The first official trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day has finally dropped, and there’s a lot going on, from surprise returns to a pretty major shift in Peter Parker’s powers.

After a day of teaser clips and fan speculation, Sony and Marvel Studios have released the full trailer, giving us our clearest look yet at the next chapter for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. And if early impressions are anything to go by, this isn’t just a continuation, it’s a full-on reset for the character.

Spider-Man Returns To A World That Forgot Him

The story picks up years after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, where Doctor Strange’s spell wiped Peter Parker’s identity from everyone’s memory.

That reset is still very much front and centre here. Peter is now operating completely alone in New York, continuing his role as a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, but without the support system he once had. The trailer leans heavily into that emotional fallout, including narration from a letter Peter has written, reflecting on what he lost.

We also see brief but impactful appearances from MJ and Ned, played by Zendaya and Jacob Batalon, though the dynamic has clearly changed. They no longer recognise Peter, and MJ is even shown moving on with a new boyfriend, adding a bittersweet edge to their reunion scenes.

New Powers Hint At A Major Transformation

One of the biggest reveals in the Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer is Peter’s evolving abilities.

The footage strongly suggests that his powers are mutating, with scenes showing him encased in a cocoon-like web structure.

Reports and analysis point to the introduction of organic webbing, something fans will remember from Tobey Maguire’s version of the character.

There are also visual hints of a more dramatic transformation, including darker eyes and references to a “rebirth” tied to Spider-Man’s biology. Bruce Banner appears in the trailer, seemingly helping Peter understand what’s happening, with dialogue suggesting his spider DNA is changing in unpredictable ways.

The storyline appears to draw inspiration from the classic “Man-Spider” arc, where Peter’s powers spiral beyond his control.

Familiar Faces And Unexpected Cameos

The trailer is packed with returning characters and new additions from across the Marvel universe.

Jon Bernthal makes his big-screen debut as the Punisher, crossing paths with Spider-Man in a chaotic encounter. Mark Ruffalo also returns as Bruce Banner, now seemingly in a mentoring role. Michael Mando reprises his role as Scorpion, nearly a decade after his first appearance in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Beyond that, the trailer pulls in elements from Marvel’s Netflix era, including the ninja organisation The Hand, which briefly appears in action sequences.

New characters are also joining the mix, including Lonnie Lincoln, also known as Tombstone, played by Marvin Jones III. There are even hints at wider connections to Daredevil: Born Again, with what appears to be a supporting character linked to Wilson Fisk showing up briefly.

Sadie Sink’s Character Remains A Mystery

Despite all the reveals, one of the biggest talking points is what the trailer doesn’t fully explain.

Sadie Sink’s character is only shown in glimpses, often obscured or shot from behind. There are strong hints she may have some form of mind-control abilities, with dialogue in the trailer referencing an unseen threat that can’t be controlled.

Speculation is already running wild, with some fans suggesting she could be playing Jean Grey, potentially setting up the MCU’s first major step into X-Men territory. Reports also indicate her character is expected to appear in future films, including Avengers: Secret Wars, which would rule out a one-off villain role.

For now, though, Marvel is clearly keeping that reveal under wraps.

Trailer Music Leans Into Classic Spider-Man Nostalgia

One subtle but really interesting detail in the Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer is the music choice.

Instead of leaning on the familiar MCU Spider-Man score or the themes used in Tom Holland’s previous films, the trailer introduces a motif that clearly echoes the iconic 1967 Spider-Man animated series theme.

You know the one, the classic “Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can” tune.

Here, it’s not used outright with lyrics, but woven into the score in a more cinematic, orchestral way. It’s recognisable enough to trigger nostalgia, while still fitting the darker, more introspective tone the trailer is going for.

It’s a small detail, but it reinforces the idea that Brand New Day is both a fresh start and a return to Spider-Man’s roots, blending classic identity with a more mature direction for Peter Parker.

A New Chapter For Spider-Man

While the trailer is packed with familiar faces, it also signals a tonal shift for the series.

