Shawn recently showed you the cool trailer for the upcoming action game Batman: Arkham Asylum, and recently we have gotten in a slew of really neat screenshots for the game. Today, only two arrived, but they are nevertheless just as cool as the others. Hopefully Eidos and Rocksteady can give us a good old fashiones Batman beat-down a lot better than Midway’s latest offering.

The game is based on the actual DC Comics instead of what those not immersed in the comics have seen on television and in the movies over the years. The whole of the island the prison is located on will be explorable, it is going to be played mostly via a third-person perspective and it is rumored that some of the villains will be playable at some point.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is expected to be released for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 sometime in August 2009.

Video games are full of colorful characters from speedy blue hedgehogs to scientists who know their way around a rocket launcher. That doesn’t mean games are without their stereotypes though, and I’m not talking about the fact that every gritty shooter needs at least one black soldier ready to blast some hip-hop music at any given opportunity. No, I’m talking about the overweight individuals who packed on a few pounds and then decided that was reason enough to get in everyone’s way somehow. When it comes to those portly video game characters that aren’t plumbers sporting red overalls, most of them just tend to be plain old bastards. Here are six of the biggest fat bastards in gaming that I could think of.

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The newest 1Up Show is live and this week you will get a unique perspective on just how violent the offices are at 1UP.  Too many “bike” accidents apparently.

Ryan Scott, Shane Bettenhausen, and Richard Li discuss Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, and you can also watch Sam Kennedy and Nick Suttner chat about the things they liked most about Tomb Raider: Underworld–as well as some of the more frustrating aspects of the gameplay. Especially the “there for the sake of it” combat.

Towards the end you can check out David Ellis and Peter Brown’s experience with the Killzone 2 Multiplayer beta.

Due to Thanksgiving, there will not be a 1UP Show next week; however, you can still get a special LTTP segment via the iTunes feed and on the site where they will be talking about some of the games you may have forgotten about or missed out on due to all of  the “AAA” titles that took precedence during the past few months.

Midway has spilled its guts about the backstory for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Apparently the troublemaker is Darkside. As in most fighting games, the plot is pretty shallow which isn’t an altogether bad thing. Do you really play these games for the story, or is it the complete brutality?

Midway is offering up a montage of finishing moves for Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Although a few were included in the Fatalities video, most of these moves are new. I can’t help but hear The Utah Saints’ “Theme From Mortal Combat” in my head while watching this.

That’s it. This wins the “Best Trailer of the Year” award, hands down. Sure there were some great trailers in 2008, but did any of those combine the classic action of Street Fighter with Joe Esposito’s timeless theme from Karate Kid? The answer is “No,” and that’s why those other videos just couldn’t compete. The only thing that could beat this would be a video involving Mortal Kombat and “The Final Countdown” (hint, hint, Midway).

Midway has unveiled this new video showing off the last few fatalities/brutalities for Mortal Kombat Vs. DC. In all, you can see three finishing moves from Liu Kang, Batman, and Baraka. The best though probably has to come from Liu Kang, who goes into a fiery pose…before an old Mortal Kombat arcade machine drops from the sky onto his opponent. I don’t know if I’d call that a “Fatality” necessarily though, since The Joker is clearly still moving afterwards. The finishing moves in this game may be tamer than past entries in the MK series, but at least Midway seems to be making up for it by including a few zanier ones.

With all of the big releases lately, Microsoft apparently felt you don’t deserve a new Xbox Live Arcade game this week — unless you’ve preordered Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, in which case you’re likely enjoying the original Banjo-Kazooie right now. For the rest of you, the only updates to the Xbox Live Arcade this week include a new Street Fighter II-themed table for Pinball FX and three additions to the Arcade Hits line — which means cheaper prices. All three games can now be had for 400 Microsoft points ($5 in real money).

The first of the bunch is the original Feeding Frenzy, a game where you lone goal is to gobble up fish. As much as I’d like to make fun of the premise, I won’t, because I know plenty of people who enjoy the game and for $5 it’s a pretty good deal to keep your child occupied for a bit while that demo of Left 4 Dead downloads.

Next up is something much further away from the kid-friendly tag you could slap on Feeding Frenzy: Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. All of the people disappointed with the lack of excessive gore in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe when it releases on Sunday will be right at home here with UMK 3’s classic violence. Just be wary of playing on the 360’s godawful D-pad — it can make things tricky.

And finally, we have Worms. Featuring prettied-up graphics and online support, it’s a very solid iteration of the classic series. It doesn’t bring much new to the table and doesn’t include every feature you’d want (namely, the omission of a number of weapons), but now that it’s just $5, it’ll be hard to complain.

Get ready to watch your childhood heroes be torn to pieces (literally) in the next few weeks. Midway has announced that Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is officially set to hit store shelves on Nov. 16 in North America and Nov. 21 in Europe. If you can’t guess by the title, the fighting game will feature characters from both the Mortal Kombat series and DC comics duking it out in arenas based in both their respective universes. The full roster will include the best of both worlds, such as Superman, Sub-Zero, Batman, Liu Kang, and…er, Deathstroke.

The main feature people are looking forward to the most though? Fatalities, of course — or “brutalities” in the cases of the non-killing superheroes. Because let’s face it, as children we all wondered just what would happen if these superheroes ever lost badly. And finally we’ll get to see Batman facing off against Sub-Zero, a foe who freezes his enemies in their tracks. Oh, wait…

Via Press Release

Midway has been pretty careful about only revealing characters for the upcoming Mortal Kombat Vs. DC when they want, but now it looks like the whole roster has been leaked thanks to their achievements. The list of achievements has appeared on Xbox360Achievements.org, but the most damning evidence of their authenticity comes from the exact same listing on Xbox.com. Apparently, you get an achievement for completing each character’s “expert combos,” meaning the achievements just flat out give you each characters, even the unlockable ones. So without further ado, here’s the (most likely) character list for MK vs. DC:

Baraka
Batman
Catwoman
Darkseid
Deathstroke
Flash
Green Lantern
Jax
Joker
Kano
Kitana
Lex Luthor
Liu Kang
Raiden
Scorpion
Shang Tsung
Shao Khan
Shazam
Sonya
Sub Zero
Superman
Wonderwoman

According to the achievement list, Darkseid and Shao Kahn both have to be unlocked. There is one odd omission though, since Midway has mentioned that comic book writer, Jimmy Palmiotti, was also being put in the game as a fighter. Still, that’s a fairly complete list of the main players in the Mortal Kombat and DC universe’s. I’m still wondering just how Lex Luthor is going to work as a fighter though.

UPDATE: Midway has now sent along a press release confirming this as the full list. Score one for the internet rumor mill.

Via Kotaku