Batman Arkham Knight

[cool breeze]

I don't think I've seen a PC port of a major game this bad since the mid-00's.

the most amazing part is how it's bundled with nvidia gpus as a showcase, with nvidia exclusive features...that crash the game. 

[Great Rumbler]

I'm actually not having any real FPS problems and for about 5-10 minutes it runs smoothly on Medium settings, but after about 10 minutes it's starts to stutter like Porky Pig and that significantly reduces my enjoyment.

Also, if you look at the credits, just 12 people worked on the PC port.

I don't think I've seen a PC port of a major game this bad since the mid-00's.

the most amazing part is how it's bundled with nvidia gpus as a showcase, with nvidia exclusive features...that crash the game. 

NVIDIA even released an Arkham Knight showcase trailer that was sped up to simulate 60 FPS [you can even hear the goons making chipmunk sounds if you listen closely] and using Ultra textures that the release version doesn't have.

[StealthFan]

Maybe it's franchise fatigue but I don't care for this game that much. Gonna send it back to Gamefly tomorrow.

[Stoney Mason]

Maybe it's franchise fatigue but I don't care for this game that much. Gonna send it back to Gamefly tomorrow.

Honestly I started to feel it as I was finishing City. I think the games are solid, but I feel like once you've played a couple , I've had my fill. They follow a pretty strict formula and they've stretched it about as far as it can go. And unlike most open world games, just goofing around in them isn't as fun for me.

I'm sure its a good game though. I think RockSteady are good devs. I'd just like to see their talents not used exclusively on Batman games.

[Joe Molotov]

https://community.wbgames.com/t5/Support-for-PC/June-24-Update-on-PC-Version-of-Arkham-Knight/m-p/575332#U575332

Warner has suspended new purchases of Batman until they fix the game.

Doesn't say what they're doing specifically but it sounds like they are either:

fixing the port
redoing the port

Pretty weird situation all told.

PC port cancelled due to entitled gamers, huehue

[El Babua]

Probably gonna wait for a price drop.

Something didn't seem right, or at least didn't grab me when I first saw footage for this. Loved AA, thought AC was okay. So more of the latter is eh.

[fistfulofmetal]

http://blog.playfire.com/2015/06/batman-arkham-knight-pc-pulled-from-sale-refunds.html

GMG will be honoring refunds now (not waiting for the patch like they said before). Glad I already submitted the request!

[Cerveza mas fina]

I loved AA, dunno why this had to move to open world. Probably cause of sales/retention.

Will prob play in the future at a discount.

[Rahxephon91]

For some reason, I seem to be on the opposite end of the "structure" debate. I didn't really care for AA and haven't really played it. Yet, I love AC and have played through it many times. I even enjoyed Origins and don't dislike the bat mobile traversal here. I like the open world aspect of these games. Not because they are these expansive huge sandbox worlds. They aren't and that's why I like them. I like them as this fun little lobby playground in between the "dungeons". There's stuff to do in the world, but everything feels very focused and mostly not filler. Mostly worthwhile content. Most of the world feels designed with a point, not just to be some huge expansive place.

I do wish Catwomen was more playable here. I kind of really liked jumping around the open world as her in AC.

[chronovore]

http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/24/8840555/batmobile-battle-mode-toggle

Apparently this helps if you're hating the Batmobile controls.

[demi]

Man, sucks you guys have to wait for a high profile PC release. Still playing my Xbox version right along, though. Enjoy the wait

[Cerveza mas fina]

Don't worry Demi, PC Masterrace is still busy playing GTA 5 that just launched.

[TakingBackSunday]

Does this game have choices? It seems like it now that they've been indicating mission select a lot, and with one mission only two hostages out of five were still alive, with Batman bitching about how he should have got there sooner.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now that Joker is taunting me over choosing which of two to save

[close]

, and I'm like what the fuck is their choices that change the course of the game here? Might be over thinking it.

The Batmobile is really getting on my nerves now.

