I have an urge to play a Superhero game, but I'm not sure what is good for 360. Clearly I am waiting for the release of Iron Man for the platform, but my desire exceeds my patience in this regard. So, if anyone has any input I'd be only too happy to read it.

Thoughts include...

Spider-Man 3; somewhat a free-roaming city, web slinging, saving the day and battling baddies.

Superman; fly around and save the world, go fast and fly high.

Both listed are good games. Both are vastly different - despite being free-roaming and based in similar cities.

I, personally, went from one to the other, though I found Spiderman 3 to be the slightly better game. I enjoy the more 'hands on' feel to kicking around on Spidy's weblines, and taking it to the man on street level. Not only that, but the story is engaging, and it seems the random thugs that are generated are a little more... enjoyable, in the sense that there's a bit more (though not much) variety between types of crimes.

When you're swinging around New York, and sudden crimes begin sprouting up all about you, you'll understand.

Whereas Superman Returns is fun to fly around, be ultimately indestructable, and battle giant robots and aliens - however, in terms of replayability, I've found Supes to be lacking.

Spiderman 3 is for the technical gamer - where there's thinking, lots of combos, and secrets to find.

Superman Returns is for the day-by-day gamer - where you can progress without too much trouble, can spend some time flying around and throwing cars down main streets, or proceed through the short storyline.

If I had the choice, I would pick both and alternate; but, if not, I would pick Spiderman 3.

Enjoy.

Failing that, try and find The Punisher on Xbox - you can download an update that allows you to play it on 360. I love that game, despite it being on the older console, and I would play Punisher over all hero games currently out (not including Ironman, by the way things look with that one).

Thanks!

And thanks again.

Paul is your god. But not mine. I worship Beef Porn.

I've been in a Superhero mood lately as well, might rent one of those titles you mentioned.

I'm going to try the new Ironman game soon, though I have the feeling I'm going to be disappointed with the gameplay...

While the graphics look decent, I don't think it's a free-roamer (which is a game type I've come to love, and mostly play).

Checked out the Iron Man demo.

I'm not impressed. Granted, it was just a demo version but unless there are basic options not included, it looks like the typical "Video Game of a Movie" which is to say; rushed in to sales and short on production value.

But yeah, the graphics are good.

Played the actual game, and I don't think it's much better. It's very rushed, and some of the gameplay is severely lacking. I hate the radar/HUD system - it's so hard to understand what you're looking for, in terms of high priority targets, etc.

Lock-on system sucks. There's no button to simply lock-on; you have to hold down the firing button to lock-on, which consequently blasts the target anyway - but, what if you want to circle and dodge and do all manner of things without firing? No chance, not with lock-on anyway.

Iron Man's movement is very fast - he runs, that's it. When you fly, it seems very... odd... in the sense that while you would think your right thumbstick (for looking) would steer you generally, it doesn't - and it's a mixture between looking left and right with the right thumbstick, and going up or down with the left.

And don't get me started on the hovering system. More often than not I re-route all power to weapons (one of the few cool features - being able to redirect your power to specific armor systems), and hover in place blasting everything with the odd dodge thrown in for good measure. However, hovering isn't as simple as saying it, and you have to half-push in the left trigger to remain at constant altitude - and if you push too much, you start up into the atmosphere (not literally, but you do keep going up for a while), and if you push too less, you fall to the ground.

Most of the air combat, subsequently, is a mixture between rising and falling, and makes it a pain in the ass to keep a happy medium or a decent hover level. I would have expected a 'jump/fly/land' button akin to Superman Returns, which alternated you between walking or flying and worked great - but, alas, Iron Man isn't as user friendly as other flying games.

Graphics wise? Honestly, I wasn't that impressed at the beginning. The very first level was choppy and seemed very pixelated to me (where you're wearing the first suit to escape the cave). The cutscenes look decent, but when you focus on Iron Man flying over bland backdrops, then why wouldn't it? I mean... just throw all of your effects into the shiny suit, and you don't have to worry about the flat lumps of mountains in the background, right?

Ground fighting? Not too bad. I enjoy grabbing things and hitting the punch button until Iron Man rips it in half, but at the same time this game was made for Iron Man vs big vehicles, not so much Iron Man vs infantry - and this is evident when you try to punch the soldiers, and end up having trouble locking onto their small frames, if not shooting right past them with your thrusters due to being set up to outfly helicopters and planes!

I also had a distinct feeling of incorrect sizing... something seemed off when you were on the ground, as though everything got suddenly huge when you touched the ground - but when you flew, it was smaller? I understand that when you fly over things at height, generally things are small, but in this instance, it seemed to be a big transition between the two.

Boss fights? What boss fights? All 'bosses' seem to be lost in the background of battle in general, and there's nothing special or outstanding about them - they just enter the field, and need to be blown up like everything else. There's no real lead up, or personality to them... simply targets that die just as well as everything else.

As for the voice acting... Downey seems as though he's reading the lines in between breakfast, and if I hear one more reference to the game not being a game by Rhodes, I'm going to throw my chair through the television - I get it, man! I really do, it's NOT A GAME (even though it is, heh)!

I had something else I was going to gripe about, but I can't be bothered remembering. Oh... it's the character models. Aside from the bad guy with the bald head (who's name eludes me right now - and is played by Geoff Bridges) they look crap. Plain and utter crap, especially since I've seen games based on movies that look exactly like the actor/s.

There are some good points, but a lot of bad points. If they had taken the time to tell the money-men that they wanted to create a decent game, instead of a rushed release, this could have been good. I would have liked some free-roaming city action, or maybe the ability to fly between roaming locations? Maybe a mission in Afgan, where you can fly there via a 'flight gate', and have a chunk of country or cities to fly around in and complete various missions.

Alas, mission-by-mission games annoy me, as they have little to no plot thrown in between each mission; and I only know what's happening in the game, because I've seen the movie (and know the story from the comics).

My advise: Don't buy. Try.