Video Game news for all things x-men.X-Men Origins: Wolverine Video Game Vignette PART 1
The crew at Raven Software provide this special behind-the-scenes look at the "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" video game and delved into what makes Wolverine such a badass. Look for more vignettes from the Raven crew hereX-Men Origins: Wolverine Video Game Vignette in the coming weeks!
Screenshot from the x-men origins game
we have the first screen shot from the X-Men Origins Video Game !!!
X-men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse Review
In classic sequel tradition, Raven Software has made the action RPG, X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, the game that X-Men Legends should have been. It's got four-player online co-op, it's got tons of playable characters including a healthy range of X-men and the Brotherhood of Evil, and it's bigger, more interactive, and it's re-organized for more efficient team-based leveling up.
What else is there? Following the well-tread Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance formula with tweaks, additions, and the uncanny X-Men themselves, Activision's new Marvel-ized dungeon-crawler delivers everything you think it does, but the basic premise -- the core game design -- hasn't changed at all. But for what it is, X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse is a solid, first-class action-RPG that delivers on its promise.
Dungeon Crawling, Mutant Style
What was that promise? Unadulterated X-men fiending to the first degree. Mutant hacking and slashing. Powering up to ridiculous levels and smashing the crap out of every wall, cave, jungle, enemy, or anything in your path. Playing with your friends online without a split-screen. Yes, indeed. For all those gamers, comic book fans, X-Men movie lovers, RPG fans, and action fans, and all the cross-over folks in between, which means a lot of you, Rise of the Apocalypse provides an abundant surplus of X-Men and Brotherhood characters to play as -- offline or online. You'll probably need about 15 hours to finish it, and to beat it completely and collect everything, add in another couple.
Who can you play? The list is long, though not full of too many surprises. A lot of the characters you'd think are playable are indeed playable. The 11 playable X-Men include Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Bishop, Colossus, Gambit, Rogue, Jean Grey, Iceman, Nightcrawler, and Sunfire. The four playable Brotherhood characters include Scarlet Witch (yes, she's been on both sides), Magneto, Juggernaut, and Toad. There are two other playable characters that we've been asked not to reveal, so we'll leave those to surprise you. Oh yeah, no Magma? Gone. There are a slew of other characters who make cameo appearances as either NPCs or bosses, including Xavier, Archangel, Sabretooth, Blink, Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister, Omega Red, Bastion, Lady Deathstrike, Zealot, Sauron, Deadpool, Sugerman, Mikhail, Grizzly, Abyss, and many more.
Mutants Unite!
Being a long-time Marvel fan, what I noticed is that playing as the X-Men in this capacity, in a non-fighting game, is ridiculously fun. Most people enjoyed that same role-playing feeling in the first game. Rise of Apocalypse, however, forces the Brotherhood and the X-Men together, so not only are your choices extended to new players, but you get to play as the evil bastards, the Brotherhood.
X-Men 3: The Official Game Review
hope the movie is better than this..." was one of the few key phrases that kept cycling through my head as I played along with Activision's terribly under-realized plot bridge, X-Men: The Official Game. It's the epitome of wasted potential and had me wondering aloud such other popular axioms as, "Man, this game is easy! Is that really the only thing my guy can do?" and "What's up with this dummy AI?"
Developed by Z-Axis (a very talented crew that brought us the excellent extreme classics, Aggressive Inline and Thrasher: Skate and Destroy), X-Men lacks the polish and depth that the crew's previous software has always had. At its best, this film prequel is a limited and straightforward beat 'em up that benefits from a touch of sky surfing and a smaller dose of smoke and mirrors. It's a hard pill to swallow to say the least, and especially so when coming off the memories of the addictive X-Men Legends franchise and Z-Axis' past history.
But the problem with these guys isn't their diversity from one another; it's their diversity of options within their own arsenal. The hairy badass Logan, for instance, never really offers anything beyond a few easily repeatable combos and he has actually taken a step backward from the abilities in 2003's Wolverine's Revenge. This kind of simplistic combat applies to Iceman as well. The young mister Drake can only shoot frozen beams or utilize a missile-like Hailstorm attack while occasionally needing to summon an ice shield for protection. That's pretty much all these guys do -- and it gets repetitive quickly.
It isn't all bad, though, as there are a couple of cool moments that really make playing through X-Men more tolerable than the battle engine would lead you to believe. Nightcrawler in particular should have had a title of his own, as his ability to maneuver via teleportation to inaccessible areas makes the game's otherwise boring and unimaginative level design interesting. The fact that Crawler can incorporate his teleports into combat as well makes his hand-to-hand confrontations the most fun too, and the fact that we learn his reason for not appearing in X3 is a nice, if not short, little surprise (the game is set between the last movie and the upcoming sequel due out next week, after all).
X-Men Legends Review
- I have played some really, really bad X-Men games in my life. There really have only been a couple of good mutie games throughout the entire existence of home consoles, and not a single good one this generation. It's been nothing but disappointment for X-fans for the past few years. Playing Activision's latest, X-Men Legends, is a lot like day 41 for Noah -- seeing the first ray of sunshine after a whole lot of darkness and downpour is thrilling. While not perfect, Legends does justice to the X-Men franchise and will almost certainly please fans. It's about damn time.
A Tale of X
A four-player dungeon-crawling RPG in the same mold as Baldur's Gate and Champions of Norrath, X-Men Legends begins with Wolverine's arrival in New York city to rescue a young mutant, Allison Crestmere (better known as Magma), who's being hunted by the Brotherhood of Mutants. Saving her sets in motion a series of events that lead to a cataclysmic battle worthy of the X-Men moniker.
Man of Action penned this 20-hour epic, which is a group composed of various comic creators who know the X-Universe like the back of their hand. That knowledge pays off in a very authentic story. Though the character design is clearly taken from the Ultimate X-Men comics, the back-story of each character is rooted in the classic Uncanny series. Things have been shifted around somewhat and the story itself doesn't take place within any one specific continuity (comic or movie), allowing for both an instant familiarity with the characters and their pasts, but also freeing up the writers to create a dramatic X-Men story that isn't beholden to any previous X-events (including the death of Colossus a few years back).
Total X-Men Coverage
It doesn't take mutant powers to know that it takes teamwork to conquer evil and save mankind. And, sure, neither evil nor mankind has anything to do with you checking out X-Men Legends, but our detailed video review and Head-to-Head comparison of the game does. They're part of IGN's team of total X-Men coverage, so don't miss out!
