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Batman:Arkham Asylum - Out Now (PS3/360) Not Out Now (PC/EU/AU damnit)
Hitsuraptor
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
DEMO OUT NOW
PS3 Demo - On PSN Network
PC Demo - http://www.batmanarkhamasylum.com/demo
360 demo - http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802534307f6/
Release Dates
PS3/360 -
NA - 25th August 2009
EU - 28th August 2009
AU - 3rd September 2009
PC
NA - 15th September 2009
EU - 28th August 2009
AU - 24th September 2009
Eurogamer Preview
Inside the Game
The PC system requirements are as follows:
Minimum System Requirements:
OPERATING SYSTEM: Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, or 7
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3GHz or AMD Athlon 64 3500+
RAM: 1GB for Windows XP 2GB for Windows Vista / Windows 7
GRAPHICS: nVidia 6600 or ATI 1300
SOUND : Microsoft Windows XP/Vista compatible sound card (100% DirectX 9.0c -compatible)
DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
HARD DRIVE: 9GB free disk space
INPUT DEVICES: 100% Windows XP/Vista compatible mouse and keyboard
Recommended System Requirements:
OPERATING SYSTEM: Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, or 7
CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4Ghz) or Athlon 64 X2 4600+
RAM: 2GB for Windows XP / 3GB for Windows Vista / Windows 7
GRAPHICS: nVidia 9800GTX or ATI 3870
SOUND : Microsoft Windows XP/Vista compatible sound card (100% DirectX 9.0c -compatible)
DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
HARD DRIVE: 9GB free disk space
INPUT DEVICES: 100% Windows XP/Vista compatible mouse and keyboard / Xbox 360 Controller for Windows
II. Features
Collector's Edition
Voice Cast:
Scans of the Journal that comes with the collector's edition
(May contain some real spoilers/Possibly a list of all the villians?)
Gameplay
Preview of the Jokers (PS3 ONLY) predator gameplay
More Videos here
Screenshots
Viral Marketing Campaign Early access to patient interviews
http://www.gothamcitymunicipal.com/
http://www.arkhamcare.com/
How-to (If you want to do it yourself)
Just the Good Stuff
PS3 Demo - On PSN Network
PC Demo - http://www.batmanarkhamasylum.com/demo
360 demo - http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802534307f6/
Release Dates
PS3/360 -
NA - 25th August 2009
EU - 28th August 2009
AU - 3rd September 2009
PC
NA - 15th September 2009
EU - 28th August 2009
AU - 24th September 2009
Eurogamer Preview
EUROGAMER- In some ways, Batman is the comic book hero most suited to videogames. Unlike Superman, he's not irritatingly invulnerable; unlike the Hulk, no-one expects him to do anything too CPU-intensive, like destroy an entire city; most importantly, unlike Spider-Man, he isn't saddled with a phoned-in Tobey Maguire voice track that makes him sound like he's battling evil while strung out on Co-codamol. Instead, all Batman needs is a natty cape, two fists, and access to the world's most elaborately deadly issue of the Innovations catalogue.
But look deeper, and it's not so simple. Batman, above all other superheroes, is defined by a particular mood, a brooding eternal midnight built from shadows, claustrophobic alleyways and Halloween freaks; a world, in a word, of fear. It's not just a case of turning down the lights and breaking a few windows, either: you can't fake Gotham City's stylish urban menace, and you can't fake the sense of dread that Batman engenders in his foes. And if you haven't got dread in your Batman game, chances are you haven't actually got a Batman game.
That's why Arkham Asylum is looking promising. It's got the brooding architecture and famous faces, but it's also fitting out its hero as a man who lets his fearsome reputation do a lot of the work for him: in close combat, he can't be beaten, but when the weapons come out, although he can certainly take a few more machinegun rounds than I could, compared to most videogame characters he's made out of old Kit-Kat wrappers and Marmite. With no magic powers, he has to spook his foes, freaking them out and softening them up before swooping in to finish the job.
This curious mixture - flashes of real power wedged tightly against moments of extreme weakness - seems likely to define the pace of the title, but it's currently hard to tell how well the combination will work in the long term. The developers, Rocksteady Studios, are still not ready to reveal exactly how the story fits together, so for now, we can only get a sense of Arkham Asylum's central mechanics by playing two of the game's challenge rooms.
