Batman-Arkham-Asylum
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Ka-pow the 3 Arkhams for $10
Bundle Stars has a zlonking deal going on: $10 for three Arkham games on Windows PC. That's the extras-stuffed Game of the Year editions of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City, while Batman: Arkham Origins comes with the season pass and the Black Mask and Online Supply Drop DLC. In other words, it's as tight with value as Adam West's Batsuit. (Sorry, Blackgate fans, it's not included)
PS Plus in October: DriveClub, Dust, Arkham Asylum
Sony announced October's PlayStation Plus lineup today, revealing that service subscribers will receive free copies of Batman: Arkham Asylum, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Spelunky, and other featured games starting next week. PlayStation 4 owners will receive newly-released ports of Dean Dodrill's 2D action-adventure game Dust: An Elysian Tail and Mossmouth's roguelike platformer Spelunky, along with a PlayStation Plus-exclusive version of Evolution Studios' long-in-development racer Driveclub. Landmark comic-based brawler Batman: Arkham Asylum and Capcom's arcade beat-'em-up compilation Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara arrive as this month's featured PlayStation 3 releases, while the PS Vita gets the multiplayer maze game Pix the Cat and tactical RPG Rainbow Moon. Subscribers who download Spelunky will get free access to previously-released PlayStation 3 and PS Vita ports, and Pix the Cat and Rainbow Moon are also available as Cross-Buy downloads. October's PlayStation Plus lineup goes live on October 7. [Video: Sony]
Batman animated film based on Arkham series gets suicidal trailer
The DC Animated film based on the Batman: Arkham series of video games, which we initially reported on back in February, has been given its first trailer. The film will feature appearances from several Arkham series mainstays such as Joker and Harley Quinn, as well as the first Arkham universe appearance of the Suicide Squad, a supergroup of villains who team up for the greater bad. If you know nothing of the Suicide Squad, here's all you need to know: one of the villains in the film calls himself Captain Boomerang. Say no more, we're onboard. While the Suicide Squad was teased and hinted at during both Arkham Origins and Arkham Origins Blackgate, it looks like this will be the first time we see the group as a cohesive whole in the Arkham universe. Kevin Conroy will reprise his role as Batman, while Troy Baker will once again voice Joker. The film is not yet rated, nor does it have a release date. [Image: DC Animated]
Xbox 360 spring sale discounts Batman games, Saints Row 4
Microsoft is cleaning out its digital shelves with a sizable sale on Xbox 360 games and add-ons this week. Ending April 21, the sale spans 11 games and hundreds of pieces of DLC. Five of the games feature popular DC comics superhero Batman in some capacity, such as 75 percent off both Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City through Games on Demand ($4.99 / £3.74 / 4.99 euros each). Additionally, Injustice: Gods Among us is half-off ($19.99 / £17.49 / 24.99 euros), Lego Batman 2 is 67 percent off ($6.59 / £4.94 / 6.59 euros) and XBLA game Gotham City Imposters is 75 percent off ($3.74 / £2.49 / 3.59 euros). All of the above deals are valid for those with a paid Xbox Live Gold subscription. Among the other games on sale for all Xbox Live users is Saints Row 4, which is half-off this week ($14.99 / £12.49 / 14.99 euros). Three other games are discounted through Games on Demand: Borderlands 2 is 65 percent off ($6.99 / £6.99 / 10.49 euros), Lego Marvel Super Heroes is 33 percent off ($33.49 / £30.14 / 43.54 euros) and Prototype 2 is 75 percent off ($9.99 / £4.99 / 7.49 euros). Lastly, XBLA games Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+ is half-off ($4.99 / £3.37 / 4.74 euros) and Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD is 33 percent off ($13.39 / £10.71 / 13.39 euros) for the week. [Image: Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment]
DC Animated to tap Batman: Arkham franchise for 2014 film
Warner Bros. Entertainment will be adapting the Batman: Arkham series of games into an animated film for release sometime later this year, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Details, much like Riddler trophies and Chronicles of Arkham, are rare, scattered and a bit confusing. For example, we know the name - Batman: Assault on Arkham - and what the adaptation isn't. According to Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. is remodeling its DC Animated Movies line so that they share a single continuity - think of how Marvel Studios built up to The Avengers and you've got an idea of how this will work. WB plans to release two movies per year that will fall into this new continuity, as well as a third film that does not tie into the DC Animated Movies continuity. Batman: Assault on Arkham is slated as that third film for 2014. Jay Olivia, director of Justice League: War is set to direct. According to the film's IMDB page, Mark Hamill will not reprise his role as Joker, though Kevin Conroy will once again take up the cowl as Batman. [Image: Warner Bros.]
