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 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 =)