The developers of the upcoming PlayStation 5 sequel Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 say that the game will try to strike a balance between humor and heart while respectfully depicting the darker tones of Peter Parker when he is using his Venom symbiote suit.
The Best Marvel Snap Deck For Winning With Agatha Harkness
During Sony’s hour-long PlayStation Showcase last week, we saw over 12 minutes of new gameplay footage of Peter Parker and Miles Morales in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 to close out the show. The upcoming PlayStation 5-exclusive action game looked to be going for a similar mix of web-slinging traversal, kinetic fight scenes, and palatable humor as its predecessor, but with the added bonus of Parker being pretty aggressive while wearing his new Venom symbiote suit.
Peter’s internal battle with Venom will be like battling an addiction
While one side of the internet churned out memes comparing the edginess of the Spider-Man 2 game’s Parker to Tobey Maguire’s “Bully Macguire” performance in 2007’s Spider-Man 3 movie (which was a camp masterpiece), another group of fans was in awe of Peter Parker voice actor Yuri Lowenthal’s Sasuke Uchiha-esque performance as a newly jaded web-head under the Venom symbiote’s alien influence.
Speaking with Eurogamer, Spider-Man 2 creative director Bryan Intihar revealed that Parker’s internal battle with the black parasitic space goop that’s making him so aggro in the game will be akin to a person battling addiction. Unlike the more camp depiction of director Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 Venom, Intihar said Peter getting bonded to the symbiote suit is “not something we want to make fun of.”
“The theme of addiction is prevalent, especially because of the symbiote. We did a lot of research, not only on previous stories with the symbiote, but also just looking at when [Peter] is bonded, what can that feel like? Not to go into too many things about how it plays in the narrative, but we want to treat it very seriously,” Intihar said. “So, it’s about really playing into those themes of addiction, how that can impact someone’s personality, impact the people around them, and you’re going to see that it’s not just how it’s impacting Peter on his own, but also those close to him. You’re going to see that play out throughout the game.”
Miles Morales will give Spider-Man 2 players a symbiote-angst break
While in the PlayStation Showcase footage it is definitely jarring to see Lowenthal’s Parker go from wise-cracking about being New York’s “Spider-Cop” and meekly goading the stoic Silver Sable into giving him a high five to dumping rescued civilians to the ground and doing whatever this is to Kraven’s goons, Intihar and game director Ryan Smith told Eurogamer that Spider-Man 2 won’t be entirely about Peter being an asshole because playing as Miles Morales will offset the game’s darker moments with a bit of levity.
“I think you saw that in the gameplay reveal,” Smith said. “We have the moments with Ganke and Miles and the Falcon that he’s trailing behind—the Talon drone—and then at the very end, you get that line about Peter changing and Miles saying, ‘You know, he’s never like that,’ right? So we have those human elements, both on the serious side of where we see the symbiote affecting Peter, but also on the lighter-hearted side.”
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been pretty hit or miss with serious scenes, with a tendency for humor to abruptly rob them of their weight. Time will tell whether or not Spider-Man 2 will succeed in balancing its heart and humor with its darker moments, but Intihar is confident that the game landed on the right ratio of wit and drama.
“What we’ve talked a lot about is—whether it was Marvel’s Spider-Man or Miles Morales—our games are all about still having heart and humor,” Intihar said. “It’s really finding that balance between those darker themes and characters, but also delivering that very human story where there’s a lot of heart and humor… I think that’s what was tricky. But I do think we found that nice balance at the end of the day.”
With the wind at their back, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan and head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst recently presented the state of the PlayStation 5 ecosystem to investors and hinted at what’s coming in the near future. Among other things, the company promised new IPs, more live-service games, and a big push behind cloud gaming.
Type S: Chiaki’s Journey II Volume 4
While Sony’s big gaming showcase will offer specific details on new game announcements, release dates, and potential hardware refreshes, the investor presentation was a broader look at the current state of the PlayStation business and where it’s headed next. We got a pretty granular breakdown of some interesting sales data as well as cryptic teases of upcoming initiatives, like Sony’s rumored cloud gaming handheld, Q Lite [Update 5/25/2023 11:07 a.m. ET: the devices was revealed in the showcase and it’s wild looking]. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the company’s latest business meeting.
PS VR2 is already outselling the first virtual reality headset
Sony’s new virtual reality headset is a comfortable but pricey bundle that requires users to already own a PS5, but initial sales numbers show it’s actually tracking ahead of the first PS VR headset. PS VR2 sold 600,000 units in its first six weeks, while the PS VR1 sold closer to 550,000. Whether that momentum will build the platform into something more than an expensive accessory for enthusiasts remains to be seen.
Image: Sony / Kotaku
Analysts previously called for a price cut to fuel sales, and it’s unclear if big new games will arrive without a larger install base, especially as companies like Meta lay off VR developers amid cutbacks.
Sony plans to invest a ton in new franchises
Since the PS5 launched, fans have been waiting to see what new IPs would grow out of the latest console generation. So far it’s been mostly sequels to series that already existed or got their start on the PS4 like God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Spider-Man. But Sony revealed that new franchises are planned. PlayStation Studios’ investment in new IP will hit 50 percent in 2025, compared to only 20 percent in 2019. However the lag in production means we might not end up seeing the results of that spending until late in the PS5’s life cycle.
Live-service games will be over half of that spending
Sony’s first-party single-player games have been setting the bar for story-driven blockbusters for years now, from The Last of Us to Ghost of Tsushima. It’s clear the company now wants to do the same for live-service multiplayer games as well, and will be leveraging its recent acquisition of Destiny 2 maker Bungie to achieve that.
Image: Sony / Kotaku
The breakdown of total spending on content this year will be 55 percent on live-service business models vs 45 percent on “traditional” ones. The difference will be even more stark by 2025, when live-service spending will reach 60 percent of seemingly all production costs. It’s possible some of those games will still have a traditional single-player emphasis and just include cosmetic shops, like Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Others are sure to be multiplayer-focused affairs more like Destiny 2.
PS5 owners spend a ton on microtransactions
Prestigious exclusives might help sell consoles, but it’s not what makes the most money once players are locked in. Sony revealed that PS5 players are spending over $100 more than PS4 players were at a similar point in the console cycle. That extra money isn’t coming from more games sold, however. It’s coming from spending on add-on content, meaning paid DLC and microtransactions.
Full game sales actually dropped by 10 percent on the PS5, while add-on content grew by 210 percent. Although Sony collects a 30 percent commission on all in-game purchases in Fortnite, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, and Apex Legends on the platform, it would stand to make a ton more if those purchases were made inside its own first-party exclusives.
