All Good Things Come In Three's - Batman Arkham....

So Arkham City is probably the best Batman game ever so why does everyone seem worried about the third outing being anything but better…? I’ve heard the rumours online too and it all stems from the fact that this appears to be a prequel to the original Arkham Asylum.

Now we all love Batman; he’s fast and he’s strong with a good bit of wit and an eye for solving devious problems. The addition of Catwoman in the second outing proved that Rocksteady know what they are doing and placed these interesting additional chapters through their wonderfully crafted story. The fact that these supplemented the whole progression without becoming a detriment to their well flowing ideas only made these feel even more suitable.

Reports suggest that the game will take place during the silver age and follow Batman’s inclusion in the Justice League – a ‘league’ of superheroes banded together to complete one single goal when one of them just isn’t enough. This could therefore follow a rescue attempt including all your favourite DC hero's or alternatively have even more emphasis on co-operative gameplay.

Many people believe that the new story will take away from the gameplay elements already being used as the Batman’s usual ‘arsenal’ of weapons and gadgets won’t be quite a grand. Or maybe they could be just as good but used in a dissimilar sense – imagine being clad in the Adam West costume planting risky first generation explosive gel as Bruce slowly hones his creation skills.

The game is almost definitely going to include the likes of Superman and Wonder Woman but their capacity is yet to be confirmed. With the second game featuring different playable characters (mainly though the added contact) many believe they will be part of the main story in a playable way too. I have to say I disagree with this and I think Rocksteady do too. Their ethos so far has been to stick as closely to the Batman lore as possible without jeopardising their own unique feel. As such I really believe that they will be going for a more ‘meet-and-greet’ situation with these characters – perhaps showing that they all have their own weaknesses that Batman has either planned to assist or planned to use to disable them.

In the Tower of Babel books the Batman slowly hatches a fail safe to disable each of the members should they switch to the other side or need to quickly be immobilised. Ra’s Al Ghul steals his ideas and uses them to quickly and efficiently take down the league in order to stop them disrupting his latest plans. Batman states that this was always a cautionary measure that he devised after the Injustice League swapped bodies with the Justice League with the aid of the alien tyrant Agamemno years earlier (during another Silver Age event).

This story would be a good way to use all our favourite characters in a non-playable capacity while allowing us to either fight them or help them on their individual quests. Think of the possibilities…

It’s also safe to assume that if the Joker will be one of the main villains if not the main villain. Perhaps the Joker has stolen Bruce’s plans a’la Ra’s and then distributes them to villains from the other DC character world taking out their nemesis one by one.

Enough on the story what else would we love to be doing….

Ok it’s safe to assume that we might be doing more than just playing the big bad bat this time around – perhaps there might be the opportunity for a Batmobile car chase. We all want to get behind the wheel of the coolest vehicle ever and give chase around the streets of Gotham (or even the streets of anywhere). It’s something every fan wants to be able to do and even if it’s just a quest based one off that will be enough – provided it’s written well. What about chances to play as Bruce Wayne himself – maybe gathering information at big city parties or running around in Wayne Manor.

Whatever is announced I’m sure it will be fantastic as Rocksteady have been preparing themselves for a trilogy ever since the success of Arkham Asylum. They’re making things bigger with each outing and I full expect them to do the same come the third iteration.

Read More

Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Breakdown (Spoilers)

Right I don’t often tail off from Video Games but today I’m going to discuss the finale of Nolan’s Batman saga and as such those who have not watched the film should probably stop reading now – unless you want the whole thing ruined.

I’ve been looking forward to this ever since Heath Ledger stole the show during the Dark Knight and had been interested to see exactly how the Bruce Wayne and Batman stories would tie up. The movie actually does tie up most of the plot threads but has received a generally mixed reaction online.

The ending of course shows the Batman sacrificing himself to save the citizens of Gotham from certain death by flying off into the sunset with the giant nuclear bomb. The nice hints come at the end where we get to see Bruce Wayne living happily ever after with Selina Kyle aka Catwoman (although she’s referred to at the burglar during the whole film). You do also get the twist that he has actually been pronounced legally dead and leaves John Blake (or Robin if you can believe that piece of shit) the directions to the Batcave signalling that he wants Blake to take over as the saviour of Gotham.

Unfortunately this ending brought out the sensible elements in me and introduced our first major plot hole – how does anyone escape a nuclear bomb explosion? I don’t give a damn if you’re Batman; if you don’t have Kryptonian skin you aren’t getting out alive. Also what’s the fallout of a nuclear bomb going off not 1 mile from shore? No tidal wave? No mutated fish? The worst bit was that Bruce fixing the autopilot was mentioned maybe once during the whole film so blink and you missed how the hell he survived.

