Looking at the Dreamcast lineup for 2013, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Sega’s 15-year-old home video game system had never gone away. Of all the supposedly dead consoles, the Dreamcast is surely the one that looks most alive.

Despite the Dreamcast production lines shutting in 2001, the console’s community is still fervently supporting new titles that continue to release. Two highly successful Kickstarter campaigns last year, for role-playing game Pier Solar HD, and shoot-em-up Redux: Dark Matters, clearly showed that love for the Dreamcast is still strong.

When the Dreamcast first came out in North America in September 1999, it looked like it could change the gaming world.

It was the first 128-bit console, from one of the big three console manufacturers, featuring the first built-in online capabilities, and boasting a launch lineup of big-name titles such as Sonic Adventure, Power Stone, Soul Calibur, and Marvel vs. Capcom. Sales of 500,000 units in its first two weeks led to hardware shortages, and Businessweek magazine heralded the Dreamcast as one of the best products of the year.

Then, just six months later, along came Sony’s PlayStation 2.

The Dreamcast couldn’t compete with the power of the PlayStation brand, as Sony’s new machine — with its built-in DVD player – began a journey that would eventually see sales of 150 million consoles. In contrast, the Dreamcast managed to sell just over 8 million sales during its short lifetime.

Many Dreamcast fans feel cheated by the machine’s premature death in 2001 — a death that saw the once mighty Sega bowing out of the hardware business for good. Those same fans can take some solace, perhaps, in the glut of quality titles still being released for the console in 2013.

2013: The year of the Dreamcast

More than 15 unofficial titles have been released for the Dreamcast since its demise, and 2013 looks set to be the best release year yet, with seven brand-new games either scheduled or already out there.

Sturmwind is the most recent new release for the Dreamcast. The side-scrolling shooter from German developer Duranik came out at the end of April, and it has already been well received by critics and fans.

It’s the first foray into Dreamcast development for brothers Roland and Johannes Graf, who between them make up the Duranik team. Prior to this, the Graf brothers have released games for the Atari Lynx, Jaguar, and Falcon.

So why pick the Dreamcast? “It’s always fun to develop for a console, at least for us,” said Roland Graf. “The other thing is of course the less-crowded market. Everyone is going to iOS or Android these days. These platforms are really drowned with apps of all type. Even if you have a nice game, it’s hard to stand out.”

Being new to the platform, Graf was unsure how many copies they would need to cope with demand. “We estimate around a few thousand units,” he said. “Of course, this is a quite a small number, but the machine has not been in the spotlight for a lot of years. There is certainly still a small but solid fan base that supports the machine, even after all those years.”

That support is more than evident now that Sturmwind has been released. Both the Limited Edition and regular version have already sold out at the website of publisher, RedSpotGames. The same is true at reseller PlayAsia.com.

Sturmwind’s Limited Edition run looks particular impressive, featuring a soundtrack CD, 3D-printed spacecraft, full color manual, and guidebook. It even has a plush toy of one of the bosses available to purchase.

While CD-ROMs for the Dreamcast are much easier to produce than, say, a cartridge-based game, the quality of the Sturmwind physical release is still admirably high. “We had a lot of production issues with our special edition packaging,” Graf said. “This is the reason the game was delayed for several months.”

For Graf, Duranik is only a spare-time project. He leaves the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of Sturmwind entirely in the hands of RedSpotGames. Sega also did its bit to help with Sturmwind’s marketing, though, when PR executive Fabian Doehla appeared on Destructoid Live to unveil and play a demo of the game.

“I think that was just for fun,” says Graf. “They certainly won’t come back and start producing Dreamcast games now. From what we heard, they enjoyed the game.”

Thoughts from a Dreamcast gamer

Jake Smith, “end of level boss” at digital agency JP74 , was a Dreamcast gamer from the very beginning. Importing a Japanese machine before Sega had hit the Western market, Smith talked up the console in the very first issue of Official Dreamcast Magazine (U.K.).

For him, the Dreamcast’s arcade root are all important. “Anyone who played Sega games in the arcades will have a soft spot for the Dreamcast,” says Smith. “Sega Rally, Zombie Revenge, Crazy Taxi, and House of the Dead are highly playable titles, even today. I think it’s the console that closely retained that arcade look and feel in its action games, but it still managed to play host to more absorbing and in-depth games like Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia, and Phantasy Star Online.”

He’s managed to keep on top of most new releases for the console and is impressed with what he’s seen. “Generally, of the ones I’ve played, they hold their ground very well,” he says. “Highly polished, lovely graphics, excellent music, and tight gameplay. Some of them don’t feel they have quite as much depth as officially released titles — an obvious consequence of small dev teams who possibly hold down full-time jobs too.”

