Hi guys, and welcome to Game Box; a new series where I look at some of the games I’ve been playing recently since I finally have a console again. First up, I’m coming to be talking about the recent Open Beta for Gazillion Entertainment’s Marvel Heroes Omega.

Marvel Heroes Omega assembles one of the largest gatherings of iconic Super Heroes, Super Villains, and locations from the Marvel Universe in gaming history for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Mac.

Set in the iconic Marvel Universe, Marvel Heroes Omega combines the core game-play style of Action RPGs and MMOs with the expansive library of heroes from the Marvel Universe. In the game, players can collect and play as their favorite Marvel Super Heroes (including Iron Man, Thor, Wolverine, Hulk, Spider-Man, Captain America and many others).

Team up with friends and try to stop Doctor Doom from devastating the world with the power of the Cosmic Cube in a story written by Marvel comic super-scribe Brian Michael Bendis.

From moment one, you’re given a gorgeous introduction sequence featuring some pretty good 3D models and 2D animated sections retelling the origins of the more famous Marvel Heroes. A fair few of the cut scenes in-game follow a more motion comic style and while the blend of styles is a little jarring at first, I give the creators credit for trying something different.

The tutorial drops you in the middle of a mission with Captain America and allows you the time to figure out your buttons before setting you against Ultron and his minions. Each of your attacks is assigned to one of the four face buttons and you can bring up a secondary menu by holding L2. It’s an intuitive system to help console players easily access their full range of abilities that’s a staple of MMOs on consoles.

Throughout the tutorial, you’re given the ability to play as Cap, Black Widow and Hulk before they allow you to access the launch roster of heroes. It’s a right Who’s Who of MCU characters alongside more established characters. You get all the ones you know and then you get the likes of Wiccan, Squirrel Girl and Angela, which is cool. Given this is a Free-To-Play game, you’re given the opportunity to try before you buy any of these characters before Level 10 when you have to pick your starter character.

I eventually chose She-Hulk and upon entering the game proper, I noticed a cute quirk this game has. Depending on the characters in the vicinity, there are unique snippets of dialogue from both your character and those of other players. This gives the world a little more connectivity and hearing Shulkie interact with Gambit in the moments in the mission worlds or at the HQ is pretty fun. The voice cast for this game is exhaustive too, bringing in all the voices you’d associate with these characters from various animated shows as well as bringing in actors such as Clark Gregg and Keith David, voicing Agent Coulson and Nick Fury, respectively.

Being a FTP game, more heroes are unlocked through Founder’s Packs of various price points, by using Eternity Splinters or by accumulating the specfic in-game currency to buy them or unlock additional costumes. You can get an additional hero for nothing though, by downloading Daredevil for free and the additional Man Without Fear costume for free if you are a PS Plus member.

You can customise your heroes with character-specific loot drops for defeating enemies and augment their abilities through levelling or attaching Medallions from defeated super villains.

Given the amount of FTP MMO games on consoles at the moment, you could be forgiven for thinking this is just another but the game plays like the X-Men Legends and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance games, taking an isometric view of the action but adds the MMO component and the whole package feels a little like that Avengers Alliance game for its breadth of characters and customisation potential.

If you’re looking for a quick and fun MMO to get into or are jonesing for a Marvel game that isn’t on mobile (that’s me) then I recommend giving this game a shot. Marvel Heroes Omega is currently available for Open Beta on Playstation 4 and will be officially released on June 4 2017. For more details and updates, head over to the official website and be sure to follow the game’s Twitter.

It’s time to break into the 2017 Marvel Superheroes offerings with a look at the big and boisterous 76078 Hulk vs. Red Hulk set from LEGO!

This behemoth of a box weighs in at 375 pieces and retails for around £54.99! Contents include 4 bags of assorted pieces, a bag of assorted wheels, a Hulk BigFig, a Red Hulk BigFig, two instruction booklets, a sticker sheet and a comic showcasing the entire range!

