Arkham Has Moved

[Max Payne]

Yep, no man's land mixed with salvation run. Just that the criminals aren't being exiled to another planet

 

[Russell]

Sharp took credit for getting the Joker situation of the first game under control. He then used that incident to help win the Mayoral election. After winning, he declares Blackgate and Arkham unfit, and buys off a portion of the slums of Gotham. Walling off the area and calling it "Arkham City", he contracts a mercenary group called Tyger into defending the walls. The prisoners are only given one rule: "Don't try to escape", with the penalty for doing so being death. Beyond that, they can do whatever they want within.

-Hugo Strange heads the new Arkham, though it seems like this fact is cloaked in mystery to the outside world. Those who look into him disappear.

-It's been a year. Two face is admitted into Arkham City and he realizes he has to make a move to assert himself in the new prison lest he be eaten alive (not literally, of course). He captures Catwoman, figuring a public execution should do the trick.

-The team is aiming for a highly detailed city, on the level of what they did in the first game with Arkham itself.

-Gadgets can now be used during fights- the article mentions Batman putting explosive gel on the back of one of his opponents during a brawl.

-You can now pull off multiple counterattacks at the same time.

-Many of the super villains have formed gangs, and taken control of differnt portions of the city.

-The team wants to push the "forensics" angle of the first game more, incorporating puzzles in them that will become more complex as the game goes on.

-Most of the key gadgets that were unlocked late in the first game are available by default (Beyond the explosive gel, the article also mentions the line launcher).

-Interrogations replace the Riddler maps of the first game.

-Batman can now taunt his enemies via a button press.

-Certain characters have optional sidestories within Arkham city (the article mentions Zsasz), that you can dig into.

-Harley has a new costume. From the article: "Instead of a nurse outfit, Harley now wears red and black pants, and a matching midriff-baring top. Her face paint has been scaled back to a much more subtle degree, and she now has a Joker tatoo on one of her hips peeking out over her waistband."

-Batman's been given a new gadget called the "broadcast analyzer". The article mentions several broadcasts Bats can listen in on, like the GCPD dispatch and Gotham FM. The main usage here has Batman tuning in to listen to a message left for him by the Joker.

-Oracle is missing, so Alfred is the one in Bruce's ear (at least at the beginning of the game).

-Rocksteady wouldn't detail their multiplayer plans.

Sounds like No Man's Land

This game keeps sounding better & better.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Re-hosted those images for you, and edited them into your post, because they weren't showing properly.

-It's been a year. Two face is admitted into Arkham City and he realizes he has to make a move to assert himself in the new prison lest he be eaten alive (not literally, of course). He captures Catwoman, figuring a public execution should do the trick.

Well, at least that explains her in chains in the first black & white image, and gives a great opportunity to start off an awkward relationship with Bats for her introduction.

-The team is aiming for a highly detailed city, on the level of what they did in the first game with Arkham itself.

I'd expect nothing less.

-Gadgets can now be used during fights- the article mentions Batman putting explosive gel on the back of one of his opponents during a brawl.

-You can now pull off multiple counterattacks at the same time.

Brutal. It's nice that they're still working with the combat. It was incredibly fluid, and it's nice to see they're still working to make it new, but familiar.

-Many of the super villains have formed gangs, and taken control of differnt portions of the city.

As expected to move things from section to section, and have new / unique things in each area. What I'm wondering is how they'll be directing you from one area to the next specifically. With AA, it was lockdown progression, but with the more open-type environment, it'll be interesting to see how the story's moved along.

-The team wants to push the "forensics" angle of the first game more, incorporating puzzles in them that will become more complex as the game goes on.

This is something that really interests me. While the parts with Detective Mode were interesting, it would be really neat to see it be used for more complex crime solving.

-Most of the key gadgets that were unlocked late in the first game are available by default (Beyond the explosive gel, the article also mentions the line launcher).

Thank god. I wouldn't care about having to unlock some of the specialized batarangs and other things, but the main things that you can use for combat really need to stay around, because he has no reason to have ditched them.

-Interrogations replace the Riddler maps of the first game.

I'll be really interested to see how this works exactly, but it sounds promising.

-Batman can now taunt his enemies via a button press.

Most excellent.

-Certain characters have optional sidestories within Arkham city (the article mentions Zsasz), that you can dig into.

I'm assuming that this works with the Interrogation maps, and focuses on keeping your motivations more open, but I'm also curious as to how many of them will have to be done by particular points, or if it's the "go do everything before the end of the game"-type sidequest.