“This isn’t a harsh criticism,” says Smith, “as with [2009 RedSpotGames release] Rush Rush Rally Racing, the game concept was decided on because it could be accomplished quickly for a [Hong-Hong-based distributor and retailer] Lik Sang competition in 2006, but the quality of the actual game is high. Then again, some original games, like Toy Commander, weren’t exactly deep!”

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2012 saw the continued evolution of three consumer technologies — autostereoscopy, touch-sensing, and motion sense – with direct application in the gaming world.

As an analyst in the tech industry (I do this gaming stuff for fun and occasional profit), I’ve witnessed these burgeoning advancements spread from the fevered dreams of OEM engineers to vertical-market trade shows, the Consumer Electronics Show, and finally E3 and the games industry.

None of these technologies debuted in 2012, but they’ve each matured and become an indispensable part of gaming. For perspective, here’s a link to last year’s article.

Seeing in three dimensions without goofy eye wear

For those who don’t know, “autostereoscopy” is an informal term in the tech industry for glasses-free 3D – “stereoscopy” refers to the process by which combining two offset images gives the illusion of depth (three dimensions), and “auto” denotes the glasses-free component.

Autostereoscopy uses a parallax barrier to create 3D images without the need for special glasses. This differs from an active shutter system (like Nvidia 3D Vision), which, through special driver software and glasses that present alternating left- and right-eye images, presents the illusion of depth.

Most consumers are familiar with polarized 3D systems, by far the oldest and most mature of these technologies. These are the sort most often found in theaters and theme parks.

Of the three techniques, autostereoscopy shows the most promise, but the tech is inherently limiting, as the 3DS amply demonstrates. The biggest downside to glasses-free 3D is its highly restrictive viewing angles. In my own experience, it ranges anywhere from 45 degrees to 60 degrees. Move too far in any direction and it breaks the illusion. In that way, the 3DS – and its parent technology – are not dissimilar to a hologram.

When the 3D revival began in recent years, the consumer electronics industry threw all their weight behind this oft-maligned gimmick.  CES became saturated with 3D TVs, 3D movies, 3D projectors, 3D laptops, 3D gaming, and more than enough 3D to turn off consumers — which it did. Whereas the leap from cathode ray tube (CRT) to flat-screen was monumental, 3D wasn’t nearly enough to convince most people to abandon their “obsolete” LED TVs. Most consumers apparently saw it as a stop-gap solution.

OEMs lay the groundwork for autostereoscopy

I saw the foundation of the 3DS’s glasses-free 3D tech at optoelectronics events (essentially, anything having to do with displays and lighting), and a large manufacturer – rhymes with “Carp” – demoed a small form-factor display long before it did (or didn’t … shhhh) become part of a certain Nintendo handheld.

And yet, Nintendo’s autostereoscopic handheld system – which may or may not have utilized display technology from Japanese manufacturer, Sharp – faced an uphill battle due to inherent limitations with the tech, itself.

The 3DS was hobbled from the start – health reports loudly trumpeted claims that 3D was unhealthy for children, while many viewers (myself includes) get headaches and/or nausea from observing stereoscopy for too long. And up to 12 percent of the population suffers from “stereoblindness,” which prevents the individual from seeing 3D images.

But the 3DS’ biggest handicap was its restrictive viewing angles, given that its claim-to-fame was its autostereoscopy technology. On July 28, Nintendo partially mitigated this problem with the release of the 3DS XL, which increased the screen size by more than 90 percent — (top: 4.88 in [124 mm], bottom: 4.18 in [106 mm]). But was it too little, too late?

GamesBeat writer Jasmine Maleficent Rea noted that “The 3DS XL is what the 3DS should have started as.”

But she also addressed the system’s improved capabilities: “A wider viewing area enhances the 3D effect, making some games that were too blurry in 3D a joy to play. For those of us with horrible vision, larger screens are a must, and because of this advancement, the 3DS XL is a great step toward people accepting a ‘gimmicky’ feature as a viable gameplay tool.”

Most consumers still do see 3D as a gimmick, and autostereoscopy is but a fancier gimmick. But for stereoscopy to ever become part of mainstream entertainment, it must shed the clunky glasses and develop into a mature, glasses-free technology.

Pinching, swiping, and styli

Capacitive touch – which underpins your iPhones, Samsung Galaxys, Droids, and countless smartphones – has become more prominent as the platforms supporting it have eked out a bigger piece of the pie. And resistive touch – the passive cousin of capacitive – has done even better for itself, featuring prominently in the Wii U gamepad (not to mention countless commercial applications like ATMs and credit card payment machines).

