Marvel Rivals 8.5 finally makes Cyclops playable

Polygon RSS Feed✍ Josh Broadwell📅 June 9, 2026⏱ 2 min read(3 months ago)

Overview & Key Takeaways

NetEase debuted Marvel Rivals' Cyclops trailer, and the newest Duelist's kit looks like one of the most well-rounded yet

NetEase just outlined what's coming to Marvel Rivals season 8.5, and headlining the midseason update is Cyclops. He looks awful — for anyone going up against him, that is.

Cyclops is a Duelist who relies on his visor beams for precision shots, but he's not just a Hawkeye redo. One of Cyclops' abilities lets him fire a scattershot beam that bounces between nearby characters and takes a big chunk out of their health bars. That one has two charges, so there's quite a lot of room to sprinkle it in judiciously among your standard attacks. He's also got a mobility skill, where he fires a laser blast and flies backward quickly, which seems like the perfect setup for some quick dives and retreats — a bit like Elsa, but less unkillable since Cyclops gets no overhealth. The mobility skill has a long cooldown, though, so overeager Cyclops players won't last long. Despite how strong his abilities are, he's looking like a pretty well-rounded hero.

Then there's his ultimate. If you've played Overwatch, you'll probably recognize it's rather similar to Vendetta's ultimate. Cyclops charges a beam of light, then fires it in a straight line in front of him and up into the air. It explodes after a second and deals hefty damage to any character or object (like Groot's walls). The move might be a little close to copying Overwatch's homework again, but it's kind of a big deal for Rivals. Most characters' ultimates are localized, and flying characters can escape them pretty easily — even Iron Man's powerful pulse burst. Not so with Cyclops, though. Flyers beware.

Also new to Marvel Rivals 8.5 is the K'un-Lun: Shenloong Arena map and a big 18v18 mode called Bounty Annihilation. There's a new seasonal event featuring swimsuit costumes for a select lineup of characters and a Hellfire Bay Beach social spot like Times Square, only summer-themed. From June 12-26, NetEase is opening the 616 vault and bringing back costumes that ran in events from July through September 2025, including the last round of swimsuits.

Marvel Rivals 8.5 goes live on June 12.

✈ Read Original at Polygon RSS Feed ← Back to All News

More in Multi-platform

🎮 Multi-platform

Tech Experts Call Grand Theft Auto 6 The Most Visually Advanced Game To Date, Which Explains Why It’s Stuck At 30FPS

Grand Theft Auto 6(https://www.gamespot.com/games/grand-theft-auto-vi/) has finally had its first big gameplay reveal, giving us our first real look at Rockstar's massive open-world and the amount of detail it holds. It's one that might be the most visually-impressive game we've ever seen, according to the experts at Digital Foundry. Digital Foundry's Oliver Mackenzie and Richard Leadbetter(https://www.digitalfoundry.net/features/gta-6-an-extended-look-analysis-perhaps-the-most-impressive-showcase-weve-ever-seen-in-real-time-rendering) have praised GTA 6's visual presentation, with Mackenzie specifically going as far to call it the "most impressive example of real-time game rendering" he's ever seen. The pair praised a slew of details showcased in the gameplay, including standout character rendering, especially the hair physics and skin details across not just the game's protagonist, but many NPCs too. Ray tracing use was also praised, with the pair pointing out how Rockstar has delicately implemented it in the right places for the biggest impact, and is leaning on older conventional methods in the pursuit for a better balance between fidelity and performance. Performance was a big talking point too, especially so given how poorly GTA 5 performed on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 when it initially launched. Rockstar has always seemingly favored the best looking image quality over the smoothest, but that seems to have changed with GTA 6. Digital Foundry noted that while the game was rendering at 30 frames per second, that target seems to be consistently hit, with the team rarely finding dips during its analysis of all 48,242 frames. According to Digital Foundry's calculations(https://www.digitalfoundry.net/features/gta-6-with-30fps-seemingly-confirmed-is-60fps-actually-realistic), the gameplay preview of GTA 6 was rendering at a native 1440p and then upscaled to 4K without using a modern upscaling technique, leading to a slightly soft image that can hopefully be improved before launch. The team also reaffirmed its prediction for several months ago, saying that it doesn't expect Rockstar to release a 60fps performance mode for GTA 6 on this generation of consoles, even with significant compromises to the outstanding visual presentation on offer. It expects the PlayStation 5 Pro to offer better examples of ray-traced effects or potentially higher resolution targets, but the CPU remains the biggest bottleneck in a world with so much simulation that would make halving the rendering time nigh impossible without a significantly more capable processor. That's something that a PC release in the future might showcase. There are so many details packed into the Grand Theft Auto 6 showcase that you might have missed, so make sure to check out our biggest takeways from the presentation(https://www.gamespot.com/videos/grand-theft-auto-vi-gta6-29-biggest-takeaways-from-the-reveal/), including the return of a six-star wanted level(https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gta-6-returns-to-six-star-wanted-levels/), how you can pet (and scold) dogs around the city(https://www.gamespot.com/articles/you-can-pet-and-scold-you-monster-the-dog-in-gta-6/), some of the references fans are already picking up(https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gta-6-looks-like-it-features-this-popular-tv-show-apartment/), and how you won't need to engage with the game's love story if you don't want to(https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gta-6s-jason-and-lucia-arent-necessarily-a-couple/).

🎮 Grand Theft Auto🎮 GTA

GameSpotNewsabout 3 hours ago

🟩 Xbox, Multi-platform

Xbox CEO calls Project Helix a ‘family of devices’

According to Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, Project Helix, which she announced in March as a codename for Microsoft's "next generation console" - phrasing that seemingly implied a singular device - will actually be a "family" of devices." "We've been hard at work on a great next generation and a great family of devices for Helix, &8230;

TheNewsabout 4 hours ago

🎮 Multi-platform

CD Projekt Red Offers To Help Gamescom Theft Victim As Industry Shows Its Support

The annual Gamescom(https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gamescom-opening-night-live-2026-all-the-biggest-announcements-games-and-trailers/) event is meant to showcase some of the best upcoming video games, but at least two apparent thefts have thrown a damper on this year's festivities. Indie developer Ryan Laley reported(https://x.com/RyanLaley/status/2093280590996869487) that his equipment was stolen from his Gamescom booth, which he said was "a huge blow financially and mentally." Fortunately, Laley has received an outpouring of support from the industry, including The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red. On X, CD Projekt Red responded to Laley's initial message and offered to "see if we can send a few things your way," before adding "No choom should have to start from zero." https://twitter.com/CyberpunkGame/status/2093352395044483450 Laley went on to thank CD Projekt Red and others in the industry for their generous offers. He also gave a shoutout to marketing consultant Indie Game Joe for donating the funds to replace his lost equipment. https://twitter.com/RyanLaley/status/2093387270556426431 In turn, Indie Game Joe suggested that players(https://x.com/IndieGameJoe/status/2093428156325584965) should wishlist Laley's upcoming game, Mimic(https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/2606850/). Unfortunately, this isn't the only reported theft at Gamescom this year. Iam8bit has posted that two of its laptops were stolen from its booth overnight despite the presence of security. It also noted that the laptops contained early demos for Petal Runner and Escape Academy 2. https://twitter.com/iam8bit/status/2093398808650719323 Gamespot has reached out to Gamescom for comment about the reported thefts. We'll update this story if and when we receive a response.

GameSpotIndie, Newsabout 4 hours ago

← Back to GameSky Home