This was an interview I did back at E3 for Injustice: Gods Among Us and forgot to post here. Sorry folks! Expect a more recent interview with the main man himself behind Injustice, Ed Boon, to be posted in the next day or so!
Tag Archive: warner bros.
Ever seen a clown cry?
SPOILER WARNING: If you haven’t finished Batman: Arkham City, major plot spoilers follow.
After the amazing ending of Batman: Arkham City, fans everywhere were left wondering just what would happen now in the dark, gritty, urban nightmare the boys at Rocksteady had cooked up—and had comic fanboys ranting and raving for months. Well, with the new Harley Quinn’s Revenge DLC, players will get a little more light shed on the endgame situation as they once again don the cape and cowl of the Caped Crusader.
Set several days after the end of the main game, Harley Quinn’s Revenge revolves around the Joker’s No. 1 girl looking for vengeance on the man she blames for slaughtering her poor ‘Mistah J’: the Batman. Using the GCPD as bait, Harley hunkers down in the Joker’s hideout from the main game—the Sionis Steel Mill—gives it a feminine flair, and dares Batman to rescue the Gotham pigs from the fryer. Things don’t quite go according to plan for the Dark Knight, though, and Harley manages to get the jump on Bats, leaving it up to Robin to rescue Batman, bring down Harley, and shut down the last villainous bastion of Arkham City once and for all.
Harley Quinn’s Revenge succeeds in doing a lot of things right, and fans of the main Arkham City campaign will immediately be able to jump right in. The DLC maintains the tone and pacing of the main game very well and gives everything a special Harley flair, as you see her thugs dressed in garb to match her traditional red-and-black playing-card jumpsuit; meanwhile, Harley gives herself a slight redesign by dyeing her hair black and donning a widow’s mourning veil.
The story also gives a bit of closure to Harley as a character. Though the DLC’s only two to three hours in length, it does a great job of providing her motivation—and possible future motivation—as well as confirming that the Joker, at least for now, has indeed passed on. It also gives an interesting look at how the Joker’s death is actually affecting Batman—and, in turn, the rest of the Bat-family, planting seeds for some interesting future plotlines.
Plus, Harley Quinn’s Revenge gives Batfans what they’ve wanted for a while—and that’s some gameplay with Robin. In fact, half the DLC sees you controlling the Boy Wonder, and he definitely feels much different than Batman. Aside from a different array of gadgets, Robin’s also a lot quicker than the Caped Crusader, but he also needs to land more hits to take down foes. His bo staff definitely helps even the odds when it comes to ranged attacks, and his bullet shield (which I’d like to think is a small homage to the Adam West/Burt Ward Bullet Shield) provides a novel aspect to working past armed thugs.
The biggest problem with this DLC, though—and it’s most evident when playing as Robin—is the lack of an option to go back out into the glorious open world which most of the main game took place in. The entire DLC is set in and around the Sionis Steel Mill, and you have almost no opportunities to go back and explore, making it feel very linear—and like a completely separate entity from Arkham City. I would’ve loved to have seen some objectives scattered about the city, just to see what Arkham looks like a week after the endgame chaos, but instead, you’re just moving through a small dungeon and typically have to go back over the same areas, as the story forces you to switch back and forth between Batman and Robin as the latter follows the former’s trail.
Still, Harley Quinn’s Revenge does a great job of bringing players back into the universe of Rocksteady’s Batman. The story and characters are just as compelling as before, the combat’s still amazingly tight, and the limited view of the world you get still looks and feels great. The only problem really lies within the linearity of the story, which makes you feel like you’ve taken a step backward and are playing a level from Arkham Asylum instead of Arkham City. Despite this, Batman fans of all shapes and sizes should get this DLC—and revel in Harley’s short time in the spotlight as the main villainess.
SUMMARY: Harley Quinn’s Revenge is limited in scope compared to the main campaign, but fans of Arkham City should still jump at the chance to play this DLC, which adds two to three hours of original gameplay in Rocksteady’s gorgeously gothic world.
