NYCC this year saw the debut of one of the most nostalgia filled MMO gameplay trailers since Star Wars: The Old Republic. Though we can’t show you the trailer we can tell you about what we saw and what information we were able to get about the game. Transformers Universe is being developed by Jagex, the makers of the free to play fantasy MMO Runescape. Jagex promises an experience meant to appeal both to the masses as well as the Transformers hardcore fan.

Transformers Universe will be a browser based MMO for both the PC and Mac which means no downloads are necessary. It will take place using real world looking cars on a diverse landscape and will be a planet-based experience. So what does that mean? Don’t expect boats or planes just yet for this game. PR people were very careful to only mention driving and not piloting. It may be possible that they may exist in the future but the character creator screen we saw only gave options for cars, trucks and motorcycles thus far.

We have also been promised that Transformers Universe will be a constantly evolving world with huge character customization options. This means that when players pick their side as either Autobot or Decepticon, they will have a massive level of creative control over their character and that the world around them won’t be static. Areas, characters and missions will change and allow for new gameplay experiences instead of repetitive gameplay. Additionally, players will be granted the ability to play alongside iconic characters like Optimus Prime. Similar to the vein of DC Universe Online, players will fight with or against some of the recognizable faces from the Transformers Universe, helping make that individual’s story feel bigger and more important.

Continue Reading →

What is the one thing that has been missing from both the recent Transformers game reboot with War for Cybertron and the Michael Bay film franchise? Ponder that for a moment.

Last summer kicked off with Transformers: War for Cybertron, a return to the much heralded Transformers original G1 continuity. And we all know that for purists of a series, continuity is everything. Players got to take on the roles of both the Autobots and Decepticons as their civil war ripped all of Cybertron apart. The rise of Optimus Prime and the decent of Starscream were both key story elements as well as the Autobots being brought down to their weakest moments before the story ended in somewhat of a cliffhanger of the fate of the world.

This summer, High Moon Studios had to step back from the series and put out the Transformers: Dark of the Moon tie-in game, which while good for movie game standards, it was no War for Cybertron. Thankfully, the folks at Activision and High Moon Studios have heard the cry of Transformer fanboys world wide and are continuing with the story we have been hungering for over the past year.

At New York Comic Con, Activision released the first trailer for the game with only this statement:

Continue Reading →

As always, one of our favorite parts of any convention is the sights and NYCC was full of them this year so we had to share them with the Flickcast audience. The level of dedication by the men and women who attend the con every year is staggering.

Some are picture perfect renditions that rival movie quality costumes like the Anakin Skywalker we saw wandering the floor. Others come from careful collection of legitimate television costumes and props like the classic Power Rangers Green Ranger. Still others take their own imagination and run wild with custom Mandalorian battle armor for both human and giant chicken alike to life sized Castle Crashers.

One of the things this gallery sadly doesn’t do justice is give an idea on just how huge NYCC was this year. Though it is yet to overtake the surrounding neighborhood like SDCC does, the New York Comic Con feels every bit as big and as important as its west coast counterpart.

The entire Javitts Center was filled with every major comic company to movie studios and video game publishers in every corner. This year the Flickcast was only able to spend a day on the Con floor but if things keep looking up for NYCC, we may have to tackle this show the same way we do San Diego Comic Con or E3.

Take a look below to get just a glimpse of the many sights at this year’s convention. See you next year New York!

Continue Reading →

The Transformers trilogy is an interesting beast. The first film was a surprisingly great sci-fi action film, the second was one of the worst pieces of junk I have ever sat through and the third comes somewhere in the middle. Despite the inconsistency in quality from film to film the one thing that remained steady in it’s excellence was Steve Jablonsky’s scores.

Jablonsky comes from the Hans Zimmer cadre of film composers who have dominated the movie score scene over the last decade. Like Klaus Badelt and Harry Gregson-Williams before him, Jablonsky made a significant impact in his career collaborating with a prolific filmmaker, Michael Bay. He had several good scores prior to Transformers, particularly The Island, but it wasn’t until he scored the giant talking robot opus that you knew you were listening to a real talent who has limitless potential.

Now at the end of the Transformers saga Silva Screen Records has put together a collection of the music from the entire trilogy, celebrating some of the best action sci-fi music ever written. The music is performed by London Music Works and does a really incredible job of capturing the essence of what the music is. This is especially great considering that at times the music actually sounds quite different.

