PS3 Fanboy

After all the drama with Michael Bay threatening to drop out of Transformers 2 because Transformers wasn't released on Blu-ray, we thought you guys would like to know the movie is finally coming out on Blu-ray September 2nd. The date was announced a while back, but now we have the box-art and details concerning the release. The box-art looks more or less like the DVD/HD-DVD releases, but Blu-ray will have an additional feature of Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround audio that was missing from the HD-DVD release. Other features include audio commentary with Michael Bay, two four-part documentaries, a featurette, still gallery and trailers. It will also be BD-Live-enabled with details to be announced later.

Due to a recent exclusivity deal, Dreamworks' Transformers became an HD DVD exclusive. Michael Bay became pretty distressed at the deal, and threatened to leave production of Transformers 2.

The recent release of the HD DVD has been the best debut HD disc so far -- a significant victory for those in the HD DVD camp. However, that hasn't stopped the outspoken director from declaring Blu-ray as the ultimate victor. "It's short-sighted and it has delayed consumers' moving to HD (home video)," he told USA Today. "As a director, my critical eye is that Blu-ray is where my money is. Consumers are smart, and they are going to wait it out."

The exclusivity arrangement for Dreamworks' catalog expires in less than two years.

[Thanks, AG23!]

Another Sunday, another release list. Let's see what's out in the next seven days.

US Games

• The Darkness
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• The Bigs
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent
  
• Transformers the Game

EU Games

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

Asian Games

• Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

Quite a well populated list. There's no real way anyone can complain about this week's releases. Unless you're a European The Darkness fan. Don't forget, though. If there's a game that's only available in another region, then feel free to import it. Your PlayStation 3 won't care. Release dates are subject to constant change, so give your local game shop a ring before walking down there.

Which of this week's releases will you be picking up? We've already got our copies of The Darkness ordered.

Sorry, but nothing playable hits the Store in today's update. Not even a demo of The Darkness. What we do have are tons of videos. So get the microwave ready, pop up some popcorn and get ready to watch:

• Heavenly Sword Gamer's Day trailer. With this trailer on your PS3, at least you can pretend to be playing it.
• MLB 07 The Show trailer. Just in case watching last week's videos wasn't sufficient.
  
• Stranglehold trailer. John Woo's Hard Boiled sequel-turned-to-game gets another visit to the Store.
• Transformers movie trailer. In full HD, you'll get more than meets the eye.
• Bruce Springsteen with the Sessions Band: Live in Dublin trailer.

Hey ... where's our old 1080p Midway remake for this week?

"Choosing sides is just the beginning". Eh. I love practically everything about Transformers... except for those humans that insist on tagging along. What a waste of energy... Autobots don't babysit -- they kick ass. Mostly of the Decepticon variety. Still, I wish they stuck with the whole "more than meets the eye" slogan. Nostalgic, descriptive, cryptic? Anyway, this trailer should get you pretty excited for the game, if not the movie. The 'bots transforming is pretty excellent, although I'm not too sure how I feel about the redesigned robots. It's tough to tell who's who. Fairly sure it's Bumblebee versus... Megatron? in the video. Why the hell would Bumblebee ever try to fight Megatron? Because he's stupid.

Thank goodness! The world is back in order once more... unless Unicron really does exist and will eventually try to consume our planet whole to power his system while he travels the cosmos in search for... planets to eat. 1986, anyone? Transformers: The Movie... seriously? Ultra Magnus said the D-word? Come on, it hailed in the second generation of Transformers since most of the original cast was killed in the first ten minutes of the movie (if you can name some of them, we'll give you a cookie... or I'll mail you one of my old Transformers toys... fat chance)! StarScream finally bit the dust! Really, nobody? Wow. That was my life.

Anyway, for the latest game coming out featuring robots in disguise, who are consequently more than meets the eye, the original voices for Optimus Prime and Megatron, Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, are back and ready to go it again with their respective roles. Forever in the search for energon cubes and ultimate control over Cybertron (and Earth, apparently), you can play as the newly envisioned Transformers thanks to the latest revival of the franchise by Michael Bay. Good stuff. GameSpot has an audio clip of the gents and talks about what it took to get those voices just right. Pretty entertaining.

[Via the sparkling, beautiful bowels of Joystiq]