Tag Archives: batman
The Dark Knight Has Some Friends in the Lego World!
I’ll admit, when I first saw Lego games coming out and saw what they were like, I honestly said, “Those look like fucking stupid kid games.” WOW was I wrong! I cannot tell you how often I spent an evening intoxicated with a 6 pack of beer and playing the Lego games because they were that fun. We’ve already seen the likes of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and yes the Dark Knight himself, and that’s what this article is covering actually, the Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes game.
According to sources, the game is actually a sequel to the previous Lego Batman, and will feature a large variety of playable DC characters within the Batman realm and also outside of the Batman realm. A new thing that this game will feature that I think is a first within the Lego series (if not whatever) is dialogue, which is AWESOME! It’s better than hearing grunts and whatever sounds the characters make and makes the game’s story a lot better in my opinion.
If that wasn’t all cool enough for you, there’s definitely more. The new Lego Batman will feature an open world concept and feature gameplay similar to its predecessor. As mentioned before players will get to play as characters in the Batman realm, but also other iconic characters from the DC world will be playable including: Batman (naturally), Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Green Lantern, The Flash, Black Canary, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Cyborg, Aquaman, and of course Wonder Woman. According to rumors, there will be over 70 playable characters (so I’m guessing supervillains as well from the DC comics). The game will feature a 2-player co-op mode, and since the environment is open-world they will split the screens (THANK GOD!!)
Whew, that was definitely a shit ton of information in such a small article. But yes, for those of you Batman fans who liked the Lego games or maybe haven’t tried them, PICK THIS FUCKING GAME UP!! Enough said, if you gamers haven’t played the first one, do it so you know what you’re in for.
Batnipples
So, guys, we have recorded our first podcast! We are in the works of editing and getting everything set up for download now, and figured you might all be interested.
Here’s the show notes:
-Batman got pulled over for having no tags:
-I have an obsession of Batnipples.
-I ruined any chance I had of having fans, with my review of Skyrim (Matt did good though)
-We talked about how awesome Assassin’s Creed is going to be!
-The founding of Gamers.Dish
Preview: Batman: Arkham City
When we thought it was safe and all was well in Gotham City, we couldn’t have been more wrong. Batman: Arkham City continues the adventure of Batman following the events of Arkham Asylum. Here at Gamers.Dish, this also has been a title that has been anticipated following the success of Arkham Asylum. From the trailers and the gameplay footage that has been released so far, this title is definitely worth the hype that people have been buzzing about.
The events of Arkham City take place one year after Arkham Asylum. Quincy Sharp, now former warden of Arkham Asylum, has taken the credit for stopping the Joker’s plans to take over Arkham Asylum, and used this achievement to his advantage to become mayor of Gotham City. He deems Arkham and Blackgate Penitentiary no longer suitable to contain Gotham’s criminal and insane population. In doing this, Sharp has both of the facilities closed and buys out a large section of Gotham’s slums, converting the area into an immense open-air prison, naming it Arkham City.
Arkham City is placed in the care of a genius psychiatrist by the name of Hugo Strange, who is secretly manipulating Sharp. The open air prison is guarded by a squad of heavily-armed mercenaries hired from a rogue private military firm, Tyger Security. The inmates in Arkham City are given free rein, so as long as they don’t try to escape. Batman keeps constant vigilance over Arkham City, with the concern that any situation that would turn chaotic there could quickly become out of hand. Meanwhile, the Joker is stricken with a potentially fatal disease, which was caused by his consumption and transformation of the use of the Titan formula, which is a steroid that is unstable turning men into crazed muscle-ripped beings. The events of Arkham City are sent into motion when Two-Face, who is seeking to gain some notoriety among the inmates and other villains, devises a plan to publicly execute Catwoman. Batman decides that for both the safety of Gotham and his past relationship with Catwoman, that he must enter into Arkham City and stop the execution.
Arkham City will be featuring a vast amount of characters from the Batman universe. Returning characters from Arkham Asylum include: Batman, The Joker, Harley Quinn The Riddler, Poison Ivy, Commissioner Gordon, Quincy Sharp, Victor Zsasz, and Jack Ryder. Surprisingly this time around, Bane appears, but not as an enemy, but as an ally to Batman. Characters that are debuting for Arkham City include: Warden Hugo Strange, Two-Face, The Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Calendar Man, Solomon Grundy, The Mad Hatter and Talia al Hul. Alfred, Bruce’s loyal butler also makes an appearance, giving Batman support by radio. It has also been said that the assassin Deadshot has infiltrated Arkham City and plans to kill a “high-profile character.” Last but not least for characters, there will be more playable characters appearing for Arkham City including: Robin, Nightwing, and Catwoman. This game has shown to be that it is going to live up to being more open world than what Arkham Asylum offered, which makes it seem a little intimidating, but at the same time provides a great challenge for Batman fans.
The game has proven itself to be definitely darker than what even Arkham Asylum was at. The map looks bigger, which of course means more trophies from The Riddler, as well as hidden easter eggs all over Arkham City. Pre-ordering this game though does prove to be a bonus, other than just guaranteeing gamers a copy. For those that pre-order Arkham City, The Joker’s Challenge Map Pack will be made available for downloadable content. There is a standard version of the game available for pre-order along with a collector’s edition also being made available. The collector’s edition includes a custom Batman statue provided by Kotobukiya, which is a leading manufacturer of comic, movie, and video game figures. Along with the statue, a collectible art book will also be included, as well as early access to the Iceberg Lounge Challenge Map and a special Batman skin from The Dark Knight Returns. Also bundled in will be the game’s official album, and the DC animated movie.
Arkham City will be released for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC on October 18, 2011.
Check out the two trailers listed below!
To see more trailers and gameplay footage on Arkham City, head on over to our Youtube page:
www.youtube.com/gamersdish
Review: Batman Arkham Asylum
Batman: Arkham Asylum took a whole new degree with superhero video games. We all remember in the past when superhero games were made and they just were not exactly up to any kind of par, but Batman: Arkham Asylum takes that to a whole new degree. This game literally redefined what superhero games were all about and hopefully gives something now for other developers and publishers to stride for. This game was also unique in its own setting because it allowed players and Batman fans to finally see inside the mysterious Arkham Asylum.
Batman: Arkham Asylum starts off with Batman bringing the Joker into Arkham Asylum after a foiled plot of attacking the Gotham City’s mayor’s office. Coincidentally, at the same time, a large number of prisoners that seem to be loyal to the Joker are moved to Arkham Asylum the same night that he is brought in. Batman realizes that capturing the Joker was far easier than what it usually would be.
Batman follows the Joker down to his cell that he is being held at and as the Joker is being escorted to his cell, he breaks free, assaults the guards, and is set free by Harley Quinn, and is now in control of many of the core areas of Arkham Asylum. The Joker plans on setting a type of “party” and that Batman is the guest of honor at this soirée.
The Joker has now taken over Arkham Asylum and has released his thugs to take care of the Dark Knight. The Joker has also made it very clear that no one is to go on the premises or else he will set off bombs around Gotham City. After a small encounter with Zsasz, Batman sees on the monitors that the Joker and Harley Quinn now have the warden, Quincy Sharp as their hostage. Upon escaping what appeared to be a dead end, Batman encounters the Joker again, and this time, the Joker has an ace up his sleeve, a giant-muscled thug that seems to have a short temper. After defeating the thug, the Joker manages to escape again.
Batman has another conversation with the Joker on one of the monitors. He learns that now along with the warden being captured, Officer Boles has assisted in holding Commissioner Jim Gordon hostage now as well. Batman returns to the Holding Cells to find out if Boles had left anything behind, and upon returning there, discovers that he left the flask with alcohol behind. Now, Batman follows the trail to discover that the trail was cut short with Boles now dead.
Batman has now been able to escape the Intensive Treatment building, only to find out that his Batmobile self-defense mechanism has been set off by Harley. Around the Batmobile, Batman notices that Gordon conveniently dropped his pipe with his favorite tobacco still in it, and now the Dark Knight finds himself on the trail once again to find Gordon. He follows the trail to the Medical Building, and upon entering discovers Harley, almost as if she is just waiting for him, along with Gordon. Batman has to find another way into the Medical Building, and the way he enters, he discovers some doctors being held hostage by some of Joker’s henchmen.
Before Batman can continue on his search for Gordon, he learns from one of the doctors that three other doctors have been more or less kidnapped and in three different areas in the hospital, and now he has to save them. After all the doctors are rescued, Dr. Young, escorted by Officer Cash tells Batman that she has to go to the mansion to retrieve her notes. While still going through the Medical Building, as if things couldn’t get worse, just as expected they do, when reality seems distorted and Batman finds Gordon’s body.
Going through the door to the morgue, each step Batman takes, reality seems to unwind even further, including seeing his parents in body bags and then the Scarecrow escaping from one of them. After escaping the psychedelic maze from the Scarecrow, Batman finds out that the body wasn’t really Gordon’s but a guard’s, and that he must have hallucinated. Batman then finds himself behind a window, where on the other side he can see Gordon and Harley. After taking a few henchmen and Harley out, Batman swoops in and rescues Gordon.
While, they are looking for a way out, Batman notices a shriveled up Bane, connected to a series of hoses, and Bane mentions that Dr. Young was using him for some sort of test subject. The Joker insists on pumping Bane full-up again. After Batman’s little showdown with Bane, he tells Gordon to leave the island, and confides to Oracle that Bane seemed more powerful than usual and that Dr. Young might be a factor behind this.
After defeating Bane, Batman heads to Arkham North to a Batcave on the island to study Dr. Young’s research. Analyzing the data, he finds that there are numerous references to a Titan strand that act similar to Venom without as many requirements. After discovering that the formula to the Titan strand is missing, Batman now has to track down Dr. Young in the mansion. Oracle digs a little into Dr. Young’s background and discovers that she was being paid by a company set up by Jack White, an alias of the Joker, and that the money stopped a couple months before by her, and now the Joker wanted her to finish the formula so that he could create a Titan army.
As Batman enters Arkham Mansion, he discovers the place is in shambles as the Joker’s henchmen are looking everywhere for the formula for the Titan serum. In the library, Batman finds Cash, to find out also that Dr. Young escaped into her office not too long ago. After checking security logs, Batman picks up Dr. Young’s trail by following her fingerprints. Batman finds out that Dr. Young is being held hostage by Zsasz, and while Batman goes to find her, dwells a little in his past and slips into another one of Scarecrow’s psychedelic hallucinations.
As soon as Batman knocks Zsasz out, Dr. Young does him about a way to prevent the Titan serum and where it’s located. As she is accessing the keys to get there, the safe door explodes on her, and Batman is temporarily unconscious, he wakes up now knowing that the warden is the only key and has to follow his DNA trail. In the penitentiary, you go through more or less a series of challenges with Harley, eventually leading to her capture. He soon finds the Titan Production facility, and unfortunately a little too late, as Joker has a supply and injects two of his henchmen with it.
The facility is more or less shut down, and now Poison Ivy has had some of the Titan injected into her and has produced mutated plants all over the island. Batman more or less has to bring these plants under control, which takes him a little underground, where the Killer Croc is usually at. While avoiding Croc, he gets what he needs to counteract the Titan in Ivy and eventually defeats her in the Botanical Gardens. And now, he is onto his last objective, to take down Joker.
When he finds the Joker, the Joker is injecting a couple of his henchmen. After they are defeated, the Joker injects himself with more than a normal amount of Titan and is supersized a lot more than he should be. Of course, with the way that comics go, Batman of course defeats the Joker and all is well for now at least.
Pros:
- I have to openly admit that this is the first time a superhero game took me by complete storm and turned out really well.
- Very nice, smooth graphics.
- Use of the gadgets were elaborate and made the game fun.
- A nice new feature called “detective mode” which allowed players to follow trails, spot enemies, etc
- Character biographies showed players characters in the Batman world they would be familiar with and some that they might not be familiar with.
- A lot of the voices featured were from the Batman cartoon, including Mark Hamill.
- Dialogue was good and was stepped up for older audiences as well.
Cons:
- There were a few minor bugs with the graphics, but nothing to noticeable.
- The game would have been more enjoyable if we had seen more in-game characters to provide a bit more of a challenge in the game.
Final Thoughts: Overall, this was a game that I did enjoy a lot, and it totally blew my expectations for a superhero kind of game, and it makes me really look forward to the next Batman game that comes out.
Grade: As said this game blew my mind, and flat out deserves a 10 out of 10.
Developer: Rocksteady Studios
Publisher(s): Eidos Interactive, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment,
DC Entertainment
Platform(s): PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Release Date(s): August 25, 2009 (PS3, Xbox 360). September 15, 2009 (PC)
Genre(s): Action/Adventure, Beat-em up, Stealth
ESRB Rating: Teen