TRANSFORMERS: WAR FOR CYBRTRONS

 PLATFORMS: PS3, XBOX360, PC, Wii, DS

GENRE: THIRD-PERSON SHOOTER 

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: INTEL Processor CORE 2 DUO E4300 1.8GHz

AMD processor-Athlon 64 X2 DUAL CORE 4000+

Nvidia graphic cards-GeForce 7900 GT

ATI Graphics card- Radeon X1900 series

RAM (memory)-2GB

Hard Disks space-9GB

Direct X-9

I was happy to report to those asking that Transformers: War for Cybertron is actually very good. Fantastic, even. High Moon has taken a fun, fast, third person shooter foundation, crafted a well thought out transformation mechanic on top of it, and designed combat situations around that. The end result is a shooter that has an identity all its own, and leverages its license to make something very cool for fans and newcomers alike.

Set millenia before the original cartoon series that fans have taken to calling G1, Transformers: War for Cybertron tells the story of the final days of the Autobot's and Decepticon's civil war on the surface of their homeworld, Cybertron. Officially sanctioned as canon by Hasbro, War for Cybertron fills in some gaps in fans' understanding of Transformers lore, explaining things like Starscream's defection from the Autobots, Optimus's succession to the position of Prime, and more. High Moon's storytelling is generally good, and feels well situated in the Transformers fiction -- it's a good modernization of the original cartoon while remaining true to the characters and stories that fans have placed on a pedestal for decades -- but there are points where the narrative jumps sloppily from one event to the next. It feels at times as though we're watching a show with episodes missing, and though there's a pre-level text crawl that does a decent job of filling in some of the details, it's still jarring cutting so quickly from triumph to despair and back again without in-game exposition.

High Moon has been very good at saying all the right things with War for Cybertron leading up to its arrival in stores, but many licensed titles have talked a great game before falling apart when all was said and done. Thankfully, War for Cybertron impresses with an excellent single-player campaign with full co-op support, the included Horde-alike Escalation mode, and surprisingly deep and inventive online multiplayer component. Transformers: War for Cybertron has taken the magic of playing with plastic and metal toys that turn into cool s**t both alone and with friends and have distilled that into something pretty special. This is a surprise, dark horse contender for best way to spend your time online this summer.