EA ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF MARVEL NEMESIS

[MattBrady]

Press Release

Electronic Arts announced today that Marvel Nemesis™: Rise of the Imperfects™ under the EA GAMES™ brand will be released this fall for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, Xbox® videogame system from Microsoft, the Nintendo GameCube™ and the PSP™ handheld entertainment system. The game will feature Super Heroes™ from the Marvel Universe as well as a new set of characters created through collaboration with EA and top comic book industry talent.

“Marvel Nemesis delivers the definitive Super Hero videogame allowing gamers to play as and against the world’s greatest Super Heroes,” said Marc Aubanel, Executive Producer, EA Canada. “Marvel Nemesis truly captures the Marvel Universe offering players an authentic Super Hero fighting experience that comic book fans and gamers have been asking for.”

Ames Kirshen, Director Of Video Game Development at Marvel Enterprises, added, "We are thrilled to be working with EA and collaborating with some of the top talents in both the videogame and comic book industries in creating this groundbreaking comic series and innovative fighting game franchise."

EA is calling on the talent of top comic book writers and concept artists, such as Jae Lee, for Marvel character and game design as well as renowned artist, Paul Catling, among other industry talents, to create a new family of Super Heroes that will go face to face with an all-star line-up of Marvel characters for the ultimate showdown.

Lee has illustrated high-profile comic book titles including Spider-Man, Uncanny X-men, X-Factor, Captain America, Transformers Versus G.I. Joe and his own creation Hellshock. Catling is best known for his concept artwork and character design on Hollywood blockbuster films including Spider-Man 2, AVP: Alien Vs. Predator, The Punisher, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects will feature more than a dozen fighters in fully interactive and destructible environments. Gamers will have full control over the individual characters with each fighter having unique attributes and super powers that are true to their background adding more depth and fighting strategy to the game.

The Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects videogame also spawned the new Marvel six issue mini-series, Marvel Nemesis: The Imperfects™, launching this May. In the comic book, Marvel Super Heroes including Spider-Man, Wolverine, The Thing and Elektra clash with EA’s Niles Van Roekel, an evil alien scientist out to create a super army of vicious warriors. Through the comic books, the new EA characters will be unveiled each month leading up to the launch of the game.

Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects is currently under development by Nihilistic Software, an independent game development studio headquartered in Marin County, California ( www.nihilistic.com ), and is produced at EA Canada. For more information on the game, please visit: www.marvelnemesis.ea.com

Newsarama note: More on Nemesis @ Gamespot.

[al_capone]

Sounds like it could potentially be a good game. Unfortunately, it's developed in-house by EA, the same guys who churn out big lisence after big lisence, plowing money into amazing graphics and giant names, only to neglect the most important factor in the process, gameplay. Looks like another crappy Marvel game to be added to the already large enough library. If only Capcom still had the lisence to develop Marvel fighting games...

[aphterburn]

"It's in the game" as EA Sports is fond of saying. When did EA start neglecting gameplay? Of all the companies, isn't EA the leader in that area?

[al_capone]

Originally posted by aphterburn
"It's in the game" as EA Sports is fond of saying. When did EA start neglecting gameplay? Of all the companies, isn't EA the leader in that area?

EA is at the top of the chart in terms of games developers/publishers because of big-name lisences and excellent graphics. The games under the EA banner with great gameplay are usually (but not always) developed by a company that has been bought out by them (such as Citerion, who created 'Burnout'), or they're simply just published by EA and not developed by them. Admittedly, EA create some good sports games, and a couple of other fun titles. But, as far as non-sports lisenced games are concerned anyway, they are usually very, very bad. I'm not expecting this to be any different, although there's nothing stopping me from keeping my eyes out for the new comics that will be created because of this game.

[saiyanspider]

This might be a fun game, but for me this is a bit frustrating. When Marvel vs. Capcom I & II came out I was so hoping for a comic adaptation. EA and Marvel had to make new characters for EA to do a crossover. I mean Capcom already HAD established characters, with not only a fan base but a back story. With those factors already in place and the games popularity I figured some comic tie in would be a no brainer.... apparently not.

[roach04]

Originally posted by al_capone
Looks like another crappy Marvel game to be added to the already large enough library.

I've never been a fan of games where you just fight another guy man-to-man (like Mortal Kombat), so I can't comment - but, dude, X-Men: Legends is a pretty good game imo - if you haven't tried it, give it a shot. Heck, Spider-Man was good too!

[al_capone]

Originally posted by roach04
X-Men: Legends is a pretty good game imo - if you haven't tried it, give it a shot. Heck, Spider-Man was good too!

Yeah, 'X-Men Legends' is a pretty decent game, and are 'Spider-Man 2' and the PS1 Spider-Man games. For some reason I completely forgot about those, so I guess the current library of Marvel games isn't that bad after all. I hope this new game won't be bad either, but I just can't allow myself to have high hopes for it.

[Peter Geddes]

Not sure about the game yet, but the comic looks nice!! I'd prefer to see established M-U supervillains as the 'baddies', making the game and comic a bit more like Secret Wars, but as a bit of fun it looks interesting.

[roach04]

Originally posted by al_capone
Yeah, 'X-Men Legends' is a pretty decent game, and are 'Spider-Man 2' and the PS1 Spider-Man games. For some reason I completely forgot about those, so I guess the current library of Marvel games isn't that bad after all. I hope this new game won't be bad either, but I just can't allow myself to have high hopes for it.

Spidey games are PSII, yeah. To be honest, I only bought Legends after reading about 10 good reviews of it b/c you're right - for about 10+ years any Marvel based video game was really, REALLY bad. They do seem to be turning it around in that area though, b/c I've heard the Punisher game is well done too.

[FIG]

Originally posted by aphterburn
"It's in the game" as EA Sports is fond of saying. When did EA start neglecting gameplay? Of all the companies, isn't EA the leader in that area?

No. EA is the sweatshop of videogames. Each and every inhouse game amounts to nothing more than a game made and finished in a half ass manner in 12 months. Not only that, frequently marketing decisions drive creative decisions in their games.

[gatchafan]

I hope this will raise the value of my two QuestProbe issues! Anyone else remember that Marvel/PC alliance in the 80s?

Man, why did I even post this? To show how freakin' old I am?

Viva Atari Force! Bring Back BLIP!

[Poolboy]

The graphics look good, but how does it play?

There is an interview with one of the developers at gamespot.com if you can find it.

Good to see you can play as Logan along with being Wolverine. Here's hoping they get Daredevil & Deadpool in the game.

[Alfonso]

EA is the devil of the gaming industry. No, I'm not just saying that because this topic is Marvel-related (EA already snagged the rights to the upcoming Batman and Superman movies). They're just incredible whores. One of their catch phrases is "Challenge everything", but they ought to take their own advice rather than BUYING out other companies and getting exclusive licenses.

No, I don't have a problem with exclusive contracts in comics, because no one creator is going to rule the industry. But when EA gets the exclusive NFL and ESPN licenses, like it did, it's basically shutting out the majority of the competition, and that's not healthy for anyone.

Fucking whores.

[Alfonso]

And for those saying Spider-man 2 was a good game (and it was pretty good) as well as X-Men Legends, those were both produced by Activision, not EA.

[roach04]

Originally posted by Alfonso
And for those saying Spider-man 2 was a good game (and it was pretty good) as well as X-Men Legends, those were both produced by Activision, not EA.

Yeah, I know. That discussion was sort of separate from the EA one - it along the lines of "all Marvel games are awful" -- which was true for 10 or 15 years, but seems to have turned around somewhat.

[d3xter]

X-men Legends and Spider-Man 2 were good games to rent. They both had good ideas with poor execution.

SM2 did the webslinging very very well, but the fighting and missions were lame.

X-Men Legends gave you a plethora of characters, but there were basically only four, when you consider the similarities in their powers.

Good games to rent, nothing worth buying so far.

Oh, and the Punisher game is mediocre. Violently mediocre.

[saiyanspider]

Originally posted by Alfonso
EA is the devil of the gaming industry. No, I'm not just saying that because this topic is Marvel-related (EA already snagged the rights to the upcoming Batman and Superman movies). They're just incredible whores. One of their catch phrases is "Challenge everything", but they ought to take their own advice rather than BUYING out other companies and getting exclusive licenses.

No, I don't have a problem with exclusive contracts in comics, because no one creator is going to rule the industry. But when EA gets the exclusive NFL and ESPN licenses, like it did, it's basically shutting out the majority of the competition, and that's not healthy for anyone.

Fucking whores.

Also don't forget how they abuse their employees

Disgruntled employee are selling shirts with the following

I worked 90 hours a week for EA, and I didn’t even get this lousy T-Shirt.

[Alfonso]

Originally posted by saiyanspider
Also don't forget how they abuse their employees

Disgruntled employee are selling shirts with the following

So I've heard, but I don't know much about that factor to speak much about it.