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.

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.

This week we have something a little different. With everyone being tied up this week, we decided to skip the usual show. Instead, we have a pair of interviews with Adam Baldwin and Meaghan Rath recorded during the Polaris 25 convention which happened back on July 15, 16 and 17.

Interviews with Adam Baldwin and Meaghan Rath - Ep 130 - Sideboob [ 46:29 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Interview with Adam Baldwin (02:24 – 27:37)

Adam Baldwin is known for a variety of roles including Full Metal Jacket, Independence Day and The X Files. However he is probably most famously known for his roles as Jayne Cobb in Firefly/Serenity and currently as John Casey on Chuck.

Interview with Meaghan Rath (28:00 – 50:20)

Meaghan plays Sally Malik in the SyFy series Being Human, a ghost who finds herself living under the same roof with a vampire and a werewolf. The show finished up it’s first season back in the spring and is currently filming for season 2.

The 2011 edition of Toronto ComicCon took place last weekend. I got the chance to attend a number of panels with different actors including Julie Benz (Dexter, No Ordinary Family), Billy Dee Williams, Chandler Riggs (The Walking Dead) and Arron Douglas and Kate Vernon (Battlestar Galactica).

Plans are already under way for the 2012 edition of the Con. It is currently scheduled for Mar 23-25, 2012.