'Batman: Arkham Asylum' Screenshot 1
Detective vision reduces your enemies to skeletons. It's like that Chemical Brothers video, but without the Chemical Brothers. And with Batman.
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.
At the very least, they suggest that this is one attractive loony bin, filled with pretty dereliction and inviting shadows, peopled by a range of terrifying freaks who appear to have gone insane after a diet composed of tattoo ink, face paint, and steroids. It's often overstated just how much the Unreal Engine guides the look of a game - Epic's tech was capable of turning out Mirror's Edge's lithe chimney-hoppers as well as Gears' rock-fisted grunts, but there's a certain shock of the familiar the first time you see the hulking lump of Batflesh you will be controlling. Massive and weighty, it's initially hard to picture this particular caped crusader swinging from the rafters without bringing most of the roof down as well, but once you see him in motion, all of that changes.
'Batman: Arkham Asylum' Screenshot 2
Leaderboards, eh? Some nutter at Rocksteady, who presumably fights crime in his own time while not fiddling about with pixel shaders - has completed Silent Knight in under a minute.
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.
It's brawling that the first of the challenge rooms focuses on. Intensive Treatment (both rooms have the kind of punning titles that might make the Dark Knight let out a mirthless chuckle) is essentially a hand-to-hand variation of Gears 2's Horde mode, matching you off against increasingly deadly combinations of bad 'uns and asking you not just to flatten everyone (which is easy) but to flatten them while looking good (which isn't).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.
'Batman: Arkham Asylum' Screenshot 3
No sign of Robin! Hooray! Hopefully Bat-Mite's unlockable, though...
The second challenge room, Silent Knight, is a little more thoughtful, showcasing a mode known, worryingly, as Invisible Predator. Happily, rather than an Yvette Fielding Living TV documentary exploring the wacky dangers of kitchen-based bacteria, it's actually another variation on room clearance, focusing on mazelike level design, and exchanging skill points for a timer as leaderboard currency. The agenda is the same, but the emphasis is completely different. You've seen Batman at his most powerful: this is him at his most vulnerable, with heavily-armed enemies turning a simple combat scenario into a stealthy assault course.
As gunfire is so deadly, the game quickly finds a new groove, alternately swooping in for a one-button takedown before zipping back up to safety with the auto-locking grapnel gun, ducking bullets as you try to lose yourself in shadows to plan your next move. Victory is about strategy: as you take goons out, the survivors will get increasingly panicky, and more prone to blindly firing into the darkness, while a press of LB switches you to Detective Mode, a kind of heat vision where you can instantly see where everybody is, what weapons they're carrying, and how freaked out they've become. But the standout element is the gadgets mapped to the d-pad: the batarang can be used to stun enemies or simply create a distraction, while a sonic variation gives you thirty seconds of pulsing sound, the batclaw blasts out on a wire to grab distant attackers and yank them off gantries, and the explosive gel can be sprayed onto the surroundings and detonated at your convenience.
'Batman: Arkham Asylum' Screenshot 4
As any Batman fan will know, it's all about the length of the ears. Arkham Asylum is more Brian Bolland than Jim Lee.
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.
Batman: Arkham Asylum is due out for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC this year.
But look deeper, and it's not so simple. Batman, above all other superheroes, is defined by a particular mood, a brooding eternal midnight built from shadows, claustrophobic alleyways and Halloween freaks; a world, in a word, of fear. It's not just a case of turning down the lights and breaking a few windows, either: you can't fake Gotham City's stylish urban menace, and you can't fake the sense of dread that Batman engenders in his foes. And if you haven't got dread in your Batman game, chances are you haven't actually got a Batman game.
That's why Arkham Asylum is looking promising. It's got the brooding architecture and famous faces, but it's also fitting out its hero as a man who lets his fearsome reputation do a lot of the work for him: in close combat, he can't be beaten, but when the weapons come out, although he can certainly take a few more machinegun rounds than I could, compared to most videogame characters he's made out of old Kit-Kat wrappers and Marmite. With no magic powers, he has to spook his foes, freaking them out and softening them up before swooping in to finish the job.
This curious mixture - flashes of real power wedged tightly against moments of extreme weakness - seems likely to define the pace of the title, but it's currently hard to tell how well the combination will work in the long term. The developers, Rocksteady Studios, are still not ready to reveal exactly how the story fits together, so for now, we can only get a sense of Arkham Asylum's central mechanics by playing two of the game's challenge rooms.
