BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS swoops in on October 25th

There goes whatever plans I might have had for that day...



GameInformer.com has news and details about Batman: Arkham Origins: the follow-up to Rocksteady's Arkham Asylum and Arkham City.  However this is a prequel to those games, taking place "years before both of the previous Arkham titles when a young, unrefined Batman encounters many supervillains for the first time".

Rocksteady won't be developing this new game however.  They've handed the baton to  Warner Bros. Games Montreal, but have made all their tools and resources available so that the series' look and feel remains consistent.  Given how Arkham Asylum garnered universal acclaim as one of the best video games of all time - and that Arkham City received even greater praise - WB Games Montreal has a high mark to hit, much less surpass.  But after seeing that trailer I've confidence they can pull it off.

Now if we can get a proper sequel to Arkham City.  There were way too many dangling threads in that game screaming to be addressed...

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Finally finished BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY

I'd had Batman: Arkham City, the follow-up to 2009's mega-hit Batman: Arkham Asylum, since its release date back in October. Hadn't devoted much time into it though until this past week. Guess I'm still trying to distract myself from Mom's passing (now four weeks ago) and since anything Batman is best enjoyed in the dark of night, that's when I've been playing it.

There are still some side-missions that I'm working on, but I finished the main story yesterday morning, after starting a new game fresh last week.

Just one word: YOWZERS!!!

Forget it being just the greatest Batman video game ever. Because Batman: Arkham City is... the greatest Batman story ever told, in my book. That you get to be Batman makes it all the sweeter.

That is the ballsiest ending of a video game that I've seen ever pulled off. Not gonna spoil it if you haven't played it yet but, it's something that has been done VERY rarely in the entire 70-some year history of the Dark Knight and this is the first time that it's been done in the scope of a video game... and somehow that made it all the more poignant and powerful.

I don't know WHAT the heck game studio Rocksteady is going to do for a third Arkham game, or how it could possibly top this one, but I've no doubt that it's coming. All the clues are there, especially (SPOILER highlight with mouse to read) the fact that Harley Quinn is pregnant with Joker's baby! Now if that ain't the proverbial loaded gun on the wall, I don't know what is. My guess: Arkham 3 will see all hell break loose on the streets of Gotham City itself. It was a massive mistake to hole up all that criminally psychotic potential within the walls of Arkham City. Maybe the next game could be called Batman: Arkham Unleashed or something...

A good video game is like a good book: the person should go away feeling that it was time well spent. That, Batman: Arkham City accomplished in grand style. Have to give this game my highest recommendation, folks. Also well worth buying first-hand so you can get the Catwoman side-story download included with it.

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Been playing BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM

It came out this past Tuesday and I bought it then from the nearby Gamestop. I'll post a full review when I finish the game.

But until then, believe the hype: Batman: Arkham Asylum is very, very, VERY good. I'll even say that without completing it yet, it's already my personal choice for best video game of 2009.

Don't even think about whether you want this game. Because you do. You really do. The inmates are running the asylum... and you're trapped with them. And when said inmates include the Joker, Riddler and Killer Croc among many others, there can be no doubt that you are in for a hella scary (and thrilling fun) stay.

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Trailer for BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM (and about that review of THE DARK KNIGHT...)

It's the old joke: "The inmates have take over the asylum". But when the inmates are the rogues gallery of the Caped Crusader, turned loose inside the non-Euclidean former manse of Amadeus Arkham, and the only thing their sickened minds can fixate on is Batcave-ing in your Batskull, in a game being likened to BioShock well... that's the kind of maniacal mayhem that Batman: Arkham Asylum promises to deliver. The game's story is written by Paul Dini and will feature Kevin Conroy returning as the voice of Batman and Mark Hamill reprising that of the Joker...

Batman: Arkham Asylum is due out May 1st from Rocksteady Studios and Eidos Interactive, and is being built with the Unreal Engine 3.

And speaking of all things Batman...

A lot of people have still been wondering why I didn't write a review of The Dark Knight.

Well folks, in the end... it was just too big a movie, and something so gosh-darned perfect, that there really wasn't anything left that I could possibly have said about it that hadn't been said already. But for what it's worth: I definitely consider The Dark Knight to be the finest comic book movie that has been produced to date. Christopher Nolan and his team delved into the heart and substance of Batman and his world better than any other production has done in the now seventy-year history of the character.

I thought that The Dark Knight was not only a tremendous and flawless follow-up to Batman Begins, but it built up and further explored the themes that the first movie had introduced. I think that Heath Ledger's turn as the Joker might be one of the most - if not the most - insidious and powerful portrayals of a villain in motion picture history, and in my mind he certainly deserves to posthumously win that Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars in a few weeks. The Dark Knight was my favorite movie from this past year, and I am very eager to see how the story of Nolan's Batman continues to play out (and I can definitely think of a few ways that it can, not just for one movie but for several more to come).

But while we're waiting for that third Batman flick, at least we'll have plenty of good times with what is already looking to be the best Batman-inspired video game made so far. Hey, "Batman meets BioShock in Arkham Asylum"?! I'm sooo there :-)

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