Transformers: War for Cybertron (games)
Transformers: War for Cybertron is series of video games published by Activision and developed by High Moon Studios, Next Level Games and Vicarious Visions, set before the Transformers take their war to Earth. Hasbro intends it to act as a foundation for Transformers franchise storylines for years to come, and so they've been giving a lot of input and stressing character development.[1] The book Exodus: The Official History of the War for Cybertron serves as a storyline lead-in to the events of the game.
Versions
- The standard version of the game, and the one most publicized, was made available for two out of three of the main consoles and the PC with few changes between each.
- The Wii version, titled Transformers: Cybertron Adventures, was handled by Next Level Games, and was developed as an on-rails shooter with some driving sections.
- The DS version, developed by Vicarious Visions, was released in Autobot and Decepticon incarnations, with numerous exclusive characters in each.
Featured Characters
Transformer references
- Steve Blum does his best Victor Caroli impression for his role of the narrator.
- A variety of callbacks to The Transformers: The Movie:
- Ironhide greets the space slug with the Universal greeting. Warpath had no idea what it was.
- In the Kaon prison an Autobot is pronounced guilty and pushed off a gantry into a pit. He responds with "Spare me this mockery of justice!", the same quote from when the Quintessons sentenced Kranix the Lithone to Sharkticons.
- Rumble repeats another line from the movie: ""First we crack the shell, then we crack the nuts inside!"
- When Starscream declares himself as Decepticon leader, Megatron retorts that "[he] still function[s]."
- The Punch of Kill Everything is a multiplayer Leader Class ability and a Soldier class upgrade.
- When Skywarp calls Thundercracker ugly he replies that they look the same. Hmmm.
- Stan Bush's BotCon 2007 theme song, "Till All Are One (Transformers Theme)" is used in the credits, and the special thanks describe the families that were involved "rock like Stan Bush".
- Air Raid pokes fun at Silverbolt's fear of heights.
- The in-game menu for stat tracking and leaderboards is called Teletraan 1.
- When Ironhide asks Optimus how he knows Megatron, Optimus replies that it is a story for another time.
- Pretty much all the Achievement/Trophy names are references to other parts of Transformers history, mostly G1.
- The ones for completing the campaign chapters include Dark Awakening, Starscream's Brigade, A Prime Problem, The Last Prime, You Got The Touch, The War Within, and Till All Are One.
- Gameplay names include Thief in the Night, Fire in the Sky, Chaos Bringer, Motormaster!, Devastator!, Brute-a-kiss!, Slugfest, Powerglide Performer, First we crack the shell..., Blast-a-rachnia and Ramhorn.
- Autobots and Decepticons alike are heard to swear by 'Primus', confirming his 'existence'.
- Trypticon has a 'conversion cog' that controls his transformation, and is probably a less 'branded' term for G1's transformation cog.
- The energon cubes bear strong resemblence to the Allspark cube.
Toy tie-ins
Hasbro has confirmed that several toys will be made to tie into the promotion of the video game. These include figures of Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Megatron and Soundwave. At Toy Fair 2010, they were confirmed to be part of the Generations toyline. At BotCon 2010 they said they would like to make more, and that Starscream (and likely other Seekers) are at the top of the list if they decide to produce more figures from the game.
Fiction
Comic adaptation
IDW Publishing is bringing out a comic based on the game. News of this first got leaked when Australian website JB Hi-Fi offered a free copy of issue 1 if you pre-ordered the game from them. [8] Later, it was available for those that purchased either the PS3 or Xbox versions of the game at Sears or Kmart in America. The story is a partial adaptation of the Exodus book. [9]
The cover artist is revealed to be Marcelo Matere, who updated his DeviantArt gallery with the inked version, [10] with Priscilla Tramontano as colorist. [11] Alex Irvine and Don Figueroa are writing and drawing, respectively. [9]
Prose
- Exodus: The Official History of the War for Cybertron - This tie-in novel explores the relationship between Orion Pax and Megatron before the war.
- Bumblebee at Tyger Pax - A short story billed as the tale of Bumblebee losing his voice.
Gallery
-
Bumblebee fires his weapon. -
Ratchet, Bumblebee, and Prime in battle. -
Omega Supreme attacks a platoon of Decepticons. -
Starscream and Megatron get ready for the ground assault. -
More Decepticons! -
Soundwave sneaks around. -
Oh Primus.
