Captain America: Super Soldier: Out this week, reviews and movie chat!

[Ben]

And no offense dude, but compared to the other Marvel movie tie in games from Sega that has been recently released, Cap and THOR DS are good if not better. Anyone that's actually played them can testify to that.

Nobody's arguing that Captain America isn't better than some of the garbage Sega has put out, like Iron Man and Golden Compass. ....that isn't my point. That doesn't automatically make a 6-hour game with bland-looking environments and dull exploration suddenly "good" it makes it "not as bad" as past releases. Setting the bar low  doesn't mean average games should be given a free pass.

The game was commisoned under Jeffery, ALL the Marvel games were, it takes at least two years dev cycle for any of the games to be ready.IRON MAN 2 was already ready by the time Hayes took over and THOR and the other titles were more likely halfway into their respective cycle. So yes i can blame Jeffery.Considering IM2 was released in 2010 and the other two in 2011 I very much doubt Hayes had any control of where the game was heading because the marvel deal is important to Sega. He wasn't going to suddenly cancel the titles especially when there wasn't a suitable backup. Anyway we all know what he did when he took over Sega of america, he closed down Secret level and basically turned Sega of America in to a digital download distrubutor.
There are good licensed games from Sega its just you obviously haven't played them, if you had you wouldn't be generalising about Sega doing crap licenses when it was one division of Sega responsible for the turd of games that happened to be based on licensed titles. As for the other titles I mentioned RAMBO and the rest, also TRANSFORMERS THE SHOOTING was a good LG game from Sega but of course it wasn't released outside of Japan.

Good point, I s'pose. We'll have to see where Sega's future licenses take them.

[CosmicCastaway]

I wouldn't trust the critics with this one nSega54. The PS3/360 version of the game is seriously fun.  :D

[max_cady]

@-nSega54-

Trust me, nobody's giving this a free pass. Getting in the right direction by hiring better devs to work on this title is something, that they should've done from the start, not after the... what? Their fifth attempt at a decent movie tie-in? There's no excuse.

Had Sega's game tie-ins started at the same quality as Next Gen Levels attempt, then it would've been somewhat acceptable.

It's not in the same league as Batman: Arkham Asylum, but how many horrible Batman games had we have to go through before someone at Eidos had the presence of mind to actually take the series into a bold new direction?

[Shigs]

Had Sega's game tie-ins started at the same quality as Next Gen Levels attempt, then it would've been somewhat acceptable.

It's not in the same league as Batman: Arkham Asylum, but how many horrible Batman games had we have to go through before someone at Eidos had the presence of mind to actually take the series into a bold new direction?

Batman has a more robust and popular Rouges gallery and the environment is different.

As a knockoff of Arkham Asylum, it does a much better job than Thor did as a GoW knockoff. It copied everything that made AA fun and did it well.

[Ben]

I'm glad to see this is a step in a better direction and I'm glad it's better than Sega's Marvel abominations, lol, but it's pretty clear that Sega still has a long way to go before publishing the next Arkham Asylum or War for Cybertron.

Aliens: Colonial Marines might be it.

[Team Andromeda]

It's not in the same league as Batman: Arkham Asylum, but how many horrible Batman games had we have to go through before someone at Eidos had the presence of mind to actually take the series into a bold new direction?

I happen to think Batman AA to be one of the most overrated games of all time and found dull and boring to play,sure it was a well programmed and made game, I just didn't find fun to play at all. Also bare in mind this wasn't a Film-Tie- In game, where developers have to work to strict deadlines (to come out at the same time of the film) and where issues like the look of the Film, Special Effects, scripts are being constantly changed right up till and even in Post Production... Which is just a nightmare for even the best developer

[ROJM]

Nobody's arguing that Captain America isn't better than some of the garbage Sega has put out, like Iron Man and Golden Compass. ....that isn't my point. That doesn't automatically make a 6-hour game with bland-looking environments and dull exploration suddenly "good" it makes it "not as bad" as past releases. Setting the bar low  doesn't mean average games should be given a free pass.

Sorry but I'm judging it on gameplay ability alone, those Marvel games mentioned(GOLDEN COMPASS last I checked isn't a Marvel game) Cap is quite enjoyable to play and the level design and etc pans out nicely,and THOR (DS version) is definatly great. Just because the game has mixed reviews doesn't really mean its average at best either or if we go by that logic most of the Marvel films that sega has the license to including the recent Captain America film has all had mixed reviews. I suggest you actually play one or both of these games at least instead of going by what metacritic says. What's happened to gamers? There was a time they use to actually PLAY the game before going by what some review said. Its personal taste, if you like superhero games and are a fan of marvel in general, but in my experience of playing Sega games specifically Sega western made titles and compare them overall these titles won't knock off genesis Spider man,the arcade version or the second Xmen games any time soon,compared to the recent Marvel games they're at the top of the tree and in the list of great licensed titles? Well they're quite low on the list. Point is they're better than the crap before and that's what everyone wants. But let's not exaggerate the situation about these titles or about sega "losing" its knack to make a licensed title. 

[Ben]

I'm not a big fan of superhero games or superheroes in general, so I likely wouldn't have picked up Captain America either way, I'm just sick of seeing SEGA's yearly review score average dragged down by their licensed titles, which are often their lowest-scoring games of any given year.

[max_cady]

To be fair, any licensed game released by any company is likely going to have a terrible score.

Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, which was announced about a year ago, it was stated that GL: RoM was going to be in the same vein as Batman: Arkham Asylum. It was done by the team that did that terrible GI Joe: Rise of Cobra game.

Warner Brothers sent it out to die about a week before the movie's debut. From what I heard, it's even worse than Thor: God of Thunder.

