On this week’s podcast we get our hands on Batman: Arkham City and follow up on some of this year’s new Fall TV shows. We even take some time to discuss the newly released Grand Theft Auto V trailer.

Batman: Arkham City (01:24 – 26:26)

Arkham City is the highly anticipated follow up to 2009′s Arkham Asylum. A section of Arkham City has been closed off to house Gotham’s prisoners including such colorful characters as Joker, the Penguin and the Riddler. Bruce Wayne is arrested and dropped inside and tries to learn more about this new prison being overseen by Hugo Strange.

We also take some time at the end of this segment to give our thought on the new announcement of Grand Theft Auto V. Here’s the trailer if you haven’t seen it yet.

More new Fall TV (26:46 – 68:03)

We had taken a look at a number of new fall shows a few weeks ago and we wanted to come back and see what shows we had stuck with and what other new shows we’ve started watching. We take a look at a number of shows including The Walking Dead Season 2, Ringer, Grimm, Once Upon a Time, American Horror Story and Wilfred.

On the podcast this week we take a look at a bunch of new releases from Dark Horse comics as well as Aliens: Infestation for the Nintendo DS.

Dark Horse comics (00:59 – 28:26)

Dark Horse comics is celebrating it’s 25th anniversary this year and we decided it was time to investigate some of their ongoing series as well as a brand new series. We take a look at Fear Agent (#31 &32), The Goon (#36) and a brand new book written by RATM’s Tom Morello, Orchid. Check out a preview of Orchid.

Aliens: Infestation (28:41 – 39:29)

Kev brings us a new game for the Nintendo DS based on the long running Aliens franchise, Aliens: Infestation. The game has a 2D Metroidvania style and takes place around the same time period of the second Aliens film. The game was developed by WayForward and Gearbox Software and published by Sega.

Rockstar Games had a booth at last weekend’s New York Comic Con to showcase two of their upcoming releases, Max Payne 3 and the 10th anniversary release of Grand Theft Auto 3.

Grand Theft Auto 3 – Anniversary Edition

Today marks the ten year anniversary of the release of Grand Theft Auto 3. A game that not only completely changed that particular franchaise but set the template for dozen of other games to come. To celebrate Rockstar Games is preparing an anniversary addition of the game for release on a number of different mobile devices. I got a chance to get some hands on with the game on an iPad 2 last weekend at New York Comic Con.

First off the game is exactly as you remember it – in a good way.  The game is identical to to the original with some extra polish to clean it up a little.  I was immediately hit with all kinds of warm and fuzzy nostalgia as I grabbed my first baseball bat and began smacking the hell out of people. The game uses the same approach as a lot of iPhone/iPad games by using the left & right on screen sticks to move you and your camera around. If you’re familiar with this layout then moving around and driving will come pretty naturally. There are buttons on the right side of the screen to tap in order to get in a car, draw your weapon and jumping. The demo was still a work in progress as some functionality, like being able to view the full size map, was unavailable, but will be in the final version.

The game doesn’t have an official release date yet but is scheduled for to hit the street later this fall. Here’s a list of the currently supported devices:

Apple iOS Devices: iPad 2, iPhone 4S
Android Phones: Droid X2, HTC Evo 2, LG Optimus 2X, Motorola Atrix, Samsung Galaxy S2
Android Tablets: Acer Iconia, Asus Eee Pad, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

There aren’t currently any plans yet to do similar releases for Vice City or San Andreas but I’ve got my fingers crossed.

Max Payne 3

I also got a chance to sit in on a walk through demo for the upcoming Max Payne 3. It’s been eight (?!) years since the release of Max Payne 2 and while a lot from the previous games are in tact, the game looks to have advanced nicely into the modern era. The game’s locales are split between New York and Brazil which gives two very distinct looks and identities while the character animations are fluid and look fantastic. Now like many games lately they’ve now included a cover mechanic. However, they have designed the game so that you aren’t relying on cover constantly but only use it when you need it, for example when reloading. Their design is to allow the player charge in with guns blazing rather than hiding behind a rock.

The original Max Payne was known for it’s bullet time mechanic and they’ve kept that for the third game. The bullet time has been refined to allow you to control the camera and watch where your shots are headed. One other element that I liked was the inclusion of destructible environments. There were some great instances in the demo of blowing things up and taking out all of the enemies in an area.

As a fan of the original games, I’m looking forward to the release of this third game and to see where the franchise is headed. The game does not have an official release date yet but is scheduled for early 2012.

This week on the podcast we take a look at the DVD release of Batman: Year One and Bill fills us in on the panels and various happenings of last weekend’s New York Comic Con.

Batman: Year One (01:23 – 21:22)

Batman: Year One is the animated version of the Frank Miller comic originally published back in 1987. Bryan Cranston, Ben McKenzie, Eliza Dushku and Katee Sackhoff all contribute their voice talents. The film was released on DVD and Blu-Ray earlier this week on October 18.

New York Comic Con – Games (21:39 – 31:15)

I had a chance to attend New York Comic Con last weekend and got some hands-on time with a number of upcoming games including The Darkness 2, Shoot Many Robots and Prototype 2. I also got a look at a number of other upcoming games including Goldeneye, Assassin’s Creed Revelations and Mass Effect 3.

New York Comic Con – Movies and TV (31:31 – 43:34)

I also got a chance to attend a number of panels for various films and TV shows including A Liar’s Autobiography a documentary on the life of Graham Chapman, Ghost Rider 2, Robot Chicken, Portlandia and The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret.