<![CDATA[Kotaku: The Incredible Hulk]]> http://cache.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/kotaku.com.png <![CDATA[Kotaku: The Incredible Hulk]]> http://kotaku.com/tag/the incredible hulk http://kotaku.com/tag/the incredible hulk <![CDATA[ Incredible Hulk Multiplayer Comes To 360 ]]> Remember that multiplayer add-on for Sega's The Incredible Hulk video game that came out for the PlayStation 3 back in late June? Neither do I, really. Odd, considering I had a relatively good time with the game, but not so good as to hold on to my copy long enough for the add-on to hit the Xbox 360, which it did today. The 540MB multiplayer pack adds 2-player online battles to the game, taking place across five different areas littered with things to smash, grab, crush, and generally change the shape of in various violent ways.

Somehow I don't see the game having much of an audience left, so if you plan on picking it p to try out multiplayer you might want to coordinate with a friend or something.

The Incredible Hulk Gets Free Multiplayer Expansion Pack [Team Xbox]

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Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:20:00 MDT Mike Fahey http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5044828&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ The Incredible Hulk Review: The Beast Within ]]> The Incredible Hulk is the living, breathing embodiment of mankind's rage. An unstoppable engine of fury and destruction, obliterating anything and anyone that stands in his path. When you get right down to it, a developer couldn't ask for a better main character in a video game. Just ask Radical Entertainment, who in 2005 created one of the best video game to comic book adaptations of all time with The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

Now Sega and developer Edge of Reality have taken up the task of gamifying the green goliath, creating The Incredible Hulk to coincide with Marvel's new movie of the same name. Does this new game live up to Ultimate Destruction's legacy, or does it just make us angry? You wouldn't like us when we're angry...

Loved

Ultimate Destruction: New York is the Hulk's playground, and he isn't know for being easy on his toys. Everything in the city can be destroyed – every car, every tree, and every building is a target. One of the achievements involves razing an entire neighborhood. Sorry Spanish Harlem, but you had to go.

Moving It: Traveling through New York as the Hulk is a joy, cars being knocked out of his way, fire hydrants shooting gouts of water as they shatter, pedestrians flying. Climbing buildings almost as fun as destroying them.

Incredible Feats: The feats system presents an excellent, relatively entertaining way of unlocking new powers. Rather than merely spending points, each feat has a variety of conditions that need to be met in order to unlock it, from killing enemies certain ways to using certain powers a set number of times.

Dirty Little Secrets: There's a ton of secrets hidden within The Incredible Hulk, from comic book covers and concept art to 200 power ups scattered around the city Crackdown style. There are even a handful of hidden characters to unlock, including earlier incarnations of the hero and some of his most powerful foes.

Hated

Hulk Program Puny Game: the Hulk very well could have programmed a bit of this game himself, judging from some of the glitches I ran into. Getting stuck in an animation when you are shot while climbing, enemies popping in and out of the architecture, and the jumping hilarity that ensues when you accidentally fall into water all make the game seem a bit rushed.

Loud Noises: Is it possible that everyone remotely involved with sound in this game was having a bad day when it came time to record? The voice actors sound bored and the music, when there is music, is an uninspired mess.

Limited Engagements: Not only are the enemies in the game repetitive, the bosses in the game are repetitive. One of the major storylines involves battling an shadowy scientific organization known as The Enclave, whose four bosses all fight almost exactly the same way. Very anticlimactic.

Mini-games: While some of the mini-games aren't too shabby, I found the majority of them to be either frustrating or simply boring. Mini-games shouldn't feel like gameplay padding.

Very Cut-Scenes: Two things about the cutscenes in The Incredible Hulk. First, they look absolutely hideous. Second, with few exceptions they all last under 15 seconds, making me wonder why they even bothered including cutscenes at all.

There is a great deal of fun to be had in The Incredible Hulk...just not nearly as much as there was in its obvious inspiration, Ultimate Destruction. It's almost as if Edge of Reality took Radical's original game and filtered out the charm and wit that made it a complete experience, delivering something more serious and visceral but ultimately less entertaining. I did enjoy playing the game, but I felt that it could have been so much more.

While the comic book has always been about the balance between the man outside and the beast within, Sega's The Incredible Hulk lacks the human qualities that could have made it a classic.

The Incredible Hulk was developed by Edge of Reality and published by Sega. Retails for$60 on Xbox 360 and PS3, $30 on PS2 and PC, and $50 on Wii . Played to completion on the Xbox 360. All secret characters unlocked. All side stories resolved.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

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Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:00:00 MDT Mike Fahey http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5014863&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Summer Blockbuster Maximize Licensed Crap Profit ]]> Summer blockbusters don't just line the pockets of film studio executives and actors working on a percentage of the gross, it looks like they help resellers of licensed games too. According to a bit of research from the Video Game Price Charts blog—I've used them in the past when selling my unwanted games via eBay—the time to strike when selling your copy of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine or Iron Man / X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal is when the movie adaptations hit theaters.