Continue Reading →

Welcome to another edition of On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage during the week. Let is know if we missed something interesting.

Let’s get started!

• Now that Transformers 3 has made some of the most money in theaters this year, a few people are claiming that Michael Bay ripped himself off with re-rendered scenes from The Island.

• Who needs new formulas when we’ve got something as classic and plentiful as the Final Destination franchise. Here’s an example with the newest trailer for #5.

• Ladies, swimsuit season is right around the corner, and with these Monster Bikinis, you’ll definitely be the talk of the geeky town.

• Forbes recently uncovered that Sarah Jessica Parker is the highest paid actress in Hollywood. The weird part is that she’s only payed in sugar cubes and carrots…

• Sad to see a few favorites on this list, but here are the top 10 biggest flops of 2011 so far. (We still have to get through Captain America)

• Jon Hamm is a man of many emotions, and you can see them all in the Jon Hamm Emotions Challenge!

Continue Reading →

Movie fans and studio execs alike both know the importance of the Independence Day weekend. It’s the coveted 3 days during which the most amount of money is made for the year. And for almost all 3 films in the Transformers franchise, Michael Bay has held that special spot.

As if we didn’t know it was going to happen, Transformers: Dark of the Moon was #1 this weekend, with a whopping 6 days covering its “opening weekend” (Wednesday to Monday) and pulling in over $180 Million domestically and an estimated $218 Million overseas.

Continuing its popularity from last weekend, Disney’s Cars 2 stayed strong at the #2 spot with $26 Million, followed by Cameron Diaz’s foray back into comedy with Bad Teacher bringing in $14.5 Million.

Also opening this weekend was the hugely disappointing romantic comedy Larry Crowne, with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. It came in fourth place with $14 Million. Finally, the Leighton Meester/Selena Gomez vehicle Monte Carlo came in at #6 with $7.4 Million.

Next weekend, we expect a bit of a lull with Zoo Keeper and Horrible Bosses opening, giving us just enough time to cleanse our collective pallets for July 15th’s Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2, which is expected to have the biggest opening of the year, and possibly putting Michael Bay and his toys to shame.

As skeptical as we may be about the upcoming Transformers: Dark of the Moon movie from Michael Bay, we have seen what Activision can do when it gets its hands on the Transformers. While the last piece of Transformers that Activision published was based off G1 continuity and not off the movie franchise, it was a tremendous improvement from the previous Transformers movie game.

In anticipation of Transformers: Dark of the Moon: The Game, we have a whole new set of screen shots and a new trailer to show it off in addition to the list of pre-order bonuses.

Check out the full list below of all the preorder exclusives as well.

Channel wide – Original BUMBLEBEE toys with the Wii and NDS AUTOBOTS game and original LOCKDOWN toy with the NDS DECEPTICONS game

Best Buy – FREE movie ticket upgrade to 3D

Toys R’ Us – Exclusive Inverted BUMBLEBEE in-game character skin for 3DS game

Target – Exclusive BUMBLEBEE Deco in-game character for NDS AUTOBOTS game and Wii game and Exclusive LOCKDOWN Deco in-game character for NDS DECEPTICONS

K-Mart/Sears – Original, limited edition Transformers: Dark of the Moon comic book from IDW Publishing

Stick to the Flickcast for more on Transformers: Dark of the Moon: The Game and check out the trailer and screens after the jump.

Continue Reading →

Cinematographer Jack Cardiff, 1929

There is only one word to describe the multitude of trailers rolling out this week: epic.  Stunning visual effects, powerful film scores, and, most importantly, long run-times, are what make audiences flock to the theater summer after summer.

Honestly, it was hard for me to narrow down this week’s selection, but I have included as much as possible.  This week also brings two new features designed to break up the monotony of Hollywood blockbusters.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II

Click to see the trailer

As a fan, I couldn’t be more excited about this trailer.  I literally watched it three times in a row.  Honestly, as much as I love these books, I have always been cautious of the film franchise.  Terrible pacing and poor character development were what was normally found in the Harry Potter films year after year, almost as if they were never designed to stand alone, but made exclusively for people who where already fan of the books.

