PlayStation University | www.psuni.com » batman

Batman: Arkham City getting Batcave DLC next month

Nadim — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 23:03:33 +0000

A tweet from @arkhamcitynews confirmed that more DLC is on the way for our caped crusader in the form of challenge maps. As aforementioned in the title, the message stated that an "all new Batcave" along with two other challenge maps would be available for download. The two maps are "Jokers Carnival" and "Iceberg Lounge", which originally were bonuses for those who pre-ordered the game before release. No word yet on pricing, but expect the DLC to hit your digital distributor of choice on December 20th. Source: Twitter

NPD: Battlefield 3, Batman dominate October sales

Joe Garcia — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:12:46 +0000

Several major releases kicked off the holiday game rush in October, and they all met with a good amount of success. However, it was two titles that towered above them all -- according to the NPD, Battlefield 3 sold "just under" 2 million units and Batman: Arkham City sold over 1.5 million to take the top spots. BF3 and Arkham City each shipped a ton of units, so the final sales numbers are unsurprising. id Software's RAGE sold 550,000 copies across all platforms, mighty impressive for a new IP. No specific sales numbers were given for any other titles in the top 10, but here's the full list:

Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)
Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3)
NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PS2, PC)
Rage (360, PS3, PC)
Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360)
Dark Souls (PS3, 360)
Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP)
Forza Motorsport 4 (360)
Gears of War 3 (360)
FIFA Soccer 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2, 3DS)

It was also a good month for hardware sales, although the Xbox 360 led its competitors by a healthy margin:

Xbox 360 - 393,000
PS3 - 250,000 (estimated)
Wii - nearly 250,000
3DS - over 250,000
NDS - nearly 180,000

In all, game sales were good for $1.08 billion, a one percent increase over October 2010. With the onslaught of million-sellers that have already -- and have yet to -- hit this month, November promises to be even bigger. Source: Game Informer

Batman: Arkham City ships 4.6 million copies in first week

Joe Garcia — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:17:31 +0000

When you publish a game based on a license as popular as Batman, you can always expect strong sales. When the game is as good as Batman: Arkham City, those sales can skyrocket. Today, news reaches us that the game has shipped 4.6 million units worldwide in its first week of availability. Holy hype, Batman! It's worth noting that the number represents the number of copies sent to retailers, and doesn't represent the number of copies sold to consumers. Still, you can bet that Warner Bros. Interactive will be raking in the cash regardless, and that those sale numbers can't be too far behind. Source: Destructoid

