Alex Writes About a Video Game?!

That's right. Today I am going to write about a video game, because today I am going to buy a video game. And that's a pretty rare thing around these parts.

Now, I'm not what you'd call a "gamer." Either video game-wise, or table top game-wise, or really any kind of game-wise. My entire video gaming "collection" consists of the latest baseball game--MLB '09 for the Playstation 3--and the latest Madden Football game, also for the PS3.

I enjoy playing sports video games, mostly, and I find that they can be a great way to unwind after a long day at the office. Still, I probably manage to play only an hour or two of Playstation a week.

And I have never really been excited about the release of a game. Okay, maybe when I was 12, but certainly not at any point after that. I typically have no idea when games are released, and frankly, I really don't care.
If I happen to be in a Best Buy, or a mall, or whatever, and I see a game that looks interesting, I might pick it up. The last game I bought on such a whim was the Wolverine movie tie-in, which is still sitting (forlornly) in its cellophane wrapping.

I have to say, though, the box looks good.

But today my (embarrassing) streak of video game-lessness will come to an end. And it will be glorious. For you see, today, August the 25th of 2009, the greatest video game of all time hits store shelves.

(Okay, fine, so I have absolutely no way of knowing if that last statement is true.)

Batman: Arkham Asylum ships today, and from all advance reviews on the Web, it seems like this game will be the Batman experience that has been woefully missing from consoles since...well...forever.
I have several Batman video games from systems long dead and buried, and they all...um...are not with the good. Many Bat fans will agree that, for whatever the reason, developers just have never been able to capture the comic book world of Batman in a game.

Until now, it seems.

Arkham is written by acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series writer Paul Dini, TAS Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy reprises his most famous role along with Mark Hamill as Joker, and the graphics appear to be stunning (and creepy as all get out).

The premise of the game is a good one--Joker is taken to Arkham on a stormy night, but soon after takes over the Asylum and Batman must fight his way through different bad guys to re-capture his greatest nemesis.

Top notch voice acting, top notch graphics, and an excellent storyline usually make for an excellent game. Since this bad boy ships today, and I won't be picking it up until tonight, I can't say for certain how this game will turn out. But, like I said, the buzz is pretty big, and the demo I saw in a store last month looked amazing.

But don't take my word for it. Here's the launch trailer, courtesy of Comic Book Resources. Check it out.
Let's hope the game plays as well as it looks. Because then, we'd finally (FINALLY!) have a Batman game to be proud of.