Batman: Arkham City's Clayface figure shows his ugly mug
A custom Clayface figurine, modeled after the character's portrayal in Batman: Arkham City, has been announced by DC Collectibles. There is no word on pricing or release date as of yet. Clayface is 13 inches tall, making him the biggest figure in the line that pulls from the cast of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. That line includes a 7-inch Batman and other notable characters like The Penguin, Killer Croc, Mr. Freeze and Solomon Grundy. Head past the break for a side-by-side look at the Clayface figure next to the Batman. The latest game in the Arkham series, Batman: Arkham Origins, launched in late October. Origins, which serves as a prequel to the first two games developed by Rocksteady, was created by WB Games Montreal.
Batman Arkham Collection packs three Batmans into one box
The Batman Arkham Collection will arrive on November 22 in the UK, Warner Bros. announced today. The bundle packs the two Rocksteady-developed Arkham games, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City along with WB Games Montreal's Batman: Arkham Origins into one batsuit. Arkham Asylum and Arkham City will both be included as download codes for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the collection, with the PS3 bundle also receiving the Knightfall DLC pack for Arkham Origins. The PC version of the bundle will feature Game of the Year editions of either game, which grants players bonus DLC like Harley Quinn's Revenge for Arkham City and six additional maps for Arkham Asylum. Those two games are in a bundle of their own, which GameStop unveiled in September. We've contacted Warner Bros. to see if the Arkham Collection will arrive in North America as well.
Warner Bros. Humble Bundle on the way [update: confirmed, live]
Update: Humble Bundle confirmed it's launching a WB Games bundle that's expected later today, featuring six games: F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin, F.E.A.R. 3, Lord of the Rings: War in the North, Scribblenauts Unlimited, and the Game of the Year Editions of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. Each game purchase is redeemable through Steam, but you'll have to pay over the average to unlock Scribblenauts Unlimited and Arkham City. Update 2: The WB Games collection is live and kicking on Humble Bundle. It'll run for two weeks, ending on November 19. Original Story: Warner Bros will become the latest big-name company to take center stage in a Humble Bundle, going by an apparently premature update (deleted but screen-capped above) on the Scribblenauts Facebook page. The series' official account listed Scribblenauts Unlimited as one of six games included in a bundle raising money for DC Entertainment's We Can Be Heroes charity campaign, but said bundle isn't live (yet). We've reached out to Warner Bros. for comment. If accurate, Warner Bros. would follow EA, Double Fine, and THQ as one of the rather more recognizable names to get in on the Humble Bundle act. The site partially raises money for charity by featuring downloadable collections of games at pay-what-you-want prices, such as the weekly sale on games by Worms dev Team 17 that it's currently hosting.
Holy sales, Batman! Arkham series and Metro lead this week's deals
If you're a PC gamer looking forward to Friday's release of Batman: Arkham Origins and have yet to scoop up the previous two entries in the series, now might be a good time to do so, as they're 75 percent off on Steam until Monday, 10 am Pacific. That makes Batman: Arkham Asylum just $5.00, and Batman: Arkham City just $7.50. Both versions are Game of the Year editions, meaning even more batarang for your buck. Not a bat-fan? Amazon has unearthed savings on Tomb Raider and Metro: Last Light, which are both on sale for $19.99 through the week, while Best Buy is helping aspiring gamer musicians get into the groove by taking $50 off the cost of any electric guitar when you buy Rocksmith 2014. Lots of good things on sale, stranger.
