[Kvitne]

http://kotaku.com/50...her-batman-game

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Eidos Announce ANOTHER Batman Game

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That's fine, EA. You take all the time you need before announcing your Batman game. In the meantime, we'll make do with this one. Announced today by the folks at Game Informer, Batman: Arkham Asylum is a new title currently in development at Rocksteady Studios (Urban Chaos: Riot Response), which will be published by Eidos. Why the different publishers? EA only have the rights to the movies, while Eidos have a deal to make games based on the Batman comics. Hence this game, which GI describe as being "reminiscent of Bioshock".

With a story written by Paul Dini, and art by the team at Wildstorm comics, the game will be set exclusively in and around Arkham Asylum, which has been taken over by the Joker. The asylum will be a contained, persistent location, making the game feel more like Riddick or BioShock than other more recent, more open-world superhero titles. The Joker's not alone, either: because they hold the comics license, Batman will also be up against the Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Penguin, Harley Quinn, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy and more.

Gameplay won't just be about combat, either. Batman's a detective, see, so there'll be investigative work (puzzles, etc) to be done as well, including extensive use of what sounds a lot like Metroid Prime's scanning system. When combat is used, the emphasis will be on stealth and speed, and the game will only use three buttons: attack, stun and throw. Oh, and there'll be boss battles too, some with a focus on combat, others playing out more like a Zelda boss battle, as you use particular tech or gadgets to bring them down.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is due for release sometime in 2009, and will be appearing on PS3, 360 and PC.

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This post has been edited by Kvitne: 13 August 2008 - 02:57 AM

["That Other Guy"]

Ooooh!

[Muzzy Roberto]

After seeing TDK, the Joker is passe.

[Lord Shmeckie]

Agreed, if I get where you're coming from. After TDK, all other Jokers are inferior, and fail to illicit glee.

A story written by Paul Dini, on the other hand...

[Muzzy Roberto]

Lord Shmeckie, on Aug 12 2008, 10:04 PM, said:

Agreed, if I get where you're coming from. After TDK, all other Jokers are inferior, and fail to illicit glee.

Yep.

[???????]

Man, I hope this is actually good. It's been a while since there was actually a superhero game that wasn't based on a movie (and most of those sucked). As for the Joker: Inferior to The Dark Knight's Joker or not, I'm still excited that he'll be the main villain.

[Kvitne]

New screens from the game!

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["That Other Guy"]

So I see they've decided to take the "gritty realism" route. Oh well. At least the Joker has some color.

[Sway]

I'm looking forward to this. Nothing can top TDK, but comic Batman and comic Joker still rock. I have not played Bioshock, so I don't know what to expect. I was hoping for sort of a Tomb Raider/Assassin's Creed combo with a climbing, grappling, stealth and mission sort of thing plus better control over the combat, but we shall see how this turns out.

[NiGHTS Noob]

The way Game Informer made it sound in their special, the fighting is exactly like how batman takes down guys in the comics. Fling one guy off from the shadows to draw attention, then start picking off the anyone that goes off on their own, and the other guys will start freaking out and going ballistic. It looks exciting, even with a three button attack system, all the gadgets look like they improve combat a lot.

[Kvitne]

http://kotaku.com/51...n-arkham-asylum

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Twenty Minutes With Batman: Arkham Asylum

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The first twenty minutes of Batman: Arkham Asylum say a lot about the game: we’ve got the voice cast of the 90s cartoon, action-stealth gameplay and the writer that brought us episodes of Animaniacs and Lost.

But if Paul Dini isn’t enough to convince you that this Batman game is on the level, there’s plenty more going on in Arkham Asylum that deserves a look. First, and most important for me, is the voice talent. Almost the entire cast in the game seems to be drawn from Batman: The Animated Series. The Dark Knight himself is voiced by Kevin Conroy, Harley Quinn is played by Arleen Sorkin and I’m pretty sure I recognized Commissioner Gordon’s voice, but I can’t be sure it’s Bob Hastings.

The big star, though, is Mark Hamill as The Joker. I’m glad they got him instead of going for a Heath Ledger sound-alike –- it solidifies Arkham Asylum as a Batman game that stands apart from the movies. Besides, the role of main psychopath is a demanding one. From beginning to game over screen, the pinstripe-sporting super villain is there, taunting the caped crusader, goading him and generally being absolutely crazy at every opportunity. You need a star like Hamill to carry the performance.

The game starts pretty much how the trailer shows it: Batman escorts The Joker into Arkham, The Joker breaks free the second Batman is out of arm’s reach, the inmates at Arkham bust loose and take over the whole island. There’s also a plot point about Blackgate Prison being on fire, so a lot of Joker’s minions wind up at Arkham just before the break out. Killer Croc makes an appearance early on, Harley Quinn helps herself to a nurse’s outfit and a gun, and then the game lets the player take control of The Bat to try and get things under control.

