General Gaming Update: RIP in Peace, Marvel's Avengers

[Brian]

PC requirements:

 

Minimum Spec: 

OS: Windows 10 64-bit 
CPU: i3-4160 or AMD equivalent 
8GB RAM 
NVIDIA GTX 950 / AMD 270 (min 2GB video ram) 
DirectX 12 
75GB HDD space 

Recommended Spec: 

Windows 10 64-bit 
CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K, 3.4 Ghz or AMD Ryzen 51600, 3.2 Ghz
16GB RAM 
NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB or AMD Radeon RX 480, 8GB. 
DirectX 12 
110GB SSD space

 

also 30GB texture pack available 

[BloodyHell]

3 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Didn't work on me either... I STILL got it for Xbox and I LOVE Spiderman. Not that much though.

 

 Neither did Ghost of Tsushima according to a lot of you guys on the internets.

Ghosts looks amazing. Everything about this is bland. More grey backgrounds. Everything I’ve seen about the gameplay says its just button mashing, people playing it are mostly saying it doesn’t really grab them.  Im definitely going to try the open demo next week, I just don’t see anything special about this game so far, with or without Spider-Man.

[JPDunks4]

4 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

Ghosts looks amazing. Everything about this is bland. More grey backgrounds. Everything I’ve seen about the gameplay says its just button mashing, people playing it are mostly saying it doesn’t really grab them.  Im definitely going to try the open demo next week, I just don’t see anything special about this game so far, with or without Spider-Man.

A lot of Looter style games dont necessarily have the most compelling gameplay. 

 

Diablo for the most part was always just a point and click style of game, but the loot, skill trees, character classes, build diversity, ect made it an all time great.  But watching someone play Diablo would never impress anyone.

 

So hoping this game's full package of loot, leveling, character building, skill trees, ect sell me on it. The Gameplay looks good at times, mundane at times.  Hard to totally judge just on watching.

[Keyser_Soze]

3 hours ago, ManUtdRedDevils said:

PC requirements:

 

Minimum Spec: 

OS: Windows 10 64-bit 
CPU: i3-4160 or AMD equivalent 
8GB RAM 
NVIDIA GTX 950 / AMD 270 (min 2GB video ram) 
DirectX 12 
75GB HDD space 

Recommended Spec: 

Windows 10 64-bit 
CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K, 3.4 Ghz or AMD Ryzen 51600, 3.2 Ghz
16GB RAM 
NVIDIA GTX 1060 6GB or AMD Radeon RX 480, 8GB. 
DirectX 12 
110GB SSD space

 

also 30GB texture pack available 

 

30 gigs on top of the 110 gigs of SSD space? Jesus.

[jaethos]

Yeah, that install size is huge. What's making it so big? Do they use 4k textures for each bit of debris?

[JPDunks4]

2 minutes ago, jaethos said:

Yeah, that install size is huge. What's making it so big? Do they use 4k textures for each bit of debris?

All the content they cut from the game to release later as updates as exclusive PlayStation content.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Would anyone like my Steam key for this weekend's beta?

 

Also, I've decided that I'll give away the Steam key for the actual game itself when I receive it from the Verizon promotion, so be on the lookout for that!

[JPDunks4]

57 minutes ago, Emperor Diocletian II said:

Would anyone like my Steam key for this weekend's beta?

 

Also, I've decided that I'll give away the Steam key for the actual game itself when I receive it from the Verizon promotion, so be on the lookout for that!

How easy is it to become a part of Verizon Up as a Verizon Customer?

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

7 minutes ago, JPDunks4 said:

How easy is it to become a part of Verizon Up as a Verizon Customer?

 

I think all I had to do was sign up using the MyVerizon app on my phone.

