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Batman: Arkham Asylum

Dan Stapleton — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:15:43 -0600

The Bat is back

We’ve been saying it for years: The moment they stop messing around with rushed, under-funded movie tie-ins and make a real Batman game, we’ll have a huge hit on our hands. With Arkham Asylum, Rocksteady has proved us right—this game finally does justice to the Dark Knight by recreating the monstrous foes, the dark, gritty atmosphere, and Batman’s legendary fighting skills to near perfection.

Arch nemesis Joker, in particular, is a masterpiece. Voiced by Mark Hamill (reprising the role from Batman: The Animated Series) and modeled and animated with some astonishing detail and lighting, he’s genuinely convincing as the deranged, murderous clown who turns the tables on Batman by seizing control of Arkham, Gotham’s supervillain lock-up.

Fights against these 'roid-raging thugs are exciting, but the game goes back to this well a few times too often.

Arkham itself is a joy to explore. It’s a semi-open world that grows as new areas are unlocked by the story and by Batman’s expanding array of gadgetry; each section is loaded with unique details and secrets planted by the Riddler, and subtle (and some not-so-subtle) changes every time you pass through prevent it from ever getting dull. With PhysX turned on, cosmetic improvements like loose papers picked up by the wind, swaying cobwebs, and crumbling stone walls enhance the atmosphere noticeably.

The single best part of the game—the one that will have you playing over and over in challenge mode—is its amazing fighting system. Anyone can jump in right away and feel like a great fighter taking on a group of five or six of Joker’s thugs, with some basic button-mashing resulting in surprisingly smooth and flowing combat animations. With practice, you’ll get the hang of the finer points of combos and timing, turning you into an unstoppable fighting machine capable of beating the crap out of a dozen or more opponents without them laying a hand on you. Rarely does a game make you feel like this much of a badass.

Sonar's for wimps. Detective vision can see henchmen's tiny brains.

Being a bullet-permeable hero, Batman takes an entirely different approach to armed thugs. Using stealth (and convenient stone gargoyle perches) the goal is to isolate and pick the baddies off one at a time. It can be frustrating for players who prefer a direct approach, but Batman has a secret weapon to speed up the process considerably: Detective Mode. Switching this on allows you to see all nearby enemies through walls, so as long as you look before you leap you’ll never be caught with your pants down when you make your move. It’s so effective, in fact, that we felt guilty using it and left it switched off most of the time. It makes a gorgeous game look ugly, anyway.

If not for some repetitious mini-boss fights, the barely interactive “detective work,” and the checkpoint save system, we’d have virtually nothing negative to say about Arkham Asylum. Even the mouse and keyboard controls, often a weak point of cross-platform third-person action games, are elegantly done and arguably better than the gamepad. This is Batman at his best, and you don’t get much better than that.

No Joke(r), Zotac Releases Batman Edition GTX 285 with Arkham Asylum Coupon

Paul Lilly — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:39:07 -0500

Holy marketing, Batman, have you seen what Zotac has done with its GTX 285!? In a move sure to delight Dark Knight fans, the graphics card maker today announced a new limited edition GTX 285 featuring artwork of Gotham City's caped crusader on the heatsink.

"Batman: Arkham Asylum adventure has received glowing reviews from press all aorund the world just like our Zotac GeForce GTX 285 has. Putting them both together to make the Zotac GeForce GTX 285: Batman Edition was an obvious combination for us," said Carsten Berger, marketing director, Zotac International.

More than just a pairing of artwork to graphics card, Zotac is also bundling in a coupon for a full copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum, which gamers can redeem at Nvidia's nZone, Zotac says.

Perhaps somewhat of a missed opportunity, Batman will have to fight crime using Nvidia's reference clockspeeds. The GTX 285 comes clocked at 648MHz on the core, 1,242MHz on the memory, and pumps the shader clock at 1,476MHz, which are all identical to a stock GTX 285.

No word yet on price or availability.

Image Credit: Zotac via Legit Reviews

Asus Rips Off Batman, Announces "Dark Knight" Line of Videocards

Paul Lilly — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:21:43 -0500

Here's a formula to help boost sales: Take something popular - for example, The Dark Knight - and then apply it to something completely unrelated, like videocards. Of course, copyright concerns could come into play, so be sure and design a character or logo that resembles nothing from which it was borrowed (in this case, steer clear of Batman).

