If you enjoyed playing the original Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, PSP), Activision has a treat for you. In a recent conference call, the company confirmed that it will be releasing a sequel to the game within the year. More on this superhero sequel in the full article after the jump.

It ain't candy, but it looks like Microsoft's planning to release a potentially sweet deal for the buyers before Halloween. The company has just sent out a press wire announcing that they will be releasing holiday promo packages for their Xbox 360 Premium (20 GB HD) and Xbox 360 (120 GB) consoles, which will include two free games: Forza Motorsport 2, and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360, GBA, Wii).

Guys interested in making their purchase are reminded that ever since MS' previous price cuts, the Xbox 360 Premium kit will cost you US$ 349.99, while the Xbox 360 Elite kit will cost you US$ 449.99. That's a total of US$ 90 in freebies, in case you're wondering. Expect both holiday specials to land in your local retailers by the end of October.

Activision announced today that the Gold Edition of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance for the Xbox 360 has been released. The Gold Edition brings you a remastered version of the game, and includes a wider game roster, adding in eight new playable characters.

Previously, the characters of The Incredible Hulk, Magneto, Hawkeye, Sabretooth, Doctor Doom, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, and Venom were available only on Xbox Live. That is no longer the case as these heroes and villains will now also be available in the Gold Edition.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Gold Edition is tagged at US$ 59.99.

It's time to pick up something more from Xbox Live for your stash of Activision's Marvel Ultimate Alliance. This time, it's not going to be just another bunch of themes and picture packs. Rather, here's something that'll be more filling for you: in-game content and a trailer.

Available now is the New Playable Hero and Villain Trailer. This one's sure to go easy on your Microsoft pockets as you can have it for free. However, those in Austria, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Switzerland, or Taiwan will have to try their luck next time as this won't be available in those territories.

As for the in game content, there are three of them for you to choose from. There's the Playable Hero/Villain Pack Combo Deal, which will set you back 800 Points, as well as the Playable Hero Pack and the Playable Villain Pack, both for 500 Points each. Again, the aforementioned territories unfortunately will have to sit this one out.

Also important for you interested Marvel Ultimate Alliance fans is the caveat that if you have already purchased the game's Gold Edition, then you don't have to download this pack anymore. The new playable characters will be in that version already, anyway.

Game publisher Activision has recently "responded" to the problems its DLC patch has been causing for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance on the Xbox 360. The DLC patch has caused some issues for players like saved game corruptions which manifest by changing the abilities of rare items equipped to characters.

The so-called response comes from Brett Bacon, a poster on the Xbox forums, who put up the e-mail that Activision sent to him. The company apologized for the inconvenience and revealed that it is aware of the issues surrounding the update. The company is currently investigating the problem and is requesting that those who downloaded the patch and have experienced some bugs to contact Activision with the exact details of the problems they are experiencing.

It should be noted that the posters on the thread have said that Activision should at least released a press release or a formal response to the community regarding the problem. If you have experienced problems with the DLC patch, you can contact Activision via their website. From there, you can submit a request for technical support.

This is the reason why Xbox Live is so fun to use: you can always find someone who'll be making cool extras for people to play around with. This time, it's Activision's turn to give gamers the goods, and we've got video of the new heroes and villains making up the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance expanded roster.

Hulk, Magneto, Venom... all of the superstars are there. Best of all, you get to see them in action to give you a taste of what's in store when you. Can you imagine the awesomeness? Spider-Man in his black costume, original Venom, Wolverine and Sabertooth?! They would absolutely rock this joint!

Just remember that you can download the combined heroes and villains pack for 800 Microsoft Points or either the hero or villain pack for 500 points. Enjoy the vid!

After unleashing Marvel: Ultimate Alliance's new heroes and villains on the Xbox Live from Activision, let's get to know them a little bit more, one by one. We have here today the Character Bios for each of them, so this ought to give you a lot of help with dealing with them.

The Hulk:
His real name is Robert "Bruce" Banner, and he is known for a lot of aliases, including Annihilator, Captain Universe, Joe Fixit, and Mechono to name a few. This mean, green machine used to be a nuclear physicist. Depending upon the levels of his emotional stress, his powers grow in proportion. Yep, the greener he gets, the more angry he is. So, no weapons needed for this guy. Just disposition and emotions.

