Monday, September 26, 2011

Joker Trailer, Enslaved is Dead, Kingdoms of Amalur Trailer

One of the biggest and most anticipated games of 2011 is just a few weeks away. The amount of hype and excitement around Batman: Arkham City is simply astounding. Given how excellent Arkham Asylum was and how good the trailers have looked for Arkham City, it might be well deserved.

Now, the main villain in Arkham City is Dr. Hugo Strange. However, the Joker will still be playing a big part in it. What makes this strange is that we haven't really seen the Joker since the gameplay trailer back in March, with a quick mention in the Catwoman gameplay footage in June. I understand this as they've been focusing on other villains who weren't in the first game like the Penguin and Mr. Freeze. But it was still odd to go so long without seeing him.

However, with the recent trailer, the psychotic, murderous clown has come back. With an absolute vengeance.


As the Escapist says, take caution if you're afraid of clowns. I'm so excited to see his whole plotline pan out in Arkham City. Even moreso since I've read the prequel comics which have shown that he's not recovering well from the Titan mutation he inflicted on himself in the last game.

Finally a quick message to Mark Hamill. If this truly is the last time you voice the Joker, you will be very much missed. Thank you for all the great work you've done with one of the all-time great villains.


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Enslaved: Odyssey to the West was a flawed but still great game. It was WAY too easy and kind of short but featured excellent characters with voice acting rivaled only by a few games like the Mass Effect series and the Uncharted series.


Unfortunately, people weren't buying it, including me. It sold less than a half a million copies when it was anticipated to sell a million, making it one of the bigger commercial disappointments of last year. And just a few days ago its developer, Ninja Theory, has axed any chance for a sequel because, quite frankly, the game just isn't commercially viable.

I definitely understand this and don't blame them for not doing a sequel but it's still disappointing. Enslaved was a flawed game but still had some brilliant qualities to it with its voice acting and beautiful art design. It would have been nice to see them correct the flaws but it doesn't appear that's going to happen now. So long Enslaved, you showed great potential which will never be tapped.

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On a happier note, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning looks like it's going to kickass. The action RPG is set to come out in February of next year and is being developed by 38 Studios owned by Curt Schilling. Schilling himself is a big gamer and it shows with the talent he's picked up with Ken Rolston, the lead designer of Morrowind, being the executive designer and Todd MacFarlene, creator of freakin' Spawn, being the art designer.


It appears to have a nice combination of Elder Scrolls RPG and open-world style with God of War-like combat. A new trailer was released a few days ago which revealed some of the main story while also giving a look at factions and some non-combat gameplay. It looks great and I can't wait for its release.


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