BATMAN IS IN for the night of his life in the latest release from developer Rocksteady Studios, "Batman: Arkham Asylum" — a truly great game that deftly depicts the universe and character of the Dark Knight.
The opening cinematic sets the bar early, with the Batmobile tearing down the rain-slicked streets of Gotham towards a beautifully rendered gothic hospital for the criminally insane. Shifting to the interior of the vehicle, we get to experience lines of dialogue between the Bat and the Joker — and already we know we're in for something special.
Although the story, penned by veteran comic writer Paul Dini, covers familiar territory for any Bat-fan, it's a well-crafted tale that provides a few interesting twists and stays true to the source material. The Joker hijacks the facility, setting free many of the Bat's more well-known villains. Before long, he's holding the entire city hostage, and its up to you to stop him.
The action is brilliantly brought to life by high calibre voice-acting turns from Kevin Conroy (Batman), Mark Hamill (the Joker) and Arleen Sorkin (Harley Quinn), all fan favorites from the classic "Batman: The Animated Series."
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WITH "'Splosion Man," developer Twisted Pixel (creators of the marvelous "Maw") has proven once again that it's mastered the art of taking a simple gameplay concept, injecting it with a memorable mascot and tweaking it until it's whipped up a whirligig of wacky fun.
The concept is actually deceptively simple. You play as the titular combustible menace, and your only goal is to escape an interstellar scientific lab using the lone ability you have: You can blow yourself up.
THERE ARE MANY GAMES with so-so graphics, gameplay issues and story lines that don't make sense.
What's much rarer is when all of those iffy circumstances come together to form a game that is not only a guilty pleasure to play, but also a wildly entertaining ride. Developer Radical Entertainment has pulled out all the stops to deliver just such a ride in "Prototype" (Activision).
The game tells the tale of Alex Mercer, a normal human who wakes up in a morgue with amnesia. This would be troubling enough if he hadn't also woken up with enhanced speed and strength. Now he wants to find out what happened to him and why New York is slowly being taken over by a mutagenic virus.
DEVELOPED BY THE now-defunct Brash Entertainment — the team behind the abysmal "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and "Space Chimps" games — "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" does something fairly surprising: It entertains.
While it doesn't break any new ground, it's a fairly solid adventure game aimed squarely at younger children.
The story generally follows that of the movie. Larry Daley (voiced by Ben Stiller) is now the head of Daley Devices, a successful company that manufactures and sells his inventions. But when he hears word that his friends (the reanimated wax statues at the museum) are about to be packed up and shipped off to the "Smithsonian," he decides to make a last visit.
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THERE ARE A FEW traditions in the world of video games. One is that every year, a new Madden Football, game that fixes a few bugs from the previous year's and creates a few others will sell millions of copies. Another is that blockbuster movie releases will have a game tie-in. Finally, these games will be terrible, soul-sucking experiences.
So how is it that developer Raven Software actually managed to put together an enjoyable romp that pays homage to the central character in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"? It could have something to do with Raven's pedigree ("Jedi Knight II" and "Quake 4" among others), or the fact that the game developers are admitted fans of the X-Men, as shown with the "X-Men Legends" franchise.
The game establishes itself early with the combat. You really get the feeling of stepping into Wolverine's shoes, a character whose temper is only slightly more manageable than the Hulk's and happens to have razor-sharp claws. Where the movie's PG-13 violence was strangely antiseptic, Raven has gleefully embraced an M rating. Make no mistake: This game is not for children. Decapitations and various other forms of dismemberment are the order of the day.
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LET'S BEGIN WITH a simple statement before we start picking nits: "Street Fighter IV" is, by far, the best fighting game to hit consoles in a long while, if not ever. The controls are tight, the graphics are sharp, and the animation is fluid. The fighting game masters at Capcom put a lot of effort into making this a quality entry in their venerable franchise, and if you are even a quasi-fan of this style of game, buy it. You'll love it.
The basic idea of the game is unchanged — you face off against an opponent in a one-on-one no-holds-barred competition, and the fight goes until either there's only one left standing or the clock runs out. The character roster mixes the classics from past "Street Fighter" titles like "SF II" and "Alpha" (though strangely, no one from "SF III") with a few new additions. As always in this kind of game, some characters are more powerful than others, but overall the new characters fit into the roster well. One exception is the final boss, who is exceptionally cheap on every difficulty, frustrating the player — and not in a good way.
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WITH THE COST of developing the current generation of games skyrocketing, publishers are turning ever more frequently to sequels and licensed franchises in order to keep those critical profit margins high.
While these big-budget blockbuster titles can still be fun, it's rare for them to really break the mold. In order to get that, you have to look at the downloadable game market. Such is the case with "The Maw," a 3-D platform game developed by Twisted Pixel Games and available for download from the Xbox Live Arcade on the 360.
You play as Frank, a childlike blue alien who, at the start of the game, has been captured by galactic bounty hunters and tossed into a cell where he first meets the titular Maw, a gelatinous blob with sharp teeth and described by the developer as "Loyal, indestructible, hungry. If he weren't a threat to all life in the universe, he'd make the perfect pet." After crash-landing on an alien planet, it's up to you to guide Frank and Maw's escape.
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YOU HAVE TO hand it to Valve. Not only is it the developer behind hits like the "Half-Life," "Team Fortress" and "Counter-Strike" franchises, the company is also behind last year's genre re-defining "Portal." Quite simply, Valve is the developer to beat when it comes to innovative first-person shooters.
With "Left 4 Dead," Valve mixes some technological wizardry with more than a little survival horror to create a completely different kind of experience that delivers some of the most intense co-op multiplayer thrills you'll find in any game released this year.
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LAST YEAR, ACTIVISION and Infinity Ward reinvented their popular World War II first-person shooter franchise "Call of Duty" by tossing aside the familiar (and overdone) WWII setting and delving into a gritty fictionalized present-day war zone with "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare."
The update was met with resounding applause from critics and players, and raked in awards and sales. This year, Activision handed the developer reins to Treyarch, the team responsible for the less well-regarded "Call of Duty 3," which promptly shifted the timeline back to WWII with "Call of Duty: World at War."
But to call this game a simple retread doesn't quite do it service, as there are plenty of twists and tweaks that elevate it from the dozens of clones on the market and make it a worthy follow-up to last year's smash hit.
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VIDEO GAMES as a social activity? Now they are.
Tuesday nights at the Rhino Bar, a simple pumphouse becomes a Guitar Hero paradise, filled with would-be rock stars itching to show their prowess in public. And really, what's the point of practicing fake-guitar ten hours a day if you're not going to show it off?
» Rhino Bar and Pumphouse, 3295 M St. NW; Tues., 10 p.m., free; (202) 333-3150
Addison Road