Zack Snyder has found his Amazonian princess. Model and actress Gal Gadot has been cast as Wonder Woman in the sequel to Man of Steel which still does not have an official title so we keep going with Batman vs. Superman.
The director gave his thoughts on the casting of Gadot in this official statement:
“Wonder Woman is arguably one of the most powerful female characters of all time and a fan favorite in the DC Universe. Not only is Gal an amazing actress, but she also has that magical quality that makes her perfect for the role. We look forward to audiences discovering Gal in the first feature film incarnation of this beloved character.”
Gadot has been in the last three movies of the Fast & Furious franchise so she is used to sharing screen time with actors with muscles. The casting of Wonder Woman is one of the most important aspects of DC’s movie future and I am sure Snyder and everyone involved know that. I hope they can find a Stan Lee type cameo for Lynda Carter… just because.
You knew when Ben Affleck was cast as Batman that long time friend Kevin Smith would be privy to some inside information and true to form the lucky bastard has seen Affleck’s Batman costume. He revealed his thoughts about the new look on his Hollywood Babble-On podcast which I believe is the 33rd podcast he does a week…which is cool.
“I saw the Batman costume. More than that I saw a picture of him (Affleck) in the costume. Now, I don’t want to give anything away ’cause that is up to them and stuff, but I am going to say this, I instantly bear hugged him (Snyder). You have not seen this costume in a movie on film before, and for a comic book fan it was mind bending. I was like ‘Get out of here, only you have enough power to pull this off.’ Because everyone always like does this Matrix/X-Men black armor…It was fantastic. I’m already a flag waver for this movie, but the costume, it blew my mind. I think everyone is just gonna be like ‘Holy ****!’ It’s its own thing, man. It’s like we haven’t been down this path at all. I was so elated….Even the hardest core “**** all this” person will be like ‘alright, I’m ready.”
Thanks for keeping my expectations low there Kev. There were already rumors that the new look was going to be based on the Batman: Noel graphic novel so reading Smith’s thoughts makes me think we will finally get a grey and black costume like the comics. If that is true, I will bearhug Zack Snyder too.
Batman: Arkham Origins has had its share of problems since its release on October 25th, including save data losses which is why I will not be reviewing the game. Now WB Games has issued a statement resolving to fix the multiple issues that have plagued the title.
Here is the official statement explaining the glitches found so far:
“Some players have been stuck in an endless loop of falling, making it impossible to complete certain missions and progress through the single-player campaign. We believe we have identified the issue and are currently testing the software update, which will push most players back to their previous save so that they will not be stuck in an infinite loop.”
“Some players can see their story progress in the main menu, but once they choose the story slot they don’t see an option to ‘Continue’ and only ‘New Game’ shows up. This issue should be resolved and the ‘Continue’ option will once again be available.”
“FreeFlow Focus mode not unlocking upon reaching Shadow Vigilante rank 3.”
“Players have reported recurring crashing and freezing while playing the game. We have been working hard to track down and resolve the problem as quickly as possible. We believe we know what is causing these issues and need a few more days to validate before pushing this patch through. In the meantime, some players have managed to avoid the freezing by disconnecting their console from the Internet while playing.”
And the biggest of the bunch it the data on 360 versions of the game being corrupted (like mine).
“Players have reported losing their saved game to data corruption. Specifically, when you try to choose a story slot to continue, it says ‘Corrupted’ and if you select it, an error message appears which says, ‘The save is corrupt. Please delete it.’ We believe we know what is causing this and need a few more days to validate before pushing a patch through.”
When you see just how many problems have been found with this game it is amazing that it got through QA testing. It screams of a studio that had to make a release date no matter what even if that meant shipping a game that was not ready. I feel bad for Rocksteady who has built the Arkham franchise into a gaming giant and entrusted it to another studio just to have this happen.
Long story short; there won’t be a Batman: Arkham Origins review. At least not anytime soon. This is due to the fact that I was twelve hours into the latest game in the series when I got a corrupted data message. The only solution? Delete my save and start anew.
I went online and read story after story of 360 owners who had experienced the same issue. Some had restarted the game two, three and even four times and at certain points their data became corrupted again. As of this writing the 360 version is the only one that seems to have this problem although the PS3 version is having frame rate issues. It looks like the Wii U and PC versions are the best of the bunch.
