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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Since their inception, the LEGO licensed games have followed a pretty standard formula. Players start off in a central hub where they can select missions to enter, check their progress and buy more characters to play as. After years of this between Star Wars, Batman, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter, the franchise was due for a change.

Not only is LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes the first LEGO game to feature voice acting for the characters, but it will be an open world format. How this will impact gameplay will be interesting as this has never been attempted by any of the LEGO franchise games before. It may be a structure similar to a GTA game where players meet up with NPCs and receive missions or maybe even an Arkham City style where Batman receives updates from Alfred or Oracle, which would make sense using both the Batman franchise as well as the new voiceover being added to the game.

Take a peek below at the trailer and screen shots for LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes to see Batman, Superman, the Flash, the rest of the Justice League and all the villains in action. You even get a brief glimpse of the friendly antagonism between Batman and Superman as well. LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is coming to all major consoles and handhelds on June 19th.

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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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It toppled Atari. It went head to head with SEGA for years to come out the victor. Even during the slow times, it was still in the black. Then Nintendo took control of the home console market again with record sales from the Wii. But eventually being on top means you have to fall. March 31st, 2012 marked the end of Nintendo’s fiscal year where they were forced to announce something that seemed impossible to imagine. They were at a loss.

While many factors contributed to Nintendo losing $ 458 ,000,000 during the past year while sales were in the $7,990,000,000 range, the main two being looked upon are the lack of software and the gigantic price drop from the 3DS.

With a library of over 1200 games, one would think the Wii would have carried enough momentum to continue high sales. Unfortunately, 2011 marked a lackluster year for new Wii releases. With only The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword to be both a commercial and critical success releasing in late 2011, owners of the system didn’t flock to other critical darlings such as Xenoblade or The Last Story like Nintendo would have hoped.

This could speak strongly to the hardcore gaming audience already having written off Nintendo for forgetting them with a lack of big core titles when the system initially launched. With the Wii U on its way, there is a drastic drop off in titles being promoted for the Wii.

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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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Kirby is the most adorable mascot in the Nintendo pantheon. He is a cute, pink little ball that sucks up enemies and can use their powers. I always assumed he ate the souls and gained their strength, and that underlying creepiness always punctuated his cuteness.

In honor of the Mascot’s 20th anniversary, Nintendo has announced plans to release a special commemorative disc to Wii consoles this fall. No word on what titles we can expect in this set, but the game will no doubt encompass the earlier era of the character.

In an official statement Nintendo executive VP Scott Moffitt had this to say:

A new Mario game and a big Kirby celebration will help make 2012 an especially great year for Nintendo fans. Whether they’re playing at home on Wii or using Nintendo 3DS to have fun on the go, players can look forward to experiencing some of our biggest franchises in exciting ways.

This release should be similar to the 25th anniversary Mario set that was released a while ago. Although we certainly hope for a more in-depth set of games than the Super Mario World free Mario set. On the flip side though, that collection included some nice bonuses, so if all we get are NES era Kirby Games, a soundtrack, and a Pink Wii-mote, this celebratory set should still be worth it.

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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Two Daytime Emmys. A hit toy line. A second season underway and a third already announced. Transformers Prime takes another look at the Transformers mythos to lock in new fans to the franchise’s legacy. It was only a manner of time before the series would be given its own licensed game treatment.

The game will feature franchise stalwarts Optimus Prime and Bumblebee along with others from the series Arcee, Ratchet and Bulkhead along with the human kids Jack, Miko and Raf as they try to of course save earth from Megatron. There is also a fleeting image throughout the trailer of a robot that looks a LOT like Eva-001 from Neon Genesis: Evangelion.

“Hasbro Studios has done a phenomenal job with the TRANSFORMERS PRIMEtelevision show,” said David Oxford, Executive Vice President at Activision Publishing. “We are collaborating closely with the series creators to capture all the adventure, humor and friendships from the show to create an authentic action experience for TRANSFORMERS fans of all ages to enjoy.”

“Hasbro is thrilled to be working with Activision again on an exciting new TRANSFORMERS video game,” said Mark Blecher, Senior Vice President of Digital Media and Marketing at Hasbro. “The TRANSFORMERS PRIME animated series has resonated strongly with kids and fans and we’re looking forward to delivering this new way to experience the adventure.”

Though story details are slim at the moment, check out the trailer below for the first glimpse of Transformers Prime: The Game coming to the Nintendo Wii, 3DS and DS from Activision and Nowpro after the jump.

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After breaking the 10 million sold mark, it was inevitable that LEGO Batman would receive a sequel. The original was so popular, it became a part of the package deal for the XBox 360 for a time. Back in November of 2011, a few months after LEGO revealed initial designs for their LEGO DC Super Heroes line, Traveller’s Tales and Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment announced that the latest LEGO Batman title would encompass some of the most well known heroes and villains of the DC Universe. Now more than a full three months later, we get a first glimpse of it in action in LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes.

In the trailer below, we see LEGO Batman and his ward LEGO Robin once again, but this time joined by the Man of Steel (or in this case also LEGO) Superman. He makes his way over to Gotham as the Joker is released from Arkham Asylum by Supe’s own nemesis, Lex Luthor (voiced by none other than Clancy Brown).

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Were you one of many consumers who took the plunge into 3D gaming last year with the release of the Nintendo 3DS? Or were you among those gamers who were waiting for a 3DS Lite- a smaller, thinner, version of the device with a better battery life?

While there’s not much evidence to support this, only speculation, Nikkei Trendy expects that an unannounced 3DS Lite could be released as early as spring 2012.

“To increase the 3DS’s install base,” the magazine writes, “there’s a possibility for a lighter version that addresses the handheld’s weak points, the thickness and the battery life.”

I know I waited for the DS Lite, and was very pleased with the decision. But with the 3DS I got impatient and picked one up. I definitely haven’t regretted the decision, but Nintendo always improves on their products in the second go-round, and if a 3DS Lite is on the horizon, I’m sure it’ll be better (but not bigger) than the current handheld console.

We’ll throw this onto the pile of things we’re waiting Nintendo to release, including the Wii U, introduced during last year’s 2011 and still no definitive release date on the horizon.

One thing we’ve learned is there are too many games and too little time to play them all. This also means there isn’t even enough time to give all of them awards, but we try our best. Today we take a look at both the most time consuming efforts of the past year as well as give some awards for games that deserve some notable mentions as well.

Game Most Likely to Consume Your Life: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Two Hundred and Fifty Hours. By most estimates, this is how long it’ll take an average player to explore MOST of the content of Skyrim. To give some perspective, if the average person works a 40 hour a week job, Skyrim would take six and a quarter full work weeks to complete. Now, we realize that most gamers work jobs outside of the gaming industry and cannot devote a full forty hours a week to a single game.

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Yesterday we took a look at Minecraft, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Capcom, Dark Souls and Portal 2. Today, we have a whole second set of awards to be given out for the best (and worst) of 2011.

Game That Shouldn’t Have Taken Nearly As Long to Come Out: Duke Nukem Forever

What happened in the time span since Duke Nukem Forever began development?

The entire Presidential run of George W. Bush.

This writer’s entire high school and college career.

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, and The Clone Wars were all released in theaters.

The XBox was released and ended its lifecycle.

Activision released 7 proper Call of Duty titles.

Lost.

A child born when development started would have grown to be a teenager.

The list goes on and on…

And the worst part is, after all that wait… Duke Nukem Forever wasn’t very good when it did finally come out. What was considered controversial when the game began production is pretty tame by comparison to what people are enjoying in gaming now and the humor comes off as sophomoric instead of clever.

While we can understand the desire to release a passion project to finally let it see the light of day, sometimes it is better to let it enjoy a quiet death with some dignity instead of coming out guns blazing as a failure.

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