The videogame industry is rolling out previews of the games that go with this summer’s blockbuster movies. The latest offering is a trailer for the  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen game.

It could just be me, but a think the animation looks like sh*t a little rough compared to the pulse pounding footage from the Terminator Salvation game. I can’t say I’m surprised given the number of fantastic videogames based on movies out there, but I’m still disappointed. Everybody has an opinion and yours is just as valid as mine. Watch the trailer after the break and tell me how you really feel.

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Video geniuses of the world, unite! If you love making videos and posting them all over YouTube, EA may have something that is right up your alley.

You may remember the “Walk on Water” video. If not, let me refresh your memory. A YouTube user named Levinator25 posted a video using Tiger Woods 08 showing how players could have their character stand on the water and hit a shot. In response to this, EA created a video in which they said, “It’s not a glitch, he’s just that good,” and had Tiger playing a shot while supposedly walking on water. (You can check out that video after the break)

It was a huge success, garnering over 3 million views on YouTube. Well, it looks like EA is hoping to continue that success for Tiger Woods 10, slated for release June 16.

According to a press release we received today,

“The Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 team is in search of a viral video that can one-up the now famous “Walk on Water” video from last year.”

More importantly, they’re offering $50,000 to the creator of the winning video. Now, it may just be me, but I could really use $50,000 these days.

You can grab all the details on the contest, and check out the ‘Walk on Water’ video, after the break.

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Well it looks like it’s official. Three brand new titles based off the Guitar Hero franchise are heading our way: DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5, and Band Hero. Activision gives us the straight poop:

“DJ Hero expands Guitar Hero’s signature social gaming to all-new consumers with the addition of diverse music genres including hip-hop, R&B, Motown, electronica and dance”. Of course, what would a virtual DJ be without touting an all-new turntable controller? (Editor’s note: eX not included) “DJ Hero transforms players into DJs who rule the club scene by creating original mixes of popular songs and music from the world’s most exciting artists and DJs”.

Guitar Hero 5 will feature both old and new artists, as well as giving “players an unprecedented level of control over the way they play the game with the ability to drop in and out of songs and change band members, instruments and difficulty levels on the fly.”

Finally, the franchise will be getting its first E10+ rated console game, aptly titled Band Hero. The new title will feature “top-40 hits” geared to “expand the experience to a new genre and appeal to a broad family audience who can play together on the guitar, drums, bass and microphone”. By broadening the spectrum to include the younger crowd, Activision hope to find a medium that brings both novice and expert fans of the game together.

Dan Rosensweig, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Guitar Hero franchise, states “Guitar Hero has made music social again and has become one of the most popular ways to experience music. Today’s fans enjoy a variety of music and are looking for more ways to engage with their favorite songs, artists and fellow fans. These games will let them listen, participate and socialize with music in ways they have never been able to before.”

Gamers, plastic shredders, and wannabe-DJs alike will be able to “wiggy-wiggy-scratch” out on their virtual vinyls this fall. You can also check out a couple of photos of the new turntable controller after the break.

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Ok, technically managing a young nude model is not the same as pimping, but am I the only person who thinks there is a similarity here? Probably not.

Jolt games sent us a comely little press release filled with informative points about their upcoming Massively Casual Online Game (MCOG) collaboration with the Playboy skin empire err.. media company. Playboy Manager puts players in the role of a “talent agent” managing the career of some of Playboy’s up-and-coming models.  The whole world it seems will be able to realize their dreams of promoting a girl to that pinnacle of feminine achievement – a permanent room at the Playboy Mansion under the watchful eye of a geriatric Hugh Hefner and among those “Girls next door”.

We’ve wanted to do a Playboy game forever,” exclaimed Dylan Collins, CEO of Jolt. “As enormous fans of the articles, we jumped at the opportunity to bring the game online for a huge audience. Who hasn’t wanted to manage a Playboy model?”

Not to rain on Jolt’s parade.. but I’ve never even considered managing a young model.. Date them? Sure! Be their manager? Not so much.

The interesting tidbits in the release concern the gameplay of this game. Supposedly it will combine the best elements of trading card and turn-based gaming, can be run in a browser window, and will be mobile ready for all the pervy web enabled phone users out there.

The game is free to play but will include subscription only options and all the scantily clad airbrushed artificially enhanced young ladies you can shake a.. (err I probably shouldn’t go any further with that cliche) expect from a product that is fully supported by the legacy of tasteful Playboy photography and provocative and informative editorial content.

You can, if you so choose, read the lascivious details and an additional image of a Playboy-related nature after the jump.

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“… dogs and cats, living together… mass hysteria!!”

As I quote the fictitious, yet venerable, Dr. Peter Venkman, it seems Sony Entertainment is currently attempting a coup of sorts towards bringing the upcoming Ghostbusters: The Video Game within its exclusive ranks. With just over a month until the game’s imminent release, this bit of news will come as a shock to many anticipating its release via the “other” platforms – namely the PC, Xbox 360, and Wii.

According to gamesindustry.biz, Sony acquired the game from Atari and has simultaneously revealed (as of today) that the game will launch on the Playstation 2 & 3 platforms exclusively with a PSP version to follow later. Officially, there is no word as to the fate of the other platform versions that were originally to be launched the same day. Speculation has it that Atari will still retain the rights to publish the game for the remaining platform versions, albeit, launching at a much later time.

