Batman: Arkham Asylum - Review

The night has been long, ominous, dark and damp. I have stalked, terrified, abused an army of Joker's goons and I have matched blow for blow Gotham's criminally insane. I have met my fears at the hands of Scarecrow, I have almost been broken by Bane again, I have outsmarted Killer Croc, I have done some serious gardening on Poison Ivy's plants and I have stopped another Joker plot that would have destroyed Gotham. I have done all this because no one else can, I have done this because I am Batman and Batman: Arkham Asylum has made my childhood aspirations come true; while at the same time managing to be the single best Batman game I have ever had the pleasure to play and one of my personal contenders for GAME OF THE YEAR.

My history with the Dark Knight has never been a deep one, I've never followed the comics and I don't know near enough about all the lore found there. Still he has always been there ever since I was a kid, I've followed him in the Tim Burton films as well as in the animated series and I have recently fallen once again in love with him through the recent films by Christopher Nolan. I am only slightly familiar with some of the comics like The Killing Joke, Year One and The Dark Knight Returns through Wikipedia. The one thing that has always stood out to me about Batman is the darkness as well as the intelligence of the character and the best part has always been that he doesn't really have any superpowers like Superman so back when I was a kid I felt hope that I might grow up like Bruce Wayne and have all those cool gadgets; that is why Batman: Arkham Asylum is such a blessing for people like me, because now I finally can at least feel like I'm Batman.

I'M BATMAN! BAI!

Just got confirmation that my copy of Batman Arkham Asylum has arrived and I'm off to pick it up. Don't expect to see me much around for the next week or so, cause I'll be busy saving Gotham from Joker's insane plots! Bai!

My Most Anticipated Games 2009/2010

10. Batman Arkham Asylum - PC/PS3/360

I don't think I've ever played a proper Batman game in my whole life but after playing the demo around twenty times I am convinced that the true Batman game is just around the corner. I love the mixture of stealth and action that this game presents, as well as how dark and brutal they have made it. Don't be deceived by the comic look of the game, this game has more in common with Alan Moore's and Frank Miller's Batman, rather than the Batman you've seen on Cartoon Network. The only gripe I had with the demo is that it felt a little too simple but I hope it's due to it being the first level and that the challenge will increase in the full game.





9. Bioshock 2 - PC/PS3/360

It's not often that you get to see an intelligent shooter and it is even rarer to see one become successful and have a sequel. Bioshock came out of nowhere and charmed a whole game scene with it's mad dystopian underwater world of Rapture that was based on Ayn Rand's philosophies gone wrong. It was at the time of it's release a breath of fresh air in a first-person shooter genre that was going stale but to be fair one should class Bioshock as an Action-RPG due to the different skills that your character could develop depending on your choices. Bioshock 2 is already looking like it will be a worthy sequel but my only concern is that the "newness" of the first game will be lost in a sequel.