Marvel’s Avengers News Roundup

Wow. There’s a lot of news to catch up on. So let’s get right into it.

First off, we have our first look at what the team behind Marvel’s Avengers has in store for us post-launch with a few new characters. Sadly Xbox users will be only getting one of the two due to an exclusivity deal with Sony.

So I’ll start with the bad news for Xbox players. PS4/5 users will be getting Spider-Man as a playable character. The Spider-man in this game is not from the Insomniac game, despite the rumors. The problem that I am having with Spidey being exclusive is summed up nicely in this bit from Screen Rant about his inclusion in the game. “While not much is known about Spider-Man’s role in the game, Crystal Dynamics has stated that their own rendition of the superhero will be an integral part to Marvel’s Avengers. The core storyline, the other heroes, and even the villains are set to speak to where and how Spidey belongs in the world before the character is released.” I’m not a newcomer to console exclusive addons, but usually the exclusives are cosmetic or a small couple missions while this seems to be adding a bit of world building on top of everything else. I’m going to move on before this turns into a rant against exclusive content.

The other new post-launch character is Hawkeye. He’s not exclusive to any console, so that’s refreshing. His addition will bring along his own campaign to flesh him out in this universe and sets the precedent for all post launch heroes. There isn’t much on him yet as the game is still in beta at the time of writing, but from what has been said about him he will play as people expect him to play as he will be “slinging all kinds of arrows across the battlefield. In the cinematic trailer, we see Hawkeye use a combination of melee and his signature arrows. Black Widow also mentions shock arrows, so Hawkeye fans should expect a variety of arrow types” Polygon reports.

The next bit of news is more downloadable content. This time it’s all a bunch of cosmetics. Brands like to strike deals with games to get consumers to buy their products for exclusive in-game items. More often than not that is code for clothing options, or in-game boosts. This happens to be about the former. Recently, as Gamespot reported, Verizon has announced a set of skins as part of a deal through their Verizon Up program. I’m not a fan of how these look. The one that bugs me the most is Captain America, who looks a bit more like Red Guardian than anything else. It also needs to be stated that through this partnership they are also providing access to the beta, as well as a free digital copy to the few who redeem this offer.

The next set of exclusive cosmetics comes from Intel. Not much information about these skins are available at this time, but some are speculating that the skins will be part of a bundle with Avengers branded CPU’s. These costumes look to be recolors of ones already in the game. I like them a bit.

And the last bit of in-game content comes from 5 Gum. You can get a gum chewing emoji, and some small other things. Sounds neat.

The last bit of news I have is that Bobby Tahouri is the one behind the score of the game. Tahouri has worked on games such as “Rise of the Tomb Raider” and “Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark” and many others. I’m not personally familiar with their work but it sounds promising based on what Tahouri has said in interviews with Variety and other publications. Also Mondo Records is set to release the soundtrack for the game, including a tri-colored vinyl release.

That’s all the news for now, be sure to check back soon for any updates or news on this game. The beta goes live for those who preordered on August 14th until the 16th and then everyone gets a chance starting the 21st until the 23rd. Marvel’s Avengers is set to release on September 4th.