The greatest strength of Marvel Heroes is one of its biggest challenges. The Marvel brand, for all its iconic larger-than-life characters, comes with the weight of expectations and lore behind it. The game is prioritizing pure mechanics over canon, and having spent some time with it at PAX East, it seems to be pulling it off beautifully.
Gazillion Entertainment announced at its PAX East panel that early access to Marvel Heroes will be available on May 28th, with the full launch following on June 4. The panel also gave details on PvP, end-game content, and an expansion to the closed beta access.
Microsoft made significant inroads in the console wars with the Xbox 360, stealing market share from the once-dominant PlayStation brand. However, Microsoft wasn't always interested in entering the console market. In fact, according to a former Microsoft exec, the company only entered the console market because Sony refused to work with them.
Joachim Kempin was VP of Windows Sales at Microsoft for 20 years, having left the company in 2003, two years after the launch of the original Xbox. He said that the main reason Microsoft jumped into the console market was "to stop Sony."
Captain America may have been the first Avenger, but there's no shame in being the second or third. The free-to-play MMO Marvel Heroes announced its "Founders Program" today, giving fans a chance to buy their way into early access with a few extra bells and whistles. Packs range from $20 to a whopping $200.
Though it's a long way from completion, there has been a lot of buzz surrounding Marvel Heroes, the upcoming free-to-play MMORPG based on the Marvel Universe. Beta invites have started rolling out, and we got in touch with Gazillion studio director Jeff Lind to learn more about their massive interpretation of the Marvel Universe.
Marvel Heroes is getting ready to start beta testing, giving you a chance to loot dungeons as iconic Marvel superheroes. Developer Gazillion Entertainment has announced that the closed beta will begin on October 1, and the company is accepting e-mails for chances to be selected for the beta now.
Disney Interactive and developer Wideload Games (Guilty Party, Stubbs the Zombie) have a proven money-maker on their hands with the Marvel IP, and are poised to launch a brand new Avengers-based action-adventure game for mobile devices tomorrow called Marvel Avengers: Initiative. I recently had a chance to meet with Wideload's Patrick Moran to chat about Initiative's impending launch, and have since gathered some hands-on impressions of the game, myself. In short, fans of the Avengers will probably find a lot to like about Initiative, despite its obviously derivative machinations.
It's not easy making a good Kinect game. Just look at Steel Battalion, which tried to leverage the Kinect in a unique way, and ended up getting eviscerated by critics and gamers alike. It takes more than hands-free motion controls to make a satisfying Kinect game. A lot more.
So what does it take to make a good Kinect game? Based on experience, it's a game that mixes simple, easy-to-perform gestures with some kind of multiplayer component. Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth appears to nail both sides of the equation, and mixes in some solid cel-shading aside. If it's looking for a niche with kids seeking to act out the roles of their favorite heroes, then it's probably going to fill it pretty nicely.
Meta comic book star Deadpool will be starring in his own video game, Activision has announced at San Diego Comic-Con. High Moon Studios, developer of the most recent Transformers games, is working on the project.
The first footage of the game shows off Deadpool's trademark sarcastic attitude combined with some very M-rated gun and sword play.
A monkey imitating the behavior of hitman? Its a cool concept that Marvel played up with the Hit-Monkey comic series that launched in February 2010. Now a teaser site at hitmonkeygame.com (since taken down) suggests that the gun-toting soulful simian may be the new game being announced by High Moon Studios at the San Diego Comic-Con later this week.
The optimal time to release Avengers-themed pinball tables may have passed, but surely enough of you remember that bit with Hulk and Loki, yeah, to still be excited about Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles. The DLC pack will roll into Zen Pinball 2 and Pinball FX 2 next week, developer Zen Studios has announced.
We've known about Marvel Heroes for quite a while, but today we're getting our first solid details and even a gameplay video. The free-to-play MMO from Gazillion Entertainment takes notes from dungeon-crawlers, and lets you modify your own version of actual characters from the universe.
Let's face it: The new Avengers movie is one of the best comic-book-to-film adaptation to come out in a long time (thanks, Joss Whedon). Given its big-budget status and plethora of superheroes, it only stands to reason that the next step is a film-to-video game adaptation, and that apparently has already begun.
As you put the finishing touches on your Thor codpiece in preparation for going to see The Avengers this weekend, you can be secure in the knowledge that the movie will live on as a virtual pinball table. Zen Studios announced an Avengers table for Zen Pinball 2 and Pinball FX 2 today, coming as part of the "Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles" four-table pack.
Sega won't be publishing any more video games featuring characters from the Marvel Comics stable any time soon, if ever again. Marvel's vice president of games production, TQ Jefferson, while light on specifics, confirmed the news in a recent interview.
"There are no current plans for additional Marvel games to be published by Sega," he said.
"For those wanting to get in on the closed beta, if you buy in on the Premium or Ultimate ..."
- psalm234 See all 6 comments