'Batman: Arkham Asylum' Screenshot 1
Detective vision reduces your enemies to skeletons. It's like that Chemical Brothers video, but without the Chemical Brothers. And with Batman.
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.
At the very least, they suggest that this is one attractive loony bin, filled with pretty dereliction and inviting shadows, peopled by a range of terrifying freaks who appear to have gone insane after a diet composed of tattoo ink, face paint, and steroids. It's often overstated just how much the Unreal Engine guides the look of a game - Epic's tech was capable of turning out Mirror's Edge's lithe chimney-hoppers as well as Gears' rock-fisted grunts, but there's a certain shock of the familiar the first time you see the hulking lump of Batflesh you will be controlling. Massive and weighty, it's initially hard to picture this particular caped crusader swinging from the rafters without bringing most of the roof down as well, but once you see him in motion, all of that changes.
'Batman: Arkham Asylum' Screenshot 2
Leaderboards, eh? Some nutter at Rocksteady, who presumably fights crime in his own time while not fiddling about with pixel shaders - has completed Silent Knight in under a minute.
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.
It's brawling that the first of the challenge rooms focuses on. Intensive Treatment (both rooms have the kind of punning titles that might make the Dark Knight let out a mirthless chuckle) is essentially a hand-to-hand variation of Gears 2's Horde mode, matching you off against increasingly deadly combinations of bad 'uns and asking you not just to flatten everyone (which is easy) but to flatten them while looking good (which isn't).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.
'Batman: Arkham Asylum' Screenshot 3
No sign of Robin! Hooray! Hopefully Bat-Mite's unlockable, though...
The second challenge room, Silent Knight, is a little more thoughtful, showcasing a mode known, worryingly, as Invisible Predator. Happily, rather than an Yvette Fielding Living TV documentary exploring the wacky dangers of kitchen-based bacteria, it's actually another variation on room clearance, focusing on mazelike level design, and exchanging skill points for a timer as leaderboard currency. The agenda is the same, but the emphasis is completely different. You've seen Batman at his most powerful: this is him at his most vulnerable, with heavily-armed enemies turning a simple combat scenario into a stealthy assault course.
As gunfire is so deadly, the game quickly finds a new groove, alternately swooping in for a one-button takedown before zipping back up to safety with the auto-locking grapnel gun, ducking bullets as you try to lose yourself in shadows to plan your next move. Victory is about strategy: as you take goons out, the survivors will get increasingly panicky, and more prone to blindly firing into the darkness, while a press of LB switches you to Detective Mode, a kind of heat vision where you can instantly see where everybody is, what weapons they're carrying, and how freaked out they've become. But the standout element is the gadgets mapped to the d-pad: the batarang can be used to stun enemies or simply create a distraction, while a sonic variation gives you thirty seconds of pulsing sound, the batclaw blasts out on a wire to grab distant attackers and yank them off gantries, and the explosive gel can be sprayed onto the surroundings and detonated at your convenience.
'Batman: Arkham Asylum' Screenshot 4
As any Batman fan will know, it's all about the length of the ears. Arkham Asylum is more Brian Bolland than Jim Lee.
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.
Batman: Arkham Asylum is due out for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC this year.
Inside the Game
- This game uses the latest Unreal Engine 3 as the gaming engine. For you PC users, this means you will need Shader Model 3.0 or higher.
- There will be 16 Challenge Maps, 8 of which will be Combat, the other 8 will be Invisible Predator. If you get the PS3 version, you will get 8 more exclusive maps, these will be where you play as the Joker. If you preorder the game from GameStop, EB Games, or Game.co.uk, you will get 1 more map which will be the "Dem Bones" Scarecrow Challenge Map.
- The game will be roughly 12 - 15 hours in length.
- There will be free-roaming after things are finished and there will also be no respawning of enemies after you've beaten them. After the game is finished, all power-ups and whatnot will not carry over to a new game (no New Game+).
- The game will support 720p.
- The PC version will be on Steam.
- There is a possibility that the PC version will use SecuROM and will use Games for Windows Live.
- There will be multilingual support on PC, 360, and PS3 (English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian). There will also be subtitles on all versions, but it must match the spoken language (English Audio / English Subtitles).