Spider-Man sold great on PC while The Last of Us Part I is off to a slower start
2018’s Spider-Man didn’t arrive on PC until last year. In the eight months since it hit PC, the game sold an additional 1.5 million copies on the platform. The Last of Us Part I, meanwhile, has sold 368,000 copies since it arrived on Steam in March. That’s not bad considering it’s a remaster of a decade-old game many people have already played on PS3, PS4, and PS5. But it’s not exactly God of War numbers, which sold nearly a million copies in its first two and a half months on PC.
Image: Sony / Kotaku
It’s not clear how much The Last of Us Part I’s rough performance and poor optimization at launch hurt its initial momentum, compared to the overall increase in sales of the game across all platforms following the success of the hit HBO adaptation. It seems like the port was in part a learning exercise for Naughty Dog, potentially as Sony eyes bringing the rest of its games to PC.
Half of all game releases won’t just be on PS5 by 2025
In the past Sony seemed afraid to cannibalize console sales by releasing its games on PC. Now it’s clear the company is ready to do just the opposite, porting its exclusives and investing in potential mobile spin-offs. The company plans for 50 percent of its releases in 2025 to be either PC or mobile games.
A lot of players are paying for the more expensive PlayStation Plus subscriptions
When Sony unveiled its overhauled PS Plus program, creating three separate tiers and folding its PlayStation Now streaming service into the priciest one, it seemed needlessly complicated. The highest tier, Premium, also didn’t seem worth the extra price in exchange for a slim selection of PlayStation Classics and cloud gaming features that are still a work-in-progress.
Image: Sony / Kotaku
It turns out a lot of people were willing to upgrade, however. Sony says 14.1 million subscribers joined the higher tiers in the first 10 months, which now represent 30 percent of all PS Plus users. And Premium actually accounts for the majority of those with 17 percent of total subscribers, while the middle-tier, Extra, only has 13 percent.
The first PlayStation mobile game will arrive as early as 2023
Sony said it’s currently “partnered with established teams on games,” and “bringing some of our most celebrated IP to mobile,” with the first set to release in fiscal year 2023. The company acquired mobile maker Savage Game Studios last August and Bungie has also long been rumored to be working on a mobile version of Destiny 2. According to Sony’s charts, the mobile gaming market is already bigger than console and PC gaming combined, and it only projects that gap to widen in the coming years.
Sony’s doubling-down on cloud gaming
In the most cryptic part of the presentation, CEO Jim Ryan said the company has “some fairly interesting and quite aggressive plans to accelerate our initiatives in the space of the cloud.” He didn’t elaborate on what those are, but made the comment in the context of mobile gaming and portability. It certainly raises eyebrows since Sony has also now revealed a cloud gaming handheld codenamed Project Q that would be a remote play accessory for the PS5.
PS Plus also doesn’t currently support cloud gaming on smartphones either, requiring you to use a PS4, PS5, or PC. We do know that Sony has been developing a number of patents to decrease latency while streaming games, and The Verge previously reported that the company is hiring for a number of roles to build out its cloud gaming infrastructure. Cloud gaming has been at the center of the regulatory fight over Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard, and it seems like whatever the outcome of that proposed merger, Sony wants to take back some of the video game streaming market share it previously ceded to Game Pass and xCloud.
You may have heard that Spider-man can do whatever a spider can, so by the transitive property, that means that a spider can do whatever Tom Holland can do, right? It’s just science.
Holland and Zendaya hit game two of the series between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco Thursday night, where they watched the Warriors take a w in a 127-100 game. Zendaya grew up in Oakland, so the Warriors are something of a hometown team for her. Another hint: she wore a Warriors ball cap in some of the photos from last night. If the clothes make the man, the merch makes the fan.
The Spider-Man co-stars have reportedly been an item since 2016, but made it Instagram-official in 2021 with a birthday post on Holland’s account where he called Zendaya “my MJ.” Say it with me: Awwwww.
Last week, the duo was spotted in Vegas to see Usher perform during his residency there. (These are a spider’s confessions.) At the basketball game, they snacked on popcorn. What will a spider do next?
Being an actor in a Marvel movie seems like a pretty sweet gig. You get to bring an iconic comic book character to life for millions of fans. And while the costume may not always be comfy — in fact, quite a few actors openly hated their ensembles — you sometimes get to take home a cool souvenir. Yes, that’s right. Some Marvel actors have been lucky enough to walk away from set with a piece of movie magic, whether it’s a prop, a wardrobe piece, or even a part of the set.
In some cases, these tokens are given to the actors as presents to thank them for a job well done. But Marvel isn’t always so keen on handing props over to actors to keep for good. For example, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings star Simu Liu asked the producers if he could take home a pair of his character’s shoes, but his request was denied. That’s why some actors simply steal their desired prop and hope nobody notices. Many of them have even gotten away with it, too — until they confess to their stolen treasures in interviews. Of course, no Marvel actor has gotten in serious trouble from taking home a prop. After all, it’s quite hard to imagine an A-list actor such as Tom Holland or Ryan Reynolds getting in trouble for simply bringing home a bit of their character with them.
Well met, adventurers! Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves rolled at Natural 20 at the box office this weekend, vanquishing all foes and likely mapping out a return campaign as a new franchise for Paramount Pictures. Clearly, it wasn’t just loyalists of the legendary tabletop game emerging like bugbeasts from their caves to slovenly occupy theater seats, but “regular people,” too.
As per Deadline, the picture grossed $38.5 million domestically and $71.5 million worldwide—higher numbers than had been expected. (Verily, the +3 charm on writer-directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley’s vorpal sword aided in the collection of said bounty!)
The movie came correct, with good characters, a deep knowledge of the IP’s lore (though not so much that you needed to already be a fan), comedy, and well-lit action you could see. Chris Pine is splendid as the bard Edgin Darvis (yes, he sings and plays the lute), a variant of his from-the-hip version of Captain James T. Kirk in his three Star Trek films, but a little sweeter, older, wiser.
V.F.’s review saluted the movie for being an “homage and gentle parody at once, seeking to capture the energy of playing the game with friends rather than trying to seriously literalize an expansive world.” (That said, if you often traverse to the Forgotten Realms, you’ll be freaking out within just a few minutes, spotting lands like the Icewind Dale on a map, not to mention seeing quick glimpses of a Mimic or characters from the 40-year-old Saturday morning cartoon show.)
