Let's do the Batman agaaaaaain: Arkham Origins

[Magus]

Ever wonder what the Penguin looked like before he got that glass bottle shoved in his face? What torture implements Black Mask felt were best to cause blood to tastefully spray on his pristine white suit? Or why Deathstroke does what he does? (Hint: It's money. He likes money)

BEHOLD!

Details

Pictures

Apparently in keeping with Arkham Asylum's hinting at the new major villains via sidequests and easter eggs, Arkham City hinted at its new major villain in the various Black Mask posters and easter eggs around the city.

Origins takes place on Christmas Eve early in Batman's career, before the events of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. The tale is inspired by Batman: Year One and Legends of the Dark Knight.
Supervillain Black Mask places a hit on Batman's head, offering a fortune to whoever can off the caped crusader. Assassins and supervillains from across the DC Universe come to Gotham to take their shot at Batman.
Batman must take on all comers, solve the mystery of why Black Mask wants him dead, and prove to the GCPD that he's on their side.
Warner Bros. Montreal used Batman Arkham City Armored Edition for the Wii U to familiarise itself with Rocksteady's codebase.
Eric Holmes, who served as lead designer of The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and has experience writing Transformers: Megatron Origins for IDW, was selected to drive the creative vision. He also worked at Epic Games, and so is familiar with the Unreal Engine.
Rocksteady offered guidance on tech, mechanics and engine, but WB Montreal was left to handle story entirely
Going with a younger Batman lets the developer "refresh characters, refresh ideas, refresh the dynamic between Batman and other characters, and refresh the world"
Batman isn't the character fans know yet
GameInformer's demo starts about an hour into the game, with Batman perched on Jezebel Plaza watch an arms deal.
Gotham is blanketed by snow and Christmas lights decorate the city. It's Christmas eve.
Black Mask's assassins have stirred up criminal activity
"Old Gotham" hasn't been turned into an urban prison yet
The most obvious difference cited between the two period is Amusement Mile, which hasn't flooded yet
Batman is trying to figure out why Black Mask wants him dead, and is aiming to use Penguin to get information
WB Montreal hasn't tinkered with the free-flow combat: "If it's not broken, don't fix it" says senior producer Ben Mattes.
It has, however, introduced "new layers, new opportunities, and new tactics"
New enemy types will force Batman to use new moves
Batman hasn't honed his skills yet, so his interrogation ends with an unconscious thug. Batman is still unrefined and sometimes pushes things too far.
Batman scans the thugs phone to get the information he needs
He summons Batwing to get to the northeast coast, where Penguin's base of operations is. Players don't pilot Batwing directly, but it is part of the story sequences and a form of fast travel.
Glides, ledge takedowns and sleeper holds are back
Inside Final Offer, an old ship The Penguin has taken over, Batman uses his predator mode.
Batman can swing from perches and do upside down strikes, like in previous games.
A new gadget, the Remote Claw, functions much like the grappler in Just Cause 2. Batman can target two objects and pull them together. It can be used to knock enemies together, launch objects at enemies or string up enemies.
An example combat situation involves stringing an explosive barrel to a perch, luring enemies over, then cutting the rope using a batarang.
Batman eventually find Penguin talking to a tied up Alberto Falcone, trying to convince him to leave the weapons business, he agrees to tell his father.
Batman enters and fights Penguin, before interrogating him by lifting him up and smashing into a mirror. Before he can get the information out of him a grapple claw latches onto his ankle and pulls him out of the room. Batman's tries to get a hold of a door frame, but his arm is stomped on. The mysterious assailant is revealed to be Deathstroke.
WB Montreal wants to tell a story "within the detective environment", it mentioned BBC series Sherlock as an inspiration
In a later segment Batman is in a room and uses his first-person detective vision to figure out the events that occurred in it. Bullet paths and holograms act out his theories as he mutters information and scans points of interest.
The Batcomputer in the cave runs simulations, players can watch these as much as they want from multiple angles, in slow motion, pause and scrub it. They must find clues to further the investigation
Small and large cases are spread out over Gotham City, they serve to provide a break from combat scenarios
Old Gotham district is only half of the game world, another area called New Gotham also exists. It doubles the size of the game world in Arkham City.
To access content in the city players must dismantle the hacked tower network. These tower emit a jamming signal that stops Batwing from flying there and prevents sensors from placing points of interest. They're likened to Far Cry 3's towers.
Dynamic events dubbed "Crime in Progress" occur in the city. The example given is of saving cops from a group of thugs, or stopped a snitch from being thrown off a roof. Completing these impact Batman's notoriety.
A "Most Wanted System" lets players pursue villains outside of the core assassin story
The Dark Knight system offers tasks that escalate in difficulty. They're not tutorials, but do train players to be better at combat and stealth. Completing challenges grants XP or upgrades for a particular skillset.
The system doesn't replace Challenge mode, which will be included "in one form"