That being said, I started playing Captain America: Super Soldier and quite frankly, it's workman-like. It's funny because generally, licensed games ussually rip off gameplay styles of other more popular titles and this one, rips off of another licensed game.

Oddly enough, because of the setting, it feels like an homage to the classic Wolfenstein game, because you are wandering around in a castle and yeah, picking up some artifacts, reminded me so much of that FPS.

[Shigs]

To be fair, any licensed game released by any company is likely going to have a terrible score.

Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, which was announced about a year ago, it was stated that GL: RoM was going to be in the same vein as Batman: Arkham Asylum. It was done by the team that did that terrible GI Joe: Rise of Cobra game.

Warner Brothers sent it out to die about a week before the movie's debut. From what I heard, it's even worse than Thor: God of Thunder.

Eh. I've played both games and while Green Lantern's not great or anything, it's a bit better than Thor IMO.

[max_cady]

Okay. I stand corrected then.

I was reading a couple of reviews about Caps, as I had my first major boss battle with one of the main villains and I enjoyed it.

I fumbeled with the controls a bit, it's more about the timing. Caps takedown's on the regular enemies are good-ish, but a lot of it, but the big bosses have some very satisfying takedowns.

Though, I've encountered some weird stuff, you see apparentely I was supossed to face Two Scorcher thugs, one after the other, yet when I climbed up the ladder, the game just assumed that I beaten the thug and had moved on and it switched me to the next scripted scene. There's also a point where I planted a bomb and was supossed to run away within 30 seconds, some thugs showed up but I outran them anyway and they just dissapeared, some random weirdness here and there, but overall pretty solid.

Now, one thing that I found odd was the way that they described the pillaging and destruction of priceless art (as part of collecting), IGN's Kupra writes:

The first kind consists of top-secret Hydra files, film reels, schematics, and dossiers. And you won't have to search long to find them – they're indiscreetly plonked behind explosive canisters or in the middle of open spaces (you know, the places where you'd usually keep confidential material). With every item you collect, you'll amass Intel points, eventually unlocking new abilities.

But throw in the additional collectibles – of which there are many – and the environment quickly becomes cluttered. The range of things to collect is beyond absurd.

In throwaway dialogue Steve Rogers proudly reminds us of his impeccable American credentials. He's an individual yet equal to his peers, with an unwavering belief in freedom and democracy. So it's more than a tad perverse that the game rewards you for indulging in two of the Nazi's favourite pastimes: plundering and the destruction of fine art.

It feels like a node to the old Wolfenstein games, though, again those other collectibles are mostly optional. You can also smash Nazi equipment lab and other military equipment to your heart's content and the game tracks that as well.

[CosmicCastaway]

I rather enjoyed the collectables. The film reels and Zemo diaries are particularly interesting.
Plus, picking up the dossiers and such gives Intel points which are needed to purchase upgrades.

[Shigs]

Also, Captain America has the super power of an infinite back pocket. XD

[ROJM]

True, and moreover after the merger, SEGA was also found to own DIMPS to which both companies, SEGA and Sammy, had a share already before, except then sell a quota, which did not allow more the studio to be a subsidiary of the group, since then so DIMPS work with SEGA only on the SONIC franchise.

Which is a waste,they have some of the best versus programmers/developers in the buisness yet Sega has never really ultilised that from them.

A situation that I think, not many were aware(myself included), I "discovered" browsing through the financial reports of this year, and that does not inspire me any good, is that until last fiscal year SS enumerated among the companies controlled........PLATINUMGAMES, while now the report says that is no longer so motivating this with the fact that the holding has removed interests from the company.

Well Sega probably invested in them when the group initially formed and now the company took a buyout share option. I don't think PG wants to be under another "shogun" like they were with Capcom.But the reports at least the public ones miss out companies and subsideries that Sega owns all the time,its always been like that. The actual full reports to shareholders usually have everything in full detail. The public ones are really there to serve the media and to attract potential investors.

I don't have much to say that -nSega54- hasn't already said it.

It's hard to accuse a video games studios for picking up a license for the next biggest film or hot TV property for a profit driven motif, because everybody does it. Namco-Bandai's meal ticket is focused more on Ben 10 and Dragon Ball games. I don't even want to get into Warner Brothers and Activision's perpetual rape of the X-men, Transformers and Spiderman franchises. EA and Disney can sometimes chuck a clunker(like the horrible GI Joe game tie-in).

It's pointless to argue that company X is worse than Y due to a bad movie and TV show game tie-in, though it is noticiable that Sega tends to get dogpilled more often other game studios that also produce roughly the same garbage, a slap on the wrist is the worst case scenario.

Indie comic book companies also depend on those names to atract attention.

I'm impressed that Sega managed to get these 4 major Marvel characters and since then, Caps was always going to be that one title that I wanted to get, when announced.

Some titles were understandable, such as Golden Compass, it was meant to be the next big fantasy series, that was until it bombed hard. The most puzzling was the Planet 51 movie. An animated movie that was already kinda being buried because it was going to be a bad movie and bomb anyway.

The Aliens, AVP and Bleach meal-tickets seem to have been a far more consistent affair.

I assume that after Caps is out, Sega's deal wil likely expire, unless an Iron Man 3 game tie-in will still be in the cards.

Your forgetting the AVENGERS. Sega's deal with Marvel was a five title deal + its a multi year contract. So unless some clause pops up where Marvel won't continue that deal(which is possible)I'd expect the next game to be the last.But to be honest i haven't heard anything on that front yet.

On anthoer note has anyone seen captain america yet? Thumbs up? thumbs down? Exceeded the hype or just average-mondo?

[CosmicCastaway]

I've seen the film and I quite enjoyed it. I felt they captured the "Golden Age" of comic heroes pretty well.