Yeah, ain't gonna be the Grand Theft Batman we're looking for I think.

At least LEGO Batman is gonna be awesome.

Atleast a good developer is handling this. Maybe it won't turn up like crap.

@Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.: It could still be - Pandemic has done the open world thing before. See: Mercenaries.

and there was much *hopeful* rejoicing

*yaaay!*

I'm pretty sure it is going to be open world game.

***Waits for a perfect Batman Animated Series based game***

I guess they might as well do something. Seeing as how they seem to have given up on Mercs 2. Hasn't that been pushed back to spring, 2011?

@illmatic291: Likewise. My roommate and I have watched about 3 discs of the first collection of that show in the last three days, and I just got him to read The Killing Joke, and he read through the Dini Detective Comics TPB recently too, so we're on a real Batman kick right now. Open world Batman: TAS would be a dream come rue. Ah, one day, one day...

I hope it is open world, I am a sucker for them.

@ghnvt: I hope it's a good licensed game, I'm a sucker for those.

If it's the Batman version of Spider Man 2, count me in.

That's my PS3 wallpaper!!! I SWEAR!!!

This game is going to be so boring, on account of Batman's super power of always winning (this is a call back to a previous post).

It better be a good one than the last one (batman begins). Can't wait for Lego batman. Wait a minute then who is going to play the part of joker for this game (luke Skywalker or jack Nicholson)?

@WreckTheLaw: You just said all of the things I did with my friends a couple of days ago o_O
Mike? is that you ;p

Man an open world batman would be fantastic!

yeah and meaning they'd need Jack Hamill or it would be nothing.

@illmatic291: Oh man, I hear you. A GTA-style game set in the Batman animated series universe would rock.

@goldwings: Nah, I'm just real familiar like that XD

@illmatic291: You mean Mark Hamill as the Joker?

Bah. Remember when IGN used to sneak vids out of E3 and what not. Now they take stories down and play the whole "there's something awesome coming out....but we can't tell you about it" game. BAH.

@WreckTheLaw: I think almost all Batman fans are.
@ArmiMaan: Jack?... LEAVE THIS PLACE
(Just kidding)

I was just talking about an open world batman game with my friend. This is going to be awesome!
I'm a huge Batman fan, but the last Batman game I really enjoyed was the fantastic NES game. Hopefully Pandemic breaks that streak.

On a related note of Batman, the movies I really wish Tim Burton would get back to directing them. Totally loved the the first two. Although Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne was a bit "odd". Batman Begins was also awesome.

Umm...SCi has the rights to Batman, sorry to burst everyone's bubble. If such a thing were in development, it would have been canceled and the page briefly said "Canceled. Thanks!" after the story was taken down.

@WreckTheLaw: HUGE Batman fan as well, at the moment, re-reading Dark Knight Returns...oh man. I LOVE the idea of a open world game version to the Animated series. Just gives me butterflies (er...bats?) in the stomach!

@illmatic291: Go play Crackdown, and dream about what could be.

Seriously, though... Crackdown is a perfect formula for a Batman game. You have the secret base that you drive the Batmobile (or fly a Batplane, or pilot a Batboat) out of, and you just add some better climbing abilities (Assassin's Creed?) and some grappling hook usage, and you could have a perfect Batman: Animated Series game.

Whenever I think about that game, though, it makes me sad that it will probably never see the light of day.

I have stated about a million times on this site my absolute love for open world sandbox games. What I have rarely mentioned was my love for Batman (not old, slightly creepy pedophiliac Batman, but angry scary Batman.)

What I would LOVE is to see these two geeky loves of mine smashed together in a peanut butter and chocolate-like mesh. Though, it would likely cause me not to shower for weeks at a time.

@Witzbold: No offense Witz, but I believe Christopher Nolan is doing a FANTASTIC job with the current films. He's taken Batman back to its deep, dark, gritty roots.

Tim Burton took a similar approach, but unfortunately, the darkness in his films always end up looking concurrently comical, cartoon-esque even. In Batman Begins we get a more serious view into Gotham, Batman, and the storyline that interweaves each and every character.

When I look back on Tim Burton's Batman, I think of it as second-best, and somewhat, a joke.

If there is one negative, it pushes Mercenaries 2 farther from release. Dammit, EA, can't you just have them make some crappy, easy-peezy game so they can get back to work, instead of all these incredibly awesome franchises? :(

It'll have a cover system...book it!

@Witzbold:

Witz, I love you, but please don't say stuff like that. The public perception of Batman had finally gotten past Adam West's brutal raping and into a cool, dark realm when Tim Burton came along and created that campy, spoofy version. I liked the original at the time, no question, but Chris Nolan's work with the Batman Begin's saga is leaps and bounds better.

Please don't call back to a time where Burton called the shots. If you're a fan of his, just wait. I'm sure he'll be back with yet another quirky, grainy filmed Johnny Depp vehicle in no time.

@Paladin58: You know there's more than one Pandemic studio, yes?

@JohnnytheFuture: I already said I liked Batman Begins.

I just prefered Tim Burtons more due to the excellent casting of Jack Nicholson as the Joker and Danny DeVito as the Penguin. Not to mention he had the whole dark and dreary Gotham city down pretty damned good. Also (although I didnt like Tim Burton as Bruce Wayne) he did a good job of portraying Bruce Wayne as a rather "odd" recluse, instead of the overly perfect character that is shown in other versions of Batman. Which I thought was rather cool. More in the first Batman movie though.

