Batman Arkham City: Putting The Power Into Your Hands

How do you follow up one of the best games of all time? Increase the open world size, expand the universe of characters and villains, and give new gadgets. Batman: Arkham City is the sequel that Arkham Asylum deserves and needed. As phenomenal as Arkham Asylum is, it feels like the beta run for Arkham City. I just finished playing through both of these games and I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun playing through a game. Both games in this series do a phenomenal job of combining puzzle solving with fluid story and gameplay. It doesn’t over complicate the game by throwing a puzzle at you around every corner, and the really tough ones are optional (I personally didn’t have the patience or the perseverance to track down every Riddler Trophy, but some people love the challenge). So after the events of Arkham Asylum where do you go from here? Into the giant mega prison that was set up to house the inmates of both Arkham and Blackgate Prison: Arkham City. A giant, walled off section of Gotham where criminals can just be dumped and forgotten about. Free to roam the city as they please, gangs and allegiances are formed, as well as a complex system of tunnels and sewers.

Arkham City is the perfect rationale Rocksteady needed to introduce a wider range of Batman villains. In this game you’ll encounter many of the originals from Arkham Asylum like The Joker, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, and Bane. But you also get introduced to many of the other favorites in the Batman universe like Mr. Freeze, Two Face, The Riddler (Heard in the first game but never seen), Dead Shot, and many others. You also get the opportunity to play as Cat Woman, a slender and acrobatic fighter compared to Batman’s brute strength. If you like pouncing up walls and jumping to the ceiling of caged hallways, she is definitely someone you’ll want to play as. There is also a bonus section of the game that allows you to play as Robin.

In addition to these characters brings an A-List cast of voice actors. Kevin Conroy renews his role as Batman, a role he's been voicing for over 20 years. Mark Hamill returns as the Joker. Maurice La Marche (Calculon, Futurama) offers his voice for Mr. Freeze, and Stana Katic (Detective Kate Becket, Castle), is Talia Al Gul. A great video of the behind the scenes of the voice recordings for this game can be found here.

The game brought back the gameplay mechanics of Arkham Asylum, and Oracle is helping you through like before, but with the open environment it’s much easier to fly through the streets and explore. To help navigate you can set custom waypoints, and there are plenty of side missions to complete. I’ve beaten the game but only have 37% of the story completed. What I like about Arkham City is after you beat the game you can return to your file and keep playing to complete those side quests. You can play as either Batman with multiple skin options (Animated, 1970’s, Batman Beyond, etc.) or as Cat Woman. You can have fun running or flying around the city and engaging in combat or you can look at the side quests you haven’t completed yet and play through the rest of the game. The replay value for this game is extensive and amazing. 

With the upcoming release of Arkham Origins, focus is once again being cast on this franchise. Though Arkham Origins is being developed by a different company, Warner Bros. Montreal and not Rocksteady. I, like many gamers, am nervous about what this means for the game. Having watched gameplay footage and interviews with the developers, like this one here, it’s clear they understand that they’re picking up something legendary and if they mess with it too much they will fail. It looks like the combat mechanics, graphics style, and gameplay are all staying true to what Arkham Asylum and Arkham City made great. This is important because these two games are the first time in any superhero game that I felt like the hero. I wasn’t just playing as Batman, I was Batman. Every powerful punch and graceful glide you felt like you were in this world and fighting tooth and nail to make it just a little bit better. With the gameplay remaining the same, so long as the story remains solid this game looks very promising. As it takes place five years before the events of Arkham Asylum, there is a lot of flexibility in terms of what characters they can have in this game and how they interact with Batman. If you haven’t had a chance to check out Arkham Asylum or Arkham City yet, I highly recommend you grab it on your gaming platform of choice (Arkham City is currently available on X-Box 360, PS3, Wii U, and PC). It is held in the top ten best video games I’ve ever played.

The Five Best TV Dads

Theatre has had many purposes over the past few thousands years - To entertain, to teach, to mystify. It still has these purposes today, and the people who work in the film and television world understand this. No matter what type of show you’re doing - Action, mystery, fantasy, sitcom, your characters need to live up to reality. Even if the situations are ridiculous and completely non-plausible, you need characters who at least seem human in their personality and values. A value that millions ofpeople can appreciate and relate to is family, and some shows on television bring the concept of family into the foreground of the plot fairly often. In these shows you get to see the good and the bad the honest and the devious. But few things bring more happiness than an honest, fun, and hard working Dad just trying to do right by their kid. Of all the Dads on television today, I’ve compiled my list of my five favorites.

