Listening to Ron and Fez right now, neither Fez nor East Side Dave were about to identify the Tumbler, the Batmobile from Batman Begins. Tsk-tsk. No matter, because you, too, can own a Go Kart replica of the vehicle in question.

This here video pretty much explains everything: it’s a fully drivable Go Kart modeled after Batman’s “whip,” as the kids call it these days.

It’s actually on eBay right now, priced (as of 1:00PM EDT) at $30.88. The irony here is that writing about the car I’m making it harder for people to buy it (by drawing attention to it). What are you going to do.

The Batman: Arkham Asylum™ demo opens as the DARK KNIGHT and COMMISSIONER GORDON return The Joker back into confinement at ARKHAM ASYLUM. But things soon fall apart as THE JOKER gains the upper hand and springs a trap, setting Arkham Asylum’s occupants upon Batman. The demo offers gamers a taste of the fierce FreeFlow™ combat system, the cunning stealth of the Invisible Predator™ mechanic, and the feeling of becoming the WORLD’S GREATEST DETECTIVE as they navigate Arkham Asylum’s imposing Intensive Treatment facility. Players can unlock character bios, as well as get a sneak peak at some of the infamous foes that BATMAN will encounter within the cavernous and macabre confines of Arkham Asylum.

So, how messed up are the souls residing in Arkham Asylum? Check out the latest developer diary from the chaps at Rocksteady Studios. Paul Dini also talks about the storyline for this upcoming Eidos/WB title. I played a bit of it at E3 and it’s pretty damn fun. Can’t wait for it to drop on August 25th.

Here’s the product description:

“Take control of the Dynamic Duo, Batman and Robin, as you build, drive, swing, and fight your way through Gotham City capturing escaped villains and putting them back in Arkham Asylum where they belong. Battle against legendary villains including The Joker, The Penguin, Catwoman and more to keep the streets of Gotham clean. Then, for the first time, jump into the story from the other side and play as Batman’s foes. Enjoy the power you wield as you spread chaos throughout the city.”

Yay! I’ve ALWAYS wanted to play as Catwoman. Play as Catwoman, be Catwoman in real life — same difference. Other available platforms include the PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, PC, and PS2.

LEGO Batman [Amazon via FatWallet]

I’m a sad clown now.

Eidos Interactive and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment can today confirm that Batman: Arkham Asylum will be released at the end of summer 2009. This additional time will allow us to ensure Batman: Arkham Asylum is of the highest quality for gamers.

Assuming you own both the Xbox 360 and PS3 and you’ve been wondering which console you’re going to pick up Batman: Arkham Asylum for then know that Sony’s console has the exclusive on a playable Joker. He’ll be released via the PSN Store and can be played in Challenge Maps. Further details can be found in the June issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine.

Late last night, GameTrailer got the scoop on the latest villain trailer for the game and it’s the Joker’s right-hand gal Harley Quinn. I won’t lie, she looks pretty sinister and somewhat arousing for a, you know, video game character.

Besides the Joker, the Dark Knight will be tormented by the ‘roid raging Bane in the upcoming Xbox 360, PS3 and PC title Batman: Arkham Asylum.

BANE
REAL NAME: Unknown
OCCUPATION: Professional criminal
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Gotham City
EYES: Brown (when on Venom: Green)
HAIR: Brown
HEIGHT: 5 ft 6 in (when on Venom: 6 ft 8 in)
WEIGHT: 140 lb (when on Venom: 350 lb)
FIRST APPEARANCE: Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1 (January , 1993)

Imprisoned from birth to serve his dead father’s sentence, Bane was raised inside the horrific environs of a Santa Prisca prison. Finding solace in smuggled book and meditation, he developed incredible powers of concentration. When he was subjected to military experiments with the experimental steroid Venom, his iron-forged will helped him survive when other test subjects had died, and he manage to escape. Determined to prove his worth, he sought out Batman and broke the Dark Knight’s spine. But Batman recovered and managed to best Bane, cutting off the precious Venom supply that transforms Bane into a superhuman.

Attributes:
• Master strategist
• Intense focus
• Abnormally strong reaction to Venom, giving him incredibly enhanced physical abilities
• Determined to best Batman, and all others who challenge him

Eidos and Warner Bros have just officially announced the CE of BAA and it’s a tad different than what Gamestop has on their website. Hit the jump to see what $100 will get you this summer.

* 14″ Batarang with stand
o Matches the Batarang’s in-game design

* Arkham Doctor’s Journal
o 48 pages of notes on Arkham’s inmates
o Embossed leather dust jacket

* 2 Sleeve Digi-pack, including:
o Game disc
o Behind-the-scenes DVD

* Code for downloadable Challenge Map
o Exclusive “Crime Alley” map, available immediately
* Full-color Manual

In case you haven’t seen it. Sefton Hill, Game Director at Rocksteady, gives a thorough play-by-play of the “Silent Knight Challenge Room” with over six minutes of in-game video of the “Invisible Predator” mode.

About three weeks ago, Gamestop detailed the contents of the Collector’s Edition Batman: Arkham Asylum, but it was quickly pulled down and the mention of a Batarang was forever seared into my memory. Well, today, Gamestop detailed the game again and the Batarang remains. I know $100 is a lot to ask for a game, but it’s a foot long Batarang with a Waynetech Batarang Storage Box! Want.

GameStop

Ah, finally the perfect sweatshirt for walking the streets at night. The $75 “Batman Full Image Full Zip-Up! Hoodie” by Lot 29 is sure to NOT creep anybody out when you zip the thing all the way up over your face and take the neighborhood watch concept to a whole new level.

