Arkham Has Moved

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Freeze looks like an alien.
Poison Ivy looked better in AS
Grundy <3

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Holy balls, I hope they're real.



X

 

[Max Payne]

Freeze looks like an alien.
Poison Ivy looked better in AS
Grundy <3

Ivy.....looks the same.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

I was just reading through a thread talking about the idea of Solomon Grundy and Croc having a territory war in the sewers in Arkham City, which I think is a pretty awesome idea.


X

 

[Max Payne]

I somehow doubt Grundy is going to have the gangster/mob persona in this game. If that image is anything to go by, it's savage grundy.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Well, I think that the idea was less around the gangster/mob persona, and more of the fact that they'd most like both be in the sewers and that, even though they'd both be there, I don't think they'd share the same space very well. In addition to that, they're both tough as hell, and would probably have each other at a stand still, and just 'control' different parts of the sewer. Neither being a really favorable option for visiting. If anything, I think the savage Grundy would suit that sort of an idea even better.


X

 

[Max Payne]

Well, I think that the idea was less around the gangster/mob persona, and more of the fact that they'd most like both be in the sewers and that, even though they'd both be there, I don't think they'd share the same space very well. In addition to that, they're both tough as hell, and would probably have each other at a stand still, and just 'control' different parts of the sewer. Neither being a really favorable option for visiting. If anything, I think the savage Grundy would suit that sort of an idea even better.


X

Grundy mostly wants to be left alone, when he's not reincarnated with a more ambitious persona and he bunks in a lot of areas besides sewers, why would we assume that he'd automatically be in those? He's been known to camp in abandoned buildings as well.

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

If its Grundy in savage mode, I'd like him to sort of pop up randomly throughout multiple areas. Like, he finds somewhere quiet where people leave him alone, but eventually a battle breaks out nearby between Batman and one of the criminals and their henchmen and it disturbs him. Make it so it could work in your favor, with him mowing down mooks, but you gotta stay out of his way or end up fighting him and driving him off to find a new spot. With a story objective or side-quest dedicated to handling him fully of course.

 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Ivy.....looks the same.

Looks like they gave her a bob hairstyle O.o

 

[X-SOLDIER]

There's a preview of the comic that's coming out in May.
It's taking a look a Joker post defeat & Harley (possibly her reason for going all biker-chick too).

Spoiler: Comic Preview

X

 

[Max Payne]

ArkhamCity.co.uk had a chance to sit down with Sefton Hill (Director), Dax Ginn (Marketing Game Manager), Paul Crocker (Lead Narrative Designer), Kan Muftic (Senior Concept Artist) and Sarah Wellock (community manager) from Rocksteady to discuss all things Batman: Arkham City. Here’s what they had to say!



Your first published game was Urban Chaos: Riot Response. Were a lot of Rocksteady huge comic fans before setting out on Arkham Asylum, or has it been something that has grown internally through time?



Paul Crocker: I used to work in a comic store and I’ve always been into this stuff. 10% of Rocksteady are über nerds and at the other end of the scale there were 10% that had never read a Batman comic before we started, but that helped us. It meant we were appealing to everyone. That’s our job when making the game, to make sure you know about Batman, even if you’ve never read anything about Batman.

Sefton Hill: I think that’s something we’ve worked really hard to do. We’ve got that balance between hardcore and real mainstream fans who have only seen the films. Everyone here at Rocksteady loves Batman and we were super excited when starting on Arkham Asylum. But we always realised that this could be peoples’ first Batman game and they might only have a very casual knowledge of the characters. We’re not going to jump in and start overwhelming you with obscure characters. If you want to know more about the Batman world this is a great place to start. And if you know about the Batman world this game will drive that mythology even deeper. We have to constantly keep ourselves in check because we’ve spent four years talking and thinking about nothing else except Batman so you can almost become too entrenched.

Has your approach to marketing changed due to Batman: Arkham City being the sequel to such a critically acclaimed and successful game like Arkham Asylum?



Dax Ginn: It’s changed a lot, mostly due to the expectation and anticipation for the game. I think Arkham Asylum was a very unknown entity for a lot of people, where as our challenge with Arkham City is more about trying to tell as many people about it as possible.