1. Phil Dunphy - Modern Family

The very name of this show implies it’s about family, and throughout every episode no matter how frustrated or upset the characters get, they’re always there for each other at the end of the day. Phil Dunphy, the father of three children, Haley, Alex, and Luke, tries everyday to be a great father. Whether it’s helping his son with a science experiment or taking his daughter on college tours, he has an enthusiasm that makes you wish you could love life as much as he does. Everything from his nerdy impersonations to his embarrassing habits is lovable, and from time to time he brings it up to a serious level to show how much he cares.

One example of this is in season 4, episode 12, “Party Crasher”, where Haley starts dating a much older guy to annoy her parents. Claire tries to ignore it, knowing that if she pretends to go along with it Haley will get bored and dump him on her own. Phil, however, struggles throughout the entire episode and at the end when she goes off to get a hotel with this guy Phil runs after her.

Seconds after he gets on the elevator, however, Haley gets back off the second elevator and yells at her mother, saying she can’t believe she was going to let her go with him. She goes onto say that Dad doesn’t care either, and it feels like forever since he’s ever showed he’s cared. At this moment Phil comes back from the elevator to get the keys and says, “Give me the ticket to the car. I’m going after her, this little chicken game may work for your dad but it doesn’t work for me. That’s my little girl. I need her to know that no guy on Earth is good for her, let alone some slimy middle aged jeans salesman. “

On top of this he always helps his kids when they’re in trouble, even if it means wading into the moral gray area, and he’s insanely faithful to his wife. This man has everything down from the bad Dad jokes to the look of an attractive middle aged father. He’s basically the man.

In an early episode of  Modern Family, Jay Pritchett says that most of being a Dad is just showing up. Phil Dunphy shows up time and time again. Though I don’t necessarily ever plan on having kids, if I do I hope I have the understanding and the spirit that Phil Dunphy has had throughout his entire adulthood. He never left that spirit behind in childhood, but rather embraced it and is still capable of being happy and excited about so many things. That’s the type of parent that I would like to be.

2. Bill Compton - True Blood 

Although not technically a parent in the traditional sense (Apart from the children he had when he was human), Bill Compton was forced to create a vampire in the first season as punishment for murdering one of their own kind (Apparently murder isn’t allowed even to save another person’s life). So they bring forth Jessica, a young and innocent 17 year old girl who is terrified out of her mind. Giving Bill no other choice, he turns her. From that point on he is her Vampire Father, and attempts to raise her as such - Instilling his “vegetarian” habits on her and teaching her how to glamor and control her strength.

Although it could go unnoticed, Bill dedicates a lot of his time and energy to keep Jessica safe and teach her to embrace her vampiric ways. The best thing Bill ever says is in season 4, episode 7, “Grey Light Of Dawn”, when they are silvered together in the basement to protect themselves from a curse that will cause them to walk into the daylight. During this time, Jessica confesses that she feels she can longer love anybody because she broke Hoyt’s heart. She knows how much he loves her, but she doesn’t feel the same way.She says that she is incapable of loving and that she does not have a human heart. Bill replies, “Yes you do, if you’ve fallen out of love with him it does not mean you’ve lost your humanity.”

Bill does not tell Jessica what she needs to do or that she needs to apologize, but simply that falling out of love is as human as falling in love is. He reminds her that even vampires are, at their core, human. This is what a parent is supposed to do. Not many people are evil, or attempt to hurt others. Yet we do it anyways. We don’t mean to, we certainly don’t want to, but it happens. This scene is to show that even the sweetest of people, even the most put-together of people, are capable of hurting others.


3. George Altman - Suburgatory

Suburgatory is the story of a girl and her father who move from the city into the Suburbs, Chatswin, NY to be exact. A fictional town that lays outside the city. Why did they move, do you ask? Her Dad found condoms in her room and thought the city was corrupting her. Despite this overreaction, George Altman is overall a really good guy.

His daughter is the most important thing in his life. He puts her before everything - Sex, his job, a social life, where they live. She’s the most important thing to him and he’ll do anything to guarantee she’s safe and happy. On top of this, the relationship they have is a ridiculously mature one. Despite the fact that his daughter, Tessa, is 16, they’re able to talk about most things like two rational adults. Sure, from time to time George will go a little overboard (Like freaking out over another box of condoms) and Tessa will have to call him out on his bull****, but for the most part they get along really well.

