168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Marvel’s Avengers, eh? There’s a name I haven’t heard for a minute. While I didn’t play the War for Wakanda expansion, I’ve been told it leaned heavi🐟ly into the elements of the base game that were actually good - the characters and story. The fact T’Challa is also played by Christopher Judge, known for providing the performance capture for a little-known character called Kratos, was almost enough for Marvel’s Avengers to sink its hooks in me again. The thing is, I own the game on PS4 and my base model sounds as if it’s about to go spacebound. After bouncing off the game shortly after launch last year, I couldn’t justify paying for it on Xbox or PC - now I no longer need to.
In case you hadn’t heard, Marvel’s Avengers and all of its expansions - including War for Wakanda - are 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:headed for Xbox Game Pass, meaning you’ll be able to play the entirety of the material that is currently available for free, provided you have an active Game Pass subscription. After a long and arduous journe♍y filled with review bombing, a tanking player count, and a general loss of faith in the game, this is exactly what Crystal Dynamics’ superhero sim needed.
While I recognise that Marvel’s Avengers received quite a bit of flak at launch - much of which was justified - a year on, it’s a different game. There have been updates and patches galore. New characters and a massive expansion have been added. There have been missteps and pitfalls, sure - but couldn’t you say the same about anything? The surest way to improve is to make mistakes and learn from them. I haven’t personally played Marvel’⭕s Avengers in almost a year, but from what I’ve read, heard, and seen of i🐬t, I’m extremely intrigued in what it’s managed to become. Game Pass completely alleviates the need to gamble on that. I don’t have to risk forking out a load of cash just to learn whether I’m still ambivalent towards it or actively want to play it now. I can just download it on Game Pass, give it a whirl, and make a decision without so much as looking at my wallet. Bliss.
For what it’s worth, I detest the “It’s a Game Pass game” argument, which somehow suggests a game is only valid because it is available for free thanks to a preexisting agreement between the developer and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Microsoft. Game Pass is an incredible resource for experimenting with new games and genres - I would have never gotten into Yakuza without it, and now, after a year of religiou𝔉sly battering my way through all 500 million Yakuza games, it has become arguably my favourite series of all time.
Game Pass is phenomenal, but, to me, it doesn’t justify the “good for a free game” argument, which is both entitled and thoroughly unexamined. When I say I’m excited about Marvel’s Avengers being added to the service, I’m not saying it’s unworthy of being sold at retail price - although, to be fair, the original retail price was asking a bit much. I’m saying I already bought it once and want to play again without having to pay again. What’s more, given its live-service posturing and particularly heavy microtransaction footprint, it probably should have been 🙈fr🌞ee-to-play in the first place…
But I digress, lest I go on yet another ♎tangent that has little to nothing to do with my core argument here. The reason Game Pass might yet save Marvel’s Avengers from getting Thanos snapped is not necessarily that Game Pass makes it free-to-play - it’s that the game’s migration to Game Pass is a strategic move designed to level the playing field.
Chatter about Spider-Man has quietened quite significantly over the last 12 months on account of the fact that it’s been a full year and we’ve yet to see Spidey make his way to Marvel&rsquo💦;s Avengers. Prior to launch, the teenager who does whatever a spider can was one of Crystal Dynamics’ most impressive USPs. Instead of Spidey, though, we got Hawkeye. Twice. Sure, T’Challa - by far one of the strongest characters in the Avengers lineup - eventually joined the roster, but Spider-Man is still conspicuously absent. What’s more, Spider-Man, thanks to bureaucratic licensing deals and corporate suits who see the world through dollar sign-tinted glasses, belongs to Sony. I mean, technically he also belongs to Disney - what matters is that neither Sony nor Disney are affiliated with Microsoft, and so Spider-Man is slinging his way to PS5s all over the world while simultaneously webbing every Xbox console he sees to the wall.
Some people might argue that Spidey will be a timed-exclusive - given that he’s due to receive an entire 🐲story arc of his own, it’s weird to think that only one version of the game will feature additional content. Realistically, that has nothing to do with Crystal Dynamics or Square Enix and is entirely doཧwn to the discretion of Sony, which, historically speaking, is known for being relatively stringent and ⭕unwavering. If Spidey isn’t allowed to snap shots for Jameson on PC or Xbox, the scales will shift so heavily in Sony’s favour that the weighing pans will just break.
But - and here’s the kicker: Game Pass. What’s that? Marvel’s Avengers and its expansions, plus - let’s be real for a minute - probably every subsequent non-Spidey expansion tucked in nice and cushy with the Game Pass sub you’re already paying for? Pfft, who needs Peter Parker? Guy’s a massive nerd anyway. Clint Barton may not be the most rivetiღng superhero to somehow weasel his way into ꦗthe elite team universally revered as the Avengers, but he is free. There’s a lot to be said for getting something in exchange for li๊terally zero dollars (as an Irish person, that felt weird to type, but alas I am bound to the dastardly devices of the contemporary US lexicon).
When Marvel’s Avengers comes to Game Pass, you’d better believe I’ll give it another try in good faith. When Spidey comes swinging to every PS5 on the planet, though, and people inevitably start to claim that this is the only worthwhile version of Marvel’s Avengers… Well, let’s just say that Spidey might ♛save the day, but Game Pass will be on stage next to him for the medal ceremony.