-Harley has a new costume. From the article: "Instead of a nurse outfit, Harley now wears red and black pants, and a matching midriff-baring top. Her face paint has been scaled back to a much more subtle degree, and she now has a Joker tatoo on one of her hips peeking out over her waistband."

No complaints here. I just wanna get a chance to do something other than kick her ass in a cutscene. Just once...

-Batman's been given a new gadget called the "broadcast analyzer". The article mentions several broadcasts Bats can listen in on, like the GCPD dispatch and Gotham FM. The main usage here has Batman tuning in to listen to a message left for him by the Joker.

This sounds like a REALLY good mechanic to keep things on track. Quite excited to see how this works in the game.

-Oracle is missing, so Alfred is the one in Bruce's ear (at least at the beginning of the game).

Missing, as in plot-related? Either say, nice to have Alfred for a little bit.

-Rocksteady wouldn't detail their multiplayer plans.

But... They do have PLANS then....


It's gonna be WELL worth the year-long wait. Holy shit.

X

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Some scans have made their way online. Smaller versions are spoiler tagged below, but you should be able to click them for the full versions.

Spoiler

X

 

[Max Payne]

I hope they have a scene of Hugo Strange wearing his Batman costume.

That shit never gets old

 

[Max Payne]

Catwoman totally looks like Adam Hughes' Audrey Hepburn inspired version.

 

[Ghost X]

He has the best depiction of catwoman ever, imo.

 

[Max Payne]

Adam Hughes has the best depiction of anything in comics.

One of the few artists that draws people with different facial features, and breasts susceptible to gravity.

 

[Ghost X]

True, I do think all his depictions are best. From memory, anyway. Has he drawn wolverine? =P

 

[Max Payne]

Yes, he's drawn the hairy little mammal

 

[X-SOLDIER]

So after reading the article, I've got a ton more excitement for this game (if that's even possible). I'm gonna C&P some of the quotes from Sefton Hill. I'm already wicked excited about the storyline, but I'm gonna set that back for my playthough, and not go over it TOO heavily, and just focus in on the game itself.

We want to top everything that we did in the last game. We didn't just want to do [an Arkham] 1.5. We want to make the same jump we made from nothing to Arkham. We want to make that same jump again for Arkham City - the same level of ambition.

Their ambition for the sequel is extremely encouraging. So many sequels are afraid to improve too much on something that worked well, but seeing them working to push the limits on absolutely everything from the first game is totally mindblowing.

What we wanted to do, was glide through the Gotham streets and fight crime, but we wanted to do it in a way that feels concentrated. What we wanted to do in building Arkham City was to create a place with the same attention to detail that we build with Arkham Island - to create something where there's a story around every corner. It's not a big, empty, expansive world. We wanted something with a real richness to it. We're trying to create the most detailed and rich city that has ever been in a video game.

The sneaking around mixed with the highly-focused free roaming gameplay seems to have been very carefully thought out. Using the grapnel gun for things, like gaining altitude to glide, as well as the wire crawling, and attaching your grapnel gun to it and then swing kicking down is super epic, along with the ability to then roll off from vantage points, and maintain your momentum.

Because we felt that the system for [Arkham Asylum] was well-refined, we didn't want to deconstruct that and pull it apart and make a completely different combat system. We wanted to build on it. Basically, the idea was to balance it so I'm focusing on the guys who are nearest to me because they can hit me, but there might also be guys throwing things at me. There can be guys with guns at the back. So I have to manage the whole crowd, rather than everyone funneling in front of me, just waiting for me to hit them.

The fact that the counter can hit multiple opponents, along with the ability yo to attack at a specific time to perform takedowns quicker is a real godsend. It'll make a clear level of difference in the skill of a player, and take care of the anyone who baww-ed about combat being relatively simple in AA. Also - the explosive gel being attached to someone, kicking them towards other people, and then detonating it is completely badass. This in combination with the wider range of enemies, and armaments is going to make for a hell of an experience. I like the idea that you can use Detective View to scan for weaponry and disarm people.

We have more complicated crime scenes than in the first game. As you go through it gets more in depth and complicated, and we actually have puzzles based around the forensics as well.

I really dig the idea that you can use it to isolate the Riddler's Interrogation subjects, and leave them remaining, and KO everybody else, and then make them talk. I assume that there will be some super tough ones, and the batclaw to grapple Riddler trophies seems like it's gonna get super challenging. I'm also glad that you get to be more physical with the big bads, rather than keeping them more at a distance / behind barracades.