The core fans who I think really enjoyed Arkham Asylum were hardcore Batman fans. Whereas Arkham City has not been designed to appeal just to hardcore Batman fans. People who might not buy many games but will buy the big hits of the year, we’re making sure that those gamers see Arkham City in the top five games they’re going to buy in the year.


Our whole attitude is to try and turn the release into an entertainment event, not just a game launch. But an event that’s more like a movie launch. Games are traditionally marketed in quite a geeky techie way - we want to treat this as more of a piece of entertainment rather than just a game.

Do you feel that interactive marketing like Arkham Asylum's Arkham Care site and Bioshock 2’s SomethingUnder The Sea site are more beneficial than traditional marketing? Do you have plans to do a similar project with Arkham City?

Dax Ginn: We briefly considered doing an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) that was really complicated because we know serious fans really dig that kind of thing. The problem with doing that is that there’s only one entry point and if you try and come in halfway through you feel as if you’ve missed the boat. Also, as mentioned before, we’re trying to reach as many people as possible.


We’ve still got loads of amazing features to come online, with the website. We have a really active community in the way we never really had with Arkham Asylum and we’re really putting a lot of effort into the community. There’s so much stuff I wish we could talk about - the website (Community.ArkhamCity.com) is going to really evolve.

Sarah Wellock: There’s a lot of really cool stuff coming!

Dax Ginn: It’s not going to be a really complicated sophisticated ARG that you’re either on board from day one or you miss completely. We’re creating something which is designed specifically for really hardcore fans, for community people, for those who loved the first game and who are eagerly anticipating this one.

You recently unveiled Calendar Man’s character model for Batman: Arkham City. His design is very different from past appearances in the comics. Do you work closely with DC to try and stay true to previous character’s portrayals or do they give you creative freedom to change them?



Kan Muftic: My job as a concept artist is to always try and push things as far as I can, to give them a new twist. But you have to keep the old elements, the stuff that people actually like about it. I call this method the +1 method. You take something existing and you shave off all the versions from the comics and movies and you’re left with the core character. Then you add this +1 element which is Arkham.

I think the reason Calendar Man works the way he does is because he exists in the world that we created. And to me characters are always dictated by the world that surrounds them and never the other way round. Arkham’s a gritty, dangerous, filthy horrible place and in reality no one would want to be there. So that’s what always dictates the look and feel of all the characters.

What was it like seeing your Arkham City concepts and ideas practically come to life within the CGI Hugo Strange trailer?

Kan Muftic: I got goosebumps. It felt like a big budget holiday block buster. The little quick sketches I did were moving, jumping, shooting, it was absolutely mind-blowing. But wait til you see the game, it’s even better in the game because you interact with the world and all these characters.

You’ve explained how Arkham City is going to be almost five times the size of Arkham Asylum - what constraints are you putting in place within the city to avoid early exploring? Will you be able to explore the entire city from the start?



Sefton Hill: You’ll be able to explore most of the city right from the start. We really wanted to keep the player empowered as Batman and didn't want to put any artificial barriers in there to stop him getting around.



There are areas which you’ll uncover obviously as you play through the game - there’s lots of secrets and rewards as you play through the game and new areas you get to explore. But you can go and explore the main city right from the start and if you do explore it right from the start, you’re going to find lots of secrets around the place and different things to see. We worked really hard to try and tell the story of the different sections of Arkham City.



As you go into different zones, the gang leaders will have different levels of security so if you go to areas that are away from the main part of the story you’re going to find them a bit more challenging, which gives it almost an RPG style.


Interview tapes were a great way of giving a further insight into the characters of Arkham Asylum. Will a similar collectible appear in Arkham City?

Sefton Hill: There are tapes, there’s also some new things as well. We spent many many hours just discussing the many back stories of the characters.

Paul Crocker: The great thing about the tapes was that you could find out about the back stories and it was a great way of tying events in the universe that we can’t do in gameplay. It’s also a great way to bridge the game between Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. Obviously time has passed between the two and Batman’s life’s moved on between the games - things have happened, and we’re not going to show all that,

Sefton Hill: There’s things other than the tapes, but we can’t talk about them yet!

