Batman: Arkham City

[Krakalakachkn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiijcSJaC9Q&feature=related

[Red2111]

totally thrilled about this. my mouth was watering as i read the Game Informer article on it, now i'm just super excited!!!

[Krakalakachkn]

I saw Batman: Arkham Asylum on sale for $15 and I nabbed it. I'm loving it so far. The fighting is very satisfying - the hand to hand combat is awesome. The only complaint I have is that the character animations are quite lame as there is only one. No matter where you hit them (head, waist, chest, etc) they always grab their head and fall in the same way. Anyways, other than this, the game is awesome. It blends great looking animation, great voice work, a compelling story, and entertaining combat. I also rather enjoy the Joker's riddles and trophies - I like that you gain experience from them and I like that they very much further the storyline. This makes me want to find them all. It's a lot of fun and I like that the story is so long. I'm already looking forward to Arkham City.

[Krakalakachkn]

Weak Sauce!

 

 

 

Gamers have been wondering loudly and frequently whether Robin would be in Batman: Arkham City, and he will be...for some of you.

 

Retailer Best Buy is offering up Robin as an exclusive download for those who pre-order the game through the company. If there's a catch, it's that Robin will only be playable in two challenge maps.

 

Publisher Warner Bros. has previously said that retailers GameStop, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Amazon would be getting pre-orders (GameStop has its own exclusive pre-order bonus: Joker's Carnival Challenge map), but at the time, Best Buy's was listed simply as a "combo pack."

 

Perhaps we'll see Robin available as a DLC some time after release.

[Red2111]

given this, and the fact that Cat Woman is a main accompianment to the bat ... why again didn't they make this co-op????

[Silver]

Review for this is up on Gametrailers. Looks AMAZING!

[Red2111]

been playing on the game sine Friday. Bubba and i put it on hard, so even though we have about 10+ hours into the game already, we've only progressed abotu 10% of the story line.

 

 

the game has a very "Infamous" feel to it, as far as how you appraoch it and your game play. you can use the roofs to your advantage like infamous and theres no greater joy than surprising a group of thugs as you crash down onto of and deliver the fatal blow. i like getting a group of them spaced out to take out each like that. they might call me a coward on screen, but i'm the one not laying knocked out on the floor

 

 

it's got a very open world RPG feel just like Infamous, and i love how you can stop the main mission to focus on the side missions or just wander around. the remote controlled baterang is cool (i suspect this feature and that of the new zelda will feel very similar) though the targeting system is lacking as far as being able to lock on and easily cycle through baddies (this is for all weapons, not just the baterangs). the other negative comment abotu the baterang, is the reverse controls when controlling it.

 

 

the AI is about as aware and intellegent as Infamous, and like the first Batman the tone of the and lighting are dark and murky. i find myself prefering to play in detective mode to more easily spot things honestly. they actulaly gang up on you like the first one.

 

 

 

the Riddlers puzzles are much more complex than last time; a fair amount of them have me stumped still and i love puzzles (especially of the Zelda variety). the storyline is meh honestly. i find wandering around the area and taking out goons rather than focusing on the story line much more appealing, so i can't say it's captivating like Arkham Asylum's story line was. and while i've met Catwoman, and see her trophies all over the place, i have yet to play as her or even get the option to. her plot line feels more like a "in need of rescue" all the time; so i have a feelign i'm gonna grow tiered of her by the end from having to rescue her so damned much.

 

 

so for villians, all the major players have made an appearance just 10% into the story line.

 

- Penguin

- Two faced

- Riddler

- Joker

- Quinn

- Bane

- Poison Ivy

- Strange

- Deadshot

 

and a few others that are side quests

[reyler]

Arkham City ate my entire weekend. They put those warnings on the package about playing too long for a reason. Finished the main story last night at about 1:00 in the morning. Still have about 150 Riddler trophies/riddles/targets/whatever to clear. Not looking forward to attempting any of the combat challenges, given how much better at the game I could stand to be.

 

Red, a few notes, possible spoiler content for some:

 

You can invert the controls for the remote batarang in the options, just like you can for the camera. Honestly though, you don't have much use for it outside of situations designed specifically for it.

It could be argued that, due to the fast-paced nature of combat, locking on would be more of a problem than it would fix. Getting a bead on a thug outside combat isn't too tough; the cursor will snag one if it's close by.

Bane, Deadshot, and to a certain extent Riddler are all sidequest characters. You don't actually have to do anything about any of them if you don't want to. Ivy, to my understanding, is in Catwoman's missions only; I saw her building covered in vines and thought "Oh no, not again", but never actually had any reason to go there. You actually can't as Batman. There's at least three very major players that you didn't cover there, one of which you don't even know about until the very end, and all of whom are boss battles.