Report: Gamestop's Black Friday has exclusive bundles, blue PS3
Gamestop's Black Friday circular has supposedly leaked its thick, viscous deal-goo all over the internet, exposing the retail chain's plans for the most excruciating shopping day of the year – just don't expect any deals on that new PlayStation 4/Xbox One hotness. For everyone staying in this console generation, though, there's some cool stuff going on if you think leaving the house on Black Friday is worth it. You can have your choice of 250-gig PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 for $199.99, the former bundled with The Last of Us and Batman: Arkham Origins, and the latter bundled with Halo 4 and a download code for Tomb Raider. Meanwhile, a Gamestop-exclusive Azure Blue 250-gig PS3/Jak and Daxter Collection bundle can be had for $249.99. For 360 owners, there's also a Gamestop-exclusive Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City boxed set, Dishonored and Splinter Cell: Blacklist at $24.99 each. PlayStation 3 owners can snag Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag for $40 and a year of PlayStation Plus for $29.99. The chain is also running a buy-2-get-1 free promotion on all pre-owned items, provided the free thing you pick out is of equal or lesser value. Gamestop is also granting an additional 30-percent in-store credit on all trade-ins, though whether these two offers stack is unknown. There's a lot of other stuff on sale, so while we check on the trade-in value of a human soul, click all up on this to check out the full 12-page circular for yourself.
PSN Summer Blast sale begins tomorrow
The PlayStation Network will offer some deep, deep discounts on several games starting tomorrow. For PlayStation Plus members, those deep discounts should be considered deep squared. Examples include Batman: Arkham Asylum for $10 ($5 for PS+), Scott Pilgrim for $4 ($2 for PS+) and Shadow of the Colossus for $10 ($5 for PS+). The sale goes on for two weeks, with next week's offers including: Simpsons Arcade, Hitman Trilogy and Lego Batman. Find the full list with prices after the break.
New Batman Arkham game coming this year
A new Batman Arkham game is being released this year, although it's unknown if series developer Rocksteady Studios is behind it. The news comes courtesy of the Time Warner Q4 2012 earnings call, as posted by Yahoo! Finance."And we also have a strong games release this year, which will include the next release in the Batman Arkham franchise," said John K. Martin, Time Warner chief financial officer and chief administrative officer.Warner Bros. Interactive and Rocksteady Studios released Batman: Arkham Asylum in 2009, followed by Arkham City in 2011. In that sense, a new Arkham game in 2013 adds up.According to a Variety report from last year, Rocksteady is developing another Batman game, but it's set in the Silver Age of comic history, and isn't expected to be released until 2014. Maybe Variety and Warner are talking about the same game, but it sounds like they may not be. In any case, we've reached out to Warner Bros. Interactive for more info.
Rage, Sleeping Dogs DLC packs firing up on PSN Dec. 18 [Update: Rage DLC also on 360/PC, details confirmed]
Rage and Sleeping Dogs are getting new DLC expansions on PSN via next week's North American store update. As revealed by this week's PlayStation Blogcast, December 18 sees Rage receive the long-rumored "The Scorchers" content, while Sleeping Dogs receives its second gameplay-extending DLC with the "Zodiac Tournament Pack."Rage publisher Bethesda and developer id haven't disclosed any details on The Scorchers, although uncovered trophies suggest it brings a new job path and "Ultra Nightmare Difficulty" to the shooter. As for Zodiac Tournament Pack, publisher Square Enix revealed it introduces a new island area to Sleeping Dogs, along with two unlockable outfits and some extra fighting moves to unleash.The podcast also revealed Karateka makes the jump to PSN on December 18, along with PS3 digital downloads of Lego Lord of the Rings and Batman: Arkham Asylum.We've reached out to publishers Square Enix and Bethesda for more information on the Sleeping Dogs and Rage DLC packs respectively.Update: Bethesda has officially announced The Scorchers over on its official blog, confirming the addition of an "Ultra Nightmare" difficulty level, as well as six new areas, new mini-games and a new Nailgun weapon. The DLC pack will also arrive on Xbox 360 and PC this Tuesday.
