News tidbits: Arkham City five times bigger than Asylum and Abe's Odyssey gets HD upgrade

Though Batman is one of the most iconic superheroes, his appearances in popular culture has often been less than spectacular. "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" has helped immensely in bringing silver screen credibility back to Bats but video games bearing his likeness have been almost as bad as "Batman and Robin."

That was, until, "Batman: Arkham Asylum." AA finally managed to capture the true spirit of Batman - a hero who uses his brains just as much as his fists to bring the bad guy to justice. With a clever blend of fluid combat, gadgetry and stealth tactics, AA was not just one of the best Batman games ever made but one of the best games released in 2009. Developer Rocksteady has already announced its sequel, “Batman: Arkham City,” that will release this coming summer or fall. Honestly, AA was so good that even if AC played exactly the same with just a new story and environment, I’d probably be ok with it.

I really probably wouldn’t but you get my point – Arkham Asylum was pretty amazing. You know Rocksteady isn’t resting on its laurels and is making sure that AC will top AA in every way – as inconceivable as that sounds. Recently, Gamespot spoke with Rocksteady developer Sefton Hill who explained that the environment for AC will be five times as large as AA. The whole map will be opened to players at all times, for exploration purposes, but Hill assures that there will always be a clear indication of the task at hand. AA held many, many secrets and I can’t even fathom how much time will be wasted trying to find every last Riddler challenge.

Though the first game was set in the familiar Arkham Asylum, Arkham City takes place in a location new to the Batman universe. After the events of the first game, Warden Quincy Sharp has become mayor and, because Arkham and Blackgate Prison are both unable to house their former prison population, has turn blocks of Gotham City slums into a prison – walling off a section of the city and patrolling the walls with a private security force called Tyger. Sharp also brings in psychiatrist Hugo Strange to oversee the prison population but he almost definitely has ulterior motives. It isn’t long before Two-Face shows up and, to gain notoriety among the prisoners, begins threatening to execute Catwoman. With the prisoners being riled up and led by Two-Face and neither Strange nor Sharp doing anything to quell the uprising, Batman ventures into the criminal city.

Another interesting piece of news I saw recently dealt with a franchise I thought for sure had been laid to rest – the Oddworld series. This strange new world first appeared in 1997 on the Playstation and the first game, Abe’s Odyssey, was a side-scrolling action/puzzle game. At the end of his shift at the meat-packing plant RuptureFarms, Abe overhears his boss, Molluck the Glukkon, saying that all of their natural, animal resources have been used up and that they are going to start using Mudokons to make their Tasty Treat line of snacks. Unfortunately for Abe, he is a Mudokon. Abe takes it upon himself to escape the factory and it is up to the player to save as many Mudokons from the plant as possible.

Originally planned as a pentalogy, called the Oddworld Quintology, there, unfortunately, hasn’t been a new addition to the Oddworld series in quite some time. Recently developmental studio Just Add Water announced they are working on an HD remake of “Abe’s Odyssey” in addition to an HD remake of another Oddworld title, “Stranger’s Wrath.” More information should be surfacing on the projects in the coming months.

Also, be on the lookout for my upcoming review of “Dead Space 2” as well as my thoughts on the multiplayer demo of “Crysis 2” for the Xbox 360.