Resistive touch sensing – which registers pressure via fingers, styli, and other objects – is hardly a new technology. Because of its versatility compared to competing systems (like capacitive touch), resistive touch is popular in commercial applications like ATMs.

Nintendo utilized this relatively primitive touchscreen technology for its DS and 3DS systems, presumably to save a buck and to enable the use of styli.

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Microsoft announced today that the Xbox 360 is receiving 40 new entertainment apps this week via the Xbox Live online entertainment service.

Microsoft recently launched 20 new apps on Xbox Live. But between now and the spring, the company will launch 40 more apps. Clearly, the apps show that the console isn’t just about video games anymore. It’s a gateway to all kinds of Internet entertainment.

The apps are listed below:

1. All3M (United Kingdom, United States)
2. Ameba TV (Canada, United States)
3. ARTE (Germany, France)
4. Azteca (Mexico)
5. Canalplay Infinity (France)
6. CBC’s Hockey Night (Canada)
7. CrunchyRoll (Majority of Xbox Live Regions)
8. Deezer (Majority of Xbox Live Regions)
9. Eredivisie Live (Netherlands)
10. Fightbox (Austria, Germany, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom)
11. Flixster (United States)
12. GameTrailers (Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, United Kingdom, United States)
13. Globosat Muu (Brazil)
14. Gulli Replay (France)
15. HBO Nordics (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden)
16. IndieFlix (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States)
17. Livesport.tv (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, United Kingdom)
18. Machinima (Majority of Xbox Live Regions)
19. Maxim (United States)
20. MTV (United States)
21. MyTF1 (France)
22. MyTF1VOD (France)
23. Napster (Germany, United Kingdom)
24. Pathe Thuis (Netherlands)
25. PBS (United States)
26. PopcornFlix (United States)
27. Rai TV (Italy)
28. Sainsbury (United Kingdom)
29. Saraiva (Brazil)
30. SBS (Netherlands)
31. SF Anytime (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden)
32. Slacker Radio (Canada, United States)
33. SPORT1 (Austria, Germany)
34. The CW Network (United States)
35. Televisa (Mexico)
36. TV3 (Spain)
37. Viaplay (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden)
38. Vidéo à la Demande d’Orange (France)
39. Vimeo (United States)
40. VIVO Play (Brazil)
41. Watchever (Austria, Germany)
42. Zattoo (Germany)
43. Ziggo (Netherlands)

Also, starting today, several new apps will roll out worldwide on Xbox Live including:

ARTE (Germany, France)
With the ARTE app on Xbox Live, you can watch an exciting mix of content from the Cultural TV station including documentaries, concerts, and movies.

CinemaNow (Expanding to Canada)
CinemaNow is an Authenticated Video on Demand (AVOD) application, providing customers with access to TV and movie content previously purchased on CinemaNow.com.

CNET (United States, Canada)
CNET offers all the product reviews, technology shows, and event coverage you love, now on Xbox Live. CNET helps you use technology to enhance and enrich your life. From specially curated content to advice, it’s everything you need to buy and get the most out of tech that’s right for you. Get the best in technology, right where you want it.

Karaoke (All Live regions, excluding Japan and United Arab Emirates)
Karaoke provides access to more than 8,000 songs from the latest hits to the oldies but goodies, available on Xbox Live. Your avatar will go on stage and sing with a full complement of stage props and back band. Use SmartGlass to play/stop/pause, browse the database and lyrics, or to add songs to the playlist. Songs don’t require any download and will playback immediately via streaming for a robust karaoke experience.

Maxim (United States)
Maxim delivers what guys want — beautiful women, cool gear, and funny videos — to Xbox 360! From behind-the-scenes of Maxim’s sexiest photo shoots to hilarious comedy originals to high-octane sports, it’s the No. 1 destination for couch-bound men looking for a good time.

Napster (Germany, United Kingdom)
With your Xbox and Napster Unlimited plus Mobile, you can play millions of songs instantly. Listen to millions of songs in various genres, play as much as you want, enjoy hours of expertly programmed music. Discover new releases, charts, and much more.

SkyDrive (All Live regions)
SkyDrive is the place to store your files so you can access them from virtually any device. With SkyDrive for Xbox, you can easily view your photos and videos on your TV. You can also play slideshows and view photos and videos shared with you. For more information, visit the Inside SkyDrive blog.

SPORT1 (Austria, Germany)
Enter the world of sports through your Xbox. The SPORT1 app provides Video-Sport-News, Livescores, livestreams of popular sport events, and access to Pay-TV Sports channel SPORT1+.

VEVO (Expanding to Spain, Italy, and France)
With over 45,000 videos by 11,000 artists, VEVO is the world’s leading all-premium music video and entertainment platform. Stream live concerts, watch exclusive programming, and queue up all your favorite videos. VEVO is available in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom. The VEVO app for Xbox includes high-quality on-demand music videos free to the user and allows social interactions between fans, VEVO, and users.