Kicking of with the big, bad, Big Figures; while it may appear that the multi-coloured monster men share the same body, Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross aka Red Hulk only repeats the arms Bruce Banner’s green goliath. The head/shoulders are unique to this BigFig, as are the lower torso and legs, which do not share the moulded-on pants.

Meanwhile, with the distaff Hulks — Jennifer ‘She-Hulk’ Walters and Betty ‘Red She-Hulk’ Ross — we see a more standard Minifigure but with interesting printing on both. Each is a fantastic representation of their comic book counterpart on a standard Minifigure body and both receive a reversible anger face.

The first to be built is Team Red Hulk’s vehicle, which sadly doesn’t have a name so I’m going to call it the Red ‘Recker for ease of differentiating it from Team Hulk’s. The main body mostly consists of the rear base and the sled for the bumper-bashing, Hulk-launching mechanism. The rest is building a pseudo-engine and attaching the ball-jointed stud-shooters.

Once complete, you have an awesome three-wheeler with space for both Red Hulks and six stud-shooters!

Team Hulk’s vehicle, thus to be referred to as the Gamma Jammer, is built in almost the exact same fashion as the Red ‘Recker — barring having two front wheels and more green and yellow bricks and a rotating stud-shooter akin to the Bionicle sets I reviewed back in 2015.

As with the Red ‘Recker, the Gamma Jammer is a rough and tumble vehicle that perfectly matches Team Hulk.

With both side-by-side, both vehicle look fantastic but now it’s time for the set’s main gimmick, which is to smash into each other has hard and as fast as you can make them to launch their respective Hulks into the air for a mid-air brawl!

After repeating the crash a bunch of times; not only are both vehicles incredibly sturdy and can take a beating thanks to the bumper pieces in the front but the two Hulk BigFigs consistently slam into each other in mid-air.

The LEGO 76078 Hulk vs. Red Hulk set is a robust and rugged set for those kids who like to really play with their toys and, thanks to solid construction, there’s little chance of them falling apart in the course of the recommended play pattern. If you or your kids are fans of the Hulk family, I highly suggest picking this set up because, if nothing else, what other LEGO sets actively encourage you to slam two vehicles together? This set is available for £54.99 from most good retailers and the LEGO online store.

A while ago, some clever clogs online built a bunch of little go-karts themed around the Marvel and DC Comics LEGO Superheroes lines and they were pretty cool. I bring this up because what I’ll be looking at today appears LEGO’s official answer to that in the form of Mighty Micros! The first wave is split 3×3 for both Marvel and DC Comics sets and today we’ll be looking at the Marvel side!

Immediately out of the gate, the Marvel Mighty Micros are showing the potential with some classic hero vs. villain battles! Captain America vs. Red Skull! Spidey versus Goblin! Hulk vs. Ultron? Okay, that’s probably more to do with recently having Ultron as a major villain but whatever, just look at these guys! If you couldn’t guess already, LEGO has gone balls-to-wall silly with this line and I loooooove it. Without further ado, let’s jump into these sets because it appears that the world is once again on the brink… of Wacky Races.
First up, and arguably the biggest rivalry amongst these sets, is Spider-Man vs. Green Goblin! In an interesting little twist on the formula, each micro-kart (I don’t know what LEGO are calling these so that’s what I’m going with) has their own instruction leaflet while all the parts are mixed together. Were these at one point going to be sold separately?

Another interesting thing about these sets are that the minifigures are mini-er than usual! Spidey and Gobby have the tiny legs! And simplistic, almost pre-school simple, design elements. Not that I’m complaining, I think they’re really cute! And they have fun little camera and Pumpkin Bomb accessories!

Once assembled, the micro-karts resemble uncomplicated versions of the Spider-Copter and Goblin Glider. Well, in the Spider-Copter’s case but Green Goblin’s ride seems a bit girther than it should. Plus they both have regular wheels, which is hilarious as they’re both aerial vehicles.

Next up is Hulk vs. Ultron!