 

[Max Payne]

Following up a game like Batman: Arkham Asylum is no easy task. Recreating the same great gameplay and maintaining the strong sense of 'being' Batman whilst bringing something entirely new to the series must have Rocksteady sweating a little bit.

And having to do all that in an open world city that's five times bigger than Arkham itself is enough to make any developer cry.

Fear and apprehension, however, were not emotions that Rocksteady's marketing game manager Dax Ginn exhibited as he blasted through an Arkham City gameplay demo before answering our questions.

In fact, he seemed nothing but confident in every aspect of the game; about it's ability to stand tall as a single-player title in a multiplayer laden world, about the changes made to that problematic Detective Mode, about breathing life into lacklustre boss levels and, of course, about the studio's ability to bring Batman out of the asylum and into Arkham City...


A lot of successful story-driven games have taken on multiplayer when some would argue they didn't need to. Are you confident that there's enough depth in the single-player to keep Arkham City off the pre-owned shelves?

Absolutely. The challenge for us was to build out not just the game world but make sure there was enough story in there so it didn't feel like there was a big world full of nothing to do. That was our biggest fear; making a game world that's five times bigger than Arkham Island. It's a huge technical and creative challenge for us but as soon as we made that decision we were absolutely committed to making sure that everywhere you turn in Arkham City there's story coming at you. That's why we've developed those surveillance systems so that you're always hooked into what's happening in Arkham City.

Then, on top of that, building missions and genuine gameplay that feed into that game world so that you never get to a point where you're flippantly doing side-missions that have got nothing to do with the main story. Calendar Man, I guess, is the only example we've seen here of something that's a non-essential side-mission, but as you're doing that you still feel like Batman, you're not just collecting things for the sake of collecting things. It's still really Batman-centric stuff.

In terms of replayability or filling out a single-player story with additional features, there are more announcements that we're going to make to solve that problem. Well, I don't feel it's a problem.

We've got a decent, chunky game and, in addition, we didn't want to do a multiplayer because it would have meant splitting the team in half and I think that would have resulted in two average games instead of one awesome game.


So we're unlikely to see multiplayer in future iterations? Is it a policy to avoid multiplayer or just something you're trying to perfect?

We considered it pretty briefly and then realise that it would have hit and hurt our production and also it didn't really make a lot of sense for a game that is so single character-centric.

But I can totally see that multiplayer is a super popular thing and online playability seems to be growing and something that people desire. So I can't say that what's going to happen down the track but for Arkham City we're focused on the single-player experience.

How hard is it to contain players in the areas that you want them in or are you happy for people to go off and mess about with side-quests?

Well the open world aspect, everywhere that's open to the sky is available to the player from the off. So they can go anywhere they want and that was the emotional feeling that we wanted to convey; you're Batman, you can do what you want. That's the empowering thing that Arkham Asylum didn't really deliver because it was such a linear, tight, intense story.

The way in which we are pacing out the narrative reveals is through the internal areas so coming to the court house, before the whole Catwoman/Two-Face thing, it wouldn't have been available, there would have been some other priority that would have been the focus at that point. So it's the internal locations that are used to book-mark that experience.

But there's loads of content out there in the streets and you can engage with in any order you want right from the beginning.

How much more difficult would you say it is with something so plot driven to move to the open world but keep that suspense going?


It's really hard. The decision to take the game out into the streets and out into an open-world structure - the first thing that's going to do is deal a massive body blow to your ability to tell a tight story. So that's why we developed these ambient story-telling systems, which meant we weren't just relying on cinematic cut-scenes to tell the story, we're bombarding the player with story all the time because you're constantly hearing discussions of thugs or they're bricking it before you take them down.

So we developed systems over and above what we had in Arkham Asylum in order to allow us to continue to tell story even though we've got no idea which direction the player's going in or where they're heading at any point in time.

We can hit them at every angle rather than waiting for them to hit a linear point.