I can't speak to Catwoman's own chapters as I don't even have XBox Live (DNS server problem that apparently is on my ISP's end) to be able to redeem her code, but she only shows up twice in Batman's main story, and the second time she most definitely does not need rescuing. She also shows up once right after you beat the main story to remind you that she's there.

Some of the Riddler puzzles are a moderate nightmare. Finding them is the easy part; getting them out of whatever puzzle they're stuck in is a little more aggravating. Don't like the remote batarang? Just wait until you have to guide the damn thing down a long narrow vent full of corners.

The story isn't as concentrated as Arkham Asylum, but when you get through the whole thing and look back on it, it has more of an underlying theme than Asylum did. The ending comes at you kind of abruptly, though. The final boss isn't much of a "final" boss. At least this game actually has bosses, unlike the, what, two that Asylum had.

[Red2111]

started up a new game on this one, put it in Normal mode and am having much more fun than Bubba's "Hard" version.

 

 

but seriously, the AR's are getting on my nerves. on the last clump of them. #1 took me an hour to do (stupid Steel Mill) and #3 is just as agrivating. hopefully its worth the time for whatever upgrade it gives me.

 

 

with the re-boot i'm not 27% storyline completion, 30% side mission completion and 47% for Riddler. versus Bubba's Hard game where he's 68% of storyline, 40% side missions and 10% for riddler.

 

 

i'm enjoying the side missions and riddler stuff much mroe than the actual storyline

[Red2111]

one thing i want to add is that i hope this game designer grabs Superman & Spiderman as well because Arkham City and Asylum are great games and i'd love to see this style of game applied to those two iconic super heroes as well.

 

 

not to mention the arcs and potential for Superman & Spiderman are similar enought o Batman to be applied tothis type of game very easily.

 

 

i'm really hoping they release another Batmn though; maybe the story line could be in the whole of Gotham or something like that. loving the freedom of Arkham City much more than the design of Arkham Asylum for sure.

[reyler]

Oh my god I hated the advanced augmented reality training. A couple of them (the one in the Bowery where you have to turn around especially) become easier when you realize that you don't necessarily have to hit them all in one motion, you just have to hit them in sequence without ever touching the ground or any buildings.

 

I did my first game on easy, not realizing that of course I needed to do at least normal difficulty to unlock New Game Plus, which means Perfect Knight 2 is going to take three full playthroughs. 100% storyline, 100% side missions (including in-story Riddler - 400 is a lot of damn riddles), and I have no idea what on the Riddler's Revenge because I suck at combat. Although going back to Arkham Island after playing Arkham City, I found myself much better at combat than the last time I played it. I think I'm going to wait to fire up a normal difficulty game until I can figure out how to get the Catwoman DLC with my stupid DNS server. Maybe I can take my hard drive over to my friend's house and set up a Live account through his box.

 

There are a couple of hints towards a follow-up game. Two of the side missions hint at the future, and just as Asylum had a hidden room that set up City, City has a hidden room (much more easily found) that hints at a third game.

[Red2111]

with combat its all about timing really, once you get that down it should flow easier. hardest part of the timing to get down is the counter (since thats basically your block button) a nifty trick is to remember your X button if you get in a jam, that way you can flip over your enemies and swing back for a full on assualt. another tip is to just keep mobile, as he's hitting one enemy, go ahead and target another with a joystick. i'm not good at keeping the combos up, but with this method i've only died a total of 2 times in the 20 hrs i've been playing it on Normal. hopefully that helps you a bit.

 

 

riddlers revenge, yeah i've wondered about that. i wonder if it has to do with the challenges outside of the storyline, or if it's somethign thats unlocked after all the riddler trophie are found. i have tried the challenges outside the game and there interesting, reminds me a bit of the challenges you have in God of War.

[reyler]

I'm not that bad at the combat; I just have trouble building combos. I got the 20-hit combo Riddler physical challenge by accident right near the beginning of the game; I think they made combat a little easier in City, although I still haven't managed a 50-hit combo for the achievement, not the 40-hit combo achievement in Asylum.

 

The Riddler's Revenge challenges are unlocked through collecting his trophies and solving his riddles and such; they usually give you a message saying you've unlocked such-and-such when you pick one up. It's just like in Asylum, certain trophies unlock certain maps. I'm much better at the predator challenges. I have difficulty motivating myself to load up the game just to run the challenges, though.

[Red2111]

yeah i got the 20 hit combo by mistake as well, was in a group of about 20 thugs and was able to keep the hits flowing. that seems the hardest part honestly, keeping the hits flowing; if you don't hit another guy within a second it starts over unlike other combo driven games like GoW wher the lapse between hits is a few seconds.

