Hello everyone. As you know, I've taken to documenting my experiences regarding my lack of motivation for gaming and dumping them all on you lot. But as of late, something remarkable has happened. Being the comic book fiend that I am, I was hopelessly excited to finally get my sweaty mitts on Batman: Arkham Asylum. I can honestly say, I haven't been excited by a game like this since God knows when, but I think that might have more to do with Batman finally getting his due in the interactive arena rather than a celebration of just a good video game. Regardless, I haven't played a game nonstop like this in quite some time. Not only that, but I find myself generally doing nothing.

What I mean is, sure I advance the story, and it's awesome. But I'm so completely amused by just wandering the grounds of Arkham and playing the Challenge Maps. I haven't bothered to explore a game to such a degree since Bioshock. Even just grappling to the top of Arkham Mansion and gliding down across the island is a source of amusement for me, it's amazing.

As such, I did something this past weekend that I have not done since I moved away from home (Massachusetts) for the dirtier, and more expensive, pastures of New York. I took a drive up north last weekend to visit the fam, and I made the effort of disconnecting my 360 from amongst my setup, packed it up neatly and safely, and brought it along for the ride to ensure that I had the option of visiting Arkham should I so choose. Since my parents still think of me as a 10-year-old (I don't know why, considering I write about comics and video games for a near-living...), I was nearly certain that I wouldn't be allowed to hook my system up to their brand new and utterly massive HDTV, since obviously, I would break it. That being said, I damn near considered also taking my own HDTV home with me, which would then necessitate bringing my surround sound system. So basically, in a matter of weeks, I went from hardly enjoying Street Fighter II to nearly taking my home theater system with me for a two-day trip.

In the end, I arrived at home with only the system, and hooked it up in my old stomping grounds of my parent's basement, and to an archaic standard def television, nonetheless. I excitedly hooked up to the Internet and logged into Xbox LIVE for the first time in months (I live in a dungeon, I don't have Internet to my 360), and downloaded the GameStop exclusive Scarecrow Challenge Map. Needless to say, while I didn't play the narrative aspect of Arkham once the whole weekend - I didn't want to experience anything in non-high definition and without a rumbling subwoofer - I spent plenty of time shattering the bones of skeletons.

I played hard and I played often, and I didn't even let my system sit in my bag when I returned to my dungeon basement. In fact, I hooked it up immediately and played some more. While I can't say for certain that once the Arkham experience wears itself out I will find something to keep my gaming as consistently active, for now I am content. Unfortunately, I know that even though Arkham is a great game on its own merits, Batman or not, it is the Dark Knight that is keeping me so involved. If these were original, newly created characters, I fear that I would not be as inclined to play the game so fiercely.

This begs the question: will I be able to assimilate to new properties just as easily as previously established ones? I suppose you'll need to stay tuned to find out.