Let me start out by saying how happy I am that they went with Kevin Conroy (Batman) and Mark Hamil (Joker) for the voice acting. I really think there’s only one man who can play the animated Joker, and he happens to be a jedi. In general, the voice actors chosen are fantastic, as many of them are reprising their roles from the early 90s animated series. I do like the overall look of the game, it’s quite shiny, and I will most likely get it.

That said, there are a few things that really got to me in the short time I played Mr. Dark Knight himself. The biggest issue being that while the voice acting is brilliant, the physical movement of the character’s faces is too stiff.

Here’s a pretty good video from the demo that shows the character’s speaking. Watch it in HD if you can, the graphics really are too lovely not to.

Watching that demo video shows what I’m talking about, the characters felt like puppets to me, with video of their mouths moving slightly placed on top. The voices contain so much emotion, but it just doesn’t match up perfectly with the character’s physical movements that it’s hard to become immersed in the game. I understand the reasoning behind Batman, he’s a stoic, flat figure. Staying calm to make other feel better about their situation but with a hint of world weariness that shows how much he just wants to go home, take off the cowl and put on some nice fluffy batslippers and relax. That’s what Kevin Conroy describes with his version of Batman, and if the game were animated like the WB show, I don’t think I would mind that he really doesn’t move. But this is 3D, this is engaging theatre, where characters are exaggerated to add dynamism to the total experience, and the physical acting of the characters just don’t fully do that.

Perhaps we should look at the most exaggerated villain the demo has to offer, The Joker:

Unfortunately, the trailer cuts away very quickly so you only see a few seconds of him speaking at a time, but if you watch the first 10 seconds of the demo video again you can see him speaking uncut. His cheeks are two apples, always prominent with his permanent smile, and his mouth never seems to close all the way. It’s stretched, as it should be, but at the same time, not stretched enough. Listening to Mark Hamil’s performance without video brings a more dynamic image to mind, but his face doesn’t change too much in the game. Watching it again, I think this is due to the fact that his lips move a basic up and down, and don’t form the words like they should. Try saying, “Welcome to the madhouse, Batman! I set a trap, and you sprang it gloriously!”, even while smiling you can feel your lips forming the shapes of the words, and even exaggerating it in a mirror makes you look crazier than the Joker does in this game.

His physical movements hurt his character a bit too, I think he’s far too flaily, he has as much physical expression as a lollipop. Part of the attraction of the Joker is how smooth he is, fluid expression comes naturally even as he screams gibberish. Here, he’s a puppet. All they need to do is attach some strings to him and it’ll be perfect.

Which brings me to my next point, the character designs. Oh, the character designs…

Was there a need to redesign Harley Quinn’s outfit? She’s as well known for her skintight-lycra bodysuit as Joker is for his purple suits, and we all love her for it. The only reason the developers decided to change her outfit was probably this:

Seriously, it’s got to be because she doesn’t show enough skin, nevermind that the bloody thing is SKINTIGHT. I’m not sure why this bothers me so much, that they decided to sex her up, probably because it’s completely unnessicary and even the Character Bio screen that you unlock in the game shows her in her onepiece. I know the onepiece suit has been redesigned too, but the changes are small and flattering, not oversexualized. Harley isn’t supposed to be a sex kitten as much as she is bumbling and stupid, Poison Ivy, on the hand…

Is still over sexualized and wearing nothing, but at least it fits her character more.

There’s the matter of Killer Croc. His character design evolved since the first concept art pieces surfaced:

Perhaps he took more steroids? This ridiculous made-up muscle creature they turned him into is one of my pet peeves. I see it all the time in comics, meaty characters who have muscle on top of muscle on top of muscle when it’s just kind of placed there because it looks cool. It looks bloody stupid, and like the character designer didn’t bother to consider humanoid anatomy. They did this for Bane too, and it looks just as gross. In fact, now that I put that body builder photo next to the Killer Croc concept…I think the artist just used him as their model. I wonder if they stumbled upon that photo the same way I did, Googling “gross body builder.”

I much prefer the original design, frankly. But in the end, Killer Croc is just a Locust with a dental problem.

Even though I nitpick these problems with the characters, the actual gameplay is quite fun. I’m generally more of a run-in-guns-blazin’ kind of gal, so I’ll need to get used to being quiet and calculating now with Batman. Hopefully, the fact that combat is pretty free-flowing and you trying to avoid physical contact will appeal to people who can’t grasp first-person shooters.

The run and walk combination will also take some getting used to for me, since when I run I tend to have a hard time changing direction. Oh well, that’s not an issue most people will have I think. Fighting is very easy to get used to. You can button mash or calculate combos with ease. I never felt overwhelmed once.

