Telltale Games

After establishing the tone of the new Batman Universe as it exists in Telltale's Batman: The Telltale Series in the first episode, the adventure has taken an even darker turn leading up to the third installment, "New World Order." Previously, we'd seen Bruce Wayne learn that maybe his parents weren't as beyond reproach as he believed, and learn that the crime families in Gotham were working hand-in-hand with the Waynes for a better future. You don't have to look far to see how well that worked out for everyone involved, particularly when it comes to the Waynes. The launch trailer for the new chapter --- arriving tomorrow --- keeps the spiral spinning downward for the young Dark Knight, and Batman will have to face off against the Children of Gotham to protect his city. He'll also have to deal with some ramifications from Harvey Dent's mayoral bid... at least what remains of it and Harvey's face anyway.

Telltale Games' fresh approach to the world of the Dark Knight makes the first episode of Batman: The Telltale Series an mostly worthwhile escapade into the life of Bruce Wayne. Taking a radically different path from the likes of Rocksteady Studios in telling a Batman story not only gave some much needed perspective into the other half of Batman's life, but allowed Telltale to play to its strengths in narrative and dialogue. It's unfortunate then that the PC version of Batman: The Telltale Series is so marred by performance issues that it's a real drag to play, and a challenge to enjoy.

Announced earlier this year, and then shown in action for the first time at E3 2016, Batman: The Telltale Series has finally gotten its premiere trailer. It's a doozy. Telltale Games is going all out for the Dark Knight's adventure game debut, ramping up the existing engine the developer uses to include improved graphics and gameplay mechanics that haven't been possible before. Plus, unlike other Batman games that have hit consoles and PCs in the last few years, Telltale's game puts a major focus on the man behind the cowl, Bruce Wayne. It's not often you get to live the life of the last surviving Wayne and his alter ego, as most games put the focus on dealing out justice as Batman. Not that there's anything wrong with that. In fact, the recent Rocksteady Batman: Arkham games have been an absolute blast to play just from a perspective of making you truly feel like you are Batman. Where Telltale excels however is in the more character driven moments, and it's here where Bruce and Batman stand on a bit of equal footing.

Telltale Games' Batman series came as a surprise to many of us when it was announced late last year. While Telltale's had its share of big licensed properties before, like Back to the Future and Jurassic Park, Batman just felt bigger than anything the company had done in the past merely in name alone. Now, a few months later we've gotten our first glimpse at Batman: The Telltale Series, which brings with it a number of enhancements to Telltale's signature game engine, as well as an all-new Batman universe to play with.

While most of the attention this week will be paid to games with a lot more pomp and circumstance, don't sleep on Telltale Games' upcoming third season of The Walking Dead. Due out later this fall, the story once again follows Clementine, now in her late teens, as she tries to survive the zombie apocalypse in southeast America. While her trademark ponytails and baseball cap return, Clementine won't be exactly the same girl we saw during The Walking Dead, Season Two. She'll be older, wiser, and minus approximately one ring finger. Telltale delivered the first teaser trailer for the upcoming season just ahead of E3 2016's official start, giving us a glimpse into what awaits for Clementine in the years since we'd last seen her. That, and her new friend, Javier, who appears to have a few secrets of his own.

The first two chapters of The Walking Dead: Michonne took some time getting to the core of what made this mini-series special. Both "In Too Deep" and "No Shelter" had some great introspective moments for Michonne, but the story points driving them along weren't nearly as compelling as what was unfolding in Michonne's head. With the final episode, all of the elements finally pull together to deliver a haunting, gut-wrenching conclusion that gives Michonne more depth, and will have you wondering if we get what we deserve or we deserve what we get.

The Walking Dead: Michonne might be Telltale Games' darkest story yet, and that's saying something. I mean, both seasons of The Walking Dead weren't exactly easy on the heart and mind, but the Michonne mini-series in particular has wrangled with some deeply troubling issues for its main character. On top of her past personal traumas, Michonne's had to deal with a lot of unfortunate events in the present, making this brief adventure incredibly tense. It hasn't been without its faults, but the second chapter's marked improvement over the introductory episode gives us hope next week's finale will deliver a satisfying conclusion. This latest trailer for chapter three, "What We Deserve" sure doesn't make it look like kind of resolution will come easy though. The hard way it is then.

Exploring the tragic and mysterious history of The Walking Dead's Michonne sounded like a great idea when Telltale Games announced its mini-series. Finally, we'd get to see things from the perspective of one of the comics' most intriguing and deadly characters. However, the first episode of The Walking Dead: Michonne was fairly rudimentary and didn't quite break narrative ground in the way we'd hoped it would. Still, with two episodes remaining, there was hope Telltale had something new to say in this world and about this character. The Walking Dead: Michonne's second episode, "Give No Shelter," manages to give a bit more insight into our protagonist's past and motivations, even if it still feels like we've been down this road before.

Getting to learn more about Michonne has been something The Walking Dead fans have wanted for years. With Telltale Games putting her front and center for her own mini-series, we'd finally have a chance to not only get to know more about Michonne, but we'd also be in her shoes the whole time. Thought the first episode of The Walking Dead: Michonne didn't exactly open the floodgates of new details or information, there were hints of promise in Telltale's adventure. The upcoming second episode looks to ramp things up even more, and will hopefully delve a bit deeper into the sword-slinging bad-ass' motivations. Things did not go so well for Michonne in the previous episode. After departing Alexandria while no one was paying attention, she hopped aboard Pete's ship for the south. While out searching for supplies, the group was ambushed by some not-so-nice-folks, putting Michonne's plan to search for her missing daughters on hold. This group doesn't have the best intentions, at least through Michonne's eyes, so it's not long until she scrapes together a plan to escape. Judging by the trailer for this second episode, it looks like those plans go to sh-- really quickly.

It's been nearly two years since we last spent any time with Clementine in the world of Telltale Games' The Walking Dead, but the fan-favorite pre-teen may be back this year. While Telltale has been busy fleshing out the worlds of Game of Thrones, Minecraft, and exploring other areas of The Walking Dead, many of us have been wondering what will become of Clementine in the wake of The Walking Dead: Season Two's finale. Though we'd always expected Telltale would pick up the story for a third series, having no updates on the matter since 2014 left fans eagerly anticipating any bit of news on the fate of Clementine. While the Telltale Batman game got all the headlines this past weekend at SXSW Gaming, the company's CEO Kevin Bruner divulged a bit about the third season of the developer's highly-successful Walking Dead series. According to Mashable, the wait to learn what happened to Clementine after the multiple possible endings might not be much longer.