Nick Kyme

Arkham Asylum is back!

I for one am totally stoked that a sequel to the excellent Batman Arkham Asylum is due to be hitting our consoles before the year is out. In the, oh-too-short, trailer there are references to the Penguin, Black Mask and Two-Face, so here’s hoping those characters make it into the mix.

Saaaweeet!

Yes, that’s right folks: Batman – Arkham Asylum is getting a sequel!

It’s fair to say that the original game lived up to all of my expectations and more. My only real gripe is that it was over too soon and that I’d didn’t get to duke it out with the likes of Two-face and Clayface – bah!

Other than that, it was an amazing game and there’s no real surprise that Rocksteady are back to re-helm the second installment in the franchise. Hurrah! Rocksteady are to the Batman games what Chris Nolan is to the movie franchise – vive le Dark Knight!

But don’t just take my word for it, check out the new trailer at IGN right now!

It may be short, but it’s definitely sweet. Here’s hoping the action take us into the streets of Gotham…

Having recently finished Batman: Arkham Asylum in story mode, I’m now going back and working my way through all the Challenge maps for a 100% completion.

It surprised me, but these are an extremely addictive little addition to the game. I think I prefer the ‘Invisible Predator’ maps to the simple fisticuffs, but there’s a lot of playability in them and the ‘Extreme’  levels are actually pretty, damn tough!

Admittedly, I am hoping when the next raft of Arkham DLC comes around we’ll get some side missions or something other than a ‘Challenge’ room (or maybe one with some puzzles/detective work or even a free-roaming level beating down on goons would be cool), but so far I’m loving both ‘Insane Night’ and ‘Prey in the Night’, the two packs released thus far for the game.

Probably have to say I was a little disappointed with ‘Prey in the Night’. Both maps were essentially re-hashes of old levels (okay, so the shock floor one was a little different but not much), whereas ‘Insane Night’ had two brand new locations.

There really is a lot of mileage with this game and my hope is, before the sequel, we’ll get plenty more DLC to get our bat-like teeth into. Both the Crime Alley and Scarecrow’s Nightmare (or whatever it’s called) are also cool, so I’m glad I forked out for exclusives that are actually exclusives and not just ponged into the download trolley at the earliest opportunity.

Good times!

Yes, that’s right folks, Batman has been voted the best superhero of all time, ahead of the likes of Superman, Wolverine, Spider-man and all those other losers… (Kidding, I love those heroes too but the Dark Knight is definitely the best.)

Kind of ironic in a way, as Batman doesn’t have any powers as such and therefore can he really be considered super?

Answers and thoughts on a postcard please or, failing that, just slip a comment in.

It’s been upgraded from a day to a weekend…

Yes, I have my dirty little mitts on a copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum and it is goooood.

I’ll keep this short and anecdotal as I’m eager to get back to liberating a certain mental institution for the criminally insane from a mental, criminally insane clown.

Tragedy of tragedies, even though I pre-ordered the collector’s edition of Batman: Arkham Asylum from Game, they still were unable to get it to me for its release date of the 28th. I was, let’s say, ‘narked’. Because the problem was, in my infinite wisdom (smell the sarcasm?), I had put down GW as my delivery address, thinking it would come to my desk and I’d have none of the bullshit going to the post office, not being able to get it until Tuesday.

How wrong I was…

The game didn’t arrive (so much for Game’s ‘First to Play’ guarantee – what’s the point of pre-ordering, I ask you, if you can’t even play the game before some schmo who rocks up to the nearest shop and buys it on the day of release – bah, says I!) and I was left with the cold reality that the earliest I could possibly get it would be Tuesday. That meant the entire bank holiday weekend with no Arkham Asylum.

Well, that simply would not do, so do you know what I did? I got in my car and went straight around to Sainsbury’s and purchased that bad boy there and then. No waiting for me, no sir! (I’m usually a much more patient person but Arkham’s been a long time coming and for me the wait was most definitely over.)

What I can say at this point is: Arkham is awesome. I don’t want to sully any potential review with any further comments here, but it’s all I was hoping for and much, much more.