They seem to be taking an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach. Probably not too bad of a thing, since I personally found Arkham City immensely enjoyable, though I hope they reduce the amount of Riddler challenges (or equivalents) to something less than freaking 400. Or at least make ALL of them interesting puzzles instead of just "use new gadget one time" scavenger hunt type. I really enjoyed the ones that made me think a bit, not the ones that just required me to show up.

I like that the game is still in the same continuity with nods to the past games, such as Penguin being "monocleless" or bringing in Black Mask after hinting at him in Arkham City (well, he was in the one challenge map, but other than that).

[Bells]

So we finally get Batman GTA. Well, i'm up for it...

I don't really mind the Arkham story at this point... if the gameplay and thematic feel are equal or better and the game is just bigger, than its already great for me. I had a ton of fun with Arkham City. But the story was just shit bollocks on a stick... but the game presents itself so well, plays so well, and actually BEING Batman is just so fucking cool and i'm ok with the story being 2 fruitloops short of a complete shitty breakfast...

actually it seems like they are aiming a bit closer (maybe too close) to spiderman games... where you travel around the city taking missions and the occasional story assassination.

Also, you have super assassins tracking Batman down. If this ends up meaning that i have to go TO the bad guys instead of having them CHASING me and me outsmarting them on pursue and then breaking their teeth... i'm calling it a missing opportunity.

Mind you that they mention that the villains are "from the DC unniverse". That for me rings 3 bells:

1- If the Superman game works they are going to do the same type of game for Superman.

2- That means a bunch of enemies from other DC worlds, although DC doesn't have a whole lot of interesting villainous super assassins to begin with...

3- Potential cameos from other DC heroes.

And next... Super Batman Galaxy

[Arcanum]

The biggest problem I see with this is that several of those pictures look exactly like spots in Arkham City. Given that it's a different, less experienced team working on the project, I'm not ruling out them re-using environments to make things easier.

The second biggest problem is that holy crap that name is generic and boring and overused.

[POS Industries]

Originally Posted by Magus

What torture implements Black Mask felt were best to cause blood to tastefully spray on his pristine white suit?

Stephanie Brown sez: It's a drill. Black Mask's favorite torture implement is a power drill.

[Magus]

Catwoman sez: It's a hot iron. Black Mask's favorite torture implement is a hot iron.

Originally Posted by Arcanum

The biggest problem I see with this is that several of those pictures look exactly like spots in Arkham City. Given that it's a different, less experienced team working on the project, I'm not ruling out them re-using environments to make things easier.

The second biggest problem is that holy crap that name is generic and boring and overused.

They are re-using the layout of Arkham City (minus all the security features) as "Old Gotham", then adding in "New Gotham" to supposedly double the size of the map.

As for Origins being overused, you are right, but there is one even more boring and overused, and that is Rises/Rising, which they ended up using for the movies. It's apparently traditional to make these things as generic as possible.

[Azisien]

I'll be Batman and I'll be punching and kicking criminals in their stupid faces and it'll make bars and shit go up, I imagine I'll love this game.

[Ramary]

My biggest issues are...

A) It is not a silver age throwback like the rumors said

B) Not made by Rocksteady.

[Magus]

I thought the one Paul Dini was involved with was going to be a Silver Age throwback. Maybe they rejected his idea (because they are stupid and can't figure out that the man wrote two amazing games, let him write a third) and that's why they told him to accept work with other studios, though.

As for Rocksteady, apparently some of the design they were involved with, but not the plotting and any new graphical developments or boss battles whatever.

[Bells]

...wait.

This batman is younger. Does... that mean.... no Kevin Conroy?

Cause FUCK that!

[Magus]

Conroy convincingly did younger Batman in the Mask of the Phantasm or whatever. He also did old Batman in Batman Beyond. No news on who is involved in voice work, though.

Although I know that Mark Hammil has said he's not doing the Joker again back when Arkham City came out. Apparently it's really hard to do that voice nowadays for him.

On the other hand, the Joker is not in any of the materials so maybe the plot doesn't involve him except as a side mission or something.