Hulk looks ridiculously adorable, despite trying his best to look menacing while Ultron seems to have gone back to his comic roots with the classic open-mouthed scream face; bubbling with red energy and sweet metallic silver all over. Their accessories don’t make a lick of sense to me though…

When it comes to the micro-karts, I’m split right down the middle between loving them and hating them. Ultron’s spider-crab-car-thing is kiiiinda like stuff we’ve seen him do before but it’s not interesting while Hulk’s car has hulk-hands. That’s dumb as rocks and I adore it. It’s a literal punch-buggy!

Finally we come to the Sentinel of Liberty and his arch-nemesis Nazi; Captain America vs. Red Skull!

Again, the minifigures are extremely simplistic in style but are oddly charming. Cap has this manic, pupil-less expression and a huge star on his chest while Red Skull doesn’t look so much menacing as perplexed. I do love the boss-eyed HYDRA insignia on Skull’s back (Hail DERPDRA) and their accessories are unchanged from other appearances, being Cap’s shield and Skull having a clear block to represent the Tessaract.

Red Skull’s micro-kart is a simplified version of the HYDRA tank he had in a previous set with Captain America. Speaking of, Cap’s little tank is the most Wacky Races thing I’ve seen so far and it just makes me smile. I really dig it!

All in all, the LEGO Marvel Mighty Micros are an absolute blast. For £8.99 a pop, you get two little vehicles made from less than 100 pieces. They’re cheap, quick and immensely fun builds that I hope will be eaten up by superhero fans both young and old. We’re not quite done with the Mighty Micros just yet as I’ll be back in a few days time with DC Comics’ offerings so I’ll see you guys next time for another Mint in Box!

Too damn long.

Let’s watch this first proper taste of Avengers 2: Evil Android Boogaloo

– “It is… ALIVE!”

It’s hard to tell if this is Ultron’s first appearance in the film (everyone seems pretty shocked about it) or if it’s a return from being smashed up. Either way, it’s in bad shape.

By the way, did you see Rhodey in the background? Nice to see him hanging out with the big boys!

– No More Mu… I mean, Ultrons. No More Ultrons

Wanda Maximoff has a sordid history in the Marvel Universe. A lot of writers have been very cruel to her. It seems that her luck hasn’t changed much.

Having said that, this is Whedon. He knows how to write women (I recognise that’s a dumb phrase to say, but lord knows there are too many people out there who can’t write women properly). I’m sure The Scarlet Witch is going to have a great role to play in this story.

– Awwwwwww Yeeeeaaaaaaah

Lets face it. We were all dying to see this. The Hulkbuster suit.

People have been hinting at this thing happening since Iron Man 2. There are going to be a lot of nerdgasms.

– Fashion Tips From Comic Strips

Ok, so I know this is a tiny thing, and I recognise I’m a bit of a loser for spotting it but…

You may have seen an alteration to Hawkeye’s costume. No? His coat is longer and flaps about. Yeah, you see they gave him is old design:

Alright, alright. It’s not exactly the same but still, it’s little touches and references like this that makes this Marvel fanboy happy.

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Overall: While the trailer doesn’t give away an awful lot (still no Vision and who the hell is Andy Serkis?) but it still has lots of little details to digest (Cap’s broken shield and hey, look, it’s Andy Serkis!).

This movie is not a hard sell, we’re all dying to see it. As long as the trailers don’t damage that status, and this one certainly doesn’t, then Marvel are due to break records all over again.

Right out of the gate, we’re introduced to the downtrodden, out of work father of one, Mike Peterson (played by Angel Alumni, J. August Richards) as he’s witness to an apartment explosion and wastes no time in jumping in to rescue a woman. His heroic efforts catch the eye of a young hacker and, eventually, the attention of SHIELD as Coulson and Maria Hill gather a new team together in an effort to recruit new heroes as they appear and put a stop to foreseeable threats.

