Tag Archives: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Mark Hamill has said that after playing The Joker in the Batman animated series from 1992-2004, he never expected to play the insane villain again – until he was asked to do Arkham Asylum.

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What happens in Japan evidently doesn’t stay in Japan. It just takes more than two decades to leave. Speaking with Edge (via Play.tm), Square Enix president Yoichi Wada gave a thumbs-up to the idea of a non-Japanese developed installment of his company’s flagship Final Fantasy series.

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Rocksteady dev boss Sefton Hill’s told Gama that there are “too many games out there that deliver lots of average content,” adding that “doing less” in terms of features ensured Batman’s high quality.

“Some of the things that we really wanted to achieve were for Batman himself, so we didn’t want to overstretch with a driving section with its own mechanic and requirements, and take that development time away from the things that were important for Batman himself,” he said.

You can’t argue with numbers: Arkham Asylum’s done more than 2 million now. Shame Hill didn’t name names. You should man up, Sefton. Call out the averagers. Take them to school.

There’s an interview here.

Eidos has announced that the Prey in the Darkness Map Pack for Batman: Arkham Asylum will land on Xbox Live and PSN tomorrow, and includes two additional Challenge Maps.

Heart of Darkness FreeFlow Combat map: Players will battle waves of relentless and maniacal enemies at the Arkham Pumping Station.

Hothouse Prey Invisible Predator map: Players will have to rely on their Predator instincts to silently and effectively take down enemies at the Abandoned Glasshouse.

Sounds cool, and best of all, its free.

Square said today that Batman: Arkham Asylum has so far shipped 2.5 million copies.

The company, understandably, is pleased.

“Batman: Arkham Asylum is one of the stand-out games this year,” said Eidos CEO Phil Rogers.

“I’ve been following the great reviews and consumer blogs and I’m delighted that gamers everywhere love playing this game as much as we do.”

Make another one, please. PR after the break.

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Batman: Arkham Asylum and Red Faction: Guerrilla are now available on Steam in the US and coming later this week to additional territories.

Also available are Resident Evil 5 and Zuma’s Revenge in certain territories as well.

Loads more info is available on Steam, and through each game link, but Evil Avatar has it all broken down for you.

A reported bug over on the Batman: Arkham Asylum forums has led Eidos to reveal that there’s not an actual bug in the game, but a code to make the game virtually unplayable if the copy has been pirated.

Apparently, a user complained that the glide function within the game – which is extremely important – fails to function.

“When I…jump from one platform to another, Batman tries to open his wings again and again instead of gliding,” the user wrote.

“It’s not a bug in the game’s code, it’s a bug in your moral code,” replied the Eidos community manager, who explained that the glide function was disabled in pirated versions to “catch out people who try and download cracked versions of the game for free”.

Adding insult to injury was the fact that the game had not even hit shelves yet when the gamer complained on the forums.

Via BBC News.

Thanks, Roybott.

The first of Batman’s free DLC packs, Insane Night, will contain two Challenge Maps when it releases for PC, 360 and PS3 on September 17.

The levels are called Totally Insane and Nocturnal Hunter. Details after the break.

A second pack, Prey in the Darkness, will land on September 24.

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Guitar Hero 5 has beaten The Beatles: Rock Band to No. 1 in the latest UK charts.

Harmonix’s effort didnt even land in the top three, only getting to four in the charts. DiRT 2 and Batman: Arkham Asylum round off the top three.

Top ten is below. You can find last weeks data here.

Mike Kebby, from SCEE’s PlayStation Store Team, has posted on the EU PS Blog that the upcoming DLC for Batman: Arkham Asylum landing on September 17 will be Insane Knight.

The other bit of DLC, Prey in the Darkness, will land on September 24.

This confirms rumors from earlier in the week.

You can find Kebby’s response to DLC content for the game in the comments section through the link.

Buried in a piece on Warner Bros.’ formation of DC Entertainment, the LA Times has thrown in figures for Batman: Arkham Asylum.

According to the report, the game – which was released on August 25 – has already moved “nearly two million units in less than a month” and calling it a “major hit”.

Technically, the game has been out – as of today – two weeks and two days. That’s about a million per week.

Not too shabby. the NPD figures are released today, so we may get an actual number for it later in the day.

More through the link, via Joystiq.

