First off let me say that Batman is my all time favorite classic superhero, Marvel and DC. The only guy that comes remotely close is of course Deadpool, coolest dude ever, who is my favorite comic book character. Anyway back to the B man. Never really read any of his comics when I was little. Was basically a Spidey only guy ’cause of my dad. What grew my love of the Dark Knight was Batman: The Animated Series. I remember watching the cartoon every day before dinner and just getting caught up in whole mythos surrounding him. Now years later I’m still just as enamored with the city of Gotham as ever and with the release of Batman: Arkham Asylum I finally get to experience the world first hand.

Now good superhero games have been hard to come by. Many of the last few gen games have been atrocious. I’m looking at you Superman 64 and Batman Dark Tomorrow. But as of late there have actually been some excellent games. Hot of the heels of the not-so-bad Wolverine: Origins game, comes this excellent stealth/action/brawler game by company Rocksteady. First off I must say that the visuals are stunning. The Joker looks downright creepy and Batman’s suit looks stunning; thankfully there are no Bat-nipples. His suit even gets torn over the course of the game. While the caves and tunnels look nice, the first time you step foot outside of the buildings is quite stunning. Very reminiscent of Unreal back in the day. Rocksteady did an awesome job crafting the world.

That’s not to say its the game’s only redeeming feature. By far no. It also has excellent gameplay. While there is an overly long opening playable cutscene, from that moment on you definitely feel like the Dark Knight. Whether you’re fighting off a ambushing group of thugs or are stealthily eliminating armed henchmen one by one, it all feels great. Then there are the fights with the major villains of the world. I won’t spoil who you fight, but each one is quite intense and unique. Even though there were enough, the geek in me just wishes there could have been more. Hopefully there will be DLC for that. If not, AA2 needs to come out sooner! All this comes together nicely to a final throwdown with the Joker, but with a twist. While I wish the stealth elements could have been thrown into the battle, but it was still a great finish to the game.

There were also some little extra tidbits that were icing on the cake. The voice acting in the game was AWESOME. They got three of the VA’s from The Animted Series which absolutely floored me. They got Kevin Conroy and Mark fuckin’ Hamill to return as Batman and the Joker, respectively. Hands down I think these two are the best rendition of their characters ever. Sure Heath’s performance was stunning, but Mark “don’t-call-me-Luke” Hamill’s performance just always sends shivers down my spine from just how awesome it is. And lastly is the wonderful Arleen Sorkin reprising her role as Ms. Harley Quinn, who is up there in my list of favorite female comic book characters. That probably says a lot about me but I won’t go into that. Astonishing voice acting aside, another cherry on the metaphorical game cake is the Riddler puzzles. Throughout the game are either various trophies, riddles, or missions that the Riddler gives you. Now these are the sort of things I love. Item collecting, meticulously searching the environment for clues, these are the things I live for. And integrating it into an already wonderful game is just pure ecstasy.

As you can tell, I freakin’ loved this game and I couldn’t recommend it enough. You should definitely check this game out. Unless you’re some kind of die hard Marvel fan and won’t touch anything DC with a ten foot stick. Or if you just hate fun, then I guess stay away from it. But those who do will be drawn into this wonderful world and will be addicted from beginning to end. One of the best games of the year. (more…)

Microsoft has been trying to relieve some of the summer games drought by releasing a slew of XLBA games. ‘Splosion Man, a game I talked about before was one of them. Well their last game release and definitely the biggest is called Shadow Complex. Developed by Chair, this game is basically a modern reboot of the classic Metroid and Castlevania side scrolling type game. What makes the game even more special is that it’s fully rendered in 3D but you’re restricted to only 2D movement. This breathes a new life into the genre making things seem less crowded and much grander.