- THE GOOD: Combat and story are just as tight as if they shipped with the main game.
- THE BAD: Lacks the open-world feel of Arkham City.
- THE UGLY: Harley dying her hair black while mourning.
SCORE: 9.0
Batman: Arkham City—Harley Quinn’s Revenge DLC is available on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Primary version reviewed was on Xbox 360.
Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toys?
We all kind of know what to expect from the LEGO series of games now, whether it’s Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, or Harry Potter. But with one branch of the LEGO franchise, Telltale Games has decided to be a bit different this time around. Yes, LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes looks to be the biggest and best game in the LEGO universe yet and from the demo we saw at GDC, anyone who is fan of LEGOs will not want to miss out on this title.
It’s hard to know where to start with this one as there is so many new features added in that differentiates this game from all those that came before it, but we’ll begin with the story. In a plot that reminded me of the Adam West Batman, the Joker has crashed the Gotham Man of the Year Awards, angry that HE wasn’t this year’s recipient. Thought to have been locked away safely in Arkham Asylum (yeah right), Batman knows he must get to the bottom of it and realizes Joker had help. Lex Luthor busted Joker out for reasons still unknown and so Batman realizes he needs some help. Enter the Justice League.
Now we don’t know how deep the roster is for the JL, but knowing the LEGO series, I don’t see them pulling out any stops with this and so we can expect a lot more than just Green Lantern, Cyborg, and Superman, who were just a couple of the members we saw briefly in action during our demo. And Superman’s entrance was epic in how he drifted down from the sky set to his movie theme, much how a lot of LEGO Batman’s scenes have Danny Elfman’s classic 1989 score in the background as well.
The most stunning aspect of the demo though was the central HUB world. Instead of being restricted to the Batcave like in the first game, all of Gotham, including landmarks like Wayne Tower, Amusement Mile, and the Botanical Gardens, are fully realized in a LEGO 3D environment that you can explore by flying around with Superman or one of the other JL members or drive around in one of Batman’s preferred vehicles. This also leaves a lot of opportunity for teaming up as we special LEGO blocks that could only be picked up by Batman, but needed Superman to melt special gold grating first with his heat vision.
And Batman isn’t alone on the power front. Much like in the first game, him and Robin see brand new specialized suits appear for certain situations. We saw Batman’s Electricity Suit, which makes him immune to electricity and can power up machinery, his Sensor Suit that makes him invisible to security cameras and can let him see through walls, and his Power Suit that gives him rocket launchers and limited strength abilities. We also saw a pair of Robin suits where Robin channels shades of both Tim Drake and Dick Grayson in his Acrobat Suit, which includes a bo staff and the ability to do Prince of Persia style flips from poles and his Hazard Suit which allows him to put out fires and swim underwater.
We were also told that a few new additions were inspired from critiques of previous games on the fan forums. These include mid-level saves for the longer levels, split-screen for when playing in co-op mode to allow for more individual player freedom, and for the first time ever in a LEGO game, voice actors. Yes, finally all the heroes and villains of the DC LEGO-verse will speak. There was no reveal of who the particular voice actors were for each character, but it was hinted at that fans would not be disappointed.
Honestly, I went into this meeting at GDC and had my mind blown by the differences we saw between the first LEGO Batman and this new game and the idea of exploring LEGO Gotham had me a lot more excited than I thought it would. It made me feel like a kid again and I think that’s what has always been part of the appeal of the LEGO games and already with an early build, this game has succeeded on that front for me. Now it’s just a matter of trying to develop some patience before LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes’s Summer 2012 release.
Lollipop Lollipop
The twisted mind of Suda51 is prepping to strike again and shortly after last night’s official announcement of Lollipop Chainsaw’s release of June 12th here in North America, several of us in the gaming community were allowed to go hands on with the most involved demo yet of this highly anticipated tongue-in-cheek zombie slasher. And if I was excited before, my anticipation has easily hit a new peak after playing through what is expected to be the fourth level of the game.
