Batman: Arkham Asylum

Gothamite said:
There's no reason why Superman can't be one of them.
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The reason in my opinion is no one knows how to to do it right. Superman returns had some good ideas but was still a pretty bad game. How do you work with a character who is pretty much immortal? What uses will his powers serve? How do you do Kryptonite? If he's protecting city whats to stop him super speeding and stopping bullets? How do you areal combat and areal to ground or ground to areal? What are the physics?

He's a tough one to do. Batman works as its stealth game capitalizing on the fact batman can be shot so has to stealth. Ghostbusters worked as they could be hurt, streams couldn't be crossed ect.. but the content with in superman makes it pretty hard to do.
 
They should let Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Geoff Johns and Mark Waid write a Superman game! Together!
 
SSJmole said:
The reason in my opinion is no one knows how to to do it right. Superman returns had some good ideas but was still a pretty bad game. How do you work with a character who is pretty much immortal? What uses will his powers serve? How do you do Kryptonite? If he's protecting city whats to stop him super speeding and stopping bullets? How do you areal combat and areal to ground or ground to areal? What are the physics?

He's a tough one to do. Batman works as its stealth game capitalizing on the fact batman can be shot so has to stealth. Ghostbusters worked as they could be hurt, streams couldn't be crossed ect.. but the content with in superman makes it pretty hard to do.
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The reason in my opinion is that PLENTY of people know how to do it, even EA. Superman Returns was EXACTLY how a Superman game should be made, they just didn't put enough in it.
 
Gothamite said:
The reason in my opinion is that PLENTY of people know how to do it, even EA. Superman Returns was EXACTLY how a Superman game should be made, they just didn't put enough in it.
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Yeah, it was something that if given the resources and attention that Batman: Arkham Asylum got it could be something great. I played it on PS2 so I can't say how much better it is on Xbox, but I found the gameplay difficult, I couldn't for the life of me save people and maintain control, then I put on god mode hand had a lot of fun. I don't like the idea of Superman being invulnerable, but I love the idea of a city health bar. I still don't get why they don't just work on the game engine and produce a programing sequel.
 
Gothamite said:
The reason in my opinion is that PLENTY of people know how to do it, even EA. Superman Returns was EXACTLY how a Superman game should be made, they just didn't put enough in it.
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It was not exactly how a superman game should be. They got elements right but they got A LOT of things wrong
 
SSJmole said:
It was not exactly how a superman game should be. They got elements right but they got A LOT of things wrong
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My point is that what they got wrong stemmed from the fact that they simply didn't put enough in the game. They were definitely on the right track with the setting, the controls and the premise. It's just that the execution was unbelievably awful.

As Random said, it's a pity they never followed it up with another game, using the same engine, based on the comics (similar to what Activision did with Ultimate Spider-Man, sort of). They could have devoted a lot more time and energy to it and put more of the things they promised in.
 
New video with Harley and Ivy


[youtube]SAFQYQQwtJI[/youtube]
 
Kind of cool hearing Arleen Sorkin say 'crap' after all the years of not being able to say anything remotely resembling a curse.
 
from Batman-On-Film.comInterview: ARKHAM ASYLUM's Writer, Paul Dini!
Posted by: Jett @ 7:21 PM CENTRAL on 7/28/09


I told y'all we were going to be "Batman Heavy," didn't I! Here's Sean's interview with ARKHAM ASYLUM's writer -- the legendary Paul Dini:

BATMAN ON FILM/Sean Gerber: What's the biggest difference between writing Batman in a video game compared to comics and animation?

Paul Dini: "There's a lot more writing involved for a video game than there is for a movie because you've gotta write every movement that [Batman] does, basically. At the same time, you have to write everything that he says, so if he runs down and talks to a guard and the guard has just been beaten up, so the guard is really pissed off at Batman. You have to keep thinking, where are the scenarios leading you to a different outcome. It's a lot more labor intensive, but at the same time, you have to keep in mind that you are writing a game. Whereas a feature film would have a little bit more texture to it, as far as maybe a subplot with Bruce Wayne or a love interest or a villain's story, you find yourself not dealing with that as much because you got to satisfy the needs of the game first and make sure this is an involving experience for the game player."

"At the same time, you have to make it interesting for the long-time Batman fan who doesn't want to just have another typical Batman adventure. You want to make this as unique, as different, as involving, and as true to the Batman lore that you can be, so it's a big responsibility."

Other: Were there ever any drastic changes that you had to make [to your story] to accommodate changes in the game play?

PD: "I left myself open to that because I knew that early on in the planning stages we had come up with certain plot elements and character elements that were discarded for whatever reason because they just impeded the game play or it was straying too much into the real of a feature film or graphic novel. It's hard to cut those things out, but it must be done. In some cases, we were limited by the characters that we could build and if we're going to bring in certain characters for a line or two, we have to be judicious with how we do that because you have to build the character from the ground up. You can bring in a whole variety of enemies and allies for Batman, but is the cameo value worth setting the schedule back a little bit and the expense involved in constructing these characters? There were things that we dropped along the way, but at least in my head, I said that this was a collaborative effort, much the same as animation only much more so. This is really a team project and not the same situation as if I'm writing a book, giving it to the artist, and the artists says 'Well I can't draw pages 4 through 9' and I wonder what's the problem because obviously he can. Here, you've got a whole team and you're kind of limited by what the game can do."

Other: When you talk about straying too much into the realm of a graphic novel or film, does that include the size of the set pieces or just the subplots?