Director Destin Daniel Cretton is leading this new instalment, with returning writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. The film is positioned as the start of a new trilogy, with Peter now older, more isolated, and facing challenges that go beyond street-level crime.

An official synopsis confirms that four years have passed since No Way Home, and that Peter is now fully committed to being Spider-Man, even as the physical toll of his evolving powers begins to threaten his existence.

At the same time, a new wave of crime and a powerful unseen threat are building in the background, setting up what looks like a much bigger conflict ahead.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is set to swing into cinemas on July 31, and if this first trailer is anything to go by, it’s shaping up to be one of the most unpredictable Spider-Man stories yet.

The post Spider-Man Brand New Day Trailer Teases Organic Webbing And Big MCU Cameos appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

We are getting a first look at Marvel Television’s Ironheart, with the debut of a teaser trailer.

Launching exclusively on Disney+ on June 25, 2025 the new series stars Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams, a young, genius inventor whose iron suits rival the best in the MCU.

The character made her debut in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, directed by Ryan Coogler.

“Ironheart is such a great character in publishing,” said Coogler. “In 2016, Brian Michael Bendis created a character who would be a successor of sorts to the Iron Man legacy. In the comic book, Riri Williams and Tony Stark had a relationship—she was a student at MIT who came from an almost polar opposite background as Tony, but they came together in their passion to better society. Eventually, the character gets her own identity as Ironheart, and other writers like Eve Ewing picked up from there, taking Riri Williams to Chicago.”

Set after the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ironheart pits technology against magic when Riri, determined to make her mark on the world, returns to her hometown of Chicago.

Her unique take on building iron suits is brilliant, but in pursuit of her ambitions, she finds herself wrapped up with the mysterious yet charming Parker Robbins aka “The Hood” (Anthony Ramos).

The series also stars Lyric Ross, Alden Ehrenreich, Regan Aliyah, Manny Montana, Matthew Elam and Anji White. Chinaka Hodge is head writer; episodes are directed by Sam Bailey and Angela Barnes. Executive producers include Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, Zoie Nagelhout, Chinaka Hodge, Ryan Coogler, Sev Ohanian and Zinzi Coogler. Music is by Dara Taylor. Produced in association with Proximity Media.

The post TEASER TRAILER FOR MARVEL’S SERIES IRONHEART appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

The Venom films have had a rocky time. So has the entire Sony Spiderman universe.

But now Venom is synonymous with Tom Hardy. And whether you love or hate his portrayal of Eddie Brock and Venom – you have to admit he carries these films.

Venom: The Last Dance follows in the footsteps of its priors. An undercooked script with many-a-plot-hole. But it still has that Eddie-Venom banter to make you enjoy whatever is dished up.

Taking off after the events of the second film, Eddie is pinned as the killer of Detective Mulligan. But he’s not just on the run from the police. Oh yes, he has also caught the eye of a secret government operation and … more aliens.

The pure number of antagonistic forces set upon the two from the very beginning makes it clear they might not both survive this.

Reminiscent of a buddy road trip movie, Eddie and Venom have a lot of alone time. Tom Hardy does an immaculate job of bringing the two personalities to life. He injects their scenes with comical banter that could keep me entertained for hours.

There are a lot of new faces to take in with this film. It bit off more than it could chew – trying to introduce key new characters with not much time to fully delve into them.

Our new ‘big bad’ doesn’t get much screentime. Instead, he sends a hoard of his practically indestructible knulls after Eddie and Venom.

Dr. Teddy Payne (Juno Temple) – a symbiote researcher, is another character set up that feels half-assed. We get to see one tragic backstory flashback that becomes her reason for everything she does the entire film. I was more emotionally invested in Sadie, her loveable coworker.

In place of developing these evident ‘teeing up for the next film’ characters we’re simply given even more characters.

With the Michelle Williams hole to fill, the film had to find a new emotional centre. And this came in the way of the alien-loving couple and their kids. And they, of course, are conveniently placed to be the physical representation of the world Eddie and Venom are trying to save.