Zattoo (Germany)
The Zattoo app gives you access to free Live TV across 55 channels and an Electronic Program Guide. HiQ accounts feature quick, ad-free channel switches and higher quality streams (including HD), starting at 3.75 EUR per month. Additional premium TV channels, including Sports, Documentary, Kids, Music channels, and international packages are also available.

You should be able to download these apps from the Xbox Live marketplace starting today. Give it some time though, we’re rolling out a lot of apps at once, and it may take a day or two for all the apps to arrive. We will keep you updated as more of the world’s leading entertainment providers come to Xbox.

We’re also continuing to expand our offering of live events on Xbox Live via our Live Events Player app. Join us tonight at 7:30 p.m. EST for a live airing of the Bruno Mars concert hosted by iHeartRadio taking place in New York City. We’ll unveil new interactive features like real-time pop-up information, polling, and trivia (U.S. only).

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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GamesBeat would like to remind its American readers that your civic duty today entails more than just buying Halo 4. So put down that controller and go vote for the next president of the United States!

Many gaming luminaries have already cast their ballots or have otherwise become politically active in the days and weeks leading up to the 2012 General Election. Here’s a small sampling from Twitter:

As a rule, most corporations abstain from politics — politics = divisiveness = lost sales. But at least a couple developers have thrown their hat in the race, with public service announcements, in-game ads, and funny videos.

Larian Studios allowed characters from its forthcoming RPG, Divinity: Dragon Commander, to “campaign,” transposing real issues for thinly veiled gamified replacements. Over the last four days, they’ve hosted these informative discussions on their Facebook page. Which side do you agree with?

Gay Marriage

Gun Control

Global Warming

Immigration

South Korean publisher Nexon has created an entire mini-site, “The Great Maple Election 2012,” devoted to this all-important presidential election. Nexon created four public-service videos, including this hilarious one illustrating the powers of the chief executive:

While Obama famously urged kids to “step away from the video games and spend more time playing outside,” this hasn’t stopped his campaign from furiously targeting the game-playing demographic. In a repeat of 2008, the Democrats ran in-game ads in select online Electronic Arts games such as Madden NFL, Battleship, Tetris, and others on Pogo.com. The campaign ran their ads in the following battleground states: Ohio, Nevada, Virgina, Iowa, and New Hampshire.

The gaming community has also gotten involved. Undecided and swing voters who watched the three debates on Xbox Live overwhelmingly preferred Obama. In the third debate, more than 100,000 Xbox Live members tuned in and answered 130 real-time questions.

Tonight, starting at 7 p.m. Eastern, Microsoft is live-streaming two political programs on the Xbox 360:

• “NBC’s News Coverage on Xbox LIVE,” which includes interactive polling.
• A live stream of “Comedy Central’s Indecision Election Night” special with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert will begin at 11 p.m. Eastern.

And just for a little levity on this highly stressful day, here’s a political message from the “merc with a mouth,” Deadpool:

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Don’t be fooled by any poorly written notes you might find that say otherwise: Zombies are definitely invading a pair of popular digital pinball games next week, and they almost certainly are trying to eat your brains. Luckily, you can fend them off in the new Plants vs. Zombies-themed DLC table for Zen Pinball 2 (playable on both PlayStation 3 and PS Vita) and Pinball FX2 for Xbox 360.

Based on PopCap’s popular lawn-defense game, the downloadable table will have players using adorable plants and adorable plant-related powers to hold back an ever-approaching horde of the undead (who are also surprisingly adorable). In the original game, you do this by strategically placing your plants in order to create an impenetrable anti-zombie defense. Here, you accomplish it by whacking the zombies with pinballs.

The Plants vs. Zombies table is available as a download next week, with the Playstation Network version (playable on PS3 and Vita) available for $2.99 and the Xbox 360 version for 240 Microsoft points (which actually comes out to $3). You can see the game’s trailer below:

We’ve also received word from someone (who assured us that they were definitely not a zombie) that the table is very easy and the best way to get a high score is to simply let the zombies win … but they could just be a zombie trying to eat our brains.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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The first Transformers toys came on the market almost 30 years ago, so why has this brand of toy robots captivated kids (and adult kids) for so long?

Because it changes.

Like the robots themselves, the Transformers brand has never turned away from doing something else. After the original toy line and cartoon started to lose popularity, Hasbro introduced new toys in slightly different colors. As people got tired of that, they created a new computer-generated cartoon where the robots turn into animals. Then came more cartoons, more toys, and finally Michael Bay’s series of awful movies. They all feature the same core similarities, but they are all different in some way. While being recognizable as something Transformers-related, they still changed things.

