Batman: Arkham Asylum hits tonight at Midnight.
For a bit of a change of pace, I’m going to talk video games. Tonight, at midnight, the very fresh game, Batman Arkham Asylum becomes available at Gamestop. I reserved my copy weeks ago, and recently downloaded the demo to my XBOX 360. To say that this game is awesome, would be putting it mildly.
The entire conflict revolves around The Joker (voiced by the only man who should ever voice the Joker, Mark Hamill) taking over Arkham Asylum, and as Batman (voiced by the only man who should voice the character, Kevin Conroy) you have to make your way through a Asylum riot of your enemies to catch him.
The demo teaches you the basics: Detective Mode which provides the threat level, points of interest around you and how to use them to your advantage. The fighting style is flawless, allowing you to counter people’s moves easily and directs you on how to silently take down enemies. Its quite easy to pick up, both of these skills are absolutely necessary for you to master as alot of it has to do with strategy. You have to use your surroundings and your pretty awesome fighting skills to knock out enemies as most of them are armed. If you are even caught by more than one enemy with a gun, you will die. Even on easy mode, you be gunned down in seconds.
If you don’t believe me as to the levels of awesome this game inhabits, allow me to cite:
DOES IT LIVE UP TO THE HYPE? Absolutely. From the involvement of fan-favorite Batman writer Paul Dini to the “Batman: The Animated Series” voice duo of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, the major players brought in from the Batman universe for “Arkham Asylum” perform just as well as you’d hope—and maybe even better. It’s a dream team for comic book fans, and the familiar names all bring their A-game to “Arkham Asylum.”
Rest assured, I’m not being hyperbolic when I say that Batman: Arkham Asylum is unquestionably the best licensed game I’ve ever played. At the end of the day, however, that’s a fairly low hurdle to clear — it better reflects the game’s quality to say it’s one of the best stealth-action games ever made, and easily the best video game 2009 has had to offer thus far.
IGN:
Batman: Arkham Asylum is the greatest comic book videogame of all time. This is an adult Dark Knight story that is well-told, packs some truly fun gameplay elements, has topnotch voice talent, and feel like it’s part of Batman canon. If I have to nitpick, I wish the cutscenes looked better as they can distract from the tale and that the AI was a bit more responsive, but those are tiny flaws that shouldn’t distract from the big picture.
Rocksteady nailed what Batman is supposed to feel like. Fans, rejoice.
For me to say this game is a must have is something. I’m not a video game person, I had a Playstation 2 for four years and had three games, one of which I played on a constant basis (Ultimate Spider-Man). I only recently got an XBOX and for me to spend money on a game ($60!!!) it has to be worth it to me. It has to be a game that I will play over and over again through the years, because I don’t spend time on games, but I like what I like. By this time next year, I predict this game and Madden 2010 will be the only games I have for the system.
Bryan Singer might be re-starting “X-Men” with “First Class.”
The director of my favorite movie may end up directing the script by Chuck creator Josh Schwartz for the X-Men film reboot, “X-Men: First Class,” according to MTV’s Splash Page. It has been a well-known fact that Bryan Singer has regretted leaving the X-Men film franchise that he helped take off after “X2: X-Men United.” Since his “Usual Suspects” collaborator Christopher McQuarrie is writing the sequel for the Wolverine film, people have been wondering if that movie will be where Singer returns to the franchise. However, Josh Wigler speculates:
The answer could well be yes, if a well-hidden bit of news is any indication. At the tail-end of a Variety article detailing Bryan Singer’s upcoming obligations as a director and producer, it’s mentioned that the filmmaker is “flirting with directing ‘X-Men: First Class,’” marking a potential return to the mutant franchise he pioneered on the big screen.
While this is far from a finished deal, it does represent several rumors and even words from the director himself about Singer’s desire to return to the X-Men universe. He explicitly expressed that notion in June, calling his lack of involvement with the “X-Men” movies “a shame.”
I would say if Singer plans on making it up to the fanbase of those films, this movie would be the ideal point of entry. Schwartz, known for writing kids very well with “Gossip Girl” and “The OC” has probably written a pretty great script to develop new stories in the adventures of the first X-Men established in the films. Those featured in the script being: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast.
SMITH Magazine announces THE PEKAR PROJECT.
Jeff “Jahfurry” Newelt announced today that SMITH Magazine will be doing online, every-other-week Harvey Pekar comics, titled The Pekar Project. I never thought I’d see the day that Pekar would even know how to access the Internet, but it looks like today is that day. From the announcement, courtesy of the good Sir Mr. Newelt:
We’re starting the series off with a single story illustrated by newcomer Tara Seibel. Tara is a new also-Cleveland-based collaborator of Harvey’s; she has a totally unique avant-garde design/color driven style that Harvey is having a ball writing stories for. This first one is an illustrated phone call between Harvey and his pal / collaborator underground comix legend Robert Crumb! –Lots of imagery to play with there, so Tara goes to town. To get the site rolling we started off with the classic Pekar/Crumb teamup with a new twist (drawn by Tara) and the next installment will be four short stories, one illustrated by each of the four Pekar Project artists.
The Pekar Project is new comics every other week, and on the “non-comics” weeks we’re going to have heavy-duty blog features, like new interviews with Harvey, unseen behind-the-scenes art from Harvey’s collaborators, essays by Harvey himself, interviews with the artists, profiles / exclusive excerpts of upcoming Pekar books, etc.
Newelt goes on to mention that the American Splendor creator will actually be on TWITTER. I think Hell has officially frozen over, because that is LITERALLY something I thought I’d never see happen.
The first webcomic hit the intertubes this morning. Drawn by Cleveland local Tara Seibel, this story chronicles Harvey and longtime Splendor collaborator Robert Crumb talking art in general. According to the comic, Harvey was contracted to write the Libretto for “Leave Me Alone!” the jazz opera by Dan Plonsey, and he didn’t know the first thing about it, so he talked to Crumb. The conversation between the two was recorded and played during the opera, and reproduced for us by Smith.
I have to say that my Pekar addiction can be fulfilled on a regular basis is just a fantastic way to start off the week.