Batman: Arkham City is easily one of the most anticipated games of this year - with each new trailer, playable character, and gameplay detail serving to raise our expectations further for the game's October release.

After a Batman: Arkham City Collector's Edition was teased a week ago, it shouldn't surprise that the details of that package (most of them, anyway) have been announced.

Here's the official word on the Xbox 360 and PS3 releases of the collector's edition (no word yet on a PC edition). The Collector's Edition content is pretty standard fare - with a premium statue replacing a replica batarang as the stand out bonus offering this round. That said, it's unclear at this point which character has been approved for the statue treatment.

Check out the full list of Batman: Arkham City Collector's Edition features below:

  • Collector's Edition includes a premium statue, an art book, Gotham Knight animated content, early access to digital add-on content and more
  • Premium statue is produced by Kotobukiya to bring the excitement of the game into the real world
  • Flip through the pages of a brilliantly illustrated art book to soak up all the Arkham City content available
  • Get a jump on the competition when you receive exclusive access to add-on content before anyone else
  • Gotham Knight animated content brings the story to life

Is the Batman: Arkham City Collector's Edition worth the $99 (US) price tag? Probably. The numbers certainly add-up even if you are only a casual comic fan or art buff, and the included DLC (which will probably be worth $10 or so) should add value to anyone who enjoyed the challenge maps in the first game.

As mentioned, Batman: Arkham Asylum's collector's edition featured a similar package including a replica batarang, artbook, bonus DVD(s), in-game DLC, and (of course) the game itself. The package was very well received back in 2009, and this combination of extras has become an industry standard for the special editions.

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Still, final judgement is reserved until an official image of the included statue becomes available - since it's unclear at this point which character will be cast in stone. Kotobukiya has a 60-year pedigree behind them, so there's no doubt the piece will be high-quality; however, with so many Bat-fans out there, it'll no doubt be hard to please everyone. Joker or Catwoman would certainly be well received but should the statue turn out to feature Robin - who, despite a great redesign, received a mixed response from fans - it's definitely possible that the Collector's Edition could be fast-tracked to bargain bins around the country.

Batman: Arkham City will be released on October 18 for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Source(s): BestBuy