I’ve been over the trailer with a fine-toothed comb, picking out choice bits in the hope of finding some meaning in it all. I used a little of my own knowledge, a heaping helping of The Vault Fallout Wiki (thanks guys!), and now it’s up to you. Check out what I’ve singled out, and then add your own thoughts and speculation. Go crazy with it.

The Scary Cowboy

Does the scary cowboy mean something, or is it simply tossed in to make the player afraid of cowboys? Having been taking small doses of cowboy at regular intervals over the past 36 years, I am immune.

The Body

Does one more dead body buried under the sands outside of Vegas make a difference? Is this someone in particular, or just an example of mobster violence being alive and well in New Vegas? In the original Fallout, NPC Tycho said that his father used to tell him about Vegas, reminiscing about a fat mobster who lived there, making reference to Fat Freddy, a character from Wasteland, an ancestor of the Fallout series. Oh great, it’s a Mafia clone! I kid.

The City of Lights

References in previous Fallout titles suggest that Vegas had been largely rebuilt after the Great War, which would explain all of the buildings and lights. Vegas isn’t the type of city to let a little apocalypse keep it down.

The Figure

Who is this guy supposed to be? Just a random wanderer, or is he something more? He reminds me a bit of the description of the NPC Tycho from Fallout, who was described as “a man in dusty leather armour with a trenchcoat and gas mask”. Of course, Fallout’s final art for Tycho looks completely different. Perhaps it’s just a random desert ranger?

The Flag

If he is indeed a desert ranger, he’s a desert ranger that’s been to California, as he is holding (or standing next to) the flag of the New California Republic. Is there a war going on? An invasion? Considering the state of most cities following the Great War, a restored city like New Vegas would be a tasty target for conquest.

And Then Came The Glow

Those don’t look like the eyes of the figure glowing. It actually looks like something being reflected off of his mask. What’s red and glowing and heading towards New Vegas?

77? In A Row?

What’s the signifigance of 77 in the Fallout universe? As far as I can tell, the only reference to the number is Vault 77, the Vault storied in the Penny Arcade companion comic for Fallout 3, which consisted solely of one man and several puppets. Perhaps it’s a reference to that? Note that the figure also has a single 7 on his helmet. 777? Jackpot?

Take this message from Infinity Ward “creative strategist” Robert Bowling, posted to his well-followed Twitter account earlier today: “First round of meetings in Paris wrapped. Grabbing lunch with Xavier Gens, director of the Hitman film while in town. Talking game films.” Sure, Bowling and Gens may merely be enjoying a social call. Or maybe they’re talking about turning the narrative of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series into a feature film.

Parent company Activision just recently filed for new trademarks related to the Call of Duty franchise, protecting the mark against “Pre-recorded movies featuring comedy, drama, action, adventure, music, theatrical performances and/or animation.” Honestly, not making Call of Duty into a film, direct to DVD animated feature, or CGI something would be foolishly leaving money on the table.

And it may be reflective of a larger trend at Activision, who also recently filed similar trademarks for Guitar Hero and Singularity. The latter we can understand, as it’s story driven. But Guitar Hero? Certainly no one would think that was an idea worth doing.

Oh, wait.

FourZeroTwo [Twitter]

Renting a movie off of the PSN, now, that’s something that would expire, and we’re all familiar with that. Fareo at the Retail Gamer posted these shots with the same quality applied to games. And, purely speculation here, he reasons that since PSPgo owners are no longer able to rent games from GameFly or anywhere else—lack of the UMD drive and all that—such a service would only make sense. Wouldn’t it?

Here’s another screen proving his point.

Digitally Renting PSP Games? [The Retail Gamer]

The four masks in question, shown above courtesy of But Wait, There’s Lore, depict a goblin male and goblin female, which are pretty standard sights around Azeroth. They also depict, however, a male and female wolf-looking creature, which many in the community are calling Worgen. Worgen are also common around Azeroth, only they are slightly less detailed, and there are no females. This is leading many people to believe that these are two new races that will be announced as part of World of Warcraft’s next expansion, which everyone is calling Cataclysm.

I’m on the fence here. The Worgen and the Goblins were the two races I wanted to see in The Burning Crusade, but of course that didn’t come to fruition. Giving the Horde goblins would give them a smaller race to hopefully annoy the Alliance as much as Gnomes annoy the Horde, while the Worgen on the Alliance side would give them a nice, bestial-looking race, while allowing the opposing faction to call them furries.

It’s all utter speculation at this point, of course. I don’t think Blizzard would be so sloppy as to have two major reveals tucked away in a patch anyone has access to. In fact, I’d fully expect the company to do things like that in order to purposefully mislead speculators. Blizzard remains tight-lipped, and will do so until at least BlizzCon next month, where I will be sitting in the audience during the keynote desperately praying my laptop battery doesn’t die.

Datamining of 3.2 —-> reveals upcoming races? [Scrolls of Lore Forums]

I didn’t want anything to do with the last Transformers game, partly because I’d heard it was awful, but mostly because it featured “movie” Transformers. Which are terrible, spindly things.

Call me a purist, call me an asshole, I don’t mind, but when a Transformer looks like a Bionicle with a bone disease, it’s not really a Transformer. This ruined the last film for me, I wasn’t going to work to unlock them in the last game, and it even ruined the 2004 PS2 game based on the “Armada” series, which part of me knew was excellent, but other parts reviled because it starred the “wrong” Optimus Prime.

So it’s heartening to hear that the developers behind the second Transformers game – the one based on the second live-action Transformers movie – will be incorporating a wide range of downloadable characters into the game. Not “unlockable”. “Downloadable”.

Sure, this will include characters from the Michael Bay film, but it’s interesting that publishers Activision refused to confirm with MTV that these would be the only ones. Leaving us with the very real possibility that there would be downloadable characters from other Transformers timelines/mediums.

Like, say, the original series. Or, in my dreams, multiple series, from which I can build a Prime menagerie like the one above.

UPDATE – Yes, you could unlock some skins in the first game. But they were just re-skins. This sounds more like the (downloadable) introduction of all-new characters, which if Activision know what they’re doing, will include Soundwave, Huffer and Seaspray.

Activision Planning ‘Transformers’ Character DLC [MTV]

Unfortunately, Square Enix’s protection of Vanguard Storm is extremely light on details. But the title could be related to the publisher’s rumoured “yet-to-be-announced action game,” teased via a single mysterious screen shot in the latest PlayStation: The Official Magazine.

What does it have to do with Vagrant Story? Absolutely nothing, as far as we know. I just happened to really like Vagrant Story and would like to see Square Enix return to the property, as unlikely as that may seem.

The official PlayStation mag’s teaser shot shows a man in a fantasy sci-fi world setting, sporting a giant, meticulously engraved sword. Sure, that sounds like most Square Enix games, but this one looks awful pretty. Like most Square Enix games. Hopefully, the company will have something to show us by the time E3 rolls around.

Rumours have been stirring since December about a potential motion control apparatus for the Xbox 360, and instead of fading away like bad rumours generally do, more and more fuel has been added to the possibility as time went on. With the latest speculation indicating a new motion-controlled friendly redesign of the Xbox Dashboard, E3 could very well be the time for the big reveal.

Nintendo trademarks reveal new products? [CVG]