Posts with tag: lego-batman

How better to celebrate Halloween than to don a mask, cape and costume then eat a massive cake? This speed trailer shows the making of a scene from LEGO Batman: The Videogame in cake form.

Download HD LEGO Batman Cake Video (147 MB)
Check out all LEGO Batman downloads

The first LEGO Batman demo had a problem installing, but like any self-respecting LEGO character, it pulled itself together and rebuilt itself. This new demo installs and lets players jump into the LEGO-ized world of Batman, where they can choose to play as a hero or a villain.

Download LEGO Batman: The Videogame Proper Demo (441 MB)

This is the official demo for LEGO Batman: The Videogame. The game allows you to play as the a LEGO version of the Dark Knight or as his sidekick, Robin. Alternatively, players can choose to run around as one of the famous Batman villains to cause mayhem.

Download Proper LEGO Batman: The Videogame Demo (441 MB)
Check out all the LEGO Batman downloads

Fall is truly here. The Cubs didn't make it to the World Series again and new PC games make the NPD Group's top 10 best selling PC games list interesting to check out again. NPD sent out their latest list for the week ending Sept. 27 and Electronic Arts' Spore finds itself back on top this week after falling to second place last week because of the launch of Warhammer Online

Two new games showed up on the list; 2K Games' Civilization IV: Colonization made a solid debut at number 3 while Warner Bros. Interactive's Lego Batman came in at number nine. It replaces S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky who slips off the top 10 list after just one week.

1. Spore - Electronic Arts
2. Warhammer Online - Mythic/Electronic Arts
3. Civilization IV: Colonization - 2K Games
4. Crysis Warhead - Crytek/Electronic Arts
5. The Sims 2 Apartment Life - Electronic Arts
6. World of Warcraft Battle Chest - Blizzard
7. World of Warcraft - Blizzard
8. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts
9. Lego Batman - Traveller's Tales/Warner Bros. Interactive
10. World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade - Blizzard

As we head into the month that has both Octoberfest and Halloween we don't know whether to be scared or to get our party on. Ok, we can do both. But first check out Big Download's highlights from the past week:

Exclusive Features

• Reviews: This week check out our final verdicts on Warhammer Online and Lego Batman. Also we have a look at several PC gaming hardware products from SteelSeries.
• Crysis and Crysis Warhead performance comparisons: Did Crytek really optimize Crysis Warhead? We check out their claims in our benchmark test.
• Is a broadband cap a threat to the game industry?: ISPs are beginning to put limits on how much you can download? Could you go over by downloading large game files?
• The PC Game Vaporware Vault: Which games are we still waiting to be released after years of promises? Quite a few actually.
• The College Try: Failed PC Ports of Console Games: Sometimes a great console game doesn't make a great PC game.
• Mac Monday: Our look at Mac gaming takes on the Wild Tangent online RPG Fate.
• MODMonday: Our mod column continues its look at Max Payne mods with a look at the Kung Fu total conversion.
• Independent Minds: Our look at indie games takes a different turn as we examine how social networking can help indie game developers.
• Boot Disk: Our look at classic PC game takes a gander at the original Interplay RPG Fallout.
• Big Ideas: Our look at big PC gaming trends examines the whole idea of user generated content.
• Big Iron: Our hardware column this week takes a look at the importance of frame rate in games
• Alt-Tab: What qualities does a good PC game need to have? We have an answer in our latest installment.
• Freeware Friday: Our look at games you can get for free gets a load of the arcade shooter Gunroar.
• Virtual Bargain Bin: Our look at games on the cheap takes a look at Steam's id Super Pack and X-Com Complete Pack.
• BigCast: It's our regular weekly podcast as the team debates all matters related to PC games.

I won't lie to you: I'm a huge Batman fan. A Bat-freak, you might say. From collecting comics and watching The Animated Series ad infinitum to camping out for tickets to the midnight showing of new Bat-films (barring the Joel Schumacher travesties), if it's Batman, I'll give it a shot.

So great is my Batman fanaticism that I purposely skipped LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures in order to maintain my anticipation for LEGO Batman. The two properties may seem unrelated, but the truth is, I knew full well that despite all the Batman lore that Traveler's Tales would no doubt cram into a Gotham built brick by LEGO brick, taking in too much of the LEGO action game formula would kill Batman's fun factor quicker than a whiff of the Joker's deadly gas. As I predicted, LEGO Batman is immense fun -- if you can look past the LEGO formula's reoccurring flaws that should have been fixed after the first LEGO Star Wars.

If you haven't picked up LEGO Batman for its whacky LEGO based gameplay centered on well-known (and one or two esoteric) characters, this trailer will remind you of what you're missing. The game allows players to take on roles of LEGO versions of both the heroes and villains from the Batman comic book series.

Download the HD LEGO Batman Launch Trailer (23 MB)
Check out all the LEGO Batman Downloads

Everyone excited for Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway? Great! Too bad PC gamers have to wait for it. While the World War II shooter hits consoles this week the PC version isn't finding its way to stores until early-October. Need something to tie you over in the meantime? Luckily, Barbie: Eye For Style is landing this week!

Has anyone ever stopped to think that everyone says PC gaming is dying because they release such drivel on a regular basis? Those of you looking for a real game this week can pick-up LEGO Batman. Sure, it's a lighthearted approach to the Batman franchise but it offers a few laughs and enough fan service to fill a BatCave. Seriously, the BatCave is in it too. Also, it's always a plus when you don't need to hear Christian Bale groan as The Bat. Let's face it, he seriously sounds like he needs a lozenge.

Jump in for the rest of the releases for the week ending September 27.

How often have you groaned at seeing that one of your favorite movies, books, comic books, or even TV shows was going to be making the jump to video game status? How often have your fears been justified? Perhaps a better question would be: How often have you been pleasantly surprised by a video game adaptation?

It's an all-too-common scenario: based on the sales numbers of a given property, a media conglomerate will sell a license out to whomever thinks they might do a good job of spreading the brand to different markets. A movie will turn into a novelization, a comic book adaptation, a spin-off television series, a direct-to-DVD movie, a line of toys and assorted merchandise, and eventually, a video game. The wisdom of this approach seems to lie in the idea that "If they liked it once, they'll like it again". In many cases, adapting a book to a movie is relatively innocuous; many survive the transition quite well. When it comes to making a video game from a movie, or book, or any other medium, however, all bets are off. Why? It's because the strengths of one medium are not the strengths of another.

You may be reading that headline and go, "Who is the wide, wide world of sports is Hush?" And you would ask that question if you were not a hardcore Batman fan. For those of us who are, we know that Hush was the central character in a 12 issue Batman comic book story (also titled Hush) written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Jim Lee.

Now Hush (in reality Doctor Thomas Elliott, a surgeon who's hatred of his once childhood friend Bruce Wayne drove him to become a manipulative villain to Batman) is scheduled to appear in Lego Batman, the upcoming Travellers Tales-Warner Bros. Interactive game. The game is due in stores next week but we have new screenshots showing the Lego version of Hush. And yes, he is that scary.