Multiplat Batman: Arkham Asylum

[ManWithNoName]

Preview

Oh. My. F-ing. God.

 

[And_ROOS]

From all the reports ive read on this game, it will either be brilliant or the biggest ****-tease in gaming...

 

[davey_magik]

Just my humble opinion but it'll be garbage.

 

[PAFC_1]

Yep, like virtually all movie to games.... it will be horrible.

 

[ManWithNoName]

Yep, like virtually all movie to games.... it will be horrible.

It's not a movie game. It's based on the Comic Books. Nothing to do with any of the movies. Mark Hamill's voicing the Joker and the rumour is Kevin Conroy is voicing Batman. Mass excitement.

 

[Jabso]

Any actual gameplay pics?

 

[ManWithNoName]

Any actual gameplay pics?

Not yet. It's not due to come out until mid next year.

 

[Red Black and Blue]

[YOUTUBE]qiDAsGSVyjs[/YOUTUBE]

Clearer Version here
http://au.media.xbox360.ign.com/media/142/14273491/vids_1.html

looks sweet hopefully the gameplay lives up

 

[Viney]

[youtube]qiDAsGSVyjs[/youtube]

Clearer Version here
http://au.media.xbox360.ign.com/media/142/14273491/vids_1.html

looks sweet hopefully the gameplay lives up

Nice, thanks Jonesy

 

[MF]

Jesus! I just pissed my pants.

 

[RoosterLad]

That looks pretty decent, would consider buying that depending on the Bigfooty reviews.

Looks better than Lego Batman.

 

[HBK619]

A preview of Batman: Arkhan Asylum with a bunch of new details, as well as a great new trailer, and a release window of the AU Winter.

[YOUTUBE]OMvsqSAd-D8[/YOUTUBE]

Source: http://au.xbox360.ign.com/articles/949/949536p1.html

A strange thing happened last year -- when The Dark Knight hit theaters, no videogame tie-in came with it. As a comic book fan, I was happy I didn't have to put up with a thrown together cash-in, but on the other hand, I worried that the industry might have missed an easy chance at a decent Batman game.

Turns out my fears were unfounded and I didn't have to worry about a forced movie tie-in -- Rocksteady's working on Batman: Arkham Asylum, and it's its own beast. After watching the first 15 minutes of the game, I can say that the title looks like it has a shot at being pretty darn good.

If this is your first time checking out IGN's Arkham Asylum coverage, you're picking a good place to start because up until now we've only known the basics of this third-person action/adventure game. This is the ground floor of actual game coverage. The story I was introduced to yesterday kicked off with Batman hauling the Joker back to Arkham via the passenger seat of the Batmobile. Now, this story is set in the general comic book-Batman universe but it's not linked to any preexisting story.

Rocksteady's starting from scratch here and even brought in the folks from Jim Lee's WildStorm to come up with original character designs. That said, some stuff looks pretty familiar (the Batmobile looked like a more stylized version of the Tim Burton car, Batman's in a traditional gray and dark blue/black suit, and the Joker's all about the purple-suited/super-slim features you know and love) while some things such as the 15-foot incarnation of Killer Croc are pretty much crafted from scratch.

Arkham itself seems to be a pretty interesting take on the Batman universe. Set on an island, the nuthouse was once the home of a Mr. Arkham, but it eventually got turned into the gigantic facility it is in the game. Once Batman (voiced by Kevin Conroy from Batman the Animated Series) got Joker (voiced by the one and only Mark Hamill) inside Arkham, the clown prince of crime was strapped to a Hannibal Lecter-style dolly and Batman accompanied three guards on their journey to get the villain into the Intensive Treatment section of the prison.

This was no easy task. It wasn't tough because the Joker was fighting or anything -- he actually just stood there cracking wise to Batman and the guards -- the trouble was that the Intensive Treatment is waaaaay down in Arkham. There were guard stations to clear, elevators to descend in, and hallways to traverse. While your escorting your "better" half, the story's being laid out for you. Warden Sharp's in charge of Arkham, and he's got a lot on his mind. The Joker burned down part of Blackgate Prison, and Gotham's penal system relocated hundreds of the non-insane criminals to Arkham's padded cells. Now, as Brucie's journeying deeper and deeper into the asylum, the prisoners the convoy pass explode with cheers for the Joker... almost like they know him.

Uh-oh.