[cusideabelincoln]

From the beta, the game's attempt to blend single-player story-driven experience with an action-looter, low-skill beat-em up gameplay seems to hamper both experiences.  The skill unlocks and combat appear to be similar to Spider-Man's and God of War, but the combat is nowhere near as tight and rewarding - at least when playing as Ms. Marvel and Hulk.  I most enjoyed me very limited time with Thor and Captain America's basic move set in the intro.  Their skills seem to synergize the most, while the Hulk/Marvel just feels like button mashing the same few combos.  But again, taking on hordes of enemies feels quite random with little strategy compared to other games of its ilk.  

 

I'm not sure how much the multiplayer, arena looter aspect is going to add to the value of this game.  I can see myself playing through these missions a few times with people, but tens or hndreds of times as people would in a proper MMO?  I also didn't bother to learn any of the items, powerups, and gear I collected.  Holy shit there are a lot of systems in this game, and the loot menu is cluttered like an MMO would be.

 

I'm not sure how much story was cut in the beta, but it didn't feel entirely cohesive.  There were also problems with characters instantly changing outfits during cutscenes when the camera would change angles.

[skillzdadirecta]

1 hour ago, cusideabelincoln said:

 

 

I'm not sure how much story was cut in the beta, but it didn't feel entirely cohesive.  There were also problems with characters instantly changing outfits during cutscenes when the camera would change angles.

A lot of story is cut from the opening intro mission and the Hulk/Kamala mission. They don't want to reveal too much. As far as gear goes, playing on normal allows you to pretty much play it as a beat-em up, but playing  on hugher diffiuclties requires proper gear to do damage and enhance resistances to certain damage types (cold, fire, shock, Cosmic etc) and team work. I played a couple of missions with @JPDunks4 and enjoyed what I played. My minor complaints are things can get a bit chaotic at times and the lack of gear changing your appearance. Other than that I can definitely see sinking a lot of time into this.

[cusideabelincoln]

1 hour ago, skillzdadirecta said:

A lot of story is cut from the opening intro mission and the Hulk/Kamala mission. They don't want to reveal too much. As far as gear goes, playing on normal allows you to pretty much play it as a beat-em up, but playing  on hugher diffiuclties requires proper gear to do damage and enhance resistances to certain damage types (cold, fire, shock, Cosmic etc) and team work. I played a couple of missions with @JPDunks4 and enjoyed what I played. My minor complaints are things can get a bit chaotic at times and the lack of gear changing your appearance. Other than that I can definitely see sinking a lot of time into this.

 

I'll have to play the arena missions more to get a better idea of the gear, tactics, and combat.   And also learn what all the currencies and boosts do, because I just skipped all that before taking a break after completing what seemed to be the main storyline.

 

But at first glance this game seems to have more systems than Marvel Heroes - which was free-to-play and had like 3+ different kinds of currencies you can spend to upgrade your character at one point.

 

One avenue I can see putting more time into the game is when they introduce more characters.  There's only going to be about, what, 10 available at launch?  The game seems designed to utilize a 50 hero selection pool.

[cusideabelincoln]

Actually, holy cow, this game is almost exactly templated after Marvel Heroes.  But instead of top-down, Diablo-style combat it's 3rd person beat-em-up.  But everything else is the same.  The characters having multiple distinct skill trees.  Damage being of different types - Melee vs. Ranged, then various elemental attributes.  Equipping armor of different rarity to get random perks.  Collecting resources to upgrade said armor.  Mission layouts and objectives, daily challenges.  A central, safe place, hub..  It's all eerily familiar.  This game is basically what Marvel Heroes would have been with a AAA budget.  It's also an evolution in terms of convenience factor.  I might actually get into this if they keep content rolling out, and the combat isn't completely terrible.  It's a little absurd for the beta to give us a tutorial of combat after 3 hours of gameplay; I definitely would have had a better opinion if the HARM tutorial was accessible earlier.

 

I'm excited to play as Thor when the game comes out.  Finally got to give Iron Man a proper run and I enjoy how he's different than Ms. Marvel and Hulk, who played so similarly it gave me a bad impression of what this game was going for.  If Thor gets the treatment they gave Iron Man he should be a blast to play.

 

Now let's see, does beating missions on different difficulty levels change the type of loot you get?

