Batman: Arkham City Message Board older than one year ago

Interrogation to feature in the Dark Knight's next adventure.

In the latest issue of the UK's PSM3 magazine, Batman: Arkham City director Sefton Hill outlined an upgrade to Batman's "Detective Mode" designed to help him extract information. Batman will now be able to scan a criminal database to find likely informants among henchmen, and then interrogate them to get what he needs -- like extra Riddler clues.

"The Riddler continues to taunt the Dark Knight with mind-bending puzzles and exploration challenges," Hill said, "but the location of his biggest secrets are known only to him and people he's told. Rather than unlocking their locations using maps, Batman will be able to scan a gang of thugs to find a potential informant."

We're excited about the new gameplay mechanic -- as well as the challenge, described by Hill, of making sure not to knock out the one guy in a crowd you need to talk to. But mostly we're happy for the Riddler. He's well on his way to figuring out the secret to successful crime: not immediately giving the world's greatest detective any clues about how to find your stash.

In the latest issue of the UK's PSM3 magazine, Batman: Arkham City director Sefton Hill outlined an upgrade to Batman's "Detective Mode" designed to help him extract information. Batman will now be able to scan a criminal database to find likely informants among henchmen, and then interrogate them to get what he needs -- like extra Riddler clues.

"The Riddler continues to taunt the Dark Knight with mind-bending puzzles and exploration challenges," Hill said, "but the location of his biggest secrets are known only to him and people he's told. Rather than unlocking their locations using maps, Batman will be able to scan a gang of thugs to find a potential informant."

We're excited about the new gameplay mechanic -- as well as the challenge, described by Hill, of making sure not to knock out the one guy in a crowd you need to talk to. But mostly we're happy for the Riddler. He's well on his way to figuring out the secret to successful crime: not immediately giving the world's greatest detective any clues about how to find your stash.

Before we get you all hot under the collar, a preface: We have no idea where these screenshots for Batman: Arkham City originated. They seem to be posted on an anonymous Flickr set, which then made its way onto NeoGAF. Normally, we wouldn't run images of enigmatic origins, though we've decided to make an exception this time for two reasons:

These images look pretty legitimate. These images are as hot as the molten core of the Sun which sustains our planet. Get your first look at Two-Face, Catwoman and the new (and arguably improved) Harley Quinn in the gallery below while we try to confirm their authenticity.

#rocksteadystudios These twenty new screen shots of Rocksteady Studios' Batman: Arkham City are so impressive, so easy on the eyes that more cynical gamers might cry "Bullshot!" But if you played Arkham Asylum, you know Batman games can look this good. More »

Behold, the greatest screenshots of all-time.

The Bat is back and he's packing a punch!

The dear old warden has a secret room for us to explore.

It turns out the new Batman: Arkham City game recently announced by Rocksteady in Game Informer has been in the planning stages for a while -- there are hints in Batman: Arkham Asylum that the cape and cowl adventure would expand its borders. A secret room hidden in the back of Warden Quincy Sharp's office has actually held concept art and a map of the upcoming sequel this whole time.

Players who finished the Spirit of Arkham quest to 100 percent the game will also know that Sharp has some extra agendas goin -- and don't forget that one of the domains registered by Warner Bros. for the sequel is "StopMayorSharp.com." So it appears that Rocksteady has already built story ties between the two titles.

Lead narrative designer Paul Crocker also tells GI that the second game will "shed new light on the events you saw in Arkham Asylum," too. Hopefully that means we'll (spoiler!) finally find out what's up with that little surprise scene after the credits.

Two nerds, one Catwoman.

With every sequel announcement comes the inevitable fear that whatever made the original worthy of a sequel would be lost in the followup. Perhaps this fear is doubly true in the case of Batman: Arkham City; its predecessor, the less-awkwardly named Batman: Arkham Asylum, stands a giant atop a mountain of mediocre Batman games. Is it possible to capture that same lightning in a bottle?

One good formula is to keep the same creative team around. While UK-based Rocksteady Studios is back in the role of "developer," writer Paul Dini is back in the role of, well, writer and spoke with MTV about the project. Perhaps most notably - outside of his very existence in the project - is the information that Arkham City started production right after Arkham Asylum was finished, giving the sequel a solid two years of development time before its Fall 2011 release, MTV reports.

While Dini wouldn't drop any hints about the story (spoiler alert: Catwoman's in it ... and on the cover of Game Informer) he did tell MTV, "We're well on our way through production. We're doing recordings all this week here in Los Angeles [...] It's all sounding great and it's looking terrific." When discussing things that didn't make it into the original and may be in the sequel, Dini said there was "perhaps a little more Batmobile action" they would've liked to include in Asylum. We don't know about you guys, but no Batmobile segment in the sequel sounds a-okay to us.

Warner Bros. names new Batman.

The sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum now has an official title -- Batman: Arkham City -- and will launch on PlayStation 3, PC and Xbox 360 in Fall 2011. There go your fears of deleterious franchise annualization! Of course, we might just go mad waiting so long for the follow-up to one of 2009's best games.

As you may have guessed from a handful of internet domain registrations, the sequel will take place in "Arkham City", a "heavily fortified" mini-city deep inside Gotham City. Warner Bros. Interactive hasn't offered further details on the game's plot or new features, but a pair of gorgeous Game Informer covers (September issue) hint at a more brutal tone and reveal some of the villains Batman may encounter. You'll spot a very patriotic Two-Face, and a possible romantic interest in Catwoman.

