This 2011 film is the latest in a long running franchise of numerous comic books and two previous films. The film stars Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones) in the title role along with Stephen Lang, Rose McGowan and Ron Perlman. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 22.
DC Universe Online (17:26 – 52:09)
Developed by Sony Online Entertainment, DC Universe is an MMORPG which puts you, as you might have guessed, in the universe of the DC characters. The game was originally released for PC and PS3 back in January of this year, but has recently changed from a subscription service to become free to play.
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.
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.
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 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.
Within minutes of landing at New York Comic Con, I got a chance to sit in on a panel showcasing the highly anticipated Batman: Arkham City. The panel consisted of game director Sefton Hill, audio director Nick Arundel, voice actor Kevin Conroy and Claudio Sanchez from Coheed and Cambria, who along with being a big fan of the franchise and a comic book writer, also contributed to the game’s soundtrack.
When asked about working on a superhero game that had the challenge of overcoming the stereotype that superhero games suck, Sefton talked about wanting to create an authentic Batman game and how the team works in an isolated bubble for a two year period. The team consisted of approximately 100 people which is relatively small for a triple A title such as this. With the game’s focus being expanded from Arkham Asylum to the entire city, the game is 5 times the size of the previous game and is about 30 hours in length. The team was driven and challenged to devote the same level of care to the design of the game that was in Arkham Asylum while at the same time expanding it to encompass the entire city.
Paul Dini, who has worked on numerous DC comics and animated films, worked on the story for the game. Since Batman is the world greatest detective, the first thing to do is start with a mystery for him to solve. With that in place, they can then choose from the rich gallery of villains and work them into the story being careful that they serve a purpose and aren’t being added in for the sake of being added. One new addition to the game is a scanner which allows Batman to overhear chatter throughout the city. The challenge in adding this functionality was to help propel the story along naturally and give the player more insight.
Gameplay
It was then time to demo some live game play! I was pleasantly surprised to see that Gotham City was not dark and gloomy but instead full of vibrant color. The game looks absolutely gorgeous and has seen some improvement over Arkham Asylum. The animations and movement are more fluid and sophisticated whether in combat or when navigating through the city. The combat system is fairly similar to the last game but getting to your gadgets has been refined. The gadgets are laid out more as a rectangle and seem to be easier to navigate through rather than the previous circular menu. In order to get around the rooftops of the city you can use a combination of gliding and your grappling hook. One new gadget is a device that produces an magnetic field. In the game play demo, they showed a crane being magnetically manipulated to bash through a wall and create an opening.
Here’s a peek at some of that game play footage. Special Thanks to The Breaking Point Show for hooking us up. This was certainly one of the show’s hi-lights for me and I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on this game. Batman: Arkham City is available today for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 with a Windows version to come on November 18.
Conan the Barbarian - DC Universe Online - Ep 147 - Charlie Horse [ 54:54 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
