Marvel Ultimate Alliance Games' Troubled Ports Are Being Fixed
Players have been angry due to missing DLC and lackluster PC ports.
Activision revealed at Comic-Con in July that it would be re-releasing Marvel Ultimate Alliance and its sequel for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and last week those games were released. Unfortunately, they didn't sport the type of graphical improvements players hoped for given their price tags ($40 each or $60 in a bundle). More importantly, they were also broken in a number of ways, a subject Activision has finally commented on after a week of silence.
Among the technical issues the games experienced were an inability to unlock Achievements on Xbox One (since fixed), missing DLC that was promised to be included, and a variety of PC-specific problems. Those include poor controller support and an inability to remap controls.
In a statement shared with GameSpot, Activision said, "Both the standalone and bundled versions of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 feature all of its original DLC. We are still working on making the DLC for the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance available in the coming weeks as a free update for everyone who has purchased the title on these platforms alone or as part of the bundle."
"We're focused on identifying and fixing the issues that have been occurring," it added, though it did not specify what issues it was referring to.
An update for the PC version has been released today "that addresses the audio issues reported by PC players and some of the control issues that PC players have experienced."
Here's what Activision identifies as the "key areas" the patch deals with:
- Improved controller mapping for multiple controllers to address the Xbox One controller and Xbox 360 controller support issues including the button assignments for the triggers and A button on Windows 10
- Support for up to four controllers
- Updates to audio support that should improve the audio and minimize crackling and other issues that some users may have experienced
- Improved online player invites for Marvel Ultimate Alliance
- Additional fixes including addressing some issues that could cause players to be desynched or disconnected during online games, adding support for the EULA scroll bar, and UI updates
Given these problems and the lack of many graphic settings, it's no surprise that PC players were particularly angry with the releases. Both have earned a "mostly negative" review average on Steam since launch.
One other gripe players on all platforms have, the game's disappointing visuals, is something that likely won't be changing. As we reported last week when we got our first look at the games, executive producer Mike Jones said, "We wanted these re-releases to be as faithful to the original Ultimate Alliance games as possible--the definitive versions. However, the team did work really hard on improving performance, some UI and graphic enhancements, as well as making the games compatible with modern platform features on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. They play really smooth."
Activision's statement didn't offer an apology, as some fans were likely hoping for. Instead, it concluded by saying, "Thank you for your continued patience as we address these issues."
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