While the film lacks in overall cohesion and story, it does make up for it with its final battle. This film is definitely the most goriest instalment of the Venom films. The knulls have a wood chipper-esque function that turns anything they consume into a mist of blood. These creatures are a legitimate threat, which makes for an epic bloodbath.

But in the end, we know only one of our much-loved bonded duo can survive if they wish to save the universe. (It’s not spoilers if the movie is literally called ‘ The Last Dance’)

The tragedy is wrapped up in a some-what romantic montage to the backdrop of Maroon 5s memories. And I have to say, this was brilliant.

Was the whole movie brilliant? Hell no. Did I have a lot of fun? Hell yes.

The post Venom: The Last Dance (Sony Pictures – 2024) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Boy how I’ve missed a lot of the MCU as of late.

I can distinctly remember a time when I was seeing almost every movie that came out more or less on release day.

I saw ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ at some point, ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ was alright… aaaaand lemme do a quick Wikipedia search… ‘Black Widow’, I saw that one.

Those are the only Marvel movies I’ve seen in this decade. Bloody hell, seventeen-year-old me would never have believed it.

Going into Deadpool & Wolverine, hopefully that means I’m a little more inoculated against the Marvel fatigue that has well and truly set into the modern cultural landscape as these movies start coming and they don’t stop coming.

Deadpool & Wolverine is the thirty-fourth film in the MCU and is hotly anticipated for a couple of reasons beyond the ones I just mentioned.

Deadpool is the poster child for a modern fourth wall demolisher. He shares in-jokes with the audience, talks about studio politics, and will occasionally address a character by the name of the actor playing them. If you aren’t into comics and only consume superhero stuff through movies, there’s really nothing else quite like him (I’m told She-Hulk was similar, but nobody seemed to like it.)

But more importantly, Wolverine is back, and that’s a big deal.

Directed by Shawn Levy, we start with Ryan Reynolds’ eponymous merc-with-a-mouth Deadpool drifting through life without knowing what to do with himself. To his great joy he is pulled from such mundane hell to do superhero shit again, but as you might expect he is dropped right back down again when he is informed his entire universe is about to be destroyed. Apparently, due to some incredibly contrived reasons, Wolverine was single-handedly holding reality together and his death at the end of Logan has made things start to fall apart… somehow. Stop asking questions.

So now he has to find a living Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman finally in the iconic yellow suit, and find a way to save his universe.

So what we have here is a journey of two fundamentally unkillable warriors on a mission, one of whom cannot stop talking to save his life and the other who has anger issues.

As you might imagine, they fight a lot.

And since I mentioned they cannot die, those fights become extremely messy and end up accomplishing not much other than putting more gratuitous violence on the screen and moving the guy who makes fake blood up a tax bracket.

Combine that with universe jumping and Disney money bringing back a few old faces and you have a machine built for hype.

It’s all hype, all the way down.

They even have a moment where Deadpool stumbles onto a faithful recreation of the legendary Uncanny X-Men #251 cover with Wolverine crucified on the X over a field of skulls.

The plot is little more than a vehicle for more hype moments and jokes. It’s loaded with inconsistencies and unexplained phenomena. The entire climax of the film hinges upon a substantial unexplained plot development being handwaved as ‘we’re so awesome’. I can best describe the story beats as ‘stuff happening’ again and again, with fourth wall cuts and quips in between. I watched this with my dad and he claims he lost track of what was going on after the first third of the movie but had fun anyway… which kind of sums up the entire experience really.

It’s a Deadpool and Wolverine movie filled with Deadpool and Wolverine moments.

Every few minutes, a character or situation will be introduced for at least one other existing character to react to, usually by saying ‘Holy Shit’. The plot literally creates an entirely new mechanism for bringing back characters from previous dead end Marvel movies that often pre-date the MCU itself.

Hype, hype… hype. Honestly, it felt less like watching a movie and more like a two-hour TikTok video.

