New Marvel's Avengers Wartable reveals beta details and playable hero Hawkeye

The zeitgeist on Marvel's Avengers has been slowly shifting over the last six months. After a somewhat tepid showing at last year's E3, the team at Crystal Dynamics has been plugging away steadily at expanding and improving Avengers. With the game launching on September 4th, we are now seeing a very polished-looking game - chock full of characters, modes, and upgrades. Bottom line: Marvel's Avengers is looking pretty sweet.

The new Wartable presentation yesterday (see above) revealed more information about the game's various game modes. But more importantly, the details on August's many beta periods were revealed.

Let's see if I can get this all straight:

August 7th - 9th, PlayStation players that pre-order the game will get the first crack at the beta.

August 14th - 16th, Xbox One and PC players that pre-order will gain access to the beta, and all PlayStation owners will get a chance to join them. Meaning, if you have a PlayStation, you can play the beta. No pre-order required. I hope their servers are ready, because that is going to be a floodgate situation. We all know how a bad beta can break a game's reputation (ahem...Anthem).

Then on August 21 - 23, the beta will be open to all players. 

Here's an important bit from the press release: "A Square Enix Members account will be required to play the beta. Players can sign up for the account for free  at https://membership.square-enix.com/register. Everyone who signs up for an account will receive a Thor in-game nameplate in the final game."

Also revealed during the Wartable was the post-launch addition of Hawkeye. Not only will the character be added for free, but he will come with his own playable storyline that brings him into the fold with the rest of the Avengers. 

There hasn't been any reveal as to the final number of additional Avengers players can expect, but looking at the infographics in the presentation, it appears that there will be at least three more post-Hawkeye.

This whole thing is looking pretty good. I might have to peel off of Warframe and make this my "game that never ends that makes me feel slightly hollow inside" game. Always good to have one of those.