[JPDunks4]

My impressions thus far...

 

At first doing the opening sequence, I was pretty disappointed.  The combat didn't feel tight and controlled, a bit too clunky and floaty.  Hitting enemies didn't always pack that punch that you might hope a Thor hitting someone with his Hammer, or Hulk smashing someone, might have.  The introduction to Iron Man in a flying on rails chase scene was pretty horrible and made me immediately feel like his character is gonna be a let down.

 

Then it moved onto the other story missions.  I wasn't too blown away by these area's as well.  I was still learning combat as I went.  I did put it on Hard, and did die a couple times as I learned move sets and how the combat worked.  You can die pretty quick if you're not careful.  After finishing off these story areas, you finally get to the Hub area, and then also can finally do a combat Tutorial area which shows a bit more of the nuances of combat.  At this point I already basically knew all of it, but it was fun to use Iron man in a more free roam area, and I really loved his mobility here.

 

Then me and @skillzdadirectadid some co-op.  It's a little clunky in the way co-op works.  I wish you could just team up in the Hub and stay as a team, but it seems once you join up together you can stay as a team and just jump mission to mission.  We did 3 or 4 of the missions.  They seemed to range form a quick 10 minute 1 quick objective encounter, so a slightly longer 20-30 minute multi objective mission.  Each area has other side objectives you can tackle, like Elite Squads or Hidden Chests.  

 

As I played more and more, the combat grew on me.  It's not just purely button mashing, at least on Hard.  You need to learn patterns, time dodges, there are counters and blocks as well.  In some areas we had to properly focus certain enemies to slowly clear them out.  I enjoyed it enough.

 

I do not like how the Loot is handled.  I still haven't taken the time to learn the actual modifiers and perks on the loot, but right now, its basically just a matter of equipping whatever has the higher gear score.  I kind of hate how so many games have incorporated a Gear Score on loot.  I also hate how it doesn't change the look of your character at all, and its just the 1 flat skin to change the look of your hero.  Injustice games have already shown us you can incorporate loot in a smart way for Superheroes to change their appearance.  Wish they went that kind of route.

 

I'm not totally blown away by the game, it has its issues, and is pretty buggy on Xbox.  I hope it's an older build as I don't think they will be able to get it polished enough for launch.  It's always hard to judge these kind of games until you get to the later more powerful gear, customized builds, different skill trees, ect.

 

My biggest worries right now is the variety.  So far, the majority of the enemies have felt pretty similar.  There are a few different kinds, some ranged, melee, larger mechs, drones, but they don't feel all that different to fight.  Destiny had the Vex, Hive, Cabal, and Fallen.  All had at least a few aspects to differentiate the gameplay vs each of them.  My worry is the enemy variety in this game may not be very diverse. Time will tell though.

[SimpleG]

1 hour ago, JPDunks4 said:

I do not like how the Loot is handled.  I still haven't taken the time to learn the actual modifiers and perks on the loot, but right now, its basically just a matter of equipping whatever has the higher gear score.  I kind of hate how so many games have incorporated a Gear Score on loot.  I also hate how it doesn't change the look of your character at all, and its just the 1 flat skin to change the look of your hero.  Injustice games have already shown us you can incorporate loot in a smart way for Superheroes to change their appearance.  Wish they went that kind of route.

I do my best not to shit on games that I have no intention of ever playing but I had feeling these complaints would arise. The loot grind appeared to be some of the worse and looked purely number crunching and the fact it doesnt alter your appearance is obviously how they get you to buy skins. 

I hope I am wrong on this because this almost nothing worse then having a game you looked forward to turn out bad.

[JPDunks4]

After playing a little more, another thing struck me.

 

There is no weapon loot in this game.  As far as I can tell, its just 4 Slots for loot, 1 modifies Melee, 1 modifies Range, 1 Modifies Defense, and 1 modifies your Heroic (Ultimate)

 

I know for Superheroes this makes sense, considering some don't use weapons.  But it is such a miss.  If you could find different blasters for Iron Man with different look and attack types.  Different Hammers for Thor.  Different guns for Widow.  Different Shield variations for Captain America.  Kamala would be the toughest, but make some kind of gloves or something that could go with her stretchy ability.  

