Thus far, Beenox has proven their love of working on the Spider-Man franchise between Spider-Man: Edge of Time and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Between the alternate versions of Spider-Man and the original takes on some of his villains, Beenox has shown a deep understanding and respect for the character. Now, they face a new challenge with the tie-in to the Amazing Spider-Man movie. While some major points of their story are often dictated by the events of the movie, Beenox has chosen to open the world up to players much like the previous developer Treyarch had done but has taken steps to improve on their much beloved formula.

In previous titles when a player shot their web, players were forced to let the game instinctually choose an appropriate target for them to sling off of. This was also the case in combat where the foe most often closely centered in the screen became the default target for Spidey to aim at. Now, Beenox has decided to give this control to the player instead with the feature they call the Web Rush for the Amazing Spider-Man game.

Using the Web Rush, time slows down for players, presumably to represent Spider-Man’s hyper-fast reflexes like it was seen in Sam Rami’s Spider-Man film where Peter Parker dodged the bullying of Flash Thompson. During this slow down, players are given all possible targets on screen where they can aim themselves. This can be a great resource for strategically setting themselves into different combat situations.

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One Bond. Six classic Bond missions. That is the premise behind October 16th’s 007 Legends, the latest installment of the Bond franchise from Activision from Eurocom, the same studio responsible for 007 Goldeneye and 007 Goldeneye Reloaded. While it was already revealed with the game’s announcement that the six and final movie tied in to the game would be the upcoming Skyfall, Bond fans quickly began speculating which 007 films would make their way to 007 Legends.

With the trailer and screens below, Moonraker has been revealed as the first chapter for 007 Legends. Originally starring Roger Moore, Moonraker was the most sci-fi-esque Bond film, featuring a space station that was home to the villainous Drax and his minion for hire, Jaws. The film also featured one of Bond’s leading ladies with the second most obvious sexual innuendo for a name, Dr. Goodhead.

The 007 Legends trailer features Drax, Jaws and Goodhead, including the infamous scene of Jaws having a high voltage wire shoved into his metal mouth. It also shows Bond using one of his infamous gadget and the Moonraker laser, much improved from its original N64 design.

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Since their announcement in the upcoming Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, Transformers purists have debated how the Dinobots would fit into the G1 canon storyline for the game. As stated in our previous post which revealed Grimlock in combat and Slug, Snarl and Swoop’s designs, the Dinobots were created on planet earth in the cartoon. Now, High Moon Studios has taken a step in ret-conning Transformers history along with Hasbro by retelling the origin story of the Dinobots in a different way.

As seen below, the game’s director Matt Tieger talks about the process of rewriting history with Hasbro’s blessing and reveals the new origin to the Dinobots for Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. Original a crack special ops unit, the group falls victim to the experiments of Decepticon mad scientist Shockwave. Using a connection to earth (I won’t spoil the whole video for you), Shockwave creates the new designs for the Dinobots.

Take a look below and make sure to give your thoughts on the Dinobots and their new origin story. Stick to The Flickcast for more on the Dinobots and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron before it launches late August of this year for XBox 360 and PlayStation 3.

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About a month and a half ago, we covered the announcement of the Transformers Prime series getting its own game coming to all the Nintendo platforms. Today, we have the latest trailer for Transformers Prime featuring all gameplay footage. Though the release date hasn’t been revealed yet, Transformers Prime is slated for later this year, likely after Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.

It’s interesting to see two Transformers games coming out in the same year, though it makes sense as the two have widely different audiences of fans of the same core franchise. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is built around the classic fan who is now in their later twenties or older. The story is more mature, has a darker art design and features classic versions of characters.

Transformers Prime on the other hand is the Transformers for the current youth generation. The character designs are simpler and brighter and the series has the three young human sidekicks for kids to relate to. Transformers Prime also is coming out for the Wii, DS and 3DS, systems which are skewed towards a younger fanbase.

Check out the trailer below and stick to the Flickcast for more on Transformers Prime coming later in 2012 for the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS.

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While [Prototype] had an insane world with an incredibly selfish and callous anti-hero protagonist, the title was hindered with some gripping gameplay problems. Many times, the player wasn’t given a fair opportunity in the game world. Rockets would come from off-screen opponents or as a player fled from an unwinnable conflict, they’d find themselves being chased by an ever spawning flock of Hunters appearing from water towers littered throughout the city.

