Downloadable titles, I personally feel, are the future of how console gamers will digest their games. With consoles every year offering hard drives with more available space, the ability to save a full game locally and play off the hard drive is inevitable.
2011 was a good year for me. Sure, the world may have been racked by natural disasters, economic collapses, random acts of violence, the endless stupidity of GOP debates, and another terrible Transformers movie, but while society on the whole seems to be going to hell, on a personal scale I really enjoyed myself this year. I mean, yes, I’m still an misanthropic, anti-social bastard who spent a good amount of time cooped up inside, but I’ve had fun. I played a lot of video games. Yes, those hundreds of hours I spent this year in front of my TV or PC probably could’ve been better spent learning a skill or, y’know, getting laid, but hey, you take what happiness you can find. So now that I’m finished making possibly the most depressing and self-deprecating statement ever, allow me to present to you my favorite games of 2011.
Batman: Arkham Asylum was to superhero video games what Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins was to Batman movies; just as Nolan’s film proved that it was possible to create a gritty, intelligent crime drama starring The Caped Crusader (who’s film appearances up until that point had been limited to campy garbage,) Arkham Asylum likewise proved that, after years of appearing in shovelware and quick movie cash-ins, it was indeed possible to create a good game starring Batman. So does that make Arkham Asylum’s sequel, Arkham City, the gaming equivalent of The Dark Knight? Well, not quite, but it’s still an amazing game in it’s own right.
While getting to be a superhero is every child’s (and man-child’s) dream, few games have managed to successfully recreate the experience. For every decent game like Neversoft’s Spider-Man 2, you end up with at least two or three games like Superman 64 or X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But London based developer Rocksteady Studios has bucked this trend by developing the two best superhero games ever made, Batman: Arkham Asylum and it’s follow-up, Arkham City, back to back. In a recent interview with Canadian Business, Martin Carrier and Reid Schneider, the studio heads of WB Interactive, the publisher of those games, explained why they’ve succeeded where others have failed:
Apparently October was a good month for things with “3″ in their title, as the 360 once again led console sales with approximately 393,000 new Xboxes sold in the US during the month. The 3DS also had a surprisingly good month too, coming in at second with a healthy 250,000 units sold, giving hope that there may be a future for Nintendo’s embattled handheld yet. Nintendo is now claiming that the system is selling faster than the original DS did within the same time frame. As for software sales, Battlefield 3 came out on top, with over 2 million copies sold, which, while not quite pulling in the more massive audience that Call of Duty usually gets, BF3 at least seems like it’ll make enough money to ensure that the Battlefield vs. CoD rivalry continues for another iteration.
In case you may not have noticed, Batmam: Arkham City may have provided you lucky Batman lovers with some beta time for the upcoming Gotham City Impostors. Turns out that the beta will launch sometime in December, and the release date is only a month to follow. Gotham City Impostors will be available January 10th 2012, this is a downloadable title as well.
PC gamers who are waiting for Batman: Arkham City to become available may have to wait just a little longer. It was originally slotted to launch on November 18th in North America, but it seems like it is now slotted for November 22nd.
In case you missed my first article, this is a blog of sorts that will take you through my journey of playing my first Xbox Game: Arkham City. If you haven’t played the game yet and didn’t want the game spoiled for you, please stop reading right here.
I am a novice gamer, at best. While the gaming industry does intrigue me, my gaming skills are limited to playing Mario and Donkey Kong on my Super Nintendo as well as Tetris, Pokemon, and Sims. With this in mind, I would like to go on to say some of my fellow colleagues started to make a giant point: how could I possibly write in depth articles about games if I didn’t play them? So I decided to write a daily blog of sorts on my frustrations and hardships playing my first Xbox 360 game (besides fighting games, which I like to call my button smashing games). It would only make sense that I would pick up Batman: Arkham City as my first game, since you know, it’s Batman.
There was almost no doubt in my mind that Batman: Arkham City would be a commercial success. Highly praised with some stunning game play, it truly does deserve every accolade it has received. It really comes down to numbers though, especially to the big guys upstairs, and the numbers seem promising. Warner Brothers has announced that 4.6 million copies of Arkham City has been shipped out in its first week.
I grew up in the 90s and rushing home for afternoon cartoons was the high point of my life. It is no surprise that Batman would become my favorite superhero, especially with the quality that Bruce Timm produced with Batman: The Animated Series. So to hear that Mark Hamill will definitely be retiring as The Joker, that kills me.
Greetings IGX community, its been a while since I have graced you with my presence. Since we last talked I have wrapped up my diploma at school, completed an internship as a game tester, and attended PAX at the end of the summer. To be honest none of that really matters, but you know what does…Arkham City. This game is going to be a Batman fans perfect dream in game form, and I could not be more excited leading into its release next week.
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