In addition to Pine, the movie co-stars Michelle Rodriguez as a barbarian (and non-romantic life partner to Pine), Justice Smith as a sorcerer, Sophia Lillis as a druid, Regé-Jean Page as a scene-stealing paladin, Daisy Head as a red wizard (boo!), and Hugh Grant as a rogue. Bradley Cooper also shows up in a “what am I looking at here?” cameo.
The picture’s success leads one to ask if we’ll see more D&D movies in the future. It’s a hit, but not a Tiamat-sized monster, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie coming next week is poised to conquer the box office. (However, there are some cases—and this might be one—where a movie is so big that overflow from packed houses causes a rising tide to lift all boats. Lo! If only we had the power of the red wizard and could truly foresee what next week would bring?!?)
Should the movie lead to sequels, it could also finally tear the Band-Aid for fantasy/sci-fi fans still holding out for another Pine Star Trek film. There’s been talk of a fourth project in that timeline since Star Trek Beyond debuted in 2016, with creatives like Matt Shakman, and, at one point, Quentin Tarantino in the mix working with J.J. Abrams’s Bad Robot shingle. Over on Paramount+, however, the hit series Strange New Worlds stealthily warped into the film’s territory, introducing a new/old/alternate Spock (Ethan Peck), Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), and Kirk (Paul Wesley).
D&D’s John Francis Daley, whose previous work with Jonathan Goldstein included writing the screenplay for Spider-Man: Homecoming, got his start as a kid actor on Freaks and Geeks. As such, behold: some of the greatest “let’s market this to Gen X nerds” moments in cinema history.
Pretty much any job a person can take comes along with a uniform. Sometimes, it’s an actual required piece of clothing, such as a shirt with the business’ name on it. In other cases, it’s a general type of clothing — business casual, perhaps, or workwear. And, of course, there are the lucky few actors who get to collect a paycheck portraying iconic superheroes and villains on the big screen. But maybe they’re not as lucky as we think.
It’s important to remember that no matter how convincing an actor’s performance is, the truth is that they are a human being — not a supernatural one. And human beings sweat, get itchy, and experience discomfort. While it may be easy for the viewer to forget all of this when they’re caught up in watching the final product, it’s important to think about. Honestly, imagine spending up to 12 hours in a hot, skin-tight bodysuit without a convenient way to use the bathroom. That doesn’t really sound like a dream come true, does it?
The reality is, it takes a ton of work from the actors, costume design department, and makeup artists to create the larger-than-life superheroes we see on screen. There are even times when a VFX team has to get involved to create the desired result. The experience can be so taxing on the performer, that some actors have even gone so far as to make their costume nightmares known to the public. Here are ten actors who hated their superhero movie costumes — and weren’t afraid to say so.
Actors Who Hated Their Superhero Movie Costumes
These actors looked great in their superhero outfits. But they were literally a pain in the butt (or other body parts) to wear.
Unconventional Superhero Movies That Totally Missed The Mark
This may come as a surprise to the players who abandoned the game long ago and assumed this time had come already, but Crystal Dynamics and publishers Square Enix have announced the impending end of online support for Marvel’s Avengers.
After two-and-a-half years and introducing twelve of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, following Update 2.8 on March 31, 2023, we will no longer add new content or features to Marvel’s Avengers. All official support for the game will end on September 30, 2023.
Even after official support ceases on September 30, 2023, both single- and multi-player gameplay will continue to be available…
…As a show of our appreciation for our community, starting March 31, 2023 we will make all the game’s Marketplace, Challenge Card, and Shipment cosmetic content available to all players for free. Every single Outfit, Takedown, Emote, and Nameplate from the Marketplace, Challenge Cards, and Shipments will be free for all players from this date onwards if you own a copy of the game.
Gifting the full library of Marketplace cosmetic content is a way to thank our community by letting everyone experience the breadth and depth of content in Marvel’s Avengers.
We know this is disappointing news as everyone in our community has such a connection to these characters and their stories. We’re so, so grateful that you came on this adventure with us. Your excitement for Marvel’s Avengers – from your epic Photo Mode shots, to your threads theorizing who our next Heroes would be, to your Twitch streams – has played a large part in bringing this game to life.
We hope you continue to play and enjoy Marvel’s Avengers. We can’t thank you enough for your support and for being part of our super team.
As the note says, this doesn’t mean the game is disappearing off the internet entirely. You’ll still be able to play it, even in multiplayer; there just won’t be any further updates or even technical support for it after September 30.
Reserve the next gen Samsung device All you need to do is sign up with your email and boom: credit for your preorder on a new Samsung device.
If you’re a player and want to see the specifics of what’s shutting down when, and what this means for individual updates, you can check that out here in a series of charts and FAQs. One of which contains the deeply funny reminder that Spider-Man must remain a PlayStation exclusive, even in death.
With numerous Spider-Man projects on the horizon, you may or may not have heard of Spider-Man: Lotus. Unlike the upcoming Spider-Man: Freshman Year, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, or the rumored The Amazing Spider-Man 3, Spider-Man: Lotus is not affiliated with either Marvel or Sony. Instead, it is a fan film created by YouTuber Gavin J. Konop and has been described as a not-for-profit passion project. An official trailer for Spider-Man: Lotus was released a year ago and the film is believed to be releasing sometime next year, though it was initially slated for a 2022 release.
For a fan film, though, Spider-Man: Lotus has garnered a surprising amount of attention. The first full-length trailer garnered over 2.6 million views and subsequent teasers and trailers have also racked up hundreds of thousands of views. Many viewers were pleasantly surprised by how good the film looked. Spider-Man: Lotus boasts an interesting premise as it is a psychological drama that explores Peter Parker’s/Spider-Man’s (Warden Wayne) response to losing his girlfriend, Gwen Stacy (Tuyen Powell). Amid his grief and regret, he begins to form a relationship with a terminally ill child who looks up to him.
In even more recognition that was surprising for a fan project, MCU filmmaker John Watts and Spider-Man actor Andrew Garfield both got wind of the project and expressed their support for it. However, just shortly after gaining recognition and praise, things hit a snag when Spider-Man: Lotus ran into a scandal of racist and homophobic messages from its creators. This started back in June, when leaked text messages from the director, Konop, and the lead actor, Wayne, surfaced that contained racial slurs and homophobic messages. The film started trending on Twitter as the whole production received backlash for its racist cast/crew.
Wayne’s racist messages were the first to leak on social media, as users shared snapshots of extremely racist messages he sent, which all included the use of racial slurs. It is unclear who leaked the messages, but they were reportedly from 2017, and social media users quickly decried that the star of the film had used such offensive and derogatory language.