- The PS3 will require about 1.2GB of space to install B:AA. - NEW!
- The 360 will require about 60KB of space to install B:AA. - NEW!
- The Batarang included in the Collector's Edition is made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, a type of plastic. It is the same type of plastic that LEGOs are made out of. - NEW!
- The PC versions will be enhanced for multi-core processors.
The PC system requirements are as follows:
Minimum System Requirements:
OPERATING SYSTEM: Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, or 7
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3GHz or AMD Athlon 64 3500+
RAM: 1GB for Windows XP 2GB for Windows Vista / Windows 7
GRAPHICS: nVidia 6600 or ATI 1300
SOUND : Microsoft Windows XP/Vista compatible sound card (100% DirectX 9.0c -compatible)
DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
HARD DRIVE: 9GB free disk space
INPUT DEVICES: 100% Windows XP/Vista compatible mouse and keyboard
Recommended System Requirements:
OPERATING SYSTEM: Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, or 7
CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4Ghz) or Athlon 64 X2 4600+
RAM: 2GB for Windows XP / 3GB for Windows Vista / Windows 7
GRAPHICS: nVidia 9800GTX or ATI 3870
SOUND : Microsoft Windows XP/Vista compatible sound card (100% DirectX 9.0c -compatible)
DVD-ROM: Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
HARD DRIVE: 9GB free disk space
INPUT DEVICES: 100% Windows XP/Vista compatible mouse and keyboard / Xbox 360 Controller for Windows
II. Features
Preorder Only
-North America-
GameStop - Preorder includes the Scarecrow Challenge Map "Dem-Bones". The map will actually be downloadable content (DLC). (PC/360/PS3)
Amazon.com - Preorder includes 'The Road to Arkham' comic book (PC/360/PS3)
Walmart.com - Preorder includes code for the Armored Batsuit* (PC/360/PS3)
* Armored Batsuit will be unlockable during the normal game by beating the game on any difficulty if you don't preorder at Walmart / Play.com.
-Europe-
Play.com - Preorder includes code for the Armored Batsuit* (PC/360/PS3)
Game.co.uk - Preorder includes the Scarecrow Challenge Map "Dem-Bones". The map will actually be downloadable content (DLC). (PC/360/PS3)
GameStation - Preorder includes 'The Road to Arkham' comic book (PC/360/PS3)
HMV.com - Preorder includes an exclusive sleeve and Joker poster (PC/360/PS3)
Amazon.co.uk - Preorder includes 6 character postcards (PC/360/PS3)
* Armored Batsuit will be unlockable during the normal game by beating the game on any difficulty if you don't preorder at Walmart / Play.com.
Platform Exclusive
(ATTN: As confirmed by Sefton Hill of Rocksteady, the Joker will only be playable on the PS3 and will not be playable on the 360 at anytime in the future. It is a permanent PS3-only exclusive. This is due to an exclusive deal that Sony has for the video game.)
PC
None.
Xbox 360
None.
PS3
Cross-Platform (will be included in all versions of the game, including Collector's Edition)
Collector's Edition Only (both the NA and EU Collector's Editions will be the exact same)
Downloadable Content
-North America-
GameStop - Preorder includes the Scarecrow Challenge Map "Dem-Bones". The map will actually be downloadable content (DLC). (PC/360/PS3)
Amazon.com - Preorder includes 'The Road to Arkham' comic book (PC/360/PS3)
Walmart.com - Preorder includes code for the Armored Batsuit* (PC/360/PS3)
* Armored Batsuit will be unlockable during the normal game by beating the game on any difficulty if you don't preorder at Walmart / Play.com.
-Europe-
Play.com - Preorder includes code for the Armored Batsuit* (PC/360/PS3)
Game.co.uk - Preorder includes the Scarecrow Challenge Map "Dem-Bones". The map will actually be downloadable content (DLC). (PC/360/PS3)
GameStation - Preorder includes 'The Road to Arkham' comic book (PC/360/PS3)
HMV.com - Preorder includes an exclusive sleeve and Joker poster (PC/360/PS3)
Amazon.co.uk - Preorder includes 6 character postcards (PC/360/PS3)
* Armored Batsuit will be unlockable during the normal game by beating the game on any difficulty if you don't preorder at Walmart / Play.com.