 

Even Anthem that mostly followed the same concept of invisible loot and Cosmetics that weren't tied to loot, they still had Weapons that played differently, as well as the two different LB and RB items per character that changed the look of the character and how you played.

 

I think the different attack types are tied to skills in this game, and thats fine.  I am still early so ill have to see how it plays out.  It just felt odd playing Widow with her guns and being like, wait, these never officially upgrade do they.  You prob buff them up in skills and may get loot to improve their damage and other aspects of them, but you never actually find different guns to upgrade the look of these in the game.

 

I don't think the Beta allows you to get deep enough into the game to really see all the varieties though.

[Keyser_Soze]

You're not excited for legendary Hulk ribs?

[SimpleG]

16 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

You're not excited for legendary Hulk ribs?

I saw a clip with that in it, how fucking dumb. 

[skillzdadirecta]

1 hour ago, JPDunks4 said:

After playing a little more, another thing struck me.

 

There is no weapon loot in this game.  As far as I can tell, its just 4 Slots for loot, 1 modifies Melee, 1 modifies Range, 1 Modifies Defense, and 1 modifies your Heroic (Ultimate)

 

I know for Superheroes this makes sense, considering some don't use weapons.  But it is such a miss.  If you could find different blasters for Iron Man with different look and attack types.  Different Hammers for Thor.  Different guns for Widow.  Different Shield variations for Captain America.  Kamala would be the toughest, but make some kind of gloves or something that could go with her stretchy ability.  

 

Even Anthem that mostly followed the same concept of invisible loot and Cosmetics that weren't tied to loot, they still had Weapons that played differently, as well as the two different LB and RB items per character that changed the look of the character and how you played.

 

I think the different attack types are tied to skills in this game, and thats fine.  I am still early so ill have to see how it plays out.  It just felt odd playing Widow with her guns and being like, wait, these never officially upgrade do they.  You prob buff them up in skills and may get loot to improve their damage and other aspects of them, but you never actually find different guns to upgrade the look of these in the game.

 

I don't think the Beta allows you to get deep enough into the game to really see all the varieties though.

 

DIfferent weapons fall under the character's skills. Iron Man has three different blasters so far, Repulsors, missles and lasers. Same with Widow, so far she has regular hand guns but I know in here skill tree you can get submachines pistols as well. As far as Thor goes, with all of the different hammers he's had over the years, I'd be shocked if those weren't included in the game. Same goes for Cap's shields and Hawkeye and his arrows.

That said, the loot isn't exciting visually but we'll see how muchthe different gear effects change the gameplay of the characters. 

[BloodyHell]

finally tried it. Its ok so far, just not ok enough for me to buy it. I only finished one mission after the bridge and got to the carrier, so we’ll see. Im definitely gonna play it more and give it a shot to impress me.

[skillzdadirecta]

6 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

finally tried it. Its ok so far, just not ok enough for me to buy it. I only finished one mission after the bridge and got to the carrier, so we’ll see. Im definitely gonna play it more and give it a shot to impress me.

Try to get the HARM room. You'll get a much better feel for the gameplay particularly Iron Man's. The sequence with him on the bridge didn't do him justice. There's a mission that me @ARZ and @JPDunks4 did with a giant walker boss at the end that was pretty fun. All of the characters play pretty well and unique to me but right now I'm leaning towards Black Widow as my main in multiplayer. Kamala is probably my least fav but even she's pretty fun.

[BloodyHell]

8 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Try to get the HARM room. You'll get a much better feel for the gameplay particularly Iron Man's. The sequence with him on the bridge didn't do him justice. There's a mission that me @ARZ and @JPDunks4 did with a giant walker boss at the end that was pretty fun. All of the characters play pretty well and unique to me but right now I'm leaning towards Black Widow as my main in multiplayer. Kamala is probably my least fav but even she's pretty fun.