How important do you think the music is to keep people in the moment?

Our audio team - and they're creative as well as really technical - everyone works hard but these guys never stop. Every night they're the last guys to leave. The amount of effort that goes into the audio for this game, and I think for Arkham Asylum as well, is just immense. I think it really pays off but it's not something that's top of you list of development priorities but I think if it wasn't so strong you'd really feel like something was missing.

When we think about all the things that make up the Batman experience, I think the great thing with what we're doing at Rocksteady is not just, "Let's make sure we have him beating up people and flying around." It's like, "OK, let's deal with the detective forensic side of him and let's deal with the psychological side of him, let's deal with the things that are unexpected but are really intriguing, that are loaded with gameplay potential."

It's probably difficult to put a number on it but how long do you think the campaign is altogether?


You're right, it's very difficult to put a number on it. I can tell you that our QA guys, who are ninjas and obviously know everything in a game can just do the core story missions in about eight hours with nothing else, just in a straight line, and they know exactly where to go and what to do - the most efficient way of doing everything.

Someone who has no idea what to do and wants to complete everything, it's going to be significantly more than that.

People wanted to see Detective Mode and boss battles from Arkham Asylum fleshed out. Are those things you guys have identified as needing improvement and how have you done that?

I could have finished that question for you. Yeah absolutely, they were the two things we were hearing loud and clear as well. The Detective Mode question was a really interesting one for us to work out where it went wrong, but I think once we identified what it was it was an easy fix.

Our assessment of that was, we always saw it as a tool and it's a tool that indispensable to Batman because we wanted to explore the detective side of his role so we couldn't just get rid of it in order to solve that problem.

So we knew we wanted to keep it. He's got a lot of tools in his utility belt, you use the Batclaw to achieve an objective, you use the Batarang to achieve an objective and we always saw Detective Mode as a tool just like that.

So, you need to know how to overload that fuse-box, you use Detective Mode to give you that information and we always thought that gamers would see it like that, "I need to turn it on, I get this information and then I turn it off." But the problem was we had implemented in such a way that it gave you more information all the time than you had by default and it was open to exploitation.

People weren't complaining saying it was a stupid thing that shouldn't be in the game, they were saying it was more like an exploit than a tool and so we've returned the balance between the information you get in Detective Mode and default mode.


Boss battles; they came pretty late in Arkham Asylum, we weren't really planning on doing big boss battles and then we got to a point where we were like "We need climaxes throughout this game." We needed to give them more development time and we didn't have it so we've front-loaded the boss battles this time around so that we've got dedicated people working on them right the way through the dev cycle.

It's hard to tell until we go into intensive focus testing if they're working but they certainly look pretty epic.

Harley Quinn was actually created in Batman: The Animated Series, not the comic-books, but she's since been adopted by the comics. Would you ever be tempted to create your own major character? Maybe it could take off.

I really wanted to. That's something I was talking about really early on in this but it never happened for whatever reason. I think because we're just so spoiled for choice with the awesome characters that already exist. To go off and create something new...

What was your idea?

My idea was just "Let's make a new character!"

Working so close to DC Comics means a lot of things - more than anything else it means you've got an amazing access into the archive and knowledge of these characters.

So, what have we announced so far; Joker, Harley, Catwoman, Two-Face, Zsaz, Riddler, Hugo Strange, Calendar Man... I don't know how much more you'd want.

Do you think you'd have that kind of freedom though? Considering your success with Arkham Asylum do you find yourself in a position where people just say "Go for it"?

It certainly wouldn't be off the table, we're not planning on doing it for this game but... I don't know does anyone create new characters anymore?


In Arkham Asylum the overground was split into three or four load sections, are we going to be doing the same in the city or is it all open?

It's all open, all the time. Our technical director was like, "What? You want an open-world that's open all the time that's five times bigger than anything we've done before? Are you crazy?"

And there's no loading?

Not in the exteriors, you saw the loading from going inside the courthouse from the outside but no it streams seamlessly throughout and that has been a massive, massive challenge.

You know, the Unreal Engine is an amazing engine and it's got strengths like any other engine and we're not using it for what it was designed for, but it's doing a brilliant job.

How free-form are the sidemissions? Can I do all the core mission and then spend hours doing side-quests or will I reach a point in the game where some of them are locked out?

That stuff's still being nailed down. The content is all there but the way in which it's revealed and the duration for which it's available, that's the polishing phase at the moment.

Certainly the game is quite dynamic in the way that the first had the Poison Ivy stuff that physically changed the game. We've got these simmering turf wars between Joker, Two-Face and Hugo Strange's factions - there's a power struggle between those three factions going on. So if you go into an area at one point, you might go into it a few hours later and previously it was a Joker area now it's a Two Face area and so the fiction within that district is different as a result.

I'd be surprised if it would mean that there's a side mission where you thought, "I'll come back to that later" you can never do it, I don't think that makes a lot of sense but like I said that's the stuff that they're still finalising.


Apart from Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy, have you got any other famous faces? A lot of people have been saying Hugo Strange sounds like Christopher Lee. Is it?

It's not Christopher Lee. There's some really cool factoid about that actor playing another character that Christopher Lee plays but I can't remember it. There are [other famous faces] but we haven't made any announcements yet because it's character linked, so when we reveal a character we'll then talk about the names behind them.

We were expecting to see more challenge rooms for Arkham Asylum but they never really materialised, is there a reason for that?

I don't think anyone expected it to be as massive as it was, so we played through our DLC plan and we moved on. So we didn't plan a load and then think, "Let's not do this." We did what we set out to do.

http://www.computerandvideogames.co...eady-on-detective-mode-boss-battles-and-more/

 

[Hisako]

It's not Christopher Lee. There's some really cool factoid about that actor playing another character that Christopher Lee plays but I can't remember it.

Corey Burton?

I mean lets face it how many voice actors have doubled for Christopher Lee

 

[X-SOLDIER]

That non-announcement about VA's seems like it's a subtle confirmation of Arleen Sorkin not coming back for Harley.

Aside from that, everything talked about here has me very excited.


X

 

[Max Payne]

Rocksteady's Sarah May sat down with Rocksteady's Marketing Manager Dax Ginn and together they went through all the fantastic questions the Arkham City community posted and picked some of the best questions.

Answers are below!

Without giving anything away, can we expect new kinds of foes beyond the standard thug to challenge Batman physically?
That’s where Hugo Strange’s Tyger Guards come in. They’re a highly trained military force: they’ve got guns, coordinated communications, air support and sharp sticks.

Seeing as the setting has moved from an asylum into an open-area slum, what steps have the team implemented to create a similarly unique and memorable environment for the player to explore?
We have ensured that the game world is built with the same attention to detail as we applied to Batman: Arkham Asylum. With such a huge game world this has been a massive job for the art team, but you’ll see that just being in Batman: Arkham City is an amazing feeling.

Did the team have a script and show it to Paul and then he offered suggestions and put in some more "Batman-esque" language? Or was it more collaborative?
Our working relationship with Paul is very creative and very collaborative. The story was developed by Paul Dini and Paul Crocker. Paul is the lead narrative designer at Rocksteady both worked together to make it an awesome story.

Who was that creepy dude in that cell in the first game (where Warden Sharp was left and where Clayface was located), was he the winner of some contest back in the day?
The ‘creepy dude’ was the winner of a competition that was organized during the development of Batman: Arkham Asylum. The prize? A life sentence in Arkham Asylum



And are there other gadgets and fighting techniques that we can use for free-flow combat that haven’t been mentioned yet?New ways to use the Bat Claw or anything else? If you can’t give anything away, could you say there’s more stuff to be announced?
There are definitely more combat features to be announced but we have already shown the Bat Claw being used in combat and talked about how the Explosive Gel can be deployed during a fight. All of the gadgets have been designed for multiple uses so with some imagination you’ll find there’s a load of different ways to get into and finish a street fight.

