Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Batman: Year One And Arkham City Released Today

This is a good week for the Batman franchise. Wednesday, as you all know, is New Comic Book Day. This particular Wednesday will see Batman #2, Justice League #2 (in which Batman is one of the primary heroes) and the launch of a seven-issue miniseries titled Batman: Odyssey. Unlike other weeks, though, despite this being big news on account of how those first two are the flagship of The New 52 and the Bat-family line therein, it pales in comparison to what was released today.

Tuesdays are New “Home Disc” Day (unofficially, of course), meaning video games and home video releases. This week, the Dark Knight rises to take top billing in both fields. Today marks the release date of both the DCU direct-to-DVD adaptation of Frank Miller's Batman: Year One and the highly anticipated Batman: Arkham City.

I’ve received confirmation from Amazon that my copy of the Batman Year One (Two-Disc Special Edition) has been shipped, so hopefully I’ll be able to review it later this week. Other variants of the product include the less expensive single-disc version and the Blu-ray combo pack. The difference between the two DVDs are a few bonus features, whereas the combo pack also comes with the DVD and a digital download copy. All three are slated to come with the DC Showcase short based on a Catwoman story.

If you think that’s product overkill, wait until you hear about the highly anticipated sequel to the Batman Arkham Asylum Game of the Year. There’s both a Batman Arkham City Amazon Exclusive and a Batman Arkham City Collectors Edition Amazon Exclusive (that’s a mouthful). As I’m currently (and very unfortunately) platform-free these days, the only major difference from my perspective right now is that both are just so. Damn. Pretty. Also, they’re $5 and $50 more expensive than their retailing counterparts.

Cross-promotion is pretty big for this, too. Earlier this month saw the release of an Arkham City Soundtrack and Paul Dini wrote a prequel graphic novel lead-in.

As I won’t get the chance to review the game, I welcome any feedback on it any of my readers (all seven of you!) might have about it. Please feel free leave a comment below once you’ve had the chance to play what’s certain to be yet another video game of the year.

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