Being the pilot for a new show, we’re hit with a lot of information very fast but none of it feels especially rushed. We spend a little more time with Maria Hill and learn that she actually has a sense of humour, as well being conspiratorial with SHIELD physician, Dr. Streiten, played by Firefly Alumni Ron Glass. If more and more actors from Whedon’s past projects show up, I’ll be a happy camper. Who wouldn’t want to see the likes of Nathan Fillion, Jewel Staite and Adam Baldwin in this show?

Now, to the subject of speculation: Phil “Agent” Coulson. We all saw the Son of Coul die in New York but why is he here now? According the man himself, Fury faked his death and sent him on vacation to Tahiti but Hill and Dr. Streiten seem to know more. Is he a clone? A Life Model Decoy? Hell, is he even human? This will no doubt be an underlying subplot throughtout the season but my personal take is this: He is Coulson. Doesn’t matter what he is, he’s still Coulson and that’s good enough for me. For now.

The rest of the team is assembled and is a surprisingly diverse bunch. Ward is a specialist, conflict resolution, that kind of deal, but he admits to being scared of women and that he loves his Grandma. Admittedly, he said that after being nailed with truth serum by Coulson but still. Melinda May is Mulan the pilot and obviously has a mysterious reputation as a field agent. Fitz and Simmons are the adorable techies who have a really fun brother/sister bond and Skye is the hacker I mentioned earlier. They don’t get much development but you get a good sense of each character and we’ll be seeing more of them throughout the season so it’s a good introduction.

One thing I love in my entertainment is continuity and references so this show will be perfect for me. All the little nods to the cinematic universe and to a larger Marvel Universe made me smile. Mentions of Puente Antiguo, Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S., and freakin’ Longshot all had me sitting there saying:

The pilot episode was quick, to the point and highly entertaining. I can see so much potential for this show being the springboard for concepts later seen in the movies and vice-versa. We could have all-new heroes and villains to deal with and, budget be willing, maybe even some A-list guest stars (The A stand for Avenger). I’m looking forward to what wonders and woes this series will bring us and I hope you’ll be following along with his here on The Website of Doom! See you next weeeeeeeeeek!

Considering the coverage this site has given in the past to the Marvel films of Thor, Captain America etc. it’s probably not very surprising that we here at DOOM Towers are quite excited at the prospect of seeing The Avengers. In fact, three of our staff have the same Thor action figure. So now that the first real trailer has been released we’re… well, lets say “giddy”.

I personally felt that the teaser trailer we got after the credits of Captain America was pretty weak. We got flashes of nothing in a pretty large sense and apart from one shot of the gang standing in the same room, I saw very little to get excited about. I also saw very little.

We have a year to go before this film is going to be released, so whatever we see now will be the easiest stuff to shoot and finish (so lots of talking and intense staring). But lets hope it manages to stir the same feeling in my loins as the last few trailers for the solo films.

Lets have a closer look, shall we?

– What Are You Looking At?

You may have noticed that there are a couple shots of people aiming guns at the sky. Lots of people, lots of sky, and they’re ALL looking up. So what has them scared?

I can’t believe that it’s just Loki. Is the Skrulls rumour true? Are they looking at an alien invasion?

– Hit Him!

Could we be looking at the first meeting of Cap and Thor?

It certainly has all the hallmarks of a comic-book meeting by two heroes. Read any comic about Spidey meeting Daredevil for the first time or Hulk and Wolverine… they’re all misconstrued fights that turn to a friendship. I look forward to seeing this playing out on the big screen.

– Blink And You’ll Miss It

So there is a half second shot of Loki choking Tony Stark and throwing him out a window. It’s so quick, any snapshot I tried to get of it ended up blurred like this.

But, with thanks to the internet (and specifically Tumblr) I found this nifty little gif of it.

Cool, right?

– Green Giant

They have shown very little of Hulk in the build up to this. It’s understandable why, though. His film was the least popular. The momentum is with the other characters who we’ve all seen more recently. And yet, THIS is the thing that got me excited.

I seriously can’t wait to see Hulk interact with the rest of the team and, well, I just can’t wait to see him smash stuff guilt free.