When you're doing a sequel to a game like this, what we didn't want to do was have the same sort of upgrade path. We're going to start you with a number of the key gadgets that you earned when you played through the first game, and we're also going to upgrade all those gadgets.

I like that the existing gadgest get integrated into the general combat, and will get improved upon. As for completely new mechanics, they mention breaking through weak walls "Kool-Aid style" and having smoke pellets, and summoning bats to disorient people (possibly like an advanced Cowel move from AA).

We're definately adding more depth to the Riddler's experince. The trophies around the world are not going to be as easy to get as they were last time. There are going to be little puzzles to get to them.

Having the majority of the trophies being complex, rather than most of them as a "find it as you go" would be really nice. This combined with the concentrated open world give me the idea that I'll be playing this game for WAY more hours than I'd like to admit. (Especially since I'm almost certain that theer's gonna be at least one unlisted hidden location like the Blueprints room).


X

 

[Max Payne]

http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/08/13/batman-arkham-city-art-time-lapse-video.aspx

I love time lapse paintings

 

[Kujata]

goddamn I love it.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Gameinformer's website makes me want to die. The mobile version is utter shit, and only lets you view the most recent news, so I can't go back and find anything. The normal version renders an error on every page when I try to view it on my phone- "Error on line 103 at column 42: xmlParseEnitiyRef: noname". FIX YOUR DAMN SITE PLEASE. (I'll post my opinions when I get to a computer).


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[Max Payne]

http://arkhamcity.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=217&p=5228#p5228

Bats has a serious "Bitch you crazy, I'm the goddamn Batman" face going there.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

5 mins in MSPaint, just for you Dacon.


:dacon:


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[X-SOLDIER]

http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/055/055051/imgs_1.html

New Arkham City screens!

HOLY FUCKING GOD, they make Arkham Asylum look UGLY in comparison, especially comparing Harley to her earlier incarnation. There's more images (and full 1024x768 resolution) at the IGN link.

X

 

[Max Payne]

http://arkhamcity.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=262

Looks like MP is a lock.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

http://arkhamcity.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=262

Looks like MP is a lock.

Yyyeeesss!!!!


X

 

[Max Payne]

http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox360/b...w/a-201009031684509094/g-20091214174528870002

Because they are good and decent and love their online brethren, OPM UK asked Rocksteady some Batman: Arkham City questions just for us. On our behalf. To share with our readers. Here, then, is the interview with Batman: Arkham City's game director, Sefton Hill.
Official PlayStation Magazine UK: Was there any kind of voting or selection process for the characters you’ve chosen this time or were the choices obvious?
Sefton Hill: The characters that are featured in the game are purely driven by the story. That’s where we always start because we only want to include characters that make sense and help develop the atmosphere, plot or characterisation. After that we chose the characters who we felt would have the most interesting time inside Arkham City.
How would these different characters react to being locked up inside these walls? Of course, with such a tremendous rogue’s gallery to choose from, we really are spoilt for choice. The opportunity to bring so many special characters into the Arkhamverse, to breath life into these characters within the walls of Arkham City was a genuine privilege for us.
OPM UK: What games have you played since the first instalment that have affected the sequel? Whether it’s ideas, influences or things you decided you didn’t want to do?
SH: Like every game studio, everyone at Rocksteady is a committed gamer, and as a team we all play very different games and are influenced in different ways. However, I personally always try to just enjoy other games and not over analyse them. If you want to create something new and fresh I think it is better to do it without following others even if it means you make more mistakes along the way. It is the act of trying and overcoming issues yourself which creates a more original game because it invariably requires you to come up with original solutions.
When it comes to design ideas we do, of course, have an unfair advantage! The back catalogue of Batman comic books and graphic novels is an incredibly valuable archive for us and we prefer to focus on the many decades of great comic book work in there and take inspiration from stand-out moments from within Batman’s world rather than anywhere else.
OPM UK: What’s the hardest part of scaling up Arkham Asylum’s gameplay to work in a city?
SH: Without a doubt, the hardest part of moving the game setting from the confines of the asylum into the urban sprawl of Arkham City was simply building the environment. Our objective in this game is not to make the biggest game we can, but to make the best game possible.
Gamers who played Batman: Arkham Asylum will know how dedicated we are as a studio to injecting an incredible amount of detail into every environment we build. It is this attention to detail that gives our games the deep and intense atmosphere that so many players have found so compelling, and so we have had to seriously scale up our art team in order to bring the same level of detail to Arkham City, which is about 4-5 times bigger than Arkham Asylum.
In terms of gameplay, we knew very early on that just scaling up Batman’s abilities and gadgets wasn’t going to work as he is fundamentally facing a new game world and totally different range of enemies in this game, so we took his move set from Batman: Arkham Asylum and built from there.
Looking at the raw amount of animations in this sequel, Batman’s moves have doubled in number and we also wanted to create an authentic sense of continuity from the end of Batman: Arkham Asylum, so the player will begin Batman: Arkham City with many of the same core gadgets that they unlocked in the first game. Batman’s cutting-edge technology is a significant part of the game, so gamers can expect to see a range of totally new gadgets, as well as evolved new features built into those tools that they already enjoyed in Batman: Arkham Asylum.