Tessa’s Mother walked out on them when she was a lot younger, so George had a lot of slack to pick up. Being a single mother is the hardest job in the world, and the second hardest job is being a single Dad. But TV and movies are filled with great single Dads, like Bob Sagot on Full House and Marlin in Finding Nemo. George takes the feminine teach you need to be a good single Dad and exemplifies it, right down to rocking the Mom jeans in one episode. He goes all out on decorations for halloween, goes overboard with christmas, and gets involved in the town and at the school. He’s an all around great guy, and one of TV’s best single dads.


4. Michael Bluth - Arrested Development 

The shows is about a family who lost everything, and the one son who tried to keep them all together. Or this is how Ron Howard describes it in the opening intro. Arrested Development is known for many things - It’s randomness, hilarity, well writing and topical references. Though as this is a show that is inherently about relationships, it’s easy to recognize the relationship that the main character Michael (Jason Bateman) shares with his son, George-Michael (Michael Sera).

Even though Michael is trying to get his father out of prison, keep the family from falling apart, keep the Bluth Company afloat and constantly helping GOB get out of his huge mistakes, he makes time for his son. Sometimes he does get sidetracked, but he always recognizes it and tries to rectify it. He does everything from Saturday morning bike rides to visiting his son at school to helping him be motivated to do well. Like all parents, he can get a little too intense at times, like when George-Michael brings home an A- on a test and Michael tells him he can do better. He realizes his mistake later in the episode, however, when he tells George-Michael to close his textbook and go have some fun.

Overall George-Michael is a good kid. He’s painfully shy and has an incestuous attraction to his cousin, but he always tries to do the right thing and be honest. He doesn’t want anybody in his family to be sad or disappointed and overall he always tries to do the right thing. Remember when I mentioned single Dads in the above post? Michael Bluth is also a single dad, his wife died years earlier. All of George-Michael’s moral values were instilled in him by Michael. For being the president of a defunct company and the leader of a dysfunctional family, he does a damn good job at raising his kid.


5. Ted Mosby - How I Met Your Mother

Ted Mosby is the most relatable character on television. If you argue with this point, you are either stubborn beyond the point of reason or you have never watched How I Met Your Mother. The guy is exactly what most people are like at that age - Unsure, nerdy, weird, socially awkward, and even at times hurtful and mean. He’s well-rounded, and we as an audience like that. So we know he’s going to be a great dad, but we can see how great of a dad he is by how his kids are: They don’t look drugged out or like they want to kill themselves, they’re happy and respectful. Though they tolerate that their dad has been telling them this story for 9 years they don’t interrupt or walk out. They’re good kids.

We can see from Ted’s personality in the episodes that he would be a good dad. He even says it in the first episode that he sucks at being single, but being a good boyfriend, a good husband, and a good father are the type of things he can do. He wants to instill in them all his nerdy wisdom (As he does in season 8 when they flash forward to 2015 and you see him watching Star Wars with his infant daughter). Dads are known for being nerdy, embarrassing, and rocking the bad jokes. Ted does all of these things. He’s ready to skip to the end and be done with the search for his true love, but without all of the stories and experiences that get him there it wouldn’t mean anything.

So in the future it’s assumed that Ted Mosby becomes a successful architect, has a loving marriage and loves his kids a lot. He has a big house, a great friend base that he never lost touch with, and I’m sure his kids’ friends love him too. He’s a likeable guy, and spent his whole life imagining having kids. So when he finally had them, he did everything he could to not screw it up. He tried, and when he failed he tried harder. Ted Mosby is the model of a great father, and overall a great guy.

What Graphics Style Could Zelda U Have?

A new Zelda game is upon us 

The Legend of Zelda series, as many of you may realize, is my favorite video game series of all time. And I’m not alone on this. All around the world are hordes of Zelda fans, young and old alike, whose lives have been changed by the game. It’s rare for a single game to be the soul reason people purchase a console, but The Legend of Zelda games have proven to be that reason in the past. When the Nintendo 3DS was released in March of 2010, sales were slow until two months later when Ocarina of Time 3D came out. Though the sales didn’t really start to spike until the holiday season, it’s clear people were holding out until they could play a Zelda title.

