Is a bad game always a bad game? in the eyes of the hard core gamer (in which this will, from here on, be written) I'd say yes. I recently stumbled across some rental information for the X360 games at Blockbuster. Transformers the game was the highest rented game to date and yet....how many of us have more than 1 person on our friends list with "most" of the AP's from it? Not many I would guess. Can we blame the developer who toils more for a deadline than for striking a balance in combat? or who spends more time making excuses to his publisher than he does making quality gameplay from glitchy bug infested code? Can we blame the publisher who looks only at a bottom line and a time frame and an ad campaign window? Who really is to blame for a bad game? I'm not saying Transformers the game is bad (yet) but it is certainly not a polished piece of art such as Zelda:TP or Gears or G.O.W.II etc.
What separates the good from the mediocre from the dismal. OK granted the dismal is most likely a combination of greed and looking for a quick buck from the casual gamer that has no real merit in this discussion so we'll omit those circumstances. My real question I guess is this, "Could Transformers the game EVER have been a stellar example of gaming" is there a chance in Hell that given the circumstances and the time line and the budget and the integrity of the developer that this game would ever stun us with it's magnificence? As a realist I say Hell no not a chance because I think that the dev's AND the pub's know that at the end of the day it aint the hard core that are gonna buy into this movie spin off garbage, it's the movie-going "buy my games at Wal-Mart" casual gamers that they are targeting not the "see 300 4 times at the theater, pre-order my games from Gamestop and read every article on Gamestop, IGN and every news snippet on Kotaku before the game even has a working title" type of gamer, plain and simple.
I would like to think that someday we will see a shift in the paradigm, a new assertion to quality and a gaming community that will tell the makers of our games that we wont buy your crap just because you think we need another freaking game to co-launch with a movie! Here's what I would like to see....an "official game of the movie" that launches around the same time as the movie goes to VDEO! still all the hype over the movie is not there as much but if the movie was a modest success at least you would have gamers realizing that enough time went into refining the game as was needed/necessary. How big was theDVD HD-DVD Blu Ray release of the movie 300? pretty damn huge. It was all over the web, the T.V. and it sold well I'm sure. The question now becomes will the hard core gamer buy a game or will he buy the movie or will he/she buy both? Buying the game for 50-60 bucks at launch when the movie opens in theatres is of course less expensive than buying a 50-60 dollar game and a 30 dollar movie at DVD release lets face it. But is it really a deal breaker?
If I knew that there was going to be a multiplayer beta for 'Transformers the game' the day AFTER opening weekend of the movie and that it was going to stay open until lets say... 2 weeks before the DVD release? I would have gone home and jumped in, straight from the theater and DL'd the beta, popped a beer and commenced to Beta testing that game, WHY? because the movie f***ing kicked ass that's why. It got me fired up about transformers (and hot Australian chicks but that's another rant lol) and to go home and BUY a game that I knew was already reviewed as "big , loud, shallow and severely lacking content" is just not how I'm gonna spend 60 bucks on a Friday night, sorry, make me a better game, we will remember Transformers the movie, we will not however remember Transformers the "lame attempt to capitalize on market share mediocre game rushed out to make deadline rather than history". I hope the publisher lost money, I hope the dev will grow some balls and say screw your timeline', there are things called playtesting, gameplay, replay value and oh yes....loyalty to the gamers who want this crap this gaming crap to NOT stink but to be worthy of our hard earned dollars. Just think if the number one "selling" game was Transformers here in a few months, then what? Then Transformers the movie would be the best selling DVD also.
Why can this not happen? Is it the pub's fault to go for the quick buck? is it the dev's fault for not sacking up and making a game on their own terms? Just like some rock bands won't give in to pressure in the studio we need some dev's who will forge a playable game for the love of games. I would go out and buy Transformers the game tomorrow if it were just NOW (weeks after opening in theaters) coming out to reviews that said things like, "polished" or "straightforward action" or "multiplayer madness" or "worth the wait" but alas....corporate America won't take a chance at it, because you know what? The uninformed are all happily playing a mediocre POS Transformers game while we wait for Mass Effect, Bioshock, COD4 and we will buy Transformers the movie on HDBLURAYDVD and think to ourselves...."Man could you imagine a sweet videogame for this movie?"
-sh0tgunn0strils out...
20:01:39 8/21/2007.
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