At the end of 2009's Batman: Arkham Asylum, all's well: the Dark Knight's triumphant, the Joker's downed and Gotham City's still a safe, intact place. How, then, do we get to the starting point of that game's newly released sequel, where all the craziness of the asylum gets dropped smack dab into Batman's stomping grounds?

Turns out there's a new graphic novel that explains all of that. Out last week, the hardcover Batman: Arkham City collects the series that bridges the gap between Rocksteady's two Batman games. It's written by Paul Dini, who also penned the plots of those two games. Carlos D'Anda drew the comics and he's also contributed design work for characters in both Bat-games, as well as DC Universe Online and Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters. The Arkham City graphic novel—which also collects some of the digital-only short stories that weren't available in print before—sets up a fair amount of the game's plot points, so consider this a mild SPOILER WARNING for anything that follows.

The introductory beats of the game get laid down in the comics' panels: Strange as master plotter, Bruce Wayne trying to counter in court of public opinion, Catwoman as a wild card. Folks who've played Arkham City already know that Batman's alter ego winds up in the game, but the comics show Bruce Wayne's opposition to the creation of the Arkham City super-prison and has him confronting Hugo Strange and Mayor Quincy Sharpe, who was the former of Gotham City's asylum for the criminally insane. One other development that plays out explains how the Titan drug—a variant of the Venom steroid Bat-villain Bane uses to get freaky huge—gets to Gotham from the island where Arkham Asylum is. The story also shows how the drug's use makes the already terrible level of crime in he city even worse. Ordinary thugs start becoming super-strong and this downturn in public safety fosters the willingness to wall off half the city and make it a habitat for psychopaths and killers.

The machinations that Hugo Strange orchestrates to get his plot into motion include psychologically manipulating Mayor Sharpe, whose personal history gets illuminated—and upending the balance of power in Gotham's underworld. Batman knows there's a scheme but doesn't know who's behind it. That brings up one important note about where the Arkham games sit as pieces of Batman fiction. They seem to live in their own little dimension, one that feels louder than the mainline DC Universe. So it's a continuity where Robin looks super-buff and Batman's never met Hugo Strange before, despite the fact that's he's been around for more than 50 years as a villain.

These comics bolster the world-building that happens in the game. D'Anda's art traffics in bloated muscles and exaggerated warped expressions, but he keeps those tendencies under control when drawing "normal"-looking people like Commissioner Gordon. You'll see gameplay mechanics and gadgets referenced in the hardcover—like detective vision and the explosive gel-along with landmarks from the game like the Sionis Industries building (itself a reference to Roman Sionis, the Bat-nemesis known as crime boss Black Mask). The origins of the Tyger private police force that hunt Batman and others in the game also get covered.

In one chilling sequence, Dini shows how minor-league criminals don't want to get sent to Arkham City, knowing that they won't last long in its only-the-strong-survive ecosystem. Another unique element of the Arkham City comics is how they get inside Joker's head. Hearing the Joker's thoughts is a rare thing in most modern comics, made more rare by the clown's sickness. Dini's writing a Joker at a low ebb, but one who uses his sickness to synthesize more Titan. Wondering why the Clown Prince of Crime has some of the game's strongest thugs? They're made from his blood. Literally.

Other questions that you might have while playing the game get answered in the digital shorts. If you want to know why Riddler's roaming free, where the Tyger soldiers' blind obedience comes form and just how slick the game's version of Robin needs to be, then the reasons are in these pages.

In short, the Arkham City hardcover sets the table for the grand feast that the game delivers. For an iteration of Batman that's pinged from comics to games and now back again, the work here represents a good example of how the two mediums can interlock.

Earlier this week we posted a Speak Up on Kotaku in which a commenter condemned the practice of online passes. Today commenter Odin plays devil's advocate, explaining how online passes may actually help the industry.

So I want to play devil's advocate here. Or you know I would be playing devil's advocate if I didn't actually agree with the position I'm taking.

I want to talk about something that has been brought up a lot, but often only to criticize or condemn. That's right; I'm talking about online passes. There's been a lot on the subject of why they're bad, but very little on why they can be justified. It's important to note I'm not writing this to defend the practice; this primarily goes out to those who act like there's absolutely no justification for this system. I also want to address the incorrect assumption that this is just about used games sales.

Firstly you have to understand that what you buy when you purchase a game is a product. You can then resell it, loan it, or do whatever you want with it (maybe even play it). But when you play a multiplayer game you're not only using the product you own but you're also using a service provided by another party. That's the key thing to remember, multiplayer (at least that which uses centralized servers) is a service.

One thing we've taken for granted for many years is that the right to access that service is transferable in the same way that our product is. While it may annoy us that it's now being taken away from us it's important to note that it's not something we're entitled to. We own the product, and access to the service is included when we buy the product new. But we don't own that service.

Unlike the product it costs the publishers/developers money to maintain multiplayer service. Servers cost money, and as long as they're running they don't stop costing money. This means that companies can only afford to run these servers for a limited time before they stop being profitable. It's why you see multiplayer servers for older games just wink out of existence over time. The servers can only be maintained as long as there's revenue coming in, and the ones maintaining them only get revenue from new sales of a game.