The only news from WB Montreal is that they are “investigating the issue” which is company speak for “oh shit, we missed something. Find it and patch it”. Now if you know me personally you know how much this hurts me. As the tattoos on my body and shelves of Batman action figures (not toys dammit) and statues can attest I am a bit of a Dark Knight freak. So the fact that this happened stings worse.
Why not just start over and play through the game? I can hear some of you saying. This is a multi-part answer. It will lead into my early impressions of the game which were…meh. The game looked beautiful and the voice acting was top notch. Roger Craig Smith was a good place holder for Kevin Conroy and Troy Baker sounds so much like Mark Hamill it is uncanny. There was something just a bit off about it. While keeping the same combat and control scheme of the previous two Arkham games, the timing seemed different and led to a lot of frustrating fights.
I have played through Asylum five time and City three. I even played through both of them before Origins came out to make sure I had my timing down correctly and to acclimate myself with the controls again. In both previous games, I had no problem with big groups of thugs even while playing on hard. Playing Origins on normal difficulty (for the sake of review) I regularly found myself almost dying in groups of six or seven guys. The counter system, while technically the same as Rocksteady’s games was not reading all the counters I was doing. With a game that requires multiple counters in a row to keep combat flowing you need the game to be able to react to them. I was regularly getting annoyed at the combat in a series where combat is the best thing.
Also, while this is our first opportunity in the series to play in an actual open version of Gotham City, it feels decidedly vacant. I understand the story permits this with it being Christmas Eve and people are asked to stay in there homes because of the danger. So it is just you and thugs galore to occupy the city. I know Gotham City is a dangerous place but damn. If my apartment building had two snipers, two knife-wielding psychos and a guy with a baseball bat I would be calling Two Men and Truck…now. I am still looking for that first true Gotham City experience. I want Spider-Man 2 except with Batman. Bustling streets and patrons. Random robberies to stop. Driving the Batmobile around Gotham.
The second part of my reasoning for not starting the game again is I do not have the time to. Besides this site I have a full-time job and, despite what some people think, do not want to spend every waking moment in front of a television or computer screen. Maybe one day I will give Arkham Origins another chance or I may just wait for Rocksteady’s next installment that will be free of these problems. For now I have to get ready for the next-gen launches and even though I juuust said I can’t spend all my time with video games…I have to review WWE 2K14.
The good people at CBM.com have some new rumors kicking around about Ben Affleck’s car and costume in the upcoming Man of Steel sequel. First off, it seems that Cadillac is indeed working on the new version of the Batmobile. The new vehicle should be more of a car design and a far cry from the Tumbler seen in the Nolan trilogy.
Now onto the costume which is the exciting part. Their sources are saying that Affleck’s costume will be based on the Lee Bermejo graphic novel, [amazon_link id=”1401232132″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Batman: Noel[/amazon_link], which was released in 2011 and has become regular Christmas reading for me since. It is a retelling of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol with Batman, The Joker and an actual glimmer of hope at the end. Also, off subject, if you have not read Bermejo’s graphic novel, [amazon_link id=”1401215815″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Joker[/amazon_link], then you are missing out badly.
As far as the costume, I love the idea. It is a realistic looking fabric with body armor look and the cowl should fit Affleck’s version of Batman great.
Today is the release of [amazon_link id=”B00C7103DO” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Batman: Arkham Origins[/amazon_link], the first Arkham game not developed by Rocksteady Studios. WB Montreal had the task of carrying on the Arkham legacy while Rocksteady works on their next-gen game (maybe another Batman, maybe not). The first reviews are mostly agreeing that while this is certainly a valiant attempt at capturing the essence of Rocksteady’s previous two games, there are some missteps.
Our review will be coming when we are finished seeing all of what Gotham has to offer, but until then, let’s see what other sites are saying.
“Batman games are like pizza: even when they’re not very good, they’re still pretty good. Next to Arkham City, Arkham Origins is a bit of a disappointment in its lack of new ideas and use of win buttons, making it the least interesting of the trilogy. But as excuses to dive back into the excellent free-flowing combat and predator takedowns go, this story isn’t bad.”
