Batman: Arkham City

[BentonGrey]

Urg...alright, I get why Harley looked weird in the first one.  She was in the asylum and was making due with what she had...but that's just terrible.  Catwoman looks alright, though I have always hated the look with her shirt practically completely open.  It just looks a bit too ridiculous.  Two Face looks cool.

[Tomato]

Overall, good stuff... I have to add myself to the "meh" crowd on Harley though. I think it's far better than the nurse garbage she had last game, but it's still too "biker chick," which is made worse against the perfect version of Joker they put together.

In all honesty, her AC design reminds me a lot of the fan-made Harley posters that came out just after TDK was released... especially with the TDK style eye shadow doing on.

[Mr. Hamrick]

Personally, I love the character design.  Love the outfit.  Love the look of the character.

Just...

not...

for...

HARLEY...

It's taking the name "Harley" a little too literal and leaving off the Quinn part.

[JeyNyce]

I would have been okay with Harley's if she would have kept the mask.  That's what throwing it off for me, she needs her mask on.

[oldmanwinters]

Urg...alright, I get why Harley looked weird in the first one.  She was in the asylum and was making due with what she had...but that's just terrible.  Catwoman looks alright, though I have always hated the look with her shirt practically completely open.  It just looks a bit too ridiculous.  Two Face looks cool.

I feel the same way.  Catwoman (or any of these female heroes/anti-heroes/villains) just lose so much credibility when it looks like their sole purpose in the story is to capitalize on the "sex sells" angle.  My favorite version of Catwoman is the original Batman: The Animated Series design.  She had a very powerful allure over Batman, but it was more of a classy vibe than some of the more recent portrayals.

Personally, I love the character design.  Love the outfit.  Love the look of the character.

Just...
not...
for...
HARLEY...

It's taking the name "Harley" a little too literal and leaving off the Quinn part.

Again, VERY well put.  I miss that classic Paul Dini look!

[deano_ue]

this is coming from one fo the biggest harley fans, i don't mind the look. it's not as flamboyant as the first one which is good, to me it shows she's gone off the deep end and embraced the whole urban aspect of the game.

would i preferred the classic look, yes but its not as bad as it could have been.

[Midnite]

Arkham City Done, Devs Have a Year to Polish

Love how Rocksteady Studios, is taking their time with the game.  

[Podmark]

Well that is impressive. A year to polish makes me think this could be one awesome game. And I consider the first to be near perfect.

[BWPS]

Forget Poland, when's it come out in American?

Also, Harley's original costume is awesome, why change it? Surely people can play a game without seeing tops of two characters boobs vs one? I don't like the new look at all.

[Mr. Hamrick]

The alleged reason I heard for Harley's costume makes the costume make all the less sense.

Spoiler

For some reason in game, she supposedly allies herself with Two-Face.

[Reepicheep]

To be honest with you all, theres not a lot I trust about the revealed storyline so far. It seems just a little too senseless or tenuous in places.

However, I won't miss this up. I'm probably wrong and if its anything like the first one (which it will be) then it will be an awesome game plot notwithstanding.

[JeyNyce]

Update from PC Gamer:

If there's one thing that Batman loves to do, it's hang a thug upside down and scream at him until his spirit breaks. Rocksteady have revealed that in Batman: Arkham City, you'll be able interrogate your foes for leads. Not only that, but the Riddler's back, and he's smarmier than ever.

Yes, The Riddler will return for the sequel to Rocksteady's superb Batman: Arkham Asylum, and he's in top taunting form. As with the first game, he'll be setting Batman exploration challenges and indulging his old habit of getting in touch with Batman directly to gloat and give him puzzles to solve. He has learned a few lessons from the first game, though, the most important one being "don't accidentally tell Batman where you are."

This time the Riddler keeping his most important secrets among a close-knit circle of friends. What he forgets is that Batman is the greatest detective in the world. The Dark Knight can scan groups of thugs, pinpoint likely informants and then swoop in and bat-punch everyone except his target, gaining some alone time with which to politely persuade his victim to spill the beans.

Arkham City will take place in a portion of Gotham that has been sealed off and given over to the gangs and psychos previously locked up in Arkham Asylum. Harley Quinn will be making a return for the sequel along with new characters, Catwoman and Two-Face. We've got a while to wait and see what part they have to play, as the game's scheduled for release in Autumn 2011.

[JeyNyce]

Update: Bullet Time

http://arkhamcity.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=803&p=16336#p16336

[Midnite]

If those features are true. That's pretty sweet, Devs are taking it up a notch. 

