
Custom Weapon accessory by eBay user mugenites
Custom Weapon accessory by eBay user mugenites
Here are a few pics from SDCC, courtesy of Rustin Parr. Not as nice as you’ll find on other sites of course, but something to talk about.
First up, it appears Mattel is indeed expanding its Arkham City figures–here’s the Joker and Harley:
I can confirm that Harley, at least, was sculpted by the Four Horsemen. The Joker looks a little off, though–the head looks too small, and the hair looks too short.
Until Batman Arkham Asylum, most Batman videogames were at best mediocre and at worst, completely unplayable. But given the character’s popularity and the way he seems to appeal to really great creators in all media, it was just a matter of time until we got a great Batman videogame*–just as we’ve gotten a great Batman movies and a great Batman TV show alongside countless great Batman comics.
The “Arkhamverse” has quickly become one of my favorite incarnations of the Batman franchise. Given the presence of Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill as the Joker and (in the first game at least) Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn, the game was sort of a much more brutal, darker version of Batman: The Animated Series. Given the immense popularity and critical acclaim for the first game and the massive anticipation for its upcoming sequel, it’s not surprising we’re now getting plenty of merchandise from both games.
DC Direct released their first wave of Arkham Asylum figures earlier this year, and the second wave–consisting of Bane, Poison Ivy, Mr. Zsasz and Armored Batman–hits comic ships this week (they should arrive in stores today, actually). But DCD isn’t the only manufacturer making Arkham Asylum/Arkham City figures; at this year’s Toy Fair, Mattel revealed their new Batman Legacy line, which included a two-pack of Batman and Two-Face from Arkham City.
It took a long, long time for Batman to get a game worthy of his name. But in Batman: Arkham Asylum, fans were finally given the opportunity to truly become the Dark Knight. A well-designed game from top to bottom with a great combat system, good dialogue, an intriguing, original story and a distinctive artistic style, Arkham Asylum was everything I loved about Batman and videogames in one amazing package.
The game’s aesthetic attempts to be both more “realistic” and more grotesque than the comics, and every character was given a redesign with that in mind. Batman’s outfit is the least altered, but he gets some Dark Knight-style armor pieces and, oddly enough, pupils. The Joker is stretched taller and thinner than usual and is given a touch of the disturbing “decayed” appearance of Heath Ledger’s portrayal, but with his trademark Conrad Veidt face from the comics. Harley Quinn is famously tarted up as a naughty nurse, but perhaps the most radical redesign among the game’s central characters is that of Scarecrow.
Around 1993 or so, my dad finally bought a new computer to replace our family’s aging IBM Compatible. While I had played a few computer games on that machine, almost all of them were adventure games like King’s Quest, Police Quest and LucasArts titles like The Secret of Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion and Loom. But with this new PC, my dad brought home a game that absolutely rocked my world: Doom II.
While people often point to Wolfenstein 3D or the original Doom as the first major first-person shooter (FPS), I think Doom II made the bigger impact, mostly because it was the first to be sold in stores. It’s fair to say I was completely, utterly addicted to it for quite some time. I played a lot of the mods, too, particularly Army of Darkness Doom. Many new FPS titles quickly followed, such as Descent, Star Wars: Dark Forces and, of course, Duke Nukem 3D.
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