Still in pursuit of her kidnapped sister, Juliet follows the trail to the local arcade, a massive structure built to resemble an old-school arcade cabinet. The Fulgi Fun Center though holds more than a bunch of Atari classics as a bevy of new horrors for Juliet to face, including dorky zombies who are happy to waste their undead eternity at the arcade’s cabinets when not feeding on human flesh, await her inside. With the help of her newly introduced father, a tough, but loving individual whose motorcycle helps Juliet get around the town, Juliet must storm the arcade and save her sister from the zombie horde.
The first thing you take note of is the fact that this demo took place completely outside of the high school we’ve seen up to this point, and we also caught a glimpse of a game map highlighting six areas so far: the Fulgi Fun Center, Parking Lot, Cathedral, High School, O’Bannon Farm, and Stadium. This means that Juliet will have a lot of ground to cover and is not confined to the school grounds as some might have thought from the limited game play we had seen up to now.
We also got a look at the upgrade system. As Juliet kills zombies, she collects coins, similar to Travis Touchdown from No More Heroes. She then can use the coins to purchase dumbbells to increase her attacking power, new sneakers for increasing her speed, and various health and combo upgrades as well. And speaking of the combos, I was impressed that after investing only a few hundred coins, I was able to enhance Juliet’s repertoire significantly.
Whereas many games like this would see players easily fall into the pattern of mashing the same attack button over and over again, the combos here actually have a much bigger payoff and encourages you to try to link your moves together. Often, you won’t only get a spectacular light show for a successful combo, but you’ll also dispatch even the toughest of zombies much, much more quickly and this was very satisfying.
But onto the level itself. After disposing of a horde of Molotov cocktail chucking zombies, Juliet is compelled by a mysterious voice to play a game. She is instantly digitized and transformed into a pink avatar of herself. Here, she must work her way through a bevy of spoofed arcade classics including Pac-Man and Pong levels in order to advance through the arcade. Moving back and forth through her world and the digital one, Juliet must work her way towards the mysterious voice that she knows is the one currently holding her sister.
And keeping with the late 70s theme of many of the games inside the game that you must conquer, after working your way to the roof of the Fulgi Fun Center, you soon come upon the nefarious Josey, a disco zombie who reminds you way too much of Baron Samedi from the James Bond movie Live and Let Die. Josey and his disco loving UFO with undead babes draped on it is your classic two form battle where you must first dismount Josey from his smaller UFO before he abducts himself onto a much larger and much more dangerous UFO where a countdown clock starts, forcing you to race against time to power down Josey’s disco derby of destruction or Juliet will lose her sister forever!
Very much keeping in with the themes of the music based undead we saw in our PAX Prime demo last year where we took on the metalhead Zed, combined with some hysterical one-liners we saw both in cut scenes and during game play, and some surprisingly tight controls has me thinking that Lollipop Chainsaw looks like a game that could easily break the chains of its B-Movie premise and make a killing in the mainstream.
And if you’d like to hear a bit more about the game from the man himself, check out Eric L. Patterson’s brief interview with Suda51 by clicking here!
I’m Batman…and so are you
Loosely based off DC Comics’ Detective Comics #867-870, Gotham City Impostors thrusts you into a Gotham gone mad where the majority of the populous has either taken up the mantle of Gotham’s Guardian, Batman, or the constant acid-dipped thorn in his side, the Joker, and you have decided to join in on the chaos. But, even if you’re not familiar with that story arc, you’re still likely to have a lot of fun as this online versus multiplayer shooter has had so much comic-book infused personality injected into it that it has the potential to become as addictive and as popular as games like Team Fortress.
Now many of you out there are probably wondering how guns and Batman would work, but Monolith brilliantly also inserted an “Initiation” mission that will allow you to not only get used to the smooth controls should you choose to play it (as well as it unlocks an achievement), but also explains why the Batz and Jokerz use the weapons that they do. Quite simply, Joe the Plumber doesn’t have the bank that Bruce Wayne has to use the moral high ground of non-lethal weapons. Whereas a PVC Pipe Rocket Launcher sounds a lot more pliable for Joe. And for those slow times when there may not be as many people online, the game also features a single-player Challenges mode that allows players to really hone their skills with their various weapons and tools before jumping right into the fray and for which they can earn extra experience to level up with.
