Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City

ok wow. what a great game - just finished it, and it is prob going to get my #1 spot for the year.

I just finished this too (well, the main story), on Monday night. Really is a great game, and I still have lots of the challenges to do before I consider it 'finished' proper. The final battle left me a little bitter, as it was a bit rubbish though (I generally hate boss battles anyway).

Unless my two 3-hour train journeys this weekend get me deep into Zelda I reckon it could be the only contender for the top spot for me.

in the week since finishing it, this really slid down the scale for me - partially because i am not getting into the challenges really, and partially because i have like zero interest in replaying the main game, which is a problem

Finally got round to ordering this - £17.99 at play.com. I'm aiming to hoover up a good <£20 game at least once a month this year to avoid my PS3 becoming a stupidly expensive DVD player.

Status: awaiting stock

bastards :(

okay I played the demo of this over the weekend and WOW THIS IS SORT OF TOTALLY MY TYPE OF SHIT

Still waiting. Fuck a play.com.

That's play.com all over these days. I had "awaiting stock" on three different items for 6 weeks each in the run up to christmas, before I cancelled them all and went to HMV instead.

hi dere - u should play this.

it is insane how much fun it is to hang upside-down from a gargoyle and wait

also, is it cheating to play the whole game in detective mode?

no but i found i switched between both cuz it's sort of easier to take in the geography with it off

I have gotten to Bane. Holy shit this game is fantastic. The Scarecrow level was like OMG

i beat it well before finishing coint and plick. It's a winner alright. Finished with the full riddle and greatest detective achievement; still sorta tempted to go for perfect knight.

Trying to get all the combat challenges but then gave up because I realised only 15 year olds have the time and skill to get 50000 on any of the levels.

I was once that 15 year old but many moons have passed since then.

For realz, you guys are making me feel old.

Still waiting. Fuck a play.com.

― inoffensive alterna-poppage (onimo), Tuesday, 26 January 2010 16:56 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Seriously

finally picked this up for cheapish over the weekend and yes it owns sensationally. definitely would have placed over Uncharted 2 in my C&P ballot, although I guess I haven't gotten to the alleged most infuriating sections yet. I did get stuck for an embarrassingly long time on the first Riddler challenge though.

being in detective mode is not very conducive to solving the first Riddler challenge, tbf

I have actually been trying to resist detective mode as much as possible since it does seem slightly game-breaking (although IRL Batman would probably have detective mode on constantly for that very reason).

Are there notable differences between the PS3 and 360 versions of this? I've been waiting ages for the PS3 one and now the 360 one's going cheap and is in stock.

PS3 version has levels where you can play as the joker i think?

btw guess who downloaded the levels where you can play as the Joker over the weekend? ^_^

Thanks jjj, guess I'll just wait and wait and wait.

The Joker levels are for the online challenges, right?

16/01/2010 Batman: Arkham Asylum (PlayStation3)

£17.99
Posted: 26/02/2010

Better be worth the wait!

btw it is

beating up a room full of bad guys NEVER GETS OLD; this is also the first game where I've really wanted to counter attacks because the fight animation is so rad

Yep, this game is so great. I got it over the weekend. OTM about the temptation to stay in Detective Mode all the time and Scarecrow levels being super cool. Really started to love the combat once I got the rhythm of it.

Questions: I'm guessing there are a lot of hidden areas/Riddler stuff I can't get to until I have X amount of Metroid-style upgrades (say, to get those explodable walls that are above the ground), so I probably shouldn't try to get all that stuff until much later in the game and backtrack then? I'm still picking up a lot but at the end of each chapter I always wonder if I should head back.

Also, at least on PC, I'm encountering some weird control quirks I had to patch out in the .inis since I'm using a PS2 controller (inverted analog stick stuff - most annoying that Evade works opposite the way it's supposed to and can't be fixed) but the weirdest thing is that the D-pad gadget selecting stuff doesn't work right, I can't pick any gadget that's on a diagonal axis (like the Crytographer) and sadly have to reach for the keyboard when this happens. Anyone else encounter this?

