The official trailer officially rocks!

Batman: Arkham City isn't due out until October 18, but they've released the official gameplay trailer today, five months ahead of time. And it ...looks...amazing. Obviously they've expanded the game universe from Arkham Asylum to all of Gotham City; and while they confirmed at the December VGAs that Hugo Strange would be a primary villain, we get peeks at the rest of the baddies as well.

There's Harlequin and her gang of scary clowns; is there anything scarier than a scary clown? Two-Face, apparently facing off against Catwoman ("Heads or tails, kitty cat?") Catwoman herself, looking more Hathawain that Pfeifferish, in anticipation of Nolan's next Dark Knight film. And of course, we get some great footage of Hugo Strange - the VGA trailer actually told us that Strange knows the Bats-Bruce connection, so the stakes for the game are higher than ever. And at the end, an absolutely brilliant shot of the Joker. In an interesting twist, according to Joystiq, the Riddler will take on a major role as well. Joystiq reports that in a twist inspired by Saw's Jigsaw, "it would appear Nigma is testing Bat's brains (read: your brains) by creating puzzles to solve. If you fail, an innocent denizen of Gotham dies."

Batman: Arkham City will be available for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC platforms on October 18. Check out the trailer for yourself:

See also:

Batman: Arkham City review

Batman: Arkham City teaser wows the crowd

Dead Island trailer awash with originality

Crysis 2 continues to amaze

The Top 10 coolest comic-book villains in movies

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