Our Softball league is in full swing and boy am I having fun. As of now, our record stands at 1-1 but that loss was merely good luck on their part. Not saying that as a sore loser, but just how I saw the game. We made less mistakes on the outfield, whereas they made more but our few errors cost us that precious extra run. Either way, that last catch was nothing short of a miracle.

Next time people! We got this!

As you know (because of my Tweets) Batman: Arkham Asylum hit stores yesterday. Its not much to say that this is the best Batman game ever made (it is) but it is also the best comic book game ever made. Not just because of the gameplay/graphics/sound but because they took the original material seriously and crafted a story true to its origins. The Joker is fucked up and the rest of the cast seems brilliant. I say seems because I've only run into a handful of them at this point.

Not only did they respect the original material, they (Rocksteady) created a near-perfect rendition of what a Batman game should be. There is platforming, solving Riddlers puzzles, detective mode, challenge rooms and fighting. Not only are all these instances fun, but the fact that you get Batman's technology makes them even better. Being able to hang upside down on a Gargoyle and pick enemies off is brilliant.

Though, out of all of those mechanics that I mentioned, the fighting mechanic is by far my favorite. It's fairly simple, one button attacks, one counters, one stuns and the other evades. The fact that you only have ONE attack button would seem to make the fights fairly mundane and boring but they are far, far from it. Eventually the amount of strategy that goes into stunning, reversing and chaining critical attacks goes beyond the simple push of a button. At that point, you are anticipating attacks and avoiding those that can't be countered and only avoided. The animation of Batman reversing and critial attacking is fairly impressive. Most especially his counter-attacks because they make him look like a badass ninja.

The Challenge Rooms, both in the single player game and in the Options menu offer some fun Batman Silent Predator sections. For example, you will enter a room that is being patrolled by armed bad guys. During these instances, Batman must use his gadgets and wit to take these guys out without alerting the others in the room. How you tackle these rooms is entirely up to you. Some rooms vary it up with Hostages where other ones have both armed and unarmed bad guys. In other words, its never boring.

I haven't even mentioned the moments where Batman must save lives, including the lives of enemies. Or the simple fact that his suit eventually starts showing battle damage from this night of hell on Arkham Island. If you consider yourself a fan of the Dark Knight, this game is a MUST buy. If you are  fan of great video-games, this is also a MUST buy. Oh, did I mention the PS3 version of Batman comes with playable Joker maps? Available for free on PSN.

Go ahead, treat yourself.

-Alex Out