Perhaps we're being too cynical and maybe Asus isn't a fan of DC's comic hero gone big screen. In any event, Asus' new Dark Knight series of videocards will inevitably conjure up thoughts of Christian Bale in his most recent role as Batman, but the new GPUs have no association to arguably the best super hero movie to date. Instead, the "self-designed" Dark Knight branded cards will come with a special heatsink the company claims ups the cooling performance ante while keeping noise levels down.

"The ASUS designed EAH4870 DK and EN9800GTX+ DK Series come equipped with the specially designed Dark Knight Fansink," Asus wrote in a press release. "This innovative fansink is equipped with 4 heatpipes and a large heatsink surface area; and is made of aluminum alloy to deliver extreme cooling while retaining operating levels at only 32dB—almost imperceptible in a quiet room—catering to users who require maximum cooling without excessive fan rotation noise."

The new cards also come with a handful of technologies and buzzwords aimed at attracting the overclocking crowd. These include an EMI shield, DIP spring chokes, LF PAK MOS, and all-solid Japanese capacitors. Put together, Asus claims end users can expect a 9 percent performance improvement while gaming. Utility belt not included.

edit: corrected DC as Batman's publisher.

Image Credit: Asus

Gaming Roundup 8/8/08: Special Cameo Edition

Nathan Grayson — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:45:34 -0500

Yesterday evening, I had the indistinct pleasure of viewing G4's GPhoria gaming awards. GPhoria is odd in that it doesn't take place at the end of a year; rather, it highlighted, in this case, the best games from the second half of 2007 and first half of 2008. Even so, I was fairly surprised when Halo 3 took home GOTSHO07AFHO08 honors. I mean, Halo? Seriously?

But GPhoria is voted for by the fans, which got me to thinking about how different audiences have different expectations, and about how those expectations can shift with time.

See, in my experience, Halo is typically met with derision and utterances of "Moar liek Fail-O" when mentioned in the presence of PC gamers. It is, after all, just a dumbed-down, slow-moving console shooter, right? The first domino in a long, weaving line that wrecked the FPS genre as we know it. Well, except for maybe Half-Life 2. Oh, and TF2. And Call of Duty 4. Also Bioshock. Portal, too. Hey, maybe Halo didn't bring the genre crashing down after all! Actually, I'd say the expanded audience led developers to try new things.

These days, though, gamers are fretting about a new scourge: casual gaming. Where am I going with this? Simple. I believe casual gaming is nothing to worry about. As with the FPS genre, an expanded audience, lured in from casual titles, will inspire great devs to try new things, as well as provide them with more cash to back their games.

So, what's your opinion on so-called "casual" gaming? Whether it be the Wii, Diner Dash, or fan-fave Peggle, how do you think these games and the audiences they attract will affect gaming? Good? Bad? Both? Neither?

At the very least, today's Roundup is dedicated to the hardcore gamer. Past the break, you'll find stories about BioWare's handheld ambitions, John Carmack's stance on PC gaming, and Star Trek Online's upcoming reveal. And more, of course.

Carmack: PC is "junior partner in the cross-platform strategy"

When asked why id is now putting so much of its development prowess behind consoles, Carmack replied:

"Well, it's hard to second guess exactly what the reasons are. You can say piracy. You can say user migration. But the ground truth is just that the sales numbers on the PC are not what they used to be and are not what they are on the consoles. Certainly, piracy is a contributor to that. I also think a lot of the people that bought PC games have bought consoles and are happy with them. We still think the PC is a market worth supporting, but we're not making decision around the PC. It's probably more of the junior partner in the cross-platform strategy, although obviously, our day-to-day development is predominately on the PC."

However, Carmack didn't seem interested in crafting a console exclusive, so he isn't flying a new flag just yet.

Still though, this paints a dreary picture for PC gaming -- at first glance, anyway. Remember, this is the man who said his team's two biggest games aren't going to be released digitally.

Patcher: No Dark Knight tie-in cost EA $70m

The Dark Knight was a smashing success, but when Electronic Arts most needed the caped crusader, he was -- as Batmen are wont to be -- nowhere to be found. Via the Assoicated Press, super-analyst Michael Pachter likely made EA feel some super-regret.

“Based on the record-breaking success of the movie, Wedbush Morgan video game industry analyst Michael Pachter believes a Dark Knight game released at the same time as the blockbuster film last month could have sold 4 million units and banked $100 million — with $70 million going to the game’s publisher and $30 million going to Warner Bros,” read the article.