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Was I thrilled with the trailer? Not really. Am I happy with it? Sure. I wasn’t expecting much more than what we got at this early stage and there is nothing I’ve seen that would dissapoint me or bug me going into the film.

Although that “we’ll avenge it” line was laughably bad. Guys, you don’t have to give us a reason to call the team The Avengers. Just leave it be.

Anyway, this is the monthly poll in which I, on behalf of the other DOOMsters, ask a question of utmost importance. I do this not to create needless banter, oh no. I do it in order to bring us all together in the finely honed art of being judgemental on the internet. It lets us feel better and someone else somewhere will cry as they find out they’re not popular and therefore insignificant and a waste of life. Beautiful.

Now, lets get down to business.

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Last month saw the battle of the catchy theme tunes. It was a tough call and a three way tie for a long time. But the winner has been crowned and I dub thee Prince of Fresh!

Parents may not understand but it’s obvious you guys do. Congratulations to him. Although I wish his kids would stop building an empire.

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This month sees the international release of Thor in cinemas. I’ve seen it… twice! And it has me super excited for the eventual release of The Avengers film next year. But the question is, of all the Avengers that will be in the film, who is your favourite?

ASSEMBLE!

NICK FURY

The Man bringing them all together. Anyone who was confused by the inclusion of Ultimate Nick Fury in the film franchise rather than the original silver streaked Nick quickly got over it once they saw that is was Samuel L. Jackson (lets use his full name people). Mr Jackson has more than enough cool of his own to play the secretive super spy. We haven’t seen him in action yet, but I’m hoping The Avengers rectifies that.

IRON MAN

I. Am. Iron Man. Nanananana Iron Man. Dooo dooo dooo di dooo. Yeah, he has the best song with his name in it (thanks Black Sabbath) but he also has a great movie and a good movie already behind him. He’ll be going into this team-up film with some swagger and a drinking problem. Endlessly cool. He even has his own side-kick in War Machine! It’s a shame Daddy Favs has left the franchise for the time being. We can only hope he changes his mind in time for Iron Man 3.

HULK

Me like Hulk so much, me will only talk like big bad Hulk while talk about Hulk. Ed Norton good man. Me like him. But Ed Norton still PUNY HUMAN. Ed Norton could not stay be Hulk. He too weak. Hulk has now eaten lots of actors. Marvel now give Hulk Mark Ruffalo to eat. Will Ruffalo survive Hulk’s SUPER TIGHT HUG? Hulk not know. Hulk like to hug. It make Hulk sad to see all these actors come and go. Hulk want one man to love forever. HULK CRY NOW!

THOR

Have thee seen Thor? Verily, this writer has… TWICE! Have I said that before? Well, one doth not like to show off but it is true. Stan Lee enjoyed writing the dialogue for Thor so much he still writes his faux Shakespearian text in his Twitter messages. It’s fun and it’s something that I hope the public takes to. I’d like all of these Marvel films to do well. But is the man who wields Mjolnir. For anyone wondering, Mjolnir is translated as “crusher”. Fun!

CAPTAIN AMERICA

When Captain America throws his mighty shield, all those who chose to oppose his shield must yield. If he’s led to a fight and a duel is due, then the red and white and the blue’ll come through when Captain America throws his mighty shield. Or something like that. I don’t think there is any possible way the movie could live up to my expectations (even if Chris Evans himself high-fived me during intro credits). But excited I am nonetheless. America, F*** Yeah!

HAWKEYE

Jeremy Renner will be playing Clint Barton. He’s the only Avenger going into this movie who isn’t getting his own film. It’s nice to have him included but with no powers (other than skill) will he be left in the shade by the other big hitters? Clint has always had a rocky relationship with the rest of the team, especially Cap. He’s a rogue. A maverick. A Jake Summers. But he’s still a good guy so lets hope he gets his moment to shine (and this moment doesn’t involve jet-packing into a Skrull ship).

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Assemble your favourite Avenger.

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