What else… oh yeah, the action. It’s excellent. That’s almost par for the course for a Marvel movie; even the worst ones can reliably be said to have some pretty decent fight scenes, but taking off the kid gloves and letting the characters say ‘fuck’ then successfully impale the guy who can survive such treatment through the head elevates it. Levy had two of the biggest ticket characters of Marvel in his pocket, and by god did he use them to make a glorious, bloody mess.

As for whether I’d recommend Deadpool & Wolverine, that’s the wrong question. If you’ve seen the first two Deadpool movies, then you already know if you are going to enjoy this. Honestly, I feel disingenuous having to even put a review score to it, you will either love it or hate it.

I’ll give it a three out of five, but your mileage may vary.

The post Deadpool & Wolverine (Marvel | Disney – 2024) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Kamala Khan is not your typical teen.

Infused with extraordinary power via a celestial bracelet and having a very deep obsession over Captain Marvel, her ordinary life is about to get a galactic do-over.

Many, many light years away a civil war has broken out following the demise of the Supreme Intelligence as the Kree destroy their own planet warring with eachother.

This leads to Dar-Ben (Zawe Ashton) needing to source resources from other worlds, while on the hunt for the other bracelet, called the Quantum Bands.

She aims to pair the Quantum Bands with her weapon, the ‘Ultimate Weapon’ which causes a rift to fracture open in space and time. This does not go undetected by S.W.O.R.D.

What plays out in Disney’s Marvel Studio’s The Marvels is a light hearted, very family friendly action fest as Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyona Parris) join forces against Dar-Ben, and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani)  aka Ms. Marvel gets to her wildest dreams fulfilled and bought is in to the team.

The rip in space causes all three to blip between worlds, sporadically, replacing one with the other in their respective Universes.

The trio must travel through dimensions to not only take the the other Quantum Band from Dar-Ben, stop her from destroying other planets but also restore order to space and time.

With the help from Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) and a lot of Tentacle-Kitty’s a battle ensues worthy of any Marvel superhero film.

The Marvels has a few laugh out loud moments coupled with explosive CGI and action. An entertaining film that’s right for the entire family to see.

Girl power!

The post The Marvels (Marvel Studio’s – 2023) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

No bad deed goes unpunished on Jan. 10, 2024, when Marvel Studios’ “Echo” launches on Disney+.

The five-episode streaming event spotlights Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) as she is pursued by Wilson Fisk’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) criminal empire. When the journey brings her home, she must confront her own family and legacy. All five episodes will stream on Jan. 10. This marks the first Marvel Studios series to drop all entirely bingeable episodes at once.

“Echo” also stars Chaske Spencer (“Wild Indian,” “The English”), Graham Greene (“1883,” “Goliath”), Tantoo Cardinal (“Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Stumptown”), Devery Jacobs (FX’s “Reservation Dogs,” “American Gods”), Zahn McClarnon (“Dark Winds,” FX’s “Reservation Dogs”), Cody Lightning (“Hey, Viktor!” “Four Sheets to the Wind”) and Vincent D’Onofrio (“Hawkeye,” “Godfather of Harlem”).

Episodes of the series are directed by Sydney Freeland (Navajo) and Catriona McKenzie (Gunaikurnai). Executive producers are Kevin Feige, Stephen Broussard, Louis D’Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, Victoria Alonso, Richie Palmer, Jason Gavin (Blackfeet), Marion Dayre and Sydney Freeland. Co-executive producers are Jennifer L. Booth and Amy Rardin.

The post Marvel Studio’s Echo Coming to Disney+ appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

From the early 2000’s Josua Benavidez has been working behind the scenes on many Triple A games.

Now being the Design Director at Insomniac Games for the PlayStation 5 exclusive Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and thanks to PlayStation HQ, STG was able to have a one on one with Josua about his work in the game and what PlayStation players can expect from Insomniac Games’ latest webbed hero’s adventure, before the game’s release.

Shane: Hey Josua, thanks for chatting to us here at STG. Great to meet you. So the map of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is a reimagined New York. Can you tell us about the favourite parts of this now expanded city?