Shortly after the messages were leaked, Warden released a long statement on Twitter acknowledging the messages. He apologized for using the offensive language and claimed that he was unaware of how hurtful/insensitive it was to say such things back then. Warden further explained that he had been raised in a homeschooling Christian conservative family, and didn’t have his first phone until he was 18. As a result, he says he was living in a bit of a bubble and started associating with other people who used offensive language and encouraged him to do so, too. He admitted he was stupid and ignorant as a kid and has allegedly been working on improving himself.
However, before the backlash over Wayne’s racist messages could even be fully processed, Konop was the next member of the Spider-Man: Lotus team to be exposed. Screenshots of his messages also arose and saw him use the N-word and R-word, as well as insult Watts after Watts had praised Spider-Man: Lotus (before this scandal arose). The Green Goblin actor, John Salandria, also came under fire after he stated that he was bothered by the sentiment of some of Konop’s messages, but not by the fact that he used the N-word.
Konop also released a statement addressing the controversy. His message was oddly similar to Wayne’s statement, where he apologized, but also made the excuse of being a stupid kid. He also alleged that the message of him seemingly trashing Watts was a fake, photoshopped screenshot. Konop also denied rumors that he had mistreated or underpaid his crew and that he had abandoned the project.
Will Spider-Man: Lotus still premiere?
According to Konop’s video in September, Spider-Man: Lotus is still set to premiere. Despite the backlash, he denied that he was abandoning the project and said that it was very much still going forward. However, due to some unforeseen circumstances and additional work needed, the film still does not have a release date. The last update Konop gave was on November 17, when he said that the rough cut of his film was being screened.
As a result, it does seem like Spider-Man: Lotus is still happening. Whether it should happen is an entirely different question. While Wayne and Konop did apologize, their apologies were filled with excuses and weren’t well-received by viewers. Additionally, Salandria’s comment further gives the impression that the apologies may not have been sincere and that Spider-Man: Lotus as a whole was fostering an environment of racism and discrimination. It can’t be a coincidence that three major members of the cast/crew were all accused of racism, homophobia, and of using offensive language. Regardless of how good a message Spider-Man: Lotus has been touted as having, its creators aren’t ones who have earned audiences’ support.
PlayStation expanded beyond the console in 2022.Illustration: Angelica Alzona
The decision-makers behind Sony’s console juggernaut spent a lot of 2022 putting down railway for 2023 and beyond, dumping money and time into growing the PlayStation brand beyond the funky-looking device in your entertainment center. The company wants the PlayStation name to be ubiquitous, and that has meant expanding not just in the form of video game acquisitions and new services, but bringing the PlayStation line into new mediums and markets. So, while Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarök bookended the PlayStation 5’s 2022 on the video game side, the brand was busy throughout the year.
Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg brought Nathan Drake and Sully (or people going by those names) to the big screen in 2022.Photo: Sony Pictures
PlayStation becomes a movie and TV brand
PlayStation Productions, Sony’s film and television subsidiary dedicated to putting out adaptations based on the company’s video games, released its first project this year in the form of the Uncharted movie. Featuring Spider-Man star Tom Holland as a vague amalgamation of Nolan North’s original interpretation of Nathan Drake and his own version of Peter Parker if he was slightly more stoic, the film also has Mark Wahlberg as a character who shares his name (and little else) with Nate’s father figure, Victor “Sully” Sullivan. The movie is, at best, aggressively fine. It took a critical beating, but did rake in over $401 million globally at the box office. Sony has plans to make Naughty Dog’s cinematic action game series into a full-blown movie franchise.
Whether any of the above will be any good remains to be seen, but Sony is making deals to put PlayStation characters on more screens and subscription services. The company has clearly decided that PlayStation games aren’t enough, and that they can instead be the origin point for an expanded universe that ties into the games its first-party studios are putting out. Speaking of…
Sony and Naughty Dog released The Last of Us a third time with its PS5 remake.Screenshot: Naughty Dog / Kotaku
PlayStation movies and TV get re-released tie-ins
Putting an Uncharted movie in theaters and a Last of Us show on TVs is one piece of Sony’s new business model, but the company is also pairing these live-action adaptations with re-releases of the source material. Just a week before the Uncharted film launched, Sony released the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, which brought both Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy to PlayStation 5, a console they were readily playable on through backward compatibility. Oddly enough, this only included the last two games in the series, rather than the three games that preceded them. But it was an Uncharted product that people could buy after seeing the movie, or even before, as it included a free ticket to the film.
The Last of Us Part I, a remake of the 2013 original, launched in September to both praise for the source material and the technical upgrade the release brought to it, as well as a slew of criticism surrounding its $70 price point. The remake carried a cloud over it after a Bloomberg report exposed internal politics at Sony surrounding the project, which began under a PlayStation support studio before gradually becoming a Naughty Dog product. The whole situation stinks to high heaven, but it did conveniently fit into Sony’s business model of making its games into an extended universe. Now, there will be a (near) full-price Last of Us game on store shelves when the HBO show premieres on January 15.
God of War came to PC this year, but its sequel only came to consoles.Screenshot: Sony Santa Monica / Kotaku
PlayStation continues to expand beyond consoles and to PC
Both of these re-releases were part of a PlayStation initiative to get more of its games on PC. Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves brought the series (again, just the last two games, rather than any of the foundational ones that came before) to PC for the first time in October, and The Last of Us Part I will bring Joel and Ellie’s story to a computer near you in March. But it wasn’t just Naughty Dog’s games that got PC love, as God of War, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and Marvel’s Spider-Man and its Miles Morales spin-off also launched on PC in 2022.
All that being said, we still have yet to see PlayStation release its first-party games on both its consoles and PC simultaneously. God of War launched four years late on PC this year, but its sequel, Ragnarök, only came to PS4 and PS5 in 2022. It’s been heartening to see Sony make more strides in the space, but hopefully in 2023 we see a more immediate commitment to bringing its games to those who play on PC.
Sony paid a lot of money for Bungie, but Destiny 2 will remain multiplatform.Image: Bungie
Outside of the AAA space, Sony also acquired Savage Game Studios, whose founders previously worked on mobile hits like Angry Birds and Clash of Clans, in an attempt to kickstart a new mobile gaming division. The studio is apparently at work on a new project for phones and tablets based on an established PlayStation IP.