Well, props to EA for sticking to their newfound guns. Good luck, Pandemic. You now have $70 million worth of pressure riding on your shoulders. So no pres--oh, right.

Mass Effect being considered for DS, says BioWare

"We have a lot of big plans for Mass Effect. Having a DS version would be an awesome way to keep interest alive and keep it going in addition to [Mass Effect 2]," said Miles Holmes, lead designer on Sonic Chronicles.

BioWare also wouldn't mind zapping Jade Empire and Dragon Age with the shrink ray, should they find the time.

For those of you who don't own a DS or PSP, would a full-fledged (non-Sonic) BioWare RPG persuade you to invest in one?

MotionPlus tech not exclusive to Nintendo

This isn't all that surprising. But now, if Microsoft and Sony's respective motion controllers end up paling in comparison to the Wii-mote, they won't have an excuse.

Star Trek Online to debut at 1:30 PM PDT on Sunday

At the official Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas, no less. It'll be in-game footage, too. With any luck, it'll actually be exciting, unlike a certain popular sci-fi show.

Speaking of exciting, what ever happened to that Firefly MMO?

My Video Scrapbook of Precious E3 Memories Part 8: Do You Manscape?

At E3, GayGamer took members of the gaming press aside, put cameras in their faces, and asked them very, er, revealing questions. I was one of those people. This video will also teach you what manscaping is, sans the mental scarring that one might incur from Googling it.

Last but not least, a special word from Max PC Editor in Chief Will Smith.

"I don't have enough to write an entire blog about it, but I just want to say that Braid is the greatest platformer I've played since Super Mario 3, and everyone who has an Xbox should download the demo. I couldn't hit X to buy the whole thing fast enough after I did that.

You can quote me if you want :)"

I'm definitely going to give Braid a download. Are you?

MPAA Says Anti-Piracy Efforts Are Reason Behind The Dark Knight Success

Chris Moody — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:50:03 -0500

You have to love the spin doctors. No not the band, the group of people that are try to put a certain angle on a viewpoint. Specifically the MPAA’s latest claim that The Dark Knight had such a smash opening weekend was because of their efforts against piracy. It couldn’t possibly be because the movie was actually good, could it?

TechDirt.com points out that the MPAA would have us ignore the awesome reviews, that the movie was available in IMAX (which you can't replicate at home), or that the movie was available online right after it was released in their claims.

In the LA Times article that spawned this debate, the MPAA’s argument cites the original Hulk movie. They argue that a rough, early version of the movie by Ang Lee made its way to the internet about two weeks before the film's scheduled premiere which provoked negative reactions from the comic-book’s devoted fans.

"A lot of people decided not to go near it. Hollywood argued, correctly, that many more people would have gone to see it, had online buzz not been so critical of the movie," said Eric Garland, the chief executive of BigChampagne Online Media Measurement, which monitors file-sharing networks. He is later quoted in the article as saying, "If the movie's a stiff, and word gets out too early that it's a stiff, it's devastating to the business model”.

No kidding? So moviegoers should pay to see a movie that’s crap so we don’t devastate the movie industries business model? Hulk grossed $62 million in its first weekend. A respectable amount, but by the second week reviews and word of mouth pushed grosses down 70%. If the leak of the rough version hurt the movie so bad, why did it have to be out for a week for people to turn up their noses at it? Face it the movie stunk.

When your position has such weak standing in the first place, it’s hard to spin the topic in your favor. If the MPAA wants to know why theater attendance is down they just talk to the people, and not try to pin the cause to fit their agenda. Why should a couple spend nearly $30 to get into a movie, plus another $15 on snacks and drinks to sit in some fairly uncomfortable chairs, elbow to elbow with strangers for a mediocre movie? DVDs and home theater make it pretty appealing to wait it out and catch it at home six months later.

In this respect the RIAA and the MPAA are just alike. Technology has changed and is allowing people to make other choices. Their members are creating entertainment designed to fit is a winning “formula”, all while the price on this entertainment goes up. Why are CD sales down? Try making an album that has more than one or two decent songs on it instead of filling it with B-sides. I’d rather go to Amazon.com and buy the one song for around a $1 than pay $15+ for the CD full of crap.

What do you think? Does the MPAA have it wrong?