“But, Doug, how will I see with my sweatshirt zipped all the way up?!” you whine, defiantly. Through the magic of see-through mesh eye holes. Think of it as an unsettling two-way mirror into your local criminals’ souls. Caped Crusader? Maybe not. Awkward kid with his sweatshirt zipped up over his head, possibly with some mental issues? Absolutely.

The hoodie can be purchased at SuperHeroStuff.com, although they’re all sold out at the moment. Of course they are.

Supehero Hoodies, clothing, apparel [SuperHeroStuff.com via Likecool]

(For the record – Batman would kick Superman’s ass.)

I was excited for Warner Bros., DC Comics and CobraMobile’s LEGO Batman: Gotham City Games for the iPhone. Then I finished it within 10 minutes.

The Good

• Umm…I like Batman.

The Bad

• Everything.

Don’t let the game’s title fool you – it’s not at all like the awesome LEGO games (Batman, Star Wars, Indiana Jones) available for various consoles. This is a pack of mini games. All of the mini games lack any sort of instruction, so you’re sitting there tapping and/or flailing about to figure out how to play the game.

Story Mode is fairly incoherent. The Riddler doesn’t make an appearance in the game and yet he’s included in the bad guy group shot. Oh, and Catwoman is on the screen that’s available in iTunes, but she never shows up in the game either. And Nightwing makes an appearance to stop Mr. Freeze in a cut scene, but nowhere else.

Freeplay makes up for it with some added content that’s unlocked when you accumulate enough points, but it’s a marginal benefit at that. There are other unlockable games, but the whole ‘no instructions’ comes into play and makes the whole experience frustrating. Sure, you eventually figure out what it is you need to do, but I would expect some instruction to begin with. Actually, instructions show up about half way through the story mode, but by that point I grew even more irritated that it wasn’t implemented from the beginning. I hope an update will fix this for potential buyer’s sake.

For $5 I would have expected more from this game. The Lego aspect never comes into play at all and I would advise against purchasing this game. It just wasn’t executed properly and I hope for the sake of those who purchased it that WB releases an update with new content or a new story line. Don’t buy this expecting a bite-sized version of the fun times you’ve come to know in the console version. Actually, just don’t buy it.

Batman Begins and The Dark Knight’s executive producer Michael Uslan has just signed on for the next installment in what we’re all hoping is Nolan’s third Batman flick. Ulsan expects the new movie to hit theaters in 2011.

Uslan will be onboard as executive producer for the “Dark Knight” sequel, which he estimates will be theaters by 2011. As for the identity of the next round of Batman’s supervillains and love interests, Uslan remains tight-lipped. “It’s one of those deals where if I told you, I’d have to kill you,” he says with a chuckle.

You better sign on, Nolan! And Dent is alive! Will we see a new Catwoman? Riddler? Or…

Coming Soon via Techamok

…the opening sequence might look something like the above video. It’s been on YouTube for almost four months now, but you know what they say: “Videos on YouTube get blogged about almost four months after they get uploaded.”

I don’t know who says that but maybe it’ll catch on. Anyway, the mock intro to the NES version of the Dark Knight has an old-school Ninja Gaiden cut scene feel to it. Well crafted.

[via Geekologie]

Continuing with the Batman-related good news, it looks like the upcoming game Batman: Arkham Asylum will actually be, dare I say, good. That a game based on a license doesn’t lick the bottom of the bucket of sucktitide (to paraphrase Christian from the WWE circa 2001) is shocking in and of itself, but that, according to Edge, it even has a chance of becoming an “excellent one.” Surely Hell is freezing over right about now.

Anyhow, Edge has a quick little preview of the game, done in the inimitable Edge style, that should reassure any fears of yours about the game being any good. It should be out by next summer.

As if there were any doubts, The Dark Knight is now the fastest selling Blu-ray disc in history. Warner Bros. sold some 600,000 copies of the movie on its first day of availability (Tuesday, Dec. 9), surpassing the previous record, Iron Man, by about 100,000 copies.

A clever little analogy: The Dark Knight : Blu-ray :: Gladiator : DVD. Meaning, that The Dark Knight will be looked upon as the Blu-ray disc that propelled the format into the mainstream, or as mainstream as it’ll get, as Gladiator did eight years ago.

The movie is selling so well that there are projections that put it at 1 million sold by the weekend.

To put this into perspective, even I bought it, and I don’t buy anything these days, as most of you are well aware.

CNET is reporting that the sun will rise tomorrow. That is, they’re reporting, citing TorrentFreak’s data, that The Dark Knight is well on its way to becoming the most pirated movie of all time. Of course, more people have access to broadband now, and the proliferation of well-seeded BitTorrent sites means it takes zero effort to download it—no waiting in an IRC queue these days—so the claim (“most downloaded ever!”) is hollow.

Some examples: the first DVD rip to hit regular BitTorrent sites, the DoNE rip, first appeared on November 12. Since then, on invite-only TorrentLeech, the movie has been downloaded more than 6,100 times, with 882 people currently seeding. The first Blu-ray rip (720p), released by iNFAMOUS, has been downloaded more than 1,600 times. Various other releases, including DVD-R versions and “propers” add yet more seeds to the pile.

As it stand, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End has been download more than 393,000 times on TorrentLeech, the most downloaded file on the site. It was released May, 2007, some 18 months before The Dark Knight.

How you feel about downloading movies is your own business and I, unlike CNET, won’t grandstand about the morality of it all.

A wise man once said that anything could be fixed with a roll of duct tape and 6-pack of beer. Well, I added the last part but the first thing about the duct tape is more than true. In fact, duct tape aficionados can now hone their craft by making a Batman mask mostly out of the silver tape. Just don’t wear it out in public; you will look like a douche.