The second pack of downloadable content for Transformers: War for Cybertron drops today, with five new multiplayer maps and the addition of two new playable Cybertronian warriors: Zeta Prime and Dead End.

While we had plenty of warning for the first downloadable content pack for Transformers: War for Cybertron, Activision springs the second pack on us by surprise.

This second pack of downloadable content lowers the new character count from four to two but gives us five brand new maps, including two new escalation maps: Pulse for the Autobots and Static for the Decepticons. Pulse sees players taking on increasingly powerful waves of enemies while traveling through the innards of Decepticon giant Trypticon, while Static gives the cunning villains a chance to lure Autobots to their doom in a multi-level series of rooms riddled with environmental traps.

The other three maps are good for standard multiplayer battles and include the picturesque Horizon, the vehicle-friendly Sector, and a ruined high rise map called Metropolis.

The pack also gives players access to former Autobot leader Zeta Prime and the Stunticon Dead End in multiplayer.

Transformers: War for Cybertron DLC pack two will be available today on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network for 800 Microsoft points or $9.99.

For one of the most useless and short-lived Autobot leaders of all time, Ultra Magnus sure has a following, as evidenced by this custom toy showing what he'd have looked like had he turned up in War For Cybertron.

(Well, turned up in the console version, as he does appear in the DS edition)

There are two figures; one for the purists, showing Magnus in the same all-white colour scheme as his original toy (which in basic form was a simple repaint of Optimus Prime), the other with some custom armour bringing him closer to his more common red-white-and-blue appearance from the cartoons (and his clumsy toy armour).

The toys are again based on an Optimus Prime figure, this time his War for Cybertron variant, and are currently for sale on eBay.

The colours look great, but my only complaint would be that there's no car trailer. I know, there's no need for a car trailer on Cybertron, but damnit, he could have had a...hover-car trailer instead.

Custom War For Cybertron Figures [Game Informer]

Activision confirms the downloadable content details leaked earlier this month for Transformers: War for Cybertron, with five "new" characters and four new multiplayer maps coming in the first character and map pack, due out next week.

I put the word new in quotes, because of the five "new" characters, three were retailer-exclusive preorder bonuses. Jazz, Shockwave, and Demolishor have been available to players through preorder codes since War for Cybertron's launch. Joining the preorder trio are Scattershot, the leader of the Technobots, and Onslaught, who heads up the Decepticons' Combaticon team.

New maps are always good, especially when two of them are for the game's progressive Escalation mode, where you and a team of friends take on waves of stronger and stronger enemies, spending points earned with kills to unlock new weapons and new areas of the map. The maps District and Forsaken give the Autobots and Decepticons new places to play Escalation, while Havok and Fortress freshen up the standard multiplayer.

The Transformers: War for Cybertron Map and Character Pack 1 will be released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on July 27, with a cost of 800 MIcrosoft points, or $9.99.

Optimus Prime leads the charge as Amazon.com charges the day with deals on Singularity, Metro 2033, Red Dead Redemption, Assassin's Creed II, and more.

Transformers: War for Cybertron for the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 is a steal today on Amazon.com at $42.98, the Deal of the Day punctuating a series of timed Lightning Deals running all day long.

The first of the Lightning Deals has already been revealed as Singularity for the Xbox 360, a game I was particularly fond of, unconventional multiplayer modes aside. At $39.99, it's definitely worth giving the game a try, as long as copies are still available once this story goes live.

The rest of today's deals are, as usual, presented as a series of clues.

9:00AM Pacific: "Go West, young man." Red Dead Redemption, hopefully.
11:00AM: "Journey to a land of legendary combat." Tournament of Legends?
12:00PM: "Street Fighter IV button mashing" Some sort of fighting stick controller?
15:00PM: "The first modern day spy role-playing game." That would be Alpha Protocol.
16:00PM: "Hone your stealth skills." Splinter Cell: Conviction?
18:00PM: "Life 23 years from now." Metro 2033.
21:00PM: "Explore the deadly, shadowed world of an Assassin." Barbie's Horse Adventures, or Assassin's Creed II.

Hope that helps you folks save a little dough!

Amazon Gold Box [Amazon.com - thanks visceralrealist!]

Folks who spent up to $100 for War for Cybertron preorder codes on eBay are going to kick themselves, as a listing on the Xbox website for the game's first map pack indicates that all three preorder characters are included.

This is why we don't buy preorder codes on eBay Released just last week and garnering surprisingly positive reviews, Transformers: War for Cybertron features a robust multiplayer component. To entice players to reserve copies at Best Buy, Amazon.com, and GameStop, Activision supplied retailer-exclusive preorder codes that unlocked Shockwave, Demolishor, and Jazz character models for online play.

Earlier this week we ran a story on the outrageous prices players were paying for these character codes on eBay.

Now Kotaku reader ChrisRiss points us to a listing that recently appeared on the UK version Xbox.com for the prepaid code version of "Map and Character Pack #1" for the game. The listing indicates the pack contains two new maps for standard multiplayer, two Escalation mode maps, and five new characters for online multiplayer, including the three preorder bonuses.

Become the ultimate weapon and wage war in four new maps – engage in multiplayer combat in HAVOC and FORTRESS or fend off waves of Autobots in DISTRICT, and Decepticons in FORSAKEN, two new Escalation mode maps. Also gain access to 5 characters and their chassis for use in Escalation mode and Multiplayer character creation; SCATTERSHOT, ONSLAUGHT, DEMOLISHOR, SHOCKWAVE and JAZZ are ready for battle. Fight to the end in the war that started it all! There are no refunds for this item.

Mind that last sentence there, eBayers: "There are no refunds for this item."

Mind you this isn't the official listing for the DLC pack you will be buying whenever Activision decides to release it, but it seems unlikely that the text included in the listing is merely placeholder. Activision could still remove the three preorder characters before the pack is released, though that doesn't seem likely.

Plus, there's no price listing, though I'm guessing it'll go for a lot less than the $100 people were paying for Demolishor at the world's largest online auction house.

We've reached out to Activision for comment on this story, and will update should we receive a response.

Transformers: War for Cybertron doled out three exclusive codes with preorders through three different retailers - unlocking Jazz, Shockwave or Demolisher for play. Some people must have confused "exclusive" with "rare," as eBay bids on these codes have touched $100.

Demolisher (pictured), unlocked with the Amazon preorder, got a bid as high as $105 in an auction ending Monday, according to GamesRadar. (Not coincidentally, a code put up for sale since GR's post has an asking price of $125. And zero bids.) Currently he's getting bids between $29.99 and $70.

That's still a hell of a lot of money for something that could, in six months' time, end up as a freebie or a 400 point download. But if you really have to Buy It Now!!! knock yourself out ...

Transformers DLC Codes are Going for More than $100 on eBay [GamesRadar]