Transformers: War for Cybertron

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of giant robots. Transformers is a big reason why I’m like that. The franchise has always seemed remarkably counter-intuitive when given any back story beyond the toys, but, damnit, Optimus Prime is a Hell of a guy. It’s a shame he’s not American, or I’d vote for him for president. Sadly the Transformers fiction has gone in all sorts of directions, hitting its low point with cinematic disaster Revenge of the Fallen. I wish I could say the video games were better, but even the best of those wasn’t great. Despite being awesome toys and a great first cartoon, it’s always seemed that Transformers couldn’t make the transition to another medium. Until a little-known publisher called Activision got High Moon Studios, the guys who made a Jason Bourne game I forgot existed, to take a stab at a new origin for our shapeshifting heroes.

Set during the final days of the war between Autobots and Decepticons on their home world, War for Cybertron‘s singleplayer campaign is split in two parts. The first half lets you play as the Decepticons as they turn the tide of the war. The second half shows how Optimus rose to become a Prime and how the Transformers had to leave their home and bring their war to a new planet. It’s an interesting prologue that captures the spirit of the original show, while providing the apparently necessary video game darker tone and metal music. Peter Cullen steps in as Optimus Prime once again, and makes him as awesome as he should be. Conversely, Megatron is presented as a real dick, which is the way it should be. The rest of the cast does a great job of creating that late-Eighties feel. They even got Stan Bush to do a new song. My only problem with the story is that since the Transformers have never been to earth, they don’t transform into man-made vehicles. That’s not that big a deal, but making them transform into vaguely sci fi’ed version of our vehicles just seems weird. So they already basically had cars, tanks and planes before they came to Earth? That’s weird.

War for Cyberton is an old-school third-person shooter. There’s no cover mechanic to be found here, which is kind of jarring in 2010. But this is a deliberate choice, instead of forcing you to hide and whittle down your enemies, you’re free to run around, firing at everything that moves and transforming between forms rapidly. The combat is fast, loose and chaotic. It’s different from the kind of games I’ve been playing lately, and what makes this game worth investigating even if you’re not that big on Transformers.

There’s a surprisingly substantial multiplayer side to accompany the slightly short singleplayer. Following the Call of Duty formula, you can design your bot and outfit him or her with your favorite guns, powers and a number of perks. The game packs all the staples you’d expect, team deathmatch, conquest, even a horde mode called “Escalation.” It’s totally competent, although expect to have to look a little harder for a game if you don’t have the DLC, since there didn’t seem to be a way to filter that content out. But if you dig the singleplayer, the multiplayer will keep you going for awhile and makes that game that much more compelling.

This is a good game. What saves it is its excellent use of the Transformers license. It elevates the title, making it a must-play to any long-time fan of the franchise. In the world of video games, I don’t get to say that very often. So good job, High Moon Studios. Now make a sequel set on Earth featuring the classic designs for the Transformers. That would be legen – wait for it – dary.

Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening

Dragon Age: Origins went from being a PC title I feared playing to one of my favorite games of 2009. The old-school, yet modernized combat made the game a lot of fun, and the deep story and compelling cast all came together to make an incredible package. And with hundreds of hours to play through, I never thought I’d run out of stuff to do in that world. But time passed and eventually I set Dragon Age down. Then Bioware came out with a bunch of DLC and the Awakening expansion pack. I tried to resist, but earlier this summer I succumbed and stepped into the boots of my Grey Warden once again.

Awakening takes place directly after Origins. You can import your Warden from the main game, or start a new character. Either way, you’ve been sent to Amaranthine to help rebuild the Wardens when a new Darkspawn threat arises and you must raise up a new army to put it down. Some of the party from the first game will appear in supporting roles, but only Oghren returns as a playable character. The rest of your team fit many of the archetypes of your previous posse, and I grew to like them almost as much as the group from the main game. Of course they are at a disadvantage, since Awakening is a significantly shorter story.

Besides a new story and setting, Awakening also lifts the level cap and introduces a bunch of new skills, spells and specializations. I played as an Arcane Warrior, already a pretty tough guy, and taking the new Battle Mage specialization and some new spells and skills, I felt like an unstoppable killing machine. My party got pretty tough too. There are also a bunch of new and exciting pieces of loot to collect, which is good since if you had any DLC items they won’t carry over.

Honestly, this is the definition of an expansion pack, giving players more of everything they like. Awakening manages to give another interesting story, with exciting reprocussion for Dragon Age 2, while delivering plenty of the gameplay that made the main game such a hit. You just have to ask yourself: do I want more Dragon Age? If yes, you’ll like what you’re getting.

Split/Second

It seems like there are three main kinds of racing games. There are the simulation racers, which are all about realistic driving and jaw-dropping graphics. I’m not that big on those. There are kart racers, fun party games that are all about wacky hijinks. And then there are the arcade racers. Games, like Burnout, that skip realism and getting the licensing rights of cars in favor of making the racing more exciting. If a simulation racing game is NASCAR, then an arcade racer is The Fast and the Furious. Blackrock’s Split/Second is probably the purest attempt so far to deliver that ideal.

The game is set in the reality of a show called “Split/Second,” in which drivers compete in a series of events in locations filled with explosives and other hazards. In the single player season, you’ll play through 12 episodes, each with a number of events. There’s the simple race, elimination and time trials events, as well as several more inspired offerings. In one mode you’ll have to dodge a barrage of missiles from an enemy helicopter, in another you have to pass trucks that are dropping an alarming number of exploding barrels.

Split/Second makes a wonderful first impression. The events all fun at first, the game looks great, and the creativity behind all the destruction is breathtaking. However, once you’re a few episodes in, the shallowness of the game shows itself. There aren’t many tracks to race on. The rubberbanding of the AI gets really bad, to the point where I would use on of the first cars in the game instead of all my sexy new unlocks. Some events seem to demand perfection from the driver to get first place, which I guess would be fair if I hadn’t easily gotten first in everything for the first few episodes.

The game controls well; steering felt tight, although it did feel like a lot of the late-game cars were made just to drift out of your hands. I love the UI. Everything you need is shown right under your car, which looks really good and means you never get distracted looking in the corner of the screen. As you’re racing you’ll bid up power by jumping, getting in close calls, drifting and drafting. When you’ve built up enough, you can trigger Power Plays which move obstacles, blow stuff up, and, on the most powerful level, can even alter the route. They’re triggered easily and are a great mechanic.

If I hadn’t finished Split/Second, this review probably would have been more positive. The game is a real thrill to play with friends or as a weekend rental. But the season is long enough that the game lost a lot of its charm. The ending (or at least the ending that I got) teases a sequel, and with a greater variety of tracks, cars and less rubberbandy AI, this could be a real winner.