Yes, there's even a market for the terrible PlayStation Speed Racer game! Plenty of interesting charts and graphs await hopeful auctioneers at VGPC. I'm off to put a spit shine on my copy of The X-Files for PSone in anticipation!

Summer Movies Increase Game Prices. Go Speed Racer! [VGPC]

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Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:40:33 MDT Michael McWhertor http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5015185&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ The Incredible Hulk And Stan Lee's Rage ]]> Why do I continue to post these behind-the-scenes vignettes for Sega's new Incredible Hulk video game, despite the fact that they hardly every offer any real new insight into what goes into creating a game of this magnitude? It's all about Stan Lee, really. The man fascinates me, and the Hulk is a big part of why. The man is always cheerful, always courteous, always polite and clean...you just know that somewhere inside him there's a Hulk waiting to come out. I won't rest until I've got a video of Stan Lee screaming "F**K" and punching something. This is my quest. It'll probably never happen, but it's good to have a dream. ]]> Tue, 27 May 2008 10:40:00 MDT Mike Fahey http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5011062&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[ Xbox 360 Gets A Red Hulksclusive In Ill-Conceived Marketing Ploy ]]> If you're not keeping up with the Hulk comic book series, Bruce Banner's angrier alter ego has become so enraged, he's turned red! Or something. It may not be Bruce Banner. Who can keep up?! Yes, Marvel is pulling the old Hulk changes color for a while gimmick, turning the traditionally green (and sometimes gray) Hulk into something more crimson. In an attempt to push more copies of the Xbox 360 version of the multiplatform Sega-published video game, someone's seen fit to create an exclusive red-hued Hulk. He's only available at GameStop and only available for Microsoft's console.

That's right! Red. On your Xbox 360. You can see how fantastic of an idea this was.

Red Hulk Smashes Xbox 360 [Marvel.com - thanks, Joshua!]

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Wed, 21 May 2008 20:00:45 MDT Michael McWhertor http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5010355&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ The Incredible Hulk Behind The Scenes ]]> Now that I've more or less learned my lessen about getting over-excited about a game from Sega and Second Level's ambitious but ultimately lackluster Iron Man, I watch this Victor Lucas-voiced behind the scenes for the Incredible Hulk game with wary optimism. After all, it is following the formula from Ultimate Destruction, and as long as Edge of Reality doesn't stray too far they've got a winner on their hands, but I refuse to get my hopes up. The team loves the Hulk, knows the Hulk, yadda. We've heard this all before. Just because you love something doesn't mean you won't go all Lennie from Of Mice And Men on it. ]]> Mon, 19 May 2008 09:40:00 MDT Mike Fahey http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=391625&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[ You Got Iron Mans In My Incredible Hulk ]]> This interesting bit of concept art for Sega's The Incredible Hulk game just showed in my mailbox today. What do you suppose it means? You don't think that Hulkbuster Iron Man could make a cameo appearance in the game, do you? Probably just a coincidence. I mean, the Hulkbuster armor is appearing in the Iron Man game, so they're probably just using leftover artwork or something.

OMG Iron Man in the Hulk game!

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Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:00:00 MDT Mike Fahey http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=379687&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Hulk Wii Screens - No Comment ]]> First I said that I thought the Xbox 360 screenshots for Sega's game of the upcoming The Incredible Hulk film were pretty, and people bitched. Then I opined that the 360 trailer Sega released had completely failed to generate any excitement for the game, and people bitched some more. Now Sega has released screenshots for the Wii version of the game, and I hesitate to say anything. I could piss off Wii fans by complaining about the blocky scenery, blotchy textures and overall lack of detail, but I won't do that, because I don't want to piss anyone off. If Sega wants Wii Hulk's skin to look like a green corpse with similarly verdant blood-marbling, then more power to them. Go Sega go!

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Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:40:00 MDT Mike Fahey http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=377253&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Hulk Gameplay Trailer Fails To Excite ]]> Remember when I said Sega's upcoming The Incredible Hulk game should just be considered Ultimate Destruction 2? Upon seeing this trailer, I need to revise that statement just a tad. You should consider Sega's The Incredible Hulk an incredibly bland-looking Ultimate Destruction 2. Just goes to show how realism isn't always a good thing. How do you make a gigantic green bundle of fury battling robots and smashing cars look so amazingly boring? No preorder for you, The Incredible Hulk. ]]> Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:20:00 MDT Mike Fahey http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=374566&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[ Sega's Incredible Hulk Doesn't Mess With A Good Thing ]]> With my Iron Man excitement gland working overtime lately, I've not paid much attention to Sega's other upcoming Marvel movie video game, The Incredible Hulk. Remember how awesome Radical Entertainment's The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction was? Well apparently developer Edge of Reality does as well, as Sega's Incredible Hulk features the same sort of open-world gameplay with film-centric events wrapped around a symphony of destruction on a scale only the Hulk could conduct. You can use cars and such as weapons, participate in mini-games, and build up your rage to learn more powerful moves. Just ignore the movie connection and consider this a very pretty Ultimate Destruction 2.

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Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:20:36 MDT Mike Fahey http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=367496&view=rss&microfeed=true