The meat of the game though revolves around the online play. Much like any other online versus multiplayer out there, you gain experience for winning matches and performing a variety of kills out on the field and when you gain experience, you unlock new customization features, weapons, and accessories. Some of the best stuff can be a bit of a grind weapons-wise, but should you feel more inclined to drop some extra cash, you can perform some micro-transactions for different costume items should making your Batz or Jokerz look just the way you want be a priority as well. Same goes for your “Calling Card”, the custom image your foes see when you kill them along with a taunting one-liner. You can buy backgrounds inspired by the comic work of artists like Jim Lee or more cartoony versions of some already available backgrounds to truly bring your unique style to the game.
You can also customize a load out and this is where the game starts to differentiate itself really. You have an assortment of guns and pistols with Batman and Joker style ornaments, but the gadgets are unlike anything seen before in this genre. Glider kits allow you to hover after jumping off high points or ride up open ventilation shafts and then dive bomb onto unsuspecting foes and your grappling hook can have you racing across an entire level in no time if you get the right vantage point. Roller skates give you a huge speed boost and let you trick off ramps and spring boots give you twice as much jumping power.
All this flair and polish though can also be seen as a distraction from some of the game’s flaws. Although the levels are very well designed and offer some frantic action, there are only five of them and so it can get repetitive at times knowing you’ll end up at only one of five locations, even if they are some of Gotham’s most iconic in Ace Chemical, Amusement Mile, Crime Alley, Gotham Power, and The Docks.
There are also only three play modes once you go online. First, there is your standard Team Deathmatch with up to six people on a team. Then, there is a mode called Fumigation, which is basically like Capture the Point. You and your team must try to control three special gas emitters and the person who pollutes the atmosphere 100% with their special concoction first wins the match. The final mode is Psychological Warfare and is very much like Capture the Flag. You’re objective is to take a randomly spawned car battery and attached it to a bevy of speakers that will pump negative propaganda into the brains of your enemies. This will render them unable to use their weapons for 30 seconds and the team who can trigger the propaganda the most in a time-limit wins.
So, when you strip away the fancy gadgets and customization features, the game is your standard run-of-the-mill online versus multiplayer shooter, but it handles so well and looks good enough that if you are a fan of the genre then the Batman flair gives you just enough of a difference from the standard fare for these kinds of games to be enjoyable and worth going back to should Monolith continue to support it down the line with some new maps and modes.
SUMMARY: Gotham City Impostors looks and feels great and adds just enough personality to differentiate it from the crowd of similar online multiplayer games.
- THE GOOD: Looks and feels great and is on par with most online versus shooter multiplayers out there
- THE BAD: Lack of maps and modes can shorten the experience
- THE UGLY: Fat guy in a little Joker-coat
SCORE: 8.0
Gotham City Impostors is available on Xbox 360 (XBLA) and PS3 (PSN). Primary version reviewed was on Xbox 360.
THE BUZZ: In an interview with Peter Nowak of Canadian Business, Warner Bros.’ new Montreal studio’s head Martin Carrier and VP/Executive Producer Reid Schneider let loose that there are plans for more DC Comics inspired games on the way.
“We’re definitely working closely with DC on different titles, yet to be announced. It’s one of the reasons we talk to Geoff Johns and Jim Lee on a regular basis,” said Carrier. “It’s a good time to be working with DC. There’s so much energy going on there. So yeah, we’re in the triple-A space and the casual online space.”
Schneider and Carrier also alluded to these games not being movie tie-ins due to the success of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City showing that fans want more original stories based in the rich lore of the DCU and not just other media spin-offs.