Batman: Arkham City Review

Joe Garcia — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:43:45 +0000

I wasn’t always this big of a Batman fan, you know. It all started off well enough when I was about five, dressing up as the Bat for Halloween when Batman Returns hit theatres in 1992. Over time, though, I grew bored of the idea of a superhero without super powers, thinking of him as just some rich dude with a bunch of toys and too much time. Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and The Dark Knight films went a long way to helping me get back to enjoying him, but it wasn’t until 2009’s Batman: Arkham Asylum that really sold me on what makes the hero so special. The love and care that Rocksteady Studios put into paying their respect to Batman lore completely sold me, and I’ve been obsessively reading comics ever since. Fast forwarding two years later, we have the chance to play the follow-up to what everyone considers to be the the greatest superhero game ever made, no small feat to be sure. We’ve heard promises telling us that Batman: Arkham City was to be bigger and better than its predecessor in every way, but the bar was already set so high -- can it really be raised again? Yes, yes it can. I’ll just get it out of the way right now: You should buy this game immediately. It manages to deliver on everything that was promised, all without missing a beat along the way. You probably want more details, though, so do read on. The most notable difference between the two games is right there in the title: Arkham City is a much bigger place than Arkham Asylum, a small slice of Gotham set aside for the city’s worst criminals. They’re more-or-less allowed to roam free, with supervillains such as Joker, Two-Face, and Penguin fighting turf wars amongst each other for control. This sits poorly with Batman, and in a great opening 15 minutes he makes his way into the prison city to set the story in motion. And what a story it is. Every aspect of is handled extremely well, with each character’s appearance throughout making sense and never feeling forced or contrived. Better yet, the voice acting is fabulous, with the top-notch work we’ve all come to expect from Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill in his last turn as Joker. We also get to see Nolan North in yet another game, but you definitely won’t recognize him as the Penguin, whom he (unsurprisingly) portrays extremely well. If there’s any issue with the story, however, it’s that most of the boss fights feel like what you’d find in a typical video game, with only one of them forcing you to think as Batman would. The core gameplay is much like what you found in Arkham Asylum: a tremendous mixture of action, stealth, and detective sleuthing that puts you in the Dark Knight’s cowl unlike anything else out there. It’s all still worth speaking about in detail, since it all works so well. The combat isn’t your typical button-masher experience, being much more rhythmic than something like God of War. You can try to get by with mashing the square button, but well-timed button presses, smart countering, and learning enemy tendencies will get you much further. You can also use your gadgets in combat, just as you could in Arkham Asylum. You immediately have access to everything Batman had at the end of AA, while unlocking even more toys as the story progresses. Just as in Asylum, City allows you to use these gadgets in combat, opening up a multitude of options of taking down thugs and hoodlums. Sometimes it's a bit too much, though, and you can trip yourself up trying to use too many gadgets in a single combo. However, if you stick to a few as your bread-and-butter, you’ll find yourself taking down rooms chock full of enemies, racking up enormous combos and feeling like the ultimate badass. At least I did, anyway. Stealth is an equally big part of Batman’s character, and Arkham City builds on what made it so much fun in Asylum. Fundamentally, these “Predator” areas work the same way -- you swing around from one vantage point to the next, waiting for the right moment to take down a room full of armed enemies one at a time until the very last one is about ready to empty his bladder all over the floor. They’re better equipped this time around, though, with some of them wearing thermal goggles to better detect your position, and others carrying proximity mines. While Batman has a way of combating these measures with the right upgrades, you still have to be careful. Then there’s the famous Detective Mode, which is something that every single Batman game before Rocksteady Studios took the helm ignored completely. The argument can be made that the biggest improvements are in this aspect. It was really good in Asylum, but ultimately it was just a “follow the trail to the next section” kind of thing. In City, you actually have to investigate crime scenes, looking for leads in other areas across the map. You wind up following bullet trajectories or searching for signs of a serial killer, and that’s just for the side missions. This time around, it takes some real brains to play the part of The World’s Greatest Detective. Speaking of those side missions, they’re a fantastic addition to the main story, and increase the already-high replayability dramatically. There are twelve of them overall, and while they’re all optional you’ll find yourself compelled to answer that ringing payphone, pick up that Riddler trophy, or stop the two thugs beating on a single defenseless political prisoner. They’re also designed in such a way that you can ignore them all completely without missing anything from the core story, though hardcore Batman fans won’t want to. You can also continue playing the side missions after you beat the core game, so don’t worry if the narrative compels you to continue past the side stuff. If you buy Arkham City new you also get a redemption code that allows you to play a few chapters as Catwoman. They’re no more substantial than any of the side missions, however, and playing as Catwoman isn’t nearly as fun as playing with Batman. Her attacks deal less damage, and she’s not nearly as well-equipped for dealing with a room full of armed goons or getting around Arkham City quickly. Aside from the story, there’s also a tremendous attention to detail in the overall aesthetics. Character models are all brilliantly done -- the Batsuit’s deterioration as the game progresses, the sickly Joker’s sore-covered skin, Mr. Freeze’s suit, and Catwoman’s, um, form...they all shine. The music is also reminiscent of the Nolan films and even The Animated Series, which is fitting considering that writer Paul Dini worked on the show alongside Conroy and Hamill. All in all, the entirety of Arkham City is a dark, dreary place that offers little hope to its inhabitants, with propaganda reminding them that there’s no chance of escape, and warden Hugo Strange telling them that they’re scum over the loudspeakers. As an all-around Batman experience, Arkham City is at least as good as any of the movies, including the brilliant Dark Knight, although the story doesn’t quite reach the peaks of the most brilliant comic arcs (thanks in small part to a Teen rating). However, AC offers something that no other medium can come close to, and that’s the feeling of being Batman. I found myself with a Joker-like grin each time I took out a room full of enemies either with my fists or in silence, or grappling and gliding from one side of the city to the other in just two minutes. Like most games, Arkham City isn’t perfect. The combat can be a little overwhelming if you try to do too much, and the camera can also betray you in tight corners. There also aren’t any fourth wall-breaking moments as were found in Arkham Asylum, and most of the boss fights aren't terribly imaginative. At this point, though, I’m just picking nits. Everything works extremely well and is devoid of the kind of bugs that demand a day-one patch in many of today's games. It does combat better than anything else out there, no stealth game makes you feel as powerful, and it might even be a better detective game than L.A. Noire (if those sections were long enough). Buy this game, armed with the knowledge that you're buying the best game of the year. You'd be batty not to. Final Grade: A+

