Batman: Arkham Asylum

[marquiece]

Re: Batman: Arkham Asylum

This might be a great game I'm really excited for this one.

[Brandwin]

Re: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Game looks fun. Not sure if it;s something I would buy, but I would rent it.

[Flawless]

Re: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Eurogamer Hands-On

Challenge rooms are just one flavour of over 250 unlockables Rocksteady's threatening to include in the finished game. Dumping you into a discrete part of Arkham and asking you to complete a task (generally clubbing everybody senseless), they're the Dark Knight's take on arcade games: a chance to break away from the central story, and explore simple joys like score multipliers and leaderboards.

Crucially, the animation delivers, smoothly flowing between cycles without a frustrating glitch or much in the way of clipping, and the team has perfectly nailed that distinctive blend of grace and brutality that Batman deals in. Zipping up to a distant ledge on the grapnel gun, he's a blur of black and grey, but in the middle of a fight, surrounded by deranged bouncers, he has a frosty, businesslike calm straight out of the comics, patiently waiting for an enemy to move, before parrying in a flash and retaliating with a series of efficient blows. Meanwhile, his cape is a separate character in its own right, whipping about, stunning enemies into a cowering huddle, and generally making him look like a hardboiled Darth Vader rather than a jumpsuited weirdo in an S&M dressing gown.

Controls are refreshingly simple, your main options being stun, attack, and parry, all mapped to face buttons. Lock-on is automatic, and the animation has a habit of fitting itself in contextually, choosing by itself whether to knee-drop someone, or grab their kicking leg and flip them backwards, say, whenever you press a button, which means that, for the first few attempts at least, you might suspect Arkham is playing itself.

It isn't. Like Assassin's Creed, this is a game of crowd management, and while it moves at a faster pace than Ubisoft's title, it's still generally better to wait for an attack and retaliate rather than wade in swinging, with enemy moves announced in advance by a lightning bolt icon above their heads, giving you time to parry, before daring you to see how many powerful counters you can afford before someone else has a pop.

At the heart of the fighting is the combo system, a time-based arrangement requiring you to chain moves together in order to keep your points multiplier rising. When you're playing well, jumping off someone's chest and landing on someone else's head, before backflipping to unteeth the weirdo coming at you out of the shadows, you'll almost hear a drum-beat in your head, telling you exactly when to hammer the buttons. It's strange enough, after years of disappointments, to find a developer that really understands what a Batman game should feel like, but stranger still, perhaps, to realise that what it should feel like is a mixture of elegant brawling and rhythm action.

They're fun on their own, but far more interesting when you learn to combine them, luring an enemy over to a ledge with a batarang and then clawing them off into space, or embedding the sonic batarang in gel, and taking out five villains at once. With these on your utility belt, Arkham Asylum seems intermittently capable of nailing that same elusive hide-and-seek feel that Riddick possesses, turning stealth into a way to broaden your options as much as narrow them.

So while the challenge rooms offer a very narrow window onto Arkham Asylum, they still leave a promising impression. There are potential problems - the multi-trigger controls needed to use some of the gadgets take a little getting used to, and, elsewhere, the turning speed of the camera is currently stately rather than brisk - but these are small gripes, and relatively early days. As an unlockable, then, this is a lot more interesting than the usual stack of concept art and blurry snaps detailing the developer's last office party; as an indicator of the broader game, however, it shows a promising understanding of the licence, tied to a central realisation that, while any old supersomebody can make you feel heroic, only Batman can make you feel truly dangerous.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Batman: Arkham Asylum

I need this game now.

[SPTO]

Re: Batman: Arkham Asylum

This has to be the first year since I've had my X360 that I feel the need to buy so many games!

This one is definitely on my list.

[NINJAK2]

Re: Batman: Arkham Asylum

gameplay. enjoy..........

http://gdc.gamespot.com/video/6206835/batman-arkham-asylum-silent-knight-gameplay?hd=1&tag=topslot;watchlink;1

[deaduck]

Re: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Man this game looks so sweet.

It has insane graphics and the gameplay looks to be leading towards how I play most RPGs where skillsets are a choice. Sneaking and waiting.

Plus isn't the Batman logo for this just SICK!!!

[Flawless]

Re: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum Silent Knight Gameplay Extended Edition

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/batmanarkhamasylum/video/6207197/batman-arkham-asylum-silent-knight-gameplay-extended-edition?hd=1

[Moses Shuttlesworth]

Re: Batman: Arkham Asylum

I'm gonna try and not view any videos to keep the anticipation up. Did that with KZ2 until the demo and was wooowed.