I really have to say that the rendition of Scarecrow in this game is like one of the scariest fucking things ever, like it really makes him worthy of being a main Batman villain.

also holy shit at that Szasz interview tapes

yeah theres a bunch of riddler shit that you cant get until you get more gadgets.

xp LOVE the interview tapes, they scratch the same kind of extra-narrative itch the Bioshock audio diaries did

I've played through the first couple of levels and I'm loving this. Combat has a great feel to it, detective mode is aces, atmosphere is spot on. Want all the extra abilties and gadgets now!

I finally picked this up last weekend for PS3 and whaaao. I realize now how long it's been since I've played a third-person action game as I've died quite a few times, but I'm getting back into it.

Kind of disappointed that I didn't find anything really special in the mini-Batcave on the island.

I'm about 30% through. Really liked the two Scarecrow hallucinations. I think I like taking out rooms full of grunts more than the roided up mentalist boss level. Still loving it - the only downside is that it's reprogrammed my combat fingers and I can't counter-attack properly in Assassin's Creed.

I think we're at about the same spot; I'm about to go looking for Killer Croc's lair (aka the point in the game that John thinks is unmitigated horseshit)

I think the last cut scene I watched before switching it off (at 2.30 a.m.) was Poison Ivy being released.

Crocs lair is the absolute nadir of the game but its only like 20 mins.

so far, my favorite thing about the game is how seamless the story is; it really feels like I'm playing a graphic novel (and, oddly, is making me want to buy Batman comics)

also I really need to get all of the interview tapes because Poison Ivy's interviews are taking an unfortunate turn almost as awesome as the Szasz ministory

Croc's lair did not bug me!
Dan you are taking this game SLOW!

i really vibed the zelda meets lovecraft poison ivy boss fight. croc was def the worst.

haha dude, I only have so much time to play it what with my singing side gigs and my crippling WoW addiction

I just started the Killer Croc level

... really?

Back onto this after taking time out to complete Assassin's Creed. Just got to Croc's Lair (about 45% complete). Absolutely love the Scarecrow cut scenes, though the levels themselves are a bit easy so far. Rooms full of grunts >>> pumped up boss dudes, though the one where you jump on the boss's back and get him swinging at his mate was A+ lols. Zip line + batarang power-ups helping out big time. Not happy with these booby-trapped gargoyles (sentences you thought you'd never type).

Fuck a walking around sewers slowly - especially when it doesn't fucking matter how slowly you walk Croc still keeps popping up. About 2 minutes of "oh fuck he's around here somewhere oh shit be quiet" followed by an eternity of creep creep creep batarang repeat. 50% of story mode done. Still to try the challenges.

http://www.spectrecollie.com/archives/2009/09/same-bat-time-same-bat-channel-same-bat-grappling-hook/

Some good criticisms. I share a similar feeling in that I love love love the game (and finally beat it recently after having to take a few months off from video games in the middle of it) but there were some things that took the shine off a little, like how all the boss fights are pretty similar and some choices about the puzzle solving (though I'm surprised nobody has mentioned how aggravating/ridiculous some of those Riddler challenges are, like the ones where you align a question mark at the right angle three-dimensionally that you can only see in Detective Mode) The thing about this blog post though, is that he compares it to traditional adventure games, which was pretty keen - makes sense since he works on the current Sam and Max games.

Love the hell out of the fight system, easily got addicted to getting higher scores on the fight challenges (am absolutely terrible at the stealth ones though). Good point too how one thing that motivates you to get better at it is that you (I'm Batman!) just look and feel more and more awesome as you get better at executing seamless combos. I'll be coming back to this game every so often to try to get more Riddler junk (really I just want to unlock the challenges and Chronicles of Arkham) and get challenge trophies.

ARRRGHHHHH SAVE FILE CORRUPTED. FUCK YOU GFWL

i actually got all the riddler challenges, all the combat medals... well, at least it happened after i did this, but it stings to lose a file that was around 92% complete

sorry dude, that sucks! : /

Sequel named.

Arkham City

end of 2011 which gives me a chance to beat all those combat challenges in the first one.

Optimistic seeing as it'll be the same team working on it, but colour me worried about trying to shoehorn Arkham island into Gotham city.

I would have preferred it being called Gotham City, but I suppose they need the brand continuity.

Looks like more of a sandbox. Cautiously hopeful.

Batman: Macho City

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQjBXVxqFpQ

I was listening to that song all last night and today, as I was finally dubbing some records into the computer.
How odd.
its a total jam tho....