High Moon Studios have drawn inspiration from Epic’s Gears of War series in the development of Transformers: War of Cybertron, the newest Tranformers game — the developer stated this when announcing the game. However, when speaking to Transformers World 2005, High Moon’s Matt Tieger clearify what they really meant by Gears being a inspiration.

Pondering the reasons behind the Gears motifs, Tieger stated that it could be that they’re using the same exact engine as Gears of War, the Unreal Engine. Also, it could be that Transformers: War of Cybertron is a “third-person” action game. But, he did mention that there are some notable differences.

“One, we are not a cover-based shooter (you think Megatron would take cover?) Two, transform anywhere. Three, special abilities add an additional layer of strategic depth. Four, finally, Transformers has always been a team based property and each character has unique abilities so teamwork becomes pivotal,”he continued.

It goes without saying that movie games suck. They do. If you’ve ever purchased one, you know that nine out of ten times, you regret that purchase, and the ten remaining percent you can’t decide whether it was actually worthwhile, or not. While it’s bad enough the GI Joe movie looks like it could very well be crap nobody wants to see, the game has remained a bit more mysterious. Until now.

The GI Joe game is similar to the recently released Wolverine title; players pick a character from the GI Joe universe and fight off bad guys. It’s much more linear, so everything is literally pointing you where to go, like Advent Rising, except without the openness. It is, in fact, an extremely closed game, but playing it by yourself is the reason why it would feel ridiculous.

GI Joe is meant to be played cooperatively. Or, more specifically, competitively for points. Two players are supposed to, with different characters utilizing different strengths and weaknesses, gather as many points as possible by fighting off the enemy, finding secrets, and stealing kills. This is tremendous fun, especially when your adversary can hear your roar of victory.

In my play-test, I wielded a sword and a pathetic pistol, while my opponent had a giant gun. Because I learned everything mentioned earlier while playing, I ran around shooting everything, and slashing the occasional bad guy when they came near. Only then did I realize my opponent had double the points I did, because his bigger gun was just wrecking the playing field. No fair!

The rest of the game was I playing catch up, and I did. I slashed everyone and everything, shot last-second and guys who had no health and stole kills like a 10 year old playing Halo 2. At one point, the developer told us both to push the Y button, and suddenly both our guns got a massive boost for a cooperative strike. Giant tanks started rolling in and we were dodging equally giant rounds that would look unseemly in the tight clothes our characters wore.

After all this, GI Joe is fun. By yourself…I can only imagine how lonely one must be to play a cooperative game alone, not even competing against an AI. As someone who didn’t grow up with GI Joe because Transformers was better, I didn’t get all the references, which the developer pointed out each and every time, to which I insincerely nodded “oh yes, I remember that. Fond memories!” Like a rail shooter, it’s fun in a quick-action sort of way, and like Wolverine, you can sit back and relax while tearing the guts out of, well, just about anything. Plus it’s great for kids!

The first major trailer for Activision’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen literally transforms half way through to reveal both sides of the robotic conflict. Only slightly meta. Expect a blockbuster launch via the PS3, PSP, PS2, Wii, DS, Xbox 360 and PC alongside the Michael Bay film which hits June 23.

The fate of the earth and the survival of the human race hang in the balance and it looks like you are, once again, called upon to take on the role of your favorite giant robots. Today in an untimely fashion, it seems that Activision has announced there role in the development of the upcoming move video game Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

The will be base off the upcoming move with the same name, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

“The Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen video game will give fans the chance to experience their favorite Autobots and Decepticons  in an all-new, movie inspired adventure packed with the thrilling and explosive action that only the Transformers universe can deliver,” said Rob Kostich, vice president of global brand management, Activision, Inc.

“We are thrilled to announce that after experiencing the rush of commanding colossal robots on their own, players can challenge their friends for the first time ever in full-featured, blistering multiplayer action as their favorite characters.”

Today, DREAMWORKS and PARAMOUNT PICTURES announced that Transformers will be headed to Blu-Ray this September as a two disc special edition Blu-Ray movie. There was no information about what would be contained in the special edition movie combo but many would speculate that there would be a trailer for the upcoming Transformers 2 movie.