What really annoyed me was the John Blake becoming Batman tie in. I hate it! He’s not Dick Grayson and he’s not Tim Drake so why bother. I don’t understand why Nolan would be so loyal to the core Batman universe yet not use the right characters to take over from Bruce. There won’t be a spin off and he won’t become Nightwing or the Batman as he’d inevitably die somehow very early in his new career. You don’t have to believe me but remember Bruce completed all manner of exceptional training for years of his life whereas Blake has 6 months of being a beat cop under his belt and therefore is horribly unprepared. He also has no wealth in comparison to the successful Bruce Wayne and therefore can’t be the globe trotting vigilante that is supposed to be the Dark Knight.

By now, The Dark Knight Rises has garnered the biggest 2D release retures for a first weekend ever. But the plot holes continued. When cop John Blake was a child he apparently saw that Bruce Wayne was Batman ‘in his face’. Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t that Nolan’s biggest fob off yet? He worked this out at the orphanage when he was young and then when he gets older, Blake wanders out to Wayne Manor and says, ‘Hey Bruce, I knew you were Batman all along’. If one small time cop worked it out why didn’t anyone else…

Another of my grievances came from the gargling groans of the beast Bane. His voice slowly grew on my but I didn’t really understand what he was saying half the time and even his little speech reading Gordon’s confession started sounding like a butch child. I found he lowered the stakes and stopped me from investing in anything he did. Actually speaking of the speech itself I feel like I was the only person who thought ‘he could have wrote that himself to make the commissioner look bad’. He just decked a football stadium after all.

Although you probably feel like I’m slating the movie I actually did enjoy it; not as much as The Dark Knight but enough to watch it again. The storyline was great but it didn’t feel much like Batman. The effects were good and it rounded off the trilogy in a satisfactory way; if not in a brilliant one. There were a few wonderful moments like the strobe-like gun approach in the sewers and some nice duel fist fights with Catwoman standing by. The things that bothered me were the emphasis on explosions and vehicles rather than Batmans hand to hand battles and nothing psychological to keep us guessing. The major twist doesn’t have enough involvement and therefore lacks the impact it deserves.

I loved the throw backs to the comic lore though in the form of Killer Croc jokes, storyline elements ripped from the best graphic novels out there and the fact that scarecrow crops up everywhere (welcome back Cillian Murphy). Bane breaking Batman was good but it didn’t have the same impact as it did in Knightfall.

Finally the biggest annoyance for me was how quickly Bruce healed from a broken back (4 months approx). And any doctor out where can tell you that punching a vertebrae does not heal a broken back - no matter who you are – that is unless your doctor is one of those balloon boob-job wannabees.

Read More

Borderlands 2 - Gun Looting

The one thing we all loved about Borderlands was it’s rich adult humour, it’s gallons of blood and it’s one-wheel foul mouthed robots. It looks like all those things are going to be coming back in hordes when the second instalment in the franchise hits in a few months time.

Pandora has received a welcome new colour pallet and looks set to keep us enthralled for months to come. The roasting sun doesn’t seem to have helped any of the local’s personalities either with the likes of Tiny Tina and Princess Fluffybutt being some of the names already mentioned.

The former actually looks like a rip of the Jokers old missus Harley Quinn with her Batcave like location and strange circus like attire. She actually one of the quest gives during the massive loot based quests so this shows that you can pick up extra adventures on your journey around Pandora this time.

The main town this time around is called Sanctuary where you’ll be able to fulfil everybody’s needs and desires. Your main type of quest follows the similar routine as before; killing specific characters, a certain volume of creatures or fetching items for the NPC’s. Although this sounds repetitive the co-operative elements seem to stop these games from feeling boring as you complete each mission in different ways.

The biggest draw for the Borderland franchises though as the bazzilion guns on offer – some fire plastma, others normal bullets with different speeds, accuracy and power. It’s a Diablo style loot grinder that give you the ‘5 more minutes’ feeling.

Borderlands 2 inches even closer to Blizzard’s dungeon-crawler in ways that make a ton of sense for its role-playing shooter format. Firstly, you’ve got a Stash that lets you drop items into a shared Dumpster that any character on your profile can access. So if you play as the Gunzerker and your new Sniper Rifle isn’t suitable drop it in for your Zero playthrough,

This cross-character sharing also applies to your challenges which allow you to increase your character in interesting new ways (most of which are completely outrageous). Another addition sees a new bank feature included which lets you hand onto items you aren’t currently using but might want to come back to later. The only thing missing from Borderlands 2 is the ability to upgrade weapons but I suppose that is what patches and updates are for.

