That's a lot of Batman

Batman Day is a real thing, apparently. I only learned about it yesterday when posting that Fortnite leak, but I guess this "holiday" is a bigger deal than I realized. In celebration of the Dark Knight's own day, Epic Games is giving out six different Batm??an? titles for absolutely nothing. That's a hell of a free gift and could occupy you for dozens of? hours.

If you boot up the launcher, you'll be able to grab the Batman: Arkham Collection and LEGO Batman Trilogy collections. As should be evident, these two bundles contain all three of their respective Batman titles in one easy package. In the case of the Arkham titles, both Asylum and City are the "Game of the Year" editions (which include all of the DLC released for both). Arkham Knight and LEGO Batman 3, though, do not have their DLC present.

That may be a little disappointing, but this is still a solid deal. I don't much care for LEGO Batman 2, bu?t basically, all of these games are worth a look. At the low price of free, you'd? be silly to pass it up. The offer will be up for grabs until September 26, so you have some time to nab it.

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Complete with off-TV GamePad support

Later this Spring, TT Games and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will be putting out a Wii U version of last year's LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, which w??as something of a departure f??rom the franchise with its full voice acting.

Of course, potential buyers will want to know if this ?port makes good use of the?? system's GamePad. In short: yes, it does. There will be an "enhanced" interactive map and character-select ability on the GamePad, in addition to support for off-TV mode, and the option to have player two use the television to avoid screen sharing.

The original versions have sold more than 3.4 million units worldwide,?? so it only seems natural that we'd get yet another.

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LEGO games. Love 'em or hate 'em, they're not going anywhere. There's always some pop culture property out t??here that looks so ridiculous yet so FUN when don??e up in LEGO blocks. For the most part, the core gameplay has stayed the same for many of these titles; there has been little innovation or change of the tried-and-true formula.

Until now. Mind you, this is both a ??good t??hing and a bad thing.

LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Xbox 360 [reviewed], PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation Vita, DS, 3DS, PC)
Developer: Traveller's Tales
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Released: June 19, 2012
MSRP: $49.99

We all know what the LEGO games are about by now: building things out of blocks, collecting coin-like pieces, and obtaining kits, gold blocks, and red blocks for unlockables in a pop culture-inspired world. Once again, we visit the realm of Batman with an original story unique to the LEGO franchise in that it's not based off the film exploits; a trait the original LEGO Batman game held as well.

This time out, however, the series' trademark "humor" isn't expressed with grunts and grins, but with actual voice acting. While this may impress some, I actually preferred the silent characters of the previous games. It does add a little more to the story and jokes, but overall, it's not something that was necessary fo?r the series.

Regardless, ?it's there now. And as such, we're treated to a?? variety of cut scenes where characters pop up to explain what's going on. In a nutshell: Lex Luthor and the Joker team up to take out both the Dark Knight as well as Superman and reduce the LEGO version of both Gotham City and Metropolis to bricks. It takes the (eventual) combined efforts of not just Batman and Robin, but then Superman -- and finally the rest of the DC heroes -- to take down the baddies. Everyone got that?

From the start, it's your standard LEGO fare: beat up enemies and build stuff. You'll play through almost the entire first half of the story as Batman and Robin, with only occasional interjections from the Last Son of Krypton. There is a series of special suits the dynamic duo can use, each intended to help them bypass certain puzzles and traps in each stage. Blue LEGO bits are magnetic and can be manipulated by Robin's Magnet Suit; similarly, if it's covered in electricity, only Batman can traverse it in his aptly named Electricity Suit. Some suits serve a dual purpose such as Robin's Acrobatic outfit, which not only allows him to swing from poles but also jump into a bubble to manipulate stress panels (such as those seen in the LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean game last year).

As you progress through the first few levels, the rest of Gotham opens up as your hub world, and the true scale of the game is finally realized. This is a huge title, with gold bricks and unlockable characters strewn all around the city. As you unlock Batman's Batcomputer link ups, you'll reveal enemy LEGO figures nearby, which onc?e defeated will then be available for purchase with LEGO studs and added to your roster for Free Play. The Batcomputer also serves as a drop? for a variety of vehicles, which are totally necessary, as traversing the city on foot would just take too damn long.

Sadly, the open-world hub between missions proves to be an annoyance more than the cool mode the developers had intended. The compass in the top left corner of the screen is practically useless, and the map screen is so sparse that being able to decipher which way you're heading ?or even facing is?? an exercise in madness. This is only made worse when continuing a game after saving.

