The old quote is wrong: neither death nor taxes are, it seems to me, as terrifyingly certain as the Steam Summer Sale. Yes, once more we can add to the heap that is our backlog by buying games for, what, five quid, on average? But there are so many to choose from that it's easy to get flustered, so who better than the staff of RPS to hand-pick the best ones for your consideration (rhetorical question; do not answer)?
Check out the full list below for a mix of games that should suit all pockets and tastes.
]]>Those dastardly villains at TT Games have again turned their plasticising ray on the supermen of the Marvel universe, announcing an intent to trap these plasticmen in LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 [official site] later this year. Once again, it'll bring minimen fighting minimonsties in BAM! BIF! POW! action across time and space with jokes and all that. Our resident cackling villain John really dug the original LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, calling it "bloody brilliant" in 2013 and later declaring it one of the best action games. More of that sounds good. Here, have a peek in this teensy trailer:
]]>First published as part of our Supporter Program, this feature explores the possibilities of a Marvel Gaming Universe. There is no mention of a Telltale episodic adventure.
If you were to draw a Venn Diagram showing the overlap between superhero comic book fans and people who like to play computer games, it would look a lot like Pacman with his jaws wired shut. That makes the lack of a Marvel Gaming Universe to sit alongside the cinematic vision somewhat odd. There have been occasional action games directly based on the plots setpieces from specific films and a host of tablet and cleverphone efforts, but there's no single game that stands out as an expression of the shared setting of the films, comics and television series.
How might such a thing work?
]]>Lego Marvel Super Heroes is out in the States, but has then horribly drowned in the oceans, seemingly not released in Europe until the 15th November. Quite why Warner would go to such lengths to screw up the release of such an excellent game we're not sure. We've asked. I've been playing it non-stop for days, and despite being told I'm only 20% of the way through, feel ready to tell you wot I think:
]]>If you're in the futuristic megacities of Americaland, you'll likely know that you can buy and play Lego Marvel Super Heroes on Steam right now. You've been able to for a week or so. If you're in, say, Britain, you may not know that you too can't. Except, until recently, you could buy it! Just not play it. It's been fixed now, but for a while there, Steam had it as a "coming soon" with a release date in the past, and a store page that let you buy it with no warnings. Just, when you went to install it, it got stuck. So what happened there? And why isn't it out in the UK for another two weeks?
]]>Mr Fantastic, most boring of all Marvel superheroes, has just turned into an enormous pair of bolt cutters in order to let Captain America through. Not so boring now eh, Reed? The Hulk is tidying up New York with a dustpan and brush. Iron Man is worried that all of this is cutting into his hot tub time. Controlling Spider-Man is just like I've wished every other Spider-Man game was like, but wasn't. The Sandman is able to conjure more whirling Lego studs on my screen than I would ever have thought possible. Captain America, um, has a shield. Well, he's always been a problem, so we'll let it slide.
Yesterday, I'd probably have said something about how Traveller's Tales Lego games are Quite Nice but I'm bored to tears of them now and same old same old blah. Today I'm saying WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
]]>LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is pretty much one of those games we can't help getting excited about. LEGO Spider-Man! LEGO The Hulk! That's the stuff. Anyway, some folk talked about it at the Eurogamer Expo, which made for some entertaining watching. Join in with that, below.
The game is due on 18th October for North America, and 15th November in the UK and Europe, which seems completely like they are just trying to make us unhappy. Way to ruin pre-Christmas Christmas, you soulless distribution villains!
]]>The headline may well give away the identity of the latest addition to the Lego Marvel Super Heroes roster but I'm not going to tell you who it is here. The video below explains all and, in its gleeful enthusiasm, makes the game seem like one of the most enticing prospects on the release horizon. I've been playing lots of Saints Row IV recently and, as my muscular goth hobo was plummeting from an enormous alien tower, I realised that the Lego games and the Saints Row series have a great deal in common. They both favour a toybox approach to play, forgoing mechanical complexity, and instead piling on ideas, characters, customisation and objectives until only Alan Apathy could be bored. Mr Apathy is not on the Marvel roster.
]]>OH MY GOODNESS I AM GOING TO GET TO BE LEGO SPIDER-MAN.
Ever since my days running up and down the playground on all fours, aged 5, I have so desperately needed to be Spider-Man. But the vidjagames of him have never captured his personality for me, their seeming to have been very ahead of the books by giving him a personality more like Doc Oc's than the chipper, cheery scoundrel I endlessly wish I were. Who better to capture his silly side than TT Games (are they really called that now?)? None better. That's who. He's one of eighty-nine billion Marvel characters lined up to appear in this Autumn's LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, and now there's a trailer revealing that Dr Doom shall be working alongside Loki to be their undoing.
]]>LEGO people are so tiny! Sometimes I like to spread some out on the floor, stretch to my full height of five foot and a bit, then tower above them like a powerful overlord. The delusion of grandeur ends when I accidentally step on one and end up cured in a foetal position, clutching the sole of my foot, which LEGO tears like bullets bursting through a jellyfish. I am Gulliver, brought low in Lilliput. Not all LEGO figures are quite so small. If the average Minifig is a bullet, The Hulk should be a mortar round and so he is, as are several of his LEGO Marvel Super Heroes stablemates. Identify them all in the video below.
]]>When I hear an accent I recognise from my everyday bar-crawling life in a dev diary, I feel like we've really made it, us Brits. The chap in the video below is the 'Assisstant (sic) Director' of Lego Marvel Super Heroes, which effectively means that Britain has now taken the best of Denmark and America, and made those things its own. He's a cultural conqueror and the the Avengers are now plastic puppets, bent to his will. Rule Britannia! As well as the patriotic showcase, the video contains some very early footage of Lego Marvel Super Heroes and details on the importance of character switching, as well as Stark's upgrades and various suits.
]]>STOP EVERYTHING. I'm in the middle of writing a feature about something or other but who cares because! BECAUSE! LEGO Marvel Super Heroes!
Oh good heavens, it's my worlds all coming together in a thousand Christmasses. The infinite supply of utterly excellent Lego games from Traveller's Tales collides with the superheroics from the House Of Ideas, and if it isn't the best game ever I'm going to eat my own knees.
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