Josua: Yeah, so I really wanted to see a lot of details added in to the game, The likes of, you know, Amy’s House, Peter’s Aunt, May’s houses, and so you get to see part of his neighbourhood where he went to school. You’ll actually get to visit Peter’s High School. And then for Brooklyn and  it was great to be able to add because Brooklyn has so much iconic landmarks to it. And so we added lots of really interesting areas, including  Coney Island and Brooklyn also ties into Miles (Miles Morales). That’s actually where Miles is going to school. And so that’s part of our game. It was like Miles and his journey as he’s finishing up high school.

Shane: Now there’s always complications when you build a game. Was it hard coming in to this second game when expectations were already set high?

Josua: Well, one of the things we wanted to do is to make sure that there is something new for players to explore and you know, we wanted to give them an experience that’s  new and exciting. One of the ways that we went about delivering on that was adding new traversal measures, new traversal moves. We added the web wings, which is great because it’s a new traversal feature that allows you to glide around. It works really well with swinging, but also allows you to explore and kind of see the city in a new way.

You can swing, but also you can kind of glide over the tops and with that it also allowed us to add more traversal features to the world. So we’ve got wind tunnels and we’ve got updrafts, these allow you to play with the city in a way that you didn’t have before. And then also we’ve got the two heroes.

And so we did have the Miles Morales game, but this is the first time we actually have two full Spider-Man heroes at the same time, right. And so being able to switch between them was another thing that we thought would really help add to creating a new experience. You get to see two different spider arcs, Hero arcs, right? Cause we’ve got Miles who has his own arc and his own story and journey that he goes through. And so does Peter, right. And Peter’s is very heavily tied to the symbio. And so you’ve got both of them kind of going on their own journeys and so that allows players to experience things from two different sides, but then also of course, you know, they converge together.

Shane: Without giving any spoilers, what is your favourite part of the game?

Josua: I don’t have a favourite part. I love, you know so much in the game.

There’s so many great moments. I love the story, I think it’s amazing. It’s great. It’s just such a great story for telling, you know, the journey that Peter Peter goes through. I love a lot of the new things that we’ve done with the open world and spider bots. I guess that’s kind of a little bit of a spoiler, but like, you know, spider bots were really fun thing that we got to add to the game.

Shane: What what I found when I was playing Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is that I would deviate a lot from the main story because the city was so dynamic and there is so much going on.

Josua: There’s a lot of little twists and then we have lots of great missions that have a creative take on the experience. And so we thought about the missions and what players would expect from a big Marvel blockbuster game experience, right? But then we also have missions that are more playing to kind of the characters of the city and are a little bit more character driven. And so I love that we have that balance right that we’ve got all these different scales that people can engage within.

Shane: So you’re the Design Director for Spider-Man 2, but you have also worked on other top shelf games.

Josua: Yeah, I mean this is the third Spider-Man game that I’ve worked on and been on since the beginning.
It’s been a really fun experience working on Spider-Man from the beginning and being able to take on different challenges from the first Spider-Man game. This time I focused more on the initial layout of the City of Manhattan and figuring out where our landmarks were going to be and what our scales and metrics we’re going to be and how we would actually kind of build the world and the city itself. I’ve been Directing on missions, different side contents and the expanding the city. So it’s been a really fun experience just getting to do lots of different things and being part of creating these games.

Shane: What’s next for you and the team at Insomniac Games?

Josua: Right now we’re just waiting for the launch, right? That’s just like I’m playing the game everyday. Still just looking for things and watching what people are posting and reading comments. You know what people are saying about it and we’re still basically focused on getting this game out here and waiting for everyone to get playing it.

Shane: What would you say to future players of Spider-Man 2?

Josua: We’ve got an amazing story and amazing main campaign to play through that I think does a great job of telling the different arcs of our heroes and our different characters. It’s actually not a game just about the spider heroes. There’s other characters. We have lots of other characters that you can experience, but also, like, take the time to explore the city and play through some of our other content which kind of goes into again a little more character focus or just offers a different experience.

