Arkham: Freshmen Year

This fall the Dark Knight faces his greatest foe, high school. I kid, thankfully Arkham High is not the name of the this year's Unreal powered Batman brawler. The full title shall be BATMAN: Arkham Origins, and will be busting through a giant plate window this October 25.

As the name suggests we will be getting a prequel to the previous games, just don't expect any ski-mask wearing Bruce. The story takes place after he has donned the cowl, but before getting Super Friend level street cred. Though the Batman's reputation is large enough to have eight assassins (including Deathstroke) sent to off him. These shall be the central villains, but as usual the city is just silly with ne'er do wells (just non that you have faced in the past, or is it the future).  The setting is of course Gotham city, but gasp, it will be snowy, because the adventure takes place on Christmas eve (how tall is the Bat-Tree?).

A big shock about this game, is that WB Montreal and not Rocksteady will be running the show. They will still be using custom Unreal engine to keep the game in style with it's crunchy pugili-tastic roots. At the helm of the Batboat, Eric Holmes. The gent responsible for a few fine games like PROTOTYPE, and the long forgotten Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, both fun city devastating romps.

Lets talk size. First if anyone played Arkham City, you know it was one heck of a landscape to traverse. Well the Montreal team says "you ain't seen shit," since 'Origins' will be twice the size of 'City' (or so they say). But how will you traverse the grand metropolis with a mere grappling hook gun? The freaking BATWING (or 'the bat' as that lame movie dubbed it) that's how. Don't be fooled by the bold, you won't get to actually pilot, it will simply be used as a method to quick travel, so meh.
On the other end of the sizing chart, is the 'Black Gate' extension of this game on handhelds, also be dropping on the 25th (but through a smaller plate glass window). Game play will be Metriod styled, and the story takes place after (Christmas morning with Batman is sad since his parents never get him anything) the events of the console/PC game version.

So, I am not sure if giving a damn about this high on my list. My assumption is that they are going to try and annualize the Arkham series, a la Assasins Creed.  Also I really would rather know what in the hell is going to happen after Arkham City. But I will still play the freaking thing, since 'it's Batman.'