Rocksteady Studios

The time has come. Despite activating the Knightfall protocol at the conclusion of Batman: Arkham Knight's story, four more villains have surfaced calling Batman back to the streets of Gotham to finish the job he started. As the final downloadable content pack for Batman: Arkham Knight, "Season of Infamy" brings back some familiar faces from Batman's rogues gallery (and previous Arkham games) for one last go-round with the Dark Knight. Though Arkham Knight's add-on content has been a bit of a disappointment to this point, the trailer for this finale does show promise. Encounters with Mr. Freeze in the Arkham Universe have been among the series' best, and the return of Killer Croc and Mad Hatter should make for some interesting missions, too. However it's the return of Ra's Al Ghul that presents the most promise, as Batman's most formidable foe barely got any play the last time he showed his face in an Arkham game.

There once was a time when I would have thought it completely unbelievable to have Batman watching over my home. First of all, the dude is a fictional character. Secondly, I don't live in Gotham, which is a fictional place. Sure, there are a myriad of collectibles currently available that allow me to put miniature Batmans all over the place, and between you and me, those little guys are in a lot of places in my house. None of those scaled-down figures strike the fear of the night into criminals however. It's a trade-off in being able to afford them and fit them in convenient places like bookshelves. Now, NECA's announced a life-size Batman based on the Batman: Arkham Knight incarnation, and what it lacks in function it more than makes up for in straight-up awesome.

Over the weekend, Warner Bros. confirmed that Batman remains a big part of its interactive future. In an interview with the PlayStation Blog, Ames Kirshen, vice president of product development for the Arkham and DC Comics games at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, stated, “Batman is one of the cornerstone IPs for Warner Bros. With the Arkham series, we were finally able to realize the full potential of the character.” It's not a very bold statement, though it is an obvious one. Since Lego Batman first arrived on the scene in 2008, the Dark Knight has had quite a run of success with his various video game incarnations. Combined with the Batman: Arkham series, the pointy-eared millionaire has easily recorded tens of millions of game sales over the past seven years. Given the recent success with Batman: Arkham Knight (horrible PC launch notwithstanding), it makes a lot of sense for Warner Bros. Interactive to keep the big guy around in some form or another, even if current fan-favorite developer Rocksteady Studios is claiming to be done with Batman.

As promised, there's a new update for Batman: Arkham Knight available today that brings the Tumbler from Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy to the video game. There'll be a pair of new race tracks based on those movies, too. You'll also be able to use the Tumbler on the streets of Gotham itself... provided you've already eliminated every single drone tank in the game. It's another of Arkham Knight's instances where it almost got something right. I mean, the Tumbler is pretty dang close to the Arkham Knight version of the Batmobile, but it still has these weird restrictions on how it can be used. The same was true of the Batman '89 Batmobile and will likely also be true of October's Batman '66 Batmobile, which shouldn't be confused with the Batman '66 Batmobile skin that was offered as a PlayStation 4 pre-order incentive. Of course, weird restrictions has been the story of the Batman: Arkham Knight add-ons ever since they first started dropping. You could play as all the characters so far individually (Batgirl, Harley Quinn and Red Hood) in their specific stories, but none of them were accessible in the open world of Gotham's streets. At least, not without modding on a PC. The same will hold true for the Nightwing adventure, GCPD Lockdown. The first actual story content developed by Rocksteady (previous add-ons were from WB Montreal), there's a chance this little bit of Dick Grayson goodness will be the first DLC worth the price of admission. Hell, it might even actually last longer than 20 minutes. You know what still won't be coming? The ability to play as Nightwing throughout all of Gotham.

If you've been waiting to play Batman: Arkham Knight with the new Burton Batmobile, and fly around in the Keaton suit, we've got some good news for you; it's out today. As has been previously disclosed, you'll be able to play with the classic 1989 Batmobile through two race tracks inspired by Batman and Batman Returns. What's more, Rocksteady has clarified the Batmobile's usage outside of these specific race tracks. You will be able to drive around the streets of Gotham with this version of the vehicle... provided you've already eliminated all the tanks on every island. That's right, kids; the 1989 Batmobile can only be used if the streets are barren of the Arkham Knight's tanks which patrol every street and sideroad for almost the entire game. If you were hoping to whip around in New Game+ with the DLC car, that's just too bad. You'll still have to destroy all the tanks, and finish off the drone tank segment for the Knightfall protocol first. Coooooooool. Maybe the newly announced The Dark Knight Tumbler will actually fare a bit better in that department.

