E3: The Penguin appears last-minute in Arkham
City demo

post from Destructoid on 09 June 2011 11:05:16 PM. © Destructoid

E3: The Penguin appears last-minute in Arkham City demo screenshot

Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham City is shaping up nicely. The behind-closed-doors E3 demo starts out showing Batman flying around the city before switching to a sexy Catwoman sequence, which Nick will give you full details about soon. But as the final day of E3 wound down, Warner Bros. felt like giving the final viewers something extra. Footage of Oswald Cobblepot, The Penguin, was shown for the first time today.

Batman walks into a large room containing hordes of locked-up criminals. One stumbles towards him; weak, desperate to escape, he hopes Batman will save him. Suddenly, a gunshot rings out, and the man falls to the ground. The Penguin is revealed on a balcony above, his umbrella-gun in hand, pointed at the dead criminal. He is flanked by beefy henchmen. A short back-and-forth ensues between Batman and Cobblepot, talking about how weak the man below was and how the Penguin only accepts the strongest into his gang. He's got an excellent (and cliched) way to find out who's worthy: have them try to kill Batman.

All the criminals are released, prompting a giant melee with lots of opportunities for double takedowns. Bigger brawls are a new focus in Arkham City, since only the end of Arkham Asylum had some large-scale fights. Naturally, Batman takes them all down, prompting the Penguin to leave while noting that Batman wasn't supposed to do that.

The Penguin looked great, a disgusting middle ground between classy mob socialite and Danny DeVito Batman Returns craziness, with a big cracked monocle. I can't wait to see more of his involvement in the game, or whether he'll do something with the other villains. Here's hoping all the villains are done this well.

Batman: Arkham City is due out for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on October 18, 2011.

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E3: Max and Tara go batty over Gotham City
Impostors

post from Destructoid on 09 June 2011 11:05:16 PM. © Destructoid

E3: Max and Tara go batty over Gotham City Impostors screenshot

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Max Scoville and Tara Long had a chance to check out Gotham City Impostors, the more lighthearted of the Batman titles coming this year. They're here to give you the skinny on the new downloadable multiplayer action.

Over the top combat and absurd weapons abound in this comical take on a war waged between wannabes in the streets of Gotham. Check out the video to hear our dynamic duo's impressions.

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Disaster: MotorStorm Apocalypse canceled in Japan
forever

post from Destructoid on 09 June 2011 11:05:16 PM. © Destructoid

Disaster: MotorStorm Apocalypse canceled in Japan forever screenshot

In a turn of events that feels rather sad, Sony Japan has officially cancelled a Japanese release of the PS3 racing game Motorstorm: Apocalypse, which had earlier been placed on indefinite suspension.

Sony gave no specific reason as to the cause of the cancellation, but the motivations are fairly obvious. After all, the game features players racing through a city as it is being actively destroyed by a devastating earthquake and tsunami. Plus, Motorstorm Apocalypse was mere days from release at the time of March 11's great Tohoku earthquake and the subsequent tsunami.

This decision most certainly smacks of over-sensitivity, similar to the over-sensitivity that axed the development of Irem's Disaster Report 4. Personally I'd think Americans should be more sensitive about Motorstorm's destructive aesthetic than Japanese. The city being destroyed is bears an uncanny resemblance to San Francisco. Unless, of course, Americans hate San Francisco now.

That said, I can hardly blame Sony for making the call. People can get offended over the most trivial things, and playing it safe in this case was a fairly harmless option. Besides, Japanese players slavering for the ability to rock San Francisco to its foundations (and below) can always import the game, seeing as the PS3 is region-free.

Motorstorm 3 cancelled in Japan [andriasang via Japanator]

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E3: Max and Tara pull a robbery in Payday: The
Heist

post from Destructoid on 09 June 2011 11:05:15 PM. © Destructoid

E3: Max and Tara pull a robbery in Payday: The Heist screenshot

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Coming seemingly out of nowhere, Payday: The Heist features a dangerous group of four armed robbers who have stolen more than mere millions of dollars. They also made off with my heart.

