BATMAN ARKHAM CITY - Video Game MR. FREEZE WALLPAPER

Recently, here at the Bat-Blog.com, we showcased a brand-new trailer for the BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY Video Game that featured Mr. Freeze. It was one of my top favorite videos for this new game. So, to celebrate, here's a beautiful MR. FREEZE SUPER-VILLAIN Desktop Wallpaper to brighten your screen's background! We have other characters available too, just click the button down below. Oh yeah, if you wanna see that cool video then just click HERE!

New BATMAN BUST Statue - HEROES OF THE DC UNIVERSE - SERIES 2

DC Direct just announced a brand-new BATMAN Statue to keep an eye out for in the future. This is the "Batman Bust" from the HEROES OF THE DC UNIVERSE, SERIES 2. It was designed by Gary Frank & sculpted by Artist Jean St. Jean. This cold-cast porcelain bust measures approx. 5 3/4" high x 5" wide x 5" deep and will have a suggested retail price of $ 75.00. It's planned to go on Sale April 4th, 2012. So, look for it then.

Funny BATMAN Humor Photos & Comic Strip

I thought that our friends on the east coast could use a little humor after what they have been getting from Hurricane Irene. I know things are still messed-up but we want you all to know that we're thinking about you & hope things are starting to get better. I'd also like to ask my readers to please DONATE to the AMERICAN RED CROSS. They do great work & every single dollar helps, Thanks.

Vintage Wacky 1960's Japanese BATMAN AND ROBIN Tin Toy Jeep!

You know we love us some cool Vintage 60's BATMAN Toys, especially the ones from Japan! Here's a great example of the crazy wacky kind of stuff made for the Japanese foreign market. No, it's not a Batmobile car. This is a Tin Toy JEEP with a Batman and Robin design, and it has awesome bat-graphics all over it, POW!

Humor Video - BATMAN The World's Greatest Detective

OK, Ya gotta admit, this is pretty funny!

New BATMAN TOYS - DC Super Friends MR. FREEZE CAR Variations

Here's a quick post to share some news about a brand-new Batman Toy & it comes in 2 variations. Bat-Reporter, Batmobilly, spotted this new DC SUPER FRIENDS Fisher Price SHAKE N' GO MR FREEZE CAR ( made by Mattel ) at a Target Store & then later noticed it comes in 2 different colors. Now, I'm not one of those obsessed "Completest Collectors" who buys every variation of everything but I thought this news would be worthy as far as picking out a favorite color ( I like the lighter colored car better ). Thanks Batmobilly!

New BATMAN TOY COLLECTOR MUSEUM To Open in Thailand!

Check out these amazing photos we just got from our Good Friend "BAT-CAT". He has plans to open a brand-new BATMAN TOYS AND COLLECTIBLES MUSEUM in Thailand. Shown here are a few Architectural CGI Renderings of the planned site and building. Of course these things are usually a mock-up concept thing, & the final result is almost always different, but it should give you an idea how extremely GREAT this is going to be! He thinks it will be ready by early next year. Remember, the Bat-Blog will keep you updated on this. In the mean time, I want to wish the best of luck for this project. I'm really excited about it because it looks so cool!!

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES - Photos of ANNE HATHAWAY in Official Movie CATWOMAN Costume, MEOW!

Finally! Photos of Actress Anne Hathaway in her Official CATWOMAN Body-Suit Costume have finally surfaced!! These were taken on a recent film shoot. Yes, this is how she will appear in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES movie & I think the catsuit looks AWESOME! It's sort of a combination of both the modern-day comic book, plus a nod to the 1960's TV Show Julie Newmar. I like it, what do you think?

BATMAN AND ROBIN TALK - Rare Interview with 1970's Live-Action Stage Show Actors

Over at the Noblemania website our friend Marc has been very busy covering the Classic 1970's TV Show "Legends of the Superheroes" & tracking down all the Actors from this event. He recently interviewed James Rebhorn ( Batman ) and Gary Metriott ( Robin ) who performed as the Dynamic Duo back then. It's a RARE interview & a nice piece of Bat-History. here's a link to check it out, just click HERE!

BATMAN + CARTOON CHARACTERS = Funny Parody Humor!

This quick post is a collection of funny pictures that revolve around the idea of Batman being mutated with other well-known Cartoon Characters. The examples include a T-Shirt Design with Winnie The Pooh & Piglet as the Dynamic Duo, ha! A reinterpretation of the Golden Age Batman origin story, but instead of a BAT crashing through the window of Wayne Manor it just happens to be a Pokemon creature, ha! Then, last but not least, is a Custom-Made Action Figure showing Patrick, from the Spongebob Squarepants Show, as the Dark Knight, ha!!