Eventually after bumping into a chained Killer Croc -- he says he's going to kill Batman, but the guards turn on his electric shock collar and Croc shuts up quick -- the group makes it to the wing they're looking for and find Commissioner Gordon. The guards release the Joker and take him past an employee/patient-only door, and within seconds, Joker's flipped the script and is choking one of his capturers with his own handcuffs.

Batman starts trying to punch through a pane of glass to get to the clown, Harley Quinn unlocks all of the doors in Arkham, and the Joker escapes down a hallway just after Gordon shoots out the glass window so Batman can get after the bad guy. Of course, now everyone's loose, and before Batman can give chase, a few thugs swoop in to take on the hero. This is the Joker's master plan -- lure Batman into Arkham for the worst night of his life.

One of the pillars Rocksteady's building this game on is FreeFlow combat. As the bad guys come at Bats, he'll be able to engage up to 15 of them without breaking too much of a sweat. The face buttons are strikes, grapples, and counters, and these simple inputs will be your lifeline to throwing dudes across the room and incapacitating foes. When you knock a standing guy out or pull off a floor takedown (a kick to the head of a downed foe), you'll get a health boost and some XP. Yes, even Batman has experience points these days, and you'll be collecting them so that you can unlock moves such as the Hang Attack (I'll get back to this in a bit) and power-ups such as an armor upgrade. Your Progress to the next level-up opportunity is tracked in a circular meter in the top right corner. When you take out a baddie or earn XP some other way, you'll see some bats on screen and then the meter will fill. Above the XP tracker is Batman's health. Rather than give you a life bar that you need to constantly monitor, the health part of the HUD only pops up in combat situations and only applies to that specific fight. That is, if you beat a room filled with bad guys with just a sliver of health left, the next time you fight someone, you'll get a brand new bar -- there's nothing to pick up and you don't need to recharge the meter or anything.

As much as Batman is about hand-to-hand combat these days, he's still all about gadgets. In Arkham Asylum, you're going to have a lot of toys to play with as the Caped Crusader. During my demo, I got to see that the Batarangs are unlimited (you whip'em out and throw'em with the shoulder buttons and there's an auto-lock aim), you can use your grappling hook in all the places you'd expect to be able to use it, using your cape to glide is a -- pun intended -- breeze, and Batman's got goggles. See, when you kick on Investigation Mode, the cowl drops a set of specialized lenses that turn the screen blue and provide all sorts of useful information in an x-ray-like display. You'll see objects you can interact with; how many people, hostiles, and armed folks there are in the room; and where fingerprints are.

During my demo, Batman ran across some guards who were trying to figure out how to take on Zsasz, a serial killer who carves a line into his flesh for every life he's taken. Seems the cutter grabbed a hostage during the meltdown and strapped him into the electric chair. Batman had to figure out a way to get from the second floor to the killing machine on the ground floor without Zsasz catching wind. Popping on his x-ray specs, Batman could suddenly see a few gargoyles that were now showing up in a golden color. Bats grappled to one, then to the other, and finally glided in to kick Zsasz in the face and knock the fool out before he could fry anyone. Each of these gliding and grappling moves pops up as a button option as you look at certain things in the room.

With Zsasz down and the day saved, Batman ripped the cover off an air vent (Tap A/X to pull!) and was on to the next challenge, which was actually somewhat optional. If you've seen the Arkham Asylum trailer IGN's been hosting for a while, you can probably recall the scene where Batman comes upon a decontamination chamber and finds a number of guards getting gassed. Using his grappling hook and some air ducts in the game, Mr. Wayne maneuvers his way around the gas and to a high level that's safe from the green death below. Now, there are a number of guards hanging on to ledges that leave them half in the gas and part of the way to safety. As Batman, you have the choice to either lift these guys up or blow past them. Lift them up and get XP, ignore them and they'll just hang on forever. There's even one of the Joker's thugs begging for help -- pick him up and you'll immediately knock him out when he's safe.

Although the folks showing the game from Warner Bros. weren't ready to tell me all of the characters in the game, they did mention that there's going to be a lot of nods to comic book lore in terms of little asides, cameos, and more. At one point in the game, Batman walked into an abandoned cell that had a few green question marks scrawled on the walls. What I can confirm is that there's no Alfred in this game. Rather than radioing back to the Cave for assistance and getting his butler, Batman's going to be constant communication with Oracle, master hacker Barbara Gordon for those of you who have somehow missed the last decade or so of comics. Another familiar voice popped up in my demo, and it was none other that Harley Quinn. Yes, Arleen Sorkin is back to reprise her vocal role from Batman the Animated Series as well, but this is a much more "adult" version of the character. Sporting a corset, traditional face paint, super-short skirt, blonde pigtails, and -- as my demoer was nice enough to repeatedly point out -- jiggle physics. More than just eye candy, Harley's actually a pretty big part of Mr. J's plan to torture the Bat. She's kidnapped the Warden, and she's the one who unlocked all the doors.

