Going Batty for Batman: Arkham City

Bats, birds and cats, what more can you ask for in a game? Rocksteady’s sequel to their brilliant Batman Arkham Asylum will truly carry the mantle, giving Batman more rooftops to stalk and more characters than I thought they could fit into a game like this. A few days before the Con, it was announced that certain preorders will have access to Robin, a character available in the challenge modes. This Robin seems like he was modeled after Eminem and is much more hardcore than what we are used to out of the Man-Boy Wonder. He goes by the name of Tim Drake, though I feel Damien would have fit with the character design better.

And speaking of Damien Wayne, Bruce Wayne’s son conceived out of guile and a hint of rape, his mother will be in Arkham City. Stana Katic will be the song behind this siren, and it would appear the face behind her too given the resemblance. It is not known what her role will be in the story since it would be big spoilers, but true to the character she will have “conflicting loyalties.” Another reveal was the addition of the prominent “legitimate” businessman Oswald Cobblepot, or “The Penguin.” Everyone’s favorite zombie born on a Monday, Soloman Grundy will also appear in the game, and according to Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) he is “the most gnarly” version of the guy he has seen. A mighty pen-master to the bat-mythos, Paul Dini, also mentioned that a large story-arc was scrapped from the game, though there is talks of bringing it back somehow in the future post release.

The real treat at Comic-Con was going to the Batman panel and seeing chemistry between some of the voice actors of these giants. Mark Hamill (The Joker) and Kenvin Conroy (Batman) appeared to be best friends, even though their alter-egos have a little bit more complex dynamic. Seeing everyone’s enthusiasm about the game and their characters I have no doubt that this game will be regarded as the best Batman game in HISTORY.

"Chronic"-Con '11 [REPORT]

The ’11 Comic-Con has come and gone, but Game Tokers were there! We were neck-deep in comics, movies, anime, booth babes, nerd rage, and the best of all, VIDEO GAMES. Riding sky high with a certain strain that goes by the name of Skywalker; we made a run for the trenches and tried to blow the con wide open from the inside. The Spaceman and I (Barbarian, rawr) got our munchie-covered hands on some sweet demos of some anticipated games, and ones that just might be sleeper hits. Get crunk and grab your junk, because this is the Game Toker Comic-Con!

Table of Contents:

Spider-Man: Edge of Time

X-Men: Destiny

Guild Wars 2

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Spider-Man: Edge of Time

X-Men: Destiny

Guild Wars 2

Arena.net has me thoroughly impressed by Guild Wars 2. In the rock-solid demo they had available for the con 3 races were available (Human, Charr, Norn) and ALL the classes announced so far. I had the chance to play warrior, guardian, necromancer, and ranger, and I can’t tell you which one I had the most fun with. The combat seemed very solid, and very dynamic. Tons of weapon combos (and therefore skill combos) were at my fingertips and did my best in the 25 minute timeframe I had to try them all for each class. From my investigation it seems different weapons are better for certain roles, some good for AoE, single target, healing, so on so forth. I could be mistaken, but there may have been collusion detection in combat, if I swung my sword and the animation hit an enemy, it did some damage. The graphics were nothing special, but the texture design made up for it and distracted you from the lack of polygons, and after finding out the build we played was considered “early alpha” from a dev, there is only room for improvement.

The Spaceman received a tip from the previously mentioned dev that there was a hidden dynamic quest that he didn’t see anyone at the con find, so after following this tip we ended up fighting a spider-queen after lots of searching for the last eggs to trigger her revenge. The people at Arena.net not only impressed me with their addicting game, they impressed me with how they treated their fans. After telling an Arena.net person the secret code somewhere at the con, they gave you a special pass that got you into a special meet-n-greet at the Hard Rock across the street from Comic-Con. The place was full of demo machines and music and an OPEN BAR! The night also consisted of giveaways that I got so close to winning, and I can’t forget about the night ending with an all too familiar Rick-Roll!

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Bioware’s fifth pillar of gaming is the foundation of SW:tOR and it does not disappoint. I played a smuggler since it’s the class I plan to play when it goes live, I had some fun with it; the animations are smooth and clean, the combat is much like other MMO’s out there, like WoW but lacking auto-attack. The graphics were good, but on the demo and machines they had it running on it would seem they don’t have their final textures going, so we’ll have to wait to see how the art design turned out. The story is really engaging, though the color palate of the game kept me from getting totally immersed, the quests however felt all too familiar. “Go and kill this many of these people, go deactivate (right click and wait for a few seconds) this over there,” I just hope later on the reasons are engaging enough to forget how tedious these tasks are. Still have hope for this game though, can’t wait to sail the stars smuggling questionable things.