What is your favorite music band?
For me personally I can’t pin down just one band, I grew up with 80’s synth music and I don’t think I have ever moved on tbh

This time around, will Kevin Conroy’s voice sound darker and creepier than the previous game?
We have designed and built everything in this game to flow on from where Batman: Arkham Asylum left off, so Kevin’s performance this time will reflect the pressures that Batman faces in Batman: Arkham City.

What does a day in the Rocksteady studios look like?When does your day start, is there a big meeting every morning were you guys talk about what you have to do that day and stuff like that?
We have full team meetings every few weeks to make sure we are all on track with what we are making, but most day-to-day meetings happen with smaller groups of 4 or 5 people. Important stuff happens in a special meeting room – the Bat Cave.

Are you all having fun from time to time?
The studio works incredibly hard around the clock to make sure that Batman: Arkham City is the fantastic game it needs and deserves to be. The passion for the series is incredible, and I was blown away when I started by how much love everyone had for the characters. This is reflected in how well everyone gets on and I can promise you that amongst the incredibly hard work there is a little bit of time for laughter and fun.

How do "hobnobs" fit into the development scheme of the game? And are they chocolate?
Chocolate in all its forms sits the very core of development



Also, have you always enjoyed video games? Did you always want to work in the games industry or think you'd end up working in it? How did you get the job?
For me personally I have always been in love with video games from the moment my parents got a BBC computer and I found all the non school functions I have been playing games since then and have found it is the only story telling medium that has invoked real feelings of heartbreak (FF7), betrayal (Bioshock) and those amazing moments of innovation that lead to pure joy (Mirrors Edge.) I have been in the industry for almost 6 years and am still as in love with it today as I was when I first joined, working here is 100% my proudest moment.

Who is Luke Oliver???????????????
The mysterious Luke Oliver is the son of one of our Concept Artists – who did the alley concept art (number 10) you can see in the gallery :http://community.batmanarkhamcity.co...es/concept-art

In your eyes (writers, game developers and the rest of the crew) is Batman: Arkham City better, exciting, deeper that Batman: Arkham Asylum?
We are all very proud of the work that we did on Batman: Arkham Asylum and we’ve expanded on key game elements and created new features that we think players are going to be blown away by when they finally see and play Batman: Arkham City. Batman: Arkham City blows it off the map.

Will the challenge modes be returning?
Yes they will return and there are some sweet new features that we’ll be talking about soon.

About how many hours of sleep does the development team get? And do they sometimes sleep in the studio? How much coffee do they consume a day and what brand?
Everyone here is incredibly dedicated to Batman: Arkham City so a lot of hours of love and hard work go into making even the smallest scenes. We could definitely do with more sleep, but no-one has gone Zombie yet. I suspect that there are several members who have had deep rooted coffee addictions for many many years!



In certain places in Batman: Arkham Asylum, pictures are scattered on the ground, and they are all the same picture of some weird guy's forehead. Who is he? Thanks
That weird guy is one of our ‘charming’ Producers here at Rocksteady. And yes he is as weird as he looks!

My query is about Scarecrow. Will he be showing up in the game? Even if it's just a cameo?
I really really really wish that I could answer this question, but I can’t.

Do random hobos knock on the door sometimes?
Just developers who sometimes look like hobos

What is the most common name on the team if any?
David

Will there be bonuses in the game like concept art, behind the scenes, etc for The Riddler trophies or just in general?
Yes

I am hoping to do another Q&A soon so if you question wasn't answered here please submit it again in the next round!EDIT: please not in this thread, I will start a separate thread re-opening the questions submission.

http://arkhamcity.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2187

I really hope the challenge room stuff is extra characters. I love Bruce but there's so much variety in the bat family it'd be a waste not to utilize it.

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

Obviously there are a number of folks that agree it would be awesome to play as Nightwing in some fashion (as well there should, since Dick is awesome). Who else would people like to see available for challenge stuff? Sadly I will not likely get to play this, as my video game life sucks ass with the exception of Pokemon. But, if I was gonna get a chance at this, I'd love to see Huntress and Cass get some attention.

 

[Russell]

Nightwing, was the original Robin who went solo right?

Also this game isn't out until October!?
Not to wish my life away but with ME3 coming in the forth quarter & Arkham City I can't wait for winter.