“Such issues do nothing to take away from Origins’ strengths, though, giving you another chance to revisit a franchise that is surely now one of the generation’s best. Ultimately, this is like a cover song done by a band you’re quite fond of. It may never be better than the original, but it’s a great addition.”
“Origins is an incremental installment, not a transformative one. It doesn’t have the massive leaps forward that differentiated City from Asylum. It’s almost understandable since WB Montreal have been tasked with harmonizing along to someone else’s lead vocals. Right here, right now, the result is good enough.”
“The most noteworthy difference between Arkham Origins and its predecessors is a significantly larger open world. But that larger world has little meaning when the things you’re doing in it are the same things the smaller world of the previous game accommodated perfectly well.”
“While Arkham Origins misses a huge opportunity with its assassins, it handles Batman’s biggest antagonist impeccably. Origins recounts the first meeting between Batman and the Joker and digs deep into the warped psychology of the villain.”
“Batman: Arkham Origins delivers more of what made Rocksteady’s games great, but doesn’t break new ground. Like a youthful Bruce Wayne, it isn’t as crafty, and it takes its dings during combat, but still puts on a hell of a show when it needs to. Once Joker steps into the spotlight, it becomes a hard game to put down.”
With tomorrow’s big release of [amazon_link id=”B00C7103DO” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Batman: Arkham Origins[/amazon_link] lets not forget that there is a handheld version coming to 3DS and Vita. Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate is a 2.5D game in the make of Metroid.
This ten minute video has a good look at the gameplay and how your bat-skills will be implemented on the small screen.
[amazon_link id=”B00C7103C0″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate[/amazon_link] releases on October 25th.
Batman can’t wait on Santa Claus this Christmas. Black Mask is too busy trying to end The Dark Knight’s career before it really starts by hiring the world’s greatest assassins to take him out. The new trailer shows the dangers Batman will face in the prequel to 2009’s Arkham Asylum and 2011’s Arkham City.
[amazon_link id=”B00C7103DO” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Batman: Arkham Origins[/amazon_link] releases on October 25th.
http://youtu.be/9k3hi3oGq6A
DC and Marvel go head to head this week with the release of Batman: Arkham Origins and Lego Marvel Super Heroes. Deus Ex returns in a director’s cut and the music video game genre is not completely dead with Rocksmith 2014.
Next week is when it gets big with Assassin’s Creed IV, Battlefield 4 and WWE 2K14. The holiday games have begun.
October 22nd
[amazon_link id=”B00B98HBTA” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Lego Marvel Super Heroes[/amazon_link] (360, PS3, Wii U, Vita, DS, 3DS)
Hans Zimmer has spent the last eight years crafting the cinematic music for the DC movie universe. He has handled every installment of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy and this year’s Man of Steel. When it comes to 2015’s huge team-up film, the composer is not so sure he wants to return to the studio.
“Honestly, I’m just sort of grappling with that right now. Quite seriously, the thought right now is that no, I don’t want to go and take what I did with Chris and just plonk it into another movie. There isn’t one good reason to do it, and there are so many good reasons not to do it.
Zack hasn’t talked to me about it, so I don’t have to worry about it! I’ll worry about it when I have to worry about it, and then, if I’m lucky, I’ll have an idea. If I have an idea, I can do something with that, but if I don’t have an idea, then my good idea is going to be, ‘Get somebody else.’”
Now first off, I loved Zimmer’s work on all four films. Yes, it can get a bit repetitive. The Dark Knight is by far the most complete soundtrack of the bunch but all four of them are instantly recognizable. His work on Man of Steel this year was especially commendable considering whoever does music for a Superman film is always living in the shadow of John Williams.
That being said, I hope he does take a break and let someone else take a shot at it. There are many composers who could make this soundtrack memorable. First on my list would be Michael Giacchino. His work on 2009’s Star Trek and this year’s Star Trek Into Darkness were wonderful and for anyone who doubts him, just go and listen to the Up soundtrack for which he won an Oscar. I can still tear up to that music.
There would be no problem going with someone unexpected also like Batman: Arkham City composer Nick Arundel who absolutely killed the music for that game.
Whoever is hired they have a massive task ahead of them. They have to bring the sense of hope that Superman embodies as well as craft a new Batman theme that must accompany the most scrutinized actor to ever play the part.
Who would you like to bring their talents to Batman vs. Superman?
