Batman: Arkham Origins takes place early into the career of the caped crusader. According to developer WB Montreal, Origins will show off a "rawer, scarier Batman." So, of course they got the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog to play Batman this time around. (We're not kidding.)
Read more: The surprising voice actor behind the new Joker »
Fans feel rightfully cautious whenever a beloved franchise switches developers. Batman Arkham Origins is the first game in the Arkham series developed outside of series progenitor Rocksteady. The newly established WB Montreal assumes development duties on this prequel. Fans are undoubtedly going to question if an untested, unproven team can make a Batman game worthy of the Arkham label. Based on an early hands-on with the game, it appears Montreal doesn't plan on changing the formula too much. Instead, Origins largely follows the blueprint established by Arkham City.
The Arkham series loves making its villains playable as DLC. In Arkham Asylum, you could play as the Joker in free PS3-exclusive DLC. In Arkham City, you could play as Catwoman in a story integrated into the main campaign--provided you bought a copy of the game new. And in Arkham Origins, you'll be able to play as Deathstroke, provided you pre-order the game from Amazon.
The Batman: Arkham franchise has spawned two excellent console games and a surprisingly decent mobile spin-off. Can its magic translate into yet another medium: the board game?
Arkham City Escape is a two player board game that "pits Batman against all of his greatest foes as they try to escape Arkham." One player plays as Batman while the other player controls all the villains. "There are 40 of Batman's enemies available to play, each with exclusive special abilities, all trying to escape the clutches of the Dark Knight by taking hostages and fleeing Arkham," Cryptozoic Entertainment explains.
A lot of people still don't really get how FreeFlow works in the Batman: Arkham series. Given its focus on counters, button mashing doesn't get great results. You may be able to get by, but you certainly won't be able to achieve the same combo counts as some of the masters of the game.
"The challenge rooms really taught me a lot," creative director Eric Holmes said. "They teach you more than anything is 'you don't know how to play the game when you're playing the campaign.'"
Read more: Difficulty not changed because Arkham is 'mainstream' »
While all eyes may be on Batman: Arkham Origins, there's plenty reason to be excited about the 3DS/Vita spin-off game, Blackgate. Set after the events of Origins, the handheld game is being developed by Armature, a studio made up of veterans from Metroid Prime dev Retro Studios. Unlike the console game, Blackgate is a 2D Metroidvania game, which has Batman investigating the titular prison.
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges of adapting the Arkham games to the second dimension is adjusting the well-received "FreeFlow" combat of Rocksteady's original games. Game director Mark Pacini says that Blackgate's combat needed to be built "from the ground up," and takes large inspiration from the 2003 Korean movie Oldboy.
Given the mad success of the Batman: Arkham games, it's unsurprising that Warner Bros is keen to work on another entry in the money-making franchise. The media conglomerate recently registered a number of key domains, suggesting that an Arkham something is in the works.
Read more: Arkham Legends, Arkham Origins registered as well »
Note: This review includes spoilers from Batman: Arkham City.
Harley Quinn's Revenge is everything Batman fans have been waiting for from Arkham City DLC. This isn't a collection of costumes or challenge maps, but a honest-to-goodness expansion of the campaign. With voice acting, to boot. Taking place immediately after the events of the main story of Arkham City, it places you in the shoes of both Batman and Robin--an enticing proposition that should make the $10 asking price "worth it."
Little is known about the Wii U version of Batman: Arkham City. In fact, all we know is that it exists.
There are those that know much more about the game, however. For example, Epic Games' Mark Rein has seen the game running on Nintendo's next console. Speaking at Game Developers Conference, Rein noted that the Unreal Engine-powered game won't be a straight port of the PC/PS3/Xbox 360 game.
Batman: Arkham City is a great game, earning the 3rd spot on our Game of the Year list. But would it have been a better game had it featured a multiplayer component?
Game director Sefton Hill argued that it would have seriously diminished the game. "If we did multiplayer then we wouldn't have been able to deliver the quality of game that people wanted--that we wanted," he said. "We would end up delivering two watered down products."
Read more: 'It always felt like it was just there as a requirement' »
Batman: Arkham City gets yet another slate of DLC today. Thankfully, at least some of it is free.
"We have had an amazing release of Batman: Arkham City and we wanted to thank you all for your incredible support before, during and after the game's release," game director Sefton Hill said in a thank you letter to fans. "As a token to our appreciation, we'll be offering a brand new, totally super sweet, Batman Inc. Batsuit skin absolutely free!"
Shock! There's going to be another Batman: Arkham game. Titled Batman: Arkham World, the game was teased during the Spike TV Video Game Awards during the "acceptance speech" for Joker, who won the Best Character award from the show.
While accepting the award, the CG animated Joker held up a script for "Batman: Arkham World," saying "whoops, spoilers."
Are you hungry for more Batman: Arkham City? While Rocksteady hasn't said a word about DLC beyond the upcoming map pack, you'll be able to sate your appetite with a new Batman: Arkham-themed app for iOS. The universal app, compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, has already been released in Australia, and is likely coming to the States soon.
Developed by NetherRealm Studios (aka the Mortal Kombat team), Batman: Arkham City Lockdown appears to be a side-scrolling brawler.
You've solved every Riddler challenge, collected all of Catwoman's loot, and conquered every challenge map as Robin and Nightwing. So, now what?
Rocksteady isn't quite done doling out DLC for Batman: Arkham City. December 20th marks the next expansion for the Batman simulator, and it appears to be a map pack.
It's only been a few weeks since the release of Batman: Arkham City, but Rocksteady has already pushed out its first bit of DLC for the game. Nightwing is available on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network for $7 (560 Microsoft Points). And what does it include? It includes a fully playable Nightwing for use in the challenge maps, and two additional maps for all characters to run through.
But is it really worth the asking price?
"Could be that they're going to flash back and forth between present-day and origin-time period ..."
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