Comic-Con 08: 10 Kick-Ass Sights From the Show Floor, Day 1

Norman Chan — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:45:15 -0500

So much geeking out to do, with so little time to do it. We’re just about to head back to the San Diego Convention Center to join the 100,000 pop culture fans who’re ready to storm into the show floor. But before we head out to attend today’s festivities (which include a Max Payne movie presentation and Science Fiction discussion panel), we wanted to share with you our favorite snapshots from yesterday’s Preview Night. Families in cosplay, movie props, toys, and geek babes – wish you were here to see it all!

Batman statues and busts at the DC booth. These high-priced collector's items are way out of our budget, but we dare to dream.

Authentic Star Wars replica uniforms. A company called Windlass Studios is selling replica wardrobe from all the Star Wars films. Dressing up as an Imperial Officer or Obi-Wan has never been so easy.

Dharma Initiative booth babes! The Lost alternate reality game makes an appearance at Comic-Con - these ladies seemed to have no problem signing geeks up for shady Dharma Initiative experiments.

Wolverine. He's got the hair, claws, jeans, and grimace. If only he did something about that gut.

Life-sized Iron Monger. We saw the Iron Man Mark I armor at last year's Comic-Con, but this towering Iron Monger prop is much more impressive.

Ah, geek love. As in, "we're in."

Nite Owl's ship from Watchmen. In case you didn't hear, we licked it yesterday.

Portal cosplayer. Never turn your back on the weighted companion cube.

Rorschach Watchmen figurine. It's not a doll, dammit!

X-men family strike a pose. So precious!

Check back for more kick-ass sights from the show floor!

Gaming Roundup 7/22/08: Holy Video Games, Batman!

Nathan Grayson — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:35:00 -0500

Better late than never, right? That seems to be what roughly half of you think about GFW Live finally ditching its subscription fee. The remaining half, then, think Microsoft wizened up too late in the game, and that Steam has already taken home the gold. Personally, I have to say that dropping the fee was a smart move, but it's what Microsoft does next that'll really count. Will they add features that differentiate GFW Live from other services, or was today's announcement just lip service to keep the unwashed masses from becoming belligerent?

Luckily, today's Roundup will provide you with instant gratification where Microsoft couldn't. Whether you're looking for humbled admittances from Nintendo, excellent new titles on Gametap, or proof that the PS3 is actually front-runner in the console wars, the Roundup has you covered.

New York governor signs 'unnecessary' game law

Let's say, for the sake of example, that you're a parent. Each day, after a wholesome, sumptuous meal, your kids take their plates from the dinner table, rinse them, and put them in the dishwasher -- just as they've always done. Then, one day, for no reason, you start throwing an allowance at them for that same action. Doesn't make much sense, does it? That, in a nutshell, is a description of New York's new Game Bill, but with more delicious. The bill requires all video game consoles to include parental lockout features, and for retail games to display ESRB ratings on their packaging by 2010. Welcome to the future, folks.

EA’s Riccitiello: “I don’t care if people write about Take-Two”

Riccitiello has quickly become one of my favorite video game execs. He doesn't shy away from the truth, and the truth is, EA's Take-Two buyout hasn't made any progress in months. “There have basically been three moves and there have 6,000 articles on it," he said. "It’s sort of amusing." The full interview over at Venture Beat is chock full of Riccitiello-isms, such as "investors don't give a sh*t about quality." EA-haters, I dare you to justify your hate.

Iwata: Friends codes aren’t perfect

For all the hate they found themselves buried under after E3, and for all the cash they've been buried under since the approval of their money-printing license, Nintendo has been fairly humble. Along with apologizing to their core base for E3, the big N also admits that Friend Codes aren't so user-friendly. "We will be studying this on an ongoing basis in order to improve Nintendo’s own circumstances where people can freely and safely enjoy the communications through the net.”

Gary Oldman confirms Dark Knight game in the works

No, you won't be needing that BatBox 360 here, because Chris Nolan's dark, brooding Batman is finally entering the world of video gaming. Sadly, that's about all we know for sure at this point, but rumor has it that Pandemic (Mercenaries, Destroy All Humans) is developing, so it should be pretty great. Possible title: "Joker: World in Flames."

GameTap signs partnership with THQ

Looks like Gametap wasn't kidding about that editorial thing. The ad-based service is running full steam ahead, and with titles like Company of Heroes and Dawn of War joining the lineup, I can't wait to see where they go next.

The Ultimate Proof Sony Is Winning

On one hand, this is hilarious, but on the other, it's an interesting look from the outside in.