Personally, I’m not sure what to think of this bit of news. The game has certainly changed hands (both developer and publisher) more than I can recall. The project would surely have died if Atari had not stepped in and secured the publishing rights last year. However, I can’t help but view this recent acquisition as anything but “dealing under the table”. When first hearing this news, I was given a strong visual of Sony and Atari representatives touting trench coats; both exchanging a briefcase full of cash in some dark alley late at night. Am I overreacting? Perhaps. But I sincerely doubt I’m alone here. It just seems so last minute given all the teasing we’ve had from trailers, demos, etc. added to the knowledge that it would be coming to our favorite platform very soon. The candy dangling in front of us has certainly been yanked away.

Nonetheless, I am still hopeful and looking forward to playing this game on PC. For now, it seems, I will be watching this game from the sidelines. My new multi-core Intel processor was also looking forward to crunching away at some neato physics calculations powered by the Velocity physics engine.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game is still slated to hit shelves around June 19th. However, gamers will only see the box sitting in specific sections of «insert favorite game store here».

Update: It seems MCV has confirmed (from Atari) the game will be released for Xbox 360, DS and Wii “later this year”.

Update: Atari has just sent out a press release with clarification that Sony exclusivity is for PAL regions only. You can check it out after the break.

… and there was much rejoicing in the west.

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There have been rumors all over the internet for the last few months that Sony will be replacing the PSP with a new one. Some say that it will have no UMD drive, and others say that it will feature a sliding screen, and maybe even a second analog stick.

Well, we may be able to put those rumors to rest. According to what 1UP.com calls “sources directly involved with the new system”, Sony will indeed be revealing a brand new PSP at E3 in June of this year. These same sources also claim that instead of calling this new handheld the PSP 2, it will have a subtitle.

Even more interesting, 1UP also adds that the new PSP will be sold in two SKUs, one with eight, and one with sixteen gigabytes of memory. Due in large part to the new handheld having no UMD drive, Sony will have over 100 titles available for download at launch, with one of the featured titles being Gran Turismo Mobile.

As usual, Sony had no comment on this information, saying only that it “does not comment on rumors or speculation.”

More on the new PSP, and an idea of what the new handheld might look like, hit the jump.

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Looks like Nintendo executives are rolling around in more money than ever if the NPD numbers for the month of November are any indication. Apparently the Wii sold over two million units in the U.S. which is twice as many as the same month for last year and if you add in the 1.57 million units sales of the Nintendo DS for November, you have some very happy people over at Nintendo.

Hardware and accessories brought in $2.91 billion for the month with console and handhelds claiming $1.21 billion of that figure.

Here are the top selling consoles and handhelds for the month of November:

1. Wii – 2.04 million
2. DS – 1.57 million
3. Xbox 360 – 836,000
4. PSP – 421,000
5. PlayStation 3 – 378,000
6. PlayStation 2 – 206,000

There’s a new video podcast with an objective look at Ubisoft’s Shaun White Snowboarding up on ChannelFlip.

Comedian Eddie Izzard says in his Dressed to Kill tour, “…there’s only two positions in snowboarding. One is looking cool; the second is DEAD!” For gamers who want to get into some extreme winter sports without losing life and limb or freezing bits off, this looks like it could be a good compromise. Get an idea of how the videogame measures up to the great expectations set by Shaun White’s reputation as podcast host Katharine Fletcher reviews Shaun White Snowboarding on the Xbox 360.

Activision has revealed some brand new details about their upcoming movie tie-in, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And with the words “movie tie-in” and “Activision” in that last sentence, you can probably guess about half of those details right off the bat. It will be an “epic action-adventure” that will
take players “beyond the movie’s storyline” with “in-depth combo attacks,” and will be released on every current gaming platform. Sounds pretty familiar, but it all involves Wolverine, so that makes it all just a smidge cooler.

Raven Software is developing the game, which will be released in May 2009 along with the movie itself. The story will involve Wolverine’s escape from the Weapon X facility and his subsequent travels around the world. This will probably be told mostly through sequences where you fight through hordes of baddies using your adamantium claws and regenerative healing powers, which will apparently let you watch the man heal up right before your eyes.

Call me a skeptic, but after the horrendous X2: Wolverine’s Revenge — which was also published by Activision — I’m a little hesitant to get excited about this one at all. Look, developers, all you need to do is play God of War, paste a cutout of Wolverine over it, and you’ll be halfway to a decent game right there. Just saying.

Sales figures for the PS3 in Japan have more than doubled from last week’s numbers. Media Create’s figures of 34,978 units sold puts Sony’s PS3 way ahead of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 with more than twice the number of units sold. Nintendo’s Wii is still the Juggernaut leading with just under 50,000 units flying off the shelves in the last week.

As far as portable consoles go, the new DSi is by far out stripping the PSP. As you might expect the more affordable portables are out selling all the consoles. Sadly the DS Lite is still outselling the Xbox 360 which is doing twice as well as the PS2 which sold 5628 units. Not bad for an eight year old console.