For years, the Battlefield series was a multiplayer-only affair. While certain games may have contained single player modes, they were there simply to train offline gamers, as they were fought with bots instead of live opponents. That changed with Bad Company. For the first time in the series, the single player component would take center stage. You step in the shoes of Private Preston Marlowe, a soldier reassigned to the Army’s “Bad Company”, a platoon filled with the worst of the worst. Their job is mainly cannon fodder as they are caught in a war between the U.S, Russia, and a Middle Eastern Coalition along with a group of mercenaries gets involved in the chaos. The environments are destructible, creating strategies for players in both the single and multiplayer modes. Speaking of multiplayer, the game includes the Gold Rush mode, in which attackers attempt to destroy crates of gold as defenders try to protect them. Conquest mode was added sometime later. Like other Battlefield games, Bad Company’s multiplayer is class-based and features ranks and awards. There is a selection of vehicles to drive, from tanks to helicopters. Bad Company isn’t perfect, as the controls are a bit sluggish and the AI is lacking, but the game’s destructible environments and hilarious chatter more than make up for it. Bad Company was so successful that a sequel was released this past year, so check them out if you love shooters.

With all the new media flooding the internet regarding Mortal Kombat (2011), which has a release date in April, it seems Warner Bros. (who took over intellectual property of Midway last year) has been jumping on top of the merchandise wagon. Mortal Kombat Online reports that toy manufacturers Jazwares will be releasing a line based on the upcoming Mortal Kombat game. Jazwares had also done a line of figures based of past MK games, Deception and Shaolin Monks.

No other details have been officially confirmed as of yet, though MKO reports that Multiplayer.com is sporting an order page with the above graphic, supposedly being used as references to the figures coming out. Whether this is legit or not has yet to be determined.

Looks like I was wrong about Transformers in 3-D. The Botcon website has just revealed the first figure in the 2011 Exclusive Box set. It will be a repainted Animated Jazz as Stunticon Dead End. The theme of the set looks like it will be all five Stunticons in Animated form. Derrick Wyatt, the lead designer on Transformers Animated has assisted greatly with art and design for the site.

  

After Starcraft, Total Annihilation is perhaps one of the greatest old-school RTS games ever. Although there isn’t much of a plot (something about two armies fighting over weather or not to transfer human consciousness to machines), the strategy options that the game gave players were unprecedented compared to other RTS games around that time. The game is considered a spiritual predecessor to Gas Powered Game’s Supreme Commander (lead designer Chris Taylor developed both games). There is no resource gathering, as the two resources you need (metal and energy) stream into your reserves at a fixed rate, and battles can consist of over 1000 units on the field, which was unheard of at it’s time. The game also featured a rudimentary physics system for explosions, projectiles, and wreckage. Various patches and utilities have been constructed by both developer Cavedog and the fan community, adding new units, races, maps, and other features.

If you’re a fan of the genre, you owe it to yourself to check out this lost classic. The game, along with its two expansions Core Contingency and Battle Tactics are both available on GOG.com.

Late last night (or right in the middle of the day in Tokyo), Sony announced the next generation PSP. Yes, it has two thumbsticks, you can stop crying now.

What you can’t see immediately: The display is 960 x 544 pixels (thats 16×9 widescreen) with OLED lighting (great for outside or natural light), and capacitive multi-touch screen. Oh, theres also atouch pad BEHIND the screen too. Six-axis tilt sensors like the PS3 controller. Built in Wifi, Built in GPS, and built in 3G support: You’ll be able to download games anywhere. Front and rear facing cameras round out the cool features, though the power of the processor is said to rival current home consoles.

Games will be available on the Playstation store as well as on flash cards (like the DS). UMD is officially dead, but you’ll still be able to buy games in a brick and mortar store if you want.

Speaking of games: Uncharted, Killzone, WipEout, Resistance, Lost Planet, Metal Gear, Yakuza, and Call of Duty were all mentioned as in development. Nothing is official, and we’ll post video as soon as we have it (blurry shaky cams are all over youtube, but no quality video from Sony yet)

Read on for a gallery of photos of the device, and see official specs. Leave us a comment! What do you think? Obviously this blows the previous PSP out of the water, but will it compete with 3DS if the price is right?
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[UPDATE – Crazy: Looks like I was wrong, go here to see the theme revealed for the Botcon 2011 Exclusive Box Set!]

Question Mark? Well, it hasn’t been confirmed yet, but it sounds like the theme for Botcon 2011 is going to be Transformers in 3-D, a little known story that took place after G1 that involved a team of Autobots led by Ultra Magnus, a team of Decepticons led by Cyclonus, and a team called the Destructons led by Lord Imperious Delirious, possibly the greatest character name in all Transformers fiction aside from Powerglide.

How do we know this? Well, here are the hints we were given on the @Botcon twitter feed:

Just realized SO many stories and/or TF continuities (as a whole) were told in installments/seasons of 3… Well, get ready for Season 3.5!

G1? AEC? Animated? BW? What could it be? All of this contemplating may make you feel like you got hit by a Delirious Fire Attack

Lord Imperious Delirious’s grand attack was called the Delirious Fire Attack. You can read more about him on the TFWiki here. Also Transformers in 3-D was a unfinished comic story from 1988 with three completed chapters. You can read more about that here.

We’ll know for sure once the next issue of the Collector’s Club Magazine starts rolling out to members.

Side note: @Botcon also revealed the 2011 logo, which never has anything to do with the theme of that year’s convention. (See Above)

Following yesterday’s leaked images from UK Toy Fair, one of the writers for the new Thundercats show, Todd Casey, revealed the first official image on his twitter account. See above. He also has mentioned that Snarf’s role in the new show would be revealed in time. Reports from UK Toy Fair indicate that Wily Kit and Wily Kat were indeed on display and that they received heavier overhauls that many of the other characters, while Mumm-ra, the main villain of the series, looked pretty true to classic form. No images of the twins nor Mumm-ra have surfaced as of yet.

We’ve got our ears to the ground and will bring you more as it is available!