While in a mission, there are a few nodes that appear at the beginning of sections where you can choose to save and continue, save and exit, or just ignore. If you choose save and exit, you're dumped back onto the street where you began the mission, or as far back as to the Batcave. The problem here is, however, that when starting the game up again, you begin your load in the Batcave. If you go to the Batcomputer map, it only shows the missions you've already completed, not the one your progress is currently sav??ed in. To resume that game, you must drive through the city to the Bat symbol located on the map, then enter the location as you did when you originally began the mission. You may be fooled into thinking you may have to start the entire mission over, as the loading news report that begins each mission plays again, but thankfully, it should start you where you saved.

On that note, the whole save system is a joke. They still use checkpoints which save your progress, so using the save points is just a false sense of "it'll be fine to stop here." Plus, if you've col??lected any minikits while traipsing through the level and then use the save feature, when you reload your game, it's as if you never collected it to begin with. This ensures ?yet another collection run through during Free Play (if you're into that kind of thing).

Once you get into enough deep guano in the story, Superman shows up to lend a hand, and the flying aspect of his character is one of the most satisfying elements in the missions. What's more, he's invincible, only stoppe?d by Kryptonite or blocked by hazards that one of the duo needs to bypass with a special suit. Blasting baddies with laser vision or freezing them with super-breath is tons of fun, and a silly highlight of the missions.

For some inexplicable reason, while Superman's flight controls are perfectly easy to maneuver in the missions, when entering the city hub, it's a huge pain in the ass to control him. They add a targeting reticule so he can laser blast stuff to free gold bricks, but the landing and fli??ght controls are suddenly switched from the easy button mapping used in the missions. Why they chose to change the liftoff to a boost ?I'll never understand.

If there's one other quibble I would have with the game, it's that the control for certain things was a bit glitched. There's one story mission of DC Super Heroes where you must destroy silver LEGO blocks and build something from the remains to advance. Silver blocks can only be destroyed by an explosion, such as from the rockets of Batman's Power? Suit, but there isn't a power suit in that level.

There are some jetpacks, however, but after jumping in and out of them, I couldn't figu?re out how to fire the rockets clearly mounted on the back. Sometimes I would press the B button, and it would fire, while others, it would make my jetpack boost me in reverse. I must've wailed on my controller for half an hour trying to get it to recognize the action I wanted it to perform. Granted, this seemed to be an isolated incident, but one that stood out as frustrating enough to explicitly note.

By the game's end, you'll have unlocked more heroes like the Flash and Green Lantern, all of whom are necessary for getting 100% of the bricks and studs in the game, which can unlock more vehicles, characters, and minikits. And while the voice acting isn't great -- the Joker's voice, in particular, gets on my nerves -- there are some humorous bits in the dialogue, such as Bats' constant slighting of Robin, Robin's hero worship of Superman, and a few sly digs at the title's "big brother," Arkham City.

If you're a fan of the LEGO titles, there's a lot to enjoy in LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, and the new bits Traveller's Tales added -- when they work -- work wonderfully. When they don't, though, be prepared t?o buy a new controller as you hurl the one in your hands through the wall.

The post Review: LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes appeared first on Destructoid.

LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is being billed as the first LEGO game to feature talking characters, even though it totally isn't. While the series may have gotten away from using voice acting in recent years, seemin?g to prefer grunts and other non verbal means of communication, the spoken word has its genesis in the toymaker's first piece of software.

Released back in 1997, LEGO Island may not be much to look at or listen to any longer, but it holds the distinction that Warner Bros and Traveller's Tales are looking to usurp. But I suppose that really doesn't matter, just a marketing complaint from a cr?otchety gamer with fond memories of delivering plasticy pizzas and hunting down that notorious Brickster.

Anyway, back to the game that people actually care about. Batman won't just have Robin at his side in this adventure, as some of the other Super Friends will be at The Caped Crusader's side to rescue Gotham from the clu??tches of Lex Luthor and The Joker when the adventure begins on June 19 for the PlayStations, Xbox 360, Wii??, 3DS and PC.

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Did you check out our preview for LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes? Good, because you should also really watch the new trailer. It's not only filled with cute LEGO stuff that makes me wish for my lost childhood LEGO collection, but there's a joke near the end?????????????????????????? that made me die laughing.

Wasn't e??xpecting voice acting at all. Bravo, Warner Brothers.

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Batman's back (in LEGO form) and he brought his friends along for sequel in LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. Not just Robin, though. Superman, The Flash, Wonder Woman and Aquaman are among the blocky heroes, and The Joker and Lex ??Luthor have the villain thing on lock, as always. Last week we go??t our first hands-on preview with the title, so read on to see how it all ... stacks up.