OPM UK: How has the motion capture process developed since the original game?
SH: Our motion capture process has developed significantly since Batman: Arkham Asylum. Firstly, Rocksteady made the decision to build a custom, dedicated mocap wing to the studio. The new mocap studio has everything that we need for great capture and has space for a full armoury of weapons, crash mats and a load of other props. We also overhauled the entire motion capture pipeline so that we can grab even more of the subtle movement of our actors.
OPM UK: How big of an impact do you feel that the musical score can have on the game's immersion?
SH: The intelligent use of music and audio is a very powerful tool in creating a genuine sense of immersion in a game world. The musical score is a critical component of our game and our Audio Director, Nick Arundel, continues to do some incredible work in composing a score that is both unique to the Arkham series, but is also laced with those signature orchestral Batman riffs that evoke the power and righteous menace of the Dark Knight.
There is a lot of thought and planning that goes into creating those stand-out, highly immersive cinematic moments for the player and, as with most elements of the game, it is only possible to achieve via collaboration between many different people in the studio bringing together creative vision and technical execution.
The key to generating a genuine sense of immersion in the game lies in the way that the score is linked into the action of the player. Our score is designed and composed with player immersion and interactivity at its heart. The score is broken down into thousands of component parts, which are then played depending on the actions of the player.
The Invisible Predator encounters are a great example of this; when the player first enters the room, the music sits on a certain level, but when they take down their first thug the music steps up to build the tension. If they are discovered, the music will jump to a different track and if they are fired upon, a different track entirely will play. All of these decisions are made with player immersion in mind.
OPM UK: How does it feel to be a part of such a rich universe? Would you like to introduce anything to the canon permanently?
SH: It is simply a privilege to work on a Batman game. We have a great deal of creative flexibility to tell our own stories and create intriguing and compelling challenges for Batman. All of that work is built on the incredibly solid foundations that DC Comics has built over decades of fantastic story telling. We are always pushing to innovate and introduce new and unexpected experiences for the player.
OPM UK: You’re one of the few big UK AAA studios. Why do you think there are so few?
The UK games industry still have some of the best talent in the world and there are still many great studios in the UK which make 'AAA' quality games, but as international competition grows and top-tier games development budgets increase, making 'AAA' games just gets tougher every year and many projects don’t survive.
As an industry, if we sharpen our methods, secure good projects and continue to punch above our weight, then we might just compete. If the UK government can be as forward thinking as some other countries in this regard we could return to the heady days of a world-leading games industry.
OPM UK: Which of the Batman film actors would you like to play your Batman if Arkham City was a film?
SH: I’m going to cheat on this one and say a younger Clint Eastwood.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGNNNNNNNNNNNG

 

[X-SOLDIER]

4-5 x the size of AA and double the animations!?!?

Holy SHIT, yes!


X

 

[Max Payne]

Jesus Christ people are bitching about Harley all over again.

Apparently what makes Harley who she is, is the lame jester outfit and not her personality and behavior.

FFS Harley has gone entire books wearing no costume at all, and are people whining about her looking like a "whore".

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Fuck 'em.

Idiots.


X

 

[Max Payne]

HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGH

MP confirmed?

I'm not fond of Cassie's render, but it looks to be CGI so hopefully she'll look better ingame. Tim(pretty sure it's tim) on the other hand looks awesome save for his face.

EDIT: FAKE FUCK IT ALL

 

[Makoeyes987]

I want this game, so fucking bad.