So, how many is picking this up next week? I absolutely loved Arkham Asylum. I just hope they don't mess with the formula too much. B:AA worked so well. High hopes for this one.

Adored the first one, might wait until the end of this semester to get it though seeing how I've got that many projects to be doing.

I enjoyed the first one quite a bit, but my videogame time will be consumed for next several months by Forza Motorsport 4.

Can't wait for it. Had it pre-ordered for a few months from Amazon, when I checked my account the other day I've apparently been switched over to some fancy steel book edition. I really, really loved the first game, and I'm equally glad Arkham City's coming out at the end of this month so I can give it the attention it (hopefully) deserves since November is going to be packed for gaming.

Good luck with your amazon preorder. They really failed me with Dark Souls. They were going to ship my preorder it 7 days after the official release. Last time I was preordering from them.

As for Batman Arkham City, its likely going to be a rental for me. I didn't much care for the first despite being a huge batman fan. I could see the quality but there was something about the game that never sat well with me. And I couldn't tell you what it was. I do know I absolutely despised crawling through 2000 vents. That is not the batman I know.

From all accounts though, City looks to up the ante and be a real masterpiece. If its the open city they say it will be, I may just love this one.

Huge, huge, huge Batman fan. Day one purchase for me. Plus AA is my favourite game of the last 5 years.

Wish I knew about Rocksteady years ago when I was interested in getting a job in the games industry (if they were around back then). They're not that far from me.

Hell yah AKPiggott likes batman, hes got like every achievement...

You may wonder how i know that.....

You gave me small penis phobia about my xbox gamer score.

I spied your games, and not only is the amount staggering, but you have almost everything completed.

I saw batman and fallout, my two fav games being totally molested by another man, and more completely at that. How can i show my face to anyone now.

Seriously? That's pretty bad. The last couple of games I've pre-ordered from Amazon all arrived the day before the official release date. I've had much better luck with them than I have with, for example, Play.com, who used to be amazing but started letting me down most occasions over the past couple of years.

They actually pulled the same stunt when I preordered Dragon Age 2. They shipped it several days after release. Don't know why I was stupid enough to believe it would be different this time around. Fool me once, shame on them. Fool me twice, shame on me, heh.

You must be preordering with their free "Super Saver Shipping," which is garbage. There's no guarantee with that shipping option that it will be shipped on release day or even the day after. Items using that shipping method are the lowest on the totem pole in terms of priority. Then when they're actually shipped, they're typically shipped via FedEx SmartPost or UPS's equivalent, where the shipping company delivers it to a local post office hub, but then it's in USPS's hands, which can make it take even longer.

That's why I use Amazon Prime. I've preordered dozens of games from them, always get to my house on release day.

Four times, I'll have you know. Twice on the Xbox 360 (normal and GOTY edition), once on the PC and again on the PS3.

(yes, I like this game)

Definitely picking it up next week at Kmart ($30 gaming coupon).

Honestly I don't think you can complain about something you get for free.

What if it's the clap? I'd still complain about that.

So how big is this city? Can I feel like Batman flying around this time?

This video I saw the other day gives you a decent impression of the size of the city. Doesn't show everything, but gives a good example of how you'll be swooping about:

Dang. I've been avoiding news for this game like the plague because I cant afford to spend the time or money on it. But that video is awesome. I like the new knock-out sound effects. The noise they used in AA really bugged me by how 90's arcade it was.

Ok, video looks awesome.
Touché.

Damn delays on the PC version.

Aye, tis a shame. But it's still better than them releasing a buggy game.

Well, Amazon just continued it's great track record for me. Arkham City was here when I got home from work (supposed to be released tomorrow), so I've just installed it and I'm waiting for the Catwoman bundle to download before I play because I heard if it finishes a download while you're playing the game it'll quit back to the main menu while it scans for DLC (even if you're downloading something entirely unrelated to Arkham City). Can't wait to give it a solid run when it's finished.

Apparently it's filled with rampant neckbeardstyle sexism so a friend of mine is refusing to buy it.

I love this game. Checked my story completion after a few hours on it last night (before I forced myself to switch it off for the night) and I managed 10%, with a little bit of exploring thrown into the mix, and barring a massive drop off in quality towards the latter stages of the game I feel I can say with utter certainty that it is everything I loved about Arkham Asylum but seamlessly improved. For anyone who didn't like the gameplay in Asylum then you'll likely be disappointed, but for fans of the original like myself you'll love it. Everything feels the same (combat, movement, etc.) but with a lot of tweaks and additions thrown in. The only thing I slightly miss is they took out the throw move (A+X in combat) because it was fun to lob thugs into a group of their friends, but the move they replaced it with (Bat Swarm) is really handy and pretty awesome to break out when you've got a large group surrounding you since it stuns everyone in it's area of effect.

I can definitely see myself getting just as much satisfaction and just as many playthroughs out of City as I did with Asylum. Really excited to finish work and get back into it later on today.

Critical Strikes is good too. Means you don't senselessly mash buttons to get your combo meter up. Gotta time them just right and you score higher. Also guys, a tip. Do the first AR training. You get something worth it. Not to mention it teaches you about gliding a bit more.