Shockwave preorder bonus for next Transformers

The yet to be released Transformers: War for Cybertron is to get a juicy preorder bonus. Purple-clad Shockwave will be available in multiplayer modes if you reserve a copy at your local Gamestop in the US and most likely will be a GAME or Play.com exclusive here in Europe (tbc). The almost-as-cool-as-Soundwave character accentuates the the generation one goodness Transformers: War for Cybertron promises to offer but like all Transformers games, breath should not be held until more details arise.

{Thanks Destructoid}

Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom comes to VC

For anyone who thinks Nintendo aren’t releasing true classics onto their Virtual Console store can think again with this weeks US release of Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom. Yes, that’s right. The 1988 NES ‘hit’ follows Sir Cucumber’s quest to rescue Princess Tomato from the wicked Minister Pumpkin after his rebellion dethroned King Broccoli. I kid you not, Hudson Soft published the game which has somewhat of a cult following and can now be replayed for 500 Wii Points. Gameplay is similar to a text adventure with MOVE, LOOK and TALK becoming your best friends while combat is handled by bouts of Finger Wars – Rock, Paper, Scissors to us non-vegetable folk. Expect it to be available in Europe later this week if it does indeed make it over the pond. Read more to watch the game in action…

Free Mass Effect 2 DLC today

If you agreed with the Cerberus corporation’s ethics just to get into Miranda’s pants then shame on you but get ready to fully show your support with today’s free Mass Effect 2 DLC. Cerberus Network members will soon be privy to the “Cerberus Assault Armor designed for shock troops [to] turn the tide of battle against creatures or forces that would decimate normal soldiers, increases heavy weapon ammo capacity by +10%, shields by +10% and health by +10%” Upping our arsenals is the “M-22a Evicerator Shotgun [which] is a longer-range shotgun with armor-piercing loads. This design also violates several intergalactic weapons treaties, so the M-22a is not distributed to militaries.” My weapons of choice are a sniper rifle and submachine gun but a stronger shotgun is always welcome. It’s early days but so far BioWare are keeping their promises of quality downloadable content and will hopefully continue long after we’ve all beaten the game.

Sonic Kart hits XBL

Sonic’s latest attempt to play catch up with the Mario phenomenon is now on Xbox Live Marketplace. Sonic & Sega All-Star Racing (yes the one with Ryo in it) weighs in at 1GB yet last for around 10 minutes but isn’t too bad as far as kart racers go. It did reek of the wanting to be Mario Kart in every possible way and is no doubt aimed at a considerably younger market but hey, it’s a free demo – as long as you have a gold account. Check it out and let us know what you think.

New Pokemon half revealed

What you’re looking at is the silhouette of the presumed cover star for the upcoming and ‘all new‘ Pokemon game. Japanese Pokemon morning variety show (yes, there’s a early morning TV show about Pokemon,) teased viewers with the image which won’t be fully revealed until February 15th via CoroCoro Comic. One thing for certain is that the beast will have a pony-tail so possibly based on a businessman of the 80s… or me when I was 17…

Molyneux to upset us this Thursday

Microsoft’s X10 event this week will showcase a some of the tasty treats heading to the Xbox 360 later in the year, one of which being Fable III. The ever charming Peter Molyneux spoke with Gamereactor (via VG247) about what he plans to reveal and how there’s going to be some “very, very big things happening in Fable.” Sounds good to me but Molyneux believes others may not be so optimistic:

“I’m really scared when I go out and tell people what it is they’re going to get super pissed off, they really are. But it’s the right thing to do man, I’m sure it’s the right thing to do.”

A chin-strokingly interesting statement. Whatever could Lionhead Studios do to such a popular franchise that would be so offensive? Some would argue upsetting people is nothing new when it comes to Fable what with all the grandiose promises that never made it to the final games, but this sounds more serious than a short campaign or a featureless multiplayer mode. Personally I think that Molyneux is just over ambitious and would rather he be that way than apathetic to the industry. Could this be another of his unreachable aspirations? I guess we’ll find out Thursday.