Five Great Games by Formerly Unproven Developers

Joe Garcia — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:43:04 +0000

With the maturation of game design and technology, we’re surrounded by an awful lot of great software. You can pick up any modern game controller or handheld and immediately have a choice of great games to interact with, and we owe much of that to some masterful developers that have been delighting gamers for years now. Of course, we’re also pleasantly surprised by the handful of AAA games from studios that have never pulled off anything like that before. Whether their previous games kind of sucked or they jump right into the deep end and start cranking out great content immediately, the following games and studios came out of nowhere to delight the masses.

Crash Bandicoot - Naughty Dog

This article is pretty much the converse of what I wrote last year, and Naughty Dog was on that list, too. That article, though, was in the spirit of bringing the big wigs down a peg, and from the ashes of Way of the Warrior rose Crash Bandicoot. Not unlike Square’s original Final Fantasy, Crash Bandicoot was a last-ditch effort to keep the studio afloat. Despite Way of the Warrior’s dismal budget (and quality), Universal Interactive Studios signed Naughty Dog to do three more games ... games that would end up being the first three games in the Crash Bandicoot series. The first Crash was a ton of fun to play at the time, although now it’s essentially just another ultra-linear platform game. It still plays well, though, and it was refreshing to have an animal mascot that didn’t spew annoying one-liners every seven seconds.

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions - Beenox

Beenox is a studio that have actually existed since the year 2000, although it would be a whole decade before they’d have their first breakout hit with last year’s Shattered Dimensions. In those ten years, they managed to keep themselves busy porting games for Activision -- 41 ports across Mac, PC, and Wii. The only original games that they’d worked on included movie tie-ins Monsters vs. Aliens and Bee Movie Game, as well as Guitar Hero: Smash Hits. When Activision announced that they were the studio chosen to work on a new Spider-Man game, people were understandably skeptical. As it turns out, Activision was absolutely right in letting them handle the Spidey franchise. The idea behind the game was ambitious as hell: controlling four different Spider-Men from four different Spidey dimensions, while ditching the open-world structure of previous games and going with a linear level-to-level approach. This worked beautifully, allowing each Spider-Man to shine in three of his own levels for a little under an hour each. Now Beenox is ready to ship Spider-Man: Edge of Time in October. While it’ll only star two of the four Spideys from SD, those two were my favorites to play as. Needless to say, it’s a game you should be looking forward to.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - MercurySteam

MercurySteam have made four games, including Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. The three games that preceded it were American McGee Presents: Scrapland (meh), Zombies for Nokia cellphones (lolwut), and Clive Barker’s Jericho (more meh). Not exactly a commanding body of work, that.

As such, it wasn’t surprising that Konami held off from saying that Lords of Shadow was a new Castlevania game when it was originally announced. Since previous 3D Castlevania games were less-than-pleasant, with Hideo Kojima involved as well, it simply wouldn’t have computed. When they finally did say that it was a new ‘Vania, it still didn’t. A little over a year later, we were singing the game’s praises. Lords of Shadow was one of the best-looking games of the year, while using and upgrading the Combat Cross was always satisfying.