This isn't really all that different from City other than the game "telling you" to select a mission.  In City, you could choose to explore and try to continue side missions but you would invariably reach a point where you couldn't progress any further without a) a new ability or b) the game explicitly letting you know via Alfred/GCPD radio that something happened on the other side of the city.

Also the

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Joker stuff isn't supposed to indicate branching paths or anything.  He's there literally with every encounter, traversal, and area you come to.  I fucking love how they're handling the Joker in this game.  He may be dead but he ain't gone.  It's a fantastic approach to him.

[close]

Batmobile stuff is still really fun to me.  To avoid fatigue, however, I've been opting to glide around more so than drive.  If I have to go to another island I'll jump in the car for a couple hundred feet then eject glide out for the rest of the way.  I recommend leveling your grapnel boost and ejector boost to enhance this.

[Joe Molotov]

Man, sucks you guys have to wait for a high profile PC release. Still playing my Xbox version right along, though. Enjoy the wait

They're just shining that shit up for the Cell Steam sale.

[Great Rumbler]

It's stunning to me that WB thought they could get away with releasing the game in its current state, especially in light of Steam's new refund policy.

[Positive Touch]

and bc more and more u.s. gamers are buying pc. and I'd imagine that a metric shitton of people played the first two on pc.

[Great Rumbler]

and bc more and more u.s. gamers are buying pc. and I'd imagine that a metric shitton of people played the first two on pc.

Steam Spy estimates that about 300k copies of Arkham Knight were sold before it got taken down. Wouldn't have taken a very large percentage of those people getting refunds to set off the alarm bells at WB.

[benjipwns]

I don't think I've seen a PC port of a major game this bad since the mid-00's.

I'm actually not having any real FPS problems and for about 5-10 minutes it runs smoothly on Medium settings, but after about 10 minutes it's starts to stutter like Porky Pig and that significantly reduces my enjoyment.

Also, if you look at the credits, just 12 people worked on the PC port.

Saints Row 2 was this exact thing only better. It had been outsourced by THQ without Volition's knowledge to CD Projekt who outsourced it to some random handful of shady dudes in Eastern Europe somewhere. Then nobody could ever get back in touch with them after the first patch.

[benjipwns]

http://blog.playfire.com/2015/06/batman-arkham-knight-pc-pulled-from-sale-refunds.html

GMG will be honoring refunds now (not waiting for the patch like they said before). Glad I already submitted the request!

hmmm, dunno, maybe I'll just stick with it, I only paid $35 or whatever, I can't imagine it'll come back cheaper. (I could it see WB re-releasing it at something like $40-45 instead of $60 though.) Might as well just wait, or try to play it, would save me from another 34GB download I suppose.

I like making up rational excuses for just being lazy.

[demi]

Hi guys, just played about 3 hours of this after work. No crashes, no issues. Sorry you guys are having issues. I mean, I wouldn't feel silly or anything over it. I mean, I would. Definitely would.

[chronovore]

Got into it some more and man this game is awesome. Finally, Man-Bat gets some shine

Batwoman inviting me to her lesbian wedding in my phone messages

Playing as Azrael

This game is like Arkham City in all the ways I loved AC. Going to a beat this 100% like I did with Asylum and City.

I 100% one of my runs on AC, but can't get Perfect Knight because I never managed to Gold Medal the "Choose Your Handicap" serial Challenges.

I can see myself going pretty far in Origins, but I am not going to go way, way obsessive over it. I'm just going to quit while I'm still in love.

[benjipwns]

The main plot is the thing for Origins, and I like some of the side crime solving detective things, even if they were just Batman narrates himself solving the crime by finding clues. It made me like that somebody associated with the games wants to figure out a way to put some detectiveplay into these games.

I feel like the Riddler stuff was easier in Origins than City, a lot less races where you have to crawl through stuff and then throw your remote batarang all in like five seconds. Though I didn't finish them all and it's been like a year since I played it. The Anarky tag and other photo thing are bullshit though. I wound up just finding a map online after one of them was like behind some wall there'd be no reason to ever go behind to see it.