Heading out into the vast areas of Pandora allows for some brilliantly fast paced gunplay that really can’t be described until you see it for yourself. Each enemy has it’s own set of weaknesses or easy kills a’la Batman Arkham City – one might require shots to the mouth while others require shooting in the back. It’s a good element to include into the co-op gameplay and means you must mix up your tactics depending on what you are up against.

Provided I don’t need a constant internet connection to play this I’ll be on it all day following its release. Being a fan of the original I’m certainly looking forward to looting my way through an FPS again and for those unfamiliar with the franchise there will not be a better time to get involved than when Borderlands 2 hits the stores.

Read More

Missing out on Comic-con 2012

Once again this year’s comic-con seems to have gone down a treat. People bared witness to the biggest blockbuster movies of the year, their favourite TV series gossip and also the best comics on offer which is partly in the name of course. It no secret that this years E3 conference was terrible compared to the usual offerings but Comic-con was expected to be a success again.

I have to say there were many fine moments I’ve read about like the infamous Bulk and Skull moment at the Power Ranges panel but I have to say that the expo itself had some truly fantastic announcements.

It’s no secret that DC has struggled to successfully launch live-action adaptation of any of their characters over the last few years – with the one exception being Smallville – so the announcement of Arrow early this year made many fanboy’s ears prick up. The successful 10 year stint of the Superman series was always going to produce some attempted spin off but this actually looks like a vision that might succeed.

The new take on Green Arrow is set to focus on Oliver Queen and his exploits into actually becoming a full-fledged superhero. The story picks up after Oliver is stranded on an island for a few years where he apparently hones his archery skills, physical ability and his personal mentality.

Being a big fan of Green Arrow I am more than a little excited about the whole thing and actually expect it to do quite well. The ‘adult’ themes that the story looks to be taking on board will hopefully mean that fans of similar adaptations (Nolan’s Batman for example) will also love this new spin off.

SPOILER ALERT - Deathstoke appears to be the bad guy too.

Then of course Room 6A held the now yearly Walking Dead panel which showed everything from their clever TV adaptation to the 100 comic issue due out this month (it might already be out actually). It’s crazy to think that the independent black and white comic about zombies is set for such a milestone and the TV show has only escalated it’s popularity three-fold.

First and probably the big news is that season three will start in October and pick off directly after the closure of season two. If the comics are anything to go by (and the casting news) we are in for another cracking stream of episodes featuring a prison, the perfect zombie killing action and a governor.

An interesting move was noted by the panel monitor, Chris Hardwick, who said that we could be seeing more special effects in the new series as the undead ghouls are slowly deteriorating due to their lack of food. It’s also interesting to hear from a fans point of view that they are going for a very fast paced series to keep in line with the end of series two and also the 100 mph style of the comics.

If you haven’t seen the trailer then now is the time to check it out but for the moment just think how great this section is in the comics and whether you believe the show will live up to the hype. Also if you haven’t had a chance the book ‘Rise of the Governor’ is a great time filler and explains the motives of the newest character coming into the show.

Normally I wouldn’t say that a reunion panel was one of the big things I missed not going this year but then again Firefly is a little bigger to the norm. The fan-base across the globe is intense and regularly asks for the series to continue. Surprisingly this was the 10^th anniversary of the series that started the chants and the whole cast appeared on the panel. Of course the usual questions were asked but as a massive fan myself I would have just loved to experience the sheer love for the characters and the actors as they each got heavily involved with the fans.

Of course Joss Whedon is returning to comic-con a hero following his massive Avengers outing, in fact creating the third biggest movie of all time.

Unfortunately no news of a new series yet – we can continue to shout from the rafters though and cross our fingers in the hope of some live-action outing in the future.

You can’t really speak about comic-con without some sort of Tolkien works being completed and this year marked the year of The Hobbit. For those like me with a jealous nature you better just skip over the next paragraph.

Yes, a little over 12 minutes of footage was shown from The Hobbit to the rabid fans in Hall H, and director Peter Jackson was also on hand with co-producer and co-screenwriter Philippa Boyens as well as several cast members to set the show on the road. It was also a nice touch that Elijah Wood showed up and Serkis spoke to the crowd as Gollum and even dropped in a few naughty words. The footage shown had been downgraded from the controversial 48 fps that Jackson showed last time – obviously this went down extremely well with the fans too. There are no signs that this won’t be as big or bigger than the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Finally Superman returned to San Diego where Warner Bros. gave the Hall H crowd their first look at Man of Steel. This reboot is directed by Zack Snyder with some executive producer assistance being offered by Christopher Nolan. The case were all on hand to speak to the fans with Henry Cavil, Kevin Cosner and Russell Crowe getting involved.