Platform-exclusive content for Batman: Arkham City? Not this time

Joe Garcia — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:42:22 +0000

Gamers will no doubt remember that 2009 Game of the Year contender Batman: Arkham Asylum launched with content that was exclusive to the PlayStation 3, namely challenge maps that allowed players the opportunity to play as the Joker. This time around, though, Rocksteady Studios are bypassing any sort of favoritism towards any one gaming platform, instead opting to deliver the same game to everyone regardless of what they prefer to play games on. At Gamescom last week, Rocksteady marketing manager Dax Ginn was interviewed by Gamespot, and had the following to offer when asked about the potential for platform-exclusive content for Arkham City:

"We're really treating gamers very equally regardless of which platform they want to play the game on. The plan at the moment is really to deliver the same game across all platforms."

Of course, platform-exclusive content isn't the same as retailer-exclusive content, and there will be plenty of ways to dress up Batman in-game depending on where you decide to preorder or purchase the game. There are six alternate costumes being served up for the game, and you can get some backstory on each of them right here. Source: Gamespot

Mr. Freeze chills summer heat in new Batman: Arkham City trailer

Joe Garcia — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 19:23:33 +0000

With the release of a new trailer we get to see yet another villain from the upcoming Batman: Arkham City in action. In this case, it's Dr. Victor Fries, or Mr. Freeze as he makes himself known to Bats. In the trailer we see Mr. Freeze make some demands of The Caped Crusader, though I'm not too sure if they'll bare any fruit for the coolest (hurr hurr) villain in Gotham City. With the addition of Mr. Freeze, that's quite the roster of villains that Batman will have to deal with in Arkham City. In addition to Freeze, we'll see The Joker, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, The Riddler, Two-Face, The Penguin, Zsasz, Hugo Strange, and Talia al Ghul, as well as Catwoman and Bane as allies. Phew. The game releases on October 18th. My body is ready.

Applications for Gotham City Impostors closed beta open up

Joe Garcia — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 18:16:46 +0000

Remember back in May, when it was announced that WB Interactive were publishing a Batman game without Batman, and that it would be a first-person shooter? I was confused (if not intrigued), and chances are that you were, too. Well, now's your chance to see what exactly Monolith Productions have in mind for their faction-based downloadable title. They've just opened up an official website for the game, along with a page that allows you to apply for an upcoming closed beta. You'll be able to apply for either the PS3, Xbox 360, or PC; all you have to do is provide them with your email address, birth date, and zip code, and you'll be contacted if you're selected to participate. While the premise of the game is definitely strange, Monolith are responsible for quality games such as the first two F.E.A.R. games and the Condemned series. At the very least, we should end up with a competent shooter when it's all said and done.

