This weekend I took off my pants, propped my feet up, and spent most of my Saturday in front of my PS3. Really there should be chicks involved, as well as sex, but you don’t have time for those sort of things when you are playing a video game for 7 hours straight! I just couldn’t get enough of the Batman: Arkham Asylum story missions and finding Joker challenges strewn around the island. I started at 21% completed and when I turned off the PS3 for supper, I was at around 53%. The story campaign of Batman: Arkham Asylum is pretty deep and varied so it should extend well over the 20 to 25 hour range (I’ve already put in about 12 hours or so). I purposefully am taking my time, soaking in all of the nuances of Batman and the Gotham universe.
Adding even more gameplay to the mix, are the challenge maps (or ass kicking rooms as I call them). These are where you take on a few of Joker’s henchmen with the difficulty getting progressively harder to get the FreeFlow combat system multiplier and score up. Eidos Interactive and Warner Bros. Interactive have just announced that two brand new challenge maps are coming soon in the form of the Insane Night Map Pack.
Anyone familiar with PC gaming knows that the ease of piracy on the platform has skyrocketed the past decade or so, which is a damn shame for both consumers and hard working developers alike. Although it does warm my cold, black heart to see developers sticking it to piracy enthusiasts in creative ways. It so happens that Batman: Arkham Asylum uses one of these creative ways.
On a thread in the Eidos forums, a poster named Cheshirec_the_cat made a seemingly normal, shitty grammar laden internet post about some difficulties he was having with his copy of Batman:
Hi!
I’ve got a problem when it’s time to use Batman’s glide in the game. When I hold <Space> , like it’s said to jump from one platform to another, Batman tries to open his wings again and again instead of gliding. So he fels down in a poisoning gas. If somebody could tel me, what should I do there.
To which an Eidos admin responded:
The problem you have encountered is a hook in the copy protection, to catch out people who try and download cracked versions of the game for free.
It’s not a bug in the game’s code, it’s a bug in your moral code.
Never mind that the game isn’t out on PC for another four days! I feel I must applaud Rocksteady and Eidos on this creative use of copy protection, and while this type of thing is certainly circumvented as we speak, I’m sure it will provide a few laughs at the expense of this douche who had the balls to pirate a game and ask for support for it as well. Better luck next time!
It has been a disconcerting fact that our favorite characters of the screen and comic pages have not always made the translation to video games a smooth one. Classic heroes like Ironman, Optimus Prime, and even Batman easily light up the silver screen, but stink up our video game consoles. It seems the only great heroes we get are ones created by gaming companies themselves. Master Chief, Kratos, and Marcus Fenix to name a few have all changed the gaming landscape. Having a great crossover character was an exception to a frustrating rule. Then came Batman: Arkham Asylum. All the rules instantly changed.
PC gamers usually get the proverbial shaft when dealing with multi-platform games, and not just any shaft – a big purple, veiny, throbbing one. Crappy or buggy ports, missing features, or games that refuse to let me bind keys to any number of the 101 other keys on my keyboard – these types of things are commonplace for those of us who choose to use our computers for something other than hardcore internet porn. I’ve learned to deal with it, however, and while I may still cry myself to sleep over the decrease in quality of PC games over the past decade, there are some small details PC games receive that you just won’t find on consoles.
One of these details is graphics maker Nvidia’s Physx technology, a cleverly named physics engine (like Havok or Euphoria) which drives fancy things like particle effects and ragdoll physics in games. The PC version of Batman was delayed until sometime mid September, but for good reason – it’s getting Physx implemented. You can check it out here, or check out a comparison demo here.
Now if you excuse me, I’m going to go watch some hardcore internet porn whilst I wait for Batman to be released on PC.
The Dark Knight changed the way people are going to make comic book movies. It was only a matter of time before a Batman game came out and thank God it is not based on the stellar movie. Arkham Asylum is based on the comic book universe which is very vast and full of great characters that have all made the cut. Batman: AA is the love child of Splinter Cell and Streets of Rage. It is a tactical sneak game meets a brawler. Batman can go toe to toe with anyone, or hang from the ceiling and pull you into oblivion.
The demo for Batman: Arkham Asylum hits this Friday, August 7th and is set to bring the Batman franchise out of the murky depths from where it once was. If you are like me, you had to suffer through the Joel Schumacher Batman movies. Don’t worry! We all did, you aren’t alone! Batman Forever and Batman & Robin go down in history as absolutely horrid, abysmal Batman films (minus the Alicia Sylverstone donning Batgirl armor scene). No one has really thought to make a true Batman game since those movies came out (that I can recall). With the rebirth of the caped crusader being the gritty, dark knight brawler in movies like Batman Begins and The Dark Knight again, Eidos has set out to make a Batman game completely separate from any Batman movie. A game that is made by fans, for the fans.
I really want them to include Cesar Romero (pictured above) in some way, as I think he does an awesome job as the Joker. Sadly, the evil Joker is getting the Luke Skywalker treatment (voiced by Mark Hamill). Mr. Hamill actually does a stellar job bringing the evil Joker character to life (I had to listen closely to make sure it was him). Be sure to check out Batman: Arkham Asylum on your console of choice this Friday, August 7th. The full game hits North America on August 25th. With the release of Batman: Arkham Asylum, it will hopefully wash the bad taste out of all of our mouths (I’m looking at you old Batman George Clooney!)! The real Batman is BACK!
Traditionally, Batman games have sucked. Nothing has portrayed the combat and feel of being the Caped Crusader very well. Enter Warner Bros. and Batman: Arkham Asylum. The dark, gritty world of Batman and the brutal hand-to-hand combat has finally been done right. I played a good bit of the game at E3, both single player and the Challenge Rooms, and fell in love.
If you buy Batman: Arkham Asylum for the PS3, you get to play as Joker. Sort of. Right now they are just challenge rooms, but we are hoping it expands into at least a few hour side campaign to really justify promoting the character. Here is a walkthrough of the Joker in said challenge rooms, which are a PS3 exclusive. This might be the first great Batman game in some time.
Those of you hoping to get your hands on Batman: Arkham Asylum soon will be disappointed that the game has officially been delayed until the end of summer 2009. Most likely, that means the August/September time frame. The extra time is being taken to make sure the game is fully polished, so we can’t complain too much.
Based on everything we’ve seen so far, this will be the best Batman game to date (which honestly wouldn’t take much). I’m looking forward to playing more of the game E3.
Batman video games have a storied past. Some of them are great, some of them not so much. With The Dark Knight changing the way people feel about themselves, it was only a matter of time before a great game came along. Enter, Arkham Asylum. From the looks of it, this could be a keeper.
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