And there’s so much that the game has to offer. I’m really excited and hopeful that people try out that try out everything. I know it’s exciting and sometimes just want to get to the end of the story, but also take the time to explore the other parts of the game and see all the different things that we have to offer.

Shane: Thanks Josua for chatting to us at STG. Really appreciate it and I know many PlayStation gamers are looking forward to the release of Spider-Man 2.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is now out on PlayStation 5.

The post Interview w. Josua Benavidez, Design Director – Spider-Man 2 appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Insomniac Games are well known for their beyond Triple A games and Spider-Man 2, exclusive to PlayStation 5 is most definitely no exception.

Miles Morales is back, but this time joined by Peter Parker.

Twice the fun means twice the action.

After a brief intro, where Miles is dealing with teenage school life and Peter is simply trying to hold down a job it’s not too long until you’re literally thrown direct in to battle.

Both Peter and Miles team up in Spider-Man 2 in what feels like your very first boss battle against Sand Man (aka Marko).

There’s not a lot of room from the onset to get to grips with your Spidey powers as you partake in epic and cinematic combat. So you learn on the fly and within the heat (or sand) of taking down a very grumpy, larger-than-life foe.

And while Sand Man retains a theme throughout much of the game, in hindsight, he is a mere walk in the park enemy as the true villain becomes apparent throughout play.

What triggered Sand Man’s wrath on New York? What happened to his memories…?

You’ll assume the role of Miles and Peter at game specific intervals and with a full RPG flavour you’ll pick up missions throughout the city as they happen in real time. Some you may simply stumble across. I did many times.

But most are via an alert thanks to Miles’ school buddy Ganke.

It’s real easy to go off course from the main story, stamping out crime as it occurs, one after the other.

As you take down criminals Focus is earned in melee combat and successful dodging of attacks. This enables you to heal or use power moves.

Both Peter and Miles can level up their existing abilities or gain new ones via three skill trees, You can opt who you level up, Miles, Peter or both.

To level up you’ll need Skill Points. These are earned with the completion of missions and giving enemies a good beating. Try to enact as many finishers or special moves as you can to get more points.

Your Spidey gear can also be fine tuned by finding and collecting tech parts which can be used for crafting super cool upgrades.  Photo ops is a fun and additional aspect added to Spider-Man 2. As Peter has a hard time retaining employment whilst keeping the city safe, he needs to earn extra coin along the way. He does so with submitting photo’s of events in and around the city, with the help of Miles.

Photo ops, crime and of course your main objective(s) are dotted on the city map – and you can pin to an event as well as fast travel. Each district of Marvel’s New York City has a three tier reward system.
You can use L3 in play to track your progress  during any event – so there’s no need to always stop the game and check the map screen.

Spider-Man 2 makes use of the PS5 controller touch pad and built-in speaker and graphically, flawless on PlayStation 5.

Spider-Man 2 has turbo-charged everything from the previous title and with a sprawling, dynamically evolving New York, there’s no limits or shortage of things to see, do and criminals to take down.

If I could give Spider-Man 2 more than 5 out of 5 stars I absolutely would.

The post Spider-Man 2 (PlayStation 5) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Releasing at the tail end of 2022, Marvel’s Midnight Suns was I think eagerly, but skeptically, awaited.

There has been a general feeling of Marvel fatigue in general thanks to an overabundance of TV shows, movies and comics, and it seems there’s a wariness of superhero games since the acrimonious release of Gotham Knights.

There was also a feeling that Marvel’s Midnight Suns was an already known property. Developer ‘Firaxis licensed Marvel characters to do XCOM with a super hero skin’ went the thinking.

It would be good, but nothing revolutionary, surely.

I am very pleased to let you know that this thinking was entirely wrong. Marvel’s Midnight Suns is not just a fantastic Marvel game, but a fresh take and evolution of the tactical role playing game genre as a whole. 2022 saw a number of good RPG releases and Marvel’s Midnight Suns is the cherry on top of a year of revival for the genre.

