The Energon Pub

News Credits: 1452 · by **Blurrz** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 3:48 pm

Would you play a multiplayer video game in which you only controlled one limb of a character, while your friends controlled the others?

Looks like we won't be seeing any 'combiners' in the upcoming Transformers video game, War For Cybertron. As reported by the Godzilla of video game websites 'Kotaku', we won't be playing with the likes of Devastator, Superion and so forth. Check out a snippet of the article below...

Matt Tieger, lead designer of the War for Cybertron games, said that this is an idea his team has thought of, but it doesn't seem like it would ever work. Consider the gamer who would play as the Mixmaster of Scrapper, the Constructicons who formed Devastator's legs. Said Tieger: "They guy who is the kneecap, what does he do?"

..while the rest can be seen at Kotaku here.

Keep it at Seibertron.com for the fastest Transformers news on the net!

News Credits: 37 · by **SlyTF1** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 3:58 pm

These guys are going way too overboard with this. You shouldnt have to play as a body part, you should be able to play as the WHOLE frekn Transformer.

News Credits: 1 · by **Scatterlung** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 4:08 pm

That's alright. These guys are giving us so much more, I'll happily let this slide.

by **omegaprowl** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 4:16 pm

one...i agree, they're already giving us a great amount of goodies with this game as is and adding a combiner where you can only control one limb at a time would just suck! two...if the game is based prior to first contact with earth, that would be there would be no combiners yet cause the contructicons were the first combiners to appear (correct me if im wrong) but they didnt appear right away in the television series.

News Credits: 2 · by **partholon** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 4:24 pm

while i dont really mind in this game surely the simplest way around this is to play the LEADER of a special team , run into the rest of your team over the level - probably with twits where their individual abilities and powers are necessary - and you simply all combine at the end of the level to beat a big boss or take out an encampment or something.

TBH though combiners should really be their own game done ala socom navy seals.

News Credits: 4 · by **Megazarak** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 4:27 pm

I don't really mind either way, but this could work if these combiners were like the Power Core ones. I mean, let's say in the multiplayer there was a kind of reward system based upon how many 'kills' you get, à la CoD, then when one of these Power Core TFs reach it, they could summon their drones which could fight with them a bit, and then at the next stage of these rewards they would get the ability to combine with the drones for a short amount of time, naturally getting a lot stronger. I think it could work pretty well, there may be balancing issues, but I'm sure those could be figured out.

News Credits: 2 · by **Ultra Magnus** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 4:28 pm

I love combiners, but I understand why they wouldn't include this particular function this time around. It would be cool if you could control the one of the team members and all the others were AI controlled, and you could switch between them like in the Lego games or the Legends games. Of course when the group combines you would have full control of the Combiner form. BUT, there's no need for that in this game; the action alone is exciting enough. I would like to see combiners done right once again tho, be it in Games, Shows, or Toys.

This will still be a sweet game without the Combiner characters.

by **yellow Camaro** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 4:35 pm

well, one player could control the legs (movements), the other one the arms. as the biggest problem of the combiners is to put together different minds and to coordinate the movements, this would have been realistic

News Credits: 1 · by **Blackstreak** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 4:43 pm

Talking about a test for the ultimate team players. The best way to play that out is voice interaction so both legs aren't going in separate directions while the torso is trying to go a third route.
I agree, this game will be awesome even w/out combiner technology. There is this neat little trick that game publishers have started to do for years now. It's called expansion packs. They could always figure out the combiner details later and release it as an expansion pack.

by **NassaDane** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 4:45 pm

That was a pretty dumb article...its not like; when fused Mixmaster is in complete control of the left leg, they are fused as one being, Devastator. The others do not exist in that form its only Devastator(unless i am way off).

And when has Kotaku been a "Godzilla" ? i only heard about it late last year.

by **Prowl1529** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 4:49 pm

Probably they will make an expansion whit the combiners and probably also on earth. It's a possibility if the game as enought sucess for it. To me is a must have definatly.

by **Iconicon** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 5:08 pm

omegaprowl wrote:one...i agree, they're already giving us a great amount of goodies with this game as is and adding a combiner where you can only control one limb at a time would just suck! two...if the game is based prior to first contact with earth, that would be there would be no combiners yet cause the contructicons were the first combiners to appear (correct me if im wrong) but they didnt appear right away in the television series.

I believe combiners were there before contact with earth. There was an episode where we learned about why Omega Supreme hates the Constructicons so much. In it he reflects back to Cybertron when he and the Constructicons were friends. Megs turned them against him and gave them their combining technology. This was all before Earth. I think it was season 2. I'll have to go check the dvd.

It would suck to just play a single limb though. In the future as a team concept maybe that would be fun.

News Credits: 1 · by **Blozor** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 5:11 pm

You know, another possibility is to get five of your friends, with whom you work well together, on a combiners team and play the combiner each making decisions on character control for the entire group, sort of like how the theory behind combiners works in the first place.

News Credits: 1 · by **Scatterlung** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 5:48 pm

Why can't this just work like Star Wars: Battlefront?

One person in control of the body, the others take on weapons points across it. So whoever is playing the core body is in control, meanwhile, everyone else controls turrets belonging to their component (i.e: Brawl's cannon).