The PlayStation VR2 will launch next year, but won’t be usable with old PSVR games.Image: Sony
PlayStation VR2 seems like an upgrade, but with caveats
Sony kicked off 2022 by announcing its second virtual reality headset, aptly named the PlayStation VR2. It sounds like a meaningful upgrade from the original PlayStation VR headset Sony released in 2016, with an impressive-sounding OLED, 4K resolution display, dedicated controllers so you won’t have to use your old PlayStation Move wands anymore, and a single-cord setup that will make using the whole thing more manageable. However, as news has come out about the device, things have gotten a bit more troubling.
The most egregious drawback Sony has confirmed is that original PlayStation VR games won’t be compatible with the PSVR2 headset. Senior Vice President of Platform Experience Hideaki Nishino said on the PlayStation Podcast that this is because “PSVR2 is designed to deliver a truly next generation VR experience,” citing much of the new headset’s tech as being incompatible with old PSVR games. Regardless of whatever explanation Sony has to offer, it’s a bummer that the PlayStation 5 seemed to be developed with more future-proofing in mind and now we’re dealing with backward compatibility issues again. So if you want to keep playing your old PSVR games, don’t throw your old headset out.
PlayStation Plus now has tiers, and whether you’ll get much value on them depends on where you live.Image: Sony
PlayStation Plus launches new tiers with new problems
PlayStation Plus, Sony’s long-running subscription service for playing games online and collecting a vast array of “free” games, saw a revamp this year that put it more in-line with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass. It doesn’t seem like it’s gotten the same resounding love as its direct competitor, though. PlayStation Plus now has multiple tiers, which each have different included features and perks.
The cheapest is Essential, which is basically just what PlayStation Plus has been for years: online play, sales, cloud storage, and a few free games each month. The second tier is called PlayStation Plus Extra, which includes all of the above, as well as an on-demand library of PlayStation 4 and 5 games. The most expensive tier is PlayStation Plus Premium, which adds a streaming library of classic games from across all the PlayStation consoles, and even the PlayStation Portable.
The PlayStation 5 is two years old now, but the console is still relatively difficult to find due to supply chain issues that are expected to last well into 2023, if not longer. But as we get further away from the original launch and demand starts to calm down, it’s become marginally easier to track down and buy a PS5 of your own. Brick-and-mortar stores are still hit or miss, but Kotaku had a bit more luck finding the box on digital storefronts. So hopefully by the time Spider-Man 2 launches next year, those still looking for a PlayStation 5 won’t face a massive ordeal.
The PlayStation 4 is nine years old and still got most of Sony’s big games in 2022.Image: Sony
The PlayStation 4 hangs on a little bit longer
That being said, Sony still wasn’t quite ready to let go of the PlayStation 4 in 2023. The company’s biggest games this year, Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, and God of War Ragnarök, all launched simultaneously on the PS4 and PS5 and were pretty alright experiences on the last-gen console. You know, if you’re cool with your PS4 sounding like it’s ready to take off on a flight across the Atlantic.
But looking forward, it seems 2023 will be the year Sony really starts to leave the old system behind. That’s a respectable ten years of service since its original 2013 launch, and PlayStation Studios now seem squarely focused on the PS5. Spider-Man 2, the VR spinoff Horizon Call of the Mountain, and Insomniac’s take on Wolverine were all announced as PS5 exclusive, so hopefully as this transition takes root, the PS5 becomes more readily available next year.
With so many great titles available on the Steam Deck, 2022 was an explosive introduction to Valve’s handheld.Image: Valve / CD Projekt Red / Microsoft / rose-engine / Kotaku
Steam Deck, Valve’s mega-powerful mini-PC, only arrived this year, and while there are many reasons to check out one of the most exciting pieces of gaming hardware available today, the amount of great, hassle-free games available on the device is proof enough of its success.
But Steam is a big marketplace, and not every game works well on the Deck. While many hit games do run well on the device, some won’t launch, while others will have you chasing through various settings and scrolling forums and Reddit posts for solutions. Fun for the tech enthusiast, but not ideal when you just want a great gaming experience. Valve has made the process easier by labeling certain games “Verified” on the device, but sometimes that’s not always a guarantee that a game will run without issue.
Worry not, this list will guide you to the best experiences you can have in year one of the Steam Deck’s life. All but one of these games are Deck-verified. They work great on the first boot. That said, adjusting a few settings here and there might make a given game experience even better for you, so I’ll call that out where relevant. Tweaking the visual settings…can’t do that on a Switch!
As you may know, there are relatively simple ways to get non-Steam games running on the Deck, but those we’ll handle another time. This list is focused on great games you’re guaranteed to have access to right out of the box.
Update 12/27/2022: Wrapping up 2022, we’ve now bumped this list up to 20 amazing games you can play on the Steam Deck now. To hit this number we had to bend a rule: We now have two games that are technically not “Deck Verified,” but are still totally playable.
Update 10/21/2022: The Steam Deck’s library keeps growing, and so too does this list! I’ve added five new games to the main list and one new honorable mention. Nearly all of these games are Deck-verified, but I’ve made an exception for one particular title.
This past year, Hollywood gave us enough true highs to make sitting next to random strangers a thing again. In 2023, directors Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig, and Denis Villeneuve will lure us back into the dark. Two dolls, Barbie and M3gan, will burst to life, one of whom, from a distance, seems a lot more friendly than the other. Even the sequels look unusually appetizing this year: Indiana Jones will go treasure-hunting again, possibly for the last time. Adonis Creed will get back in the ring. John Wick will get annoyed and kill a bunch of people. Here are the movies we’re looking forward to most.
M3GAN
January 6 (Blumhouse/Universal)
It would appear that everyone, including us, is just dying to meet M3gan, the new It girl. In the new movie, the title of which is styled M3GAN, a scientist (Allison Williams) creates a life-size, AI-enabled doll to comfort her recently orphaned niece (Violet McGraw), but this doll from hell does so much more. She’s supersmart and adaptable! She dances! She…kills? M3GAN promises to be a slasher film for the American Girl doll generation, and we can’t wait to play. —Kase Wickman
Missing
January 20 (Sony)
A follow-up to the innovative 2018 film Searching,Missing stars Storm Reid as a young woman whose mother disappears while on vacation in Colombia with her new boyfriend. Once again, the mystery thriller is told via computer screens, and we’re hoping that, like the first time around, the gimmick never outshines the twisty storytelling and unexpected resolution. —Rebecca Ford
Claudette Barius
Magic Mike’s Last Dance
February 10 (Warner Bros.)