3DS sales compared to the PS Vita. The small spike between weeks 4 and 7 could be attributed to the release of Ocarina of Time 3D

So with E3 having come and gone, people are wondering what will the new Legend of Zelda game be like. Shigeru Miyamoto, one of Nintendo’s chief developers, has confirmed that they have been working on Zelda U for a long time, and that they were almost ready to show it at this year’s E3. They didn’t, however, because they felt it would overshadow the other announcements and they want to polish the game before revealing it to the public. So what can we expect from this game? What will the graphics and gameplay be like?

Eiji Aonuma, a developer at Nintendo who has overseen several Legend of Zelda titles, has been the chief correspondent with the public about the upcoming Zelda game. Being dubbed the “foster daddy” of The Legend of Zelda series by Zelda Informer, he has been more than happy to speak in interviews about this highly anticipated installment in the series. In an interview with Eurogamer, he was asked what games he is pulling inspiration from to create the next Zelda title. He responded, “Skyrim! Obviously I play other games, and I'm curious what Zelda fans like about the Skyrim experience. Maybe there are some Zelda fans who are looking for something similar out of a Zelda game. But I don't look at the technology that made these games possible. I don't look at what's happening in the game, but how it made me feel, what in the game moved me, and how I can bring out those same emotions in players who play my games.”

Skyrim, a game that has sold over 10 million copies and bringing in an impressive $640 million, would be a great choice to model a Zelda game after. With a massive overworld, interactive NPCs, and interaction with other people, this could be the next step that Zelda has needed for a long time. It was revealed at E3 this year that Zelda-U will have a multiplayer component to it, something that was technically achieved in Four Swords Adventures but might be more streamlined. On taking ideas from Skyrim, Aonuma said, “My intent isn't to copy them, but those are the things that stay with you as a player. It's not what you see but how the game makes you feel that makes you feel closer to the experience. It's more about the feeling and expression of emotions in the game, and I do take that into consideration when working on my own projects.” I like that he said this, because I agree with this notion. My favorite Zelda game of all time, Majora’s Mask, focused more on the emotions and expressions of the characters more than any other Zelda game, and it was brilliant.

So what can we expect this game to look like? Will it have ultra realistic graphics like Skyrim, or more of a watercolor look like they did in Skyward Sword. In a Nintendo Life Interview, Aonuma gave us a small look at what we can expect. He said, “The thing about Zelda is we want everything to be unique, whether it’s the graphical presentation or the gameplay,” he said. “It has to be something you can’t see anywhere else. We wouldn’t want it to be ultra-realistic because you can see that elsewhere. But I can’t say that it’s going to be cartoony-realistic, the fantastic presentation that we’ve already done in the past [with Wind Waker].” He goes onto say that, “It will be something new.” We’ve possibly seen a preview of what the graphical choice will be, given Link’s design in the Super Smash Bros. U trailer.

The art style of Link, as seen in the trailer for Super Smash Bros. U

Though it hasn’t been a terribly long time since we’ve had a brand new console Legend of Zelda game (The last being Skyward Sword that was released in November of 2011), I am looking forward to seeing what the Wii-U hardware will be able to do with the game. It’s been hinted that we’ll get more of an open world, non-linear story, something that would be a nice touch since most of the games have had a specific direction and order in which you do things. Though nothing has been confirmed, my speculation is that by the end of this year we will hear an announcement for a release date of November/December 2014, just in time for the holiday season. One thing is for sure - The moment it becomes available I’ll be putting my name in for a pre-order.

E3 2013: Nintendo Direct

The other day (Tuesday 6/11/2013) Nintendo unveiled their plans for the rest of the year and early 2014 through a small and personal Nintendo Direct. Nintendo opted for this over the other company’s large press conferences. In a way, this made Nintendo’s portion even more effective. Sure, Microsoft kind of blew up in the water, and Sony did “dominate”, but as I am a Nintendo fan boy I couldn’t help but be most excited by the news this company offered.