EGM’S TAKE: Look out EA and Ubisoft, it looks like you’ve got some new gaming neighbors up there in Montreal. It’s no surprise really that Warner Bros. would be looking to devote a large force of employees to working with the DC Comics license considering the potential there and the fact that they’re working with Jim Lee and Geoff Johns, guys who drew and wrote some of the more prolific Batman and Green Lantern stories of the past decade and have moved up the DC management hierarchy, only bodes well for future titles. With plans to double the studio’s 150 employee work force by 2015 as well might mean a lot of work in the near future for these guys, which is good news all around for any and all DC Comics fans.
What games and heroes besides those that are Batman related would you guys like to see? Where does Warner Bros. go with Batman from here? What more for online could they do with the DC brand? Let us know your thoughts with comments below!
And you thought YOUR high school was tough
Suda51 loves nothing more than to parody American culture as well as mix in some musical aspects to his games and so a lot of the elements to his upcoming hack ‘n’ slash zombie fest Lollipop Chainsaw should come as no surprise. Described as sex, blood, and rock ‘n’ roll, Lollipop Chainsaw follows one Juliet Starling, a former cheerleader of San Romero High School (named such in tribute to the father of modern zombie culture, George A. Romero) and how she must put down many of her former classmates who have been turned into the walking undead. With the help of several unturned, including her boyfriend who now lives as a disembodied head (imagine Ash from Evil Dead, but the “infection” went A LOT further) attached by a chain to Juliet’s waste and provides advice, Juliet must get to the bottom of this zombie outbreak. Let the Buffy the Vampire Slayer parallels commence!
Seriously though, I had a chance to grab Juliet’s preferred weapon of choice, her chainsaw, and dive headlong into the first level of Lollipop Chainsaw a short time ago. In terms of gameplay, although the premise is very different, it feels very similar to another Suda51 game in No More Heroes and so fans of that series should appreciate the ability to just pick up and play Lollipop Chainsaw from the get go. Aside from her chainsaw, Juliet can also shake her pom-poms and perform various cheerleading acrobatics in order to stun zombie crowds and give her enough time to decapitate her zombie foes, which is the only way to put them down for good. Of course, this makes me wonder about the source of the outbreak because whenever a pretty girl shakes her pom-poms in front of me, I admit I become pretty stunned and single-minded in my thinking patterns as well.
Anyway, as we progressed through the level and took down classmate after classmate and even a math teacher mini-boss, the thing that was most evident was that this game has Suda51’s style written all over it. Big explosions of light and sound punctuated the climb of my combo counter climb higher and higher as I slay undead foe after undead foe. And along with the fountains of blood from the neck stumps of recently beheaded enemies, if I was able to “get in the zone” with Juliet by hitting a high enough combo, all the blood would turn into hearts and firework sparkles while my chainsaw became supercharged with one-hit knockout power. This obviously allowed me to mow down my enemies much quicker and just roll through the hallways of San Romero High.
Another interesting note about the style is that the game has at times a bit of a B-movie feel to it, again paying tribute to the good ol’ days of zombie films. This could be because of the work Dawn of the Dead screenwriter James Gunn has contributed to the game as he has been more than open about his joy in working on this game with Warner Bros. and Suda51 on his personal website and to us in the media. Along with James Gunn, top of the line voice actress Tara Strong has been confirmed as the voice of Juliet and who may best be known for Raven in Teen Titans, Batgirl in Batman: The Animated Series, Bubbles in The Powerpuff Girls, Harley Quinn in Batman: Arkham City, and has even been rumored, but never confirmed, to have done the voice of Bowser Jr. in Super Mario Sunshine.
After enough slaying of the hoi polloi zombie, that I might add is done in your more standard “shuffling” type that only really starts to speed up when Juliet gets within chomping range, we made it to the school gymnasium. Oh Juliet attended many a pep rally here in her preferred zombie bashing outfit, her cheer uniform, but now it has been taken over by a zombified Metal Goth named Zed, the first of many high school class stereotypes we are due to see in the game, who hates Juliet and her establishment supporting ways. Here is where we really get out first taste of the rock ‘n’ roll as Zed’s primary forms of attack deal with sound speakers and amplified sound waves that rush towards Juliet after Zed shouts some nasty things into his unholy microphone. You’ll look to mute Zed for good, but only after fighting him in several stages, where you get to see his true power as he literally pulls himself back together after several rounds, and this is all in just the first level.
