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.
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.
On the podcast this week we take a look at two movies currently getting a lot of award buzz, The Fighter and True Grit. Plus Andrew and Kevin do a DS vs PSP showdown as they review an older entry from the Grand Theft Auto series, Chinatown Wars.
Starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale, The Fighter is based on the true story of boxers Mickey Ward and his brother Dicky. Micky’s career is on the rise and Dicky is trying to make a comeback while maintaining a nasty crack habit. Check our review to see is it is indeed a contender for this year’s award season.
True Grit (18:09 – 30:50)
Another film garnering buzz this year is the Coen Brother’s True Grit. The film sees the Coen’s return to more darker subject matter while working within the western genre. Starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, the film is based on the 1968 novel of the same name.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (31:25 – 48:23)
Released back in 2009, Chinatown Wars is an entry in the Grand Theft Auto series designed specifically for the portable gaming platforms. Kev looked at the game on the DS while Andrew looked at it on the PSP. The game now also has an iOS version available.
So here’s our final episode for 2009. In this episode we take a look back at the past year and discuss our favorite video games, movies, TV shows and other things that came across our path. We also save a special section to reflect on those other offerings that made us made us a little crazy; the worst of the past year. We also glance ahead to some things we’re looking forward to in 2010.
Games of 2009 (01:27 – 34:32)
Movies of 2009 (34:54 – 51:01)
Comics, TV and plus a look ahead to 2010 (51:10 – 65:30)
Let us know what you liked or disliked in 2009 by leaving a comment or dropping us an email.