So what is it all about?

Marvel’s Midnight Suns starts with the resurrection of your main character, The Hunter, drawn out of a three century slumber to fight against their… mother, a demon intent on taking over the world.

A bit of a fish out of water, you find yourself teaming up with members of both the Avengers and titular Midnight Suns, going on missions and deepening relationships with your supernatural acquaintances. And that last part was the most surprising part of the whole package for me – the strong focus of Marvel’s Midnight Suns on relationships.

In fact, Marvel’s Midnight Suns plays much more like a Persona title than any tRPG that I’ve come across. Between missions you have a lot to do. Beyond upgrading abilities, cards, and more, a key part of your time will be going on little “dates” with various superheroes.

Once your dates are over though, you’re thrust through into combat, and here you see some of the most major changes to the tactical tRPG genre that the game brings.

Gone are two staples – cover and percentages.

This is seemingly to fit thematically with superhero combat – does Iron Man really cower behind a wooden box? – and through that, revolutionise what a tRPG can be. I was smitten with these changes from the get go. No more save scumming just because a 95% chance to hit failed, and the lesser importance of cover has lead the developers to double down on elements such as environmental damage and knockbacks.

The other major change to combat is the use of a card deck, consisting of skills, attacks and support moves. I was initially wary of this, but in the end deck sizes are small, leading to the whole system feeling like a more powerful version of swapping skills in and out of a character screen.

You can upgrade cards, build your deck in a particular way to take your individual superheroes in particular directions, and it’s a surprisingly versatile system for having only limited numbers of cards in each deck. Within combat, deciding who gets how many moves, countered against what else is left in the deck to draw, always keeps combat fresh and interesting.

As you use these cards, you build up heroic points, which lets you either use the environment as additional attacks, or use more powerful cards, typically with larger attack radiuses and / or damage.

Despite all this good stuff, there were some parts of Marvel’s Midnight Suns that need addressing. First and foremost, there is no pausing in cutscenes. This was surprisingly infuriating and needs to be addressed in a patch ASAP. Even backing out to the PS5 home screen kept the cutscene running in the background. Given how long some cutscenes are, and their importance to the story, missing story beats because you have to look away for whatever reason is quite annoying.

And while the game looks pretty good, if not amazing visually, I feel more work needed to be put into most of the character models and their animation. For the amount of talking these characters do, most are very basically animated, leading to quite a few relatively boring A-B shot conversations.

Something to note is that Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a surprisingly long game. The wide variety of combat missions are augmented by the deep relationship development side of the game. A quick license tie in this is not.

This review is coming in a little bit after the game has come out, and it has gone on sale a few times, so you should be able to pick it up cheap. Even at its full price though, Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a game that’s worth supporting. It revolutionizes the tRPG genre with care, so even if you don’t have any particular affection for Marvel properties, it will be engaging and a worthwhile adventure.

Does every game need to have the core structure of Persona though? We’ve seen the social sim aspect expand to genres other than JRPGs recently, such as Neon White’s first person platforming and now Marvel’s Midnight Suns. While not necessary, it can be a nice inclusion for those invested in particular superheroes, particularly the lesser-known ones featured in this game.

Still, I empathise if all you want to do is get to the combat, because it is excellent and there is a lot to sit through and manage in between each fight. Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a refreshing, surprising release. It is absolutely worth your time, for Marvel fans and tRPG fans alike – including when that Venn diagram doesn’t overlap at all. If you’re in either, or both camps,, you would be remiss to let this late-2022 release pass you by.

The post Marvel’s Midnight Suns (PlayStation 5) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Sony blesses PC owners with another of its former PlayStation exclusives, the follow-up to Insomniac’s acclaimed web-slinging Spider-Man game, Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales.

Back in 2018 the PlayStation 4 game, Marvel’s Spider-Man finally allowed me to relive a childhood dream of swinging around New York City as The Amazing Spider-Man. Other games had come close like Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Ultimate Spider-Man (2005), but most since those two titles just never managed to capture the thrill of swinging on a web across the Manhattan skyline.

