Batman: Arkham City Preview

Batman fans, get 21st October in your diaries, the release date for Batman: Arkham City, the long awaited sequel to the award winning Batman: Arkham Asylum. Arkham City is the maximum security home for Gotham City's Best (or Worst) thugs, gangsters and criminal masterminds. Since Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison shut down, the new mayor of Gotham, Quincy Sharp demanded that all the inmates are moved to Arkham City.

The new game brings an all-star cast of Batman's greatest foes from the comics and gives the player another playable character, Catwoman, as opposed to the prequel, where batman was the only playable character.

Batman's foes in the game include the usual Joker, but also include Riddler, Penguin and Hugo Strange, among others. You can now also play as Catwoman, which gives the player a change from being Batman all the time while better catering for the fairer sex. Catwoman has her own storyline, which is neatly interwoven to compliment Batman's main story. Also new to the game are advanced combat moves and new gadgets including the 'Cryptographic Sequencer V2'. This sets things up nicely for better all round action in the game and for a better combat experience.

One thing that hasn't changed however, for the better, is the voice acting, as Mark Hamill and Kevin Convoy return to their roles as the Joker and Batman respectively. This coupled with a story written by five-time emmy-award-winner Paul Dini means that you'll be taken deep into the heart and soul of Gotham.

Warner Brothers have gone to great lengths to improve the game graphically. It has been recently announced that Batman: Arkham City will be playable in amazing stereoscopic and anaglyphic 3D on Xbox 360 and PS3 and NVIDIA® 3D VisionT PCs. The new scenery of Arkham City can be seen in breathtaking 3D when using a 3D HDTV and wearing shutter glasses that are compatible with your TV.

And if that's not enough for you, there is going to be a six issue miniseries of comics to bridge the gap between the Arkham Asylum and Arkham City games, also written by Paul Dini. So, if you're a fan of Batman, get excited, because it looks like Warner Brothers have got everything spot on for yet another great game.

Tom Holgate