Back when Batman: Arkham Asylum came out, I remember the series of trailers that teased all the villains featured n that game, and the excitement it caused. The game was no disappointment and on the eve of the sequel, Batman: Arkham City, we are being hit with another barrage of villain trailers.
First we got to see Joker and Harley along with quick glimpses of Two-Face. That’s 2 major villains there (I’m lumping Harley in with Joker). Next we saw a brief trailer at the VGA’s that featured a very sinister Hugo Strange. That’s 3.
This is pretty self-explanatory. One of the biggest pastimes for us writers is to get online during the late hours of the night and embarrass ourselves with horrible teamwork and spite for each other (shooting George Romero in Call of the Dead just to piss each other off). We’ve been doing this for almost 3 years now, and looks like we are strapping in for one more time. According to Gamespot, and the Call of Duty website, it has been announced that the latest and last map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops is ‘Rezurrection’ and it will be 5 zombie-infested maps. And yes, we’re going to the moon for this one.
We thought Arkham City couldn’t look any better… but it does. We’ve all known the Penguin, Oswald Cobblepot, was going to show up in the game, and we’ve seen him in a couple pictures, but now we get to see him in his very own trailer. And as he tells Batman – “I’ve got a little surprise for you down there!”
We are indeed surprised to find out what he’s babbling on about in the trailer. There’s also picture of Talia Al’Ghul for everyone to take a gander at. No news yet as to what she might be up to in the game, but the picture is worth looking at for a few minutes.
If you needed a sexy reason to get even more excited for Batman: Arkham City, developer Rocksteady today revealed Talia al Ghul, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly. Yes, Damian Wayne’s mom, Ra’s daughter and Batman’s love interest Talia is coming to Arkham City and being voiced by Stana Katic from ABC’s Castle.
Oh boy, Catwoman and Talia in the same game? There’s going to be some major cat-fighting going down! (Pun intended to the max) Bats is going to have his hands full in this game, and he’ll be fighting a lot of villains too. Yup, good ole’ Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday, Christened on a Tuesday and all that seems to be having a part in Arkham City. To me that kicks total ass and I know this is exactly what Dr. Kronner is thinking:
He must be stepping in for Bane in this game as the giant baddie you have to take down. Personally I’m still hoping Croc will show up at some point so you can fight him one on one instead of just running away from him. But let’s get back to Penguin.
I thought he looked fantastic in the trailer, and it’s great they gave him the persona of being extremely ruthless in this canon of Batman, because to tell you the truth I was getting a little sick of his crime boss/informant role that he had been relegated to for such a long time in the comics. And his thick English accent is very fitting and makes him more gritty in that “Snatch” sort of way. It was like a hybrid of “Brick Top” and Ray Winstone. I can’t wait until October 18th. I may try the Cartman method of freezing myself so it gets here quicker…
It seems like I can’t get any more excited for the upcoming sequel to my favorite game of last year. Batman: Arkham City promises to bring us everything we loved about Batman: Arkham Asylum, but bigger, better, and more badass. But this is something I’ve talked about a few times before. Like when they told us that Catwoman would be a playable character with a key role in the campaign mode.
Then there was the rumor that Robin would be a pre-order exclusive (with a probable downloadable version later on) to be used in some challenge maps. Well that rumor has been confirmed, and here’s what the Arkham City version looks like, courtesy of Gotham Knights Online:
It would seem George Lucas has set a precedent on doing things in the galaxy far far away backwards, because the latest Old Republic cinematic takes place before the previous two. Satele Shan is not a master yet nor is Darth Malgus. Also the Sith Empire has not returned yet…until the cinematic kicks off of course.
Darth Malgus and Satele Shan in their second duel on Alderaan
The trailers have showed us just about every character class that you can use in the MMORPG and this one introduces us to the smuggler class, portrayed by a smart mouth human Cad Bane wannabe, who also likes to check out Twi’lek behinds. Check out the trailer below to enjoy the goodness. And be good to yourself by watching it in 720p:
Let’s touch on some interesting points: Malgus and Satele certainly end up having quite a history, fighting for the first time here and Satele being the one to injure him so badly on Alderaan that he needs Darth Vader style life support. I can’t wait to see their next confrontation which will no doubt occur during the Old Republic game. (If it ever finally releases.)
Satele’s master
Malgus himself shows that he is quite the skilled fighter, as if that wasn’t apparent with his destruction of the Jedi Temple and concurrent conquering of Coruscant later. (That was a lot of c’s.) He also proves to be a true sith after striking down his wounded master after their fight against the Jedi. It was interesting to see a Sith Lord of the same species of Naga Sadow in action, something I can’t recall seeing before in any video. The red skinned Sith claim to be pure blooded Sith because they share the bloodline of the initially conquered Sith species.
Satele’s master also proved to be quite formidable, taking on both Malgus and his own master with plenty of finesse as he wielded his own lightsaber with Satele’s own double bladed weapon. It’s a shame that he bit the dust because he seemed interesting enough. Given Star Wars penchant for prequel material perhaps we will see him in something in future media.
I’ve told myself and told myself not to waste time playing the MMORPG when it finally does release but the more I see of it the more I know that just won’t happen. From all of the trailers, gameplay and books this portion of the Star Wars expanded universe has shown us so far, the Old Republic era still has plenty for us. Either way I need a new Star Wars game to play because I’m still reeling from the disappointment that was The Force Unleashed 2.
Not too long ago we showed you a trailer that revealed Catwoman as a playable character in the campaign mode of the highly anticipated (By me at least) Batman: Arkham City. Now it seems that won’t be the only addition to the cast.
While it is an unconfirmed report, it seems that if you pre-order the game from Best Buy you will be given the chance to play as Robin in 2 of the challenge maps. For fans of the first game you will remember that the challenge maps included both Stealth and Combat levels were you had to test your skills as Batman against waves of villains.
Grizzly Bomb 