Everyone I have talked to who has played Batman: Arkham Asylum has had nothing but good things to say about it. Personally, I loved it and I think it is now the quintessential Batman videogame. Of course, the developers weren’t going to leave us hanging and the sequel titled Batman: Arkham City is coming – but not until October 2011! So, until then, all we have are the meager nuggets of information that are released, including screenshots.

Yesterday, 20 brand new screenshots were released for the too-far-off title, and you can check them all out below!

Synopsis:

Batman: Arkham City expands upon the gritty, atmospheric scenery and characterization that catapulted Batman: Arkham Asylum to the forefront. It is set in a sequestered section of Gotham City that has become the home for the criminally insane. Players are introduced to a brand new story that bring together an ensemble cast of characters and villains from the Batman universe, as well as enhanced gameplay features that build upon the ultra-realistic Dark Knight experience that fans enjoyed with Batman: Arkham Asylum.

This last week we received a press release from Telltale Games, best known for the Sam & Max games:

Marty McFly and Doc Brown Reunite for

New Back to the Future Games from Telltale Games

Films’ co-creator and writer Bob Gale consults on new platform for all-time great series

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – September 1, 2010 – At 88 miles per hour, Back to the Future took millions of spellbound viewers on a high-flying voyage across the space-time continuum in a trio of wildly inventive tales that broke box-office records around the world.  To celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the Academy Award®-winning cinematic franchise that generated nearly $1 billion worldwide, Telltale Games will release a new game series this winter as part of the milestone soon after the Blu-ray debut and DVD release of the Back to the Future 25th Anniversary Trilogy on October 26, featuring all-new restorations of the classic films.

Telltale today announced that the highly anticipated Back to the Future games will feature the likenesses of the original stars that made the characters of Marty McFly and Doc Brown legendary: Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd.  Lloyd is voicing Doc Brown for the full game series, which Telltale will deliver in five monthly episodes. The first images showing the game depictions of Marty and Doc are now available at: www.backtothefuturegame.com.  The game series is developed through a licensing agreement with Universal Partnerships & Licensing.

“Creating cinematic adventures true to the source is a top mission for Telltale,” says Telltale CEO Dan Connors.  “Securing Marty and Doc for the games, and presenting the experience that fans know and love, has been top on our list since we initiated development.”

Co-creator and writer Bob Gale’s involvement further strengthens the links to the original series.  Gale is consulting with Telltale on the characterizations and storyline for the game, ensuring it will be true to the spirit and adventure of the films.

Gale elaborates:  “Twenty-five years ago when I wrote Doc Brown’s line about ‘seeing the future,’ little did I realize that I would be traveling with him to work on this game.  Collaborating with Telltale is an amazing opportunity to continue the adventures of Doc and Marty.”

Telltale is also pleased to announce that the games will feature the DeLorean Time Machine, and to celebrate the historic vehicle’s return, it will make a guest appearance at the 2010 Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle Washington September 3 through 5.  Fans attending this increasingly popular gaming and culture event can re-create the iconic pose from the movie posters and capture their photos with this authentic replica of the famous vehicle in the Convention Center’s South Hall.

Alright, so here’s my take on this: It’s gonna suck. As much as I loved the Ghostbusters game and as much as I want a really cool Back to the Future game… I just don’t see it working out. Do some careful thinking about the trilogy and how they can translate this into a game series. It screams of fetch quests and limited time on missions. Two things I hate most in games.

I’d imagine Marty and Doc go somewhere in time, the DeLorean breaks in some fashion. And the rest of the entire game is a mix of fetch quest for parts (a la Toe Jam & Earl) and timed stealth missions. Why stealth? Because you don’t want to fuck up the space time continuum.

You’ve heard my opinion of possible cons, let’s talk about some pros. I think its awesome they got Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd came back to do the voices. The art style is a really smart move. As well as it being in downloadable episodes.

All in all I hope this game turns out awesome, I just don’t see how it well. What do you guys think?

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions hits video game shelves next Tuesday, September 7. While this won’t be a Spider-Man game we’ve grown accustom to over recent years with tons of free-roaming, it still looks like it has the potential to be  a pretty fun game. Check out the final launch trailer below!

Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man has a little more turf to cover in this epic that follows four incarnations of the web-slinger through four different dimensions. Search for pieces of a tablet scattered across four worlds, playing as a different version of the wall-crawler in each one. Lurk in the shadows of 1930s New York City as Spider-Man Noir. Fast-forward to 2099 and play as Future Spider-Man. Navigate Marvel’s Ultimate Universe as Ultimate Spider-Man. And swing through the familiar ink-on-paper-style world of the Amazing Spider-Man. Each version of Spidey has a unique look and unique skills, and each dimension features its own set of powerful foes just waiting to welcome him.

