Batman bonus for GAME pre-orders

By Tom Bramwell Published 24 July, 2009

Special level with Scarecrow in it.

Eidos has announced that pre-ordering Batman: Arkham Asylum from GAME will grant you access to a special Villains Challenge Map.

The game, which is out on 28th August, sports numerous challenge levels in addition to its main campaign, and these generally involve fighting waves or enemies or taking down scattered guards on patrol.

In this one though, "Batman must descend into the depths of his own nightmares and come face-to-face with The Scarecrow and his army of skeletons." Ooh.

You can get a sense of that in our Batman: Arkham Asylum Villains Challenge Map screenshot gallery, where you can see Scarecrow strutting his stuff.

If you fancy seeing Batman do that, perhaps you'd like to read one our innumerable previews, like the most recent one?

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • the_dudefather #1 3 years ago

    Klatu Batman Nicto?

  • Physically_Insane #2 3 years ago

    ugh, i hate when game companies do this. just give it to everybody!

  • WinterSnowblind #3 3 years ago

    Play have an exclusive "power armour suit" which actually looks a lot cooler. But I think all of these things will be released as DLC eventually anyway.

    I ordered from game, simply because when they first put it up, the collectors edition was only £40 :)

  • kangarootoo #4 3 years ago

    Hmmm. Pre-ordering to get extra content just isn't my thing.

    I try to just put the extra content out of mind. You can't lose what you never had.

  • Pirotic #5 3 years ago

    So does that mean if I pre-order the PS3 version I get both the extra scarecrow level AND the joker as a playable character? It's getting a bit silly, surely it's going to reach a point soon where the 'have nots' are left with a game significantly worse, I hope you'll be reviewing it without all these bonuses.

  • Xerx3s #6 3 years ago

    "But I think all of these things will be released as DLC eventually anyway. "

    Where you will have to pay extra for each and every one even though they are are already on the disc. I really long for the days when games just had expansion packs in the stores a year or so later and where everything downloaded was a free bonus. :/

  • GamesConnoisseur #7 3 years ago

    Seem to me that they were auctioning off various 'extras', Sony bidded most for Joker, followed by Game for Villian map, Play for etc etc?!!

    As others poses, is that beneficial to us gamers?

    Of course it is simply a way of milking as much revenues as possible.

  • JimWest #8 3 years ago

    I hate it when games companies give me free stuff. Jerks!

  • jaguarwong #9 3 years ago

    The miserable cynic that lies coiled in my small intestine awakes at times like these and asks if incitement to pre-order isn't just another way to negate the impact of negative reviews.

  • Latster #10 3 years ago

    I cancelled my PS3 preorder with play and reordered it with GAME for this scarecrow level. Way I see it, both places are selling it for the same price, I am getting the Joker exclusive and crime alley DLC anyway and the armoured batsuit play are letting you unlock from the start is unlockable anyway when you beat the game apparently. I think it makes good financial sense to order it from GAME and get 'Dem Bones' for free, because if and when they release the scarecrow level as general DLC, you will more than likely have to pay to get it.

    I have to say though, this is getting quite silly, there are so many versions and exclusives and bonus items from so many different shops it's ridiculous. Still, won't detract from me looking forward to it!

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #11 3 years ago

    I still think it's a bit mean that there's no exclusive Xbox character, even if eventually all these "exclusives" will probably end up as (paid for) DLC.

    I'd love it if they put Robin in there. Proper 1940s Robin, too, with the green chainmail knickers.

  • WinterSnowblind #12 3 years ago

    They already confirmed the Joker levels would be coming to the 360 shortly after. But yeah, I'm hoping they include the classic 60's Batman costume, that would be hilarious.

  • Spence1115 #13 3 years ago

    The thing is, most of this stuff will be like Red Faction Guerilla, where the bonus golden hammer you got from Amazon was just a code to enter in the game which anyone could - and indeed did - use by spreading it on the internet. Same with the HMV exclusive bonus levels on Far Cry 2.

  • neonemesis #14 3 years ago

    I've seen a similar promotion for the new Wolfenstein game: pre-order and get a weapon from the start that you'd normally get half-way through the game. Utterly ridiculous.

  • Entity #15 3 years ago

    If you've made and finished a level before release, stick it in ON THE FUCKING DISK as part of the normal package!


  • TriggerHippie #16 3 years ago

    This pre-order bullshit is getting out of hand. It stopped me buying DoW 2 on release and they can shove this up their asses too.

  • green_nifta #17 3 years ago

    If you're a developer/publisher and you agree to make some exclusive pre-order content for a retailer, then the retailer buy more copies of your game. "Give us some exclusive content to incentivise customers to buy the game from *our* shop, rather than another, and we'll buy another 50,000 copies of your game".

  • IronCladChicken #18 3 years ago

    @JimWest
    Batman is being given away for free? Sweet!

  • sjmlondon #19 3 years ago

    I think value of exclusive pre load bonuses depend of the game. Last year I wish I'd bought the gold edition of Battlefield bad company for the extra five guns but felt screwed over having bought the special edition of COD WAW which was expensive and nothing special.
    all those exclusive pre-order costumes for the lego games are worthless as the codes work on any game and are easily found in the forums.

  • Darren #20 3 years ago

    This pre-order code seems to apply to the PC version too as I've just checked my GAME pre-order.

  • JimWest #21 3 years ago

    @ IronCladChicken

    No they are clearly not giving the whole game away for free, but they are giving you something else for free if you buy it down a certain route. This is simple business, you offer one buyer (GAME) a deal if they buy more stock from you and predominately advertise it in there shops. For people to say this is ridiculous is stupid and narrow minded. Video game companies want to make great games and keep customers happy, but they still need to make money, it is a business after all, and clearly this is seen as a sensible way of doing it.

    Or should i just swear and put everything in capitals, will that get my point across better?
    Edited by JimWest at 27/07/09 @ 20:11