UMvC3 PC: Day 1
Hey! This post was intentionally delisted for being boring, inaccurate, outdated, or any combination of the three. I've left it up for archival purposes, but keep the context in mind!
PC Marvel 3 is a little different than it used to be.
Continue at your own risk!
Technically, UMvC3 PC is pretty unremarkable. Performed without a hitch on my GTX 970, which is standard for a game this old. The graphics menu includes controls for resolution and some mediocre anti-aliasing. Bare-bones stuff, but it works and it hasn’t crashed yet.
There’s a few rough edges, of course. First off, the game is extremely quiet. Even with my PC volume bumped to double its normal value, we were still straining to hear some audio cues. Modifier keys seem to be disabled or overriden while the game’s in focus, so you can’t change volume or use most screenshot utilities without tabbing out first. The left bumper doesn’t work in Mission Mode (?????????). And the game is vulnerable to some pretty basic memory manipulation, stuff that we saw towards the end of the 360 and PS3’s lifetime, to get yourself illegal teams—possibly including the final boss.
Netcode is the same as always: kinda bad, but not usually unplayable. It’s prone to some distracting stutters on weak connections, and on strong connections it feels a little less responsive than it ought to. It’s no worse than past releases of the game, so if you’ve played any of those, you know how you’ll feel about the Steam release. I was hoping for improvements, but I guess I’m at least relieved that it didn’t get any worse.
I ran into a strange lobby issue that hasn’t recurred yet, where the game would automatically drop connection on the first frame of the character select screen against certain players—more on that if I can reproduce it again. There are also a handful of people on the Steam forums complaining about not being able to see lobbies, period: everything worked fine for me, but it’s probably wise to be wary about your refund period, just in case.
Jill and Shuma-Gorath, the two DLC characters, are included in the base game, as well as every alt costume but Magneto’s. I couldn’t play either character on 360, so it’s neat to finally have a definitive version of the game to lab with.
Bottom line: Mediocre port at a matching price point. If you just want to play Marvel on PC, you should probably spring for this. Anyone with Marvel on another system can skip it, unless you really want to lab at your desk.