Joker

The first Batman: Arkham City trailer featuring actual gameplay just debuted for mass public consumption and we can't stop replaying it. Arkham City is the follow-up to Arkham Asylum, which many critics called one of the best games of 2009 and a shoe-in as the best Batman video game ever made.

Easily earning a spot in our 40 most anticipated games of 2011, Arkham City ventures out of the prison walls and into the streets where players will need to navigate the Dark Knight through an area of Gotham City that has been sectioned off to house the inmates.

Back in Arkham City are the combat and stealth mechanics we fell in love with the first time around, as well as more of a focus on puzzle and exploration elements.

Unfortunately those eager to get their hands on the game will have to wait until October 18, when Batman: Arkham City is set to release for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. It's not all bad news, though; make sure to watch the trailer all the way through for a message from a "friendly" face.… Read more

Fun-Towers is an addictively fun card game contained in a somewhat sloppy piece of software. Despite its flaw, we find that we can't pull ourselves away.

Fun-Towers is a version of solitaire in which cards must be taken from the field and added to a stack, moving cards that are only one higher or one lower than the card on top of the stack. The game is actually really easy to play, but we'd never seen this style of solitaire before, and the instructions included with the game were awful. We figured it out with some trial and … Read more

Despite year-over-year sales declines putting a recession-fueled wet blanket over the entire industry, video games are still a big business, and a hit-driven one at that. Hence, much of the attention falls on a handful of commercial superstars each year, from Halo 3 to The Beatles: Rock Band, leaving plenty of worthy games languishing in obscurity.

That's why it's pleasing to see critics and gamers alike praise Warner's Batman: Arkham Asylum, a new action/adventure game about the famed caped crusader. Earlier this year, during the annual E3 video game industry trade show, we said:

A heated discussion over which supernatural species is superior (zombies or vampires) leads us into a truly geeky episode of The 404. To help settle the controversy, we have on today's show CNET's own Scott Stein.

Also on today's show, we solve the mystery behind yesterday's Gawker DDoS attacks that flooded the blog network. It wasn't us, we swear. Next, we analyze a disturbing trend of Obama Joker posters popping up in California and whether or not they're making a statement or are just confusing.

We'll also find out if you can actually sue Amazon for losing your homework and whether or not a new Resident Evil movie is a good idea. All this, plus a special call from Jason Howell and some submissions for Justin Yu's new glasses!

...And to our Japanese astronaut friend, we're not sure deep space is the ideal venue to test out everlasting underwear.

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debbiefromtoronto from the chat room joins The 404 today all the way from Canada. Of course, she brings her special Canadian goodies, like ketchup potato chips and Smarties, on to the show. Justin falls in love with her when he finds out that she has a bachelor's degree in printing! And she reveals that she was the one who actually coined the phrase "ear douching."

On today's show, we touch on the iPhone OS 3.0 news. Mostly, Jeff takes credit for the shake-to-shuffle feature. While Wilson flips out over the new dock input/output features. We also speculate on the new iPhone revision this summer. Also, a really bad Chinese iPhone joke: Ping Guo i-Dian Hua San-Ge. Ask your Chinese friends what that means.

In other phone news, we get a little excited over Google Voice. Wilson was previously a Grand Central user, but may pick it back up now that Google Voice forwards SMS messages as well. Justin thinks about signing up for an account to call Debbie when she goes home to Canada.

Finally, a man gets shot while wearing a Joker costume. He was holding a shotgun. He wasn't shot for his lack of creativity. And in other shooting-related news, Sega breaks the record for most f-bombs in a video game for House of the Dead: Overkill. Apparently there are a 189 f-bombs.

Here it is. It's the latest trailer for Batman: Arkham Asylum. The trailer is set to air Thursday night on MTV, but fortunately for us, Stephen Totilo, from MTV's Multiplayer, decided to post it early for everyone to drool over.

Eidos and developer Rocksteady Studios set expectations very high when the first trailer for "Batman: Arkham Asylum" debuted in November. The setting of Arkham Asylum combined with the dark tone of the story seemed to embody the feel of Batman's universe.

With Emmy Award-winning "Batman: The Animated Series" producer Paul Dini writing the … Read more

This country is in a bad way. Stocks are plummeting, people love Sarah Palin and The 404 made it to 200 episodes. We celebrate this momentous occasion with the beautiful and talented Natali Del Conte. Between the poisonous Chinese candy and steamy Calls from the Public, we're sure you'll laugh, chortle, chuckle, or otherwise plotz.

REMINDER: The 200th episode celebration continues this Friday at 6:30 p.m. at GSTAAD located on 26th Street and 6th Avenue. Be there or Dan the Mantern will beat you down!

On today's show, we made a startling discovery about NDC, this poor, poor chile has never participated in a great American tradition: Trick or treating. Because we love her, and we know you do too (so stop drooling), we're going to make sure she has a great Halloween experience. We invite you to enter the Choose Conte's Costume Contest. We're not sure what the prize will be, but there are a number of fantastic video games strewn across Jeff's desk. Ground rules: Nothing you wouldn't want to see your mother/sister wear. Also, the geekier the better (cuz that's how NDC roles). Good luck!

Happy 21st birthday, Natali. We hope you're having a great time out there on the best, err...West Coast! Even though Jeff is mad at me for not getting Morgan Spurlock on the show, we squash the beef and get going on a great show. Today we talk about magic noodles, the Facebook movie, and Steve Jobs' impending death. We also debut the best set of voicemails ever played on The 404. No hype!

I can't stop reiterating this sentence in my head: Morgan Spurlock served me ice cream cake on a boat in New York city last … Read more