Well reading around various sites and forums it looks like this downloadable content is finally live and available. (Except in Austria, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Switzerland and Taiwan). I would love to know what the hold up was. Go rock out as 4 new heroes for 500 points, or 4 new villians if you prefer also for 500 points. Or if you like to play both sides of the fence (or just an achievement junkie) get both for 800 points.
Just browsing around, and still wondering about these download packs. I mean has anything ever been delayed this long after given a release date? I am no expert by any means so perhaps other download contents have been delayed, but this seems to be an abnormal amount of time. Especially since there was a release date, there was a released trailor, the game title changed on Xbox.com and the achievements for the pack are all ready in place I just assumed everything was going as planned. The list goes on, anyway enough of my ranting I was checking out Gamerscoreblog, and saw a post from yesterday with another video of in game footage. This a video of a couple of microsoft guys playing the new download packs and they say it will be available “soon”
I have been wondering the same thing, and I just got this notification from Activision last night. Included is a link to view the new character trailer, which I believe is the same video I linked in a previous entry, but this time in HD. Most important thing to note is they no longer have official release date we just need to “Stay tuned”.
The exciting new downloadable content for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance on Xbox Live is so close, we can almost taste it…
As you might have read, these packs were originally scheduled for release this week. To ensure a top notch gaming experience, Activision is spending a little extra time on the final rounds of QA.
They’re working hard to finalize the packs and we’ll announce the new release date very soon…
In the meantime, we’ve got some nice hi def footage of the new playable characters to share with you!
Click on the trailer image below to check out The Incredible Hulk, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Hawkeye, Venom, Dr. Doom, Magneto, and Sabretooth in action!
(View the new HD trailer here)Want more info? GameSpot has recently spent some hands-on time with the new downloadable characters and wrote this cool preview article on their experiences:
Stay tuned for our final release date announcement coming soon!
Much Respect,
Your VIP Community Staff
I have been on marvel overload lately - playing Ultimate Alliance on co-op with Ymiris, and then when he isnt around giving Xmen: The official game a spin. I know, I know, it hasn’t got the best reviews but I have been enjoying it for what it is. Finished the story two nights ago, now just working on all the secret evidence and mutations…
In any event, for you Marvel lovers out there here is a trailer with footage of the 8 new characters avialable on the marketplace.
So with the recent change in Microsoft’s policy allowing for a retail game to have a total of 1,250 points (1,000 to start, 250 available as an add on via downloadable content), I start to wonder if this is just to get more of you achievement junkies to pay for downloadable content that you might not have purchased previously.
Two games come to mind when I think about this topic. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Let’s start with Oblivion first. For about $30.00, and is supposed to give you about 30 hours worth of new content in the game, and of course an additional 250 points of gamerscore. Not to bad of a value I suppose, considering its comparable to an entire expansion pack (which is how its selling on other systems).
But now we look at Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. In a few days there are 2 downloadable contents coming (or you can buy them both for a special rate). Let’s go with the special rate which calculates out to about $8.00. With this you get 4 new playable characters (4 of which are villians), and the ability to unlock another 250 gamerscore points. There is no new game content (except some dialog changes based on using these new characters). I do like the ability to add to my list of super heroes, but I am somewhat reserved in purchasing it simply because there is nothing new added to the game except a new character model - and I would be willing to bet that the sales of this content would be lower if they didnt include the upgrade in gamerscore, because there are plenty of people out there, which will spend the $8.00 just to get another 250 points.
Thoughts?
On April 10th two character packs will be available for download. 4 new heros, and now the ability to have villians on your alliance team.
The hero pack includes: The Incredible Hulk, Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Hawkeye
The Villian Pack includes: Venom, Dr. Doom, Magneto, and Sabretooth
There are going to be some new gamer pics, and themes also available, and the rumor is they are adding another 250 points worth of achievements. I have read these downloads will not include any new content in game - so these 250 points must be based on the current game content, it should be interesting to see what they come up with.
As posted in my previous post I played College Hoops 2k6 for about 45 minutes or so - getting 3 of the 5 achievements.
these by far have to be the easiest achievements ever recieved - the achievement system has definately expanded for the better since the launch titles. At least on most more recent games it feels like you actually Achieved something.