New BATMAN 1966 TV BATMOBILE 1:32 ELECTRIC SLOT CAR KIT From Polar Lights

Here's a line of new BATMAN products that should hit stores around December, 2011. Hopefully, just in time for Christmas! The POLAR LIGHTS Toy Company, better known for their awesome Plastic Model Kits, are coming out with a New BATMAN 1966 TV BATMOBILE ELECTRIC SLOT CAR KIT. Yes, you read that right, a "kit", since you put the Toy Slot Car together yourself. It's scale is 1:32 so it's a nice size. Below is a photo of the packaging & the box graphics are excellent! They're also going to make a replica of the "Black Beauty" Car from the 60's GREEN HORNET TV Series... AWESOME! Now, for the best deal on the internet, click the link below!

New BATMAN 1966 BATMOBILE "THE RIDDLER REVENGE" SLOT CAR SET From Auto World

Remember the BATMAN 1966 Batmobile Slot Car Set that AUTO WORLD came out with recently? The one with the JOKER CAR? Well, if you missed it they now have a new set! They repackaged this item & you can buy it with the RIDDLER CAR ( Actually, from the prototype photo, it looks more like a VW Van, Click on the above photo for a larger view ). This comes out later this year, around December 2011.

Halo Reach Game News Round Up: 2 Months In

I've been doing this Halo Reach blog for a couple of months now and having been trying to pump out the posts so when the Halo Reach game launches in 2010 there's a solid base of news on the game and the Halo universe for people to look at.

News in my definition includes all sorts of things including discussions of Halo lore and exploring back stories and ... whatever I want, which kinda explains why this blog goes all ove the place sometimes...


Here's some posts that I've found pleasing to write (it's surprising waht you learn as you do them) and some posts that I think will be helpful to the average Halo fan...

• A Brief History Of the Halo Universe
• The Fall of Reach story plot
• Frankie talks about Halo: Legends
• Would you buy a Halo game for the Play Station?
• Movie references to Halo
• The Duel story line
• Beginners Guide to Halo: Reach
• Why there's no Halo movie
• Halo Reach Trailer from the Video Game Awards

Do you have anything in the Halo verse you wish to share? Leave a link in the comments section. Top one's get updated into this post!

Is Halo Reach a chance to bring new fans to the Halo Franchise?

So is Halo Reach really a chance to bring new fans to the Halo Franchise?

It certainly is - but how is this going to happen, doesn't everyone who's anyone already play Halo?

Halo is all encompassing these days, with books, and graphic novels, encyclopaedia's, Halo Wars - Real Time Strategy game and the recent ODST and its cute Engineers etc filling the seemingly endless demand for Halo product.

There is however a new breed of gamer who has not yet been exposed to the Halo franchise, this would be the 12 - 15 year age group of new xboxers that are coming through. Let's get real here, the first Combat Evolved game was 8 years ago, many newbies to the system will still have no partaken in the glory that is Halo FPS. Many of them are dining out the newer versions of Call of Duty and Gears of War, oblivious to the Halo series.

Some Xbox players prefer spiders to The Flood for some reason.

Halo: Reach will thus be their first chance to get into the Halo Universe, should they look up from World at War. It's probable the might look up as the marketing campaign will not doubt be bigger than it was for Halo 3. The new player will also be able to start their story at the start of the story as well - how many people bought Halo 3 having never played Combat Evolved? Answer: A covenant load. How many of those players were a little confused as to the story? Half a covenant load at least.

The newbies and those who have never fired a Spartan Laser will be able to get in on the action without any fear about not understanding the story as what happened before now actually happens after Halo Reach - it's a prequel baby! Hence the tag line for the game: from the beginning, you know the end...

Is this the end, my friend?

There is thus the potential for those who've been a little shy of dropping their toes in the Halo universe, because they've heard it has a complicated story, to no longer need be shy. Hey, they might love Reach and go on to play the other games in the Halo series. And no doubt buy the multiplayer maps that will be trickle fed through the Xbox Live Dashboard.

In summary, it's really a clever ploy for Microsoft to allow Bungie's final Halo game to be the prequel because fans will buy it regardless and, as noted above, it also gives new, interested players a chance to jump in.

At the same time Bungie is coding Reach, Microsoft's 343 Industry Studios are beavering away at an as yet announced annouced Halo title (and probably more than one) so once fans are sated with Reach, everybody can move on to the new Microsoft product.