That worked alright in Star Wars. If you think its not fair on some of the players, think about the AC130 Spec Ops 'Overwatch' from Modern Warfare. One player's up in the air, invincible, while firing on bad guys, whilst the other is on the ground facing said bad guys head on. The same strategy would apply: The body parts will each have to work together to defend the core body as he completes objectives.

There's your team work.

by **Mechastrike** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 6:52 pm

it's okay if we don't have combiners in the game, we already have Trypticon and Omega Supreme. they're big enough to kick ANY combiners butt.

by **Unicron Singularity** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 7:36 pm

I'd rather want combiners to appear in the multiplayer mode as killstreak rewards. Y'know, for example Defensor increases defence (doh) of all autobot characters, and fights for a certain amount of seconds, and Superion increases attack (just like Stopping Power and FMJ in MW2). Same deal for the Cons.

by **Pawnofthefates** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 8:12 pm

Having Combiners in multiplayer would be exceptionally difficult to pull off (though I did like the idea posted earlier about having a Combiner show up as a bonus for x amount of kills).

However, I don't feel that they should be excluded from the game entirely. They could still be implemented in the game as an integral part of the story, and you can still keep the team gameplay mechanics.

Just imagine having a five (or six) party team consisting of the Combiners as individuals. You play like you would on the other levels, acting as one character while the others are controlled by AI and switching the controlled character on the fly. Then, when you meet a certain requirement (i.e.: gain so much energon to use, everyone at a certain health level or above) and the level permits it (enough room to manuever) you can activate the combine ability and unleash some Devastator fury on your enemies. Voila. Problemo solved.

At least that's how I'd do it. Thoughts?

by **Atalya** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 8:23 pm

Other than the Constructicons/Devastator, all the other G1 combiner groups were either created on-screen or just appeared out of nowhere in the second season.

Technically the Constructicons have a history on Cybertron, but even that is fairly rife with contradictions. Megatron claims to have built them in their first appearance, and the Autobots certainly seem to be surprised at this group that can turn into an even bigger slaggin' bot. Omega Supreme's tale of woe is about the only "evidence" that they existed prior to their debut on Earth.

That said, Trypticon was built by the Constructicons out of a human city, so it's not like War for Cybertron is adhering too closely to canon. Not that they could anyway.

by **Shadowstream** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 9:27 pm

I can see both draws and negatives to the combiner experience, such as the scramble city style combining that would allow individual bots to take up places on one part of the body or another, or to even sabotage enemy combiners. Then again it's still completely retarded to consider the combiner limbs for playable characters or that any giants should even be allowed in multiplayer mode. We haven't had a single TF game yet that permitted gestalts or other giants to be playable, so why start now? The giants are only there to be knocked down.

by **$kywarp** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 9:52 pm

From a game-design standpoint they're doing the right thing. For combiners to work, gameplay mechanics have to be worked out between five people. Why bite off more then you can chew? Start by making a good game that has some basics down and maybe tinker with the idea in a sequel or downloadable content. Learn to walk before you learn to run.

News Credits: 1 · by **Hairball178** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:32 pm

Dammit, there's no Triple-Changers in the game either. I can see why, since a Triple-Changer would be overpowered compared to the other playable bots--too bad they couldn't be non-playable bosses who could adapt to your play style with multiple alt-modes. Oh well, maybe next time...when we get Sixshot as a boss.

As far as Combiners go, just give me the limbs as playable characters. Maybe make their unique power to where they 'summon' the other limbs to form the gestalt for a limited time, or somethin akin to 'calling in' an air strike attack.

News Credits: 1 · by **Blackstreak** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:50 pm

Personally I adhere to the idea that combiner technology has beenon Cybertron for a long time pre-Earth. Just because we didn't see an origin of a particular combiner doesn't mean it doesn't have one. I think for the most part Autobots didn't know about Devastator until Earth simply because Devastator and Omega were on other parts of Cybertron.
Defensor also had no origin given on Earth. Doesn't mean he was not around on Cybertron. It wasn't until the 3rd season that we got to see some siginificant time on Cybertron so that leaves plenty of history we just don't know about.
I like the idea of using a combiner as 'an air strike' or a favor called in like in Mercenaries. I can just see it now both sides calls in a favor and a combiner shows up to duke things out between them.

News Credits: 1 · by **Colinus Maximus** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 12:48 am

Every one appears to have missed the humor of being Long Haul. To quote Lil'formers: "I'm the crotch?"

Like Cyberstrike on Facebook · by **Cyberstrike** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 8:08 am

I could see the value of characters like Devastator, Superion, and the rest as bosses in the single player mode. In the multi-player mode I just don't see how they could be used in a way that would be fun for everyone.

News Credits: 21 · by **dragons** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 8:44 am

these guys are thinking to much inside of the box they outside of the box once by giving us custom transfromers we could make but then again im not compeltly sold on that option as of yet until i see screen shots i may have made misteak in preording this game to early until i see what the custom transformer looks like.

combiner situation who says it has to be 5 make t 2 one person control legs, the other contrl the top half arms, or make conbiner where one person controls it armada game prime flys firginting unicron he cant fly without using jetfire combined form that only took one person not 2.

but honestly i dont care either way as long mutiplay is good and god characters to play as in mutilplayer mode