This seems like a bit of bad timing to me but what do I know? Everything seems to be getting cheaper (kindle, Nintendo DSi and XL) but Microsoft is jacking their prices up right before the launch of the Kinect. The increase ranges from $2 to $10 depending on how long you subscribe.

Engadget says that starting November 1st you can get a “lock in” promo and get your yearly fix for only $40, not a bad plan if you’ll be close to renewal around then.

So Team Fortress, Defenders of the Ancients ( Warcraft 3 DOTA) and the Terran from Star Craft,  were sitting at home watching monday night football and decided it was time to do the romance dance. That kids is basically how Monday Night Combat was made.
Don’t be fooled by the title, this is a 3rd person shooter set up in hero driven tower defense with little bit of sports commentary. Character classes are similar to a Team Fortress: a tank, assassin, sniper, assault, gunner, and support. All of which have unique abilities mapped to three buttons, and are pertinent to strategy of defeating different classes and AI you encounter. Both teams have a “money ball” that is  located in middle of their home base. Once it takes enough damage the game is ended. This can be achieved by players or AI that eventually floods the enemy’s base if they aren’t protecting their bots.
There are three different game types: local blitz, xbox live blitz, and crossfire. The blitz modes are basically the same as a horde mode or firefight, waves of enemies you defend against by yourself or co-op with friends. Personally, I think crossfire is where it’s at.
Being dropped into the middle of a tower defense was a little overwhelming at first. Large robot controlled AI push across the map. You can use some of your money to build upgrades, add turrets, etc. Killing Mobs, (AI characters) is a great way to earn quick cash to invest in more defenses. Also killing players and AI works towards a power up ability similar to rage of the gods where your guns and health become immensely increased for a short period of time. Its a pretty simple system once things are leveled out (which seemed relatively quick to me) it just comes down to skill, teamwork and strategy. But when have xbox live players ever worked together in strategic fashion?  I can count on 2 hands the amount of times I have truly worked together as a team with other live games. It’s best played with your friends (or me: add ajaxkidd with a BSR mention in the subject)

Liked:

• pretty solid gameplay with little or no gameplay lag.
• The the abilities are fun and replay value is really high.
• Customization keeps me playing along with a scrolling friend score board even on the main screen.
• This game definitely satisfies the shooter in me and is right up there with other 3rd person pvp like World of Warcrafts battlegrounds , Gears of war 2 and, Modern warfare’s 3rd person mode.

Disliked:

• The leveling system caps pretty early. One you reach level 3 in all of your abilities your completely maxed. Which does create balance, but I personally would like to see what happens when the level 10 armor maxed tank encounters a level 10 damage dealing gunner However, in the name of balance and solidity its only levels to three, sad face.
• The tutorial video was boring and slow paced. I think I ended up backing out of it.
• When you check the different class options to see what abilities are mapped out and figure out functionality it’s kind of lacking.
• The guns seem to have issues with using rumble, sometimes it rumbles and sometimes it doesn’t. When there is a lot going on s it can be hard to tell if I’m actually shooting or not, but that’s just me nit picking.

While not quite as balanced as some AAA titles, this game is definitely worth its weight in content and at a 15 dollar price point it is well worth the money.I’ll be online with this for quite a while.

Konami has brought us the new Castlevania in the form of Xbox Live Aracde title Harmony of Despair. This game takes every element I loved in the different parts of the series and piles them into a time-attack style single or multi-player experience. You begin the game by checking out the slew of characters including: Alucard from Symphony, Jonathan or Charlotte from Portrait of Ruin, Shanoa from Order of Ecclesia, and my favorite Soma Cruz from Dawn of Sorrow.

When you drop first drop into gameplay, the first thing I found noticeable is the usual strong soundtrack proving that Konami still cares about this franchise, a remix of the original theme done with midi-guitars helps to push gameplay as you’re solving this cleverly designed puzzle within the time limit. Another key feature that added an interesting twist was the replacement of the normal castle map system with a simple zoom feature. By clicking the right thumb stick in aka (R3 ) you simple zoom the camera in or out, this gives you the ability to figure out where you’re going on the fly. This camera system to me is the best addition made to the game. It makes planning your route on the fly easier, and with the limited time and puzzle nature of the game flows perfectly. The online multiplayer also adds a great twist to the game, having other characters to help you solve puzzles makes many parts easier, and in a Little Big Planet kinda way unlocks other pieces of the map faster. Combining that with the Dead Souls style emotes and voice chat and you have a great experience for your XBOX Live crew.You can only equip one health restoring item, and it can only be equipped at the banks distributed throughout each level, this same rule applies to weapons, armor, and abilities as well, raising the challenge for each level.

