Despite the monetary success, those closest to the original Transformers consider Michael Bay’s work on the movie franchise nothing short of abomination. Just hearing the word can now send a shiver down our spines as so much of our childhood was violated by his racism filled robotic romp.

Hearing there was going to be a new Transformers game brought us that same feeling. However, there was a shining light coming through the clouds, as bright as the AllSpark, when it was announced that the upcoming Transformers: War for Cybertron would be based on the original G1 universe.

Not only would Transformers: War of Cybertron take place in the most beloved of Transformers canon, but it would fill in the blanks for many fans of the series. All under the watchful gaze of franchise creators Hasbro, High Moon Studios has put together the pieces of what happened during the civil war between Autobot and Decepticon before the two factions found themselves warring on earth. In the video after the jump, it is obvious that High Moon Studios shares the affinity for Transformers Generation One that Michael Bay looked over.

Published by Activision, Transformers: War for Cybertron will come out for the XBox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS and the PC in May of this year. Click through to take a look at what is in store for longtime and newfound fans of the Transformers.

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Regardless of how you feel about her, Lady Gaga is certainly a pop culture sensation. Fans across the globe are going ga-ga for her newest music video “Telephone” featuring Beyonce, which just hit the web. This week, they’ll be able to rock out to some of her previous hits, including “Bad Romance” and “Poker Face,” which are coming to the Rock Band store.

What’s even more exciting, and hilarious, is that Eric Cartman’s cover version of “Poker Face” is also slated for Rock Band release. The song was first heard on a South Park episode where Cartman would rather play Rock Band than save whales being slaughtered by Japanese terrorists. The cover has been the subject of many a YouTube video, including some remixes with Lady Gaga’s original version, and the version sung/spoken by the amazing Christopher Walken.

Not sure how much fun the original Lady Gaga songs will be to play on Rock Band, but the Cartman version is sure to be a favorite. The Lady Gaga Track Pack and the rest of the new songs available for Rock Band will be released March 16th for Xbox 360 and Wii, and March 18th for the PS3. Here’s the full list of songs.

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Maybe it’s the fact that we have an affinity for music games around here. Maybe it’s because two of our review crew are former disc jockeys. Maybe it’s just because it is a damn good game. Whatever the reason, we’ve been big fans of DJ Hero since its release late last year. Between a 9.0 review score and awarding it “Best Music Game of 2009″ along with Beatles: Rock Band, DJ Hero has earned itself a place in our hearts and on our gaming shelves.

Lucky for us (and for you), yesterday Activision announced a downloadable three pack of mashups for DJ Hero featuring the headline artists of the game’s Renegade Edition, Jay-Z and Eminem. Coming on first to the XBox 360, the three pack will include:

“Can I Get A…” by Jay-Z / “Lose Yourself” by Eminem (Shown Below)

“Shake That” by Eminem / “Show Me What You Got” by Jay-Z

“Without Me” by Eminem / “Encore” by Jay-Z

The XBox download will cost 640 Microsoft points ($8.00) on March 18th.
PlayStation 3 will be receiving the pack at $7.99 on March 25th.
Wii will have all three songs as downloadable singles for 300 Nintendo Points ($3.00) each on March 25th.

Take a look at “Can I Get A…”/”Lose Yourself” from the upcoming pack after the jump and keep it here for more news on the game as it breaks!

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2010 has already proven itself to be a big year for games and only two months have gone by so far. From the look of things, March doesn’t seem like it is going to slow down either.

Cross platform heavyweights Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Final Fantasy XIII start off the month strong while Mega Man 10 finds itself sprinkled through the month on the various consoles. Closing out the month on the cross platform titles is Just Cause 2.

Likely the biggest individual release will come from the PlayStation 3 with God of War III. After being the inevitable comparison for Dante’s Inferno, Kratos comes out on March 16th ready to take no prisoners. The PlayStation 2’s lifecycle finally looks to be coming to an end as it only has one release this month.

Take a look below at every game coming out for the month of March.

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Mark your calendars Nintendo fanboys (and fangirls). After a slow start to 2009, Nintendo finished with a vengeance with the release of New Super Mario Bros. for Wii. Not wanting to give Sony or Microsoft any time to regain the top of the NPD sales charts, Nintendo has announced release dates on their biggest titles for the first half of 2010.

According to Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing: “Nintendo finished 2009 with a bang, and we’re continuing our momentum into 2010… With Nintendo DSi XL, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: Other M coming in the first six months of the year, we’re making sure all our fans have great game content to enjoy year-round.”

Here’s what we have to look forward to from Nintendo in the next 6 months and what Nintendo has to say about them.

March 23rd – Nintendo DSi XL
Suggested Retail Price: $189.99
The screens of the Nintendo DSi XL are 93 percent larger than those of the Nintendo DS Lite model, providing a more vivid and engaging play experience. The screens of the Nintendo DSi XL also feature a wider viewing angle, letting friends and family members join the fun.

The new system launches in both Burgundy and Bronze colors, and comes loaded with pre-installed premium software Brain Age Express: Arts & Letters, Brain Age Express: Math and Photo Clock, as well as two free applications: the Nintendo DSi Browser and Flipnote Studio. Nintendo DSi XL will also come with a larger pen-like stylus that allows for a more comfortable grip and enhanced ease of use when playing games that use the Nintendo DS touch screen.

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With blockbuster releases like Mass Effect 2 and Bioshock 2 already dominating video game sales charts, the industry is already asking itself what will be the biggest title of the year. Because of that success, many people have been asking what the next “big step” for the industry will be.

Most experts, including this writer, agree that the world of motion controls is either going seriously stimulate the growth of the industry or hurt it over the coming year.

Michael Pachter, the top video game industry analyst from Wedbush Securities, has weighed in on both of these topics in his most recent episode of Pach-Attack!, courtesy of our friends over at Game Trailers.

In this episode, Pachter first addresses the top selling game of the upcoming year and has put in his vote for Halo: Reach. After the game’s original trailer from the Spike VGA’s and then the X10 ViDoc, we are inclined to agree with him.

Not to say it won’t have any competition with upcoming releases like the next Call of Duty title, but with this year’s COD not coming from Infinity Ward it is likely to not pull the numbers that Modern Warfare 2 did. Even titles like Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 don’t have the game industry equity to match what the next Halo title can bring to the table.

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When the Wii was first announced and its motion control capabilities were described, two things instantly came to the minds of hardcore gamers: guns and swords. A game where you could either swing a Wiimote like a broadsword or aim down the sights of a machine gun, the fit seemed so obvious for what was being told to them. To add to this hype, Ubisoft announced Red Steel which actually combined BOTH aspects in to one game.

When the Wii finally came out, gamers found out Nintendo’s claims, and the Wiimotes, weren’t entirely accurate. Instead of the one to one movement that was expected, waggle controls led the first wave of Wii titles and left hardcore gamers wanting more from titles like Red Steel while the casual gamers like soccer moms and senior citizens developed a love for Wii Sports.

Now, with the Wii Motion Plus which lets the Wii get closer to fulfilling its original promises, developer Ubisoft is taking a second stab at Red Steel. Coming March 25th, Red Steel 2 looks to correct the control problems the first game suffered due to the limitations of the Wii and bring its mature styled gameplay to the ever hungry hardcore audience that has been waiting patiently for the system’s next big hit.

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As we reported last week, Sega’s “hidden” title, referred to as “Project Needlemouse” has been revealed to be Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 and will be coming to the XBox Live Arcade, PlayStation Store and WiiWare.  Included with that announcement was a trailer that showed only a very tiny bit of actual gameplay footage.

Now, a video has surfaced on the internet over at Gamevideos.1up.com with footage of actual game play from a press event. As this footage should not have hit the internet, it is not of the best quality but it does give a great indication of what Sonic 4 will actually play like as it holds true to the series’ original side-scrolling roots.

Notably absent from this game are the cast of Sonic’s best buddies like Tails and Knuckles as well as the entire cast of random extras like Big The Cat and Shadow who piled on to the series as it started to lose quality. While there is still tons of information to be revealed on it, take a peek at just what Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 looks like so far.

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Numbers of console and games sales were released by the NPD group for the month of January 2010 today with some not so surprising results. The Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS (including the DSi SKU’s) lead the console war as they continue to dominate this generation in terms of sales. Even after their record setting Wii sales in December, the little white box with waggle controls still is flying off shelves. With that comes five of the top games being Wii titles.

The griefer’s paradise New Super Mario Bros Wii tops their charts, follwed by evergreen favorite Wii titles like Wii Fitt Plus, Mario Kart Wii and Wii Sports Resort. The only surprise on the Wii comes from the critically panned Just Dance from Ubisoft (averaging a score of 47 from Metacritic).

XBox 360 surged back in front of the PlayStation 3, no doubt with some help of their over half a million selling release of Mass Effect 2. The XBox 360’s version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 also outsold the PS3 version by a firm 65,000 units. Co-op shooter Army of Two: The 40th Day debutted on the charts in the number 8 spot, followed by the apocalyptic release of Darksiders, both the games being the XBox 360 versions.

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It started 19 years ago. A little blue rodent ran his way on to the Sega Genesis system and into our hearts with Sonic the Hedgehog. Since, he has gone through some ups, like Sonic 2 and 3, and some downs, like Sonic Unleashed.

But still, everyone has hope for the little guy who went toe to toe with Mario during the early console wars and just missed. Recently, Sega has been referring to a project under the codename Needlemouse which was revealed yesterday as Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1.

With a recently launched site, Sonic 4 will make its ways to all the major systems as a downloadable game in episodic format from the XBox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and WiiWare… and according to the ellipsis on the website, possibly another format as well.

Sonic 4’s website features a variety of countdown clocks, some specific to character reveals and various content like concept art, that will reveal more about the upcoming downloadable title in the following days. But, for now, take a peak at the teaser trailer that brings Sonic back to his 2D sidescrolling glory, the way he was meant to be seen.

Stay tuned to The Flickcast for more information on our favorite Sega mascot and his new game as it becomes available.

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