As a comic fan I loved the fact that it has been heavily publicised that Cavill said he looked at to the likes of Death of Superman, the Return of Superman and Red Son for his inspiration. Oddly enough, no mention was made of Birthright, which seems to be the biggest influence on the movie so far. Of course Snyder was asked if he thought that a successful Man of Steel film could lead to a JLA or Batman vs. Superman movie and he replied that once Superman is back in the frame anything could happen.

Comic-con as I’m sure you can see did not disappoint except for the fact that the majority of us only got to read about it and watch the footage at home. Next year guys and girls we will all make more of an effort.

Suddenly I need a pay-rise!

Read More

Boy Spends £1150 on Microsoft Points

A story recently hit the web about a father complaining to Microsoft after his 12-year-old son spent a whooping £1150 on Microsoft Points over a six month period.

Sam Ghera’s son Nik, claims he didn't know the Microsoft Points were being charged to his father's credit card and had even spent £100 in a single day on the games he loved like FIFA and Call of Duty.

Ghera says ,"He didn't realise it was costing real money, with sites like eBay and iTunes it always asks you for a password before you make a purchase, but with Xbox Live you just press a button and then your money's gone."

Microsoft have apparently been looking into this matter and responded by saying the price of downloadable content is stated throughout the purchasing process.

I might be the only one here but I completely agree with Microsoft – I personally find their content approach fair and clear. Looking into purchasing today I had 4 prompts to tell me how many Microsoft points I required and the price in cash that I would need to pay to purchase them.

The Xbox Live offerings that require cash correctly have no password for any standard ‘adult’ accounts but do have the facilities to accommodate those who allow their children to play online. This includes credit card protection as well as guidelines over what they can play, who with and when.

The services offered are more than adequate to allow anyone to protect themselves from a sometime hostile online community but which can be also used to protect those of a young or innocent nature.

In fact the real problem Sam Ghera is having also has an option on all Xbox Live accounts to protect his own financial interests. There are specific settings within the console and account details to allow ‘over the shoulder approval’ which requires the card holder to give permission before a purchase can be completed either through a password or an email link.

 Despite his son spending money on Microsoft Points for over six month, Ghera didn’t realise the money was missing until he went overdrawn. Ghera explained that he had registered his card so that his son could play Fifa and Call of Duty with his friends.

Let this be a warning to all parents out there – check you children's online authorities before putting your cards to anything. You don’t need a password to pay for things on Amazon so why would an Xbox Live account be any different.

Oh and check your statements every month!

Read More

Mass Effect 3 - The Extended Ending Review

So the Mass Effect 3 Extended Endings DLC was released last week and gave BioWare a chance to right the wrongs for their completely nonsensical original endings. I’ll try not to spoil too much but as I’m sure you are aware there were a few alternate endings but none of them were polished enough to finish a 5 year long story.


The main point for me to throw out here is that the endings aren’t actually different so it’ll depend on what you didn’t like about the original endings that will decide the view on whether you will like these. Inevitably the problem with this is that BioWare have plugged some major plot holes but you can’t really see whether this has been to patch it like a bug problem or because they are cowards about the way the fans felt about the original endings.

There really isn’t a lot of change that has any great importance on the story. There are a few new scenes, new lines of dialogue and some clarification on the completely terrible jumps of the finales plot but nothing that insinuates a rewrite.


For example one of the things that has been updated is an explanation on why the Normandy left Shepard at the end which gives us a little piece of clarity on BioWare’s plan was originally.


One larger addition is the option to now blow the Star Child's head off. It created the Reapers in the first place and basically kills off the Indoctrination Theory floating around. Its an interesting take on the ending but isn’t one of the happiest to say the least.


Granted BioWare have done a fairly solid job of tweaking the endings without conclusively saying that the public were right and they were not. It does show the they didn’t really have an ending that could be easily completed based on the large amount of options the player took on during their 5 year quest. It mi9ght not be the ending you wanted but they sure as hell show us with this ‘patch’ that it is the ending the writers wanted.