Beyond Harley, who only appeared in cutscenes, my demo moved into a warehouse filled with foes. Kicking on Investigation Mode, Batman's goggles let him know that two armed hostiles were in the immediate vicinity. Deciding it was time to cash in the stored XP, Batman bought the Hang Attack and grappled on over to the gargoyle above a lone enemy. With a button tap, Batman lowered himself -- upside down mind you -- to the foe, snatched him up in his cape, dragged him skyward, and left the baddie tied and hanging from the gargoyle. Although incapacitated, the enemy called out to his friends, and Batman's cover was blown. If he would've wanted to, Batman could've cut the line suspending the thug, and the bad guy would've been knocked out when he collided with the floor.

In a lot of ways, I hate eyes-on reports because if the game's good, all I really want to do is snatch the controller and play for a few hours/days. Batman: Arkham Asylum is definitely one of those games. Aside from all the gameplay stuff I've written about here, there seems to be a few more bells and whistles left to mention. Seeing as how this is supposed to be the longest night in Batman's life, look for the hero to be sporting more and more stubble as the events wear on. As the events of the night unfold, expect Batman's costume to become damaged and stay damaged -- when holes pop up in his cape, you'll need to account for it when you glide.

It's early, but I can't wait to answer the Bat Signal this summer.

 

[Jabso]

Looks a little MGS-esque in terms of gameplay.

 

[HBK619]

Looks like the PS3 is set to get exclusive 'Play as The Joker' challenge maps.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5224844/play-as-the-joker-in-arkham-asylum-ps3

A new advertisement appearing earlier than expected in Sony's PlayStation Home reveals the ability to play as The Joker in PlayStation 3 exclusive challenge levels for Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Several readers sent us in blurry photos of the new sign, which has appeared in various spots throughout the Home service today, featuring a grinning Joker (the best kind) and boasting exclusive challenge levels for the PS3 version in which players will be able to take control of the clown prince of crime.

I hopped online and snapped my own shot, but appreciate the efforts of our readers to bring this story to light.

I contacted public relations for the game, who couldn't offer me any details on the exclusive, or whether or not the Xbox 360 version would be getting something similar.

 

[HBK619]

Looks like the PS3 is set to get exclusive 'Play as The Joker' challenge maps.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5224844/play-as-the-joker-in-arkham-asylum-ps3

The Joker CONFIRMED as PS3 exclusive playable character(FOR FREE!!!).

Source: http://www.vg247.com/2009/04/23/ark...ms-joker-as-ps3-exclusive-playable-character/

JOKER CONFIRMED PS3 EXCLUSIVE PLAYABLE CHARACTER
Eidos and Warner Bros. has confirmed that the Joker will be a playable character in Batman: Arkham Asylum exclusively on PS3. The Joker will be available at launch as a free downloadable item on PSN, but will only be playable in the Challenge Maps.

Looks like the PlayStation Home ad just went up a bit earlier than the press release is all.

April 23, 2009 - Eidos Interactive and Warner Bros. announced today that the Joker will be a playable character in the upcoming title Batman: Arkham Asylum — but only on the PlayStation 3. Joker will be available at the game’s launch as a free downloadable item on the PlayStation Store. The press release notes that he will only be available for use in the Challenge Maps, so don’t expect a massive single-player campaign associated with the legendary villain.

Arkham Asylum is already showing quite a bit of promise, sporting an intensely dark look and action-oriented gameplay. The Batman title is scheduled for a launch this coming June.

 

[stephen_bayne]

Lucky PS3 owners. The rest of us will have to settle for pummling him instead. This game looks wicked. I know to many Mark hammil will always be Luke Skywalker but to me he will always be BTAS Joker. He is awesome in the series. I downloaded the Harley Quinn (I am obsessed with her BTW) trailer the other day and not only is she voiced by Arleen Sorkin but she's wearing a hot as hell nurses outfit. Can't wait.

 

[Kerrby]

Eidos Once Again Attempting To Mess With Review Scores

Longtime silent champion/nitpicker of the British gaming press, The RAM Raider, has a post on their blog highlighting Eidos’ latest alleged public relations faux pas, this time involving review scores and cover placement for the upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Yes, this is the same Eidos behind the Kane & Lynch fiasco with GameSpot. Behind voting for their own games in a game of the year poll. Behind attempts to fix Tomb Raider review scores.

