Batman: Arkham

[donbot]

^And here it is :Dinah:

Also comes with the news that Kevin Conroy is indeed reprising his role as the voice of the Bat, after it had reported that he wasn't going to

[Michael*]

Looking great, though I would have loved some gameplay footage. All in good time, I guess.

[donbot]

E3 gameplay trailer

until it's deleted again by Warner

[Michael*]

Some of the little changes like the remote claw and the more complex detective mode look rather excellent. To my eyes, the graphics don't look quite as good as in the previous titles, but since the map this time is the entire city of Gotham, I assume they're having to compromise a bit in that department.

Heartened by the voice acting though, they sound as if they could actually pass for a young Conroy and Hamill. The Joker sounds a lot like he did in the old animated series, but apparently, it's the same guy who voiced Booker DeWitt.

[donbot]

^Interesting

That actually is Conroy though.

I'm quite excited about the potential behind the claw upgrade too. Reminds me of some of the hijinks you could get up to in Just Cause 2

[Michael*]

I know Conroy tweeted about doing it, but I was under the impression that he was only returning for the next-gen Arkham game, and mistook the announcement about ‘Origins’ for one about the future Rocksteady effort. Could well be totally wrong on that though.

It seems the guy doing the Joker also did Robin and Harvey Dent in ‘Arkham City’. I just had a look at his IMDB page, he really does have quite the resume.

[donbot]

^Oh, yeah you're right. I read it on a PC Gamer article, which has since been updated/corrected

Update 2: In a now deleted tweet (captured by Reddit), Kevin Conroy said, “Confusion in Dallas! I am in new ARKHAM GAME coming soon, NOT ARKHAM ORIGINS coming this fall.”

Update 1: In a statement to IGN, Warner Bros say, “Roger Craig Smith is confirmed as the voice of Batman and Troy Baker is confirmed as the voice of The Joker in Batman: Arkham Origins.”

In which case, Conroy’s part in the game is still unannounced. What we do know is that Arkham Origins is a series prequel, meaning Conroy could be returning as the older incarnation of Batman in some capacity. Until an official announcement is made, though, the nature of his involvement is speculation.

Original: Kevin Conroy has announced that he’ll be reprising the role of Batman [update: involved in some unknown capacity] in Arkham Origins. While the actor had played the role in both previous Arkhams, as well as various animated incarnations, it had been reported that Warner Brothers had dropped him for the impending prequel. Conroy confirmed his involvement at the Dallas Comic Con; the rumour of his departure presumably started by some joker… Or, perhaps, the Joker…

“I can talk about it now,” Conroy said during the panel. “We’ve been working for about nine or ten months on the next Arkham game. We all signed contracts so we weren’t allowed to talk about it. The studio likes to completely control the rollout of any product, so they don’t like us to talk about anything, but it’s now been announced.

“It’s an unbelievable game, I still can’t say anything about it, and you don’t want me to anyway because it will ruin it for you, but it’s amazing. It’s a huge, huge cast, and a big story. It took almost a year of writing to put it together. They’ve been working on it a long time.”

[Michael*]

That was him singing as well? Gah, don't you just hate talented people?

Allegedly, the studio used a few offcuts from Conroy's previous contributions for the first 'Origins' teaser trailer, which seemed to confuse things still further. It would be quite cool for him to appear as an older Batman/Wayne though, I wonder if there's still a chance of Hamill being on board for the next project too?

[donbot]

Some reassuring info in here

Batman: Arkham Origins hands-on: cleaning up Gotham’s streets, one masked madman at a time

As a product of the Joel Schumacher Batman & Robin era, I grew up rather apathetic towards the Dark Knight. 2009’s Batman: Arkham Asylum eventually put me on the right track, and in the wake of Batman: Arkham City I nearly spent a full day drawing little bat symbols on every lightbulb in my house. Which is why I’m terrified to start playing Batman: Arkham Origins.

With Batman: Arkham Asylum, Rocksteady transformed Batman into a gaming icon. Strip off the cowl and Batman becomes Bruce Wayne; this we know. But take Rocksteady out of the Asylum games and you’ve got what, exactly? That’s the thought running through my head as I take control of Batman in his latest outing, developed not by series creators Rocksteady but by relative newcomers WB Games Montreal. If they get this wrong, they will have ruined my Batman.

My first reaction is one of confusion. Arkham Origins isn’t Batman’s origin tale. Rather, it’s a ‘Year Two’ adventure. Set on Christmas Eve, it’s the story of how Black Mask gathers eight of DC’s toughest assassins and sets them loose in Gotham City to kill Batman, and how the Caped Crusader overcomes the odds and first begins what’s to become a very long war against the city’s masked villains.