Sorry about that.

Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Vita, 3DS)
Developer: Traveler's Tales
Publisher: WB Games
Releases: June 19, 2012 

The Joker and Lex Luthor have teamed up to spring all the bad guys in Arkham Asylum with a deconstruction weapon that can tear open the blocks that make the prison. Gotham City's heroes, Batman and Robin, swoop in for riot control, and they handle the job quite well at first, but it eventually ??becomes a situation where the Justice League needs to be called in. 

The gameplay in LEGO Batman 2 is delightfully simple. I steered a LEGO mini-figure version of Robin in a cooperative session with another attending press member playing as Batman (LEGO Batman 2 supports drop-in/drop-out play fo?r a second player at any time) in the fight against Arkham's worst, kicking, punching, grabbing and throwing my way through them. A simple combo system lets you string attacks together, but more advanced attacks come from character-specific suits that add new abilities for combat and navigation.

Early on we saw that Batman has a electricity suit that lets him power-up to do special takedowns as well as power up equipment for puzzle solving. I liked Robin's acrobatic suit, which lets him throw poles into surfaces to swing on and jump from, enabling him to reach higher platforms. The poles can also be used as a baton-like weapon, but it pales in comparison to the suit's hamster ball ability, which lets Robin roll around to smash baddies and other obstacles. These?? are just a couple of the many suits available.

This high level of accessibility combined with some depth in abilities and combat means that you can sit down to play LEGO Batman 2 with a child and you'll both will have a good time. I certainly did.

I really enjoyed the dynamic presentation of the two-player session. The split-screen isn't static, and will move around to highlight the action, with the division constantly moving depending on where each player stands. If both players are near each other, ther?e is no split, but as they move apart, the dividing bar will tilt and spin freely, and the camera will zoom in to highlight the action. This makes for a cinematic presentation, making your co-op session look something like an animated movie.

For the first time, all of the LEGO game characters have been fully voiced. The work I saw in a presentation and gameplay was top notch, with Superman and Joker being the most notable. The dialogue is packed with wisecracks and jabs, making for some ??pretty funny cutscenes.

In one scene, Superman teams up with Batman to head to Lexcorp to get some answers. Superman opens the door for?? Batman, which has him groaning. Inside, the receptionist asks for their names. Superman asks, "Seriously?" After names were given, the receptionist asks if these were their last names. Batman jokes that even Luthor's receptionist is evil. Spoiler: Luthor's receptionist actually is evil, as she soon transforms into a sub-boss robot made of the hardest substance known to man. Hilarious.

After I played through the demo mission I was able to get a taste of LEGO Batman 2's open-world. Set in Gotham City, heroes can explo?re fr?eely, taking on missions, picking fights and trying out any of the 70 playable characters. We saw all types of weird experiences in this open world, ranging from crazed Batmobile cruising to Wonder Woman riding on the back of a lion. It all came together for me when I saw LEGO Superman take to the skies, cruising over Gotham's skyscrapers as the Superman theme queued up in the background. 

Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes ??will be released later next month fo??r just about every current game platform on the market, save for mobile.

The post Preview: LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes appeared first on Destructoid.

Those traitorous traitors at Traveller's Tales have added some of that disgusting dialog that you hear in all these modern games nowadays to LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. But that's okay, at least they got?? The Joker's voice actor down. Maybe they'll even get Christian Bale to do his trademark obnoxious gravelly Batman voice. On second thought, that's probably not such a good ide?a.

Personally, it was a little shocking to see what should be a voiceless LEGO character talking. The LEGO games have always been known for their amazing ability to convey humor without any dialog whatsoever, so we'll see how it works out in LEGO Batman 2. Now, the rest of the game is looking spectacular, of course. It'll be cool to see the likes of Superman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman partner?? up with Batman and Robin to take down the legion of LEGO villains that have decided to terrorize Gotham City this time around.

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You don't sell 11 million copies of LEGO Batman: The Video Game and not make a sequel. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has confirmed the existence of exactly such a thing following a prior leak.

LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is going all out t?his spring, with a release on?? Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Windows PC, DS, 3DS, and PlayStation Vita. TT Games has said that Batman, Robin, the Joker, Superman, Lex Luthor, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern are among the characters making an appearance.

What else is in here? Batman's Power Suit, Robin's Hazard Cannon, the Batwing, and the Batmobile. Let your foes feel the same pain you experienced when yo??u last st??epped on a LEGO.

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