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.

We’re back for round two of this year’s LEGO Superheroes Mighty Micros and this time it’s Marvel that’s up to bat with a trio of terrific sets.

We get a nice mixture of franchises showcased this time with Spider-Man, The Avengers and X-Men all getting the spotlight! Let’s get started with Marvel’s golden boy himself…

Spider-Man! Scorpion! A match up that doesn’t happen nearly often enough in my eyes because Scorpion is a pretty cool villain, design-wise.

The Spider-Man minifigure is much like last year’s but with an all-new, all-different wince! Or a wink. I suppose it depends on your perspective. Scorpion, meanwhile, looks like an adorably cartoonish version of his minifigure in the LEGO Spider-Man: Web Warriors Ultimate Bridge Battle. Both minifigures also come with an animal accessory tied with their theme.

In terms of the karts in this set, I’d initially written the Spider-Man one as uninspired until I realised that it was a simplified version of the infamous Spider-Buggy and I kind of walked back that opinion. It’s cool but still not as cool as Scorpion’s brutish claw-tank-thing! This thing is essentially a box on wheels but between the claw-like appendages and integrating Scorpion’s own tail pieces for the vehicle’s stinger is pretty clever.

Over with the X-Men, we have the comically mismatched Wolverine and Magneto. We don’t see the X-Men often enough in these sets so it’s great to see them here (and I’m hoping next year will see Deadpool in a mini-chimichanga delivery truck).

The minifigures are just as adorable as ever but, in an ironic twist, even more-so because Wolverine is an immortal, ninja-slaying samurai Canadian and Magneto is a holocaust survivor who has a mad-on for a human genocide. These two characters, out of all of Marvel’s characters, should not be this cute.

Again, their associated karts are hilarious! Wolverine is flying around in a shrunken Blackbird jet and Magneto has a giant magnet on it! They’re both really fitting with the characters and exemplify the tongue-in-cheek humour that I really like about this line.

Finally, with The Avengers and in the spirit of the future movies, we have Iron Man vs. Thanos. Earth technology versus space magic. Tony shouldn’t be looking anywhere near as cocky as he is.

In terms of minifigures, Tony’s Iron Man design is so simplified that it looks like a Halloween costume and he’s not helping his credentials by bringing a spanner to an Infinity Gauntlet fight. It’s no wonder that Thanos has the kind of manic glee on his face that comes from a sadistic villain who knows he’s going not only murder the hero but wipe him from existence. Quip your way out of this one, Stark.

The karts are equally laughably one-sided as Iron Man’s is a variant on The Flash’s from last year but with a quartet of repulsor jets. On the other hand, figuratively and literally, Thanos has used the Reality Gem to conjure up a kart shaped like the Infinity Gauntlet! That’s decadent and arrogant on a truly cosmic level but if I had a complaint, it’s that the gold used for this kart isn’t uniform, with some blocks cast in a metallic gold while the rest are a dull, lighter gold. It’s kind of the same problem that Wonder Woman’s jet faced but still, it’s a brilliant show of Thanos’s silly side and that’s saying something from a cosmic villain who once pestered D-Tier hero Hellcat in a ‘Thanos-copter’.

Once again, the creativity of the LEGO Marvel Superheroes Mighty Micros line shines through again with a brilliantly clever and fun set of builds. You can purchase these online and in stores for £8.99 each and I highly recommend picking them up for yourself or the Marvel fan in your life!

While much of the LEGO Marvel Superheroes theme focuses on either movies or tv shows, there’s the odd set that doesn’t fit into those caegories and 76049 Avenjet Space Mission is such a set. While not quite based solely in the realm of comics, it’s also based on a vehicle in the LEGO Marvel’s Avengers video game!
76049 Avenjet Space Mission comes in at a whopping 523 piece count and retails for around £59.99. Included in the set are four bags of bricks, a Thanos big fig, a thick instruction booklet, a mini comic and sticker sheet.

Kicking off the minifigures is the Sentinel of Liberty; Captain America! This particular rendition of Steve Rogers is near identical to the ‘Scuba’ variant of the 76048 Iron Skull Submarine Attack set, just swap out the flippers for a jetpack.

Hyperion has been both hero and villain so seeing him here as Thanos’ lackey isn’t too far fetched plus it’s great to see more obscure characters, like Marvel’s own nuclear answer to Superman.

It wouldn’t be a Marvel set without the poster-boy for Avengers; Iron Man! This time decked out in a pretty sweet Mark 39 ‘Gemini’ deco, he’s the same old Iron Man you’ve experienced before but in a fetching white.