Although we’re still lacking a lot of the major story details and what other classes we could expect to take on in this high school from hell, one thing is for sure: if you’re a fan of Suda51’s other work, then this game should be right up your alley. Lollipop Chainsaw is expected right now to hack out a spot for itself on store shelves sometime in March 2012.
Are you folks Suda51 fans? Are you looking forward to Lollipop Chainsaw? What do you think of all the parodies that will be seen in Lollipop Chainsaw? What else do you think we might see in Lollipop Chainsaw? Let us know your thoughts on this game with comments below!
Oh, it’ll be a hot one in the ol’ town tonight!
Riddle me this. How do you top one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time while appeasing one of the more rabid comic fan bases to have ever existed. Answer: Batman: Arkham City. At least that’s what the folks at Rocksteady are hoping, but from what I’ve seen in some hands-on demos, I don’t think they have much to worry about now that we’re less than a month away from launch.
So what exactly have they done to make this game so much better than Arkham Asylum? Well, how about more villains, more heroes, a larger open-world, more gadgets, and the return of Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill as the Joker, and Paul Dini as the script writer? And that’s just scratching the surface.
What I first noticed with my hands-on demo though was that I surprisingly started playing as Catwoman. Many people feared this addition when the announcement was made that you would play as her, but after clearing a room full of thugs with her before cracking a safe, rest assured fellow Bat-fans that it feels good. She has a faster and lighter feel compared to how Batman moves while also falling into the same control scheme of mixing attacks with well-timed counters. It also fits in with the early plot of the game as the cat looks to help the bat in his war on Arkham City’s inmates before she is captured by Two-Face.
Once I donned the cape and cowl though, the whole game literally changed in terms of perspective and feel as I was moved to a Gotham rooftop and although some of the guys from Rocksteady were encouraging me to go do mission objectives, I had a spectacular time just gliding from rooftop to rooftop and using my bat-line to pull me up when I miscalculated the length of a gap. When they say this world is five times larger than the last, they meant it as Gotham felt almost intimidating in its size and scale. It was this fear of being consumed by the nooks and crannies of this massive digital megalopolis that I concurred with the prodding of our PR handlers and headed into a building.
It was here that much of the last game began to flood back to me as I perched high above a room filled with Two-Face thugs. As I listened to Big Bad Harv rant and rave, I began planning how I would take down the room full of foes. Once Two-Face had moved on, it was time to make my move and as I leapt from the perch and onto my first victim, I found that a couple of key additions had been added to the combat.
The first is the ability to use items and gadgets without breaking your combat flow at all. Throwing batarangs and detonating small packets of explosive gel to help dictate where I wanted my foes to go so I could get the largest combo possible all while countering, kicking, and punching others in my nearby vicinity made it look like Batman was moving almost like water through the group as every movement made perfect sense and optimized my combat experience like nothing I had ever seen.
The next addition to combat actually came on the side of the low-rank villains I was facing as their A.I. has improved greatly from the last game as they picked up pipes and chairs for weapons and trash can lids or broken car doors for shields. Enemies also would occasionally throw these weapons at you and now Batman could catch them in mid-air and use the item’s momentum to hurl it back to its original chucker or into the face of a different enemy in Batman’s vicinity. All in all, what was already probably the best action/adventure combat system in gaming looks like it took the next step forward and kicked it up a notch.
But I was far from finished as a sniper shot pierced a window and we got to play with Detective Mode once again as Batman begin tracing the trajectory and calculating just who could have fired the shot. We soon tracked down the location and was met by an unexpected fan-favorite, Harley Quinn. She warned Batman to stay out of the Joker’s way as he had big plans for Arkham City.
