Over at the Eidos booth you'll find Arkham Asylum demo units all over the place. There's probably even more over at the Sony booth. It's everywhere. Heck, it's even on our hotel key cards. Clearly Rocksteady Studios and Eidos seem proud of this work, and they have every reason to be. After going through the demo each of the three days of the show, it's pretty safe at this late stage in development to call Arkham Asylum the best Batman game ever made, and the new benchmark for superhero titles.

The E3 demo takes us on a journey through the tutorial section of the game, which is so complete that you could mistake it for a core part of the game. It was just the intro. You're introduced to the core characters (Batman, Gordon, Joker, Harley) and Joker sets the trap that throws the whole nightmare into motion. As Batman you've got a lot of tricks at your disposal, and the combo attack system will give the passing illusion that this is a brawler, but don't think for one second that you can play through this as though it were a simple action title. It's not, and button mashing will get you nowhere. Batman is human in this game, and that fact will be made clear to you on many an occasion. You can't rush into combat against a superior foe(s); you'll be downed in less than ten seconds. Batman has always been about using stealth to gain the technical advantage and make your take-downs in the silent of the night. This is represented here fully. Combat is reliant on your skills as a detective and your ability to sleuth around without being seen – just as it should be. Using detective mode, you can view your enemies' heart rate and current emotional status. The more nervous they are, the more they'll be actively looking for you. The more silent take-downs you perform, the more of them you can eliminate before sounding the proverbial alarm and raising the stakes. Your suit takes visual damage over the course of the game, but it doesn't seem to affect gameplay. You'll receive upgrades as you progress to both your abilities and you gadgets (and thankfully, the batarang supply is endless). The entire world of Arkham is interconnected and you gain access to new areas as you gain new abilities. You can also backtrack and find surprises you couldn't access before. Story progression is linear and will advance as you progress through the game, but you're free to go anywhere you're currently able to access, which strikes a great balance between linear storytelling and non-linear exploration.



You've got the best of both worlds here. Many fans love the classic 1993 animated series that ran on Fox Kids for its art deco style and unbelievably high quality (and high profile) voice acting talent. Yet others love the dark and grittier comic book mythos. What if you crammed the best of both into one game world? Kevin Conroy is the ultimate Batman, and Mark Hamill's joker has lost nothing over the years. You can tell the actors had a lot of fun working with Paul Dini's script, far removed from the content and language restrictions of Saturday morning television.

One last thing. When asked if Robin was included in the game in some way, the developers on hand only had to say this, "We haven't announced him yet." Take that as you will. It may mean nothing, but it's worth mentioning. Regardless of what type of Batman fan you are, what medium you prefer, or what era you come from, you owe it to yourself to experience the ultimate Batman experience: Arkham Asylum. Maybe it sounds like I'm gushing, but play it for yourself in a couple of months and see if you don't agree.