But as I start my clean-up by tackling an eight-strong band of The Penguin’s thugs I discover the freeflow combat skills picked up in Arkham City – the simultaneous counters, the quick-spray explosive gel, the weapon stripping and so on – are available.

The world’s greatest detective inside me points out that this adventure predates Arkham Asylum’s fiction (indeed, it’s set so early on in Arkham’s timeline that Batman hasn’t yet met Captain Gordon and the Penguin is currently sans bottle-monocle). So why is it that, post-fight, I’m also able to launch up into the sky and slingshot myself across the city with the grapnel boost manoeuvre, which was only possible in Arkham City thanks to a new prototype gadget? Or perform double-takedowns on unsuspecting goons when I’m later sneaking around Gotham’s dockyards to infiltrate The Penguin’s super-tanker base?

Comic book lore is no stranger to plot holes, and I’m happy to shrug the timeline inconsistency aside on the grounds that it makes for a better game in the long run. That the combat and city traversal feels exactly like Arkham City should come as no surprise: WB Games Montreal inherited every last scrap of code and kilobyte of assets from Rocksteady.

Initial familiarity soon slips into the shadows as new features emerge. The core mechanics haven’t changed too much, but WB Games Montreal feel more mileage could be wrung out of Batman’s existing skillset complexities. Hence the birth of the Dark Knight system, which sees Bruce programming the Batcomputer to set combat metachallenges for XP and gadget rewards as he trains himself (and you) over the course of the night.

Though Arkham City’s landmass has been reused, it’s almost unrecognisable from its last runout. In its pre-Asylum, preflooded, snow-covered midwinter state it feels vibrant and looks lived in.

Indeed, cops battle thugs in the streets as a major snowstorm buffets the city and drives innocent residents indoors and behind locked doors. As Batman explores the city, you’ll be able to tune into police dispatch radios and swoop in to stop crimes in progress, as well as pick up and follow clues to villain-specific splinter campaigns.

My demo takes place entirely in Old Gotham – a scant 50 percent of the game. Across Gotham Bay lies the upmarket island of New Gotham, where skyscrapers dominate the horizon. The added verticality won’t be sectioned off into a separate location bubble such as Arkham City’s hemmed-in Wonder Tower: from the tip of the tallest building to the far corners of both islands and the long bridge stapling them together, the entirety of Gotham City’s external map lives in one streaming world. (Albeit a world big enough to warrant a new fast-travel system in the form of the Batwing.)

The extra real estate is put to good use in a revamped detective mode, too. The redesigned system sees you scanning clues and piecing together video recreations of crimes; videos that can be scrubbed through to pick out incidental details (such as a killer leaving a fingerprint on a surface) for further investigating. Though the demo’s crime scene took place inside a single room, I’m told city-wide crime scenes can and will appear.

And what of the void left by original custodians Rocksteady? Newcomers WB Games Montreal are understandably going to be viewed as a sidekick developer until they prove they can pull this off, but as a couple of major demo features (dynamic weather that affects combat and enemy quadrotor drones in predator rooms) have been removed on the grounds of them not meeting ‘Arkham Quality’ levels, the team’s breaking its own back, Knightfall style, to live up to all the expectations.

Batman: Arkham Origins is out on October 25.

[Michael*]

Some reassuring info in here

 

Sounding good so far. I nearly died when I saw Joel Schumacher's name briefly mentioned in association with 'Origins' though, what an unfortunate turn of events that would have been.

[Michael*]

Origins TV spot #2. Not convinced there's anything new to see, but here it is anyway.

 

[Michael*]

Copperhead reveal.

 

[SympathysSilhouette]

They Rule 63-ed him her.

[Michael*]

They Rule 63-ed him her.

 

Rule 63-ed, and soon to be New 52-ed.

[Michael*]

The current word on the street is that the Mad Hatter (presumably with bunny crew in tow) will be back for Origins in a greatly expanded role, so I guess expect a Copperhead-style reveal for him soon.

[Michael*]

 

Batman: Arkham Origins' multiplayer is being developed by Splash Damage

Splash Damage, developers of multiplayer shooters Brink, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Dirty Bomb, is leading development on Batman: Arkham Origins' multiplayer component, it's been revealed.
 
One of the multiplayer modes revealed so far is 'Invisible Predator', a mode that sees two teams face off against each other on the streets of Arkham as a player-controlled Batman & Robin stalk them from the shadows.
 
But why Splash Damage? Creative director Alastair Cornish explains that the studio was chosen because of its multiplayer background, and to give Warner Montreal room to focus on the single-player.
 
