Following the critical and commercial success of Transformers: War for Cybertron, High Moon Studios quickly became the go-to developer for Transformers console experiences. The studio quickly pumped-out a lackluster Transformers: Dark of the Moon tie-in title, wasting the hard-earned goodwill of War for Cybertron. However, when High Moon officially announced their stand-alone follow-up title, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, with the reveal of fan-favorite Dinobot, Grimlock, it was hard for even the most skeptical gamers to entirely dismiss the, now, highly-anticipated sequel.

In order to further capitalize on the increasingly positive buzz surrounding the title, especially after the "Dinobot Origins" trailer, Activision has unveiled a batch of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron pre-order bonuses - including a G1 Optimus Prime skin as well as exclusive weaponry (such as the Megatron Gun) or a G2 Bruticus combiner color swap.

At this point, only two retailers have been announced (with others, likely, on the way). Unlike prior Transformers games from High Moon Studios, the bonuses are for single player only - and don't transfer over to multiplayer.

Anyone who orders from GameStop will receive the G1 Retro Pack:

This exclusive content will let fans play as the legendary G1 OPTIMUS PRIME from the original 1980s animated television show (both in single player and multiplayer), and also wield the powerful G1-INSPIRED MEGATRON GUN and SHOCKWAVE BLAST CANNON weapons (in single player campaign).

Check out images of G1 Optimus Prime below (in both robot and truck form):

Gamers who order from Amazon will receive the G2 Bruticus combiner skin (it doesn't sound as though any new weapons are included with this bonus):

Fans who pre-order the game at Amazon will get a unique code for the G2 BRUTICUS skin that will be available in the epic single player campaign.  True Transformers fans will instantly recognize the rare and vivid colors of this classic BRUTICUS toyline model.

Check out images of the G2 Bruticus skin below:

In addition to the aforementioned pre-order bonuses, High Moon is also teasing further reveals at E3 2012 with a new video. That said, don't expect any new footage - as the teaser is mostly just cutscenes from the Fall of Cybertron announcement trailer inter-spliced with E3 hype slides:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok80yzbvAyg

Given that we've already seen detailed gameplay footage of Grimlock as well as full reveals of the remaining Dinobot cast, it seems likely that the E3 reveal will focus on Bruticus combiner gameplay - since it'd be a major letdown if the character, who is comprised of five smaller bots (the Combaticons), doesn't offer differentiated play mechanics. Bruticus is a major player in the game (regardless of pre-order) and is featured prominently in the aforementioned announcement trailer.

It's also possible that E3 will see the arrival of the Transformers on Earth (given the events of the Fall of Cybertron storyline). However, Earth gameplay was pretty underwhelming in Dark of the Moon - and, despite the narrative possibilities, there's no doubt that the Cybertronian environments are a major asset to the experiences that High Moon has been crafting. Who wants to zoom along a mossy cliffside when you could be tearing through the cybernetic landscapes of the Transformer homeworld?

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Follow me on Twitter @benkendrick for further updates on Transformers: Fall of Cybertron as well as other movie, TV, and gaming news.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron releases August 28, 2012 on the PS3 and Xbox 360.