I was paying more attention to how Harley said things than what she said though. For those who are unaware, this is a rare time where Harley Quinn is being voiced by someone other than Arleen Sorkin. Luckily it is voice over veteran Tara Strong who Batman fans may know better as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl from Batman: The Animated Series or even maybe as Raven from Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans. It was definitely different though as Sorkin’s ditzy but dangerous was replaced by a slightly more serious and seductive tone by Strong. This could work as supposedly with the Joker nearly incapacitated from his high exposure to the Titan formula in the first game, Quinn has had to step up her game for the sake of her ailing puddin’, but hardcore fans might be taken aback at first. Still though, she is in the hands of the man who created her in Paul Dini so I have faith that the character will rise above it all in the end.
Speaking of the voice cast though, a superior job was done by all involved so far from what I heard in terms of many of the villains and heroes. Of course, Kevin Conroy, also of B:TAS fame returns to play the Dark Knight and Mark Hamill, in what he has stated as being his last time doing it, returns to play the Joker. On top of this, the hardest working man in video game voiceovers, Nolan North, shocked me when I found out he was playing the Penguin of all characters, but he did an alright job with it. Doing a bit of a cockney accent definitely helped as I don’t think his Nathan Drake voice would have worked here. The Penguin’s dark and twisted design this time around is also something that needs to be seen on a screen to be believed as his classic monocle has been replaced by a beer bottle that was jammed into his face and smoking cigars and cigarettes all those years has left him with an advanced voice box. Beautifully twisted and dark indeed.
I’ve also been really impressed with Maurice LaMarche as Mr. Freeze, best known as The Brain from Pinky and the Brain, Egon in The Real Ghostbusters, and, well, he’s basically had one role or another in every major cartoon of the past thirty years. Although only seeing him in trailers, I wanted to mention what an awesome touch I think Maurice is bringing to the character in the few lines I’ve heard and I thought it was a stroke of genius by the sound guys to make him sound so normal when he has his helmet open, and so mechanical when he closes it up.
With our demo all but done, so many questions were answered, but even more were popping into my head. How deep does the conspiracy go? What does Batman do to disprove to Hugo Strange that he and Bruce Wayne are one and the same? What unannounced villains will rear their head? How will the fights against the likes of Mr. Freeze and the Riddler go down? How will displaced villains like the Penguin from the Iceberg Lounge and Black Mask from Sionis Industries affect the landscape? Will we get to drive the Batmobile?! What will happen to the Joker in the long term?! I’m getting amped up just thinking about it! All I know for sure is that we here at EGM are going to be covering this game like a Kevlar glove with triangular fins so you had better stay tuned to our coverage here for more on this Game of the Year contender. Same Bat-EGMNow.com time, same Bat-EGMNow.com channel!
What are you all looking most forward to about Batman Arkham City? What other questions do you still have about the game? What has you most excited about the game’s release? What unannounced surprises do you think they have in store for us? Let us know with comments below!
World’s Finest Assassin comes to Arkham City
THE BUZZ: Yet another foe in Batman’s lengthy Rogues Gallery has been added to Arkham City. This time, the World’s Finest Assassin, Deadshot, has been revealed by Rocksteady Games and confirmed by GTTV’s Geoff Keighley as being the latest addition within the city’s walls. Interestingly enough though, Batman is not Deadshot’s initial target, but if he gets in the way of the assassin’s hits, I’m sure Batman will make the list soon enough. Expect screens and trailers of The Man Who Never Misses as they become available.
EGM’S TAKE: A surprising choice to say the least as Deadshot’s inconsistent personality over the years depending on who has written him has led him to have a small following at best compared to many of Batman’s more iconic villains. After hearing that a new villain was to be revealed, I personally had predicted the unveiling of the Mad Hatter, especially as Paul Dini’s 5-issue comic mini-series branching Arkham Asylum to Arkham City and published by DC Comics showed classic Hatter henchmen The Carpenter and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum in its final pages within the confines of the city. Not to say they won’t be there in the end, but Deadshot was definitely a shock as a diehard Batman fan, especially with his new, toned down design in lieu of his typical body armor and helmet seen in the comics. The simplified look is being played off that Deadshot needed to sneak into Arkham City to complete his hits and so he posed as a more common inmate, but the cockiness of the character rarely puts him out of his traditional body armor for long so this haphazard hand-me-down was a bit disappointing to see, but those wrist cannons look like they can get the job done no matter how second hand they may be.
