For those of you who were wondering, the Batman: Arkham Asylum demo was recently released on the Ps3 and Xbox 360 on Friday. I had previously played this game at E3, and while I felt the game still had some ways to go, I was impressed by the quality of the visuals achieved with the Unreal Engine. I finally took the time to sit down with the recent consumer demo for the PS3 and was actually able to enjoy it a bit more in the comfort of my own home. The first thing I had noticed, which I hadn’t really taken the time to appreciate beforehand, was Mark Hamil’s reprisal of his patented Joker, whose voice many of us had come to associate with the character due to his wonderful performances on various Batman animated series. It wasn’t long before it struck me that the entire cast of the original animated series had returned to do the voices, clearly playing to my nostalgia.

The demo starts with a wonderfully rendered Gotham skyline, and quickly follows with a cinematic opening using the very impressive in-game graphics. It was at this point that I recognized half of a musical cue, which was kind of nice, but would have been better had they simply licensed the music from the series for arrangement. Maybe Danny Elfman wasn’t too fond of them using it–who knows. The sound was also notably loud, but that’s alright since you can easily adjust that in the options menu.

Once you get down to the actual game play, they immediately have you fighting a mob of enemies to help you get used to the combat. The game tends to shift between “bullet-time” and real time when you brawl hand-to-hand, allowing you to seemingly have plenty of time to counter attacks. This makes it a bit too easy if you ask me, and I hope later battles start becoming more fast paced as you progress through the game, but that might just be wishful thinking. Other portions of the demo show off the “detective mode,” which gives Batman the ability to see things such as people’s condition, heart rate, weaknesses in structural integrity, and other potentially helpful things. There’s nothing that makes you use it sparingly, which might take away from a lot of the challenge. You’re also encouraged to sneak around more powerful opponents and to avoid guns, as Batman isn’t Superman–he can be shot to death.

The demo actually ran pretty long, and while I really enjoyed what I played, I have to wonder about the length of the game. I’m not really sure how long it’d take someone to complete but that said, the game is pretty spectacular and might be worth having just for the amazing acting. Oh, and seeing as the PS3 version of the game allows you to play as The Joker, that should at least double the play time. The game itself should be hitting stores in the US on August 25th.

I know what you’re thinking. It’s an anime convention, why would anyone want to go to those if all they want to do is play games? Well, the answer is simple. Most of the people who go to these cons play games too. Sure they might not play the same games that you do, but you never know. A lot of these conventions feature game rooms filled with all the latest hits. You get everything from your racing titles, to Dance Dance Revolution, Street Fighter 4, Tekken 6, and more. It’s a wonder why most gamers don’t consider going. Could it be the weird people who like to dress up in costumes? To be honest, they tend to be nice and will avoid you if you avoid them.

This week at Anime Expo here in Los Angeles, several companies had a small presence to show off a few of their latest titles. Tomy, Capcom, Atlus, and NIS all had a presence in some shape or forum, though arguably Atlus had the largest booth. And why not? Their games easily appeal to these kids. Frankly I was in shock when I didn’t see Namco Bandai with a booth this year. On the other hand, their upcoming fighter Tekken 6 was present in the arcade for everyone to play, assuming they had the quarters to pump into it. Aksys also showed off it’s latest fighter BlazBlue, which looks and plays like a super high resolution Guilty Gear. That said, I really enjoyed it and felt it was nice to see something new instead of just another Guilty Gear title. In short, if you’re a developer or a publisher, take note. These people buy your products and deserve to try them as much as anyone else.

[Image Source: Anime Expo]