It is fitting, then, that the greatest strength of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is the way that it embraces this desire for change. Almost every level in the campaign focuses on a different character, each character has distinct abilities that require you to constantly alter your playstyle, and each character has their own goals and motivations that drive the plot in several different directions.

Also, each character can literally change into a different thing at the press of a button. But that’s a pretty obvious one.

WHAT YOU’LL LIKE

The story

Set directly after the events of 2010′s War For Cybertron, the game opens with the Autobots’ fighting off a Decepticon attack on their ship as they approach a space portal of some kind that will, hopefully, transport them to a planet that is more suitable for sustaining life than their own. Just as things for the Autobots are looking hopelessly dire (Decepticon leader Megatron is pointing a giant gun at Autobot leader Optimus Prime), the game flashes back to a few days prior to illustrate how everyone got to that point.

From there, the game splits each of its chapters into a smaller subplot that detail how a different character spend their final days on the planet Cybertron. Optimus needs to destroy a series of Decepticon artillery guns with the help of city-sized robot Metroplex, Cliffjumper investigates what Decepticon scientist Shockwave is working on, and Starscream has to find a way to maintain command of an increasingly frustrated army that would rather kill him than follow him. Each of them views the same conflict from different angles, which — here’s that theme again — changes how you look at the war. It’s rare for a shooter to force you to see things from the point of view of an enemy faction you’ve spent half the game mowing down, but that’s what happens in Fall of Cybertron.

Also, the game embraces one of the most appealing (yet overlooked) aspects of the original cartoon: the careful balance between serious war story and the inherent ridiculousness in alien robots that are also cars. Oddly enough, it’s the Autobot side that seems to skew toward the grim and gritty this time around, with the traditionally cruel and evil Decepticons providing the occasional comic relief.

The gameplay

Fall of Cybertron is, at its heart, Gears of War without the cover mechanics — at least in terms of how the shooting works. It’s nothing special, but it’s perfectly functional. It has a few clever weapons that are fun to use (one that shoots electricity that is excellent for clearing out a room of insect robots), but it’s almost always a better idea to use the more straightforward options (shotguns, sniper rifles, and so on.).

However, what redeems the combat is the same thing that makes this a Transformers game: You can turn into a car/truck/jet/tank whenever you want. No other game out there gives you the mobility options available in Fall of Cybertron. In the middle of a big gunfight and need to run away to find some ammo? Transform. Need to get somewhere fast? Don’t use the Gears of War-esque roadie run. Just transform.

Then there’s the multiplayer mode, where the mobility options you have in the campaign are given to everyone. If that doesn’t seem like a big deal, just look at any other game ever and think about what would happen if you could turn into a jet and fly away at any moment. It has the potential to completely change every enemy encounter, whether you’re playing online or off.

Once again, the strength comes in the form of encouraging you to change at every opportunity.

The fan service 

If you don’t know the difference between Unicron and a unicorn, feel free to skip ahead to the next section. This is just for the nerds.

While the developers at High Moon were evidently very careful to make Fall of Cybertron a game that anyone could enjoy –  regardless of Transformers-related knowledge — they are still fans of the brand, and it shows. The devs included countless Easter eggs and nods to the original cartoon, not to mention several direct quotes lifted from the original animated Transformers movie. Basically, if you’ve ever accused someone of being full of cesium salami, you’ll get plenty of nostalgia-fueled smiles out of this game.

The Transformers’ three-decade history is one of the brand’s greatest assets. The characters that Hasbro created back in the ’80s are so simple and archetypal that it’s no wonder they’ve become iconic. When the same voice actor who portrays Optimus Prime in the cartoon returns for the game, or when Starscream demands to know who is disrupting his coronation ceremony,  it doesn’t feel like pandering. It feels like High Moon is proving how much it understands this franchise. This might not seem like a big deal to someone who isn’t already a Transformers fan, but it goes a long way toward explaining why so many people are.

WHAT YOU WON’T LIKE

It has a few hiccups

While I didn’t encounter anything that broke the game, a few technical glitches stuck out. Near the end of the game, I ran into a lot of situations where the game would prompt me to hit a button, but the text wouldn’t actually appear, or maybe the text would appear, but hitting the correct button would do nothing.

It also has a fair amount of texture pop-in, where a level would begin and my character would look like a muddy pile of clay for a few moments before everything had finished loading properly.

It can get a bit shallow

People prone to using clichés will remind you that “a rolling stone gathers no moss.” Now, let’s replace the stone with “a robot that is also a car” and the moss with “depth” and we’ll see the one big downside to the game’s penchant for constantly changing. Since you’re always doing different things, the game never spends enough time on any one thing to really elaborate on it.