What will this new Microsoft game be about? If you played Halo 3 on legendary mode and watched the end credits you will recall the scene where the Chief's ship strays into the view of a planet. This scene has driven the fan boys nuts with wild and loose speculation but the general consensus is that it appears to be a planet associated with the Forerunners - it would seem natural for Microsoft and 343 to continue the Halo series at this point.... thus again beginning the chance to bring even more xbox players into the Halo realm.


What do you think? How many new fans will Halo: Reach drawn in?

Gears of War with Spartans

Some unnamed, uncited source on the internet said that Halo: Reach was, "Gears of War with Spartans".

Hmm, can't imagine Lone Wolf yelling "Brinnngg itttt" as he charges out from behind a rock!

Of course, if the description is fair, you can guarantee that the story line of Reach will actually have a story line unlike Gears of War which was shall we say, elementary at best?

Imagine, however if Gears of War 3 had a Spartan Laser in it. That would be, like, awesome. I can just hear Marcus Fenix mouthing off, "Dom, would you hurry up with that damn laser?"

Game Informer's Removed Halo Reach Graphic

So like Vva HBO via NEOGAF comes a picture for Halo Reach promotion that was up on Game Informer but was then quickly removed, seemingly because it was posted incorrectly timewise. HBO notes the original post had a date of Jan 9 and suggests it means Game Informer will have so Halo Heaven for us soon...

The cynic in me also thinks maybe this short time display was a deliberate strategy to bring attention to the website's new halo content... what better way to get attention is to show something for a little bit and then take it way... kinda like a stripper at the start of her act ;)

Manwhile, here's the picture - cos once its on the net, it stays on the net! It would be good for wall paper if any one is keen - here's how to make Halo wallpaper if you're not so net savy.

I count 4 spartans.. where's the other 2 from the trailer....insert rabid fan speculation here. Also, does that thing in the back ground look like something from Empire Strikes Back?

Cameron: Avatar was inspired by Aliens, Not Halo

James Cameron has taken the time to remind Halo fans who've seen Avatar and thought he'd ripped off the Halo franchise design wise that Halo:CE itself was greatly inspired by his sequel to Alien, Aliens.

In an interview with G4 X-play, James Cameron is promoting the Avatar video game. The interview makes a comment about Avatar and Halo and how Halo was inspired by Aliens.

Cameron agrees and sends a message to the "so called 'fanboys'".

"Pay attention, if I'm referencing anything its the source stuff for Halo, you know, which is my own stuff. So I get to do that, no one else gets to do that."

Acsendant Justice has done a fabulous essay that highlights how Aliens did inspire the Halo series. Ever wondered where the idea for Avery Johnston came from?

Check out the video of the Cameron interview below:

So Reach will have matchmaking Firefight?

Game Informer asked Bungie's Joseph Staten a question about matching making in ODST's Firefight mode and got an interesting answer:

GI: Why isn't there any matchmaking in Firefight mode? Will this possibly be added in at a later date?

Staten - Firefight uses the same networking that we used for campaign co-op in Halo 3 and that code didn't support matchmaking. We could have added matchmaking support to Firefight for ODST, but that would have required a pretty huge amount of work by the same guys who were busy writing hot new networking code for Reach. Ultimately, we decided making the new hotness even hotter was the smarter (and sexier) thing to do.

-

So, what does this mean? Bungie has had a loootttt of time up their sleeve to code Reach so it seems reasonable to speculate that Firefight mode in Reach will have matchmaking i.e. you can find people who are not your 'friends' to play the game mode with. That last line about making things sexier is a pretty big hint...

This is good news as I felt Firefight mode was awesome in ODST but it was hard to enjoy the full value of it as it was hard getting one's gamer friends all arranged for several hours of play!

Marty O Talks Inspirations for Reach Soundtrack

It took another 2 whole Halo games before a Spartan could actually carry such a gun!


Game Informer has done a interview with Bungie's Marty O'Donnell who is in charge of music and voice acting for Halo Reach. Let's face it, without Halo's music, Halo would not have got as far as it has.


Can you go into detail on the creation of the theme from the Halo: Reach trailer that debuted on the 2009 Video Game Awards?

It's hard for me to anticipate what's going to be the main theme for Reach. Certainly the trailer we just released has a really important theme in it. My approach was I knew I wanted something that was more visceral. I hate using the term "darker and grittier" because it's so overused, but I wanted something that just really gave you both the feeling of something that's hitting you in the gut and "this is really an important thing" and also there's this sense of mission but tragedy that's about to happen.