The Stories Behind the Batman: Arkham Asylum Skins

Joe Garcia — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 15:44:23 +0000

The good news is that on Monday, ArkhamCity.co.uk got the scoop on five different skins that players will be able to equip while playing the upcoming Batman: Arkham City, and by all accounts they’re all friggin’ terrific. The bad news is that Warner Bros. still haven’t announced plans for a worldwide release of all the skins, meaning that for now players will be left with having to preorder the game from all over the world to be able to use all of them. Now, we’re just going to go ahead and assume that WB has the foresight to realize that people all across the planet love the Batman and will figure it out in due time. With that said, that’s an awesome variety of different Batmen! It’s all very exciting for hardcore fans of the Caped Crusader, but casual fans may be left wondering what all of the fuss is about. Well, glad you asked. What follows is a brief summary of the backstory behind each of the alternate costumes. 1970’s Batman No matter what your level of Batman expertise, there’s a good chance that you at least have a passing knowledge of the super-campy TV series that starred Adam West in the 1960s. You know the one: Batman and Robin in goofy spandex, West’s dry delivery, wacky Batgadets, and visual sound effects galore. While it was fun, it grew tiresome quickly. So what the 1970s costume represents is a return to form after two decades of camp and declining comic sales, with DC Comics bringing Batman back to what made him great in the first place -- gritty detective stories. Part of the change included a costume that looked like something that a proper avenger of the night would wear, rather than a set of pajamas that could double as an crappy Halloween costume. Finally, this also saw the introduction of what would become a widely used logo that would be seen across several incarnations of the Bat, including two Tim Burton films. The Dark Knight Returns While the 1970s were a great time for Batman comics, sales continued to decline into the 1980s. That is, until Frank Miller came along and delivered what many consider to be the finest Batman story ever told. If you’re wondering why Bats is looking a little bloated, that’s because in The Dark Knight Returns Bruce Wayne is 55-years-old. Well past his physical prime, he makes a return to crime-fighting after ten years in retirement, distraught by the increase in violent crime in his absence. You see Batman struggle with his own mortality in a world in which his fellow heroes are cast into retirement, either of old age or anti-vigilante attitudes. It is the exact opposite of what Batman was just twenty years prior -- dark, vengeful, and fucking frightening if you’re on the wrong side of the law. If you have even a passing interest in Batman or badassery in general, do read it. Batman: The Animated Series Before Christopher Nolan started making Batman movies, this was the high watermark for seeing the Caped Crusader in motion. It differentiated itself from the other Saturday morning cartoons that it was running alongside by being much more mature and story-driven than what kids were used to seeing, all wrapped up in a magnificent art deco style. The best part of the show is that it was where the major contributors to Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City first collaborated. Paul Dini was a writer for the show and penned both games, as well as the prequel Arkham City comic series. He also created Harley Quinn for the show, who became so popular that she became a regular character in Batman lore. The brilliant Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, who respectively voice Batman and Joker, also worked on the show. In fact, the only change in Arkham City is the voice of Quinn, who went from The Animated Series’ and Arkham Asylum’s Arleen Sorkin to Tara Strong. Basically, Rocksteady’s games come full circle with much of the great talent that made TAS special, and there’s something wonderfully meta about reprising Kevin Conroy’s role from almost 20 years ago with this skin. Batman Beyond Above: Image from ~Gaff1229 of deviantART When Batman Beyond was shown to people a few years after TAS ended its glorious run, fans were skeptical. At first glance, it seemed to betray what DC had built over the previous decades. When it was all said and done, it was an Emmy-winning show that was more than worthy of the Batman moniker. Set in 2039, Bruce Wayne (once again voiced by Conroy) is no longer capable of fighting due to his old age, and a 16-year-old named Terry McGinnis stumbles upon Wayne Manor after a fight against the Jokerz street gang. While there, Terry finds the entrance of the Batcave, and Bruce angrily kicks him off the premises. When Terry gets home, he finds his father murdered, and he goes back to take the Batsuit and exact his revenge. Bruce reluctantly agrees, and eventually offers him the chance to assume the role of Batman. The funny thing about this costume is that you’ll be playing a teenage Batman, which is something that has never happened before or since Beyond. History! Batman: Earth One Finally, we arrive at the final costume. I left this one for last for a couple of reasons: First, I did this list chronologically, from first introduced to last. Second, this one costume is so recent that ... well, Batman: Earth One isn’t out yet. So far, all that’s known about the upcoming Earth One series is that it will be an origin story retold in a more modern setting, and that it’s expected to release sometime in 2011. That’s right -- you’ll most likely have to chance to play as Earth One Batman before you get to read him. That’s kinda nuts, right?

Rocksteady releases a batch of new Arkham City shots

The Dean — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 15:28:21 +0000

When Rocksteady released its last batch of Batman: Arkham City screenshots, it pretty much blew awaiting gamers away. After all, Arkham City is the sequel to what many considered to be the Game of the Year in 2009 -- and if it wasn't for Uncharted 2, it definitely would've been. Today, Rocksteady has released ten more incredible looking shots of the upcoming game and they're going to create even more anticipation for you than before. I've included one of these shots below, but you can check out the full gallery of them here.