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.

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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.

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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.

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