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

I'd say about 10 notches.

[electro]

I can already tell this is going to be a winner for us Superhero fans

[lugaru]

One (funny) thing I've heard about Harleys costume changes for Arkham Asylum and City: they are pandering to cosplayers who wanted something simpler to put together and sexier.

[Uncle Yuan]

One (funny) thing I've heard about Harleys costume changes for Arkham Asylum and City: they are pandering to cosplayers who wanted something simpler to put together and sexier.

So, it's all for the nrrd grrls?  I can support that . . .

[Midnite]

Games TM article

Rocksteady's Sefton Hill sits down with the guys from GamesTM and discusses boss battles, vehicles and a certain side-kick.

"When we started out on Arkham Asylum, our two real touchstones were to make a game that was as authentic as possible, and also a game that was great fun to, and to combine these two things. And out priorities are the same for Arkham City"

"Every decision we make here is based around Batman, and what Batman would do in the situation: does the game totally reflect who Batman is? Also, coming in to Arkham City, we wanted to make the same step up that we made with Arkham Asylum. We wanted to challenge ourselves. Internally, we wanted to make that same step up again, and the big thing we wanted improve really was this wish-fulfillment of being Batman on the streets of Gotham. How does it feel to glide through the streets of Gotham, taking on supervillains? That's the thing that got us excited."

"As a studio we're not really driven by doing technology for the sake of it. We are a gameplay studio, so our first goal was always to ask how we can release a better Batman game. It's always about our desire to make a better Batman experience."

Sefton Hill on vehicles
"This is a funny one. There aren't any playable vehicles in the game because what we've really focused on is Batman himself. We see him as the ultimate vehicles, if you like. Our drive has been to focus on Batman's ability to get around. Obviously, you're now in a much more expansive play area than you were in the first game, so a part of our development has been expanding Batman's navigational abilities, adding different ways to glide around, new ways to use the grapple-boost from the top of buildings. That's been a massive part of development, to give wish-fulfillment of feeling what it's like to be Batman inside the district of Gotham City. Our focus was to expand Batman as a character rather than give you lots of different vehicles to go in."


Sefton Hill on combat
"We're not trying to completely revise the system because we had a lot of positive feedback from people who played the first game, and something that we wanted to do was create a system that was easy for people to get into but still had that depth to it. We wanted to expand and build upon that system, and make the second iteration of Freeflow rather than make a complete new combat system. So it will definitely be building on the sold structure that's already there."

"We're adding a whole load of new moves for Batman. We have beatdown, which is the ability to do a quick, focussed attack on an enemy without knocking him down; we have environment counters where you can smash enemies into walls; we have combo counters where enemies can attack multiple times in one movie, multiple enemies can attack at once and you can take them down; you can do aerial attacks where you flip up off enemies into other enemies; you can do projectile counters where you parry thrown objects back at enemies. So we're really expanding the number of moves that the player can do, but still building on the core system of 'strike, counter, stun, evade' that we had in the first game. As well as that, we're also allowing the player to combo in all their gadgets. Something we didn't do completely in the first game was to totally integrate the different gadgets that you have into the Freeflow system."


Sefton Hill on factions
"The different criminal factions are really interesting. When all of these people escaped from Arkham Asylum, you would think that it would leave to chaos, but what actually happened was that order formed as the Joker managed to recruit a number of inmates to follow him. It's the same with Two Face and other characters within Arkham City. So the way it will work primarily is the that all these people will be working to support their own boss and their own criminal supervillain that leads them. But the player's actions in the main story events will affect that. You'll definitely see Batman and the player's actions really affect Arkham City, and the structure and hierarchy of the gangs. That;s something that we though was really important."

Sefton Hill on side-quests
"One of the key things we wanted to do more of was the idea of taking in optional side-stories as you play through the game. That;s a big new element of Arkham City, that while you do have the main narrative you also have these optional side-quests which feature different villains who have been locked up inside Arkham City. We tell their story, how they got there and how Batman interacts with the. How different people - for example Zsasz - how would he react when locked up here, and how Batman would interact with him? You can jump into those quests if you want to find out more about the world, as well as earn extra XP and upgrade rewards when doing so."

Sefton Hill on Villains
"We're really spoilt. We're the cliched kid in the candy shop because there are so many great villains to choose from. But the story and characters are so important to us, that instead of picking villains we want to put in simply because we like them, we're asking ourselves what is the best and most interesting story we can tell, and we're picking villains who can challenge Batman and give the best dramatic beats for that story. It's a great position to be in because we've got such a great Rogues' Gallery, and that's why we're no introducing our own characters. Once we'd got a story and framework in place, we look at which villains can challenge Batman based around that story."

