Transformers Armada for the good ship PS2
Not a Spaniard in sight.
Atari's Melbourne House dev studio is hard at work on Transformers Armada: Prelude To Energon for PS2, the once-French ET-burying publisher explained through a long-winded press release the other day.
As in the Armada TV series (which is on Cartoon Network or something), players will be waging the Autobots' noble war to free the "Mini-Cons", a race of dinky robots capable of powering up a Transformer's abilities. Unsurprisingly, Megatron (boo!) and the evil Decepticons (hiss!) would be happier to enslave the little buggers.
Players will be able to control one of three Autobots in a "third person 3D action/adventure", exploring enormous environments on stompy foot or in vehicle mode, and battling Decepticons with all sorts of weapons including cluster rockets, homing missiles and vortex cannons.
You can look forward to getting up close with the Transformers in spring 2004, and Atari has released a lot of character art (which was boring) and a few screenshots, although we fancy things will be toned down a little before release. You know, so the PS2 stands a hope in hell of running it!
Atari claims that Armada offers an "unprecedented level of visual realism" along with "incredible rendering effects and absolute immersion for players," and with the talented Melbourne House on the job, we're quite keen to have a bash ourselves.
Autobots, roll out...