There is a lot of stuff going on about The Dark Knight right now, two viral games we know of, new sites popping up, the Gotham Knight anime lead-in and FX was all about showing Batman Begins this weekend, causing some of us to squeel like the fanboys we are when a costume Christian Bale first sees The Joker’s “calling card.”

If the name Francis Notaro means nothing to you, you haven’t been following the Alternate Reality Game leading up to The Dark Knight. Notaro is a key player in the Harvey Dent game, following Aaron Eckhart’s soon-to-be-Two-Faced politician as he runs for Gotham’s District Attorney.

Basically, Dent has been swift-boated in the past month, with allegations that he has been paying off dirty cops to testify against innocent cops.

Gotham is in an all-out gang war for territory, something that will be covered in the film. What probably won’t get much mention is the current state of Gotham politics, which is what the Alternate Reality Game is covering.

Yesterday at 3PM, a press conference was held for Harvey Dent that was interrupted by a hostage situation that ended up being Notaro taking a woman captive.

Notaro tried to smear Dent only to have his story proved false by the Gotham Times.

Harvey stepped up to the occasion, negotiating himself for the hostage and eventually diffusing the situation.

You can hear audio from the whole event here:

After yesterday’s events, it looks like Dent is a lock for DA. Next big life event should be a bad memory made at the trial of The Joker.

Speaking of the Joker, click here, enter your phone number and info and you will immediately get a call. Say “needle” to verify and talk to Jim Gordon who sounds strangely like The Joker impersonating a cop. This is the beginning of the new Joker viral game, no doubt and you just got in.

Happy playing.

Since we know what Dent and The Joker are up to, the only one playing on the periphery is Batman, who will have his gap filled in by the anime-styled film Gotham Knight.

If any of you fell into the Animatrix before we noticed Matrix Revolutions was a piece of crap, you know how it goes: major anime directors take on a short about an American character to show off their fancy visual styles and give minor hints to a greater plot.

We learned enough from the Animatrix to just wait until this DVD seeks us out, we’re not pre-ordering or anything.

But, it does look like it could be worth our time and a welcome break from the usual square-shouldered/strong-jawed DC animation:

There is going to have to be a full story round-up one of these days after all the virals fill in the gaps. Until then, we’re going to have to watch as Gotham history unfolds.

We suggest THIS SuperHeroHype board to keep track of the viral stories, including new leads and stuff you should be working on while we’re wondering what stupid shit Paris Hilton is up to.