But splitting this last book into two parts was a brilliant move.  Even though it was most likely purely a marketing move to milk this franchise as long as possible, having two feature films has finally given the screenplay the room it needed to breath and to take the time to explore the relationships between the characters that make this fantastic world believable.

Looking directly at the trailer itself, we find it properly utilizing this new “epic trailer” structure that has been emerging recently, which consists of a 90 second theatrical trailer which ends with a dip in the music and poignant one-liner, only to explode into the final minute of epic montage footage set to the most powerful moments in the score, purely for the sake of being flashy.  It is almost like the trailer is saying, ” This movie is too epic.”

Continue Reading →

You know you can tell a good trailer when 90% of it is all doom and gloom. That’s just what we’re getting with the first full-length feature trailer for Michael Bay’s Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon.

If you’re just now coming into the franchise or you have already forgotten the robot balls from Revenge of the Fallen, here’s the official synopsis.

Shia LaBeouf returns as Sam Witwicky in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. When a mysterious event from Earth’s past erupts into the present day it threatens to bring a war to Earth so big that the Transformers alone will not be able to save us.

This trailer gives us all of the goods: tons of destruction, introduction of both the human and robot villain, and lots of visible robot battling. Joining the regular cast of humans this time is Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, John Malkovich, Patrick Dempsey, Ken Jeong, and the always evil Frances McDormand.

Take a look at the brand new trailer after the jump, and get ready for Transformer action (and hopefully Dinobots) on July 1st.

Continue Reading →

Transformers: Dark of the Moon has a tough road ahead to win back the hearts and minds of all the fans Revenge of the Fallen disappointed in 2009. The second Transformers film might have been a financial success, but it failed on just about every other level.

Michael Bay needs to up his awesome this time around and he might have just played his ace in the hole. However, this might help.

EW is reporting that Leonard Nimoy is set to be the voice behind Sentinel Prime in the forthcoming film. This new character is Optimus’ predecessor and was the transformer featured in the first teaser trailer.

Nimoy is no stranger to the transformer universe, having already provided the voice for Galvatron in the mid-80s animated classic Transformers: The Movie. Michael Bay has been eyeing Nimoy for a voice role since the last film, but had some reservations.

“I was too scared to ask him,” the director says. “Plus, he’s married to Susan Bay, who’s a cousin of mine. So I had to be careful. I’ve met him at family functions. But he told me, ‘I would be honored. I’m glad to be back!’”

This is not the first news of Nimoy returning to the acting world after he recently retired. Hopefully this means he will also return to the another of the mega geek franchises he is known for. I eagerly anticipate an updated Ballad of Bilbo Baggins for the new Hobbit films!

Last year, High Moon Studios proved that they understand the Transformers license. After years of bad games and Michael Bay’s “vision” raping the childhood memories of longtime Transformers fans, Transformers: War for Cybertron brought players back to the story they wanted with the Transformers G1 universe.

Now, High Moon Studios will attempt the improbable, turning a good game for the PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 out of the Michael Bay Transformers movie Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Behaviour Studios will be tackling three distinctly different versions of the game as well for the Wii, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo 3DS.

“We couldn’t be more excited to expand on the epic movie universe in the Transformers: Dark of the Moon game, and allow fans to experience the gripping events and backstories that occur right before the upcoming film,” said Paul Wright, Head of Marketing for Licensed Properties, Activision Publishing.

“The immensely talented group at High Moon Studios are huge fans of the property, and they are thrilled to unveil some new characters from the movie while introducing Stealth Force gameplay that lets players convert to a third form beyond robot and vehicle modes to defeat their enemies in more ways than ever before.”

Continue Reading →

Since the title was leaked for Michael Bay’s upcoming third installment of the Transformers franchise, people everywhere have been scratching their heads trying to figure out how a title as silly as Dark of the Moon will apply to our favorite robots in disguise. Thankfully, we now have a bit of a plot outline that will help us link the two. Or not.

In a recent synopsis for the upcoming novel companion to the film, the plot (or at least something close to it) was spelled out.

In this new movie, the Autobots and Decepticons become involved in a perilous space race between the U.S. and Russia, and once again human Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) has to come to the aid of his robot friends. There’s new characters too, including a new villain in the form of Shockwave, a longtime ‘Transformers’ character who rules Cybertron while the Autobots and Decepticons battle it out on Earth.

Continue Reading →