PD: "It was a little bit of both because we sort of imagined that there are going to be big set pieces. You don't want to have too much action happening during a cut scene because the question is 'Why isn't this a part of game play?' You don't want to add a lot of extraneous characters during a cut scene because it's like a cheat, but also if that character doesn't fit into the game play, you can't really have that character involved in [the cut scenes]. You just have to keep the flavor of Batman and try to be as true to his world as you can, but at the same time, you've gotta keep the action moving forward."

Other: Does the visual aspect of a game, comic, or cartoon influence the way you write Batman?

PD: "I tend to take my cues from the visuals. If this was [B:TAS], I might have toned down some of the violence or some of the dialogue, but also, when you see the character fighting these huge thugs in there… when I saw the designs for some of the criminals, I was like, 'Man, I don't want Batman going in there either! He's really going to get hurt! I don't want him to go in, those guys are scary!' But [Batman] steps up to the plate, so he's goes in wearing this armored up outfit that looks like he was bolted into it and he really gives these guys a lot of hell as he smashes them around. If that's the arena we're in, then I tailor my writing a little more toward that intensity. In some cases I wanted to go a little bit farther because if you have guys that are that big, realistic, and scary looking, their dialogue is going to be a lot more raw than it actually is in the game, so I would find myself using…even though the language is harsh, it's more PG-13 hard. It's not really R-rated and I kept wanting to go toward R-rated because these guys aren't going to say 'Oh darn it!' so you want to amp up the dialogue a little bit."

BOF/SG: Mark Hamill's voice in the game sounds noticeably different from what he did in B:TAS. Kevin Conroy said it's just because Mark's getting old…

PD: *laughs*

BOF/SG: So, was Mark intentionally modifying his voice to match the tone of the game?

PD: "He did modify it to match the look of the game. The look was so dark and gritty that his voice went to match that. [The Joker] is a killer, he's a sadist, and he's playing this very grotesque life and death game with Batman. Even though his voice had the same shifts and the same up and down cadence that you kind of love about Mark's voice, he did keep it rooted in the gutter almost and in the dark. This is the voice of a murderer, not a whimsical clown who uses whoopee cushions and stuff like that."

Other: Did you learn anything new about Batman in this process?

PD: "Yes I did. There are a few scenes where I was really able to push him, get inside his head, get to where he lives, and see the different defenses he puts up to keep his inner-self from getting out to his enemies, but also keeps his inner-self from himself. To look at when those barriers are shadowed, how he deals with that and how he comes back from that. I think that's the most intense level of the game and I think that's probably what most mirrors a subplot in a movie. You can't go into a scenario like ARKHAM ASYLUM and be unchanged by it. You have to go in and confront your demons and you have to try to confront that line that separates you from the guys you put in there. That, to me, is the most fascinating realm of this game."

- Sean Gerber
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There's also some interesting stuff from the cast & crew panel.
 
http://www.gametrailers.com/news/batcave-accessible-on-playstation/1251

Holy free content Batman! EpicBattleAxe has learned that with the purchase of Batman: Arkham Asylum for the PS3, gamers will be allowed to access a special Batcave Outpost personal space from the Playstation Home.

The personal space will feature a Batmobile, a Batwing, a Batsuit and an assortment of Bat-gadgets and goodies for your avatar to checkout. Not only is this a cool place to hang out with your buddies on PS Home, but it's also a great place to bring that special gamer you picked up from the virtual club (ooh la la)
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Nice!
 
Here are some of the character bios.

Front of Journal http://img161.imageshack.us/i/frontjournal.jpg/

Front Credit's http://img113.imageshack.us/i/getattachmentaspxu.jpg/

Batman http://img142.imageshack.us/i/batmanc.jpg/

Great White Shark http://img139.imageshack.us/i/sharkk.jpg/

The Penguin http://img103.imageshack.us/i/penguinm.jpg/

Mad Hatter http://img196.imageshack.us/i/hatter.jpg/

Clay Face http://img139.imageshack.us/i/clay.jpg/

Mr. Zsasz http://img219.imageshack.us/i/zsasz.jpg/

The Joker http://img219.imageshack.us/i/jokerb.jpg/

Killer Croc http://img219.imageshack.us/i/croci.jpg/

Bane http://img161.imageshack.us/i/bane.jpg/

The Riddler http://img145.imageshack.us/i/riddler.jpg/

Posion Ivy http://img145.imageshack.us/i/ivyz.jpg/

Scarecrowhttp://img269.imageshack.us/i/scarecrowp.jpg/

Harley Quinn http://img140.imageshack.us/i/harleyz.jpg/

The Calendarman http://img200.imageshack.us/i/16calendarman.jpg/

Humpty Dumpty http://img142.imageshack.us/i/17humptydumpty.jpg/

Rat Catcher http://img142.imageshack.us/i/19ratcatcher.jpg/

Black Mask http://img141.imageshack.us/i/blackmask.jpg/

Mr. Freeze http://img142.imageshack.us/i/freezek.jpg/

Tweedledee and Tweedledum http://img162.imageshack.us/i/tweedledeeanddum.jpg/

Warden Sharp http://img218.imageshack.us/i/wardene.jpg/

Firefly http://img218.imageshack.us/i/firefly.jpg/

Harvey Two Face http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/4634/dent.jpg
 
never mind i was getting it confused with the hush 12 cover. it's not from hush.
 
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