Consider this your SPOILER ALERT

When “Batman:  Arkham Asylum” came out it stole a week of my life from me… a week that I was incredibly thrilled to give up. Now, with “Batman: Arkham City” coming, I prepared to give up yet another week of my life to the video game gods… but it seems that one week may not be enough. According to “Official Playstation Magazine” and VG247′s coverage; “The fenced-off area is five times the size of Arkham Asylum. Batman, obviously, doesn’t like it: “He’s been monitoring this place,” said director Sefton Hill. “He’s worried. He thinks it’s a time-bomb waiting to explode into the streets of Gotham.”

With a world that is five times as large as the massive Arkham Aslyum one has to wonder what Rocksteady will do to help players navigate this massive landscape. Now nothing has been said about the inclusion of the Batmobile (Although I would be ok with it staying on the sidelines unless we can get a truly massive world to cruise around in.) So how is Batman going to get around Arkham City? He will grapple across the city and combined with a new “dive” system will be able to zip through the landscape, Peter Parker style.

This seems like an interesting concept to me. Although it seemed a little odd for so many gargoyles to be inside in insane asylum the first time around, I did enjoy the strategic elements that came from planning your attacks around these anchor points. I sincerely hope this element won’t be lost in the sequel.

All of this news is completely secondary to the rumor that there may be Co-Op play in the form of Catwoman! After reading the “Game Informer” article a few weeks back, we know that the reason Bats gets tossed into Arkham City in the first place is to save Selina from being the sacrificial lamb for Two-Face’s rep.  Now to be fair, the speculation of Co-Op seems to come from a simple (all be it lengthy) “I can’t comment on that” response that was the result of being asked if Catwoman’s whip would react the same as Batman’s grappling hook.

The lack of any sort of Co-Op play was one of the few negative things said about Arkham City, and adding a playable Catwoman would be one hell of a way to remedy that situation. Rocksteady games has proven that they are not going to disappoint.