Platform Exclusive
(ATTN: As confirmed by Sefton Hill of Rocksteady, the Joker will only be playable on the PS3 and will not be playable on the 360 at anytime in the future. It is a permanent PS3-only exclusive. This is due to an exclusive deal that Sony has for the video game.)
PC
None.
Xbox 360
None.
PS3
- Able to play as The Joker in eight Challenge Map which will be released as downloadable content on August 25th on the PlayStation Network. This DLC will be free.
- There will be a "Batman Arkham Asylum Batcave Outpost Apartment". Apparently, this will be only for PlayStation Home. It will contain items such as the Batsuit, Batmobile, and Batwing, along with various Bat-gadgets. This content on PlayStation Home will be free.
- The comic book "The Road to Arkham" will be given to PSP owners via download on the PlayStation Network. This comic will be free but will most likely NOT be able to be read by your PS3.
- The PlayStation 3 version of Batman: Arkham Asylum will use some elements of SIXAXIS Motion Control.
Cross-Platform (will be included in all versions of the game, including Collector's Edition)
- Standard Challenge Maps
- Stealth Challenge Map
- There will be 240 Riddles left by The Riddler that are scattered around the island.
Collector's Edition Only (both the NA and EU Collector's Editions will be the exact same)
- Behind-the-scenes videos featuring interviews with the development team, Paul Dini, scriptwriter for the game, Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman, and more.
- 14" Batarang with stand which matches the Batarang’s in-game design
- Arkham Doctor’s Journal (48 pages of notes on Arkham’s inmates with an embossed leather dust jacket)
- 2 Sleeve Digi-pack, including the game disc and a behind-the-scenes DVD
- Code for downloadable Challenge Map
- Exclusive “Crime Alley” map, available immediately
- Full-color Manual
- Batarang Boxset
Downloadable Content
- It has been confirmed by Sefton Hill of Rocksteady that we will get downloadable content on 360 and on the PS3.
- The exclusive Challenge Maps from the GameStop / Play.co.uk preorder and the Collectors Edition will possibly be up for download 30 days after the release of the video game.
- There will also be downloadable content on the PC as confirmed by jaycw2309, Moderator from Eidos.
Collector's Edition
* The European version of the Collector's Edition will not have a leather-bound doctor's journal.
The North American collector’s edition of Batman: Arkham Asylum, co-published by Eidos, Inc. and Warner Bros. features a full array of iconic collector’s items, including:
All this for the cheap, cheap price of $100.00!
The North American collector’s edition of Batman: Arkham Asylum, co-published by Eidos, Inc. and Warner Bros. features a full array of iconic collector’s items, including:
-
* 14" Batarang with stand
* Matches the Batarang’s in-game design
* Arkham Doctor’s Journal
v48 pages of notes on Arkham’s inmates
* Embossed leather dust jacket
* 2 Sleeve Digi-pack, including:
* Game disc
* Behind-the-scenes DVD
* Code for downloadable Challenge Map
* Exclusive “Crime Alley” map, available immediately
* Full-color Manual
Based on the core Batman license, in Batman: Arkham Asylum, the Dark Knight takes on his greatest challenge yet when he becomes trapped with all of his most dangerous villains inside the insane asylum of GOTHAM CITY --ARKHAM ASYLUM! Batman: Arkham Asylum exposes players to a unique, dark and atmospheric adventure that takes them to the depths of Arkham Asylum – Gotham City's psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. Gamers will move in the shadows, instigate fear amongst their enemies and confront The Joker and Gotham City's most notorious villains who have taken over the asylum.
All this for the cheap, cheap price of $100.00!