The final installment in the Channing Tatum–stripper trilogy, Magic Mike’s Last Dance takes the titular character to London, where—backed by a rich investor and also love interest played by Salma Hayek—he’s creating a new show that aims to make every woman feel “she can have whatever she wants whenever she wants.” Steven Soderbergh, who helmed the 2012 original film, returns to direct and we expect the ab-showcasing costumes and sexy dance numbers will be back and better than ever as well. —R.F.
Cocaine Bear
February 24 (Universal Pictures)
“A bear did cocaine” is a line uttered in this comedy thriller inspired by a real-life bear who was found dead in the ’80s next to a duffel bag of coke. (Really). Directed by Elizabeth Banks and produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie and 22 Jump Street), the film depicts the bear going on a murderous, drug-fueled rampage that locals must stop. (The actual bear died after ingesting the cocaine, which had been dropped by a convicted drug smuggler parachuting in Georgia.) The movie stars Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., and Ray Liotta in one of his final roles. —Julie Miller
John Wick: Chapter 4
March 24 (Lionsgate)
There’s something irresistible about the sorrowful, existentially confused face that Keanu Reeves makes as John Wick—it’s like he’s asking his victims, Why are you making me kill you? And, seriously, how good do I look in this suit? The balletic-action franchise now finds the hit man of legend traveling the world, rooting out underworld kingpins, and coming to terms with his late wife, who gave him that puppy that time. “I’m going to need a gun,” Wick says in the trailer. To say the least. —Jeff Giles
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
April 7 (Universal)
Yes, we’re as worried about Chris Pratt playing Mario as you are. But otherwise, we’re very curious about The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Nintendo is incredibly stingy about licensing its video game properties to film studios, so maybe we can assume there is something especially worthy about this project. If nothing else, the film will tide us over until the next Mario game is released. Once that arrives, we’ll be too busy chasing moons or stars or whatever it is this time to care much about Pratt’s Italian-ish accent. —Richard Lawson.
With the release of the new Avatar movie, James Cameron has reentered the media cycle. That means besides his questionable film, we get to bask in his ego. This includes his hot takes on how he thinks he empowers female characters better than anyone else and his snide remarks about popular superhero movies. But his saltiness over Marvel and DC movies may be due in part to the fact that he never got to make his own comic book-inspired movie.
Back in the early 1990s, Cameron wanted to make a Spider-Man movie. The script for the failed project is still circling the internet if you have any interest in checking it out. Honestly, I don’t care what was supposed to happen in the rest of the movie because I’m stuck on one particular terrible rooftop sex scene between Mary Jane and “Spider Man.”
It’s like a bad fanfiction.
Yes, throughout the entire script, Spider-Man (written the correct hyphenated way) is written as “Spider Man,” without a hyphen. Maybe this is an entirely different character, possibly a man-sized spider in a costume, and not Peter Parker? It’s like a bad fanfiction where the writer just spells everyone’s names without regard to canon or grammar.
Keeping up with the fanfiction vibe, this scene unfolds like a fanfic found on the back alleys of LiveJournal. It opens with the Spider-Man (not Peter Parker for reasons not divulged) and Mary Jane on a rooftop. Already MJ is feeling swoony. She has to stand against a girder to “feel something solid” as she takes in Spider-Man, “a perfectly formed male silhouette with a soothing low voice.” I think I wrote something similar when I was 15—before I started writing good fanfiction.
Then Spider-Man starts the seduction with the words that would make anyone weak in the knees:
“Courtship among the spiders is highly ritualized. It varies from species to species. The male spider may circle the female, or wave his front legs…to signal that he is not prey.”
Yeah, super hot, right? Then he “moves in a hypnotic arc around her” as he “raises his hands in a dance-like movement.” He’s showing Mary Jane that he isn’t prey so they can start their own courtship. (I guess because they are really spiders and not humans?) We all saw Spider-Man 3, so we know that Peter parker has some very seductive dance moves. How is Mary Jane to resist such an onslaught?
Creepily, Spider-Man tells her he can see her interest by showing “an uncharacteristic passivity.” MJ is feeling all kinds of things so Spidey keeps going by detailing how some male crab spiders symbolically tie up the legs of the female before mating. He shoots his webs over her wrists like a sticky, disgusting version of a bondage rope. Listen, I don’t kink shame and can appreciate some BDSM themes in a mainstream movie, but this is a hard pass.
I think because he is ashamed of himself (or possibly trying to hide his identity), Spider-Man wants MJ to close her eyes while he takes off his mask so their mouths can “slowly and very sensuously devour each other.” Even though she can’t look at him while intimate, Mary Jane feels he is “mesmerizing, gentle, powerful.” End scene, probably with an artistic fade of the city below.
I knew Cameron thought himself a master storyteller who crafts cinema like no one else. After reading this, I can honestly say that this would have been a side of Spider-Man unlike any other. I am equal parts sad and horrified by how this was close to being shown on the big screen.
For the past week or so, some folks playing Spider-Man: Miles Morales on the PC have been encountering a bug that, at the end of the game’s dialogue sequences, would just go ahead and play a honking loud air horn.
It wasn’t for everyone, and asPC GamesN report some players—presumably those who have spent any time in New York City—didn’t even realise it was a bug in the first place. But for others it was there, it was recognisable as a bug and it was wonderful.
An emotional revelation from a family member? HONK. A heartfelt thanks for risking your life? HONK. A sombre reflection on the nature of heroism, and the sacrifices inherent? HOOOOOOOOONK.
Here’s one example, set to autoplay at the relevant moment:
Spider-Man: Miles Morales Airhorn Bug (Mild spoilers?)
And here’s a second that is much funnier if you sit through the whole thing first:
Spider-Man: Miles Morales Airhorn 2 (Mild spoilers)
Sadly, the bug has now been removed. The game’s latest patch notes, released late last week, lead with:
Hey everyone,
A new patch for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is now live. This update holds dozens of fixes and improvements. We addressed a bug that resulted in unintended air horn sounds being audible for some players and fixed a bug that caused some audio effects to be absent from specific cutscenes.
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Audio missing from cutscenes would indeed suck. I’m glad they fixed that one. But extra audio, like, say, an air horn sounding at inopportune times, does not suck. It is very good, and funny. Since one of the other things addressed in the update was the creation of an option to “skip Fast Travel animations”, could we please also get “leave the very funny air horn” as a box to tick as well? Thank you!
Sam Raimi‘s Spider-Man series is synonymous with superhero movies… And there was almost a fourth. We now have new info about the film.
Whether you love or hate the Raimi trilogy, it helped pave the way for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it today. The planned fourth entry in the series unfortunately never got made thanks to some disputes with Sony along the way, but we do know a few things about it. First of all, it was going to feature the Vulture. Secondly, Anne Hathaway could have shown up as Black Cat. But how would this all have played out?