Fresh from the pages of her brand new series, Carol ‘Captain Marvel’ Danvers goes a long way to making this set a favourite of mine. I love Captain Marvel that much! While most of the minifigs have double-printed faces; Carol goes one better and includes an armoured face for when she means business.

Rounding out the bunch — emphasis on round — is a somewhat portly big fig of the Mad Titan, Thanos. He looks spot on to his video game appearances but regrettably suffers from the same problem as many big figs and that’s that they constantly look downward.

The first parts of the build are Thanos’ hover-boots and the minijet. The hover-boots are an odd choice, mainly because they seem backwards no matter what way they face but also because they’re not Thanos’ most infamous form of transportation. The minijet is a pretty bare-bones, build-by-numbers affair that’s nothing to right home about but I do dig how the wings lock into place with a satisfying click.

The main fuselage is where the action is as everything connects to this skeletal frame in one way or another. There’s a small cargo bay where Iron Man is stored before he needs to be launched and the turbine wings really do it for me.

The final part of the build is the primary cockpit, which connects to two ratchet joints on the fuselage, giving the whole Avenjet the feel of a Quinjet. Oddly, the main cockpit has a fire extinguisher in it. I mean, sure, a space ship should probably have one but it seems like such a random addition to the set. Throughout the build there’s been sticker applications and, maybe it’s just me, but there’s something about putting the Avengers logo on stuff that makes me smile.

The completed Avenjet is a fantastic-looking and surprisingly robust model that’s full of play features. The detachable minijet, the storage for Captain America’s gear near the engins, Iron Man’s shuttle bay deployment and the five flick missiles. For more added firepower, both the minijet and Thanos’ hover-boots include stud shooters.

Overall, I found the build experience pretty enjoyable and the minifigures definitely add a bunch of character but can I recommend the set for £59.99? Not really. Yes it’s a fun set and there’s plenty of play value here but I would probably recommend waiting for a price drop.

JJ loves it. Aaron hates it. But can they get along for the two hours of watching it together?

It can’t be that hard, these guys below seem to do it just fine

What’s that? There’s nobody in the suit? That would be weird. It’s an Iron Man movie, someone needs to be in the suit and be Iron Man.

Hmmm? Oh…

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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.

——————————————————————-

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!

Hello and welcome back to DOOM!’s exploration of the Comic Book film genre hosted by Aaron Poole and JJ Hawkins. This month we look at the second tale of Tony Stark in Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man 2. While not as popular as the first, this film is still beloved here in the halls of DOOM tower and we attempt to figure out what every one has against this film, anyway.

A film that dares to show foodstuffs larger than the hero!

a film that DARES to give the world back Gary Shandling…

Several choices to drink along this month. First off, you may feel compelled to take a sip whenever our duo break out into a certain Black Sabbath song. Second, you may even go along with the early suggestion that you take a sip each time our heroes talk of the amazing Sam Rockwell. However, I am guessing the real Drive-In devotees will want to have something at hand for every time the guys start talking about that damned bird…

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Hello and welcome back to DOOM!’s exploration of the Comic Book film genre hosted by Aaron Poole and JJ Hawkins. This month we look at Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man. Shocking the world, it seemed, the duo made a film out of a “fan favorite” character and produced something that was a lot of fun! So, is this the wank fest that was predicted, or is there a something there that might cause some dissension in the halls of DOOM!

Join as we watch Tony’s Tale Of Suspense…

Remember, kids…Cool people never look at explosions…

If you want to drink, take one every time Aaron and JJ throw an insult at the “Distinguished Competition”

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JJ “The Host” and his amazing friends “Jazzy” Jason and “Astonishing” Aaron are here to discuss Marvel’s latest blockbuster! First, the trio discuss the path that had to be paved to deliver this latest adventure! Will our trio be “Friends Of ‘Ol Marvel” or will they give the “Merry Marvel Marching Society” the boot? There is only one way to find out, True Believer, and that is to tune in to this DOUBLE SIZED issue…uh…episode. ASSEMBLE! EXCELSIOR! and stuff.

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JJ and his amazing friend Aaron (not Arren, or Erin) recap recent events in the realm of comics. The Avengers trailer is dissected, the movie is prognosticated, and the Black Widow’s worth to the group is pondered. JJ issues a formal apology to a Mr. Andrew Garfield, it seems that his turn in the spider-tights will be more fun than “first impression boy” was willing to admit. You get the point, if you want to hear what two enthusiastic comic fans think of the upcoming year, please tune in. If you don’t, boy, do we have the wrong podcast for you this week.

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