Gameplay is a combination of three modes: Investigative mode, Combat mode, and Stealth-hunter mode. Early on in the game, when the inmates aren’t armed with guns, it looks like you can get by mostly with Combat mode. The controls haven’t been 100% finalized, but it looks like you mash A and maybe Y to pull off punches, kicks and headlocks. There’s also some button combo that leads to a slow motion elbow-drop, but I’m not sure what the demo runner did to bring that on.

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Right now, the game is still in pre-alpha, so they haven’t hit their goal number of guys on screen for combat. I only saw up to five guys in a fight at once; but the demo guy said they had gotten the count up to 15. By launch, Rocksteady hopes to bump that to 20 so the Combat portion of the game will be even crazier.

During combat phases, a combo-counter appears in the upper left hand corner of the screen along with a health bar. The higher the combo number, the more XP Batman earns for the encounter. When you level up, you can upgrade weapons or fighting moves and the health bar regenerates automatically when the fight is over (unless you die, in which case – game over).

They keyword here is “context.” Almost all of Batman’s moves are context sensitive. For example, you approach a grating over a vent and a prompt pops up, telling you to press A repeated to break the grate faster. You could do that, or you could hold down Right Trigger and then press A once to slowly and stealthily remove the grate and slide it to one side. This is the basis for the Stealth-hunter mode where Batman has to take out multiple minions without being spotted. So instead of running in a mashing A, you creep in and hold Right Trigger while pressing A to turn a headlock into a stealth-choke or a punch into a smothering move.

It all depends on what the situation is and that’s where Investigative mode comes in. By toggling this mode, Batman sees the world in a sort of infrared view where everyone’s skeletons are visible. You can see how many people are in an area, how many are armed, where possible exits might be and all sorts of clues (like “pheromone trails” or hand prints). It’s clear that Rocksteady wasn’t out to make a brawler – they remember rightly so that Batman is supposed to be the world’s greatest detective, not the world’s best boxer.

Other components of gameplay in Arkham are collectible items and exploration. The game isn’t exactly a sandbox game, but neither is it a straight linear path. Batman can go all over Arkham island (observe the mad gliding ability in the trailer), but certain areas won’t be open to him at all times in the game. Some areas will require a certain item or a certain event to happen before they’re open and it sounds like you can’t really go back in the game unless the main plot makes do so.

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Using Investigative mode will tell you where to go next to advance the story, but wandering around means more collectibles and more collectibles means more unlockable content. Paul Dini has gone all out on creating back stories for almost all the meat shields prisoners and prison guards in the game. So it’s never just faceless dude Batman has to save/kill – it’s “Steve” or “Joe” and he’s got a wife and kids or whatever. Profiles for characters are part of the unlockable lineup along with original art from WildStorm and probably some other undisclosed goodies.

I walked away from my time with Batman: Arkham Asylum feeling more hopeful than I have in a while about a superhero game. It was said several times during the demo that the developer was out to make a game that would stand on its own without the benefit of the Batman franchise -– and I actually believe that’s true. Of course it doesn’t hurt that it’s Batman. I’ll take any excuse to have Mark Hamill in my games.

Arkham Asylum comes out sometime this summer for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. When asked about Achievements and Trophies the answer was: “There are lots – with a capital L.”

Here's are links to the new trailer and some new screenshots for the game: [link] [link]

I think this is looking to be a pretty good game. I like that they're using the voice actors from the animated series as well. Mark Hamill as the Joker kicks so much ass. I mean, it's no Heath Ledger, but it's still better than some random other person.

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This post has been edited by Kvitne: 31 January 2009 - 02:03 PM

[NiGHTS Noob]

Considering the style of Joker this is, with the crazy laughing and taunting through a loudspeaker and stuff, I'd prefer Hamil to Ledger anyways even if there was that choice. I mean, Ledger was awesome, but I want someone who just sounds fucking nuts with an awesomely insane laugh.

EDIT: You know, maybe it's just me, but I've always thought Hamil was the best Joker all things considered. Animation usually just isn't considered for these kinds of things, but he just puts so much emotion and character into a cartoon that it's amazing. You can do things with you voice in animation that just wouldn't work in live action, so I think he made the best one. Is he a live action style Joker? No, but he doesn't have to be to be awesome.

This post has been edited by NiGHTS Noob: 31 January 2009 - 10:10 PM

[Red]

I agree whole-heartedly to everything said in the above post.

[KennEH!]

That trailer brought back so many memories.

[Rugdog]

Graphics aren't as good as I had hoped. But it looks fun and that's what matters

["That Other Guy"]

Batman's face looks...weird.

[ultm8]

yeah...he has big gums and small teeth, which is weird

[Mr. Retro]

MARK HAMIL! YES! AWESOME! Okay, fanboyism out of the way, I REALLY want this game. It looks good on so many levels. Hey, has anyone noticed we are slowly rising out of the popculture black whole that was the new millenium? I mean, pop culture is ever-so-slowly getting good again.

[Rugdog]

IN some of these shots bats' face just looks weird to me. And I don't care to much for his Bat insignia.. it looks to curvy...
Also Joker's moth looks kind of small in some of them...

This post has been edited by Rugdog: 01 February 2009 - 05:47 AM

[Kvitne]

Hell yes.