 

[Max Payne]

Dick is meh. Out of everyone in the batfamily he is the least refined.

 

[looneymoon]

yesterday...

Brent says:
I LOVE DICK

I guess you weren't referring to Grayson then

 

[Splintered]

I want Cassandra Cain. She's the only batgirl that really interests me, from the very little knowledge of batman I know. I randomly got all her batgirl series but I kind of don't want to read it because I know she gets screwed over later.

 

[Max Payne]

I want Cassandra Cain. She's the only batgirl that really interests me, from the very little knowledge of batman I know. I randomly got all her batgirl series but I kind of don't want to read it because I know she gets screwed over later.

it was so good too ;_;

so many great moments

also screw you rishi you know that was a quote

 

[X-SOLDIER]

http://community.batmanarkhamcity.c...-first-batman-arkham-city-prequel-is-released

The first prequel Comic is out.

Hopefully it's good, as I haven't had an opportunity to go check it out yet.


X

 

[Cookie Monster]

If you plan on reading the actual comic, don't read the following.

Here's a description of what happens in the 1st issue:

Spoiler

What's Up with the Joker?
Set six months after the events of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the comic starts with the Joker in solitary confinement and dying. The Titan serum he dosed himself with at the end of the first game has been steadily killing him, and it looks like the Clown Prince of Crime has given into this truth.

What's Hugo Strange's Role?
Meanwhile, former Arkham Asylum Warden Quincy Sharp is the Gotham City mayor, but a shadowy man on a laptop and in an earpiece is feeding him lines and acting a bit like a hypnotist. Based on what we've seen of the game and the bespectacled outline of the contact in the comic, it looks like Dr. Hugo Strange is pulling the mayor's strings.

Sharp declares that Gotham is against anyone is costume -- including Batman and company -- and the book introduces us to a brother and sister gang known as T&T. These two found some of the Titan formula that washed up after the events of Arkham Asylum, they've been using it, and now they're set to wreck the dedication of the new City Hall.

How Does Arkham Take Over Gotham?
T&T show up and the dedication and start talking to an offsite contact they call "doc" and "prof" -- sounds like Hugo Strange to me. The evil duo trashes the dedication, Batman intervenes, and the bad guys employ doc's failsafe -- they join hands and explode. The blast kills 300 people, causes billions of dollars in damage, and allows Mayor Sharp to declare martial law on the warzone. He pushes Commissioner Gordon's men out of the way, brings in his private security, and walls off half of Gotham City to serve as a new prison.

He creates Arkham City.

What Next?
There are still four comic books between us and Batman: Arkham City the game. Although I think it looks like Hugo Strange is the guy behind pushing the mayor and the bad guys at the same time, that hasn't been confirmed in the miniseries. Batman hints at a larger plot as the comic concludes, so there's plenty left to discover in Batman: Arkham City.

Source

 

[Max Payne]

Notable mentions include thugs using better tactics and the use of night vision goggles, detailed explanations of how the new line launcher works, and more details on how the updated combat works!

Perhaps the most exciting reveal is that we will be able to punch the Riddler in the face!

Here's some the of key facts (not all new) explained in the video!:

- You'll be able to run off the top of a building and glide through the streets of Gotham.
- You can drop down from gargoyles and invert hang.
- Thugs now bring the battle to Batman. Geared up with night vision goggles and able to co-operate to take down the caped crusader.
- Re designed gadgets.
- Line launcher can now double launch. As you use it you can now fire it again and head in a different direction (360 degrees). "You can infinitely line launch across the game world".
- Smoke pellets give you a second to escape your enemy, be it a quick grapple or a sly on foot get away.
- Gadgets within combat - grapple hook a thug towards you and body slam him to the ground.
- Riddler - You'll get to punch him in the face!

See him in action here!
Elliott


Posts: 756
Location: Midlands, UK

http://arkhamcity.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2394

Riddler - You'll get to punch him in the face

Aki will be happy.

 

[Max Payne]

http://arkhamcity.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2473

Official confirmation on Freeze and Penguin.