Sure, they’re far from the only company to try this sort of thing with magazines (businesses gotta make money, yo), but they’re far and away the worst at covering their tracks.

According to The RAM Raider, the company’s latest misstep the following absurd policy:

Several mags have their review code already, but have to sit on their reviews until a hateful embargo expires at the end of the month. But Eidos, ever the helpful fellows that they are, have been offering a way around this embargo. If you dedicate the cover of your mag to Arkham Asylum and guarantee a score of at least 90%, Eidos will allow you to run the review early.

TRR says that while “one editor has already valiantly told Eidos to **** off”, others have been less resolute. “This means”, they say, “that if you see a mag turn up within the next few weeks (ding!) that features Arkham Asylum on its cover (ding!) and gives it at least 90% (ding ding ding!), you have a winner.”

With the publishing arm of Eidos soon to be rebranded as part of the Square Enix empire, it’s a shame that, if true, this is probably the last thing they’re going to be remembered for.

We’ve contacted Eidos for comment, and will update if we hear back from them.

Pretty dodgy if true.
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/07/eidos-once-again-attempting-to-mess-with-review-scores/

 

[HBK619]

HAHA Eidos for the corrupt lulz.

 

[pinkus maximus]

I'm getting pretty hyped for this game, anyone else?

Also what's the official release date? I've seen it listed as Aug 28th and Sept 3rd

maybe Glenno can confirm

 

[HBK619]

I'm looking forward to the game still. Not as much as previous mainly because other games are taking this one over. But I am still looking at buying it.

The release date is 3rd of September most likely too.

 

[JR#8]

Pre-ordered the C.E for Xbox 360 but since then my GF has bought me a PS3.

Maybe I should change my pre-order to the PS3 version so I can get the exclusive content...

 

[Kerrby]

Batman: Arkham Asylum Demo Available August 7

The consumer demo for Batman: Arkham Asylum™, co-published in North America by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Eidos Inc., will be available for the Xbox 360? video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION?3 entertainment system and Games For Windows? LIVE worldwide on August 7. The full game will be available at retail stores nationwide in North America beginning August 25, and in Europe and Australia beginning August 28.

The demo will be offered on Xbox LIVE? Marketplace for Xbox 360 and PlayStation?Network for the PLAYSTATION 3. Fans can visit www.batmanarkhamasylum.com for details on how to download the Games For Windows LIVE version.

The Batman: Arkham Asylum™ demo opens as the DARK KNIGHT and COMMISSIONER GORDON return The Joker back into confinement at ARKHAM ASYLUM. But things soon fall apart as THE JOKER gains the upper hand and springs a trap, setting Arkham Asylum's occupants upon Batman. The demo offers gamers a taste of the fierce FreeFlow™ combat system, the cunning stealth of the Invisible Predator™ mechanic, and the feeling of becoming the WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE as they navigate Arkham Asylum's imposing Intensive Treatment facility. Players can unlock character bios, as well as get a sneak peak at some of the infamous foes that BATMAN will encounter within the cavernous and macabre confines of Arkham Asylum.

Source: http://au.ps3.ign.com/articles/101/1010207p1.html

 

[caMoGFC]

i wasn't really interested in this game initially but having a look on metacritic and seeing 2 reviews and their scores has brought it to my attention...


"96

Games Master UK

Arkham Asylum is a game with the power to utterly captivate you and can stand proudly alongside modern classics such as "Resident Evil 4", "Gears of War," and "BioShock"...Simply put, Batman: Arkham Asylum is a masterpiece. [Sept 2009, p.66]"



"90

Playstation Official Magazine UK


The whole game is a class act. The fighting is sophisticated but arcade-addictive, the visuals are stylish, and the Lara-like exploration is smartly done. Plus the DC heritage feels all-encompassing like a big blanket. Arkham Asylum is comfortably the best comic book game that PlayStation's ever had, and is up there with the system's best actioners, full stop. [Sept 2009, p.95]"




got to say i didn't expect to see that.

 

[scooterb]

The developers of this game are the ones who got caught paying off reviewers, so I wouldn't read into anything just yet.

 

[caMoGFC]

The developers of this game are the ones who got caught paying off reviewers, so I wouldn't read into anything just yet.

oh yeh i forgot about that....need to see if they're on the cover of their mags ahahaha