If curious to know more about Deadshot, check out my full profile of him over at the EGM Geek Now page by clicking here.
The Man Who (Almost) Never Misses
Deadshot first appeared back in June of 1950 in Batman #59 and was created by original Batman creator Bob Kane along with fellow writer David Vern Reed and artist Lew Sayre Schwartz. This powerhouse classic creative team makes it even more surprising that Deadshot never really caught on with fans considering he is one of Batman’s oldest villains, coming to life years before many other Batman Rogues Gallery mainstays like Mr. Freeze (1959), Poison Ivy (1966), or Ra’s Al Ghul (1971).
As his origin goes, Deadshot, real name Floyd Lawton, was the younger of two brothers and grew up in the shadow of his older brother, Edward. So as Edward walked around being the hero, Floyd decided to be the villain and was a problem child from an early age because of it. That is until one day the boys’ mother asks the pair of them to kill their father. Edward accepts this request but Floyd refuses to kill his own father and so Edward locks him in the shed behind the house. Floyd breaks out and to save his father, picks up a rifle (that is so conveniently lying around) and climbs a tree. He looks in the window of the house and sees Edward ready to shoot his father. Floyd attempts to shoot the gun out of his brother’s hand but at the last moment the branch upon which Floyd was perched, snaps, and he accidentally shoots and kills his own brother. Floyd has lived, as he sees it, a “meaningless” lifestyle from then on.
Deadshot’s lack of popularity, aside from a rather weak origin story, more often comes from being inconsistently written over the years. Originally created as a “mirror image” style villain, Deadshot posed as another Gotham crime-fighter alongside Batman, but really only had machinations to replace Batman so then no one would get in his way and he could do what he wanted with the city. When the illusion of him being on the side of good fell away, Deadshot turned to the underworld and attempted to become the top dog of Gotham’s underbelly, but he never had the leadership qualities needed to keep that many criminals in line and was easily brought to justice by Batman and Commissioner Gordon.
It wasn’t until his next story line that he took on the mantle of a hired gun, which is what he is best known for, where he joined Amanda Waller’s Suicide Squad and the character developed a bit of a conscience, taking several hits that he failed to carry out including another confrontation with Batman who infuriated Lawton by insinuating that he pulls his shots around him. Unable to concentrate after being psychoanalyzed, Batman again defeated Deadshot, but he rejoined Waller’s squad after she pulled some of her many government contact strings.
His next character shift comes after he leaves the Suicide Squad and suddenly he has a family and the loner type who had been crafted for years was shattered, although Deadshot was still infamously precise with his pistol. This would in turn continue to develop Deadshot’s conscience, which would drive the character up to his most recent incarnations in the Secret Six comics.
So if he can’t keep an audience, what keeps causing writers to bring him back? He was even the centerpiece in one of the six animated shorts that were part of the Gotham Knight DVD that took place between Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and The Dark Knight films. Probably the fact that he is one of Batman’s most realistic villains and when things get too crazy, as will be the case in Arkham City, Deadshot can give fans a heavy dose of reality. Simply armed with a boat load of guns, expert marksmanship, some sweet armor that makes him almost Boba Fett like in appearance, and a fearless attitude when going out on a hit, Deadshot has just enough appeal to serve as filler between more major arcs with Batman’s more traditionally insane rogues, or to be part of a much larger and over-the-top ensemble, again, like in Arkham City.
It should be interesting to see just how big of a piece of the Arkham City puzzle The World’s Finest Assassin will be. Will he be overshadowed by the other villains? And who will play his voice? What other villains do you hope can be jammed into Arkham City and how do you feel in general about Deadshot? Let us know by commenting below!
RayCarsilloWrites.com 