Batman: Arkham City - The First 30 Minutes

Hello and welcome to an introductory 30 minute look at Batman: Arkham City. This is not a review, this is a first impression for you, the viewer, to get an idea of what this game has in store for you should you choose to purchase and play it for yourself.

Batman: Arkham City is an action adventure game, developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

Batman is incarcerated in Arkham City, a massive new super-prison enclosing the decaying urban slums of fictional Gotham City, where he must uncover the secret behind the sinister scheme, "Protocol 10", orchestrated by the facilities warden, Hugo Strange. The game is presented from the third-person perspective with a primary focus on Batman's combat and stealth abilities, detective skills, and gadgets that can be used in both combat and exploration. Arkham City expands Batman's arsenal of gadgets and combat attacks and offers a more open world structure, allowing the player to complete side missions away from the primary storyline.

You can find out more about Batman: Arkham City here.

Batman: Arkham City is also available on steam.

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Batman: Arkham Asylum - The First 30 Minutes

Hello and welcome to an introductory 30 minute look at Batman: Arkham Asylum. This is not a review, this is a first impression for you, the viewer, to get an idea of what this game has in store for you should you choose to purchase and play it for yourself.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is an action adventure game, developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

Batman's archenemy, the Joker, instigates an elaborate plot to seize control of Arkham Asylum and trap Batman inside with many of his incarcerated foes. With Joker threatening to detonate hidden bombs around fictional Gotham City, Batman is forced to fight his way through the asylum's inmates and put an end to the Joker's plans. The game is presented from the third-person perspective with a primary focus on Batman's combat and stealth abilities, detective skills, and gadgets that can be used in combat and exploration.

You can find out more about Batman: Arkham Asylum and purchase it on Steam.

If you like this video please support me by subscribing to this blog and my YouTube channel.

Batman: Arkham City review

Batman: Arkham City is an action-adventure video game developed by Rocksteady Studios and released by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Inspired by the DC Comics superhero Batman, it is the direct sequel to the 2009 video game Batman: Arkham Asylum; taking place a year after the events of the first.

Quincy Sharp, the Asylum's former director, has taken the credit for thwarting the Joker's siege of the facility and uses this merit to become mayor of Gotham City. He closes Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Penitentiary after declaring them unsuitable to contain the detainees and purchases Gotham's decaying urban slums, converting them into an immense prison enclosure known as Arkham City. This new facility is placed in the care of genius psychiatrist Hugo Strange and monitored by a rogue private military firm, Tyger Security. The shady Strange permits inmates to do as they please, provided escape is not attempted. A wary Bruce Wayne/Batman maintains his own vigil over the new project, concerned that the chaotic situation there will get out of hand and it soon does.

At a press conference held by Bruce Wayne to declare his opposition to Arkham City, Tyger mercenaries assault Bruce Wayne and incarcerate him in Arkham City. Together in the holding room, Hugo Strange discloses his knowledge of Wayne's dual identity as Batman before releasing him into the prison's criminal populace. While Strange prepares to commence the ominous "Protocol 10", Wayne obtains his equipment via airdrop, allowing him to become Batman.

Shortly after arriving Batman rescues Catwoman from being executed by Two-Face and consults her about the nature of Protocol 10. After Joker attempts to assassinate Catwoman during this discussion, Batman tracks him to his hideout, believing Joker may know the truth behind Protocol 10.

In addition to the primary mission, the game introduces secondary missions featuring key characters and their stories; these characters include but are not limited to Bane, Mr. Freeze, and the Riddler. For example, optional challenges from the Riddler to collect hidden items placed around the city require additional effort to locate, such as interrogation of the villain's henchmen and the cunning use of gadgets to disable traps and barriers. After completing a select number of challenges, Batman must rescue a civilian hostage held in one of the Riddler's many death traps.

Batman: Arkham City is an open world action-adventure game presented from the third-person perspective with a primary focus on Batman's combat, stealth and detective skills. Gadgets can be used in both combat and exploration. Some gadgets obtained in Batman: Arkham Asylum are present at the start of Arkham City, while others become available during play. It will become evident right away that this sequel expands Batman's arsenal of gadgets and gadget combat attacks. The new detective mode is now an "augmented reality mode", enemies and evidence can be seen more clearly, but navigational visuals have been toned down due to many players in Batman: Arkham Asylum using detective mode throughout almost the entire game…guilty!

OK, let’s be honest, Catwoman really stole my attention throughout the game as a playable character included with the PC and Game of the Year editions. Catwoman's campaign features her own heist-focused storyline that intersects with the main story at specific points in the game. Her combat emphasizes agility, and allows for the use of unique weapons such as clawed gauntlets, bolas, and the iconic whip. When I wasn’t playing Catwoman, I wanted to be. She’s wicked fast with her attacks and I can only imagine how fun it would be to co-op with her. Other potential playable characters include Nightwing and Robin, which are available via GOTY editions or DLC.

Batman: Arkham City is well worth the investment and I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the Dark Knight. This game has about 40 hours of gameplay with the main campaign lasting 25 hours and 15 hours for side missions. The game contains 440 Riddler challenges, which makes up just one of the multiple side missions that players can undertake. I can only hope Rocksteady and Warner Bros. are hard at work on the next installment to this masterpiece!

