Batman Arkham City

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I played about an hour. Don't like it as much as the original so far. I was really hesitant about the open-world move, and so far that queasiness has paid off. I'm just gonna blinder my way through the story until such point as I feel like exploring off the beaten path.

More importantly, I wish I had never installed the Catwoman DLC. It interrupts my Batman game to make me play some other, lesser game I have no interest in. Save your codes.

[Stoney Mason]

http://community.batmanarkhamcity.com/forums/showthread.php/6544-Black-screen-when-booting-up-the-Game

I'm not the only one having this issue.

[Van Cruncheon]

i really like it, and possibly better than aa. the catwoman dlc *is* annoying, though, and i wish i hadn't installed it. on the other hand, who gives a fuck about story? i like traipsing around the little crazy city explorin' shit and DOIN' BAT THANGZ.

[Van Cruncheon]

also: DEM GRAPHICS. uncha am cry

[Himu]

it pretends it doesn't exist

though, catwoman has red riddler trophies even if you play as batman. not sure if those appear in a catwoman-less game.

[cool breeze]

I'd give up and buy this on 360 if I didn't already own it on PC from my graphics card.  whatevs.  tessellation is worth a one month wait.  look at dem bumps.   

[Robo]

The Catwoman content doesn't SUCK, it just feels out of place and intrusive interrupting the main story.  On its own as missions or something, it would probably be fine.

[bork]

The Catwoman content doesn't SUCK, it just feels out of place and intrusive interrupting the main story.  On its own as missions or something, it would probably be fine.

It didn't seem intrusive to me, but I only did play up to the point where you first play as her in the main game.  Batman gets knocked out (OMG SPOILERS) and then it switches to her story.  Fine.  I'll take more game play!

[Himu]

if you start a new game after you have catwoman dlc dled, catwoman's part actually shows up before the game's intro.

i just don't like it. I'd rather it be its own mode so i can ignore the shit and just play as batman.

[Robo]

The rest of the DLC isn't the same way, is it?  They're gonna turn this game into Batman & Friends.

[Himu]

dunno about robin dlc

[bork]

if you start a new game after you have catwoman dlc dled, catwoman's part actually shows up before the game's intro.

i just don't like it. I'd rather it be its own mode so i can ignore the shit and just play as batman.

Yeah, the part with her breaking into Two-Face's place?  That's the first thing I saw in the game, too.  Again I have no problem with this.  It felt like a regular part of the intro to me...all this shit is connected, after all.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

yeah, it's not a qualative thing, it's just like being forced to watch episodes of the spin-off show when I really want to keep mainlining the main series.

[Mr. Gundam]

dunno about robin dlc

Isn't Robin just a bunch of challenge missions, ala the Joker stuff from Arkham Asylum?

[Stoney Mason]

Played it for a good bit now even though I would say I'm still relatively early. I definitely like it. How much I like it will sort of depend on how the main storyline progresses. There is definitely a ton of shit to do. It's like they threw in the entire kitchen sink and every villain they could which is both a good thing and bad thing in a weird way. I find myself actually doing the side missions because they are worthwhile and interesting but I find that they tend to dilute the main plot and missions as I often forget what exactly I was doing on the main storyline. Which technically isn't a flaw but it does throw off the pacing for me a bit. But then I don't necessarily have that complaint in GTA or other open world style games which do the same thing. It's just that the first was so tight I kind of miss that a little bit.

I like the Catwomen stuff. I think she animates and has just a enough wrinkles to be interesting. I think its a nice change of pace occasionally and hopefully her story ends up being meaningful enough to the overall plot so that it doesn't just feel like she was shoehorned in there.

[Himu]

There's so many side quests that are turning dead ends for me. I try to more phonecall quests and no phones are ringing, I try to locate the assassin and can't get inside some building, I try to destroy more Titan formula and get inside the restricted zone and can't find one that's located at the Steel Mill.

[demi]

good, it forces you to continue the story.

[Stoney Mason]

I don't go crazy on the side stuff so that doesn't really happen to me. I do some. Then do some story. And continue on with that cycle. By doing the story stuff I end up unlocking more stuff as I journey around and explore the world on the way to the next thing.

[Eel O'Brian]

i'm barreling through the story, warming up to it a bit more, seems like it's getting more linear as it goes along

i think i just like my batman games structured, is all

[Himu]

The game IS linear despite all of the stuff to do if you stick on the story path.

[TakingBackSunday]

I haven't played it yet, nor do I know much about the game other than some of the trailers they've released, but what is stopping you from just plowing through the main game and doing side missions/Riddler trophies later?  I know the game is very open, but does the main story not progress unless you do some of the side missions, or what?

I feel like from what I've read here and other places, the game can be as linear as you want it, in the context of an open world environment.  It's just a matter of how the player approaches it --  if the player delves into a bunch of side missions, they are bound to get overwhelmed.  At least thats what it seems like to me.

edit: dammit himu, I typed a long post and you post that before I do.  Meh.

[Himu]

Yeah Demi. This game is far more Metroid-ish than AA. I went into the sewers earlier and noticed a huge gap. "I need the line launcher to get across." and later I get the line launcher, I immediately head for the sewers and the story continues. It has a totally different flow than AA.

