Behold Batman. No, not just any Batman. Eidos is bringing us the dark, gritty, detective Batman that resurfaced in the 80s thanks to Frank Miller, was carried into the 90s by The Animated Series, and epitomized by Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan in the recent film series. The character may be well known to the general public, but after numerous less-than-stellar video games, the Dark Knight’s digital adventures have remained as looked down upon as the ones that have starred Superman. Eidos has already made some lofty statements for Batman: Arkham Asylum, such as Jon Brooke’s lunacy that the still unfinished game is “as close to perfect as we’ve [Eidos ] ever come.” Shortly after that showing of hyperbole, the title was delayed to this fall for additional "polish." However, it would seem as if this paid off, as the E3 demo that I played was already showing some spit shine.

It’s quite difficult to keep a release of this magnitude completely under wraps. No matter how tight-lipped PR remains or how painful the NDA penalties are, details were bound to get out eventually. Before Eidos even sent a team to the states to prep for E3, the gaming public already knew a few key things. First off, Paul Dini--one of the minds behind Lost, Batman: TAS, Justice League, etc--penned the story of Arkham Asylum. We follow that up with knowledge that a majority of The Animated Series’ cast would reprise their roles (Kevin Conroy as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Mark Hamill as Joker, and Arleen Sorkin as Harley Quinn) for the video game, and that DC artists contributed concept art for the title. From the get go, all things seemed to be lining up for what could be the best Batman game ever, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Nearly half of the Eidos booth was dedicated to the Caped Crusader, as was a healthy chunk of friendly PR people. There were two separate demo presentations made available, both with their own charms. The first unit that I got my hands on featured the opening level of the title that we have seen in trailers and countless screenshots to date. Rather than passive viewing, I finally got my hands on a working controller. Bliss.