The health system is still foreign to me, the demo didn’t show how you heal and it seemed like Batman had very little health for being so bulky. The full games looks like it’s going to offer a LOTof fun elements, but the demo was a nice, albeit short, taste. Oh Dark Knight, I can’t wait to fall under your stoic, unmoving spell.

So let’s do a quick life update:

Biggest news: I graduated from SCAD with cum laude honours. I’ve now officially got a BFA in Sequential Art and I’m ready to take on the comics world! Whoo! I have no plans to return to Savannah any time soon, but I’ll nonetheless treasure my time there.

Bigish News: My mother took the plunge and got laser eye surgery! She went with monovision and PRK. I had PRK and wrote an extensive journal on my healing, which you can read here. She’s healing a bit slower then I did, but she’s also quite a bit older. So my father and I have been helping out and driving her to and from work. I think in the end, she’ll be really happy, but it will take a little time.

Everyday news: I’m still working on the Marvel Official Handbooks as an art refurbisher. Once Handbook #9 is published, (end of July), I can begin to show you all what exactly I’ve been doing. Otherwise, I’ve been slowly colouring test pages for Marvel and wasting my time playing Fallout 3. Man, that game is addictive.

C’mon art blog, stick with me. I swear that when I’m done with school (in about a month!) I won’t neglect you!

Moving on, I haven’t really done anything this break. I haven’t drawn at all, I’ll end up working on website stuff today, and I’ve just been taking care of J. He had all 4 wisdom teeth pulled out on Monday, and has quite a bit of pain as a result, so I’m playing the good wife roll and taking care of him. This means I just end up being lazy and playing DS games instead of doing real work.

Oh well, I guess that’s really what my last spring break should be used for. Fun and games.

The weeks between posts have been busy with work-related nonsense…and uhm…video games XD

I’m pretty addicted to Rock Band right now, not that it helps that J got me a guitar for Christmas. I returned the favour by getting him drums, so now we have a full band set. Anyhoo, I hope you all had a good Christmas and got some pretty excellent gifts. I know I’ll be busy with reading and playing now till I have to go back to school after New Years.

Our plan was to only hit up Best Buy, he wanted a new monitor, I wanted a few seasons of The Simpsons. That was all, no clothes shopping or anything else. Then go home and sleep. Since the last Black Friday I went to, (coincidently a Best Buy), was <span style=”font-style:italic;”>packed</span>, with lines travelling deep into the store, I expected the same madness. But really, we didn’t know what was in store for us, which is why we stood outside for over 2 hours in the cold in a line that reached past the large Kohls set up right next to Best Buy.

Of course, we weren’t that hardcore, we saw several tents set up outside a few stores. That’s crazy to me. The time went by fairly slowly, but just seemed to crawl for the last 10 minutes before the store opened at 5 a.m. It was so much more civil though than the last time I attempted Black Friday! Everyone shuffled inside in an orderly manner, the store was set up with several different lines that separated sections, and everyone was handed a map detailed what lines led to which product group beforehand. Since there was a line for computers, J made his way there to ask for his monitor and I made a beeline to the DVDs. The stock was great too, I was able to pick out all the seasons I wanted, with no crowding or pushing of anybody else.

After that, I met J at the computer line. The lines had little fences made of products. We stood there for a half hour, before the line snaked around and we noticed something. The monitor J was looking for was one of those products fencing us in. Which a quick slap to our foreheads and a jump, we grabbed one of the monitors and rushed to the check-out line. Surely, the line would be horrible, since everyone wanted to rush out and get to their next stop, right?

Wrong again. The line moved quickly and it was no longer than a typical weekend line at this Best Buy. Another fabulous surprise I’d say. We finally arrived home at 6 a.m., and after some badgering from my cat to feed him, fell into bed and slept until 3 p.m.

I’m pretty sure we could have gotten out earlier, if we hadn’t stood in that silly line, but overall I was happily surprised with that Black Friday adventure.

Not that I really want to do it again. Not for several years.

I’m rarely online and never update my profile, but oh my god, what an appropriate friend request XD
This is so much better than some pornstar sending out spam friend requests.I just had to add this profile because…well…look!

Go ahead and tell me you can’t laugh at that. Good god, fat furry small mammals are so my Achille’s heel.

I think the main selling point for my dad is that it’s wireless. After some fiddling around today on both of our laptop, we were able to get it to work perfectly. This makes me quite excited, since now I can just print from anywhere! It’s also got some pretty cool scanner/copier features. Pretty nice early family holiday present I’d say.