Marvel’s Spider-Man made the transition to PlayStation 5 and then onto PC via a remastered version that upgraded the visuals for the improved hardware. It’s no surprise to see the follow-up game, 2020’s Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales make the jump to PC as well.

The PC version comes to us via veteran conversion outfit Nixxes Software, who have perfectly reproduced the PlayStation game for PC. The game includes the ray tracing features of the console version with support for Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR 2.1 adding an extra performance boost.

The PC version also supports ultra-widescreen monitors.

For those not familiar with Miles Morales, he was first introduced via the Ultimate Comic line of Marvel comic book. This series, which started in 2000, rebooted many Marvel characters into a more realistic contemporary setting, intended to appeal more to a new generation of fans. These comics are often seen as the inspiration behind the more grounded Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Towards the end of the Ultimate line of comics, in 2011’s Ultimate Fallout series, Peter Parker was killed. A new Spider-Man, Miles Morales, a bi-racial 13-year-old, the son of an African-American father and a Puerto Rican mother, took over. Miles Morales’s Spider-Man was folded over into the main Marvel comics universe when the Ultimate imprint finished in 2015’s “Secret Wars” series.

For their follow-up game, Marvel’s Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games set themselves a bit of a challenge with Miles Morales. Whilst a DLC pack featuring Mile Morales swinging around Peter Parker’s NYC would’ve been acceptable, a full-priced sequel would need a bit more meat.

For this new Spider-Man game Insomniac covered Manhattan with a layer of snow, setting the game at Christmas time in New York. Players are treated in snow-covered roofs and puddles of melting snow at ground level (perfect for showing off ray-traced reflections).

The story continues from the ending of Marvel’s Spider-Man. With Peter Parker holidaying in Europe, the mantle of being New York’s main Spider-Man is passed to the rookie Miles Morales. Gifted a new suit by Peter Parker and with an app designed by his tech guy best friend, Ganke, Miles takes heads out as the city’s protector and friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.

The game follows an identical format to the main Marvel’s Spider-Man game. It’s an open-world mission-based game with XP allowing Miles’s Spider-Man to upgrade abilities and tech. As well as the main story missions there are loads of activities, side-missions, and random crimes that all need Spider-Man’s help. New suits and equipment are purchased using ability tokens and tech parts that are earned from completing tasks and missions.

The web-swinging physics of the game is incredible and there’s a lot of fun to be had just swinging around, taking in the scenery, and stopping a few crimes on the way. Spider-Man: Miles Morales, like its predecessor, allows players to jump in for a quick go, solving a few crimes or taking on some activities. This means players can progress in the game without the need to get into the multi-part story missions best left for longer sessions.

The main story involves the conflict between the malevolent corporation, Roxxon, and an outfit called The Underground. The Underground, led by the mysterious Tinkerer, is after Roxxon’s unstable Nuform power source. Spider-Man finds himself up against The Underground’s advanced weapons. The game also features The Rhino and The Prowler.

As well as the game’s amazing web-swinging, the other standout feature is the rather breathtaking combat. Spider-Man punches, kicks, and shoots webs whilst taking on multiple attackers armed with guns, iron bars, and fists. Using Miles’s Spider-sense, players can jump and dodge to avoid bullets and blows, whilst striking out at the enemy. It’s a lot of fun, made even better as abilities and special moves are unlocked as the game progresses.

The PC version of the game is the most visually uncompromising. Whereas the PlayStation version does allow some customisation in selecting performance of visual fidelity, the Pc version give player full control over their experience based on personal preferences and hardware capabilities.

The inclusion of DLSS and FSR allows players to push the visuals a little further and also play the game on more modest PC set-ups.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is another fantastic triple-A PlayStation title that looks and plays incredibly well on PC.

If you are a fan of the character, enjoyed the first game, or are a fan of huge open-world action games, you are going to love this one.

The post Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PC) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.