See, thats part of the problem, I wasn’t a fan of the Kamala gameplay, and Hulk was just ok. But im definitely going to play more. 

[skillzdadirecta]

4 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

See, thats part of the problem, I wasn’t a fan of the Kamala gameplay, and Hulk was just ok. But im definitely going to play more. 

When you get to play both of them outside of scripted story missions they play MUCH better. Smashing shit as The Hulk never gets old and I can see upgrading him to be an unstoppable engine of destruction being a lot of fun in the main game.

[number305]

22 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

When you get to play both of them outside of scripted story missions they play MUCH better. Smashing shit as The Hulk never gets old and I can see upgrading him to be an unstoppable engine of destruction being a lot of fun in the main game.

This right here is what is wrong with this game.  The idea behind the game is flawed.  Destiny is great for Destiny... but you can't just see dollar signs and apply it to the successful superhero genre.  

 

The hulk should not need artificial upgrades to become 'unstoppable'.  That is kinda the definition of the character.  

 

It is frustrating that the creation of this game not only kept many other super hero games from being created during this time period - but it also ate up the time of several very talented studios that each could have produced something better than this on their own.

[skillzdadirecta]

17 minutes ago, number305 said:

This right here is what is wrong with this game.  The idea behind the game is flawed.  Destiny is great for Destiny... but you can't just see dollar signs and apply it to the successful superhero genre.  

 

The hulk should not need artificial upgrades to become 'unstoppable'.  That is kinda the definition of the character.  

 

It is frustrating that the creation of this game not only kept many other super hero games from being created during this time period - but it also ate up the time of several very talented studios that each could have produced something better than this on their own.

 

So by your logic The Hulk should just be god tier at the start of the game? Then where's your sense of progression? If you play on easier difficulties where you're significantly overleveled compared to your enemies (The game allows you to do this when selecting missions) then you can pretty much mow anything down giving you the sense of power that you're talking about. Otherwise if you want a challenge you can bump the difficulty up. The way they handle character progression is no different than what we've seen in other recent superhero games, The Batman Arkham games, Spiderman and even the old Hulk games you just have more directions you can build your character out in. If you want to build the Hulk to being an overpowered damage dealer, you can do that. If you want to make him a tank that soaks up damage  you can do that as well. There's a lot of versatility here. 

 

The game isn't that hard (at least the Beta isn't) and we were doing missions last night where we were the enemies were 5 levels above us including some missions where enemies just had skulls over there heads (which is a sign of immediate death in most RPGS) I think @JPDunks4 even remarked that the game seemed "too easy" at points. So yeah, I think they've done a good job balancing progression, character balance and gameplay difficulty.

[number305]

20 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

 

So by your logic The Hulk should just be god tier at the start of the game? Then where's your sense of progression? If you play on easier difficulties where you're significantly overleveled compared to your enemies (The game allows you to do this when selecting missions) then you can pretty much mow anything down giving you the sense of power that you're talking about. Otherwise if you want a challenge you can bump the difficulty up. The way they handle character progression is no different than what we've seen in other recent superhero games, The Batman Arkham games, Spiderman and even the old Hulk games you just have more directions you can build your character out in. If you want to build the Hulk to being an overpowered damage dealer, you can do that. If you want to make him a tank that soaks up damage  you can do that as well. There's a lot of versatility here. 

 

The game isn't that hard (at least the Beta isn't) and we were doing missions last night where we were the enemies were 5 levels above us including some missions where enemies just had skulls over there heads (which is a sign of immediate death in most RPGS) I think @JPDunks4 even remarked that the game seemed "too easy" at points. So yeah, I think they've done a good job balancing progression, character balance and gameplay difficulty.

I don't like progression for characters where it doesn't make sense. It can make sense for some like batman. Several good batman movies show him getting better by acquiring new gadgets or training. I haven't noticed any hulk movies where he inserts a new spine so he can win the day. 

 

 

Honestly the problem has little to do with the hulk. The problem is the story telling got crammed into a game where it didn't fit. 