[Flawless]

Re: Batman: Arkham Asylum

$99 CE

Batman: Arkham Asylum Collector's Edition comes with:

• Waynetech Batarang Storage Box
• 12” In-Game Design Batarang (stand attached)
• Dr Young’s Journal (50 page full color character encyclopedia)
• 2 Sleeve DIGI-Pack Including:
  o Game
  o Behind the scenes 5 chapter series DVD, including:
  o Interviews with Mark Hammil and Kevin Conroy
• Exclusive Collector’s Edition Challenge Map DLC
• Manual

[Jistic]

Re: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Amazing!

[Candyman5]

Re: Batman: Arkham Asylum

$99 CE

Batman: Arkham Asylum Collector's Edition comes with:

• Waynetech Batarang Storage Box
• 12” In-Game Design Batarang (stand attached)
• Dr Young’s Journal (50 page full color character encyclopedia)
• 2 Sleeve DIGI-Pack Including:
  o Game
  o Behind the scenes 5 chapter series DVD, including:
  o Interviews with Mark Hammil and Kevin Conroy
• Exclusive Collector’s Edition Challenge Map DLC
• Manual

Yay, A Batarang.

[Flawless]

Re: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Building An Asylum

When we first started working on Batman: Arkham Asylum and began thinking about what we wanted to achieve with the game it came down to two essential goals. We wanted to create something that was truly authentic to the franchise, but also something really fun.

When we started working on Batman: Arkham Asylum we discovered that Batman has a lot of depth in terms of personality traits, iconic gadgets and an overall style that lends well to artistic creativitiy, which I think is what makes him such a fascinating character. He’s has so many compelling facets that we didn’t want to miss out on, and we certainly didn’t want to focus on one area to the detriment of others. So we started looking at what it is that truly defines Batman, and even before we looked at what the genre of game would be, we had decided we wanted to capture all of these quintessential elements of Batman first - then look at what the genre was.

There are a number of reasons as to why we chose the setting of a Batman game solely within Arkham Asylum. First of all with Batman, a lot of what defines him as a character is his relationship with others, and you need a setting that will allow those relationships to develop. In some respects, I think if that setting is too large you lose a lot of that intimacy with those characters and thus what really defines who he is and who they are. That’s why we wanted something a little more intimate, and we felt Arkham Asylum provided the level of intimacy that we were looking for with this game.

Though “intimacy” is a loose term as the player is free to explore the entire island, but it was very important to us that there was a close proximity between you and the key antagonists throughout the story. The relationship between Batman and his antagonists is extremely important to the game, and these opposing forces should always feel within reach - within touching distance. There are a whole number of other reasons why we chose Arkham, but in terms of the history of the place itself, nearly every important Batman character has been there. It’s been touched by all of them and it’s also the last place in the world Batman would want to be trapped. Combining those elements allowed us to create this ultimate challenge for Batman.

Throughout the game you’re free to explore the whole island – starting off in Intensive Treatment, delivering The Joker, and from there on you escape to the island exterior itself, roaming around the island into different areas such as the medical wing, the penitentiary section, administration, which is in the main classic mansion (which has been re-purposed in order to be used as the administration center), and the botanical gardens. So there are a lot of different areas; all with their own history and style. It’s a fascinating place as it’s been built and repurposed, so you have these layers of history everywhere and every building on the island was created at different times with different purposes in mind and then retro-fitted with different levels of technology in order to service a new role within the island. Each of the different areas presents its own challenges because of what it was built for versus what it has become in terms of an obstacle for Batman to overcome. There’s a massive amount of variety.

One of the most unique things about the game is that you have this classic historical location from the Batman universe that no one has ever realised in its entirety before in any medium, so it’s great to have the chance to do that and we look forward to seeing the fans reactions to it all.

[Flawless]

Re: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Eidos: ‘Batman will be one the stand-out games of 2009’

“We expect Batman Arkham Asylum to not only be the biggest game of the summer but one of the stand-out games of the year,” Eidos’ head of UK marketing Jon Brooke told MCV.

“It’s as close to perfect as we’ve ever come, it looks amazing, plays beautifully and has a rich twisting storyline with enormous replayability. I’m confident enough to say that it will set a new benchmark for licensed games and it’s going to establish itself as one of our best games ever.”

Eidos’ confidence in the product is mirrored in the publisher’s marketing campaign, which will be its biggest of the year.

“We have an extensive four-month advertising campaign beginning with teaser print and online advertising,” explained Brooke.

“This will be followed up with E3 online video activity and heavyweight online, TV and cinema launch support.

“It’s our biggest campaign of the year and we’re really set to make some noise.”

Arkham Asylum was created by Rocksteady Studios.

[Flawless]

Re: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Pic of the $99 CE