[Great Rumbler]

I got my refund from Green Man Gaming, but they didn't actually do anything to revoke my key so I still own it on Steam.

[benjipwns]

They said they're sending the keys tied to refunds to WB to take care of:

Hi folks. Just to answer a couple of questions...

You'll be able to get a refund for Premium Edition and Season Pass too if you choose
We'll be sending a list of refunded keys to WBIE for deactivation – so if you've bought the game and ask for a refund, do be aware that your digital key will deactivated soon after.

In terms of timeframe and our previous update, we've not yet received an indication of timing from WBIE. It's likely that once BAK relaunches, our standard returns policy will come into effect, but the best bet is to stay tuned to all of our channels for more info and we'll confirm changes in policy for this title here.

Thanks again for everyone's patience and the support we've received. We'll keep you posted as more info comes in.

[benjipwns]

Progress Update and Patch: June 27, 2015
Community Announcements - gary.lake-schaal
Rocksteady is leading our team of developers and partners as we work on the PC performance issues that players have been encountering. The work is significant and while we are making good progress on improving performance, it will take some time to ensure that we get the right fixes in place.

Below is the list of the key areas where we are dedicating our resources to improve the experience for our loyal fans:

• Support for frame rates above 30FPS in the graphics settings menu
  Fix for low resolution texture bug
  Improve overall performance and framerate hitches
  Add more options to the graphics settings menu
  Improvements to hard drive streaming and hitches
  Address full screen rendering bug on gaming laptops
  Improvements to system memory and VRAM usage
  NVIDIA SLI bug fixes
  Enabling AMD Crossfire
  NVIDIA and AMD updated drivers

While we work on improving performance, we will also continue to make interim patches available to address issues for those still playing the game on PC. The first patch is being released now and the updates include:

• Fixed a crash that was happening for some users when exiting the game
  Fixed a bug which disabled rain effects and ambient occlusion. We are actively looking into fixing other bugs to improve this further
  Corrected an issue that was causing Steam to re-download the game when verifying the integrity of the game cache through the Steam client
  Fixed a bug that caused the game to crash when turning off Motion Blur in BmSystemSettings.ini. A future patch will enable this in the graphics settings menu

We would like to thank our fans for their patience and invaluable feedback. We will continue to monitor and listen for any additional issues.

[Great Rumbler]

SteamSpy is estimating that 35k people who bought Arkham Knight have already gotten refunds.

[demi]

the batmobile is terrible and i hate that pretty much everything is tied to it

[cool breeze]

game is fun but I'm disappointed by how open world game it is.  the x number of towers, and bombs, and blockades.  and asylum, city, and origins kept shuffling you from villain to villain in the main storyline.  in knight most of those are side missions.  city and origins have their side missions but keep plenty in the story.

that said, gliding onto criminal's car and tossing him out through the window still hasn't gotten old.

[TakingBackSunday]

It's a lot harder to get Riddler henchmen in this game.  Makes the Riddler stuff a bit harder

Love love love this game otherwise.  I must be the only person who loves the Batmobile shit.  Combat doesn't feel as...refined I guess in this game?  I think the fact that you have so many options actually detriments the quality of the combat, but its still really fluid and fun.

Tonight I'm not gonna even do any missions, I'm gonna get familiar with the city scape

[demi]

batmobile is terrible.

"u can only shoot them from behind."

"ok, i guess i better make my way behind without them knowing."

* proceed to demolish gotham city streets just maneuvering in battle mode

[Rahxephon91]

I believe this game kind of sucks or is very mediocre. The side quests are repetitive to the point of coming off very lazy. The story is awful even for Arkham standards. I mean Jesus is the Arkham Knight one of the worst villains ever. The Batmobile is annoying and feels like it has more combat then the actual brawling. I like it when these games throw plenty of enemies at me and that seems to happen rarely here.

I don't know how to feel about this game.