Voice Cast:
Clancy Brown ... Killer Croc (voice)
Brittany Byrnes ... Barbara Gordon / Oracle (voice)
Kevin Conroy ... Batman / Bruce Wayne (voice)
Mark Hamill ... The Joker (voice)
Danny Jacobs ... Victor Zsasz / Frank Boles (voice)
Tom Kane ... Commissioner James Gordon (voice)
David Kaye ... Scarecrow (voice)
Michelle Ruff ... Poison Ivy (voice)
David Sobolov ... Penguin (voice)
Arleen Sorkin ... Harley Quinn (voice)
James Arnold Taylor ... The Riddler (voice)
Kirk Thornton ... Mr. Freeze (voice)
Brittany Byrnes ... Barbara Gordon / Oracle (voice)
Kevin Conroy ... Batman / Bruce Wayne (voice)
Mark Hamill ... The Joker (voice)
Danny Jacobs ... Victor Zsasz / Frank Boles (voice)
Tom Kane ... Commissioner James Gordon (voice)
David Kaye ... Scarecrow (voice)
Michelle Ruff ... Poison Ivy (voice)
David Sobolov ... Penguin (voice)
Arleen Sorkin ... Harley Quinn (voice)
James Arnold Taylor ... The Riddler (voice)
Kirk Thornton ... Mr. Freeze (voice)
Scans of the Journal that comes with the collector's edition
(May contain some real spoilers/Possibly a list of all the villians?)
Apparently there's 48 entries, while this is only 22 of them
** are the ones that you can zoom in on
Front Cover **
Inside cover/credits **
Batman
Great White Shark
Penguin
Mad Hatter
Clayface **
Mr.Zsasz
Joker
Killer Croc
Bane
The Riddler
Poison Ivy **
Scarecrow
Harley Quinn
Calender Man **
Humpty Dumpty **
The Rat Catcher **
Black Mask
Mr.Freeze
Tweedledee and Tweedledum
Warden Sharp
Firefly
Harvey Dent
** are the ones that you can zoom in on
Front Cover **
Inside cover/credits **
Batman
Great White Shark
Penguin
Mad Hatter
Clayface **
Mr.Zsasz
Joker
Killer Croc
Bane
The Riddler
Poison Ivy **
Scarecrow
Harley Quinn
Calender Man **
Humpty Dumpty **
The Rat Catcher **
Black Mask
Mr.Freeze
Tweedledee and Tweedledum
Warden Sharp
Firefly
Harvey Dent
Gameplay
Preview of the Jokers (PS3 ONLY) predator gameplay
More Videos here
Screenshots
Viral Marketing Campaign Early access to patient interviews
http://www.gothamcitymunicipal.com/
http://www.arkhamcare.com/
How-to (If you want to do it yourself)
FYI you can't just put the passwords in, you'll need to find them through the sites first before they'll work
Some weird comments:
"My brother is receiving treatment at Arkham. Their phone lines are down right now. Hope he’s okay. "
"My husband is a guard at Arkham and he never came home this morning. A little under 20 hours until I can submit a missing person’s report. I’ve never been so worried in my life."
*UPDATE JULY 29TH! KILLER CROC DETAILS*First, go to this web-site. http://www.gothamcitymunicipal.com/ Notice the breaking news. Follow the link, read and enjoy. Scroll down to comments. A user gives you her email address. Send her an e-mail. Doesn't matter the content.
Now, follow the instructions at the end of the e-mail. Note the picture of a tattoo on the guys arm. Watch the video. Note Boles ID number. 125845712. Go to http://www.arkhamcare.com/ click on employee login at the top. Enter the employee ID. Click forgot password. Remember when I told you to note the tattoo? Circle. From here, change the account info, etc. Now login. You can check the control panel here, and his messages. Nothing too interesting, but you notice a Dr. Westler asks Boles if he could check her desk to see if her cell phone is there. Go to the camera feed of Dr. Westler. Note, a phone. And right next to the phone? The word horowitz.
Logout. Select Dr. Westler's name on the employee list. Enter HOROWITZ here. Now this is where all the meat is. Lots of messages to read, and at the bottom of the Arkham map, a box you can click on like the camera feeds, with a ton of awesome stuff on Croc.
Enjoy.
**UPDATE JULY 31TH / AUGUST 1ST MR. ZSASZ PROFILE UNLOCK GUIDE:step one
Check Dr. Westler's e-mails, you will have a new e-mail from Dr. Cassidy regarding Zsasz. Read it
step two
Check the video feed in Zsasz's cell and look around for a word on the cell walls. When you find it the word you do find should be "garianne"
(Here's another method: Change the time on your computer to 10:30 pm, and the writing on Zsasz's wall will show up.)
Step three
Log out of Dr. Westler's account and you will find Dr. Cassidy's profile able to be accessed, insert the password "garianne" into in blank
That's it
**UPDATE AUGUST 8TH**
New email on Dr. Cassidy's account
New camera feed on Dr. Cassidy's accountPassword to the Botantical Garden is nightshade.
