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If you grew up in the '80s, there's a pretty good chance you've heard of Optimus Prime. And if you did, you probably thought he was awesome.
Prime is the first name who usually comes to mind when there's talk of the Transformers, the famed "robots in disguise" who transformed into vehicles and captured the imaginations of kids everywhere decades ago, well before movie audiences saw Megan Fox straddling motorcycles and Shia LeBeouf running for his life.
They remain one of the lasting symbols of 1980s pop culture, and were responsible for kitchen floors, dinner tables and living rooms becoming battlefields.
Transformers: War for Cybertron resonates with those kids, who are much older now and have replaced those household surfaces with a 360 or PS3.
For them, High Moon Studios has crafted a fun trek through an intriguing piece of franchise lore, echoing good action shooters of the past while capturing enough of that '80s-child joy to mask some of its flaws. It's not so much a groundbreaking title as it is a dream update of beloved cultural icons.
Reggie and I hit E3 over the past week. Instead of long, winding previews of every game we got to see, we took pictures and are providing nuggets of impressions. Reggie's got the pics from the show. I've got some words on what I saw. This one's the first nugget. Hope you enjoy them!
Teddy bears are the universal embodiment of cuteness. They are the quintessential stuffed animal, perpetually open for hugs and snuggles.
But in Naughty Bear from 505 Games, they are prey. They are enemy targets who can be manipulated and destroyed in a quest for survival and vengeance. And, the main vessel of this vengeance is one of their furry, round brethren.
You play Naughty Bear, a stitched, beat-up and disgruntled occupant on an island full of bears who don't seem to like you. So, you respond in kind, using as many twisted and brutal methods as you can to get the bears to leave you alone.
What made the game so intriguing to me was its dark nature, veiled by a very cute, fluffy exterior. It's a trip seeing colorful, huggable creatures whipping out machetes and guns in an effort to defend themselves -- but it's also stirring to uh, bear witness to the sheer mental and physical brutality Naughty Bear can dish out.
The point isn't to simply kill every bear you see. You have to do it in the worst ways possible to earn "naughty points." The bears you find in various missions have an unscripted AI, and they all react to Naughty Bear's presence in different ways. For instance, killing a fellow bear in the woods isn't enough. But killing a bear in front of other bears and causing them to freak out, grab some weapons and call the police? That's more like it.
Naughty Bear snaps necks, curb stomps, caves in heads with baseball bats and also won't hesitate to put a slug in another bear's fuzzy dome. This is relatively disturbing in its own right, but then there's the psychological warfare Naughty Bear can wage against others. Instead of bringing death, Naughty Bear can yell "boo!" and scare the stuffing out of anyone who isn't ready for it. At some point, you can drive a bear completely insane, cause him to snap, and eventually watch him off himself. In the demo, I saw a bear turn his gun on himself and pull the trigger. A puff of stuffing came out.
Naughty Bear was easily one of E3's guiltiest pleasures for me. We'll see if it can maintain that vibe when it comes out June 29 for the 360 and PS3.
I'm not someone who goes bonkers over multiplayer features, but it's Transformers. From the looks of it, this finally - finally- could be the Transformers game experience that actually nails the essence of the legend. If Activision makes good on blending the atmosphere of war with all of the goodness that comes with being an Autobot or Decepticon, the results could be scary good. I plan to crank "You've Got the Touch" while online and see how it feels. That's my test. The game comes out June 22.
The staff at Tech-Out would like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2010.
Don't forget Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is just around the corner and Tech Out will be on the show floor giving you a sneak peak of what's to come in 2010.
Swedish band Rymdreglage has posted an 8-bit flashback on Youtube with a music video that should take a lot of players back to the eighties. Homages to Pac-Man, the Commodore, and even a tanooki dressed Mario come alive to the tune of the beeping and booping music. According to Lego blog, The Brothers Brick, over 1500 hours were spent in creating the stop motion Lego animation seen in the clip.
And it's not a bad slice of gaming flavored music, either. Incredible work.
Most PC gamers know the film "Wargames" and chuckle at seeing Matthew Broderick hook up a synthesizer speaker to hear what a PC would sound like if it could talk. At the time, though, the crude, halting sounds were state-of-the-art stuff.
Now, more than two decades later after WOPR nearly gave everyone a permanent orange afro and Max Headroom had entered our living rooms, we have synthesized pop divas.
You'd figure Dora the Explorer would age eventually, right? Turns out Mattel thought the same thing, which is why they showed off the new Dora Links Fashion doll at this year's Toy Fair. However, there's been some negative buzz as to Dora's new look, in the form of a released silhouette:
Now, I can actually see why the silhouette would freak some people out. It looks like she's got a miniskirt and curvy legs. Quite a departure.
But this is how she actually looks ... and people still have a problem:
OK, I'm not a parent. Perhaps I'm missing some kind of instinct, that piercing urge to express outrage. But I don't see what the issue is.
She's got longer hair (which, I guess happens when you AGE), she's not showing any skin, she's not in heels, she's got a few new accessories (including earrings, which isn't unusual) ... I don't get it. Why are some people still ready to put her at Pharaoh's on a Saturday night? Am I not seeing something?
As for the doll, you can connect it via USB to the computer and actually use the computer to customize the doll. Kids can make Dora's hair grow, change the color of her earrings, etc. There's also an alert system that lets you know when there's new stuff to explore on the Dora Web site. I can only imagine the potential shopping craze this could cause.