This year has been rough for Nintendo, but there have been a lot of silver linings. Though the Wii U isn’t selling as well as they had hoped, it was one of their fastest selling systems ever. They’ve enjoyed hits like Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon and Animal Crossing: New Leaf. And with development pressing ever onward, Nintendo had a lot to share with us during their brief hour. The current president of Nintendo, Satoro Iwata, showed us gameplay of what we can expect in the coming months in the Nintendo Direct

The Direct focused primarily on games, as their main hardware is already out. It started on one of Nintendo’s biggest franchises: Pokemon. They showed additional footage, and talked about the different types of battles and features you can expect from X and  Y. I’ve grown up with Pokemon since I was around 10, and I’ve never really grown out of it. I was hoping for a 3DS Pokemon when Black and White came out, and then I was hoping again when Black and White 2 came out, and now with X and Y, I finally get to experience everything that a Pokemon game has to offer, including diagonal movement. With the added 3D and the unique new Pokemon, this game looks like it will be a bestseller in no time. With hordes, better online interaction, and a whole new region to explore, I am extremely excited for this game. This game will be released on Saturday, October 29, 2013. Gamestops around the country are now accepting pre-orders, which I have already taken care of. 

Pokemon X and Y offer new expansive worlds to explore

Another exciting game they announced is Super Mario 3D World. Looking similar to it’s 3DS counterpart, Super Mario 3D Land, this looks like a mario game set in the same style as many of the previous 3D games, except for the Galaxy series which had the opportunity to play around with gravity and multi-dimensional levels. The most tantalizing thing about this game is the introduction of a new suit for Mario: The cat suit, allowing you to crawl on and up walls and flag poles, and scratch enemies with your claws. In addition to this you can play with four people total and play as different characters: Mario, Peach, Toad, and Luigig. Each one handles differently, bringing back the feel of Super Mario Bros. 2 in the U.S. If I wasn’t already aching to get a Wii-U, this game would have pushed me over the edge. A life long fan of Mario, I am eager to see what the gamepad and HD graphics can do for the plumber. This game is set to come out in December, 2013, making it a good candidate for my christmas list this year. 

The ability to play as four different characters is reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. 2

Nintendo also gave us a better look at another game that was announced earlier this year: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD. Nintendo decided to re-visit this already beautifully crafted game and re-master it for the Wii-U. Though I think if they were going to do this, a trilogy box set of HD remakes would have been appropriate (Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Skyward Sword), but I’ll take what I can get and I am extremely excited to play through this re-imagined game once again. Fans have been speculating for months if Nintendo will take this opportunity to re-write the game at all, perhaps by possibly putting in the dungeons that were cut from the original to make way for the Shards of the Trifroce Quest (One of the most hated quests in all of Zelda history). It appears, however, that we will not get these lost dungeons...because they aren’t actually lost, but were placed into other Zelda games. This article from Zelda Informer  talks about how the dungeons were simply moved, but the developers won’t confirm what games or what dungeons, so now much speculation is going on surrounding that. Some new features include the ability to make your boat sail faster, and write notes in a bottle and throw them out to sea. Through the Internet, your note will wash up on another player’s shore, allowing the global sharing of ideas, tips, and pictures of penises. As of right now, this game is set to hit stores in September in Japan and in October in the U.S. 

Revisiting the seas in HD

One of the biggest games revealed at the Nintendo Direct was the fourth installment in the Super Smash Bros. series. The trailer for the game introduced new characters, such as The Villager from Animal Crossing, and Mega Man. The game will be available for both the 3DS and Wii-U, and Operation Rainfall confirmed that there will be no tripping in this Smash Bros. game.  

No tripping this time around

 Though I wasn’t thrilled with Brawl, I can accept that it was a fun game. I was just so hooked on Melee for anything to replace that. Though I feel like this new Smash Bros. game will be the middleground between Melee and Brawl that so many gamers want. I can only hope they bring back Mewtwo and hope beyond hope that Tom Nook will become a playable character, hopefully to bankrubt his opponents to death.

Available on both the Wii U and the 3DS

The Nintendo Direct displayed a lot of games that you wouldn’t expect to see on a Nintendo platform - Watch Dogs, Batman: Arkham Origins, and many others. It’s the release of games like these that show Nintendo means business to bring in the serious gamers again. 

Watch Dogs could be one of the best games of the year

The Wii was disgustingly successful, but doesn’t have many great games (My Wii library is the smallest game library to date). I think releases like these for the Wii-U will help bump sales and help bump the popularity of the system overall. Though I am disappointed we didn’t hear about a new Legend of Zelda or a Majora’s Mask remake, I remain hopeful that in the coming months more news will be revealed, and we will have more to be happy about.