The official Batman: Arkham City website is up now, though it only displays the initial teaser trailer from the VGAs at the moment.

Warner Bros. names new Batman.

Warner Bros. registers 15 new domain names.

It appears Warner Bros. went on a little domain-shopping spree for its Batman: Arkham Asylum sequel. Domain digger Superannuation has unearthed over a dozen new registrations by the publisher that reference the Dark Knight or events in the first Arkham Asylum game.

Several of the domain names suggest a range of possible "Arkham" titles for the sequel, including: Arkham City, New Arkham, Rise of Arkham and City of Arkham. There's also one domain that references Warden Sharp and his run for mayor. Avoiding spoilers, if you completed the "Spirit of Arkham" quest line in the first critically acclaimed game, it would seem to be a possible springboard for events in the sequel. We've listed all the new domain names after the break.

In an interview with IGN UK, voice actor extraordinaire Mark Hamill -- also involved with something called Star Wars, we're told -- revealed that he won't be revisiting the role of Joker after the release of Batman: Arkham Asylum 2. According to Hamill, he was reticent to take up the mantle for the sequel, saying, "My answer to [developer Rocksteady] for the sequel was, 'Guys, we're never going to be able to top the original.'" He added that he had intended to leave the role on "a high note" with his work on the original Arkham Asylum.

However, once Rocksteady told Hamill of its intentions for the sequel -- swearing him to secrecy in the process -- he agreed to reprise the role, though he's adamant this will be the last time. "This will be my last, there's no question about that," said Hamill, "but it's the last hurrah." Whatever Rocksteady has planned, it was obviously enough to get Hamill back on board, and that's reason enough to be excited, right?

Batman's super villain is going out on a high note says actor.

The Star Wars actor talks about reprising his role as The Joker.

We hypothesize what horrors are in store for the Dark Knight's next adventure.

The original Batman: Arkham Asylum's large cast of antagonists was awfully daunting for any detective to face off against -- even if that detective has pointy ears and is equipped with exploding Vaseline. Two reports have begun to circulate about the first pair of villains we'll be buffeting with all manner of bat-shaped weaponry in Arkham Asylum 2: Talia al Ghul (daughter of immortal mastermind Ra's al Ghul), and everyone's favorite horrible pun-smith, Mr. Freeze.

According to Gaming Target, Talia's appearance was confirmed on Twitter by her apparent voice actor, "Castle" star Stana Katic -- though any Tweets to that effect have since been pulled. Freeze was similarly confirmed by voice actor Maurice LaMarche (who voiced the latter half of "Pinky and the Brain") in an interview with the GeekCast Radio Network. These certainly seem like reasonable choices for the next game's cast -- however, we're going to pray that if Mr. Freeze is actually included in the game (in a capacity greater than his cameo in the first Arkham Asylum), his dialogue won't sound anything like, well, you know.

[Thanks John!]

Mr. Freeze and Talia al Ghul confirmed for new game.

#batman Mister Freeze and Talia al Ghul, daughter of Ra's (Ra?) will be foes in Batman: Arkham Asylum, according to two voice actors' comments on a podcast and via Twitter. More »

Voice actor Kevin Conroy confirms Two-Face in sequel.

Two-Face to star too.

#warnerbros Is Rocksteady's superb Batman video game series already reaching the point of Robin? So says a listing for Batman: Arkham Asylum II at the occasionally factual Internet Movie Database. That could be bad news or it could be good. More »

This past Saturday brought us the Spike TV Video Game Awards and - before experiencing the litany of world exclusives that awaited us inside - we spent some time outside cruising the red carpet and talking (briefly!) to many of the game developers and talent. We squeezed them for information as fast as we could while simultaneously wishing them holiday cheer and good tidings. Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds. Here's what we learned from Paul Crocker at Rocksteady about Batman: Arkham Asylum. So when are we getting real DLC? We can't talk about DLC, I'm afraid. [Note: with the announcement of Batman: Arkham Asylum 2, if that indeed ends up being the name for the sequel, it seems highly unlikely that we'll get any more DLC for the first game. Rats.] Well, that's not a no! What has surprised you all the most about the game since launch? Well, for us we're just really happy that people liked it. We worked really hard to do the brand justice and to try and make a good Batman game. Obviously when you're working on something like that you're really inside a bubble, and you don't know what people really think. And the reaction has been quite cool, so everyone at Rocksteady is really excited. Speaking about that reaction, how does it work for a developer on launch day? Is it like in the film industry where people get the box office numbers coming in right away? Are you getting sales figures? How do you know it's doing well? In all honesty ... we look at websites. [laughs] I mean if some website says it sold X number of copies, we don't even know if that's true. I guess we're the last to find out. But we look at the reviews and read what people are actually saying about the game. The afternoon when all the reviews went live, we were all sitting in the office and it was just really exciting. If you get an 8 out of 10, you're like "Awww, that's bad" because the other ones were 9, you know? But we were seeing scores at 9 or more and it was an interesting afternoon, and quite a nice evening at the pub.

The Joker has Gotham cracking up--see what we found in the rubble!

The Dark Knight experts walk you through the teaser frame by frame.

The Joker returns to bring chaos to the streets of Gotham City.