STACK #128 Jun 2016

GAMES

FEATURE

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The concluding part to the Batman Arkham trilogy is upon us. We dig up some interesting facts on the franchise that convinced us that Batman video games could indeed be good. 25 Facts about the Arkham Trilogy You Probably Didn’t Know

Rocksteady Studios rose from the ashes of Argonaut Games, a London-based developer formed in 1982 by teenage entrepreneur Jez San. Argonaut Games closed the doors in October 2004, laying off over 100 staff members. Former employees Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker began Rocksteady two months later in December 2004. The studio’s inaugural game, a first-person shooter for PS2 and Xbox called Urban Chaos:

In 2007, British publisher Eidos Interactive secured the rights to develop a Batman game. They turned to Rocksteady to develop the idea. it was working on a Batman game, it was met with a negative response from fans of the Dark Knight, who were tired of the character’s poor representation in video games. Reprising their roles from the animated Batman series, Kevin Conroy – who voiced Batman – and Mark Hamill – the voice of Joker – were recruited to lend their vocal talent to the first game in the Arkham Trilogy, Batman: Arkham Asylum. When Rocksteady announced

On release, the critically acclaimed Arkham Asylum sold two million copies globally in the first three weeks. Confident in Asylum ’s success, the studio began plotting the sequel seven months before completion.

Arkham City clocked up an incredible two million copies sold worldwide in its first week! With the final conclusion of the Arkham trilogy in development for new-gen, Rocksteady informed Warner Bros. Interactive they were going to need a three- year development cycle. To plug the gap, Arkham Origins was developed in-house at Warner Montreal.

A hidden room in the warden’s office in Arkham

Asylum reviews blueprints and clues to the sequel. The studio revealed its existence six months after Asylum released.

Batman: Arkham Knight plays out a year after Arkham City.

Riot Response , was released in 2006. It was well received.

Events in Batman: Arkham

The Batmobile is finally a playable vehicle in Arkkam Knight .

City take place a year after Asylum.

The game is five times the

Rocksteady developed the

size of ArkhamAsylum .

story in-house using its own writers for Arkham Knight instead of Paul Dini.

Veteran Batman writer Paul Dini was enlisted to pen the story. Batman: Arkham Asylum took 21 months to develop. The studio started out with 40 staff and completed the development cycle with 60.

Rocksteady were keen to expand on the lauded combat system and subsequently, the number of animations were doubled.

Rocksteady wanted to create a unique character for the game that hadn’t been used anywhere before in the Batman canon. Working with DC Comics CCO Geoff Johns and comic artist Jim Lee, Rocksteady conceived new supervillain, Arkham Knight. Batgirl is a fully playable character in Batman: Arkham Knight if you buy the season pass DLC.

Paul Dini was recalled to create the narrative once more.

Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill also reprise their respective voice roles. However, Hamill announced that it would be the last time he would voice the part of Joker.

According to Eidos boss Ian Livingstone, one developer spent the entire 21 months singularly working on Batman’s cape and employing over

• Batman: Arkham Knight is out June 24

700 animations.

JUNE 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.com.au

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