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Inside Mac Games has posted a new review of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the latest game title brought to Macs by Feral Interactive. The action adventure game puts players in the role of the caped crusader who is trapped in Arkham Asylum with The Joker and Gotham City's most notorious villains.

Here's an excerpt:

Combat is just one of the great aspects of the game. A simple but effective array of moves and a combo system keeps combat flowing and fun. Batman's martial prowess is impressive, and the longer you chain together attacks, the more experience you will get. It takes a little to get the hang of, but soon you will be properly timing your blows and watching Batman zip about the screen; punching, kicking, diving and countering never gets old. You can also use some gadgets to stun or knock down enemies such as your Batarangs, Batclaw or your trusty cape. Various types of inmates prove to be different challenges, such as those armed with knives or stun batons, requiring alternate tactics to fight. Some will be armed with guns as well, requiring particular attention unless you want to be quickly filled with lead.

IMG Review: Batman Arkham Asylum

Feral Interactive

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Buy Batman: Arkham Asylum

SinisterDesign.net has announced the release of a new beta update to Telepath RPG: Servants of God, an upcoming tactical RPG scheduled for release later this year. The update includes a variety of new content including new characters to meet and the chance to find riddle chests filled with gold.

• Visit the Rubat clan!
  
• Get an audience with Dean Anya at the Psy Academy and potentially convince her to lend you troops!
  
• Find hidden riddle chests and crack their codes for lots of gold!
  
• Meet Judge Hakim, the newest acolyte!
  
• The hero's available attacks can now be swapped before battles.
  
• Enjoy having fewer bugs! (Or don't. I suppose you could always find this point sad, if you chose.)

Beyond this, work continues. I'm still expanding the Great Forest and adding content all over the place. I've also been preparing recorded voice acting for inclusion in the game, and the talented artist Jesse MacCabe will be contributing more of his portraits to in-game characters soon.

Telepath RPG: Servants Of God Update

Telepath RPG: Servants Of God

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The LEGO Group recently announced that the company's LEGO themed MMO, LEGO Universe would be coming to a close next year, as of January 31. Company representatives stated the cause of the closure was an inability to encourage enough paying subscribers, despite positive player feedback for the game itself.

"The LEGO Universe team can take pride in having developed and launched a great LEGO experience that many players will miss," said Jesper Vilstrup, Vice President, LEGO Universe. "Right now, we have almost 2 million players in LEGO Universe, and we get extremely positive feedback from players. Unfortunately, we have not been able to build a satisfactory revenue model in our target group, and therefore, have decided to close the game."

Despite the change, the ambition to develop and run a digital business remains. In future, it is the intention to further pursue cooperation with partners. The LEGO Group has a strong and continuing partnership with TT Games & Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to create digital LEGO experiences within video games. A further expansion in the digital area will mainly be based on similar partnerships.

"The development of our digital offerings continues to be a very important element in our strategy," said Mads Nipper, Executive Vice President, LEGO Group. "We have more than 20 million visitors on www.LEGO.com every month, and LEGO video games are among the bestselling children's video games with sales of more than 60 million units in the last five years. Through our experience developing and running LEGO Universe, we have gained a lot of valuable insights, and we have a very strong foundation for future development in the digital area."

As a consequence of the closure, the LEGO Universe staff has today been informed that the 'Play Well Studios' in Louisville, Colorado and the game's marketing function in Billund, Denmark will be closed. This will affect 115 employees. All affected employees will be offered assistance in finding new jobs inside or outside the LEGO Group.

TransGaming

NetDevil

LEGO Universe

Buy LEGO Universe

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CPU Gamer has released a new review of the story based DLC for Dragon Age II, Mark of the Assassin. The add-on features a new assassin character named Tallis, new items, new enemies, new environments, and the return of stealth based gameplay. CPU Gamer gave Mark of the Assassin a score of 9 out of 10.

From the review:

The second section introduces an entirely new gameplay mechanic for Dragon Age, that being the stealth mechanic. While not entirely perfect, it is an attempt to allow for a new form of gameplay. This mostly involves keeping to shadows, while avoiding randomly patrolling guards. You do have the ability to knock out guards temporarily, before they regain consciousness and seemingly forget that anything happened. Getting caught just forces you to restart, so there is not a huge penalty for not utilizing proper stealth outside of convenience.

CPU Gamer: Dragon Age II Mark Of The Assassin

TransGaming

BioWare

Dragon Age 2

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