I never really got into Metroid or Castlevania when I was younger. Mainly due to the fact that I was pretty much too young and just bought box art that looked cool and stuck with Mario. Did give them a try when they came to the GBA and had a lot of fun with them. But really I think the culmination of the genre has hit with Shadow Complex. Well at least for me. I always felt daunted with item collecting and finding secret passages in Metroid. But in Shadow Complex everything felt.. right. Yeah horrible way to put it but it just did. Nothing felt too easy or too hard. It was all just so much fun. I haven’t experience this much joy in a game since well maybe Yoshi’s Island (greatest game of all time). And that was well over 10 years ago for me. I’ve just been wanting to play it so bad but sadly I just haven’t had the time. Plus I gotta play Arkham Asylum and Layton still.

So yeah Microsoft’s Summer of Arcade was pretty awesome this year. ‘Splosion Man was a blast (pun semi-intended), almost got Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Turtles in Time but wanted to save my money, and they saved the best for last, Shadow Complex. Definitely worth the $15 they charge. Hell I’d pay regular game price for it. It’s just that good.

Not many people know this about me but I adore point and click adventure games. Sure I was introduced late to the game /coughjustafewyearsago, but that doesn’t mean I can’t love the shit out of ‘em. It all basically started with some extremely old adventure games that were packed into our first Hewlett Packard. Played those games hundreds of times from beginning to end. But as FPSs, RTSs, and the like were introduced to my life I eventually forgot about those types of games. It wasn’t until the recent release of the Sam and Max series by Telltale Games that I was reminded about the genre. Got all the episodes of both seasons and loved them to pieces. The humor, the wit, and the genuinely fun puzzles just kept my interest all the way through. I absolutely cannot wait for the next season to start, which won’t be for a while.

But luckily Telltale Games is rebooting another adventure classic and that is the Monkey Island series. Having no background in the series I felt like I had to at least give The Curse of Monkey Island a try. Oddly enough, the game had been released on the Xbox Live Arcade with a brand new graphic face lift, so I got it right away and immediately fell in love with it. Played the entire game in a few days and was just stunned at how much fun it was. Really hope they release the sequels on XBLA also. Armed with some back story to the universe I went ahead and downloaded the first episode of The Tales of Monkey Island.

I was surprised to find that the game retained the MK sense of humor quite well. “Those socks need a good darning. DARN YOU SOCKS!” Also the puzzles were quite fun. Not too easy or difficult as long as you thought them through, much like Sam and Max. My only gripe, which shouldn’t even count, is that they’re too short. But when the episodes are delivered monthly it’s hard to take offense to that. I just get so into the story and characters that the wait between episodes is just so depressing. So yeah check out this series.
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Got bored a week ago and felt like downloading something. Sadly though I couldn’t think of anything I really wanted to get, so the feeling just passed. A few days later though, I happened upon a post on some blog talking about a game called Dawn of Discovery (Anno 1404 outside of the US). It said that if you’re the type of gamer who wishes RTSs were more about economy and using trading effectively and less about fighting, then this game was for you. Now this is something I could get behind. I’ve been wanting a game like this for quite a while. I liked Civilization 4 and Settlers: Rise of a Nation but they were either not intricate enough or too easy. So I crossed my fingers and got the game.

Well since I’m writing about it here it’s probably obvious that I loved this game. The first few campaign levels were amazing. Learning how to juggle economy, population, crops, and natural resources was tiring, but extremely fun. Probably the best fun in an RTS I’ve had since Red Alert when I was first introduced to the genre. I’m at the point in the campaign where I’m starting to learn about military and defending myself against hostile nations, which is a little boring for me, but I’m looking forward to the last mission which I’ve heard about. In the game’s climax you’re basically in a race with another nation to build your own cathedrals. The first one done will basically get the blessing of the pope and the other, assumingly, won’t. Or something.

My only gripe with the game is that I wish there was a huge ass map that you could play sandbox style with scores of other nations for you to ally with or fight against. I could probably spend ages slowly taking over the entire map and enjoy every second of it. I really wish more games were like this. Highly recommend to any strategy buffs out there.