[demi]

The Arkham Knight isnt even a villain. Hes a lackey for Scarecrow, who does most of the heinous stuff.

[TakingBackSunday]

let me love this game dammit 

[Rahxephon91]

Well all I here from him is

"I'M GONNA GET YOU BATMAN. I'll GET YOU FOR HURTING ME".

I hate when characters talk like that all while without actually doing anything.

Dude sounds like he listens to



24/7 in his cosplay armor suit.

[benjipwns]

I saw someone mention a tip about the Batmobile, after you get it, pop into the settings and there's new control settings for it or something that aren't available before you get it.

[chronovore]

I saw someone mention a tip about the Batmobile, after you get it, pop into the settings and there's new control settings for it or something that aren't available before you get it.

It's probably this, which I will now re-post:
http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/24/8840555/batmobile-battle-mode-toggle

[demi]

Its fine with default. The problem is that the batmobile is the worst designed gameplay gimmick thing in 2015 bar none. Whoever came up with that shit needs to be let go.

On par with Tomb Raider's forced multiplayer. Garbage.

[TakingBackSunday]

I like it  :'(

[bork]

I got my refund from Green Man Gaming, but they didn't actually do anything to revoke my key so I still own it on Steam.

Had no idea they were offering refunds.  Just submitted a ticket.  If it goes through maybe I'll get this on PS4, although at this point I think I might as well just wait for a GOTY version.

[fistfulofmetal]

its a bit weird that the only three female characters in this game all get captured within the first 2 hours

[demi]

Got all achievements except New Game +.

Game is very disappointing.

Batmobile is worst design choice of 2015. Batman vs. boring ass drones.

Arkham Knight character is boring.

"Boss" fights are nonexistent. Nothing but a boring cutscene.

Having to 100% to get the "True?" Ending is dumb. Enjoy your Riddler collectathon.

The lack of AR challenges are appreciated. After City's HORRENDOUS route, this was welcome.

Ending was pretty wack. Not very satisfying. The "100%" ending didnt help either.

Unsurprisingly, -HE- remains the best part of the game (you know who i am referencing).

They should have just done a HD remaster for Arkham Asylum.

[TakingBackSunday]

I read all of that and I can't dispute anything you say.  All I'll say is that I am thoroughly enjoying it regardless, and I happen to still dig the Batmobile stuff.  I only got frustrated at the

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Deathstroke encounter being the same as the Cloudburst one

[close]

.

Definitely not as intrigued in the riddles this time around but I still like them.

I want to play through the game a couple more times to solidify my thoughts but at the moment:

City > Knight ≥ Asylum >>>>> Origins

[fistfulofmetal]

The Riddler sidequests that got you riding along the walls like this is fucking Mario Kart is serious going to drive me crazy. I'm baffled how anyone thought this was fun.

AND WHEN YOU FAIL YOU STILL HAVE TO MAKE IT TO THE BEGINNING AND ALL THE OBSTACLES REMAIN ACTIVE SO I'M STUCK IN THIS LOOP OF TRYING TO GET BY THE FINAL OBSTACLE THAT IS COMPLETELY RANDOM AND I KEEP HITTING THE WALLS AND BOUNCING OFF LIKE A FUCKING RUBBER BALL.

[Joe Molotov]

The Riddler sidequests that got you riding along the walls like this is fucking Mario Kart is serious going to drive me crazy. I'm baffled how anyone thought this was fun.

AND WHEN YOU FAIL YOU STILL HAVE TO MAKE IT TO THE BEGINNING AND ALL THE OBSTACLES REMAIN ACTIVE SO I'M STUCK IN THIS LOOP OF TRYING TO GET BY THE FINAL OBSTACLE THAT IS COMPLETELY RANDOM AND I KEEP HITTING THE WALLS AND BOUNCING OFF LIKE A FUCKING RUBBER BALL.

Everyone's laughing at Rocksteady's boner! Well, Rocksteady will show you all how many boners they can make!