According to the PS3 news ticker, Batman: Arkham Asylum’s getting free DLC on September 17, and Eidos has confirmed that it will be made available for PC and Xbox 360 as well.

This bit was confirmed as a multiplatform DLC release when a spokesperson replied to a question regarding it on the official Batman forums.

“I’m happy to inform you, it will arrive at the same time,” read the reply.

Meanwhile, over on PlayStation Lifestyle (thanks, Gekidami), it’s being rumored that the content is the Insane Night DLC Pack, which contains the Dem Bones Scarecrow Challenge and Crime Alley Challenge Map Packs which where available through GameStop preorders and Collector’s Edition purchases.

Prey in the Darkness DLC Pack, supposedly coming September 24th, is also being reported as one of the upcoming bits, and is rumored as a PS3 exclusive.

We’ll send an email off to Eidos and see if anyone bites. Don’t count on it though.

Via Kotaku, Shack.

Joystiq’s carrying an image of the Batman menu screen showing a message about some free DLC: it’s coming next week, apparently.

Rocksteady’s Paul Crocker did mention “the DLC” in an interview with us recently, but refused to go into detail.

Just checking now.

Update – Just got this from UK PR: “We can’t talk about DLC for the moment.”

Batman: Arkham Asylum’s managed to maintain the number one spot in this weeks UK charts, and a surprise inclusion in the top three is Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

The two year-old Infinity Ward title crept in at number three thanks to the game being bundled with the recently-released PS3 Slim.

Find this weeks charts below. Last weeks data is here.

Bit of a humdinger this week. We were lucky enough to get Capcom US’s senior business chap Christian Svensson and Unity ubermeister Chris Kramer on the phone for a brilliant chat about all the firm’s major products: tons of news in there, so definitely listen.

In addition, British development refused to be outdone, you’ll be glad to hear, with Arkham Asylum’s lead narrative guy Paul Crocker giving us ten minutes of everything bat. The interviews are back-to-back.

This one’s quite long, so for ease:

• 0-14.29 – Pat, Steph and Nathan on PS3 Slim, Take-Two’s Natal announcement, Blizzcon, Nathan sounding like a broken robot and Steph shouting about “slapping hookers”.
• 14.30-28.21 – Capcom’s Christian Svensson and Chris Kramer.
• 28.51-38.50 – Rocksteady’s Paul Crocker.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The most obvious question in the history of obvious questions: is Rocksteady working on a sequel to the almost universally acclaimed Batman: Arkham Asylum? Shall we ask Paul Crocker, AA’s lead narrative designer? Oh, go on then.

“We’re just waiting to see if people like the game,” said Paul, speaking in this week’s VG247 podcast.

But surely the UK darling-of-the-moment’s putting together DLC for the original, right?

“We don’t talk about the DLC, I’m afraid,” Crocker added.

“The DLC”? You’ll just have to wait to see what that’s all about.

Eidos has sent over some lovely Batman: Arkham Asylum screens for PC showing off how it looks with the Nvidia PhysX real-time, hyper-realistic physical and environmental gaming effects.

Sounds like a commercial, we know, but still they are lovely to behold.

Game’s out for PC September 15.

The gallery is posted below the break along with the video.

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Batman: Arkham Asylum has been awarded a Guinness World Record for being the ‘Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever’.

It has achieved the highest average score of 91.67 from reviews around the world. Cool.

“We are so pleased to be awarding Batman: Arkham Asylum a Guinness World Record,” said Gaz Deaves from Guinness. “It is a fantastic new game and due to the reaction of gaming experts we believe it has a well deserved place in the Guinness World Records book.”

Congrats to Eidos and Rocksteady.

Press release follows the break.

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WARNING: Very, very obviously, do not watch this movie unless you want Batman: Arkham Asylum’s plot completely spoiled.

GamesRadar’s posted a 90-second movie of all the major plot points in Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Asylum.

This may come in useful for people that don’t with to play the game, yet hanker to know what happens at the end.

Not sure who those people are, but there we go. If you do want to play it, however, you’ll be in good company. Maybe you should do that instead.

Batman: Arkham Asylum? Never even heard of it. Oh well, Shacknews has a new trailer for it, so — since it’s a slow news day — we thought we might as well tell you about it.

Seriously, though — what an obscure game. Bet it’s not even any good.