The only tweaks that seem a bit wasted are the ending story buffs which seem to have been thrown out with the ‘how do we appease everyone’ card. Yes they give us further clarity but they aren’t really achieving all that much – at least for me in particular. They just feel like a cop-out. I won’t enlighten you more than that but when you see them you’ll know exactly what I mean.
Overall I am glad that BioWare released this expanded endings patch though I can’t help but feel it wasn’t a complete success. The biggest thing for everyone to take note of is the post-release plot changing should never become the norm; this is simply because it takes away from what a developer and writer set out to do – regardless of whether you liked it. I hated Bioshock 2 and mainly because of the ‘improved’ gameplay and prequel storyline but I can completely understand why people loved it.


The point that developers in particular should take note of us that you should know how to end a game and not make a 5 year or even 20 hours excursion feel ‘wasted’ with a ‘downer’. Obviously don’t rush something that all your fans have been waiting to see; especially then that wait it years as opposed to hours/months.


The worst thing to come out of this though has got to be the knock that BioWare has taken ‘again’. First they suffered with Dragon Age 2 and now the ending of one of their most popular franchises ever. Just because you are/were a great publisher doesn’t mean you can get sloppy now. A good reputation takes years to build but 5 minutes to fall over.

Read More

Skyrim Dawnguard Personal Review

The first Skyrim expansion Dawnguard has not been as warmly received online as I original hoped. Most personal reviewers have accused Bethesda of selling out to the modern vampire craze that’s plagued our films and our games of late. I can assure you that The Elder Scrolls series have been sucking blood with lave red eyes for many years now so there is no reason not to have expected a full guild based storyline at some point or other.

The new campaign is accessed once a character reaches level 10 or above where you will start to hear rumours from city guards (particularly in Riften). Early on you will come face to face with the ancient group of vampire hunters known as the Dawnguard – which will lead you onto the choice of fighting for them or biting their necks and sucking their blood. I first choose to complete a run through by helping out this guild as I love my werewolf beast form almost as much as my Nords duel-maces.

Your playtime may vary but as I played with a high level character my trip lasted about 8 hours but I didn’t need to spend much time in any of the towns sorting myself out between missions. I would imagine that this could increase to around 12 hours should you start this questline off earlier in your adventuring career. I have since given this a run through playing from the vampire perspective which holds more gameplay additions but maybe a less interesting story (at least in my opinion). Basically the content could last anywhere between 18-25 hours in total depending on how rushed you play and as long as you give this a go from both perspectives – overall a worthwhile £15.00 investment.

The Dawnguard side of the faction starts off a bit slow but picks up after a quest or two into the expansion. The areas to explore are much more open (even though they are mainly cave systems) and have some nice aesthetical touches to make them unique. The only problem I had with the new locations were that some required backtracking to get out once you’d completed the desired requirements (although again this might just have been me not spotting the quick win).

You get some marvellous adventures along the way with two unique outdoor locations that you can go back to time and time again even when the Dawnguard expansion has come to a close. There are also some wonderful crafted set pieces, one involving a legendary dragon and a Skeleton Horde and the other pitting you against two massive Dragons on an Icy Lake (where they crash in and out of the water). There were also some brilliant set pieces created from the expansion – for example when my summoned Dragon (yes that’s right) caused havoc for a couple of his Frost cousins while I ventured over the bridge into Windhelm.

One of the other advantages of joining the Dawnguard side of the quest is the ability to quickly pick up the new weapon type as well as upgrade it. The Crossbow is an interesting addition to the weapons on offering firing more damaging bolts to the usual bow and arrow combo but with an increased reload time.

Bethesda were obviously pushing people down the vampire half of the questline though as you are repeatedly offered the chance to get turn into one of the hovering bloodsuckers. The new vampiric powers are actually pretty cool thought and the ability to turn into a Vampire Lord makes you feel truly powerful. In fact I actually ended up finding the Vampire Lord a more interesting form to the Werewolf already available in the main game. Both the new vampire and the werewolf transformations have been given a perk tree for you to boost too.

The last few additions to speak of are the new open areas for you to explore. The Soul Cairn isn’t very easy on the eye but has a nice couple of side quests available and a very distinctive feel. The Forgotten Vale on the other hand is an area a lot like Skyrim but largely contained to distinctive looking areas (one being an awesome Falmer Tree House style village). Full exploration can take a couple of hours but in all honesty there isn’t distinguishing this from the standard Skyrim cave patrols.

All in all though Dawnguard is a fair size for it’s price especially if you pick this up with an early game character as the tasks will be a lot more difficult. I would definitely recommend picking this up if you need a reason to return to Tamriel and the additional gameplay content is pretty good too for those already well invested in their characters. Armoured Trolls anyone?

P.S. There is also a brilliant new follower available through either quest path.

8/10

Read More