And now the moment you've all been waiting for!

The winner of the Batman: Arkham City giveaway is 19Ladyrock91! Congratulations! I will be sending you your prize shortly! Thank you to everyone who entered! Stay tuned for future giveaways, I will get something in the works soon!

Check out "The First 60 Minutes of Batman: Arkham City"

Batman: Arkham City giveaway!

I've just finished playing Batman: Arkham City for the first time and I want to gift a copy to one of you beautiful people!

The rules are simple:

A.) You must have the free Steam client installed. Batman: Arkham City was purchased on Steam and I will be gifting it through them.

B.) You must be subscribed to my blog. If you subscribe via rss or email you will need to tell me, I can see when the numbers change but not who is or isn't subscribing.

C.) You must be subscribed to my YouTube channel. Visit my page and at the top there will be a subscribe button!

D.) After you are done installing Steam and subscribing, comment on this blog and tell me that you have subscribed to both my blog and YouTube channel and that you would like Batman: Arkham City.

Winners will be drawn and announced next Tuesday January 29th, 2013.

Good luck!

Batman: Arkham Asylum review

The Batmobile races through the dark and murky streets of Gotham transporting the (once-again) captured Joker back to Arkham Asylum, Gotham's home for the criminally insane. When Batman arrives at the facility with his prisoner something doesn’t feel quite right. The Joker was too easy to catch, almost like he wanted to be brought back into the Asylum and after a “mysterious” fire at nearby prison, the facility has been stocked with hundreds of the Joker's goons. As a wary Batman escorts his prisoner deeper into the Asylum, the Joker breaks free, with the help of Harley Quinn, and his carefully formulated hostile take over begins.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is a third-person action video game that places players in the role of the Dark Knight himself, Batman. With the help of a few of Batman’s notoriously hi tech goodies and special training, the player must navigate the isolated Arkham Asylum island: saving the innocents and defeating the villains. All in the effort to stop the Joker from releasing an army of mutated human monsters on the people of Gotham City.

Now, this might sound like your typical Batman story -- and it kind of is -- but it's important to take note that this is a fairly adult title. Arkham itself is a dark and gothic place that has just been completely torn apart by every psychopath housed there as they were set free. Dead guards are laid out and debris is strewn about. The facilities have seen better days.

Gameplay in this game breaks down into three main portions – exploring, fist fighting and stealth.

There are six main buildings on the island and each is one is fairly large: filled with cells, laboratories, libraries, and more. Explore! The driving motivation behind a detailed exploration of each location are the 240 Riddler challenges. Every so often, Edward Nigma chirps a riddle into Batman's earpiece that pertains to the room the Caped Crusader is in. It is up to you to locate the answer and scan it with your analysis tool. Beyond these worded riddles, the Riddler's challenges include trophies he's tucked away in the asylum, visual puzzles you can only solve through Detective Mode, villains’ patient interviews, and more. Most of areas that house these items will take your gadgets to find, so it's up to you to crawl through grates, use your cryptographic sequencer to hack security panels, use explosive gel to knock down walls and so on to get where you’re going.

As you move through the facility you're going to run into the baddies. Several confrontations await you, whether the Joker springs a trap with handfuls of guys ready to kill you or you find a crew of goons milling about; this is when you'll make use of your straight hand-to-hand moves. Batman's training allows him to move faster than his enemies and engage them in 360 degrees. Aim Batman towards whatever enemy you want to attack and he will follow through. Through four commands-- strike, reverse, jump, and stun -- you'll unleash the Bat’s fury on the scum of the Earth. You can just mash the strike button and take down the bad guys with a healthy set of animations -- dropkicks, elbows, punches, and more are peppered in -- and counter when you see the icon pop-up, but there's a sweet science to this madness if you use the right sequence of attacks. I felt empowered as I knocked these goons down, grabbed their bats and slammed them back into the attackers.

My favorite part of the game is taking out your opponents via stealth. While there are going to be those times where Joker's men ambush you, there are also the moments where you must be invisible, attacking from the shadows. These scenarios are enticing because they forced me to plan my movements instead of rushing in like an action star. I’d perch on a gargoyle and use an inverted takedown to snatch up my foes, then continue to pick them off one by one.


Some of the folks from Batman: The Animated Series are back to reprise their roles: Mark Hamill is the Joker, Kevin Conroy is Batman, and Arleen Sorkin is Harley Quinn. Mark Hamill is excellent in this game -- his inflection, his timing, and everything else is just spot-on. Thing is, he's not the exception to the rule -- Batman, Poison Ivy, the Riddler all sound excellent. Sure, some of the guards are hit or miss, but the characters you care about nail it. Add in the fact that you have an orchestral score that fits the dark, brooding mood of the game, and you have a title that is everything a Batman game's supposed to be in terms of mood.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is one of the greatest comic book video games of all time. This is an adult Dark Knight story that is well-told, packs some truly fun gameplay elements, has topnotch voice talent, and feels like it's truly of the Batman caliber.

I am Batman.

Check out "The First 60 Minutes of Batman: Arkham Asylum"


Check out my playthrough of Batman: Arkham Asylum on YouTube.

Batman: Arkham Asylum was on my list of "older" games I wanted to experience.