with Hasbro and Activision, we should also expect other regulars in Transformers lore to show up:  Starscream, Bumblebee, etc…  But we should also expect some characters that may be familiar to hardcore fans that have not been seen as a toy or in a cartoon for quite some time.  The question is who will that include?  The Fallen (but not movie based)?  Alpha Trion?  Quintessons?  Devcon (from the G1 episode “The Gambler”)?  Guardian Robots?  (after all, Omega Supreme was a Guardian Robot in G1)  Scrounge? 

Alpha Trion (from G1)

Guardian Robot (from G1)

Other facts:

UPDATE: Gameinformer interviewed some of the creators of the game from High Moon Studios. View it below:

So, what do you think?  What stories do you want in the game?  The origin of Prime?  Megatron’s creation?  Other characters?  Sound off in the comments below.

We recently had criticized The Big Bang Theory for it’s slow start with Season 3.  But with recent episodes, especially Episode 11:  “The Maternal Congruence”, there have been many laugh-out-loud moments.  Leonard Hofstadter’s mother, Dr. Beverly Hofstadter (played by Christine Baranski, formerly in The Good Wife), is hilarious.  Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) has been at his best too in recent episodes and does not disappoint in “The Maternal Congruence.”  How this guy didn’t win the Emmy is beyond comprehension.

Our opinion is that sexual humor and being-drunk humor is way overused in TV and movies, but The Big Bang Theory does it differently.  It’s their character’s crazy personalities and awkward social interactions that makes the show stand out from other sitcoms.  Guest stars like Christine Baranski work very well with actors Jim Parsons (Sheldon) and Johnny Galecki (Leonard) and actress Kaley Cuoco (Penny). 

It should also be noted that Howard Wolowitz’s (actor Simon Helberg) open-mic piano/keyboard performance in “The Vengeance Formulation” (episode 9) at the Cheesecake Factory was incredible!  It appears he was actually playing the song for real, not faking it.  As Sheldon would say:  well played, Howard… well played.  A clip is included below.

Our only continued annoyance with season 3 is the same thing we hated about seasons 1 & 2:  why aren’t their full episodes online?  Come on, CBS!

So, what do you think?  Has season 3 regained its brillance from seasons 1 & 2?  Sound off in the comments below.

Spike TV’s Video Game Awards 2009 was held Saturday evening, Dec. 12.  Although the winners of each category may be controversial to some, some of the trailers and/or announcements made at the conference were quite exciting.

One of these announcements was that Green Day: Rock Band is in the works for 2010.  The best part is that the entire track list from this stand alone game will be exportable (for a $ fee, we’re sure) to play in Rock Band 2 for xbox 360 or PS3 owners (sorry Wii owners).  Here’s hoping they’ll include their Dookie album in the game…

The new Halo: Reach trailer was revealed, showing off multiple spartans, including female ones, and one spartan with a skull painted on his helmet.  You can view the trailer below:

Some of the winners from SpikeTV’s 2009 VGA’s were as follows:

• Best Action Adventure:  Assassin’s Creed 2
• Studio of the Year:  Rocksteady Studios (who did Batman Asylum)
• Best Team Sports Game:  NHL 10
• Best Individual Sports Game:  UFC 2009 Undisputed
• Most Anticipated Game:  God of War 3
• Best DLC:  Ballad of Gay Tony (for GTA IV)
• Best Downloadable Game:  Shadow Complex
• Best RPG:  Dragon Age Origins
• Best Shooter:  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Best Mulitplayer:  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Best Handheld:  GTA China Town Wars
• Best Fighter:  Street Fighter IV
• Best Driving Game:  Forza 3
• Best Original Score:  Halo 3: ODST
• Best Soundtrack:  DJ Hero
• Best Music Game:  The Beatles: Rock Band
• Best PC Game:  Dragon Age Origins
• Best Wii Game:  Super Mario Bros Wii
• Best PS3 Game:  Unchartered 2: Among Thieves
• Best Xbox360 Game:  Left 4 Dead 2
• Best Graphics:  Unchartered 2: Among Thieves
• Game of the Year:  Unchartered 2: Among Thieves

We were happy with Marty from Bungie getting recognized for best original score for Halo 3: ODST and happy that CoD: Modern Warfare 2 earned two awards.  They deserved that.  But we have to wonder about the best Xbox 360 game winner.  And where was Trials HD?  Why weren’t they even nominated for Best Downloadable Game???  That’s not right.  Dana White from the UFC must be very happy with his organization’s win.  We can’t help to wonder if the people who vote for the games in a video game awards show on Spike TV would be biased towards voting for a game that has a show on that station (UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter)… hmm.

Earlier in the week before the VGA’s, a new Transformers game was announced.  The game is called Transformers: War For Cybertron.  The game is based on the war(s) between the Autobots and Decepticons before they traveled to Earth.  So, the vehicle modes will be cybertronian, not Earth-based, and you won’t be seeing any humans.  Will this game be coinciding with the new Transformers cartoon that will eventually be showing up on Discovery-Hasbro’s new channel?  No one really knows but rumors will likely be around the interwebs.  You can see the teaser trailer below:

Are you excited about any of the new trailers?  Any winners from the VGA’s that surprised you?  Let your voice be heard below in the comments section.