Hawkeye:
He's yet to come out of the superheroes closet, but Hawkeye's human personality is named Clinton Francis "Clint" Barton. He used to be a carnival performer, security chief, and also had his time being the bad guy as a criminal. Actually, he's got no superpowers to boast of, but he does use gasses designed by Hank Pym so he can stretch his height, and proportioned to that, increases in strength and toughness. He is also considered to be a world-class archer, as well as an excellent marksman. Unsurprisingly, his weapons of choice would then have to be the bow and arrow.

Cyclops:
We all know Cyclops to be the boyfriend of Jean Grey. Scott Summers, as he is known in the human society, is the co-headmaster of Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. For those of you who don't know, he is actually a former radio announcer. Of course, as you may all know, he possesses the ability to project a beam of force from his eyes. Measuring the beam's effective range will give you the distance of 2,000 feet. Cyclops has to have his special eyewear made of ruby quartz lenses as he can't shut off the beams, so to speak, due to a head injury.

The complete characters profile await after the jump.

Marvel fans, now's the time to check out the Xbox Live Marketplace for some nifty Marvel: Ultimate Alliance goodies. A pair of theme packs and a picture pack for the multiplatform Activision video game are now available on Xbox Live. Here's the pertinent info on the downloadables:

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Dream Team 2 Picture Pack
Price: 80 Points
Dash Details: Download this uncanny picture pack of the X-Men you can play in Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Hero Theme 1
Price: 150 Points
Dash Details: Download this theme and decorate your backgrounds with the heroes of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Hero Theme 2
Price: 150 Points

Dash Details: Download this theme and decorate your backgrounds with the heroes of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.

All three game downloadables are not available in Austria, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Switzerland or Taiwan. Add-on packs are also coming soon for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, so wait for those to hit Xbox Live.

   

When Activision announced that it will sell three add-on packs for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance on the Xbox 360, we were stoked. The three packs consist of a Heroes pack, a Villains pack, and both in one combined pack. The Heroes pack contains The Hulk, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, and Hawkeye while the Villains pack includes Venom, Magneto, Sabretooth, and Doctor Doom. IGN recently got hold of Chris Palmisano, associate producer at Activision, to speak about this release. For those who are hoping for their favorite Marvel character to make it into the game, IGN posed the question which many may have been wanting to ask.

For starters, Palmisano was asked about how they chose the characters they were going to include in this expansion pack. He said that "One of the big factors in choosing the new characters was based on feedback from our fan community" then he proceeded to elaborate on his answer, saying,  "Not to over-simplify it, but we basically surveyed our most vocal and active fans and then tried to narrow it down based on popularity."

He was also asked about the powers  of the new heroes and villains of the game, and he told the people at IGN that "Well, from that list of characters there are some really cool buffs and awesome moves." he gave examples such as the Hulk, who "can almost double in size so normal characters only come up to his waist and Venom grows tendrils and giant claws." However, his personal favorite is the Doom Warp which allows Doctor Doom to deal damage in a radius around him and teleports him to safety.

The packs are available at 500 (US$ 6.25) Microsoft points each, while the combined pack is going to be sold at 800 Microsoft points ($10). Chris Palmisano said more about this new release, and you can check it out via the "Read" link below.

    

Activision will unleash a set of new heroes and villains on Xbox Live Marketplace for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. The expansion pack will feature eight new playable characters, namely:

• The Incredible Hulk
• Magneto
• Hawkeye
• Sabretooth
• Doctor Doom
• Cyclops
• Nightcrawler
• Venom

Of course, the expansion pack also means new signature powers, skins, dialog, conversations, and achievement points. The downloads will be available by April 2007 via the Xbox Live Marketplace online gaming service, and three different kinds of packs will await players:

• The Hero Pack and Villain Pack will each be 500 Microsoft points (US$ 6.25).
• The Combined Hero and Villain Pack will be 800 Microsoft points (a better bargain at US$ 10.00).
• Heroes and Villains gamer pic packs will also be available for 80 Microsoft points each (US$ 1.00).

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance currently features a cast of more than 140 Marvel characters and a playable cast of 20 super heroes including Deadpool, the Human Torch, Iceman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Silver Surfer, and Elektra. You control a team of four heroes (you can always swap a hero for another unlocked playable hero), taking them to well-known comic book settings like Atlantis, the Shield Heli-Carrier, and the Skrull home world.

The game has won several awards, including Video Game of the Year from Wizard Magazine and Best Story (PS3) from IGN.