Two new Batman: Arkham Knight figures are on the way from DC Collectibles. After the success DC Collectibles has had with the action figure lines based on previous Arkham games, it's not all that surprising to learn the series will continue beyond those pieces already announced and released this year. It's also not surprising that one of the figures will be a Batman variant to go along with the standard armored version that launched in the first series. Like the Red Hood figure that came out a month ago, the Battle Damaged Batman will only be available at GameStop. Normally, I'm not a big fan of retailer-exclusive figures, but as this is mostly just a repaint/variant of the figure widely available, it's not all that upsetting. According to Gamespot, the November-shipping figure will include a line launcher and batarang, and 25 points of articulation, for $25. The sculpt, by Gentle Giant, is quite detailed for the scale and size, and the distressing to the suit to replicate the damage done by the Scarecrow's goons gives the Dark Knight some nice weathering.

After all these years, the 1989 Batman film and its 1992 sequel, Batman Returns, still hold a special place in many a comic fan's hearts. Though there have been numerous Bat-films over the years, including those by Christopher Nolan, they still aren't talked about with the same reverence as Tim Burton's iconic adaptations. That's why, against my better judgment, I was actually excited for the planned 1989 Batman downloadable content for Batman: Arkham Knight. There's just something about those films that overrides my common sense. The next Arkham Knight content drop, due out later this month (for season pass holders), brings the Corvette-inspired Batmobile to the game along with a new Keaton-era Batsuit skin for Batman. There are also two race tracks coming, one of which was shown off in the newest Arkham Insider video from the development team. Inspired by both films, the race track teased in the latest video takes you through the streets of Gotham during Joker's parade, the snow-covered zoo and through the underground lair of the Penguin himself.

None of Batman's closest friends and family have been with him nearly as long as dutiful butler Alfred Pennyworth. While the character has seen some action in the comics and animated ventures of the Dark Knight, the video game versions of the loyal servant have largely been portrayed as just that. Thankfully, one devoted Pennyworth fan set forth to buck that trend, and give the over-qualified major-domo a chance to shine. Though the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight is still rather borked, the time without a properly functioning game has given PC players a chance to fool around with the game's files. After learning how to insert non-playable characters into the fold, Batman Arkham Videos (via Polygon) was able to get Alfred himself in place of Bruce Wayne for much of Arkham Knight's action. "I've tried to edit some files in Batman: Arkham Knight and finally managed to play as Alfred Pennyworth," said the YouTube description. "His moveset is very limited, he cannot perform counter-attacks, environmental takedowns or dual takedowns, but he can still kick plenty of ass."

There comes a time for every single character of every single movie, video game, television show, sport, galactic council, and trading card series when it must succumb to the Pop transformation. This September, that time comes for Batman: Arkham Knight, the latest and final game in Rockstead Studios' Batman: Arkham trilogy. The reveal comes courtesy of IGN, which debuted the four figures in the upcoming line exclusively this week. Previously, Funko released figures based on the Batman: Arkham Asylum incarnations of Batman, Joker, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Killer Croc, but hasn't touched either Arkham City or Arkham Origins as of yet. That's okay though, as the most recent Batman game will likely draw more water from fans.

Though the release of Batman: Arkham Knight went rather smoothly for Rocksteady Studios on console platforms, the PC release has been an absolute hot mess since last month. The good news is Rocksteady has taken up the reins from Iron Galaxy, the studio who handled the PC port, to fix up all the issues the computer version has had since it dropped. The bad news is those fixes are likely still months away. According to a leaked email from EB Games Australia (obtained by Kotaku AU), Warner Bros. has informed the retailer that a patch won't be ready until spring. At first that sounds incredibly damning, but Australian spring begins in September, which means we're looking at six to eight weeks for the update to arrive at the earliest. Given how much work needs to be done, expecting that patch to arrive at 12:01AM on Sept. 1 might be a tad unrealistic.