Batman will receive some unlikely help against Arkham City's rogues gallery in the form of his one-time nemesis Bane. A recent panel at the San Fransisco Comic-Con, covered by Go Nintendo, has revealed that the 'man who broke the Bat' is to have Batman's back in a less homicidal sense, and will appear alongside the player as an NPC character in Rocksteady's upcoming bat-'em-up.

The monstrous former villain will be Batman's ally in a series of side missions in which Bane and The Bat must track down a shipment of chemical contraband that's gone awry. That's not to say that he's all calmed down since his defeat in Arkham Asylum, however. Edge report that his trademark ram attack can still cause Batman serious damage should he be accidentally caught in Bane's way during a fight. One of the highlights of Arkham Asylum's troubled boss battle with Bane was his careless disregard for the henchmen he bowled over on his way to the Dark Knight, and now we can expect to experience being one of these accidental casualties during the more hectic fights.

Bane joins the already impressive cast of classic characters from the franchise, which boasts appearances from The Riddler, Two-Face, Penguin and Soloman Grundy, though we can't help but feel some slight disappointment that we won't get to control our new ally like we will Catwoman. You can watch the whole Comic-Con panel via the GameSpot's YouTube video.

The latest Batman: Arkham City trailer has landed on Gamespot, giving us our first look at The Penguin. Rocksteady's vision of Cobblepot pegs him as a squat cockney chap. It's hard to judge whether this makes him more or less threatening, so to tip the scales he keeps undead hulk-thing Solomon Grundy chained up in the basement.

Grundy is an almost-impossible-to-kill zombie villain who appeared in an old Batman story called The Long Halloween, which was a heavy influence on the recent Christopher Nolan Batman films. Hopefully fighting him will be less monotonous than the boss battle with Bane in Arkham Asylum. We'll find out when Arkham City is released on October 18 in the US, and October 21 internationally.

 
Oh dear. The Riddler has started kidnapping civilians and dangling them over deadly drops in Arkham City. If there was only some sort of man dressed as a bat nearby to save the day. Oh, wait. Bad news, Riddler. There is. Not only does he have the brains to solve your puzzles, he can also punch you so hard in the griddle that you'll never riddle again.
 
At least the Riddler's showing more ambition than he did in Batman: Arkham Asylum in which he featured as a disembodied voice on the other end of Batman's intercom. We can look forward to teaching Riddler a lesson when Arkham City comes out in North America on October 18, and Europe on October 21.

Update: According to the official Batman: Arkham City Twitter feed there are a series of clues hidden in the trailer above. If you figure out the puzzle, you have until Friday to post your answers on the Arkham City forums. They don't say what will happen next.

Our fellow E3 warriors on the show floor managed to track down Rocksteady co-founder and Batman: Arkham City game director, Sefton Hill for a quick chat. He talks a bit about his ideas for the future of the Batman series, and what he loves most about working with Batman. You can get a good look at the Dark Knight in action in the fresh batch of Arkham City E3 screenshots. Part two of the video interview below. The game's out on October 18 in the US, and October 21 everywhere else.

The Batman: Arkham City trailer earlier revealed that Catwoman will be sharing the limelight with the Dark Knight for Rocksteady's next game. In motion, she fights like an angry fetish shop with a style that is perhaps best described as "cat-robatic." You'll find the four new images below, including one of Batman, so he doesn't feel left out.

If you live in the UK, you'll want to mark Friday October 21 on your calendar, preferably with a giant bat symbol, because that's the day Batman: Arkham City hits store shelves. Rocksteady have been teasing us for months already with their trailers and brilliant screenshots, now we're going to have to wait until the other side of summer to pound the streets of Gotham. That's seven whole months away! It's fine for Batman, bats can hibernate, what are the rest of us supposed to do?

Sefton Hill has revealed that Batman: Arkham City is set to be five times bigger than 2009's Arkham Asylum. The Rocksteady Studios developer also gave insight into gameplay tweaks for the sequel.

Click more for the details and the most recent trailer.



"We wanted the player to experience the freedom and exhilaration of gliding down alleyways and soaring above the skyline, and this has meant nearly twice as many moves and animations as in the original game, Hill told Gamespot,

"I wouldn't describe the game as "sandbox" because a totally open and free-form gameworld would not allow us to create the kind of atmosphere that we wanted to, but we don't hold your hand either. Arkham City is its own place; a massive superprison, jam-packed with supervillains, thugs, and psychopaths. There aren't any rules, but it has a law of its own, and this is why it is a perfect setting for Batman."

Arkham City is due for an Autumn release. Read our preview here, and watch the latest trailer down there.



(Via EuroGamer)