Inspired by the imminent release of The Avengers movie, we’re setting our sights this week on the best and worst superhero-themed video games. We’ve also got talk of The Walking Dead, Kid Icarus, Modern Warfare 3, and the sexual proclivities of Batman.
Episode Timeline:
Intro: 0:00
Viewer Mail: 2:15
Hangover: 7:25
Superhero Games: 33:20
Last Call: 68:50
Outro: 76:50
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Connect and Interact:
This Week’s Music:
“Main Theme” and “Credits” from Shane Reaction: Zombieland, by Claudio Oliveira.
Links:
Superman arcade game
Superman NES game
Free Comic Book Day – May 5th!
Superman: Red Son
All Star Superman
The X-Men Origins: Wolverine game was pretty good. The narrative was mostly uninteresting, but the gameplay and action were pretty satisfying for a God of War-style beat-em-up game. It was relatively violent/gory, but you would kind of expect that from a dude with blades coming out of his hands. The way they animated the character model to show off his regenerative abilities was pretty cool too. So, yeah… nothing amazing, but if you like God of War, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, or stuff like that, it’s definitely worth picking up on the cheap. Also, you fight against Deadpool at the end, or at least the version of him from the movie that everybody apparently hated (I never saw it).
I thought it was interesting how Paul’s gripe about Superman is his lack of weaknesses, but he also took issue with Infamous because Cole felt *too* weak. No need to beat a dead horse, but I’ll just say that I’m firmly in Randy’s camp when it comes to Infamous. I didn’t *love* either game, but I strongly liked them both.
Right-o, the best super hero game ever (Arkham Asylum) has a great balance between feeling powerful and always being challenged by enemies. Infamous was pretty good, but it always made a point to annoy the hell out of me with random stuff like those ridiculous snipers.
It was less about Cole feeling *too* weak and more about a lack of balance that allowed me to feel powerful. Being picked off by some jerk 2 miles away was never fun, and even by the end of the game with all the powers unlocked I never felt truly powerful because of the silly way enemies were implemented in the game.
Whatever.
Regarding the Awesomenauts mention on the show:
It’s not 4-player, it’s 3-on-3, so it’s 6-player really. The nice thing is that it’s totally flexible about how people get into the game. You can have two friends join you before you start, so they’ll be on your team, and they can be online or split-screen players. It also has full drop-in / drop-out support, with bots replacing humans as people leave.
I’ve never played DotA or LoL, so that comparison is just based on what I’ve heard and read. But, the trailer probably doesn’t fully explain the premise of the game. The closest thing I’ve played is Monday Night Combat, and Awesomenauts does really feel like a 2d version of that. The learning curve really isn’t that steep at all, as far as understanding the basics, but you can certainly learn more advanced strategies as you play and you unlock more stuff as you level up.
Here’s a great video that explains how the game works:
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/04/28/heres-how-to-play-awesomenauts/
I’ve put a few hours into it already and I’m really enjoying it. It’s free for PS+ members, so Randy should at least try it once or twice if it sounds even remotely interesting. Or at the VERY least, step through the download process, just so you get it on your download history in case you want to try it in the future. It won’t be free forever!
But yeah, working on putting up a giveaway post now!
ok youwin. i’ll check it out.
So no one mentioned Prototype or Crackdown? X-men Legends/Marvel Alliance/Hulk Ultimate Destruction are still great super hero games.
Prototype and Crackdown got a little bit of a mention! Also good call on Marvel Ultimate Alliance. I remember people raving about that (at least the first one) when it came out.