A good example of this is in the level where you play as Grimlock, the space T-Rex. Unlike every other character, Grimlock’s combat is all melee-based, and he cannot transform whenever he wants, only when he has caused enough destruction to fill a special meter. The Grimlock stage is the most radical change in all of Fall of Cybertron, but once you get the hang of hitting guys with a sword or picking them up and throwing them, it starts to feel a little light. It’s still fun, and it would take a long time for the appeal of playing as a giant robot dinosaur to wear off, but after a while you’ll be wondering if that’s really all there is to it.

The problem is most pronounced in that specific level, but it does pop up in a lot of the others. It forces the game to rely on its plot and the hook of how fun it is to transform, but if the game were any longer than it is, this shallowness would bring it down more and more.

CONCLUSION

Aside from some minor technical problems, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is a great game. The reason it is great is not despite its connection to the long-running toy line, but because of it. It’s great because it embraces the same idea that made Transformers popular back in 1984 and has kept them popular ever since: It changes.

The gameplay doesn’t stay in the same place for too long, different characters require different strategies, and the storyline necessitates a willingness on behalf of the player to embrace change along with it. Sure, since the game is constantly on the move in every possible way it means that any one aspect might be a little too shallow, but who cares? In a few minutes you’ll be doing something different…but just as fun.

If Fall of Cybertron has one lesson that it’s trying to convey, it’s the same thing that players will quickly learn upon trying out the multiplayer mode: Keep moving, adapt, and be willing to change. Otherwise, you’ll probably blow up.

Score: 89 /100

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron was released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC on August 24. The publisher provided GamesBeat with an Xbox 360 copy of the game for the purpose of this review.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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For the last few years, Activision has delighted gamers with the elaborate and absurd bonuses that it includes in the various Call of Duty collectors’ editions. Modern Warfare 2 came with night-vision goggles, Black Ops came with a remote-controlled spy car, and now shooter fans will be wondering “where the hell am I going to put that thing?” again when they see what’s in the Black Ops II Care Package: a toy attack drone (dubbed the MQ-27 Dragonfire) with a gun on it.

Yes, really.

OK, it’s probably not a real gun, and it’s technically just a remote-controlled helicopter. But it is supposed to look like an attack drone, so you can probably use it to freak out your neighbors pretty easily. Joining the Dragonfire in the Care Package are the Nuketown 2025 and Nuketown Zombies in-game maps, both of which are based on a classic stage from the original Black Ops (and one of which contains zombies), as well as a SteelBook case, two collectible coins, exclusive weapon skins and player card backgrounds (so people in multiplayer will be envious of your fancy special edition), and a copy of the soundtrack.

PlayStation 3 owners will also get two dynamic themes, while the Xbox 360 version includes a pair of avatar items: a zombie costume and something called a CLAW that looks like a small robot hippo … but probably isn’t one. PC gamers will have to settle for the Digital Deluxe Edition, which drops the helicopter, SteelBook, and coins in favor of a free copy of Call of Duty: World at War.

If for some crazy reason you don’t need or want a toy attack drone, Activision also has the Hardened Edition. It contains all of the same bonuses as the Care Package, but without the Dragonfire, making it less crazy and less likely to warm a shelf in your local Best Buy in a few months.

The Call of Duty: Black Ops II collectors’ editions are available for preorder now. The Care Package is $180 (attack drones are expensive), with the Hardened and Digital Deluxe Editions set at $80.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Update: Konami has confirmed that a demo for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance will still be included with the Zone of the Enders HD collection.

Gamers eager to cut enemy soldiers in half, then cut those halves into halves, and then cut those halves into further halves, will finally get their chance to step into Raiden’s cyborg shoes when Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance arrives in stores on February 19, 2013 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Revengeance is the first title that the traditional Metal Gear developers at Kojima Productions and Platinum Games (the studio behind Bayonetta and Vanquish) have worked on together, as well as the first time that anyone has been forced to use the word “revengeance” in a serious context…well, as serious as Metal Gear can get.

The game is set three years after Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and focuses on Raiden (the secret protagonist from Metal Gear Solid 2 and current awesome cyborg ninja) as he tries to slice a bunch of rogue mercenaries into small, bloody pieces.

Earlier this year, Konami announced that those who purchase the Zone of the Enders HD collection would receive early access to the Revengeance demo. We reached out to the studio to clarify that this is still the case, but as of this writing we have not heard back.

According to a report on Computerworld, a Microsoft job listing on its Careers website provided a bit of an information leak. The job posting has since been deleted, but it said, “Over the next 18 months, Microsoft will release new versions of all of our most significant products, including Windows (Client, Server, Phone, and Azure), Office, and Xbox.”

