Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I’ve been waiting a while for this, despite myself. While the PC version of this self-evidently console-orientated third-person shooter doesn’t seem to have been given all that many developer/publisher cuddles, it exists, and I’m glad. I’m also moving house, so this first chunk o’opinion concerns just the singleplayer. I’m aware the multiplayer’s a major component of it, and I have played some of that, but I’m not comfortable passing judgement on it just yet. So, more next week. Meantime, here’s a collection of words reflecting a personal sentiment about the singleplayer.

I liked the bit where the robot punched the other robot.

I really did! I’m not being facetious.
Read the rest of this entry »

Hasbro’s head of designing imaginary robots, Aaron Archer, looks incredibly tired in the below video. He shouldn’t be. He has an awesome job. I want his job. Anyway, here he is talking about the storyline behind the upcoming hopefully not-shit Transformers game, War For Cybertron. I’m not expecting amazing things from WFC, but I am genuinely looking forward to it in a massively nerdy way. Speaking of which, it’s overcast and I’m bored. I might go and buy a plastic robot. A backstory-explaining trailer (which also goes into why Megatron may be perceived as a hero) is below, and it’s also worth mentioning that Jetfire, Sideswipe and Thundercracker have been added to the playable roster. There are tons of the buggers now – stare at their profiles here.
Read the rest of this entry »

See this axe? Yes, the imaginary one I’m holding, made from laserbeams and impossible fury. Well, I’m going to grind it.

I quite like Transformers. Ergo, I am quite looking forward to Transformers: War For Cybertron. One of the Transformers I most quite like is Shockwave. Shockwave is a playable character in War For Cybertron – but only if the game is pre-ordered from Gamestop. Or, if you’re all goody two-shoes and want famed Autobot Jazz, you can only play as him if you pre-order the game from Best Buy. There’s also Demolisher if you get it from Amazon, but whatever.

Basically: aaaaaaaargh. Angrytank, roll out.
Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve only had passing interest in the upcoming Transformers shooty-mcthumpy game War For Cybertron until now, but something about the previews that hit various sites earlier this week, and especially the below video – the first significant chunk of in-game footage to date – has awakened NERD-HUNGER in me. The environments look big and detailed, the robots are an excellent hybrid of 80s blocks’n'colours and intricate machinery and the combat looks varied… oh, who am I kidding? The reason I’m excited is because I recognise all the damned characters. Optimus! Ironhide! Ratchet! Megatron! Soundwave! Trypticon! Omega Supreme! I could go on. I did, in fact, but it started to look a bit scary, so I deleted half the names I’d written. You must not peek inside my brain of shame. Especially the bit that thought “the DLC for this game is going to be awesome.” Read the rest of this entry »

Well, it’s supposed to be the first footage of Transformers: War For Cybertron, and I think there’s some in-game snapshots in there, but this is one of those cases where it’s hard to judge precisely where the FMV ends and the in-game stuff takes over. So that means it’s looking pretty spectacular and, dare I say it, “cinematic”… Ooh, I had a little shudder there.

Robo-biff will be arriving on 22nd June.
Read the rest of this entry »

Following the news that there was going to be another Transformers game, this time a third-person shooter from High Moon Studios, we wondered whether it might not turn out to be rubbish this time. That’s still not entirely clear after this following teaser trailer, which is sadly not in-game footage. Still, it does give you a flavour of thing thing, what with it being set on Cybertron and all that. I guess it’s more of a teaser for the website countdown than anything else, which just has an email-notification sign up form and some spooky noises at present. Trailer below.
Read the rest of this entry »

As Jim brain-farted last week, something has to follow/replace the current zombie trend, as its time basking in the golden light of zeitgeist can’t last forever. Giant robots seem a pretty good bet: a nerd-loved science-fictional touchstone that’s lately found traction amongst the streamiest of mainstream. That is, of course, due in large part to Michael Bay’s Transformers movies. The problem is 1) those movies are pretty bad and 2) their associated games have been really bad. But what happens when there’s a giant, shape-changing robot game, starring Mr O. Prime and chums, that isn’t churned out in a matter of months to coincide with a beyond-mindless movie? In other words – would it be totally stupid to start hoping that the newly-announced Transformers: The War For Cybertron could do for big robots what Arkham Asylum did for superheroes? A superb* Transformers game is the right of all sentient beings, after all.
Read the rest of this entry »