 

Great games have either an idea or or a story first and a game is created around it. For example the first gears of War game was the idea of "30 seconds of fun". You have a constant loop of intense great battles. The game was created to support the idea. Games like TLOU had an idea of a story to tell and the game was created to tell that story. 

 

With this avengers game they did it backwards. They had the game and money making strategy in mind first (destiny) and they then tried to fit characters and story into that setting later. 

[BloodyHell]

51 minutes ago, number305 said:

I don't like progression for characters where it doesn't make sense. It can make sense for some like batman. Several good batman movies show him getting better by acquiring new gadgets or training. I haven't noticed any hulk movies where he inserts a new spine so he can win the day. 

 

 

Honestly the problem has little to do with the hulk. The problem is the story telling got crammed into a game where it didn't fit. 

 

Great games have either an idea or or a story first and a game is created around it. For example the first gears of War game was the idea of "30 seconds of fun". You have a constant loop of intense great battles. The game was created to support the idea. Games like TLOU had an idea of a story to tell and the game was created to tell that story. 

 

With this avengers game they did it backwards. They had the game and money making strategy in mind first (destiny) and they then tried to fit characters and story into that setting later. 

I agree with a lot of what you say (wishing this had been a different game), but the idea that Hulk shouldn’t need progression is absurd. Its still a video game.

[skillzdadirecta]

25 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

I agree with a lot of what you say (wishing this had been a different game), but the idea that Hulk shouldn’t need progression is absurd. Its still a video game.

 

Boom. That's my point... its the same with Geralt in The Witcher games. He's a Witcher... he KNOWS all of these spells and signs and sword techniques already yet for gameplay's sake you have to "relearn" those skills in order to "level up". There's no in game reason (Except for the first game where it's said he suffers from amnesia) for him to have to relearn stuff he already knows. It's just videogame logic. I agree the way they handle loot in this game for non-tech characters like the Hulk is goofy but it is what it is and it doesn;t detract from the gameplay at all... except for its silliness.

 

EDIT: PLUS I'm failry certain that for those folks who want to just play the story and be done with the game they can without engagin in all of the loot and gear stuff.

[BloodyHell]

22 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

 

 

EDIT: PLUS I'm failry certain that for those folks who want to just play the story and be done with the game they can without engagin in all of the loot and gear stuff.

I mean, my problem is that will the story be worth the money. That’s my only concern. Ill do a bit of coop, byt mostly I game alone. 

[skillzdadirecta]

40 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

I mean, my problem is that will the story be worth the money. That’s my only concern. Ill do a bit of coop, byt mostly I game alone. 

Yeah I have a sense that the story will be pretty decent. How LONG it will be is another question. But I THINK if you play alone just for the campaign, you'll be ok. 

 

EDIT: One last thing, while the AI does a REALLY good job when you're playing solo with AI team mates, I wish there was a way for you to issue even simple comamnds to the AI team members in missions. Also I hope they let friends join in progress missions.

[DarkStar189]

Definitely don't see myself getting into this game. I bought a 3 pack of gum at the grocery store that happened to have the codes on them. Anybody wants a code let me know. 

[Spork3245]

6 minutes ago, DarkStar189 said:

Definitely don't see myself getting into this game. I bought a 3 pack of gum at the grocery store that happened to have the codes on them. Anybody wants a code let me know. 

I’ll take one  

[Remarkableriots]

7 minutes ago, DarkStar189 said:

Definitely don't see myself getting into this game. I bought a 3 pack of gum at the grocery store that happened to have the codes on them. Anybody wants a code let me know. 

Are they all the same code or different codes per pack?

[skillzdadirecta]

1 hour ago, DarkStar189 said:

Definitely don't see myself getting into this game. I bought a 3 pack of gum at the grocery store that happened to have the codes on them. Anybody wants a code let me know. 

What are the codes for?

[DarkStar189]

1 hour ago, skillzdadirecta said:

What are the codes for?

The wrapper just says "Every code unlocks in-game content".