I also played a pretty good amount of Gears of War, mostly on Versus. One game it was 1 versus 4 (because my team all quit - needless to say I didnt do so well, and then I ended up teaming with 3 of those 4 on the next game. It was a blast a couple times we did quad curb stomps =)
I also helped out IAmMrTea08 for a small amount of Act 3.
Finally I played Act one a bit working on a walkthrough that I planned on writing - but keep putting off, I ended up with an achievement during that process too
Played some Marvel: Ultimate Alliance - still havent completed this one, but I think I am getting pretty close the end of the story.
Finally I also played Need for Speed: Carbon - mostly on challenge series events, and getting closer to the silver challenge achievement - finally completed the canyon drift race that was giving me tons of trouble too
It was one marathon of gaming - check out my Live Eye Profile to see more details
I played Marvel Ultimate Alliance for only about 30 minutes while my wife was giving our son a bath. Since it was only 30 minutes I made very little progress, but continued to clear more of the current mission I am on.
Then later on last night I put Gears of War in for a spin. It was about a four hour gaming session, first I joined IAmMrTea08 for a quick co-op session, and then we went over to versus mode and invited Just Jr. After a couple rounds of versus, I finished off with some co-op with Just Jr, finishing Act 4 and Act 5 on insane and getting my final 2 COG Tags.
I finished off the night working on my garden in Viva Piñata. I was kind of torn if I was going to like this game but so far I have been having a blast. Picked up a few new achievements on it last night too.
About the game:
This game would be categorized as an action/RPG. You control a team of 4 super-heros between the players that are playing. In other words, if you have 3 players, there is 1 extra team mate that is AI driven unless someone chooses to use that character instead of the one they are currently using. There are more then 20 Marvel Heros to choose from Including Spider-man, Captain America, Blad, Wolverine, Iceman, among many others.
Single Player (Story Mode): 9/10
The story mode of this game is quite extensive. I originally thought that it was going to be pretty short, but after 8 hours of gameplay I just made it to episode 3, and from what understand there are a total of 5 episodes. You interact with a large number of Marvel characters, and a LARGE amount of super villains. There are a ton of costumes, powers, and various other things you can unlock for each character - let alone characters themselves that need to be unlocked. During story mode you pick up credits that can be used to purchase items for each of your super heroes.
Multiplayer: 9/10
I have only played multi-player on a local game with a friend. So this review is based on that alone, though you can also play the story mode over live, and I believe there is also a versus mode (which I have not tried at all). Considering the local and live multiplayer, and the two different modes that these can be played I think that the multiplayer mode is great. I also like that if you play co-op mode each team mate can switch to the remaining team members.
Graphics/game play: 8/10
The cut scenes look great, and the gameplay graphics aren’t too shabby either. Without the super powers this would be a little bland on gameplay, but having the ability to use a number of super powers for each character you play, and the ability to switch between the powers (and the characters) makes the gameplay extremely versatile. Even if you played the game through with one team, you could do it all over again with a completely different team, and completely different powers.
Achievements: 9/10
The achievements are split very nicely across the game. There are achievements for just completing the story mode of the game, and points for simply doing things in the game (such as defeating X enemies). There are also points for co-op play as well as arcade mode play. 46 achievements in all, and to get them all I think it would take an enough effort to keep you in the game for quite a while.
In Short..
This game has a nice story that will actually take you a while to complete. At times it can be challenging and your entire team might die, but for the most part if you play smart you will have no problems. There are a number of small little puzzles to figure out, and also a few side missions to complete as well. There are a ton of unlockables in this game, and a nice evenly distributed achievement point system. I have this on rental - but I would have no problem actually buying this title
I give it a 9 out of 10
well my brother in law has came up for the holidays, so we got to play a bit last night, and drink a few margaritas. He showed me Phatasy Star Online, which I will possibly be picking up soon to play with him online, and then we played a few rounds of Rockstar Table Tennis. Since doesn’t have an HD TV i showed him the difference of Dead Rising on HDTV vs SDTV. (there are a number of posts all over the internet on how hard it is to read text on SDTV, etc). We also played co-op Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and progressed through a couple levels, and achievements =)