Dr. Kellerman : Password hint :my hometown.
Unlock guideUnlock the Botantical Gardens camera feeds,Dr.Young Account *Added August 19th
Here is a dot guide -
You'll notice little red glowing dots on the walls first click on the far left one near the top, secondly on the far left dot again near the big light and in between the leave/branch,thirdly far left dot again (look upwards of the bench), then the one that is down the hallway with the benches,fourthly the dot on the right end of the hallway high up,fifthly the red glowing dot on the right wall in the middle of the wall with all the plants,sixthly the dot located down the stairs on top of the door , now you should be inside a big room with a fountain.Now click the red dot on the left hand side of the statues head and finally, the dot near the stairs (the bottom if the stairs). Now you'll see a clipboard.The numbers are KL1279 Google this, and it should be a flight number, and edinburgh will be the correct password for Dr. Kellerman's account.There was new information added to the Binary Code for Penny Young. It spelled out Titan 13.
We know the password is Dione, but you must verify your system first, because all systems must be verified now.
Doctors all got a new section in their Arkham control panel called File Transfers. Kellerman has one file, talking about Ivy and how she's intoxicated him.
Wendi has posted something on Gotham City Digital. Log in with the old User ID and password. In there, there are two new files: A System Verification program, and notes as to the updates to the new Arkham login program. In those notes, it says people have noticed a bug when holding down mouse keys and/or pressing keys when in the File Transfers section.
Just the Good Stuff
(Everything except for all the messages you get when logging into the Arkham website, nothing major there though)
Arkham Asylum security protocols
Pictures and Audio of Patient Interviews
Killer Croc Viral (Includes all 5 Patient Interviews)
Victor Zsasz Viral (Includes 2 of 5 Patient Interviews)
Poison Ivy Viral (Includes 4 of 5 Patient Interviews)
Riddler Viral + a couple of other bits added (Includes 5 of 5 Patient Interviews)
Arkham Asylum security protocols
Pictures and Audio of Patient Interviews
Killer Croc Viral (Includes all 5 Patient Interviews)
Victor Zsasz Viral (Includes 2 of 5 Patient Interviews)
Poison Ivy Viral (Includes 4 of 5 Patient Interviews)
Riddler Viral + a couple of other bits added (Includes 5 of 5 Patient Interviews)
Riddler Patient Interviews
(Anyone else getting a Tobias Funke vibe from the last one?)
Personal Effects
Riddles from the picture
Two new pictures added to file transfer
Dr.Kellerman
Dr.Young
(Anyone else getting a Tobias Funke vibe from the last one?)
Personal Effects
Riddles from the picture
-
What kind of son does every does every parent fear?
- What prison do you build but can never take down? No walls or bars, but one window with a view all around?
- What kind of room can only teeth enter?
- What doctor prescribes only conundrums?
- What has a mouth that can never close, too dark to see and not near a nose?
- What kind of view can only be seen between people?
Two new pictures added to file transfer
Dr.Kellerman
Dr.Young
Hitsuraptor on
0
Posts
(for non-hardware difference or additional development time reasons)
Boo I say!
Decent watch they talk abit about Arkham Asylum and some of the changes they made, why they used certain villians etc.
But while Ghostbusters was a huge disappointment, Arkham Asylum, from the demo alone, may be my biggest surprise this year. Everything about it feels so right. I went through the demo three times before I left for work today, and all I could think about all damn day was glide kicking people from the highest perch in the room.
You can get the UK picture at amazon.co.uk
The character designs look like assfuck, though. Like someone took the MKShit design from MK vs DC and then made them worse. The voices are cool 'cause I love the Animated Series but they don't fit AT ALL. If they wanted those voices to fit, they should've made the game look like the pics on the Character Sheets. Or Borderlands. Cause this is just meat-head, Hot Topic bullshit with a Gears of War filter on it.
I couldn't disagree more. Batman's a difficult enough character to do realistic, let alone going for a cartoon aesthetic. The art assets used make a transition into development. I'm going to go out on a limb and say cel shading would've been really fucking out of place with the tone of the game. You might not like it, but what you wanted essentially got made. Those look like Wildstorm designed characters rendered in normal mapping.