"We are making the game for Batman fans, but also as a great introduction to Batman for those people who aren't familiar with every aspect of the universe. We always provide the bios for every character and, when we introduce them, we always make sure that the player understands who they are, what motivates and differentiates them. That's something that we're always very mindful of, and we do a lot of testing just in case. We're not just throwing a lot of faces at the player without them understanding who they are. They motivation behind these characters is so important to is that we'll always spend a lot of time focusing on those elements. We're not just trying to squeeze as many characters as we can into the game; we're picking the ones that will tell the best story. Each of those characters will be there for a reason."


Sefton Hill on boss battles
"Boss battles were interesting in Arkham Asylum. They were started quite late in development, so the first thing we wanted to do for Arkham City was to start them really early in production. Our focus this time is that each of these villains is going to try and challenge Batman in the way that they're strongest. Batman is a great all-rounder, but these people are going to use what it is that makes them special, and use those abilities to take Batman down. So the main thing in terms of how we're going to develop these, in terms of production, is that we're spending a much greater proportion of our time on them. We've got some great boss fights lined up and some really surprising ones too."

"Since everyone's inside Arkham City is technically already incarcerated, Batman can't really arrest people and lock them up. So that creates an interesting dynamic between Batman and the villains. There are some friendly people there that you'll have to help, such as the triage group that;s in there offering medical support to people, but at the same time there are also people in there who have their own agenda, and there are some fragile alliances that Batman will have to form in order to get through the night and survive. There will be some people in there whose objectives might temporarily line up with those of Batman,, so I think there's an interesting dynamic there."

Sefton Hill on Robin
"Yeah, I think you definitely can. There's a checkered past for him, but I really feel that some of the latest iterations of the character in the comic book universe are really interesting and exciting. I don't really want to say much more than that, but I definitely feel that, if ind right, he can be a fascinating character."

Sefton Hill on Batman
"You never saw Bruce Wayne himself in the first game but I do feel that we still touched on his character, and that's also something we'd like to develop for Arkham City, it's something we'd like to develop for Arkham City. It's really important to us that we let the player feel the drive, motivation and origins of what makes Batman who he is. For us, that's what Bruce Wayne needs. It's not about being this unstoppable fighting machine; it's about understanding why he's doing this, and what his limits are. There are obviously a lot of things we did in the first game to show that psychological aspect of Batman, and show who this man behind the mask is. That;s something that we'll continue in the game because it's something that really interests us. It differentiates Batman as a character."


GamesTM issue 103, featuring a Batman: Arkham City cover story is available on the app store and all good UK retailers.

[gengoro]

^^^I...I think im in love. 

[Midnite]

Batman Arkham City trailer airing on Spike Video Game Awards this Friday.

Also the teaser trailer airs tomorrow from MSN UK Tech&Gadgets.
http://twitter.com/msntech



The teaser will be shown at the following times:
UK: 2:00pm
EST: 11:00am
PST: 8:00am

[Midnite]

VGA 10: Exclusive Hugo Strange Reveal Trailer HD

[bat1987]

Now that's a trailer! Looks amazing.

[JeyNyce]

Must Buy This Game......

[Uncle Yuan]

Clearly a cinematic rather than game footage, but the story teaser is quite cool.  I was never going to NOT buy this game, but I am very excited for it now!

[Courtnall6]

Clearly a cinematic rather than game footage, but the story teaser is quite cool.  I was never going to NOT buy this game, but I am very excited for it now!

Cinematic preview trailers have always been a pet peeve of mine since it shows absolutley nothing about gameplay. However, this is a sequel to one of the coolest superhero games ever made...I can let it slide.

Just think. In 5-10 years time the cinematic movies of today will be the actual gameplay graphics.

[detourne_me]

Just think. In 5-10 years time the cinematic movies of today will be the actual gameplay graphics.

well i think the uncharted 3 previewis all in-game graphics... maybe i read that on kotaku

[JeyNyce]

I hope Nolan sees this and maybe use Hugo in the next Batman movie

[JKCarrier]

I hope Nolan sees this and maybe use Hugo in the next Batman movie

There are rumors floating around to that effect.

[Trelau]

 :blink:is christopher lee doing hugo strange's voice? or is hugo strange doing a christopher lee - voice?