@PapaBear434: BUT ADAM WEST WAS GOD! D:

+ Watch video

That and campy was those other shite batman films with George Cloony and Val Kilmer. Eyes bled. :x

@Witzbold: Yeah, the first couple were pretty good, but it went to shit when Jim Carrey was cast as the Riddler. Great actor, terrible, cheesy, stupid part. Although, in that same movie (that was Batman and Robin, right?), Tommy Lee Jones was a spectacular Two-Face. I guess I'm trying to say that the movies are kind of hit-or-miss. Except for that piece of shit with George Clooney and Mr. Freeze. That was unequivocally terrible.

@Luke Plunkett: But they probably have the larger one working on it, which, as I said, drives Mercs 2 even farther away. If not for EA putting these other projects on Pandemic's plate, we might have had Mercs 2 by now.

I know that EA's publishing the game, and if not for them we might not even have a Mercs 2 (well, we would've, but perhaps even farther away), but they could at least let Pandemic get it out the door before having them work on other projects...

You see what I'm getting at? (I know, I'm impatient...) :(

+ Watch video

Ok enough of terrible trips down memory lane.

@Witzbold: See, we're just going to have to agree to disagree, because, while I did think Jack Nicholson was a good pick for the Joker, I have this twisting feeling in the pit of my stomach that Heath Ledger will do a better, truer, more haunting, legitimate job of playing the Joker.

In addition, there could have been no better actor for the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne, other than Christian Bale. As PapaBear434 stated above, Nolan's rendition of Batman is "leaps and bounds" ahead of Burton's.

@InsidiousTuna: you really thought Mr Lee-Jones was a good Two-Face? I kind of thought he was portrayed as another joker without the white paint and purple suit (He had red tiger stripes).

@InsidiousTuna:

I think the big difference is that the old movies, besides being strange and campy, is the fact that they were more about the villains than they were about Batman. That's why they could so readily swap out the actor protraying him, but hugely publicized who they got to play whatever villain(s) in the latest flick.

The new series, at least the first, focuses more on Batman himself and his relationship with not only the people close to him, but the villains as well.

@Witzbold:

I suppose it's a taste thing, but in this day and age, I think most people would prefer the less campy, more serious "realistic" tone of the current series rather than that of Burton's come-to-life comic book movie. Don't get me wrong, I liked Keaton, Divito, Nicholson, Pfeiffer... And I know Burton himself was not responsible for Arnold's "Mr. Freeze," and the infamous Bat-Nipples, but his influence is what led to such a thing.

He shouldn't have been let anywhere NEAR Batman, and now that the series is going in the right direction, I don't want to see it regress.

@JohnnytheFuture: Ya Bale is good. Keaton just didnt fit the physique which made it a bit off I think.

I dont think anyone can beat ol Jack since nobody has got the fucking crazy smile down like he does.

That and Heath Ledger is too young to be the Joker I say.

Goddamn though I still think Danny DeVitos performance as the Penguin was awesome though. Granted it was a bit different from the more "Upperclass" type of persona that has been portrayed in the comics and such. I thought it was an interesting change to his character in the movie that seemed to have worked well.

@Witzbold:

To be fair, who the hell else would they have gotten to play Penguin OTHER than Devito? He was physically built and destined for such a role.

As far as Heath Ledger goes; one of my favorite actors, and terribly sad to see him go. And if the trailers, posters, and Micheal Caine's word is to believed, he is going to make a scarier, more disturbing, twisted and psychotic Joker that is going to make your hair stand on end.

@Witzbold: Young or old, if you have the mentality that is the Joker then nothing matters. Personally I think many of us will like Ledger's performance as the new Joker and will be saddened by the fact that he passed on without the chance of him revising the role. Which reminds me. PLEASE MR. NOLAN DON'T KILL OFF THE JOKER. My complaint with majority of the superhero movies is that that they kill off the Villians.

@PapaBear434: @goldwings: @Witzbold: Yes. Yes. Sorry Witz, mine and no doubt many other's opinions stand here.

@PapaBear434: I've heard that this was in part from the overdosing of medication, which also led to his passing. Its almost as if he was trying to give it his all to make the best damned Joker out there. Sorta freaky.

Again, the only negative: Possibly (thanks Luke for reminding me about the multiple studios) a later release date for the already-delayed Mercs 2.

Assassin's Creed + Batman + more things to do = Awesome game.

I hated AC when I first started playing it. But as I slowly gained more weapons and more abilities I started ignoring the main game and simply ran around (on the roof tops, of course!) looking for people to save. Basically I had to make my own fun, so I turned myself into a badass vigilante protecting the people of the city. Just like Batman!

Jumping into a middle of baddies then killing them within a few minutes then running off to save others just gave me a hugh thrill.

@PapaBear434: Heath Ledger was a good actor, and his Joker looks fantastic. I couldn't agree with you more.

@PapaBear434: Well with all the camera tricks and such its quite possible to make anyone the penguin really. But yeah its kinda hard to find anyone else who would have made a good penguin unless they got some sort of new face to do the part.

Kinda like how they made John Rhys-Davies whos 6`1 appear as the Dwarf Gimli in Lord of the Rings ;D