Well, thanks to an interview with /Film, we know. They spoke with Jeff Henderson, a storyboard artist for the movie. Henderson revealed that:
The Daily Bugle was going to get bought out by a huge multinational conglomerate, kind of like a Daily News or a TMZ. They wanted to turn the Daily Bugle into a gossip rag. And for all of JJJ’s faults, he was still a newsman. He’s still old school like Walter Cronkite, ‘News is news, this is bulls—,’ that kind of thing. I thought thematically that was a really good way in, because you have that conflict between the modern and social media sensibility about news versus the old school version. So JJJ kind of got cast aside. The reveal was that the female executive who’s in charge of the buyout, who’s overseeing the company that’s taken over The Bugle, ends up being [Vulture’s] daughter.
In the same way that Harry Osborn became the new Goblin to avenge his father, this new, original character, who would have been “The Vulturess,” would have held a similar grudge against Spider-Man. Perhaps it’s a little too similar to the other major arc in the series, but interesting nonetheless.
The Worst Sequels Ever
These sequels ruined the reputations of some great movies.
Gotham Knights came out a week ago and I’ve found it exceedingly difficult to find anything to love about the open-world loot brawler. Red Hood’s snickerdoodle recipe, maybe? The latest Batman game borrows from a ton of other, mostly better rivals, and struggles to craft a clear identity in the process. Kotaku’s Levi Winslow also spent the last week trying to save Gotham city from feuding gangs and supervillains, and the two of us sat down to try and hash out what the game does well, what it does poorly, and all the ways it left us confused.
Levi Winslow: Ok. So, like, I feel Gotham Knights is a bifurcated game, something that has two separate identities living within itself. First, there’s the narrative action-adventure stuff where you’re solving crimes, meeting the villains, beating up goons before getting a cutscene taking you back to The Belfry. That is a solid gameplay loop. Then you hit the open world. I don’t dislike it, There’s some enjoyment in grapple-hook-jumping from one rooftop to another, but the RNG RPG-ness of it, the Diablo-like nature to the unnecessary loot grind, makes for some of the most tedious parts of the whole game. What do you think? How do you feel about the linear narrative juxtaposed with the open-world grind?
Ethan Gach: I’m incredibly underwhelmed by both so far. Everything just fits together so awkwardly, and I mean everything. The individual scripted cutscenes? Great. Love ’em. Completely fine. But everything else, going room-to-room in a story mission, crime-to-crime in the open world, and even enemy-to-enemy during the big brawls, all just feels rough and uneven and not good. Like you could describe the back-of-the-box bullet points of this game, and I’d go, sure, that sounds fine. It’s not the new Arkham I want, but I love the Batman comics, I love the universe, lets go jump off some rooftops and solve some mysteries. And yet almost nothing in this game feels actually good to do in my opinion.
Screenshot: Warner Bros. Games / Kotaku
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A gift for literally everybody. Gifts under $20, $10, and even $5. It’s Wish, the catch-all shop for all of the above.
Levi: Can’t argue with you there. The gameplay is especially clunky and imprecise. I don’t mind the combat. It isn’t as smooth as Marvel’s Spider-Man or as impactful as the Arkham games, but it definitely carries more weight and feels way better than Marvel’s Avengers, which is the closest comparison I could give. Like you said, something about it all just feels off and awkward. I really can’t stand the stealth and how sticky and slippery the characters are. You wanna open this chest after busting some skulls, but you gotta stand in this exact spot to trigger the contextual button input. Deviate from it just a little bit, like barely even a centimeter, and the prompt will disappear. Or you’re perched on this ledge to scope the area, looking for some stealth takedowns but, whoops, you accidentally flicked the left stick forward and now your vigilante has just jumped off and lands in front of the enemies you were trying to stealth. It’s frustrating.
Ethan: Yeah I basically haven’t even bothered with stealth for that reason, especially because the rest of the incentives feel like they are pushing me toward just complete chaos. Who have you been playing as? I’ve rotated every mission, but so far I think Red Hood is my favorite, mostly because he feels the most substantial and least slippery. Batgirl is a close second.
Levi: Lol, I’m just a perfectionist who wants to complete all the challenges. So when it’s like “Perfect whatever number stealth takedowns,” I’m like, “Bet.” But yeah I started with Nightwing, then switched to Batgirl, who’s been my main ever since. She’s just so OP, it’s insane. I’ve heard Red Hood is pretty good so I’m gonna have to give him a try. What do you think of Robin? Considering how frustrating stealth is, I couldn’t imagine playing him because of how stealth-focused he is. His bo staff’s looks cool.
Screenshot: Warner Bros. Games / Kotaku
Ethan: There are too many big enemies and dudes that will come at you from off-screen, to the point that I just didn’t want to bother with Robin after the first time I tried him. I also really don’t like Gotham Knights’ version of the character. I’m a huge fan of The Animated Series’ take on Tim Drake, and this feels more like a weird cross between Spider-Man’s Peter Parker and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’s Cal Kestis, if that makes any sense.
I also don’t really feel any compulsion to grind, which is weird, but I think mostly stems from just how diffuse everything is. There are not nearly enough villains in this world to beat up to sustain an entire upgrade and crafting loop.
Levi: Very that, both on Robin’s timidity and the unsatisfying number of villains in the open world. Gotham here truly feels lifeless. Sure, there are citizens wandering the streets and GCPD patrolling their headquarters (or getting bullied by some dudes), but there’s no energy to the city. I know I compared Gotham Knights to Marvel’s Avengers—which I admittedly did like for a hot minute—but I can’t help but wanna play Marvel’s Spider-Man every time I’m protecting Gotham. There’s something about the bland color palette and the sameness of the districts that strips Gotham of its character.
Ethan: I think the city itself looks cool, and I like the way they tried to play off the four heroes’ iconic color palettes with the neon lights and how steam and fog hang on the skyline. But I also kept thinking of Spider-Man, mostly because I was always frustrated I couldn’t chain the grappling hook together like I was web slinging.
Screenshot: Warner Bros. Games / Kotaku
I think a large part of that is how much space you have to cover because of how scattered the actual things for you to do are. I would have preferred a much smaller but denser section of the city than having to hopscotch around all the dead space. Usually, open-world games thrive on constantly finding things on the way to your objective that distract, intrigue, and send you down an entirely separate rabbit hole. Here it really does feel like moonlighting as an Uber driver in the worst-paved metropolis in the world.