Being a huge Castlevania fan myself my view may be mildly warped, I found the game to be extremely fun, and satisfying. My favorite system that I’ve come across in any of the Castlevania titles was collecting souls in Dawn of Sorrow, and they seamlessly integrated that into the gameplay for this title with Soma. Every character brings with them their main abilities from the title they were in, this includes of course the characters you can unlock further on in the game as well. That being said I was hoping for more of a straight forward adventure more closely linked to Symphony or any of the recent hand-held titles Konami has offered. Going into the game wanting a standard adventure will definitely taint the experience of H.O.D. That fanboy complaint aside I love this new Castlevania and think its definitely worth a purchase for any fan of the series.

Loved:

• Solidly composed soundtrack showing that even downloadable titles can have solid production value.
• A fun multi-player experience complete with Dead Souls style emotes as well as voice chat.
• Clever level design forcing you to think your way through levels.

Hated:

• Maybe the correct word for this would be irritated by… but I thought it made the game a little frustrating to not be able to change weapons or use health items on the fly, the items barely heal your character as it is, I don’t think utilizing them anytime would have made it too much easier.
• damn time limits…ugh they were frustrating.. I consistently found my friends laughing at me while my time expired just before reaching the boss.

Score: 7.5/10

For any gamer like me getting out is a rare opportunity. When this opportunity presents itself some find it necessary to bring every digital leash they own. I was unfortunate enough to discover that simply packing a power converter and every game system I own wasn’t enough to keep my Pokemon addiction running while in foreign territory. To help prevent others from finding the same problem I thought I’d pound out a short guide for gamers leaving the states for an extended period of time.

Rule one : Figure out what voltage the country you’re headed to is running, and check your devices for support. Here is my example: Namibia is running 220 v. power, as is a large portion of Europe. America runs 110, If your device isn’t certified to handle up to 220, or 240 you will blow your AC adapter, and possibly harm your device.
The work around I found was kinda nice and budget friendly. I bought one power adapter for Namibian power, and plugged in my laptop to that was rated up to 240 v, so no problems there. I then charged my phone, mp3 player, and other devices through the USB, that way I only needed one adapter for my devices as opposed to 6 or 7. I wish I would’ve bought a USB cable for my DSI, and checked the voltage, the AC adapter lasted about 15 seconds plugged into the wall, and although my DSI survived my Pokemon playing was brought to an abrupt end.

Rule Two: Call your cell phone provider and add international to your phone for emergencies. I would also verify that your sim card is slated to work internationally. My 500 dollar Nexus One, turned into a really expensive 5 megapixel camera when I discovered that although my device was completely
international the sim card that i’ve had since I was 15 wasn’t internationally compatible.

Rule Three: Don’t rely on the internet where you are staying for anything. London or Germany, or other developed areas is one thing but if you’re in say… Namibia, Africa crashing in a college dorm, take into an account that IT guys hate you no matter what country you’re in, and you may be limited to speeds of 30kb/sec. This guarantees that Skype, Facebook, or anything that uses internet will barely work if at all.

Rule Four: Download some emulators. If you need to unwind at night by playing a game your safest bet is emulators. It will revive old gaming flames, help you calm down, and maybe allow you to catch up on games you haven’t played in years.
These 4 ideas helped me survive a month away from my gaming mecca, I even survived missing the StarCraft 2 launch. (Which was more expensive overseas mind you, and never made it into the store I was near.)

For many of you this is probably a no-brainer and you think I’m an asshole. But this asshole was stuck jamming emulators for a month in an internet free nightmare and wouldn’t wish that upon anyone else with similar digital addictions

Activision has announced that the fourth, and final, dimension of Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions that you will be playing is the Ultimate Universe. In this universe, you will actually be donning the Ultimate symbiote costume. Baldassbat from the BSR! Forums actually summed up my thoughts on it perfectly:

Must say, I’m a little disappointed. Mostly because I predicted this the moment the game was announced. We seriously couldn’t have gotten something more unique. I mean, I realize they want a symbiote style costume cause everyone loves it, but this was just so predictable. Noir is unique, 2099 is unexpected. Ultimate is everywhere in Marvel extensions and this was so obvious why save it for last?

Kind of a lack-luster reveal in my eyes as well – but I am still looking forward to giving this game a shot when it hits stores on Sept. 7. Not to mention this new trailer is pretty bad ass:

Head on over to the BSR! Forums to talk Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions!