It wouldn’t be a Batman game without villains, however incorporating them is a different story. As consumers “the more the merrier,” but for the developers, there are a plethora of problems when incorporating these villains and having them make sense.

“It’s something that games often have difficulty doing simply because a big character like Penguin or Joker or Riddler or whatever is usually treated as boss encounter,” said Eidos marketing games manager Dax Ginn. “And you don’t just walk up to a boss and floor them with one punch, but in actuality if Batman was going to throw a punch at the Riddler, he would knock him out.”

It’s because, when it’s all said and done, all the characters within the Batman universe are mortal, and it’s important that these encounters are believable and enjoyable — especially in Batman: Arkham City.

“They’re humans. They’re mortal. Batman’s a mortal guy, but he’s a total badass, so we’ve got to make sure that all of a sudden someone like Riddler doesn’t just develop superhuman strength because it makes gameplay sense. No. Riddler is a smart guy but he’s not a powerhouse, and so the combat between Batman and Riddler exists on the intellectual level.”

In Batman: Arkham Asylum, The Dark Knight is trapped inside the dark and dangerous confines of Arkham Asylum, Gotham City’s asylum for the mentally insane. When the odds are stacked again him, Batman needs all of his gadgets along with his brute strength to fend off The Joker’s minions. This new trailer showcases how the Batarang, Explosive Gel, Grapnel Gun and Line Launcher are used in Batman: Arkham Asylum to fight against an army of inmates.

Gamestop revealed today that North American pre-orders for Batman: Arkham Asylum will receive a code for the “Dem Bones” Challenge Map.

In the challenge map, “Dem Bones”, players will face off against Scarecrow’s army of skeletons. This challenge map will be one of the most challenging maps that the game has to offer, which gives Batman: Arkham Asylum high re-playability. Batman: Arkham Asylum is due out nationwide on August 25, 2009.

A recent blog post by The RAM Raider suggested that Eidos is tampering with the review scores of the upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum game, or rather, “artificially hyping up” its forthcoming release. However, Eidos is claiming that there’s no truth to the matter of “tampering with the review scores”.

“With regards an article posted on RamRaider alleging that Eidos has fixed review scores for Batman: Arkham Asylum, we want to state that no discussions have been held about review scores with any magazines,” said Jon Brooke, Head of UK Marketing, Eidos. “In short there is simply not one shred of truth in this article, except for the title of the game.”

However, back in April the developer stated that it does expect big things from the game. So why would they temper with the review scores?

“We expect Batman Arkham Asylum to not only be the biggest game of the summer but one of the stand-out games of the year,” Brooke told MCV. “It’s as close to perfect as we’ve ever come, it looks amazing, plays beautifully and has a rich twisting storyline with enormous replayability. I’m confident enough to say that it will set a new benchmark for licensed games and it’s going to establish itself as one of our best games ever.”

[Eidos: No truth in Batman review score fixing claim via Video Gamer]

The sequel to the film adaptation of Hitman is in production, according to a new report by movie site IESB.

Writer Kyle Ward, also attached to the Kane & Lynch adaptation, is handling the script for Hitman 2. Producers Adrian Askarieh, Daniel Alter and Chuck Gordon will return to work on the project.

The original Hitman movie, released in 2007, starred Deadwood veteran Timothy Olyphant in the role as Agent 45 himself. Despite dismal reviews, the film eventually raked in $99.9 million at the box office.

A little while ago, fans of the series found clues left by its developer hinting at its development. Now, it seems that Eidos Montreal have helped us finish the puzzle and it’s spelt LHI4F.

Today, it was announced by Eidos-Montreal that they are currently in the early stages of developing Thief 4.

“We’re in the early development stages for Thief 4, but this is an incredibly ambitious and exciting project for Eidos,” said Stéphane D’Astous, General Manager at Eidos-Montréal. “While it’s too early for us to offer any specific game details, right now we are focused on recruiting the very best talent to join the core team at the studio and help us make what we believe will be one of the most exciting games on the market.”

Batman is recognized as one of the world greatest detectives and, along with that, he also uses an heroic set of weaponry.

With that said, he uses his weaponry as new factors arrive, like using his bat-a-rang to knock a gun out of an enemies hand, and what kind of Batman game would it be if they didn’t add that in.

According to Danish print mag Game Reactor, Batman: Arkham Asylum will give Batman the use of new gadgets as capabilities increase: not too dissimilar to the mechanics of an RPG.

“As in a role-playing game, Batman will possess an experience system whereby it is possible to open up for new abilities and new gadgets,” says the piece [translated from Danish].

“Batman will need to use a large number of said gadgets as in many of the game’s difficult encounters as he won’t always be the strongest.”

[Arkham Asylum to have RPG elements via VG247]

It sure does take alot of work to be the greatest Lara Croft you can be. In a new trailer just in from Eidos Interactive we get a inside look at what we can expect from the next installment in the Tomb Raider franchise currently in the works at Crystal Dynamics. In the early information we have been given, from top down you can tell that the game will be action-pack. While Lara will have her signature dual guns she will also have to depend on her physical strength and the environment along with her archaeological tools to complete her mission. Lara leads a quest that circles the world to uncover the secrets of the Norse underworld and a forgotten power that if unleashed could lay waste to all civilization. Tomb Raider: Underworld will hit the store shelves across the world on November 21st.

On the official site for Tomb Raider: Underworld the game was giving the confirmation of a November 2008 release across all current-gen platforms as well as the PS2 and DS. On the site there where forums, a podcast and lots more with even details on the mission you will be taking this Fall. Also with E3 just around the corner we may more from Edios on this this game and the there 2009-10 line-up.

Take a look at the site.

While Eidos isn’t exactly in the most pleasant of thoughts with thousands of gamers out there, the bottom line is that we can’t skip on reporting about one of the world’s most recognizable franchises, Tomb Raider. Eidos Games has release new screenshots for Tomb Raider Underworld, their upcoming follow-up to Tomb Raider: Legend. In the first screenshot you will see Lara Croft hung to a rock facing a giant octopus and in the next screenshot you will see her under water in prey with a shark.

We already know that Eidos would be occuping long awaited titles like Tomb Raider Underworld and Just Cause 2. It comes as no surprise that Eidos will implan a new episode of Hitman, this comes with no exit date or even what platform that game will make it’s big exit on.

[Le prochain Hitman annoncé via Jeux-France]

According to an Inside source at 1up the entire PR, marketing, and sales department at Eidos has been laid off as part of a big deal with Warner Bros.

Warner Bros plans to get very cozy with the North American portions of SCi’s distribution chain. While it’s been understood for a while now that Time Warner has been actively seeking a way to increase the reach of its digital properties, the move comes at a very interesting time. Recently the media world has seen a lot of centralization and blurring of the lines between the games and entertainment business, with big entertainment distributors making grabs for hot properties at every turn. Maybe John Riccitello was onto something when he mused recently about Hollywood getting all nervous about the influence videogames have over the mass market?

[Layoffs at Eidos in Light of Warner Bros. Deal? 1up]