I've had different sort of instruments stand out over the years in different Halo games. There's something so timeless about strings and French horns and I love low strings and percussion, so I don't want to walk away from that. But at this point I haven't chosen some exotic instrument that's going to be the lead instrument for the game. I'm not sure if I'm going to do that. It's a character driven game. I still think my approach will be to have themes that score the events and emotions of the game at the time, and not necessarily the Peter and the Wolf approach where this is this guy's theme and this is this other person's theme. It's going to be more, "This is what's happening to this group of people. This is what's happening to you while you're playing."


Here's the full interview


Extra for Experts:


Check out this video for when Halo was first introduced the to the world buy Steve Jobs when Bungie was all about the Apple Mac. The music sounds familiar....

Right. Let’s talk a little Halo: Reach.

Bungie Weekly Update News

"Builds are coming in at a blistering pace as the team continues to drive hard and fast towards the ever looming Alpha branch. The process is so break neck at times that it's hard for us poor dudes over in the community pod to keep track and chronicle the goings on for you in any meaningful way. For example, the build that brought you the latest batch of media assets was already weeks old when we scrubbed it for screenshots. Pre-Thanksgiving, in fact. The nature of the development process is such that stability can often become a concern when the various disciplines are routinely plugging in their new pieces of technical and artistical hotness, so when it came time to show it off to our media friends, we decided to dust off one of the older, notably stable builds. Game tends to show better when it's in rock solid working order."

What are the new weapons in Halo: Reach?

Bungie have issued some new details on the weapons that will be found in Halo: Reach. Here's some news bout the Assault Rifle, Designated Marksman Rifle and the Needle Rifle which is a new Covenant weapon.

Assault Rifle

A certified stalwart in the UNSC's arsenal, the Assault Rifle has scrubbed more than its fair share of Covenant scum up close and personal. First introduced with Halo: Combat Evolved, it missed a beat in Halo 2, but made its triumphant return to Halo 3

and by now you should know it's making a return with a pretty significant visual overhaul in Halo: Reach.

"Everything has been touched in one way or another. That being said, some of the weapons had already gone through some serious iterations at this point in Halo's life and so in some cases changes have been kept to a minimum. Either way, the visual face lift was worth its weight in gold. All the weapons, including the classics, are looking AMAZING!"

Designated Marksman Rifle

"The DMR, or Designated Marksman Rifle "is a medium-to-long range support weapon. In range and play style it fits between the Assault Rifle and Sniper Rifle in the Human sandbox. Powerful in skilled hands, its rewards the 'gunfighter' - the calm, accurate player, who like to be in the fight. Its primary role is to suppress snipers and soften opposition before the shock troops close."

"The DMR is deadly accurate if you breathe through the shots and get into the rhythm of firing it, but it quickly falls apart if you freak out and really start slamming the trigger. A player with surgeon's hands will be able to use it anywhere, anytime. Players that struggle with their composure in a heated fight however will find it better suited to working guys from a distance, picking off the sick and weak from the herd."

And for those looking for that elegant weapon for a more civilized age, it looks like the DMR might be the implement of war you're looking for.

Needle Rifle

Speaking of Covenant forces, Reach may be a UNSC military stronghold, but the Covenant war machine is at the height of its military power. The Needle Rifle is one of the more fearsome and unique weapons in their invasion force's arsenal and a fitting counter to the Designated Marksman Rifle. It's also one of the weapons we've revealed that seems to be surrounded with the most ambiguity. Let's clear some stuff up.

"While it is very similar to the Carbine in several ways, including its ability to headshot (Unicorn!), it's still 100% Needler and comes stock with the ability to super-combine when it comes in contact with your enemies and spread them like jam across a warm piece of toast. Unlike the Needler, the rounds don't track your target...because that would just be ridiculous."

"The Needle Rifle is the Covenant's answer to the DMR. It's a medium-to-long range weapon with powerful anti-shield damage. It's faster and more accurate than the DMR, but doesn't have the same stopping power. It's a Blamite! super-combining weapon (three shots to an unshielded body) that can also score headshots."
In other news I saw ACDC in Wellington last night. Covenant forces wouldn't have been able to take them out!

More pictures of Halo: Reach Concept Art

Bungie's on full release mode / tease duty what with all the art and Spartan info. Here's some concept pictures. It's interesting to note how their palate kind of matched that from the first trailer.

Some kind of outpost?

Hey did any of you guys see a Grunt came running though here?

Some kind of pioneer / colony thing going on. Looks like Mordor kinda.

Here's that cheese knife you asked for, Marine. I made it special sharp!

Here's 'A soldier gets rained on'*. Which is a post modernist revisionist contemplation on how the rain symbolised the pain of the assault of the Elite troops on Reach and that no planet is an island. Or something. Either way artist Alex Chu claimed artistry braggin rights.

* my title.