I have two things to say regarding Batman Arkham City -

1. Out of all the domain names they registered to throw off the people interested in knowing what the game would be called, I still firmly believe that "Ashes of Gotham" was the best out of the ones proposed.

2. There are certain games that are so great from start to finish in their story-telling that one game is enough to convey an absolutely stellar experience. And tacking on a sequel only ruins the franchise.

BioShock was the prime example. The first one was brilliant in just about every perspective. It was a breath of fresh air in a sea of generic military shooters. The story was great, the characters were memorable, and the end-game twist was one of the best that I've seen from a video game. But the biggest thing going for the first BioShock was Rapture. Going into the game, you had no idea what Rapture was or how it came to be, and throughout the game, you discovered Rapture and that's what made BioShock GREAT. Then the second one came out and it had none of that. The story was fairly bland, the places you visited were nowhere near as cool as the locations in the first BioShock[Arcadia, Sander Cohen's theater]. But worst of all, Rapture as a whole had lost that new car smell that it had in the first game. It was sort of, "Been there, done that". And that was really depressing. It was definitely a competent shooter from a gameplay perspective, but it's soul wasn't there. It also didn't help the sequel when it ended up being made by someone other than Irrational Games. As far as I'm concerned, BioShock is another franchise that was ruined by greedy executive suits.

I feel more or less the same way with Arkham Asylum. It was such a tight and polished game from start to finish. Honestly, the only thing wrong with it were the ignorant gargoyles as a gameplay contrivance. Everything else was incredibly well thought out and well executed. And now they talk about a sequel for that, and I'm sitting here wondering, why? There is no need. The story wrapped up great, all the villains were dealt with, I had TONS of fun with those INCREDIBLE riddles, so why are you guys trying to cash in on the Arkham Asylum good will?

Don't get me wrong though, based on the excellent groundwork laid down by the first game, I have no doubt that Arkham City will be just as competent as Arkham Asylum, but I'm incredibly skeptical as to whether it'll be as memorable an experience as Arkham Asylum was...