Marvel

Marvel’s Avengers Beta Impressions – Avengers In Name Only?

/ Michael Beckwith / 1 Comment

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Ever since its initial reveal at E3 2019, I have wanted desperately to like Square Enix and Crystal Dynamic’s Avengers game. Unfortunately, nearly everything about it seemed to be forcing me to be sceptical about it.

The plot was uninteresting and a culmination of some of my least favourite ‘event comic’ superhero tropes, the gameplay appeared average at best and monotonous at worst, the hyper realistic graphics made for a grey and bland-looking world, and its mere existence as a service title akin to something like Destiny meant that this was Square Enix attempting to capitalise on a trendy market by using already existing characters as the poster boys to help push it.

I wanted to give the game a chance, though, so when I was granted the opportunity to try out the game’s beta, I took it. Sometimes, you really do need a hands-on approach to better judge a product and I’ll be detailing my experiences and first impressions here. Continue reading →

Five Ideas for MCU Team-Ups

/ Michael Beckwith / Leave a comment

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One of the best things about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is seeing all our favourite comic book heroes recreated on the big screen. But one thing that’s better than that is seeing them all interact with each other. After all, when you have a universe filled with such a colourful cast, not having them hang out is just a waste. Why have all these characters in a shared universe if they’re not gonna team up once in a while? And Disney and Marvel clearly know this. The Avengers movies were all huge successes primarily for this very reason. But while we’ve enjoyed these awesome cross-overs, we’ve never had any proper team-up movies.

Sure, Black Widow helped out Captain America in The Winter Soldier, but that was still Steve’s movie. And while Hulk showed up in Thor: Ragnarok, it wasn’t really a Thor/Hulk movie; just a Thor movie that the Hulk happened to be in. We’ve had “team-ups,” but no movies where two characters get to enjoy equal footing, and I feel this is something Marvel should do more of. The big crossovers are great but they run the risk of some characters having less to do than others. Focusing purely on two individuals can lead to stronger interactions and a tighter narrative. There was even a whole series of comics called Marvel Team-Up that explored this very concept. Imagine a series of movies like this.

So, purely for my own enjoyment, here are five ideas for team-up movies that I’d love to see be made for the MCU. Continue reading →

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order – Marvellous Masterpiece or Boring Button-Masher?

/ Michael Beckwith / 2 Comments

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One game that I used to play the crap out of during my childhood was Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. A loose adaptation of the Civil War comic story-line, it was a top-down action-RPG/beat ’em up featuring a tonne of famous and not so famous heroes and villains from across the Marvel universe, enjoyable and addictive gameplay, cool character interactions, and some great replayability that had me coming back again and again, just so I could keep making all manner of different teams to play through the game as.

That game came out ten years ago and it very much seemed like a series that wasn’t going to get revived any time soon, especially with Disney now holding Marvel’s reigns. So I was pleasantly surprised to see a new, third title get announced out of nowhere. And if that wasn’t enough, Activision and Vicarious Visions were out and Nintendo and Team Ninja were in.

Suddenly, everybody was getting excited to see how this game would turn out. Aside from those big names, the roster looked great (the presence of the X-Men alone helped tremendously) and the presentation was delightfully stylish, but does the game have the substance to match it, or should this series have been left back in the late 2000s? Continue reading →

Spider-Man (PS4) – Does Whatever a Good Game Can

/ Michael Beckwith / 1 Comment

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The announcement of a brand new, wholly original Spider-Man game being developed by Insomniac Games got a lot of people, including me, very excited. It had felt like it had been ages since we got something like this – a console super-hero game that wasn’t just a cash-grab tie-in to a new movie or TV show. Everything about it looked promising and I felt like this could herald in a new age of high-quality superhero games. And judging by this game’s success, I think it’s safe to say that might just be the case.

Unless you’ve just not been paying attention, it’s no secret that Spider-Man (or Marvel’s Spider-Man – they seriously needed a better name) has been positively received. What was expected to be a moderate success has become Sony’s fastest selling first-party game ever and its first month’s sales beat the likes of God of War and Uncharted 4. It’s a good game is what I’m saying.

Honestly, I probably don’t even need to write a review about it. I’ll tell you right now; all the positive reception you’ve heard is right. If you have a PS4, this is a must buy. But, you know what, this game is SO good that I need to gush about it regardless. So rather than posit the question “Is Spider-Man on PS4 a good game?,” let’s discuss WHY it’s good. Continue reading →

Logan – The Wolverine Movie We Deserve

/ Michael Beckwith / Leave a comment

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If you had seen both X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine, I wouldn’t blame you for being highly skeptical of watching a third solo movie starring everyone’s favourite, slash-happy mutant. But believe me when I say that Logan isn’t just better than those previous outings; it’s quite possibly one of the best comic book movies of all time.

Very loosely based on the Old Man Logan graphic novel (so no inbred, hillbilly Hulks here, thank God), the film is set in the not too distant future, where not only have mutants become practically extinct but the X-Men are long dead. A much older and much more miserable Logan (Hugh Jackman) now lives a semi-normal life as a chauffeur, alongside a severely ill Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart).

While he has very much quit the ‘hero’ gig and is kind of just counting down the days until he dies, Logan finds himself thrown into action once more when a young mutant girl named Laura (played by newcomer Dafne Keen) enters his life, having escaped from an organisation called Transigen that were trying to create mutant child soldiers. Logan and Xavier agree to help her flee to North Dakota, where a supposed safe haven for mutants called Eden awaits. Continue reading →

What I Liked about Deadpool

/ Michael Beckwith / Leave a comment

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Deadpool

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Deadpool could very easily have been a travesty; a complete mess of a movie that ultimately failed to appeal to either the average movie-going public or the die-hard fans. But, it didn’t. While I was certainly looking forward to it (especially when I saw the marketing), it managed to be even better that I initially hoped.

Because of the rather bizarre nature of the film, it’s a bit hard to review it in a traditional sense. So, I figured I’d take take the easy route and simply list off all the things I liked about the movie. Continue reading →

Big Hero 6 – Super Hero or Super Zero?

/ Michael Beckwith / 1 Comment

(WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Big Hero 6 and Frozen)

The latest animated Disney film, Big Hero 6, is now out on DVD and the like, meaning I finally had a chance to watch it after months of everybody telling me that I needed to see it. I was honestly surprised by how much everyone seemed to like it. With Frozen still making the rounds despite being over two years old, I was worried that Big Hero 6 would kind of just pass everyone by; instantly dismissed by little kids everywhere just because it wasn’t Frozen. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case. Continue reading →