But wait I hear you say, surely when one person sells their game they're no longer using the multiplayer service so the net amount of players remains the same. While this is true, it assumes that server load is the issue. It's key to remember that while the maintenance cost doesn't increase, it does stay the same while the publisher's revenue (for that particular title) decreases over time. As such it's not entirely unreasonable to limit access to the service to those that have directly contributed to maintaining those servers.

What many people fail to consider properly is how this affects us, the consumers. A lot of used game purchases just see that an online pass costs $10 and complain because they're going to have to pay extra for their used games. Yet it's the used game customer who's probably affected the least in all this, in fact it's most detrimental to both Gamestop and those who buy their games new and trade them in.

Online passes will actually bring down the cost of used games because Gamestop will now have to take into account the cost of an online pass when pricing them. Gamestop have to price their used games at a price that's attractive to the customer. Which means for online pass games they have to include the cost of an online pass when considering what that attractive price might be. For example they couldn't price an online pass game at $45 when it retails new for $60, because with the cost of the online pass factored in most gamers would just choose to spend the $5 extra to buy the new copy. Gamestop are far more likely to bear the bulk of the cost of the online pass than the used game purchaser is. However this will also mean Gamestop will also probably decrease what they offer for trade ins on games using the online pass to maintain their profit margins.

And another thing people don't consider what the benefits of an online pass could be. With an additional stream of revenue publishers could afford to maintain servers for games for longer than it'd normally be profitable for. After all it's in the publisher's best interest to keep the servers running so that people will continue to purchase online passes. This is beneficial to both new and used gamers alike. After all given the option would you rather pay $10 to access the multiplayer or never get to experience it because the servers had been shut down?

I guess the TL;DR of it all is that online passes, while not great, are by no means the devil everyone is making them out to be. However stunts like the Catwoman DLC, something that should be part of the product and doesn't cost them anything to maintain? That's just a greedy, completely arbitrary tax on used games sales and a practice that SHOULD be condemned.

Pre-orders of Binary Domain at GameStop will come with the multiplayer map Outside High-rise, Upper City and an unlocked Ninja playable class, The Multiplayer Pack bonus also includes the Hoga Type 69 sniper rifle and Yamato-0 Handgun, according to the press release.

The PS Vita, this video says, wasn't made by hardware folks, it was the result of what the people who would one day make games for this portable wanted.

That seems like the right way to do things. Sure, you're hardware folks need to take those suggestions and turn them into something that works and is affordable, but shouldn't software be driving that design bus?

The video also makes some really strong arguments for why you'd want to get a portable device that isn't... well, a phone. Its big screen is more immersive, its visual fidelity and ,lets face it, those twin sticks are the holy grail of portable gaming.

Even if you don't want to be won over, or already have been, you should watch this video to see some of the graphics you'll find on the system. It's pretty incredible.

Starting this December, the 3DS is getting a new messaging system called "Nintendo Letterbox" that will allow 3DS owners to send notes and photos as well as sounds to friends.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Witcher developers CD Projekt RED will be working together to bring The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings to the Xbox 360 in North America, the two said today. The console adaptation is expected early next year.

Ultraman. Kamen Rider. Gundam. These three heroes are going forces in the upcoming role-playing game Lost Heroes for the 3DS. It's a dungeon crawler—with badasses.

This is a new entry in the Compatible Hero games. The game ships in Japan next year.

It's Friday folks, which means the weekend is dead ahead of us. Speaking of which, I've really been getting into The Walking Dead recently, catching up on the first season. I'm on the third episode now, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I'm sure there are fans of the show among us here.

What are you plans for the weekend? I hope they're gaming related, I know mine are. So much backlog to clear! So please, take this time to talk amongst yourselves.

Once again I would like to thank Pan1da7 for today's TAYpic! Will anyone step up and challenge this TAY photo-editing hero? Try it with the instructions below!

Take a crack at being featured atop TAY some time this month simply by making a hilarious Photoshop or some other manipulation of the month's image. Pull a clean version from this thread. Make sure your image is 16x9 and funny. That will improve the odds of your image getting picked. Submit the image to the #TAYpics thread.

Next month, Nintendo will be releasing a big update for the 3DS. Today, the Kyoto-based game maker discussed what is in store.

With the update, it will become possible to transfer batches of data from one 3DS to another.

The Nintendo 3DS will also be getting a 3D camera, something that has already been mentioned. It will be possible to shoot up to ten minutes of 3D footage with the camera.

What's more, the 3DS is getting stop-motion photography, making it possible for 3DS owners to make their own stop-motion masterpieces. This is a very cool addition, indeed.

StreetPass is also getting an update that includes a map for those Miis you meet via StreetPass. "Find Mii", the Mii mini-game, is getting a sequel, too.

This is the official launch trailer for Battlefield 3, due out next week.

The trailer gives you a glimpse at the game's fairly unseen single player campaign. "A sinister power is rising in the Middle-East, and Marine Sergeant "Black" discovers how far he would go to defend his country," according to the Youtube description of the trailer.

[Thanks Burningca007]