Square Enix

Square Enix bought Eidos Interactive way back and now they have announced that the reorganization of the two is now finished. The combined businesses will no longer be Square Enix Eidios but will now be called Square Enix Europe.

“Today marks a major achievement towards the goals we announced in July and represents the creation of an efficient and powerful structure for game development and publishing.” said Phil Rogers, president and chief executive officer of Square Enix Europe. “We have a formidable product-line up which truly showcases the diversity of our exceptional gaming brands.”

Batman Arkham Asylum

Eidos Interactive and Warner Bros. Interactive announced the Insane Night Map Pack for Batman:Arkham Asylum. The good news is that it’s coming September 17 on PSN, XBL, and Games for Windows and the better part is that it’s free. The pack will include two new challenge maps.

“In the ‘Totally Insane’ FreeFlow Combat map, players will be tested to their fullest as scores of escaped lunatics bear down upon BATMAN as they make their escape through the asylum’s secure records facility. These fast-moving foes will challenge all but the most practiced players, with quick reactions and expert timing needed to fend off wave upon wave of insane inmates, bent on taking down the DARK KNIGHT. In the ‘Nocturnal Hunter’ Invisible Predator map, players take on a wholly different approach, practicing their predatory skills to remain in the shadows, utilizing the Arkham watchtowers and Batman’s arsenal of gadgets to gain the upper hand on The Joker’s army of goons patrolling below.”

Free is always good and it should add to your experience. A random bit of trivia, Batman: Arkham Asylum has earned a Guinness World Record for ‘Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever.’

“Arkham Asylum” seems to revolve around the criminals of Gotham City, all mixed together in psychopathic hell. Batman’s previous track-record may have created a few, good pessimists, but this beat ‘em up may inspire an attitude adjustment…and thank the ‘Game Gods’ for that. Firstly, I should mention that I have taken more of a liking to Batman as opposed to any other DC or Marvel superhero and there are two, very good reasons why I play favorites. I enjoy Batman because, aside from hiding behind a mask, he keeps it as real as it gets, you know? He’s got a bunch of high-quality, technological gadgets that may or may not be a little too amazing for humanity. Still, Bruce Wayne is really just a vulnerable batling under his solid, crotch cup. Thankfully, “Arkham Asylum” takes his vulnerability into consideration. The battle scenarios play similarly to “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” where Batman can perform fancy combos in slo-mo—an approach I found to be plain, simple fun albeit a real lack of challenge. I mean, the game signals players when to counter-attack and aiming with Batman’s famous boomerang is a no-brainer.

Now, the demo teaches players to be cautious, calculating, and of course, deadly. In order to better protect our Caped Crusader, Batman is able to enter “Detective Mode,” an alternate eye-sight; “Detective Mode” allows him to better analyze his surroundings and is especially nifty when the environment is advantageous to his safety. “Detective Mode” is also hilarious because Batman can read a person’s level of anxiety—most baddies are apparently “nervous” and who wouldn’t be, right? Being able to strike our victims in a clever, terrifying manner is always fun, but for my sake, I hope Gargoyles won’t be the only interactive object in the environment. Sure, I enjoy hanging off stone objects like a real bat, but I’d also like to uh, chuck a chair at Joker’s security camera or something. I thought the graphics were so pretty and I often found myself wishing I could play with things in the background, but that didn’t seem to be a main concern for Rocksteady, unfortunately. As stunning as the graphics are, “Arkham Asylum” will most likely remain just as linear as previous titles. In my opinion, some games are made to play in a straight-line and I’m never the one to complain as long as it plays good within its boundaries.

Altogether, “Arkham Asylum” looks worthy of a play-through and will probably reach some popularity with Batman fans. Batgirl is in a wheelchair and Harley Quinn isn’t wearing her infamous jester suit, but I have zero complaints. I’m looking forward to crossing paths with all these legendary villains. Let’s see what they’re made of when this gangsta goes all bat-crazy on them.

Mini Ninja

Warner Bros. Interactive and Eidos have released some new videos for Mini Ninjas. Mini Ninjas will be released on September 8th for 360, PS3, Wii, PC and DS.

The video today features some gameplay and introduces a new character, Futo.

Futo is the largest of the mini ninjas and wrote a haiku:
Futo, slow but strong
A big heart wins the battle
He wields a hammer

Enjoy the videos!

Square Enix

Square Enix has officially taken over Eidos and made it Square Enix Europe. Phil Rogers will now be the head of the European branch.

“Square Enix and Eidos Interactive are pleased to announce plans to create a new organisation to drive forward their European business,” an Eidos spokesperson told MCV.