Microsoft has made no announcements about a new Xbox console as yet, so this is a significant hint. In addition, Computerworld reports that Microsoft’s Brian Hall made mention of a new Xbox in conjunction with other updates like Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Microsoft, for its part, quickly moved to explain that Hall only meant a new software update.

With the job listing pointing to an actual hardware refresh, Microsoft’s PR response seems too facile. However, keeping quiet about a console that’s in development is vital, as an 18-month drop in sales while consumers wait for the next generation could hurt Microsoft’s bottom line.

An 18-month window would put a possible new Xbox console in the holiday 2013 season. While there are no firm details about a new gaming console from Microsoft, some reports claim that it has Blu-ray support, while others claim the new Xbox will come in two flavors, one full-sized machine and possible a smaller set-top box like the Apple TV or Roku media players.

The current Xbox 360 continues to dominate the sales charts, with models that include high-capacity hard drives, Internet connections, and the Kinect motion control system. The original Xbox 360 came out in 2005.

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According to the press release, up to 12 players will be able to play together, choosing from three different classes, including Rifleman, Engineer and Scout. They’ll be playing across two unique modes, as well. In Conflict mode, teams will battle in sessions of 15 minutes to complete objectives throughout one of the two maps to earn points. In Saboteur mode, the teams will compete to retrieve a bomb and detonate it at the other team’s base, winning the 10 minute round. The beta will include two maps, called Pipeline and Mill.

Want to get in on the beta? If you own Splinter Cell Conviction on the Xbox 360, pre-order Ghost Recon: Future Soldier on XBox 360 from GameStop, or are a PlayStation Plus member, you’ll be able to hop in on the action on the 19th of April.

Ubisoft also announced a companion service that will allow players to “interact with” Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and future Ghost Recon games from tablets, smartphones and web browsers. This free service, called Ghost Recon Network, will launch with the game on May 22 at the same time as the iOS and Android apps to access it.

Players will use the network to customize and share in-game weapons, track their history and their friends’ in-game status, get exclusive rewards like in-game credits and weapons/weapon skins, build and manage their squad, and access detailed game info and heat maps to become a better player.

Ubisoft is a leading publisher of video games based in France with offices in over 26 countries.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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4JStudios has extensive experience in porting games including Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Overlord: Raising Hell to the Playstation 3 as well as Banjo-Kazooie and Perfect Dark to XBox Live Arcade.

The game studio is increasingly difficult to contact, and their website is down today. The last tweet from them was in November of 2011, which had a link to a Minecraft infographic. A programmer at the studio, Gordon McLean, was overheard on Twitter today talking about the awesomeness of the tall, bearded programmers at 4JStudios.

The new version will be similar to the PC/Mac version of Minecraft, with exclusive features like being able to take screenshots, use Kinect (though not on launch day), a different crafting interface that focuses on resources needed rather than grid placement, up to 4 player local split screen functionality, and a tutorial mode.

According to the Minecraft Wiki, 4J Studios has told Microsoft that the game is ready for release, and that updates will come to the 360 version of the game a month or two after the corresponding updates to the PC version. The cost of the exclusive to XBLA title will be 1200 points, according to the game’s Facebook page.

Minecraft was officially released on the 18th of November, 2011.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Publishers have turned to a variety of post-release approaches to maximize revenue – Warner Bros. used online passes with Batman: Arkham City and Mortal Kombat, Epic pre-sold “seasons” of downloadable content for Gears of War 3 and Activision created its own subscription service for the highly regarded Modern Warfare 3. Regardless of the means, these digital content packages serve two purposes – first, to provide video game companies with ways to generate additional digital revenue and second, to stem used product purchases.

However, much to the chagrin of consumers, these strategies haven’t always been implemented seamlessly – games have been launched missing codes and glitches have prevented players from accessing content. This is because these post-launch programs were designed as stopgap measures to provide a solution to a problem that was inconceivable when the PS3 and Xbox 360 launched.

“Unfortunately, in 2005 it was impossible to foresee that digital opportunities that exist here today in 2011 and it has been difficult for both Microsoft and Sony to facilitate the necessary technological implementations to foster true digital growth on a base technology designed nearly six years ago,” explains Jesse Divnich, vice president of capital research and communications at Electronic Entertainment Design and Research.

“[Online passes, DLC and subscription services are] part of a structural change of how publishers will recoup their investments,” Peter Warman, CEO at Newzoo, added.

Moving forward, Divnich anticipates the next generation of video game hardware will provide publishers with infrastructure that will better enable them to capitalize on their intellectual properties after their products have hit retail shelves. It’s all about penetration – video game companies want online services that enable them to engage consumers through a variety of digital touchpoints.

