Activision unveiled the upcoming Transformer movie tie-in earlier this week in London to what we believe was a very average reception. We're huge fans of the brand and think the movie is shaping up to deliver the goods. We have a few reservations about the game though.
We said, "Although the game's still in development, it lacked the detail and polish we've come to expect from 360 games. The environment looked bland and there was a distinct lack of people and traffic."
Activision producer Callum Godfrey has responded to our article (which you can read in full here) with the following statement:
"We're really disappointed you guys didn't get an accurate impression of what Transformers: The Game is all about and the direction in which we're headed. A work in progress system was shown that we finished putting together in the early hours of that morning specifically for a first-look presentation.
"We should perhaps have made it clearer to you guys that the physics system is not yet final and a large number of animations and reactions of the Transformers have yet to be implemented. These are due to come online during the next few weeks, and will help to make the player feel like they are taking heavy hits or are themselves generating considerable mass and force behind their own attacks. We agree this is crucial for a game about giant robots and this is where we're headed.
"The combat mechanics in a build we can show at this stage don't fully show the level of interaction between the Transformers in battle. The reactions are not hooked up yet, the melee combat has not been balanced and tuned for damage or impact and the enemy AI combat routines are being worked on in isolation at the moment. As I say, this was just a presentation piece to allow journalists to get a first glimpse of the game.
"A great deal is also changing in our next-gen environments. Our major cityscape area has four times the traffic and population over the build that was shown and we continue to push what the Transformers are able to do within the free-roaming environment we're constructing for them.
"The game is still in development and we're on course to deliver the game Transformers fans are hoping for. The new few weeks will see the game systems integrated and balanced, and we're really looking forward to bringing it out to show you guys once this process is complete!"
Thank you, Callum Godfrey, for stepping up. And we'll have a progress report on Transformers: The Game, including our thoughts on the above points raised, in the coming weeks.
March 15, 2007