It is a game notorious for many people not finishing because of a unfairly difficult final boss fight. But there was something that kept the franchise alive despite the more well received Infamous coming out at the same time. Three years later and Infamous 2 being on shelves for a year already, Radical Entertainment brings Prototype 2 with some pleasant and unexpected results.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Prototype 2 takes the concepts from the original and makes some minor tweaks to make the game more approachable and enjoyable. The open world of NYZ starts off with just initial conflict with Blackwatch military personnel. Slowly, the infected are thrown into the mix which gives players a much easier learning curve for their powers instead of just being launched into the middle of a battle royal in Times Square.

Combat has been changed up some since [Prototype] as players can now assign two different powers at the same time. With one to the X button and one to the Y, players can combine strategies depending on the opponents in front of them.

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Grimlock. Slag. Snarl. Swoop. Sludge. These are the names of the infamous Dinobots that many of us grew up loving. Having these toys made your Transformers collection the envy of any of your friends. And even though Slag has undergone a slight name change to Slug because of the offensive British slang, the fan favorites continue to make their way to Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.

In the most recent set of screen shots from High Moon Studios, we get to see more of Grimlock in action as well as the reveal of three more Dinobots: Slug, Snarl and Swoop. Still missing so far is Sludge, the robotic Apatosaurus. Slug is seen below in both his robot and Triceratops dinosaur mode as is Swoop who appears in both robotic and pterodactyl modes. Snarl can also be seen below but only in his stegosaurus dinosaur mode. What impact these modes will have on gameplay is still up for discussion and debate as it hasn’t been revealed fully which of the Dinobots, aside from Grimlock, will be playable characters or if they will just be NPCs alongside the player.

Check out the full gallery of screens after the jump and stay tuned to the Flickcast for more on the Dinobots and all news Transformers: Fall of Cybertron including the reveal of Sludge and the Combaticons in the near future. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is set to come out in late August for the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3.

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When I first heard there was going to be a movie based on the Battleship tabletop franchise, I was expecting some modern naval epic. Instead, like Michael Bay going to the Ninja Turtles, we got aliens. And now, seeing the game based off the movie off the game takes on a FPS perspective, we can’t help but watch with morbid curiosity at the potential insanity that could be brought to us.

It’s obvious that developer Double Helix Games, known for Silent Hill Homecoming, G.I.Joe: The Rise of Cobra and Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, were forced to tie in to the theme’s of the movie as opposed to the board game like the 1993 NES and SEGA Game Gear classic. But there is something unmistakably interesting about the premise behind the game, by association to the movie, that we can’t take our eyes off of it.

It could be the thought of combining Call of Duty and Halo style gameplay together on a modern locale like Hawaii. Or it could be the premise of a piece of our childhood being completely shattered like it was during the summer of G.I. Joe, Wolverine Origins, Transformers: Rise of the Fallen and Terminator: Salvation.

But, luckily, the Battleship tabletop game didn’t have characters that we could hold close to heart only to be torn from us. Instead, many people just remember the frustration of trying to program the damned Electronic Battleship that almost never worked as well in real life as it did in the commercial. So now, little white and red plastic pegs are replaced with high grade military grade weaponry in a FPS along with a tactical sea-based warfare game alongside it.

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Ever since Transformers: Fall of Cybertron was announced, there was one thing on the minds of Transformers fans: the Dinobots. With the reveal of Grimlock at New York Comic Con, speculation has run rampant about what this in canon story will reveal about the origins of the Dinobots. As we saw with Transformers: War for Cybertron, ideas only hinted at in the show were explained such as the fall and rise of Starscream. Now, the team at High Moon Studios gets to do the same for the Dinobots.

While in the original series, the Dinobots were said to be made on earth by Wheeljack and Ratchet, the Marvel comics series had the Dinobots being of Cybertronian origin. The Marvel series did leave this fairly ambiguous though and not many details were given about these origins. This seems like the space that High Moon will be responsible for filling in as Fall of Cybertron takes place long before the Autobots head to earth.

When playing as Grimlock, as seen in the trailer below, players get to experience a more hack and slash based gameplay as opposed to the more third person shooter with occasional melee combat seen in the characters of Transformers: War for Cybertron. Having both a sword and shield, Grimlock lends himself to a more in your face combat style which transitions into the much anticipated tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur form.

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Just days ago, Radical Entertainment gave us the “Revenge” trailer for Prototype 2 which had the first and only real emotional moment the general public has seen yet for James Keller. Now, Radical goes back to their old tricks with the reveal of the Leader of the Pack ability as you will see in the Developer Diary below.