 

 

i've got one more Riddler hostage to rescue, and tons of riddler crap on my map still. i think i've got about half of his trophis and secrets found so far and i'm only just now getting to the league of the assasins for the story

[reyler]

That should put you at at least 240 riddles; 320 will get you the last hostage deathtrap, and all 400 will get you Riddler's lair. Although I didn't remember it being possible to have that many at that point in the game (but then, that's because I didn't figure out how some of them worked that early on).

 

I've got everything related to combos except the one for a 50-hit combo and the one for using all moves in one combo (which, considering they basically tripled the number of things you can load into a combo in this game, is largely outside the realm of possibility for my skill level). The one for using five quickfire gadgets in one combo was fun. Honestly the things that screw me up the most in keeping a combo going are A)the camera being too close to the fighting to see where everyone is to be able to target them, and B) tossing non-standard mooks into the mix that require different strategy (guns, knives, shock sticks, or the occasional mid-boss enemy like a titan or one of the Abramovici brothers)

 

Also: punching out a shark = awesome.

[Red2111]

lol i never got to punch the shark, but i have to go back and get the rest of the riddler stuff from the museum it does sound fun though. did you notice the shark has cateracks on it's eyes!! the attention to detail like that in this game is unreal

 

 

using gadets huh ... i haven't tried that beyond messing with the goons from a far with the grapple disarm and batarangs.

 

 

as far as how far i am with the riddler stuff, i've devoted majority of my time to that aspect of the game. finding the green riddler goons to get more added to the map and rolling through the different areas either solving the traps or marking them on my map for later. i was totally excited when i destroyed all the Tyger cams too!! the balloons are proving harder though, i've got about 6 more of those in Amusement Mile.

[reyler]

It didn't occur to me how to work some of the goals; like, it didn't occur to me to use the electrical charge to destroy the Harley heads after I found the batarang failed to work. I also kept assuming that some of the pressure pad puzzles (like the one on the towers in the industrial district) required a gadget that I didn't have yet, like a launchable variant of the explosive gel - because the gel can set them off! Cue getting the achievement for having all gadgets and upgrades and I still don't have anything that makes sense for them. Boy was I annoyed to realize that all you had to do was not make contact with anything between pad impacts. You do still need the grapple boost and line launcher for some of them, though.

 

I assumed punching the shark was scripted; it popped up after I'd gotten the remote disruptor, right ahead of the platform for door to the Penguin boss fight. I figured it was just supposed to be one more quick story obstacle. If you want to talk attention to detail in character design, zoom in on Penguin's face when you unlock his character trophy. That's not a monocle.

 

On the subject of the museum, at the point you're at you can't get everything in there anyway; there's a couple of gadgets you don't have yet that you need.

 

One definite improvement over Asylum is the fact that mooks are still walking around waiting to give you XP after you complete the story. In Asylum, if you didn't have all your upgrades before going in to fight Joker, you were pretty much boned unless you have Riddler trophies left over.

[Red2111]

http://www.itcpedia.com/2012/05/batman-arkham-city-game-of-year-edition.html

 

"Scene group COMPLEX released the Game of the Year edition of Batman Arkham City for xbox360. The DLC included on disc includes the Catwoman Pack, Nightwing Bundle Pack, Robin Bundle Pack, Challenge Map Pack and Arkham City Skins Pack."

 

 

 

WANT!!

[reyler]

Yeah, but at the expense of buying the game for a second time? I dunno. I'd rather just get some MSP and get all the DLC that didn't come with the game (which, since I'm otherwise stuck at 1150/1250, or rather 1150/1500 thanks to the Harley Quinn's Revenge DLC secnario, I'm sorely tempted to do).

[RandA lThor]

I love this game, the ending was amazing, was going to do side quests, but got stuck on deadshot and gave up

[reyler]

... how do you get stuck on Deadshot? His side mission literally consists of "go here, scan something, go here, scan something, etc" up until it's actually time to fight him. Honestly for the majority of side missions in the game the problem is getting events to trigger rather than actually doing something about them when they do.

[RandA lThor]

Yeah, but my go here thing is not triggering, even though I found the other person, so i don't know what to do, I will probably go do it when i had the chance, by the way, are game spoilers allowed on here or not?

[reyler]

Been like seven months since the game came out, so probably. With event sequence missions, though, they won't just trigger one after another; once you've scanned your crime scene and followed the bullet trail back to Deadshot's sniping location, you'll probably have to do some wandering around before the next shooting happens.

 

I wish I'd known beforehand that New Game Plus was the only way to play the entire story in big head mode. Big head mode Penguin is hilarious.