this game has been sounding way too good to be true for a long time. I keep expecting there to be some kind of major flaw hidden somewhere.

You should watch Birds of Prey. I actually liked that drama... (shades of buffy)... shame it got canned after one season.

That might have been where I heard about the wheelchair thing in the first place

Bat-nipples?

Zsasz never really gets explored in any of the movies or animated series. Glad to see he's playing a more important role in the game. I can't wait to try it out.

You know how they have the DLC for playing as the Joker? Am I the only one who'd pay for an Adam West Batman addon that brings his full voiced glory as well as the BIFF! & POW! effects?

Yeah... about that. You see him, and I pretty much knocked him out and locked him back up within the first five minutes of seeing him. However, they do give him his own page in the Characters menu of the game, so maybe he does something later.
Yes, Oracle is wheelchair-bound. You know the Gears of War put-two-fingers-to-your-ear-while-walking-slowly mechanic? Batman's got it. She researches stuff for him while he's in the asylum.
And the Joker DLC works like this; If you own it on PS3, you get him. If not, you don't. End of story.

PC demo is out as well.
http://download.nvidia.com/downloads/nZone/demos/nzd_BMDemo_v12.exe

is it everything it's been hyped to be?

DC Comics nerd, right here:
During a story called "The Killing Joke" written by Alan Moore (Yes, the same Alan Moore of Watchmen fame,) the Joker decided that he was going to try and drive Jim Gordon insane. He did so by finding out where Jim lived, knocking on his door one fine afternoon and when Babs opened it (She lived with her Dad at the time,) Joker put a bullet in her.
The shot nicked her spine and put her in a chair for life. She went through some serious soul searching, not sure of what to do with herself, but she eventually came to the conclusion that there were things she could do that nobody else could. So she invented a new identity for herself as Oracle.
And yes, the fanboy in me squeed muchly at the idea of Batman actually having an "operator" on the other end of the line. There was the discussion in that other thread about Master Chief/Cortana and Sam Fisher/Anna Grimsdottir? Batman/Oracle pretty much defines that relationship.
Anyway, I just got the demo, myself, for the PS3. I blew through it pretty quickly, but it seems like it'll be a hell of a lot of fun. My only real gripe is from a comic fan's perspective, not a video game player's perspective, and that's how they basically got most of the cast from the cartoon back to play their respective roles: (i.e. Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill as Joker, Arleen Sorkin as Harley, etc.) but they missed a few. Also, I guess Hamill's either a bit out of practice, or maybe he's trying something new because the game is supposed to be considerably darker than the cartoons were, because he doesn't quite sound the same.
But again, these are comic/cartoon fanboy gripes. From the perspective of actual gameplay? FUN. But admittedly, the demo doesn't give you enough meat to really say much. Initial impressions are favorable.
Like Cheese said, the animation is fluid. The game is just damn pretty. There's this "detective" mode thing, which is explained away by crazy, fancy electronic scanner modes built into the Bat cowl, but it basically functions as a means of giving you enhanced situational awareness. Lets you know where you can attach your grappling hook, points out grates you can pry open, stuff like that. But one neat thing it also does is it gives you like a skeletal/X-ray view of your opponents as well as a heartbeat monitor. You can see enemies through walls and track their pulse rates. So if their pulse is racing, you know they're either looking for you, running from you or whatever. Handy little trick.

From the sounds of it all, I can't wait. Sounds like it'll be the first video game to actually live up to its comic book legacy

Does it feel overly scripted or quicktimey, like you're watching Batman more than controlling him?

Or to put it another way, is it prince of persia with a batman skin?

I played demo on PC and it is awesome. This is not PoP, this is like Hitman and Splinter Cell with great combat system. Also you can do detectiving like Condemned series. I really enjoyed the demo and will get this on PC. And finally PhysX is really great, when you move along the smoke, smoke moves realisticly. I said meh to PhysX effects in other games, but in this game it is great.

You most certainly are not.
EDIT: Checked out the PS3 demo when I got home, and downloaded the PC version this morning. The PhysX requirements are pretty steep on that. GTX 260+ recommended for normal, 260 and a dedicated 9800 GTX+ for high.
I really need to get on top of paying off this credit card so I can build a new machine. :(

They've just added demo on Steam :D