“Square Enix Europe (final name TBC) will include Eidos’ global network of studios and combine the Square Enix and Eidos European sales and marketing businesses to create one efficient and powerful structure for game publishing.”

“In North America the current Square Enix organisation will continue to serve this market. All marketing, sales and distribution functions will be transferred from Eidos Inc to Square Enix in this territory.”

The move might cause some of the current staff their job. The spokesperson added:

“Unfortunately we are expecting some jobs to be impacted directly by this in both Europe and North America. We are hoping to minimise this wherever possible and offer support and advice to any employees directly affected.”

Kotaku has confirmed with Eidos that 25 workers have been laid off at California-based developer, Crystal Dynamics.

“We can confirm that Crystal Dynamics has made a reduction of approximately 25 people at the San Francisco studio,” a company representative told news site Kotaku.

“This decision is a reflection of the continued drive to focus resources at the studio. We would like to thank all of the employees affected by this difficult decision for their hard work during their time at Crystal and we wish them all the best in the future.”

The studio started to have problems when Tomb Raider Underworld sold under expectations. Because of that, no new titles had been assigned to Crystal Dynamics.

The demo was run by Lead Game Designer, Peter Johansson of Avalanche Studios and George Wright, the game’s Associate Producer at Eidos.  They jumped right into the demo of the game, starting at a high point in the island showing off the impressive Avalanche Engine.  The graphics are crisp, clear, and really bring the island of Panau to life.  The screenshots really don’t do the game justice, it is really quite beautiful.  The game uses a chaos system, meaning the more chaos you can cause, the more missions will unlock.  He literally jumped right in, showing off the vertical game play with the parachute.  The parachute opens instantly and allows you to steer, grapple, and dual wield weapons.  You can use dual grapple hooks, allowing you to tether people to things as well as smash people and things together – again, making for more innovative and stylistic ways to kill the enemy.

The AI was redone from scratch so it’s important to keep moving…the AI will actually work together to flank you or call for back up if you stay in one place for too long.  You are able to hijack vehicles and engage in driving combat as well as aerial combat with helicopters, as we saw in the demo.  There are over 100 vehicles in the game including boats, planes, helicopters, cars, and bikes.   There are many different types of weapons and those weapons and vehicles can all be upgraded on the Black Market.

The game also features realtime damage which will affect how your vehicle handles and can lead to more difficult driving and even your car flipping.  You can use the grapple hook anywhere, including on the vehicles.  You can grapple to vehicles and beat up enemies, “car surf”, and hijack moving vehicles – providing you have killed or thrown out all the enemies that occupied it.

While I never played the first game, there are a lot of really cool things going on in Just Cause 2 that piqued my interest and I think I’ll be picking up the first one to prep for this one.  At the end of the demo, we had the opportunity to engage in a Q & A session and I thought one of the funniest questions asked was regarding outfits.  He said “I know that this is something that mostly girls would be into, but will there be different outfits for Rico?”  He also added no offense as the demo was nothing but men with the exception of Elizabeth and me.  The answer was no, that they had thought about it but how to explain where he got the outfits or the time to change into them wasn’t something they felt they wanted to tackle.  I just found it rather comical that it was a male asking the question.

Bad news for those that like multiplayer as there will be no multiplayer mode – at least at the moment – although, there was no hint that it might be available, so I wouldn’t hold my breath.  I asked if there was any DLC planned and the response was that there were possibilities but no details were available at this time.

And sorry folks, but at this time, there are no plans to make a Lego version of Just Cause 2.

With over 60 missions to unlock, the game looks like it will provide several hours of game play.  Just Cause 2 will be available on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC in 2010.

Watch the E3 2009 Trailer:

They found my weak spot for a collector’s edition. I want the Batarang. Bad. Not so others can pretend to throw it, but because it would look great amongst my other collectibles. I wasn’t even considering the collector’s edition before. Now it will depend on if I get a job.

Eidos announced what the collector’s edition of Batman: Arkham Asylum will contain. You’ll get the following in the collector’s edition:
• 14″ Batarang with stand
o Matches the Batarang’s in-game design
• Arkham Doctor’s Journal
o 48 pages of notes on Arkham’s inmates
o Embossed leather dust jacket
• 2 Sleeve Digi-pack, including:
o Game disc
o Behind-the-scenes DVD
• Code for downloadable Challenge Map
o Exclusive “Crime Alley” map, available immediately
• Full-color Manual

If you are excited about the game you can also join their Facebook page to keep up to date on all the news from Eidos. The title will be out this summer.