In Another Life, I’d be Batman

It’s been a while since I updated my blog – the reason being that I accidentally spilled toothpaste onto my netbook’s keyboard as I brushed my teeth in my bedroom. Lesson learned. I’ve resumed using my old Toshiba and I now recall why I’ve avoided this slow piece of sh…

Moving on, there’s been an onslaught of updates in the world of all things geeky, namely one particular video game that I’ve been hooked on recently: Batman’s Arkham City. I gushed about it enough to my friend on Twitter already (probably much to everyone’s annoyance), but it would do Rocksteady an injustice to not mention their noble tribute to the comic franchise. They’ve honorably portrayed Batman as a brooding, heroic menace sentenced to purge a decadently corrupted city such as Arkham itself. I daresay the game takes an even bolder and darker approach than its widely acclaimed film complement, The Dark Knight (*shots fired*).

The open-world setting becomes the defining feature of the game as you’re immersed in a dreary atmosphere so palpable that you feel like you’re exploring the city as friggin Batman himself. I like that despite how riveting the storyline is in the game, the player is given a generous amount of leeway to decide whether incapacitating dirty thugs, solving mysterious murders, or playing fun side-missions take first priority. Better yet, the game manages to keep the player focused by having the henchmen’s conversations serve as an auditory backdrop that consistently refers to the main plot. It actually doesn’t become intrusive, instead making the game-play more organic. You can even utilize your Bat-tech device to determine the location of these same goons speaking and proceed to kick their asses if you’re in the mood for it.

The voice-acting has also been done superbly well, especially since Rocksteady convinced a renowned voice-actor to partake in their project; Kevin Conroy is known to be the primary staple of every Batman animated series. His popularity is on par with Peter Cullen, the legend among geeks that voiced Optimus Prime in every TV show. He was even highly sought out by the Transformers’ directors and consequently signed onto the trilogy to reprise his usual role as the Autobot leader. That’s how bawss this guy is and Kevin Conroy is arguably his equivalent for Batman.

Funny how I’m already writing a fervent review for the game despite not having even completed it, let alone owning the game – YET. I plan on purchasing the PC version soon whilst still fresh from its release date just last week. Sadly, I never had the time to play Arkham Asylum either so I’ve been hogging my friend’s PS3 for the time being.

Now, I shall leave this post with one more track leaked from Drake’s Take Care. This track’s one of my faves:

Just to top it off with Katy Perry’s “The One That Got Away”, which had an uber sad music video. Do I draw parallels to this song? Sometimes. In retrospect, I think we’re both the ones who got away from each other. It’s bearable.