"[Warner Bros.] were looking for a partner to develop the game independently from Warner Montreal as some of the concerns about adding a multiplayer mode to a traditionally single-player franchise is that one takes away from the other," Cornish told VideoGamer.com during an Arkham Origins multiplayer reveal event. "But having two separate teams developing them in parallel you kind of avoid that, especially as Splash Damage are multiplayer specialists."
And Cornish believes Splash Damage has the necessary experience to do the series justice.
 
"We've been around for over 10 years, almost 15 years now, and multiplayer is what we do," he continued. "We have a huge amount of experience to draw on which I think Warner were looking for.
 
"Additionally, in the early conversations we had with them, we were very much on the same page about how we would address this and what we could do with a multiplayer mode that would feel like an organic growth to the single-player, [and] that would feel like it was authentic and uniquely Arkham. "None of us had any interest in doing a bolt-on, 'me too' deathmatch. It had to be uniquely Arkham and gameplay you couldn’t get anywhere else."
 
Simon was given the chance to go hands-on with Arkham Origins' multiplayer earlier this week, and came away feeling it had a lot of potential. The game goes on sale on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and Wii U on October 25.

 

[Michael*]

Latest trailer.
 
Slightly inaccurate video title as it doesn't actually focus on Firefly that much, although you do get a few glimpses of what he can do. Not exactly sure why, but something about him gives me serious Metal Gear vibes.
 

[Michael*]

The first trailer for the catchily titled 'Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate' on the Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita looks pretty darn snazzy. I own neither console, but I'll probably try and find a way to give it a go at some point - will be most interested to see how the proposed '2.5D' interpretation of the main game's combat and moves ends up playing.
 

[donbot]

^There were a couple of the combat challenge maps in Arkham City that were 2D restricted. I doubt I'll get to play it, but it looks interesting

[Michael*]

Two additional villain appearances apparently revealed by the tracklisting of the game's soundtrack...
 

‘Batman: Arkham Origins’ Adds Villains Killer Croc & Magpie?

We don’t want to hurl any disparaging remarks at the dark knight, but the sheer number of villains and assassins set to appear in Batman: Arkham Origins, the caped crusader can’t be too effective at removing Gotham City’s criminal element. Then again, the game is only set in the second year of Bruce Wayne’s crimefighting career. So perhaps the ever-growing roster is a sign that the developers at WB Games Montreal have chosen the right setting.

With that in mind, fans of the Batman comics and prior Arkham games will be glad to hear that thanks to the official game soundtrack, Killer Croc is once again confirmed to appear, with a strong hint that Magpie may also cameo. How the new (old?) takes will differ from previous version remains to be seen, but Batman’s going to have his hands full.

The apparent confirmation of the characters comes courtesy of the Arkham Origins official soundtrack. With the song titles referencing specific confirmed villains – be they Joker, Deathstroke, Mad Hatter, Firefly, or others – two tracks stand out: “Killer Croc” and “The Thieving Magpie.” (Note: “The Thieving Magpie” is a pre-existing song – but given that it’s based and named on the same bird as the classic Batman villain, we’d say it’s a safe bet).

The former track listing confirms that Killer Croc will be making a return to the series, having previously been featured in the original Batman: Arkham Asylum as a boss, and as a small cameo in Arkham City. Since the events of Arkham Origins take place years before either of those titles, the art team may decide to show a new take on Waylon “Killer Croc” Jones – perhaps one before the skin disease and hyper-aggressive tendencies turned him from man into beast (completely, anyway).

Joining Killer Croc is long-time Batman comic nuisance Magpie: a kleptomaniac known for outrageous hairstyles and an eye for nicking priceless artifacts. The character most recently appeared in the WB animated series Beware The Batman, so fans might expect to see WB Games create a similar version than the comic book source material.

Whatever the case, the developers have already proven particularly skilled at designing – or re-imagining – villains for the Arkham universe. Case in point: Copperhead, re-imagined as an acrobatic woman so original, DC Comics will be bringing the video game creation to the pages of their own books. We don’t know if the same awaits Magpie, but there’s reason to hope.

It’s also possible that Magpie could be re-imagined as one of the 8 assassins out for Batman’s life, since WB Games has yet to clarify exactly which of their villains will qualify as ‘assassins,’ not simple troublemakers. But with her related piece of music referring to her as “thieving,” we’ll guess that Magpie will only appear as a crafty burglar, not a hired killer.

Are you looking forward to seeing either of these characters transplanted into the early days of the Arkhamverse? Does it give you hope of seeing other villains pop up in the campaign? Give us your thoughts in the comments.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWxJ4nxtseY&feature=share&list=UUl2Ae8IzmEusR43OL9HNcKQ
_____

Batman: Arkham Origins will be available on PC, PS3, Wii U and Xbox 360 on October 25, 2013.