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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With the idea of Hulu coming to the iPhone still a distant pipe dream, other services on the device seem to be closer to reality than we thought. Netflix, which is slowly but surely becoming the leading company in online movie and DVD rentals, has put out some feelers on their site to see if fans would be interested in a streaming service for the iPhone. From a survey on Netflix.com:

“Imagine that Netflix offers its subscribers the ability to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on their iPhone. The selection availability to instantly watch includes some new releases, lots of classics and TV episodes. There are no advertisements or trailers, and movies start in as little as 30 seconds. You can fast-forward, rewind, and pause or watch again. The movies & TV episodes you instantly watch are included in your Netflix membership for no additional fee.

Whenever you want to instantly watch content on your iPhone, your iPhone must be connected to a Wi-Fi network (such as one you might have at home or at work, or in public places like coffee shops, book stores, hotels, airports, etc.)

If this functionality were available, how likely would you or someone in your household be to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on your iPhone via a Wi-Fi network?”

So what could this mean? Is it just a ruse? With Netflix allegedly having an exclusive streaming deal with Xbox Live, this could mean that we won’t see anything on the iPhone for another year, but with the Apple iPad hitting stores in the coming months, that may be just enough time for us to be ready.

What are your thoughts on Netflix streaming on the iPhone or iPad? Would you use it? Comment below and let us know!

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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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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With the movie business seeing record box office in the form of James Cameron’s Avatar, another business that used to also be thought of as pretty successful seems to have stalled a bit last year. According to Variety, the video game business saw an overall fall in sales of 8% with revenues of $19.7 Billion last year.

That’s down from $21.4 billion in 2008, according to the NPD Group, a company that keeps track of this sort of thing. The industry was expected to take a hit after only four months last year saw an increase in sales over 2008. One of those months, however, was December.

The videogame industry’s $5.5 Billion take in December was the biggest sales month ever, beating the previous year by 4%. Nintendo’s “New Super Mario Bros. Wii” was the winner of the month, selling over 2.8 Million units. Nintendo also sold 3.8 Million Wii consoles during December thanks largely to a price cut on the popular device.

Cost reductions also helped Sony sell 1.4 million PlayStation 3’s and Microsoft to move 1.3 million Xbox 360s. For the year every videogame category experienced a decline aside from sales of portable hardware, up 6%. Console sales were off 13%, and software sales for PC games took an even bigger hit, with earnings down 23% to $538 Million in 2009.

Even with the drop in sales last year, let’s try not to feel too bad for the video game industry. Even though the made 8% less money in 2009, they still managed to rack up $19.7 Billion dollars. That’s a lot of Mountain Dew and salty snack foods.

Even with all the movie and TV news we do around here, we also love us some games — especially when those games tie into a movie. Case in point is the upcoming game from Activision and High Moon Studios: Transformers: War for Cybertron. In case you’re not familiar, the game features two distinct storylines: the Autobot campaign tells a story of heroism to save their home planet against overwhelming odds, and the Decepticon campaign tells a story of an unquenchable thirst for power to control the universe.

You will also be able to “play the game with friends through team-based online co-op, or go head to head in a variety of intense, online multiplayer game modes.” In addition, the game “features a sci-fi art style that introduces to fans the entire living, metallic world of Cybertron, as well as all-new visualizations of the iconic Transformers characters in their original Cybertronian forms.” I don’t know about you but I think that sounds pretty awesome. The trailer isn’t bad either.

Transformers: War for Cybertron is in development and will be released later this year for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC and DS.

Check out the brand new trailer after the jump.

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Today, Netflix announced it will be adding another gaming console to its list of streaming video partners: the Nintendo Wii. The companies are teaming up to bring Netflix’s streaming media service to the console this spring. Of course, in order to take advantage of this service, Wii owners will need to have a broadband internet-connected Wii (who doesn’t?) and a subscription to a minimum $8.99 Netflix plan.

Now the bad news. Similar to the service on the PS3, the Wii will not have an embedded application like it is on the XBox 360 and instead will require a Netflix application disc which must be inserted in the Wii while accessing content. Given that, still ready to jump on board? If so, you can sign up now to receive additional information and reserve an application disc at Netflix’s website.

Even with having to use the disk this is still great news for those of you who use a Wii and don’t have an XBox 360 or PS3. We realize that not everyone can have more than one console and many people prefer the Wii over the other two. So, even though it took some time, we’re glad this service will finally be available for you — silly inserted disk requirement not withstanding.

2009 was a huge year for gaming. With some games not living up to lofty expectations, others took the reins set before them and ran with them further than many expected. Batman: Arkham Asylum proved it was possible to make a great game based on Batman, though it took the video game industry over 25 years to figure out how to accomplish that.

Wolverine: Origins proved that games based off movies didn’t have to be bad and in the eyes of many surpassed the quality of the film that inspired it. Legends were reborn as the Beatles were featured in their own Rock Band game. Yes, it was a momentous year for gaming which leads us to proudly present these awards for the Best Video Games of 2009.

Best Playstation 3 Exclusive Game

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was easily one of the best early releases for the Playstation 3. But the problem is no one knew about it who didn’t have the system. A fantastic game, it fell victim to the lack of Playstation 3’s being in consumers’ homes. Knowing the gem they had their hands on, Sony made sure to give Uncharted 2: Among Thieves a spotlight at this year’s E3 along with a strong marketing push when it was released this year.

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