Levi: Yeah, like, there really isn’t a whole lot to do in this world. And what’s available to do is incredibly repetitive: Go here, beat up some guys, check out a clue, escape before GCPD shows up, rinse and repeat. Don’t get me wrong, I’m having fun dominating dudes as Batgirl. But the fun isn’t as satisfying as in other, better superhero action games that have come out recently.
Ethan: I also feel like the game is in a very weird place tonally. Batman’s family is left to figure out what their relationships are without him to orient them, but they are all pretty unfazed by the actual fact that he’s dead. And despite the dramatic premise, things get off to a very slow start. I will say I prefer aspects of Gotham Knights’ gameplay to Marvel’s Avengers’—whose combat felt indistinct and very much in the licensed game bucket—but the way the latter was shot felt like a much better approximation of the feel of the MCU than Gotham Knights is for the DCU.
Screenshot: Warner Bros. Games / Kotaku
As a Destiny guy who loves a mindless gameloop I can sink into at the end of the day, I thought I was primed to see the glass half full in Gotham Knights, but that’s just not what’s happened.
Levi: Same. I really wanted a mindless loop that offered solid gameplay with an intriguing story, and Gotham Knights misses the landing. There are good elements here, don’t get it twisted. The combat is fine, serviceable actually. And the sometimes tender, sometimes tense moments between characters during cutscenes is captivating. But the actual meat and potatoes of the game, the core gameplay loop, just isn’t as satisfying as I was hoping. I’ll finish it, though. I’ve completed Nightwing’s Knighthood challenges to get his Mechanical Glider, so I gotta do the same for Batgirl. And I wanna play some co-op to see just how untethered the experience is, but I can’t imagine thinking too much about Gotham once I finished the story. It isn’t sticking in the same way Marvel’s Spider-Man did.
Maybe that’s an unfair comparison, but truly, in my head canon, Gotham Knights is somewhere between Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Avengers. It’s fine, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily a good spot to be in.
Screenshot: Warner Bros. Games / Kotaku
Ethan: I’m still only about halfway through the game, but feeling much less generous. It’s an indecisive mix of a bunch of games without any one solid thing to hold onto. The co-op that I’ve tried so far is very decent overall, and I think certainly sets a kind of standard for games like Far Cry—which have traditionally struggled with multiplayer that feels consistent and rewarding—to aim for.
But man, every aspect of the Batman mythos recreated here feels like it’s done better elsewhere. Maybe when the four-player mode comes out it’ll be closer to the 3D brawler it should have been. At this point I almost wish it were a live-service game. At least then there might be a shot at a better 2.0 version a year from now.
Levi: Right? Gotham Knights certainly feels like it could’ve been a live-service game. I’m hoping that four-play co-op mode Hero Assault extends to the open-world stuff too. There are four heroes. This game should be chaotic as hell, kinda like that underground Harley Quinn mission with that punk rendition of “Livin’ La Vida Loca.” That, so far, has been the most memorable part of the whole game.
There is an endless debate with a few different sides to it regarding Rotten Tomatoes that crops up every time a new big movie or show comes out. Either the critics score is the most important because they’re professionals and audience scores can be overtaken by fanboys. Or critics are snobs and the only score that matters is what the audience thinks. Or neither matters, and you should just decide for yourself. But I mean, who has the time to test-watch everything?
I’ve seen all the angles. Sometimes it seems like critics get it wrong. Other times it seems like audience scores are warped by positive or negative mass bombing. But one theory is that if you average the two scores, you get a more accurate picture of where the truth lies. So I’m going to try that.
I am going to rewrite an old list of the best MCU movies and shows (DCEU later) based on what happens when you combine the two scores together. And we’ll see where we are at the end of that. If there’s a tie, I gave it to critics score.
Spider-Man: No Way Home – 95.5 (93% critics, 98% audience)
Shang-Chi – 94.5 (91% critics, 98% audience)
What If…? – 93.5 (94% critics, 93% audience)
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD – 93 (95% critics, 91% audience)
Iron Man – 92.5 (94% critics, 91% audience)
Spider-Man: Far From Home – 92.5 (90% critics, 95% audience)
Avengers Endgame – 92 (94% critics, 90% audience)
Guardians of the Galaxy – 92 (92% critics, 92% audience)
Loki – 91 (92% critics, 90% audience)
Marvel’s The Avengers – 91 (91% critics, 91% audience)
Captain America: Civil War – 89.5 (90% critics, 89% audience)
Ms. Marvel – 88.5 (97% critics, 80% audience)
Avengers Infinity War – 88 (85% critics, 91% audience)
Black Panther – 87.5 (96% critics, 79% audience)
Doctor Strange – 87.5 (89% critics, 86% audience)
Moon Knight – 87.5 (86% critics, 89% audience)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – 86 (85% critics, 87% audience)
Black Widow – 85 (79% critics, 91% audience)
Ant-Man – 84 (83% critics, 85% audience)
Ant-Man and the Wasp – 83.5 (87% critics, 80% audience)
Marvel’s Agent Carter – 81.5 (86% critics, 77% audience)
Jessica Jones – 81.5 (83% critics, 80% audience)
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – 79.5 (74% critics, 85% audience)
Avengers: Age of Ultron- 79 (76% critics, 82% audience)
Luke Cage – 78.5 (87% critics, 70% audience)
Iron Man 3 – 78.5 (79% critics, 78% audience)
Captain America: The First Avenger – 77 (79% critics, 75% audience)
Thor – 76.5 (77% critics, 76% audience)
The Defenders – 74 (78% critics, 70% audience)
Iron Man 2 – 72 (71% critics, 71% audience)
Thor: The Dark World – 70.5 (66% critics, 75% audience)
The Punisher – 71 (64% critics, 78% audience)
Thor: Love and Thunder – 70.5 (64% critics, 77% audience)
The Incredible Hulk – 68 (67% critics, 69% audience)
Captain Marvel – 62 (79% critics, 45% audience)
Eternals – 62 (47% critics, 77% audience)
She-Hulk – 60 (85% critics, 34% audience)
Iron Fist – 52.5 (37% critics, 68% audience)
Inhumans – 27 (11% critics, 43% audience)
So, a few trends. Audience scores are generally higher than critics, but sometimes the two groups agree almost exactly like with What If…?, Guardians of the Galaxy and Marvel’s The Avengers. Everyone seems to agree that Iron Fist and Inhumans are the worst-ever things in the MCU. The top 5 are a little surprising, including Shang-Chi’s bonkers high audience score, which is impressively tied with No Way Home.
Okay phew, this will be much easier with the DCEU.
