The PlayStation Vita will be released on Wednesday February 22nd. Should you pick one up? Now that I’ve had a few days with the system, I’d like to share my first impressions of the system itself and the game I’ve spent the most time with, Uncharted: Golden Abyss. The PlayStation Vita is a powerful machine with great graphics and the best controls a portable has ever seen, but it’s UI and launch titles are plagued by an unnecessary overuse of it’s various gimmicks such as two touch screens, cameras and gyros. At a $250 price point, getting one is a no brainer to me, but the real value of the system won’t be obvious until we see how successful it will be, and what kind of support the system gets from developers.

A PSP, PlayStation Vita and 3DS

The size of the system is larger than Sony’s previous handheld, the PSP and Nintendo’s current offering, the 3DS. It’s not so large that it’s not portable, and a lot of that size is in the screen, which is really noticeable. With an amazing resolution of 960×544, the 3DS with it’s laughable 400×240 main screen offers no competition and this is apparent by the breathtaking graphics this system is capable of pulling off.

Last night, GTTV premiered the first gameplay footage from Transformers Fall Of Cybertron. It is within the full episode, so the footage isn’t available separate on the website. An interview with High Moon Studio’s Matt Tieger is from the one minute mark to the three minute mark.

Tieger mentions that Optimus Prime will be able to command Metroplex during one of his levels. Also of note is that the campaign will alternate from Autobot to Decepticon and back, unlike War For Cybertron, which had separate Autobot and Decepticon campaigns played back to back.

Another segment starts at around 6:15 and shows Jazz using a Bionic Commando-style grappling hook and gameplay footage with Vortex before and after combining with Bruticus.

Transformers Prime returns this weekend with the debut of Season 2. I hope you’ve all taken the break to catch up on the series because the story left us with one heck of a cliffhanger. Be sure to tune in to the Hub on Saturday, Feb 18th at 8PM ET/5PM PT.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Yes, you read that right. I know a lot of people are excited about this, but I have a hard time not thinking this is just silly. I can’t hear half of what is being said in this either. I’m sure it will do quite well at the box office, though.

In a truly bizarre move, Bandai chose not to show anything new for their Thundercats line. Everything on display is either currently out at retail or soon will be and was already known. The only item I hadn’t seen before was a set of super deformed thundercats characters (pictured above). From what I can tell, though, that set is already out at retail priced at about US$27.99. Considering last year’s show was a huge debut for the line with lots of new items for this line, this is extremely disappointing.

The image in banner hails from ASMzine.com. They have a full gallery of the Thundercats display here.

Thanks to the GI Joe club, some better photos of the SDCC 2012 GIJoe/Transformers exclusive Shockwave HISS tank have surfaces revealing many of the accessories that will be coming alongside the custom vehicle. Good luck getting your hands on one of these, collectors. It is not going to be easy.
It appears the set will include the following:
HISS tank with custom Shockwave cannon turret
Destro
Constructicon colored BAT
Suitcase of cash
2 guns for Destro
2 contructicon colored weapons for the BAT
3 Energon cubes and cart to move them
A small scale Soundwave cassette player
3 cassettes to put in Soundwave

    

Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Jean-Luc Picard himself reviews this preview of what the series will look like on Blu-Ray. Find out if it will be worth investing in the full season sets that will be released later this year.

Check out the message board for some pictures of the making of this costume.

Lorenzo Di Bonaventura spoke with MTV at Toy Fair 2012. The big question was whether there would be a new Transformers movie. He replied pretty directly saying a new movie would be coming out in theaters in 2014 with Michael Bay slated to direct. Nothing else is really known yet, but it will be a whole new story. Watch the video above to see what Bonaventura had to say and leave a comment below to tell us what you think.

Updated 2/14/12: Confirmation from Michael Bay

To clarify uninformed reports coming out of Toy Fair – Steven Spielberg and I are working on a whole new re imagining of Transformers, the fourth installment. We have been working on the idea for a few months. I’m excited about where it’s headed.

It is worth noting neither the press release nor Bay’s own statements confirm he will direct, but do confirm he is working on the production.

Press Release from Paramount after the jump. [Read the rest of this entry…]