One of our E3 Game of the Show nominees, check out Max and Tara's impressions of this stunning title for yourself. And stay tuned for a forthcoming interview with Overkill's Ulf Anderssen to go even deeper into the workings of what I hope will be a huge PSN-exclusive success.

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E3: About that dinosaur in Battlefield 3 ...

post from Destructoid on 09 June 2011 11:05:15 PM. © Destructoid

E3: About that dinosaur in Battlefield 3 ... screenshot

The Battlefield 3 presentation at EA's E3 2011 press conference kicked off with a soldier admiring his toy dinosaur keepsake. Most of you, myself included, probably didn't read much more into this moment than "Oh hey, look! A dinosaur!"

There's more to it than that, though. A while back, a thread on 4chan was started by someone claiming to work for Activision. Their post asked for feedback on Modern Warfare, and the replies proceeded to talk all about the startling lack of dinosaurs in those games. Hey, it's true!

I know what you're thinking, and nope, this isn't a coincidence. Check out this tweet by DICE gameplay designer Gustav Halling. Incredible.

[Thanks for sending this in, Simon]

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E3: PS Vita report: Little Deviants, Uncharted,
and more

post from Destructoid on 09 June 2011 10:06:02 PM. © Destructoid

E3: PS Vita report: Little Deviants, Uncharted, and more screenshot

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Destructoid Show co-host Tara Long was able to get her grubby little paws on Sony's new handheld, the PlayStation Vita (that's VEE-tuh, folks), and she's here to tell you about the games she tried out. LittleBigPlanet is cute; Little Deviants makes great use of the front touchscreen and rear touch panel; Sound Shapes is a music-based platformer that also has a level creator; and Uncharted: Golden Abyss lets you draw out paths on the touchscreen for Nathan Drake to climb along.

Tara sounds pretty impressed; I was an NGP naysayer, but I might be coming around.

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E3: The show is over, but we're only getting
started

post from Destructoid on 09 June 2011 10:06:01 PM. © Destructoid

E3: The show is over, but we're only getting started screenshot

Wow, this has been an insane week. We want to thank you, faithful readers, for commenting, tweeting, giving us feedback, and on the whole, putting up with our nonsense. It's been our pleasure getting genuinely happy about videogames during E3 2011.

The show is (officially) over, with the Entertainment Software Association declaring that some 46,800 people attended. It's always a blast, especially when we get new hardware announcements, more follow-ups to beloved franchises, and the occasional refreshing new IP.

We've already done hundreds of posts, but there's even more where that came from, remarkably. In particular, you can expect further hands-on impressions and video coverage from the on-site team over the next couple of days. Better start recovering now. The ESA says E3 2012 will take place from June 5 - 7.

Tell us, what was your favorite E3 moment?

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Square Enix Exec Felt Embarrassed of Its Japanese
E3 Showing

This piece of news has been making the rounds. Square Enix had a good showing this year from its Eidos division with Tomb Raider starting off the Microsoft Press Conference and Deus Ex, Hitman Absolution in the media reports. But what happened to all of Square Enix’s Japanese offerings? Our KHU correspondent Arturo had been [...]

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E3: Hitman: Absolution

Time to put on the red time one more time.

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E3: SEGA's Sonic Boom rapes E3 with pure insanity

E3: SEGA's Sonic Boom rapes E3 with pure insanity screenshot

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Please forgive the quality of this video. No camera created by mortal men can handle the miracle that was SEGA's 20th anniversary party,

Highlights include the lead singer of Crush 40 trying to get people to sing along, Sonic: The Musical, a gorgeously awkward costume contest, and me getting revenge on SEGA's trolling by counter-trolling their Twitter screen. VICTORY IS MINE!

This was the greatest night E3 has ever had.

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