Fall of Cybertron assorted news catch-all, The Latest: Short Escalation Preview Options

[Creature SH]

UPDATES:

IGN Escalation Mode Preview

Blistered Thumbs' hands-on

Voice cast

Website Update



Vortex meets Brawl

Vortex and Grimlock Gameplay (Minor Spoilers, Insecticons


Starscream Gameplay (incl. Stealth Kills)

Optimus gameplay, Metroplex spoilers




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I figured that this would be a good time to start a topic like this, since we could use it. (As least as long as there is no "Transformers Video Games" subforum). Mods, if this is not welcome, please remove or rename.



Anyway, to get this topic going, I refer you a GameInformer videohighlighting a good 13 minutes of gameplay from the returning Escalation mode. Unfortunately, this video doesn't show-off the cooperation innate to this mode, as only one demo machine was connected, but the ubiquitous Matt Tieger was so kind to share many little tidbits on the new stuff. Also, this is by far the longest gameplay video that we've seen so far. URL again:

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/arc...tion-video.aspx

I also took some notes for those who can't watch the video:

The biggest change to Escalation itself might be that it comes in several difficulties now. Certainly a welcome change for beginners and the less shootily-inclined. Also, when the players fail wave 1, it is restarted. Another useful addition was that the last three surviving enemies in a wave are marked, to avoid WFC's problem of sometimes having to spend a bunch of minutes looking for the last stragglers.
I did notice a bit of text on the HUD that said "Wave 1 of 15", so maybe Escalation is no longer infinite?

The map which was shown is most likely supposed to be the inside of the Arc. Very flat architecture, lots of orange/gold and a bunch of screens.

There was mention of environmental traps to use against enemies. Those are not entirely new, as some where included in some of the WFC DLC maps "District" and "Pulse", but I guess that they are more common now.

There seem to be a lot more purchasable weapons lying around now, but they can only be purchased once per wave. They are no longer found in uniform vending machines, but lie around openly, clearly marked with a brightly-colored outline.
These outlines are connected to what appears to be a noteworthy change to the weapon system in general: A yellow outline marks a heavy weapon, blue marks a regular weapon. Every character now gets one slot for one each of these two kinds of weapon. Only one of each kind can be carried at any time. Ammo is also separated like this, with blue ammo also refilling the vehicle mode weapons.
I also noticed that rocket launcher-type weapons can now lock to enemies in robot mode (previously only vehicle modes). The impact and enemy death animations are definitely more varied and impressive now. Heavy weapons create large explosions with smoke and explode enemies into bits, while normal weaponry creates less flashy impacts and just has enemies fall over. Also shown was a disc thrower called "Gear Shredder", which cut enemies apart at several break points.
Reloading weapons now brings up a small progress bar as a visual aid.

Melee, on the other hand, still seems to be the same, clunky single-hit affair we've seen before.

I only spotted one enemy type so far, and oddly enough, they seemed to be small red Autobots with Rumble's piledriver arms.

Speaking of characters and types, only Megatron, Starscream, Shockwave and Soundwave seemed to be selectable in this demo presentation and only Megatron and Starscream were shown in action. As before, only named characters are selectable in Escalation - No generics, no customs. This time around, there seems to be a heavier focus on making each character fill a specific role in a team.

Each character has one specific ability, and fortunately, those were written out in the selection screen:
Megatron: Shield (hand-held, not like the WFC energy shield)
Shockwave: Heal Beam (So the Repair Ray might not be a regular weapon anymore)
Soundwave: Battle Sentry
Starscream: "Ultra-Power Core" (A area effect that can be placed in the battle field to boost stats of player characters inside)

Strangely, Megatron does not seem to have his Neutron Fusion Canon by default. Instead, he wields shotgun-like weaponry. His tank barrel really seems to pack a punch, though.

Starscream seems to sport a (red) variation of the Decepticon symbol on the backside of his jet mode. Doesn't look like anything we've seen before. Probably not relevant to anything, but I found it interesting.

This post has been edited by Creature SH: Jun 15 2012, 08:53 PM

[Creature SH]

Hey, they finally started updating the official website for the game.

Not much there, though. Profiles for Cliffjumper and Starscream as well as the Metroplex trailer were added.

Nice turnarounds, anyway. I like that Starscream has an evil grin-face on his back.

[Sabrblade]

Hey, they finally started updating the official website for the game.

Not much there, though. Profiles for Cliffjumper and Starscream as well as the Metroplex trailer were added.

Nice turnarounds, anyway. I like that Starscream has an evil grin-face on his back.

Technically those profiles were already on the site. The links to them just weren't accessible. You had to manually type in the web address to get to them.

There's also ones for Jazz, Grimlock, Perceptor, Bruticus, Soundwave, and Vortex (though, these links seem to be acting funny now, since I click on each one and they always go to Optimus. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-op.gif) The Con links even identify him as a Decepticon (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-waspy.gif) ).