AA was mostly about teasing the player, AC is mostly about discovery.

[Eel O'Brian]

oh, it isn't just that i don't like

- i don't like gliding, can never really get the hang of it, despised those Superman 64 "fly through hoops" training missions (which are required to get a particular gadget you need), of course there is a part in the game where you are required to glide and i have died like over a dozen times

- arkham city looks the same everywhere you go so i get disoriented easily

- a lot of trial and error and cheap deaths in some places because they don't give clear instructions/directions

i don't ask that a game hold my hand, but they really assume you have played the first game here and finished it - oh, about an hour before you started playing this one

i just don't really care for it, but i am gonna play it until sunday when, finished or not, it gets traded in towards bf3 so i can jeep jihad motherfuckers next week

i do think it's hilarious that the game manual is literally a tri-folded single sheet of paper while the Official Arkham City Merchandising Catalog™ is a dozen stapled pages

[Himu]

Gliding takes practice. Dive bomb for only a few seconds to get some speed, then let go, glide, then grapple, as you grapple, grapnel boost (double tap A and then hold A, has to be learned from completing the first 3 or 4 AR tests), jump off object, repeat. The story will get you up to grips.

I just completed the

spoiler (click to show/hide)

league of shadows mission

[close]

This is the ultimate Batman game for any fan of the dark knight. Holy shit. This is easily the best game I've played this year aside from Portal 2.

[Stoney Mason]

There is a bit of assumption at the start of this game that you played Arkham Asylum and recently. I played AA two years ago when it first came out so I certainly had forgotten some of the mechanics and some of them weren't explained so well this go around.

[MyNameIsMethodis]

Game is dumb, unfair, and thinks you beat the first game a hour ago like Eel said.

The fact that they don't explain anything is ridiculous. AA was 3 years ago how am I supposed to remember how to fight and solve riddles? It's ridiculous.

It's also ver yboring and feels all the same. Oh look it's another boring police headquarters location.


Oh and load times suck.


B-

[The Sceneman]

reviewers are saying shit like "I can not complain about any aspect of this game".  Fanboys for these Batman games are insufferable

[Himu]

And you're becoming an insufferable poster.

[The Sceneman]

I'm just mad I cant afford Batman

[The Sceneman]

nah I've already played AA.

I'll just keep playing Dark Souls and get Batman when he's cheap 

[Eel O'Brian]

http://www.vg247.com/2011/10/19/batman-arkham-city-plagued-by-dlc-code-snafu/

[The Sceneman]

you couldnt make it up! Funniest part is the content is already on the disc, but people who have shelled out their cash day 1 can't validate their codes. LMAO

Will wait for GOTY edition

[Eel O'Brian]

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/19/warner-solving-arkham-city-dlc-issue-with-a-simple-5-step-proces/

[The Sceneman]

"simple" 5 step process! This keeps getting better!

locked on-disc content

[Himu]

Bought Oscar a NOS code for Batman Beyond skin cuz he's in Japan and has no access to NOS. I drank it a few hours ago, and I swear it made me form a second vagina. Holy crap (pun not intended) what the hell did that shit to my stomach?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

i don't ask that a game hold my hand, but they really assume you have played the first game here and finished it - oh, about an hour before you started playing this one

this, this, a thousand times this. I loved Arkham Asylum - it was my GOTY the year it came out - and I still feel completely underwater in Arkham City. It's getting better a few hours in, but Jesus Cristo it would be nice to gate your mechanics a bit

[Himu]

What are you guys talking about? When you unlock shit it tells you exactly how to use it. If you have played AA you should be able to remember how to use it, right? Or are you talking about combat? That's what the challenge rooms are for: getting better.

[Stoney Mason]

What are you guys talking about? When you unlock shit it tells you exactly how to use it. If you have played AA you should be able to remember how to use it, right? Or are you talking about combat? That's what the challenge rooms are for: getting better.

Stop being hyper sensitive. And I should not have to enter a challenge room to figure out shit in a mainstream game like this. I'm enjoying the game a lot but it doesn't do a great job of teaching some mechanics. Especially compared to the first game which actually was great in that category.

I really like the game so far but I certainly had a few of those issues myself and I consider myself a "normal" gamer. Not a hardcore type.

[Himu]

How am I being hyper sensitive? I'm asking for clarification. They say the game assumes you played AA an hour before AC, but it goes through its gameplay systems the EXACT same way AA did. Get new feature? It tells you how to use it with a message prompt, you use new ability, continue story.

[Stoney Mason]

How am I being hyper sensitive? I'm asking for clarification. They say the game assumes you played AA an hour before AC, but it goes through its gameplay systems the EXACT same way AA did. Get new feature? It tells you how to use it with a message prompt, you use new ability, continue story.