“Ultimately, consumers will take their favorite game or parts of it across all screens. Training your character and buying virtual items on your mobile phone during the day, preparing for the battle online with friends on the big screen in the evening,” Warman suggests.

This translates into a revenue rainfall for major publishers. EEDAR estimates the big video game brands will be able to generate 20 to 30 percent additional revenue on their products through new digital initiatives, up from the 10 to 15 percent standard set by current video game hardware.

Divnich says: “It is safe to say we have high expectations that both Microsoft and Sony will continue to implement new technologies and services that will facilitate significant digital growth in the future.”

Moreover, consumers won’t be able to resell this type of content – another win for software manufacturers.

“Cutting out the middle man and preventing second-hand trading is accelerating [the development and adoption of digital revenue models],” Warman asserts.

As many as 51 percent of current-generation console owners purchased post-launch DLC in 2011, up from the 34 percent who did so two years ago, according to a recent EEDAR study, highlighting the growing interest in digital content packages.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Giving players new ways to control the game is one way to make the gaming experience more immersive. Adding voice controls gives gamers an array of new options to control their squads in Mass Effect 3. While still controlling series protagonist Commander Shepherd with a regular controller, players can tell their squad mates to advance on enemies and use special skills to disable them while Shepherd goes in for the kill.

Mass Effect 3 also features extensive dialogue options, but traditionally gamers have had to select a specific response. Players can now say a response aloud, and Commander Shepherd will continue the conversation without missing a beat. Mass Effect 3 will be one of the major releases for hardcore gamers that will feature Kinect features — along with Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier and a number of EA Sports Games. Microsoft is ensuring there’s enough Kinect content for both casual and hardcore players.

The company has tried to market its Kinect motion controller as an “experience” by giving Xbox 360 owners ways to control other parts of their Xbox 360 with motion controls — like the menus in the console’s dashboard that let owners access popular applications like Hulu and Netflix. That includes rebuilding games — even hardcore games like first-person shooters — with those same Kinect features.

The Kinect is a strong part of Microsoft’s portfolio and has been a large factor in the company’s recent success. Revenues from Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division was up 60 percent to $1.9 billion in the third fiscal quarter this year, from $1.2 billion in the third quarter last year. Revenue rose 13 percent to $16.4 billion, up from $14.5 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.

The Xbox 360 manufacturer already leaked information about three of the games that the company would present on stage at E3 this year — including a Disneyland adventure and a long-awaited motion-controlled Star Wars game. Those games were designed to bring motion-controlled gaming to an even broader audience, taking a page out of Nintendo’s playbook as the company has tried to attract more casual gamers.

Microsoft accidentally let slip that it would announce a new Halo game. That coming release puts Microsoft in direct competition with powerhouse developers like Activision-Blizzard and Electronic Arts, which have extremely popular first-person shooter games like Battlefield and Call of Duty. Microsoft recently took over development of the Halo franchise when it created in-house studio 343 Industries.

You can see a video of the whole presentation below. Stay tuned to VentureBeat.com for more details from E3.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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A new advertisement by Microsoft suggests that applications running on its proprietary Silverlight framework are headed to the XBox 360 — a feature that’s certainly been a long time coming.

Video game consoles are becoming increasingly popular as media centers, rather than just being used to play video games. Pretty much every console already carries Netflix’s streaming video service. Most offer Facebook and Twitter connectivity. And with its newest controller, the Kinect, the XBox 360 dashboard is turned into a kind of futuristic launchpad that owners can navigate using just their voice.

Televisions are also becoming more open to an app ecosystem. On top of a line of “smart” TVs, there are products like Google TV and Apple TV that will sport applications (Apple doesn’t do that just yet). The development community is still in its infancy, and it isn’t clear whether it will take off. But given the popularity of the app ecosystem on mobile devices, it’s pretty likely.

The next logical step would be to introduce an app development ecosystem to a media center that is basically screaming for it. There are already development communities for independent video games that don’t fly under the banner of the larger publishers like Activision-Blizzard and Electronic Arts. The XBox 360 dashboard is a particularly slick media center that could be made much better with the inclusion of independently developed apps.

Microsoft’s Silverlight app development framework is already in place on Windows Phone 7. Microsoft has also said there will be a high level of connectivity between Windows Phone 7 and XBox Live. That means it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to see applications on Windows Phone 7 popping up for the XBox 360 dashboard because it’s run on the same development infrastructure.

The video game console is a dominant piece of the living room already. Microsoft’s move is pretty timely, now that a number of other companies trying to find their way into the living room. Slapping applications onto the media center would all but secure its presence as a necessary device plugged into home televisions. This would give Microsoft the jump on other consoles as well — particularly with the advantage the Kinect brings to its media center.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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