Batman: Arkham Asylum

One of the games I was really looking forward to seeing at E3 this year was the new Batman game Arkham Asylum. The game was practically everywhere on the show floor (i.e. Sony, Eidos, WB).

From what I could tell, the game looked almost complete. The gameplay was focused around a mix of action and stealth mechanics. The game’s visuals (from the level I saw) were pretty desaturated and bland, which was a bit disappointing because I am getting pretty worn out on gray visuals. The combat and combos seemed fluid, but the moves themselves were more reminiscent of slow motion. I would have rather seen the character’s animations move faster and have more snap than feel like Batman was moving through molasses. The other point that bothered me a bit was the camera. It was very poppy during combat and it could get annoying during fight sequences in its current state.

Even though my initial impression left me slightly underwhelmed, I will continue to look for this game when it comes out and decide if I should invest in it after I read some reviews. Like many gamers, I have been waiting for a good game to hit the shelves with this license, but tend to be continuously let down. I guess we shall see.

In the mean time, check out this pic I took of the Collectors’ Edition of the game. Looks like you get a Batarang (which was massive btw) along with a case, a journal and a few other odds and ends. Not sure I will buy it myself, but I thought I would share it with everyone nonetheless.

And below you can see that they also had the Batmobile at the show. Not too shabby.

E3 2009

It has been about a week since I was at E3, so I figured I would upload some pics from my trip. It was good to see E3 back at the LA Convention Center this year; however, it didn’t feel like the E3 of old. The expo felt as if only half of the publishers in the industry had booths and their displays were very minimalistic compared to the over-the-top antics that we had seen in the past. Basically, there were walls, carpet, monitors and game kiosks.

I guess you could say that is all that the show needs to have especially with how the economy is performing this year, but after attending E3 for over a decade I have come accustomed to seeing it shine with more pizzazz.

Hopefully, next year’s show will gain a bit more momentum and have even more product to evaluate. It only took me a half of a day to wander the expo and observe everything there was to see and there were only a handful of products that I would say were really worth checking out. I will post more pictures from the show soon – stay tuned…