Batman Almost Pulls A Joker On Us … Almost

Arkham Knight Season Pass Details Announced

Several days ago, I had the wind taken out of my bat-sails when WB Games announced the season pass for the upcoming Batman: Arkham Knight game would be $40, and NO specifics were given. All anyone could guess was the pass included new story missions, challenge maps, and maybe a few character skins. Of course, the internet cries were loud and clear: How the heck could WB Games expect people to pay an extra $40 on top of the $60 initial purchase price on essentially a blind leap of faith?

It was destined to be the lone smear in the magnificent history of the Arkham games, but fortunately, publisher WB Games has performed a mea culpa, sort of: It's announced the first details of the content inside the $40 season pass, and I kind of like it.

As part of the new pass, players will be able to play in an original prequel storyline as Batgirl. It's not known how long the campaign will be, but it's a great addition to the Batman universe considering Barbara Gordon now serves as Bruce's wheelchair-bound in-ear support, Oracle. Might we see events leading up to her partial paralysis at the hands of the Joker? We can only hope.

First artwork for Batgirl prequel storyline

Other content that will make up the $40 season pass include: new Batman story missions, with the promise of "legendary super villains invading Gotham City," and players being able to drive different versions of the Batmobile throughout the Caped Crusader's 75-year history on custom race tracks. The "super villains" line has me a bit concerned. I'm not the biggest fan of DLC, and I'd hate to see key baddies get held out of the main storyline.

As for the new Batmobile tracks, I can't really say if I'm excited or not since I haven't had any hands-on time with the new Batmobile mechanics in Arkham Knight. All of the previews look fantastic, but nothing beats having some one-on-one time with the game. All I know is I better see the 1989 Tim Burton Batmobile and the Batman Begins-era Tumbler. Those are my two favorite iterations of the Bat's ride.

Finally, the last piece of content in the pass will include the expected set of challenge maps and character skins. I've never been one to applaud the challenge maps or skins in Arkham, but I know people dig 'em, so I shouldn't complain. In any case, WB is promising more details soon, but it's good to at least have a peek under the DLC hood ahead of the game's release next month. I'm not sure if I'm ready to say the $40 purchase price is justified, but it's definitely got my attention.

Batman Arkham Knight releases June 24th on PS4, XBOX One, and PC.

It's A New Day In Arkham

Batman: Arkham Origins Takes Big Leap Into Multiplayer

Batman. A superhero with no superpowers...unless of course, you count his bank account having the ability to regenerate at an extraordinary rate.

Still, the Caped Crusader is hailed as one of the most influential and important superheroes around, and I can't help but smile at how respectful the Arkham video game franchise has been to the mythos of the Batman, including the upcoming Arkham Origins game.

Joker can throw a hell of a housewarming!

Starting back in 2009, a little powerhouse developer known as Rocksteady released a beautiful game called Batman: Arkham Asylum. The hype was palpable, but it didn't really start out that way. As the game got closer to launch, I remember how bad I could taste the game. It got a lot of coverage considering they were using the original voice of Kevin Conroy as the Dark Knight and Mark Hamill as the Joker. In some shameful honesty, the game didn't really fly too high on my radar due to the track record of awfulness that previous Batman games have had. I wasn't holding my breath. But then, like a remote controlled batarang to the back of my head, something magical happened: the game was phenomenal. Now, I'm hoping we can capture lightning in a bottle twice with this latest entry of the Arkham franchise.

I don't think anyone ever doubted that the sequel to Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, wouldn't live up to the hype. It totally did, delivering an even grander scale of environments than the first game, and a villain roster that would make Harvey Dent's bad-side blush. However, I don't think the same could be said of this next game in the esteemed franchise, especially because it's a prequel...At least, not at first.

Deathstroke: a stroke of genius

Arkham Origins had a rocky start (pun intended) when it was announced. The main reason? Rocksteady wasn't developing it. The team behind the first two marvelous games decided to pass the torch to another developer, while it goes off to develop some other gem (which may end up being a next-gen Arkham game...just my hypothesis). Instead, Warner Bros. Montreal decided to take the reins and give us a gritty take of the Dark Knight as he starts to make a name for himself in Gotham City. With the idea of a more inexperienced Batman at the helm, this became concern #1 in my book. how could I play as a fallible Batman? And how was an Arkham game going to strive without Rocksteady?

These Two: Bosses

Concern #2 came along when it was discovered that Kevin Conroy would NOT be reprising his role as Batman; well, at least in this iteration. You can click here to learn more about what I'm talking about. Anyway, adding onto Concern #2 was the already well known fact that Mark Hamill was also NOT going to be back as the Joker. For too long both these men have been synonymous with their fictitious counterparts, and it's a little jarring to hear the news that they weren't going to be involved.

My last concern: Black Mask was going to be one of the main antagonists. Now, hear me out first. I'm not saying that he's not worthy of the opportunity to make Batman's life a living hell, but Black Mask was alwys one of those villains who was too cartoonish, never really bringing out major character developments from the Batman/Bruce Wayne the way Joker or Scarecrow could. That is of course, until I saw this initial trailer for the game.



Did you have fun? Are the endless possibilities of this game starting to get you excited? I know it did for me, and this trailer didn't even have the more classic Batman villains in it.

Anyway, my negative perception of Arkham Origins really started to sway after this trailer. Granted, it's a full CG trailer that doesn't reveal any tidbit of gameplay, but it's a great start. The near 5-minutes of awesomeness showed me many things: where the story is going, the mood of the game, the ferocity that is still intact of the Arkham series. But it also showed me one other major thing: a franchise willing to take a risk.

Black Mask looks to play a major role this time around

Arkham Origins is clearly not going to settle with the same formula of its predecessors. Any concerns of the inclusion of bottom-tier villains should've subsided after seeing how brutal Deathstroke was in his scuffle with Batman. My fears were also quelled when I saw Deadshot and Black Mask pull their weight, intimidating fans worldwide. And then it hit me! Holy crap, you can have a full game with these villains alone and it'd still be awesome, and yet, there are still more villains that have been confirmed for the game that we haven't even seen yet, including Penguin, Bane, and the laughbox of terror himself, the Joker.

Roger Craig Smith has a nice resume

And then the good news continued to roll. The voice actors taking over for Conroy and Hamill were revealed to be two very well respected talents in the industry. Batman is being voiced by Roger Craig Smith, who's better known to the world as Ezio Auditore from Assassin's Creed and Chris Redfield from Resident Evil, while Joker is being voiced by Troy Baker, who's played the lead roles in Bioshock: Infinite and The Last Of Us (seriously...go play this game already!!!).

And then more good news. All of the major gaming sites were able to get their hands on a demo of the game at E3 this year, and they're proud to report the gameplay is very similar to the previous Arkham games and then some! There are said to be some nice improvements to detective mode, gadgets, and combat, as well as another villain reveal, one which I never knew about until recently, Copperhead. And to be honest, she looks deadlier than all of my ex-girlfriends combined, minus the whole contortion stuff. Check out the reveal trailer below.



I don't know if I should feel terrorized or aroused? Anyway, brace yourselves for another youtube video...because this is actually going to be a lot like going to the Olive Garden: it sounds like a bad idea, but my God is it delicious.



MULTIPLAYER!!! The 4-syllable word that forces gamers to gouge their eyeballs and start shooting black-tar heroin. It was recently announced that Origins will include an adversarial multiplayer...but it's an adversarial multiplayer with a twist -- 3 VS. 3 VS. 2 -- You may now proceed with draining the brain ooze.

Three teams of players will be going at each other in a conquest/deathmatch game-type comprised of heroes and villains. Batman and Robin will be perched in stealth/darkness while trying to take down two other teams of rival gangs made up of Joker's and Bane's goons.

Excuse me, sir. You've got red on you

Why am I so excited about this mode? Well, because it fits so well into this universe. And it's also being developed by another team so that way WB Montreal can focus on delivering an epic single player experience. In any case, if you take a closer look at this multiplayer, it seems to resemble another popular game, and one of my favorite Online games, Splinter Cell. The stealth and gunplay of the three different teams makes it appear to draw heavily from Splinter Cell's "Spies vs. Mercs" game type. And that's not a bad thing, because Spies vs. Mercs had the potential to include some of the fiercest and memorable online multiplayer experiences in gaming.

All in all, I cannot wait for Arkham Origins. As we inch close to that October release date of the game, Origins continually impresses me and I don't want it to stop. I'm kind of a pain in the ass to impress, especially when it comes to Batman. But Origins seems to be hitting all the right notes it needs to: Story, Presentation, Originality, Consistency, and Depth. Now all I need is a bat-gadget that makes time slip by faster.

New Batman Arkham Asylum Deets and my gripe with Co-op

So I know it's been a while since the news broke, but the good ol boys over at Rocksteady studios are finally letting the cat out of the "bat" when it comes to it's sequel to the 2009 hit game "Batman Arkham Asylum." If any of you have ever loved Batman, heck, even comic books in general, then you'll understand why this game is important to the nerd landscape.

Anyway, down to the juicy deets. Apparantly, the game is now stretching its wings out of Arkham Island and into Gotham City...but not entirely. It seems the overzealous Warden Sharp has decided to set up a makeshift prison inside Gotham, which may open up some possibilities in terms of how we can explore the area. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop anyone?

Besides the location, Rocksteady is promising to include additional villains in the game, which shouldn't be too hard given the fact that the Batman universe has arguably the finest villain line-up in comic book lore. Finally, I can batarang Mr. Freeze till his balls drop. However one interesting thing to point out is that on the latest issue of Game Informer, which is the source of all this bat-tastic news, is the spotlight on Catwoman, which is leaving many to speculate the inclusion of co-op in the game.

Here's my problem. What makes Batman great as a video game is the fact he operates mainly as a lone vigilante. Sure he joins up with Robin, Nightwing, and anyone else I don't care to think about, but we all love the concept of one man kicking everyone's ass. Adding Catwoman to the single player game is just a gimmick. Case in point, look at the biggest violator...Resident Evil 5. The RE series is all about tension and fear, and when you add another person into the equation it kills that sense of being alone and fending for yourself against hordes of zombies (which need to make a comeback by the way). Same goes for Batman. Developers need to get to the essence of what their story and protagonist are all about and determine what's the best route to take when including new gameplay types.

I'm not saying co-op is bad, but give me the experience as a standalone piece if it doesn't fit into the context of the story. The best way to do this is to do what the Splinter Cell series has done. That series gave us a satisfying single player campaign, and then added an entirely new mechanic that takes advantage of having another buddy...not to mention making a unique story to go along with it. 

Anyway, I'll be drooling for this game until its release date next fall. Until then, here's some more info on The Dark Knight's next digital adventure:  http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/111/1111550p1.html