Pads & Panels

Title: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Directed By: Michael Bay

Written by: Ehren Kruger

Starring: Shia LeBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Peter Cullen, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Patrick Dempsey, Francis McDormand, John Malkovich, Kevin Dunn, Ken Jeong

Studio: Paramount, Hasbro

Rating:

Review by: Matt Peters

There’s no doubt that this installment of Transformers has a lot of making up to do for Revenge of the Fallen. After a strong first outing by Michael Bay, fans were left disappointed with his 2009 follow up. After the horrible characters, terrible acting and lack of a real story, is it possible that this third film in the franchise can be the best so far? (more…)

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Title: Connect 4X4

Publisher: Hasbro

Players: 2-4

Ages: 8+

Time Per Game: 10 Min

MSRP: $19.99

Description

Connect 4X4 takes the classic gameplay of Connect 4 – drop chips down columns to try to outwit an opponent in an-ever-so-slightly advanced game of Tic-Tac-Toe by making a row, column or diagonal of four connected pieces – and adds a second layer of depth to the board. The goal remains the same, but players can try to weave their rows, columns and diagonal chains through the two layers. But opponents can do the same, and this time up to four players can take each other on. (more…)

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Though Bill’s number one journalistic interest is Pads & Panels, he’s a writer and his work often appears elsewhere (because the bills need paying). His latest venture started today with USA Network’s The Clik. While Pads & Panels generally caters to the more hardcore gaming audience, The Clik is geared toward casual gaming, and in conjunction with the site Character Arcade offers free online games to play. He started today with a review of Hasbro’s Family Game Night 2, and there is plenty more to come. Readers can check out the site by visiting the following link…

For more info, http://theclik.characterarcade.com

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Title: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

Directed by: Michael Bay

Written by: Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman

Produced by: DreamWorks SKG, Paramount Pictures, Hasbro

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

In the school of good filmmaking, the special effects of a movie should always support the rest of the film, never overshadow it. In the school of Michael Bay filmmaking (post The Rock) the special effects are the film. Everything else – plot, dialogue, acting talent – is an unfortunate requirement for stringing together special effects for something to be played in a theater for the masses of the ADHD generation. (more…)

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Title: Scrabble Slam!

Publisher: Parker Brothers/Hasbro

Players: 2-4

Ages: 8+

Time Per Game: 10 minutes

MSRP: $6.99

Description

Hasbro combines the name and aesthetics of one of its most popular and word-centric titles with fast-paced card game action and four-letter words in Scrabble Slam!

Scrabble Slam! comes with 55 cards sporting a wood-finish similar to that of Scrabble tiles. Every card has a different letter printed on each side, with a few blanks. Players start by choosing a four-letter word, any four letter word, as long as it adheres to the usual Scrabble rules of no proper names, place names, acronyms and the like, though there’s nothing saying gamers can’t modify these rules to personal taste. The rest of the cards are divided between the players. (more…)

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Hasbro brings some of its most popular board games into the digital realm with Family Game Night on Xbox Live. The first four titles – Battleship, Connect Four, Scrabble and Yahtzee – are available now with more to follow. The Pads & Panels crew has breakdowns of the first four.

Generally, speaking we were fans of the idea of making these games digital with the possibility of playing them with anyone around the world, even though they were initially designed to bring people together for fun in the same room. The Family Game Night system – the shell gamers must download to play any of the following games – however, has some major flaws. The online component is an incredible hassle that makes it difficult to do something as simple as get people in a room to play the same game, let alone with special settings. And we wonder if as games are added to the system that file on our hard drives is going to grow with updates. (more…)

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