-
Resistance really does seem to be futile. -
ARRHHH! -
Prime will destroy the title. He hears what people want.
Operation Transmission Recovery
As an early marketing campaign, the game's website included the feature "Operation Transmission Recovery": using transmission and coordinate dials, you could pick up "transmissions" from Cybertron (or "video clips/images" to you and me).
There are two dials, blue (outer) and yellow (inner). Using your mouse, you can drag the dial to set coordinates. The blue dial is set by aligning it to marks on the outer circle. When aligned, it becomes a blue ring. After that, the yellow dial is set so that signal strength is full, as indicated by a meter on the right. Once a transmission is unlocked its symbol lights up and the "Total Recovered" amount increases a little bit. When you reach 100%, it tells you how many hours remain until next batch.
As of January 12, 2010, the following transmissions (Batch 9), almost all of which are part of the second trailer (link below), were available:
| S. No. | Blue | Yellow | Type | Description |
| 1 | 351 | 327 | Video | Game Trailer (unlocked by default). |
| 2 | 018 | 088 | Video | Starscream flying. |
| 3 | 018 | 088 | Image | Starscream standing. |
| 4 | 029 | 209 | Video | Battle scene: Camera behind Autobots, Optimus is prominent. |
| 5 | 040 | 328 | Image | Holographic map of Cybertron and its two moons. |
| 6 | 051 | 110 | Image | Cybertron . |
| 7 | 073 | 190 | Image | Optimus vs an average Decepticon. |
| 8 | 085 | 298 | Video | Decepticon insignia (on Starscream). |
| 9 | 096 | 347 | Video | A bomb explosion on Cybertron's surface (possibly the same one which made a huge hole in it). |
| 10 | 107 | 035 | Image | Megatron crushes cranial unit of a poor Autobot, Starscream is visible behind him, just before the ground assault. |
| 11 | 120 | 040 | Image | Cybertron as seen from a moon. |
| 12 | 140 | 201 | Image | Starscream flying towards Cybertron . |
| 13 | 162 | 359 | Image | A red robot (Ironhide?). |
| 14 | 173 | 003 | Image | A hall (Council of Autobot Elders?). |
| 15 | 192 | 147 | Video | Injured Autobot, trying to get up . |
| 16 | 203 | 094 | Video | Battle scene: Trypticon joins the battle as a burning asteroid (Entry mode) behind Decepticons and Autobots run towards it. |
| 17 | 214 | 004 | Image | A city seen from a tunnel . |
| 18 | 225 | 199 | Image | A city tower falling and hitting another tower. |
| 19 | 265 | 011 | Image | Optimus Prime. |
| 20 | 284 | 021 | Image | Megatron firing his gun (at YOU). |
| 21 | 295 | 249 | Video | Optimus uses his axe on a Decepticon. |
| 22 | 306 | 041 | Image | Cybertron as seen from another moon. |
| 23 | 317 | 081 | Video | City skyline, camera moving down, some music in the background (start of the second trailer). |
| 24 | 328 | 221 | Video | Battle scene: A missile hits a battlestation and an Autobot falls down from it. |
However, when Activision began releasing more information on the game and the release date was closing in, this teaser feature was removed.
References
- ↑ War for Cybertron interview with Aaron Archer and Matt Tieger @ TFW2005.com
- ↑ Twitter post by Johnny Yong Bosch confirming his role as Bumblebee.
- ↑ Bestbuy.com preorder page featuring a special Jazz trailer
- ↑ Amazon.co.uk page with Jazz
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 First Transformers: War For Cybertron DLC Contains All Three Preorder Characters, Kotaku.com, July 3 2010
- ↑ Amazon.com preorder page featuring a special Demolishor trailer
- ↑ Image from Hasbro's June 22, 2010 news, on War for Cybertron
- ↑ TRANSFORMERS: WAR FOR CYBERTRON (Bonus Comic Book)
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Transformers: War For Cybertron #1 Information and Team Revealed
- ↑ Inks-only comic cover at Marcelo's DA gallery
- ↑ Colored cover at Priscilla's DA gallery