I love how similar the combat is to Yakuza 2 (though a fair bit easier), since it pretty much set the standard for 3D brawling. And then to add it to all the cool Batman techniques (like the Batarangs, inverted takedowns and grappling hook) makes the game so amazingly fun.
The only bad thing I can think of is how UE3-ish it looks. Gordon looks a bit silly and Batman's face was so shiny it looked like he'd just gotten out of the shower.
Also, prerequisite Batman trade recommendations:
Batman and Son
Batman: The Black Glove (follows Batman and Son)
Batman RIP (follows Black Glove)
Batman: No Mans Land Vol 1-5
Bruce Wayne: Murderer?
Bruce Wayne: Fugitive Vol 1-3 (follows Murderer)
Batman: Detective
Batman: Death in the City (follows Detective)
Batman: Private Casebook (follows Death in the City)
Batman: Heart of Hush (follows Private Casebook)
Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman: Dark Victory (follows Long Halloween)
I'm going with Anjin on this one.
I remember being pretty "ugh" when I first saw screenshots of this, but in motion it looks fantastic, and I think the voices fit really well (especially Mark Hamill's).
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.
The PC demo is also completely tempting me to hold out for the PC version of the game now. I doubt I would be able to wait that long.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
PSN: SAW776
and some of batman's rogues aren't even in arkham (instead that prison island place) so I guess we wouldn't see those
List of villains
Bane[17] Mr. Zsasz[13][18] Poison Ivy[19]
Scarecrow[11][20][21] Clayface
List of present but status unknown:
The Riddler†[13][22] Penguin†[23] Mr. Freeze†[23]
Tweedledum and Tweedledee†[23] Hush†[23] Amygdala†[23]
Two-Face†[23] Catwoman†[23] Maxie Zeus†[23]
Hugo Strange†[23] Firefly†[23] Killer Moth†[23]
Ratcatcher†[24] Ra's al Ghul†[23] Black Mask†
Humpty Dumpty† Great White Shark†
Mad Hatter† Calendar Man† Ventriloquist†
The KBAM controls are actually pretty darned good. The keymaps are separated by function and not by button, so it's possible to bind separate keys to actions that are normally done with a single trigger or key combos on the Xbox controller; they didn't do the lazy fuck route by just doing a dirty 1:1 map from 360->keyboard, which is refreshing. Totally stoked that you can use the mouse in menus and the bio pages, man. Totally.
360 controller is natively supported, no surprises there.
The PhysX features are pretty cool (volumentric smoke and fog are always pretty), but it's not totally stuff that hasn't been seen before in Mirror's Edge. Dunno if it's worth an extra several weeks delay, but at least it's not a year or some bullshit. I'm actually kinda surprised that this doesn't seem like a dirty PC hackjob port which I've been conditioned to expect nowadays.
Regarding the lipsync issue, are you playing it through an amp? I am and had a bit of a sync problem because of it (I have this problem with HD tv channels as well). I was able to delay the video on my amp. Now it's perfectly in sync.
Blackgate, which was closed due to a bomb threat and the inmates shipped over to Arkham just prior to the game. That's why the Joker has so many henchmen available.
zomg spoilers
And, um...that Harley girl's got some moxie to her. What a setta gams, I tell ya!
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
Yeah they made Harley a harlot.
*rimshot*
3DS FC: 5343-7720-0490
And I could totally see these mechanics working in a No Mans Land inspired game, make guns as deadly which they are to Batman and make it about movin quick and stealthing about.
Why? Penguin can't fight for shit, he's best used as a mob boss. I can't see him taking orders from Joker etiher.
None of the other villains are taking orders from Joker, either. They just got out and are doing their thing.
You're not likely to get into a fist fight with Poison Ivy either, you make Boss Puzzle Battles, Penguin would likely be shooting at you with an Umbrella while his henchmen go at you.
Anyone know if its possible to knock guns out of badguy's hands with the batarang?
also why can't I use any of the assault rifles? the batarang is pretty weak
Batman doesn't use guns. Ever.
Anyway, I am downloading now.
I have a feeling that's an upgrade for later, since you can target specific body parts.
As others have said, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill are back in rare form. Speaking of throwbacks to the animated show, I loved the scene in the beginning with the Batmobile, with the brake lights leaving a light trail behind them. :^: