High Moon Studios has responded to feedback from fans of their wildly popular hit from last summer, Transformers: War for Cybertron. As of Monday night (that’s tonight folks!), fans will now be able to earn XP points 5 times faster than normal going forward. This is a permanent change.

The posted the above image on twitter and facebook with the following message:

News for War for Cybertron players. In response to strong feedback from you our loyal players, starting Monday we will be changing the multi-player XP settings to earn 5 times faster than normal – forever! This effects War for Cybertron only on Xbox 360, PS3, & PC. New players this is a great chance to get in and level FAST! The change takes place Monday.

We actually spoke to some reps from High Moon Studios at Botcon 2011 and bounced some ideas off them.

Team Fortress 2, Valve Software’s Pixar-like multiplayer shooter, is now free to play. The game will be supported entirely by microtransactions such as character customizations.

You can download the game via your Steam client if you didn’t have it already, or visit Teamfortress.com to get set up. The game is available on both PC and Mac OSX with cross platform play.

Should we do a Powet Game Night, or what?

As of today, it is officially Sonic the Hedgehog’s 20th birthday. No longer a speedy teen, Sonic has had his fair share of trials as he’s grown. Since June 23rd, 1991, Sonic has helped catapult Sega into fame, and also helped drag it to its current fate. Despite this, he’s survived it all, and still manages to run his way through the several potholes his franchise has gone through.

With This episode, I go through the past 20 years of Sonic with a little help from a guest. It got to be so big a project, I had to split it into two parts. Here’s Part 1, and be sure to look out for Part 2 coming shortly.

Bill Laimbeer may have been a douchebag in the eyes of many Basketball fans, but after a few brief stints in Italy and with the Cleveland Cavs, he was a somewhat significant part of the Detroit Pistons franchise throughout the 80s and early 90s, until his 1994 retirement (his jersey number 40 was retired as well). He gained a reputation for hard physical fouls and his attempts to bait officials into calling fouls against his opponents. For what it’s worth, he is the franchise’s all-time leader in career rebounds. Still, why a developer in their right mind would make a game starring him given the dozens of more popular and established stars at the time is anyone’s guess.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

It seems like it’s the year of the handhelds at E3 2011, with Nintendo and Sony both debuting their newest portable poster-children.

“Wii U”

The Wii U isn’t as much of a portable handheld as it is a new console with a portable accessory. It’s controller works in tandem and separate of the Wii console as a sort of super-controller to both interact with Wii games, and act as it’s own Wii screen separate from a television complete with a touch screen. Supposed release of 2012. (and yes, I’ll probably not be the first to make the “weeeee-ooooo” ambulance siren sound effect)

Playstation Vita

Sony’s Playstation Vita looks to be the evolution of the PSP, complete with multiple touch screen capabilities, built-in front and back cameras, multiple motion control axis, and 3G and Wi-Fi in certain models with the “near” function to find other Vita players in the vicinity. It was hinted at a few months ago under the codename “NGP”, but was formally unveiled at E3 this year. Will it it prove to be a more versatile successor to the PSP, or end as a flop like it’s predecessor? We’ll see at the end of 2011 when it releases for around $249US.

This is very important, guys. Microsoft has unveiled the teaser trailer for the long awaited sequel to Halo 3. Said to be the beginning of a new trilogy, Halo 4 will see John 117 aka The Master Chief return as the hero after he is lost in space.

The trailer is pure excitement and features the return of Jen Taylor as Cortana and Steve Downes as Master Chief. Chief is awakened in a panic while in cryonic sleep to see the already ravaged UNSC ship Forward Unto Dawn being torn apart. As he jets to where the bridge of the ship once stood, Chief looks out into the maw of the monster planet Unicron.

Unicron first appeared in the 1986 Transformers The Movie and has reappeared in several TV series and comic spinoffs of that franchise. What business the Chaos Bringer has with a Spartan from Reach is of complete mystery, but I’m sure if Cortana can help Master Chief open the Matrix, everything will be all right.

Halo 4 launches on XBox 360 in late 2012. The Unicron action figure will be available as an Amazon exclusive later this year. [Read the rest of this entry…]

Powet.TV has cracked the code for the success of the War for Cybertron, and potential awesomeness for the Dark of the Moon game. We come up with about a dozen more properties that Activision should seriously consider adding to their stable:

Super Mario is the long forgotten entry in the Super Mario franchise, yet at the same time, it’s one of the most enjoyable. This Game Boy launch title was the first portable Mario game since the Game & Watch era, and it was developed by Gunpei Yokoi (rather than creator Shigeru Miyamoto), who was basically the brains behind Nintendo’s entire direction ever since they decided to make video games. While it contained the same platforming action from the NES, although it added in a few twists of its own. As the mustachoed plumber, you’re out to save Princess Daisy (not Peach/Toadstool), and the rest of Sarasland (not the Mushroom Kingdon) from the evil Tatanga (not Bowser). Like in SMB, you collect mushrooms to grow bigger, and flowers to shoot fire. However, in some levels, you pilot a vehicle. Also, the levels have more variation in thier backgrounds. One level features an Egyptian motif. While the world itself may have forgotten about SML, it’s sequel is best known for introducing Wario to the franchise. SML is slated to be one of the first games to be released on the 3Ds download service, so I advise you to check it out.