Arkham City Gameplay and News

Arkham City is arguably the most anticipated game this Fall, and dare I say, this year. Fans are all wondering if it can live up to the amazing experience of its predecessor, Arkham Asylum. We will soon find out as the game is less than one month away for consoles. PC gamers, sadly you must wait until November. To celebrate the upcoming release, we’re giving you some seriously awesome gameplay footage as well as some of the latest trailers and news.

The game is a direct sequel and all of the gadgets previously obtained in the first game are present at the start of Arkham City (with the exception of the Batclaw, it is the regular Batclaw instead of the Ultra Batclaw). Most of them have improved or new capabilities; for example, the Cryptographic Sequencer can also track signals, the line launcher now has a feature that allows Batman to flip over and launch another zipline in the opposite horizontal direction, the remote control Batarang now has a built in brake and boost, and the grappling gun can now be used while gliding to boost Batman further up into the air. An additional gadget has been revealed: smoke pellets to confuse enemies when spotted by them. The game incorporates more puzzle elements; the use of Batman’s “Detective Mode”, which highlights elements such as enemy skeletons and clues on-screen, is used to perform forensic activities such as tracing the origin of a sniper round.

Arkham City is said to have many similarities to the animated film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker both in theme and story.

The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Arkham City include a stereoscopic 3D mode for 3D HDTVs and for 2D HDTVs via Inficolor 3D glasses. It uses TriOviz for Games Technology, which is integrated with Unreal Engine 3. All Arkham City gameplay and cinematics have S3D support.

There is a prequel comic series called Batman: Arkham City. It is a five-issue mini series written by Paul Dini, drawn by Carlos D’Anda and published by DC Comics. The mini series bridges the storylines of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. All five issues have been published and are available to read now.

Mark Walton from Gamespot was able to sit down and play 13 solid minutes of the game over at Rocksteady studios. Watch below or click HERE

The game’s combat looks better than ever and we get a real sense of what Catwoman will be like. The really interesting thing we learned from their commentary is that Catwoman will be getting her very own 4 episode DLC in which she is the featured character. She won’t be the only new playable character, there’s Robin too. Don’t go getting your utility belts in a bunch, he’s a Best Buy pre-order exclusive and even then you can only use him in two playable challenge modes. Similar to how PS3 users were able to play as Joker in Arkham Asylum.

I should mention that this is the Tim Drake Robin. Tim Drake is the third “Boy Wonder”, the second, Jason Tood was murdered by Joker. Well actually….ya know what, nevermind. And the first Robin was of course, Dick Grayson, who later went on to become, Nightwing. I only mention this because there is strong speculation that a fourth playable character will be in the game, no one knows who it will be but Nightwing seems like a good fit. These rumors come from G4TV when playing a demo of the game and noticed a fourth playable character slot on the screen.

The above gameplay makes mention of The Penguin but we don’t get to see him. Well the new Penguin feature clip will fix that for you.

And while we’re on villian clips. Here’s the brand new Joker Challenge Map.

You might notice that the Joker’s a little raggedy-looking in this trailer. The reason he’s in such poor shape is that he’s still recovering from the end of Arkham Asylum. If you haven’t played AA yet, you need to hurry up and get that gone done good and finished!

The Joker is once again voiced by Mark Hamill. Supposedly this will be the last time Hamill will play that role, though. Arleen Sorkin, who voiced Harley Quinn in Arkham Asylum and Batman: The Animated Series, has been replaced by Tara Strong.

The game will also allow for some sweet bonus costumes.

Here is the breakdown for the UK release. We have no idea what retailers will be used for the US release.

Batman Beyond skin
How to get it: Pre-order Batman: Arkham City from GameStop.co.uk or MightyApe
Links: GameStop.co.uk http://www.mightyape.co.nz/

The Dark Knight Returns skin
How to get it: Purchase the Batman: Arkham City Collector’s Edition from any store.
Links: None

Earth One skin
How to get it: Purchase the Batman: Arkham City from MightyApe.
Links: http://www.mightyape.co.nz/

1970′s Batman skin
How to get it: Pre-order Batman: Arkham City from ShopTo.net (UK) or Toys R Us (USA)
Links: ShopTo.net - Toys R Us

The Animated Series
How to get it: Purchase the Batman: Arkham City from MightyApe.
Links: http://www.mightyape.co.nz/

Comic fans playing Arkham City will have an opportunity to recruit the Caped Crusader into the Sinestro Corps by wearing the official skin from Warner Bros. Players can score the new costume by purchasing Warner Bros’ Green Lantern feature film DVD or Blu-ray, which releases October 14.

There will also be downloadable costumes for Robin. From left to right. Red Robin, Hooded Robin (regular in-game version) and The Animated Series Robin.

Rocksteady has confirmed to Eurogamer that the full range of Batman: Arkham City skins being divvied up between retailers as pre-order bonuses will become available to all later on as DLC

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to use the new skins until you’ve beaten the game.

Of course, if you’re a PC gamer then well…you’re no stranger to being able to customize costumes to your liking.

U.S. customers can pre-order the game on Amazon and receive a $10 credit.

There will be a collectors edition as well.

This will include:

Custom Batman statue produced by Kotobukiya

Collectible art book

Early access to the  Iceberg Lounge Challenge Map and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns skin

Batman: Arkham City album from WaterTower Music including original songs by hit artists, available via digital redemption

Bonus DC Universe animated original movie, Batman: Gotham Knight

Ron Fish and Nick Arundel, composers for 2009′s Arkham Asylum, are returning to write music for Arkham City.An original score album is to be published by Water Tower Music on October 18, 2011.

Alongside the original score, WaterTower Music is also publishing the Arkham City music album, to be released on October 4, 2011, as well as in the Batman: Arkham City Collector’s Edition via digital redemption including one exclusive track.

On their contribution to the album, Claudio Sanchez from Coheed and Cambria said “I write in a very conceptual format with the stories that surround Coheed and Cambria, but Batman has a much larger, defined history and rules that go along with it” and that “My goal was to find universal themes from Batman’s existing history to help give the lyrics legs and dimension so that the song could live within that world”^.

Artist – Title

1.Panic! at the Disco – “Mercenary”
2.Coheed and Cambria – “Deranged”
3.The Duke Spirit – “Creature”
4.Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – “Shadow On The Run”
5.Blaqk Audio – “Afterdark”
6.The Raveonettes – “Oh, Stranger”
7.† † † (Crosses) – “The Years”
8.The Damned Things – “Trophy Widow”
9.Daughtry – “Drown In You”
10.The Boxer Rebellion – “Losing You”
11.Serj Tankian – “Total Paranoia”
12.A Place to Bury Strangers – “In The Shadow” Collector’s Edition bonus track

Listen to some of the tracks below

Arkham City is set to debut in North America on October 18th on the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Play my outro….
- Jon Duryea (Follow @Artifact911 on Twitter)