There are more mechanics introduced right off the bat simply because the game world is more open world. Like I said I immediately by accident took a phone call mission when I started playing and had to figure out how to run across the world to the next phone. By then I was lost in the city and not where I needed to be. The game is simply more complex than Batman was which was a linear one room by one room game. AA introduced its mechanics much more slowly simply because of how the game was structured. Arkham City just by its design introduces a lot more to the player immediately and for a "normal" gamer I  see how that could be confusing. Side missions. Gliding. Fighting, Gagets, etc. It introduced a lot of mechanics right on top of each other and doesn't really linger around to ask did you understand that.

Arkham Asylum was much slower and deliberate by comparison.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I did find the one building kind of hilarious where it was like, "throw a batarang! throw three batarangs! place explosive gel! fire the bathook! PENCILS UP!" It's not so much a mechanics review as a flashcard barrage

[MyNameIsMethodis]

true talk: i stopped playing arkham city the first day

the misisons just aint fun. i stopped at the mission where you have to find freeze.

how much more is left in this turd




if anyone wants NOS codes my work sells them for 1.75. send me $1.80 and ill drink the nos and send u code

[MyNameIsMethodis]

and now the game just red ringed my 3560

[chronovore]

I did find the one building kind of hilarious where it was like, "throw a batarang! throw three batarangs! place explosive gel! fire the bathook! PENCILS UP!" It's not so much a mechanics review as a flashcard barrage

Holy SAT scores, Batman!

[drew]

Bought Oscar a NOS code for Batman Beyond skin cuz he's in Japan and has no access to NOS. I drank it a few hours ago, and I swear it made me form a second vagina. Holy crap (pun not intended) what the hell did that shit to my stomach?

a...second vagina?

as in plural vagina.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I did find the one building kind of hilarious where it was like, "throw a batarang! throw three batarangs! place explosive gel! fire the bathook! PENCILS UP!" It's not so much a mechanics review as a flashcard barrage

Holy SAT scores, Batman!

SAT ... sat. Who's famous for sitting? The proverbial cat, who sat on the mat. Mark my words, Robin, Catwoman's the one behind this horrible heist!

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Batman '66 > Arkham City

[close]

[Eel O'Brian]

i would pay a premium price for a good 1960s Batman TV show game

i keep hoping that adam west and burt ward have secretly recorded commentary tracks for the TV show in the event one of them dies (adam west is 83, burt ward is 66) before the legal issues are worked out and it gets released on dvd/blu ray

[Van Cruncheon]

Bought Oscar a NOS code for Batman Beyond skin cuz he's in Japan and has no access to NOS. I drank it a few hours ago, and I swear it made me form a second vagina. Holy crap (pun not intended) what the hell did that shit to my stomach?

a...second vagina?

as in plural vagina.

HIMU EXPLAIN THIS

[FatalT]

Yay I beat it! Time to rent something else.

[Himu]

Bought Oscar a NOS code for Batman Beyond skin cuz he's in Japan and has no access to NOS. I drank it a few hours ago, and I swear it made me form a second vagina. Holy crap (pun not intended) what the hell did that shit to my stomach?

a...second vagina?

as in plural vagina.

HIMU EXPLAIN THIS

Well, the booty hole might as well be a man's vagina, after all, it's where our gspot is 

[The Sceneman]

touche!

[Himu]

I fucking hate playing as Catwoman after getting Batman's grapnel boost. Seriously, this is torture. Go from flying all over the city without touching the ground to....whatever the fuck this is.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

i would pay a premium price for a good 1960s Batman TV show game

i keep hoping that adam west and burt ward have secretly recorded commentary tracks for the TV show in the event one of them dies (adam west is 83, burt ward is 66) before the legal issues are worked out and it gets released on dvd/blu ray

Well, there is Adam West's secret naked basement commentary DVD

[Himu]

Beat the game. That ending...was abrupt.

[Robo]

I'm loving this game so much more now that I have a good grasp on the flight mechanics and am finally seeing some variety in the enemy type.  The standard grappling hook is just awful; the A.I. selection is overwhelmed with ledges to choose from and seems to pick them at random.  They really should've given you the boost from the beginning without having to do anything to get it and they certainly could've done a better job explaining exactly how the gliding works and the best way to move from place to place.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Having something like the Ra's segment closer to the beginning of the game would've been perfect.

[close]

[Mr. Gundam]

Anyone play the Robin DLC?

On October 11, 2011, three Downloadable Content (DLC) packs were announced for release following that of the game. The first DLC is the Nightwing pack scheduled for November 1, 2011, containing Batman's ally Nightwing as a playable character for the game's challenge maps, an Animated Series alternative skin for the character,[68] and two additional challenge maps: "Wayne Manor" and "Main Hall".[69] The second pack is set to support the Catwoman story campaign by adding four new story-missions.[70] The third DLC, the Robin pack, is scheduled for November 22, 2011, and contains the Robin pre-order content: the playable character, alternate appearance skins and challenge maps.[68]

[TakingBackSunday]

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/batman-arkham-city-official/id472027508?mt=8

Anyone who wants the full Arkham map including Riddler trophy locations.  iOS app!

[demi]

> $3

If you admit to buying this

[TakingBackSunday]

it'll only be a matter of time until it's on installous 

[demi]

It's probably already available in Google Map format on some Xbox Achievement site... w/e though