An ability new to James Keller that Alex Mercer never possessed, whether it be a mutation of the virus as it went from Mercer to Keller or because of Keller’s military background that caused it to happen, is the Leader of the Pack. When Keller uses this ability, he summons a group of Hunters, the hulking beasts that were the bane of many players during the first Prototype , that do his bidding as Keller is able to watch from a safe distance.

Looking at the this Dev Diary for Prototype 2, these Hunters provide massive chaos and damage to nearby targets. Ground troops, tanks and even helicopters aren’t safe as the Hunters rip through flesh and concrete alike. This looks to provide an interesting new gameplay strategy as well with a player directing the chaos from the distance as opposed to being stuck in the middle of it at all times.

Check out the full Developer Diary after the jump and be sure to check back right here for more on Prototype 2.

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50 years. Over 50 books. 22 films. 18 games. There’s not a lot James Bond hasn’t done. In celebration of this momentous anniversary, developer Eurocom is working alongside EON Productions for the first multi-story spanning Bond adventure yet. Coming from publisher Activision, 007 Legends will span the story of six different Bond films, concluding with the yet to be released 23rd film in the franchise Skyfall. Though it hasn’t been formally announced which of the other Bond films will fill out the remaining five, it is likely that Daniel Craig will be the face and voice of Bond, just as he was during the remake of Goldeneye 007 and Goldeneye 007: Reloaded.

A first-of-its-kind Bond video game, 007 Legends features an original, overarching storyline tying together six classic Bond movies, concluding with this year’s highly-anticipated 23rd installment – SKYFALL – to offer the most diverse Bond gaming experience yet! As with the feature films, 007 Legends equips players with state-of-the-art spy gadgets, an arsenal of weapons, including Bond’s signature Walther PPK, and sleek vehicles as they jet off to exotic locations and utilize Bond’s quick wits, class and style to take down notorious villains and their brutal henchmen, perform impressive stunts, and of course…mingle with gorgeous Bond women.

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With less than two weeks before the release of Prototype 2, the most emotional trailer so far for the game hit the net this week. As we have discussed before on the Flickcast, the right music can make or break a trailer. In the case of Prototype 2, the choice of Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” is a perfect fit to get the audience emotionally invested in the story of James Keller and his plot for revenge against Alex Mercer.

Up until now, what we have seen of Prototype 2 has been adrenaline fueled machismo and scenes of epic violence, especially with GameStop’s pre-order campaign. For the first time, the audience gets a chance at seeing the human side of the game’s protagonist with a somewhat relatable start to the trailer. With so many soldiers fighting overseas right now, it becomes easy for the audience to identify with a character who is separated from his family by the current conflict. This only makes the hit feel even harder when Keller returns home to see the virus in New York has claimed his family.

If the team at Radical can correct the problems many people saw with the previous [Prototype] like unfair enemy AI shooting missiles from blocks away off screen, they have the potential to make a much stronger game with Prototype 2. In the first [Prototype], the main character Alex Mercer was pretty much a jerk and very hard to get behind. Now with a war veteran looking to avenge his family, there’s something for the audience to get behind more than the senseless violence of the original game.

Prototype 2 comes to XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 on April 24th from Activision and Radical Entertainment. Check back to the Flickcast for more, including a full review of the game once it is released. Check out the full Prototype 2 “Revenge” Trailer after the jump.

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After the initial announcement of Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, there was mention of a mobile app in development alongside the proper console release. Just how the game’s plethora of characters and technology would tie between consoles, PC and Apple’s iOS was quickly debated by the toy and gaming communities. Once Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure was released, players were welcomed into two separate but interconnected worlds where their figures gained life both in a classic adventure style game on consoles and the minigame-centric PC community. Now, using those same unique character codes, players can import their Skylander into their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with Skylanders: Cloud Patrol.

Skylanders: Cloud Patrol is a shooting gallery style game with some inspirations from Fruit Ninja. Players take their Skylander, with the ability to unlock more through either gameplay or redeeming codes from purchased figures, and target the trolls that have escaped into the Skylands. Players group together shots to release combos while avoiding hitting bombs which end the game for them. At only 99 cents, Cloud Patrol is the cheapest addition to the Skylanders library for any player and provides a simple but fun burst of entertainment while utilizing characters players have already become familiar with.

“Skylanders is already a huge success both on consoles and the web with Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure and Skylanders Spyro’s Universe and we are excited to bring the franchise to the mobile platform,”said John Coyne, vice president, consumer marketing. “Now with Cloud Patrol, fans have a brand new way to interact with their favorite Skylanders characters on the go in fun a new form of gameplay.”

Check out the gallery of screen shots for Skylanders: Cloud Patrol for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad after the jump.

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