13 Scares of Halloween – Day 1: Batman Arkham City

Alright, I understand most of you, when you think of the second installment of the Batman video game series, you don’t think scary. I am not most of you. One moment in this game definitely caught me off guard and needless to say the rest is legend.

Now come close children, let me paint a picture for you. There I was the Dark Knight himself,  cape, cowl and all the associated awesome. I was tasked with saving the poor Cop-sicles and then kicking the ever living crap out of Penguin. Typical Batman stuff right? Well in order to accomplish this I had to cross a room of very thin ice, in the middle of a museum, but I am Batman what is the worst that can happen?

Now I should let you know that I had left the room for a few moments to get some snacks and allowed a friend to get half way across the ice for me. (Big mistake) I ask if I missed anything, they shake their head. I resume gameplay. The ice crunches ominously beneath my feet, tension mounts. Can it really be this simple. I just have to go slow? I really hate having to go slow… is this some ploy to make the game last longer… ugh… I decide… I begin to run… The ice breaks. Something isn’t right. I lose control. I am a sitting duck. What the heck is going on? OH BEJEEBUS!!! SHARK!! !@#$%^&” Game Over.

Needless to say I jumped and the controller almost went flying across the room. Now if I hadn’t left the room and my friend had informed me that there was a FLIPPING SHARK. I probably might have been more prepared for the ensuing death. But no, completely caught off guard and needless to say “EFF YOU PENGUIN”. Now if I had not gone on my snack run, or my friend alerted me to a previous cut-scene  I would have been confronted with a similar shark shock, just one where I didn’t end up all Quint-ified like at the end of Jaws.

I got ‘et.

None the less I just was not prepared for a shark to be chilling in the middle of a museum waiting for a late night Bat-snack. And thus this has gone down in my book as one of the scariest videogame moments of all time.

-Jessica grabs shark repellent-

Stoopid shark…

Day 30 of 31 – LEGO Video Games

Alright, we are almost to the end of our marathon! Today we discuss the Lego video game franchise. Yay! Fun! Awesome! Okay! Let’s go…

 

 

I like Lego games. There I said it. I am proud to like the Lego games and all of their silliness and frivolity. Now that you are done laughing at how a grown up such as myself could like a game that probably is marketed towards a younger demographic, let us talk about the facts. First, the games are fun, at least to me they are. In a previous entry I mentioned that I like tedious tasks, but most others do not. So, I can see why other people might not like the games as it is necessary to complete every level at least twice if you want to complete the game to 100%. Secondly it is impossible to get annoyed at the sound track or voice track. The characters never speak, and the sound track they use is from the franchise that they are representing. You don’t like the sound track from whatever franchise, well then why would you buy the game… And thirdly I rather enjoy the fact that the games can be mindless and losing a few hours doesn’t feel like a waste, it feels like a respite from reality. So what? I may act like 7 year old from time to time and I am proud of it. I don’t care that my choices of games aren’t necessarily “hardcore”, I am who I am.  I LOVE LEGO GAMES! On that note Lego Batman 2 looks amazing and I can’t wait for it to come out.

-Builds a rocket out of Legos and flies away-

Day 11 of 31: Batman Arkham Asylum

Hello everyone and welcome to Day 11 on the at the same Bat-time, on the same Bat-Channel.

 

 

Awesome, we finally get to talk about a superhero video game and what a surprise, it’s a Batman game. Batman; Arkham Asylum from my point of view, has got to be the best superhero video game in existence. Reason being that every single detail that was put in this game was made to compliment the darker of the Batman series that’s been more popularized lately through the recent films and books side and I find that to be quite awesome. I loved how the combat system always threw a bunch of enemies at you, as having Batman face a bunch of criminals by himself and being able to beat them one at a time, was indeed a satisfying experience. The whole package came together so well  that players had almost NO difficulty feeling like the were in the shoes of the Caped Crusader himself. You also have access to some of Batman’s trademark gadgets, such as the batarang, his cape, smoke pellets, grappling hook and his hacking device. The game also put you up against villains such as, Poison Ivy, Killer Croc (this battle was awesome by the way) , Harley Quinn and of course the big daddy of all villains, The Joker. All in all, Batman Arkham Aylum was a great game and it has earned it’s place as being a classic on both the Xbox 360 and the PS3. It’s a no brainer in terms of finding this awesome title either, just walk into your local game store and I guarantee you that you will see it on shelves. No Bat-Signal needed.

– James B. Boss

 

^ What he said. The only thing I have to say to detract is I practically played the whole game in detective mode.  I probably shouldn’t have as the graphics while not all too fantabulous were pretty enough to merit looking at. Anyway boys and girls it’s been a long week, and I’m tired.

-Ninja…Van…meh-  -saunters away-