Gallery: The Tokyo Game Show 2012 Square Enix/Play Arts Booth
So, I'm not a professional photographer or a professional action-figure critic or anything, but I am a professional Video Games Person, so I was duty bound by my strict code of VGP ethics to take a lot of pictures of some pretty awesome looking stuff at Square Enix's Play Arts booth during this year's Tokyo Game Show.Prototype figures from upcoming Halo, Batman and Mass Effect figure series can all be seen in the gallery below, as can my inadvertently-captured pasty reflection and a few bonus slimes that were thrown for good measure.%Gallery-166319%
Paul Dini explains absence from next Batman game
Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City writer Paul Dini isn't working on the next Batman game from Rocksteady, but we already knew that much. However, other than some vague tweets, we didn't know why that was the case. The reason turns out to be much less thrilling than any of his Batman scripts: "The last talk I had with Warner Interactive about future games was while I was doing promotion for Arkham City last September. Naturally as there was such a rush of interest about Arkham City, everyone was asking me about a third game, and frankly, I had been wondering about that myself. When I asked about the possibility of working on a third game I was told that as Rocksteady had just finished wrapping the second one, it would be a while before everyone was ready to sit down and discuss future plans. That said, it was intimated that for future games, Warner and Rocksteady might not be looking as much to freelance writers, the message being, that if I had something else interesting coming my way, I might want to take it."Dini says he wasn't included in Arkham City's DLC projects, and he hasn't been tapped for work on the rumored Silver Age-themed Batman game, said to be Rocksteady's next project. He's since taken on other work that makes him "unavailable to take on anything new until 2013." He's not bitter, though, even noting that "If we wind up working together again at some point, that would be cool, too."
Big Batman deals on Steam this weekend, small Batman not on sale
The Steam signal burns in the night sky and Batman answers the call, probably because he isn't wearing his glasses and the clouds make the Steam logo look like a diagonal bat if he squints. Batman: Arkham City is half off ($15) and Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition is 66 percent off ($7) this weekend on Steam, sale ending Monday, May 7. You'd think Bruce would have the money to get Lasik, wouldn't you?
Arkham Asylum action figures coming to Japan
Not to be confused with the upcoming line of DC figures based on the Caped Crusader's escapades through Gotham and its related institutions, these new figures from Square Enix recreate Batman: Arkham Asylum's Harley Quinn, who happens to come with her own little Scarface, as well as a new armored Batman variant.Each toy comes with interchangeable hands and accessories and will be available in Japan this May for ¥5,800, or about $76.%Gallery-146507%
OnLive Labor Day sale includes $0.99 Batman: Arkham Asylum
If you've yet to play Batman: Arkham Asylum, or if you've wanted to try OnLive, today might be the day to pull the trigger. Having reached 45,000 "Likes" on Facebook, the service is now offering the game at the criminally insane price of $0.99 as part of its Labor Day Sale. Simply enter the code "99cents" at checkout and Arkham Asylum is yours. Act fast though, the batty offer is only available today. Additionally, having reached its goal, OnLive will now donate $1 to Child's Play for any more "Likes" received for the rest of the day. Now, if you haven't played Arkham Asylum and you've been itching to try out OnLive, try to remember this day, because it's all down hill from here.
OnLive celebrates Indie-pendence Day with an explosive sale
OnLive is celebrating "Indie-pendence" Day with a massive sale on -- you guessed it -- a random selection of mainstream blockbusters and popular underground games. The sale includes Batman: Arkham Asylum, Darksiders, Just Cause 2, a pre-order deal on Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and of course an inundation of hit indie titles such as Braid, The Maw, Osmos and Amnesia: The Dark Descent. OnLive's "Indie-pendence" Day Sale runs through the completely unrelated day of July 4, so hurry and check out your options after the jump before this thing vanishes like smoke after a firework. Update: OnLive is sending all PlayPack subscribers a free game of their choice this Tuesday, and as long as you sign up for the monthly unlimited-gaming service before midnight Pacific on July 4, you can snag a free game too. Thanks, Silent Killer01!
Would-be Batman: Arkham City trailer is fishy, let's take a closer look
This is fun! A supposedly leaked trailer billing itself as "Batman: Arkham City - Warner Bros - Trailer Fight" has made its way to French video-sharing site Kewego. The approximately 2-minute clip features our fearless Dark Knight beating up baddies with ... the Joker? Putting aside our canonical concerns about the caped crusader clobbering criminals with the clown prince of crime, a few other things raise immediate bat signals. Join us after the break for our best world's greatest detective impersonation as we piece together the clues and reveal the truth about this "Trailer Fight."