[Tasty]

Give me a CG render of Nightwing shirtless and they already got a boner in the making over here

[Joe Molotov]

Give me a CG render of Nightwing shirtless and they already got a boner in the making over here

[avatar quote]

[cool breeze]

I usually don't rank things but here it's Asylum = City = Origins > Knight. 

can't think of a strong addition or enhancement in Knight but can think of several that are worse and ruin the flow of combat or predator sequences.

[fistfulofmetal]

Batman seems to think that the typical copy-paste shallow side content meant to be filler in most open-world games is good enough to be the primary side-content.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

My roommate bought Knight and I've only ever played Asylum. Would I be doing myself a disservice by skipping City and playing this?

[Positive Touch]

yes city is the best one by far

[demi]

My roommate bought Knight and I've only ever played Asylum. Would I be doing myself a disservice by skipping City and playing this?

Yes, Knight relies heavily on City. Especially the ending....

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Alright, I'll do City first. Thanks guys.

[demi]

Knight doesnt really do much relation with Asylum (only super faint mentions). It's definitely a you must play City before Knight if you care about story.

[chronovore]

its a bit weird that the only three female characters in this game all get captured within the first 2 hours

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StuffedIntoTheFridge

[Purrp Skirrp]

I liked what I played of Asylum (2-3 hours), but stopped to just go ahead to City because it's probably better in most ways. And I have Knight to play too so I don't want to burnout on the series.

[fistfulofmetal]

I like a lot about City and it's probably the best from the "You're a fucking badass Batman doing badass stuff" perspective. But I have a more fond memory for Asylum and how Metroid-y it is.

[fistfulofmetal]

End of the "Perfect Crime" sidequest

spoiler (click to show/hide)

So I take out all the dudes and I'm left with Pyg. I counter the machete throws and go up to the table. All I'm given is the Red avoid warning which up to this point has ALWAYS meant I need to tap L2 to throw a batarang. It's never used for ANY OTHER REASON. No other prompts come up. So I basically am standing there throwing batarangs and doing nothing. Eventually he stabs me and I die. After failing to figure out what I need to do, I look it up. I guess there's an "Environmental Takedown" move done with X+O? At no point has the game ever communicated that and I've never seen it used.

Then I reload and now it seems the mission is bugged super bad. I take down the first guy and it never spawns the other guys. In fact it was so bugged that my fucking PS4 crashed after sitting there waiting for something to happen.

[close]

Way to fuck up the only cool piece of sidecontent.

[zomgee]

End of the "Perfect Crime" sidequest

spoiler (click to show/hide)

So I take out all the dudes and I'm left with Pyg. I counter the machete throws and go up to the table. All I'm given is the Red avoid warning which up to this point has ALWAYS meant I need to tap L2 to throw a batarang. It's never used for ANY OTHER REASON. No other prompts come up. So I basically am standing there throwing batarangs and doing nothing. Eventually he stabs me and I die. After failing to figure out what I need to do, I look it up. I guess there's an "Environmental Takedown" move done with X+O? At no point has the game ever communicated that and I've never seen it used.

Then I reload and now it seems the mission is bugged super bad. I take down the first guy and it never spawns the other guys. In fact it was so bugged that my fucking PS4 crashed after sitting there waiting for something to happen.

[close]

Way to fuck up the only cool piece of sidecontent.

I had that problem also with the

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Environmental Takedown

[close]

against him. It only shows up in specific places and for some reason Pyg can avoid Batman by using a table.

[fistfulofmetal]

I think what is happening is the prompt to use the quick explosive charge weapon is stuck on the screen whenever I'm in a combat sequence... so it overwrites any other prompt.

Regardless, I finished Pyg.

Then I went and "finished" the Riddler sidequests. I say "finished" in the send that I rescued Catwoman. Riddler wants me to find all the trophies to fight him. Yeah, no thanks.

And now I'm fighting the Arkham Knight in his shitty underground boss fight with the shitty Batmobile.

[fistfulofmetal]

The Arkham Knight reveal wasn't bad. I actually didn't expect it.