The Goddamn Batman: Arkham City thread

[Serious_Business]

Oh, look at this.

A console popamole game with a shitty PC port and 3 layers of DRM, cheered by the Codex?

What's next? Codex gonna tell us Fallout is shit and outdated?

I love how completely unnoticed this post has gone. Time to die old man, you're breathing our oxygen

 

[gromit]

Still waiting for the Adam West Batman game.

RATED L for

lovers of adventure, lovers of pure escapism, lovers of unadulterated entertainment, lovers of the ridiculous and the bizarre, and funlovers everywhere. If we have overlooked any sizable groups of lovers, we apologize.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Yea, I dislike how people insist the only Batman is the grimdark 80's mentally unstable Batman. I quite like the way Morrison has the canon worked out: ALL Batman stories, including Adam West era, are canon. The explanation is that first everything was just fun adventure, but then everything started turning dark as the various mental issues kept growing. The ultimate finale, of course, is when Batman eventually escapes his self-imposed idea of being a brooding loner.

 

[anus_pounder]

You've got this though:

http://youtu.be/UFoUcJWkHic

The problem is the platform.

0:48, thats the toughest robin I've ever seen.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Honestly, I refuse to get the PC version because of the DRM. I'll get the PS3 version, though. No qualms there. Strikes me as more of a game that would benefit from a console control scheme anyway.

 

[Gragt]

Good thing we can also use pad for PC then.

 

[anus_pounder]

I don't think its a particularly hard game to control. Some of those acrobat challenges annoyed me, but I chalk that down to my lack of skill than any control scheme problems.

 

[Multidirectional]

Both AA and AC control just fine with mouse/keyboard. I haven't tried it with gamepad so I wouldn't know if it's better, but I do imagine that being able to turn camera around very quickly with mouse is an advantage.

 

[Gragt]

Yeah, having played AA first with mouse and keyboard, I often missed the ability to turn the camera fast, but that was just a small drawback. The devs did a fine job adapating the controls to mouse and keyboard, but after I tried the game with a pad, I didn't want to switch back. It was much more comfortable, and using tools like the decrypter felt much more natural with a pad when you move the two thumbsticks and see batman doing exactly the same movement on screen, plus the vibration also helped to find the sweet spot — of all the games I played so far, AA makes the best use of rumble.

Use what you want in the end, because all control schemes are perfectly viable, but I give a slight edge to the pad.

 

[anus_pounder]

Side quests like Watcher and Identity theft, can you finish them at once or do you need to progress through the main story ? I've been looking all over the City for the 2nd IT Murder and the 3rd Watcher spot. Haven't found them.
I just finished the museum bit with the Penguin, if that helps.

 

[MaskedMan]

Dunno about identity theft, still haven't found the 2nd one, but I'm pretty sure watcher progresses with the main story. It's kinda obvious when there's nobody around, you do a story cutscene and the watcher is right there...

Anyway, great game, although I don't think they've balanced it for people who like to beat up every single person they come across. I'm at the second proper catwoman act, and I've upgraded everything avaliable to me.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Watcher and Identity Theft both progress with the main story, I think. I don't know when the last spotting/victim for each appears, but I didn't see those until the post-main story roaming.

 

[Ituhippi]

There is a properly cracked torrent with all dlcs in TPB. Just make offline account for gfwl inside the game and the saving works.

 

[Multidirectional]

Fucking Freeze fight is making me feel stupid. :D I've hit him with 6-7 different tactics and he still has some life left. Can't figure out what else is there to do against him. Will try few more times and will probably watch a youtube walkthrough or something. This fucking popamole trash is not popamole enough.
*edit* Phew, finally did it. Sometimes all it takes is to complain about not being able to do something before going ahead and doing it. :D I'm already dreading this fight on "+" mode though.

 

[anus_pounder]

Freeze fight was quite a bit of fun. I like his robotic voice when he has that helmet closed. His gun has sure come a long way from that mauser-pistol look alike I saw in the animated series.

 

[Eyeball]

Finished the main story, although it looks like I'll have some more fun in a catsuit.

What a crappy ending - the story was great at first but they seemed to suffer a complete brainfart about halfway through and focused on cramming as many signature villains into the story as possible rather than actually having it make much sense. The "surprise, surprise!" end boss was extremely cool to look at and was also cool in the original cartoon series, but it was sort of anticlimatic to end the game on that note.

Also, Ras Al Ghul and his daughter are terrible characters, even if the Ras bossfight was my favourite in the game. Batman goes all fucking Dragonball Z all of a sudden.

Apart from the story, the game was badass, although I actually feel that they misstepped a bit with the open-world stuff. Asylum seemed better structured, in my opinion.

Finally, I wish to express my deeply felt lust for Hugo Strange's voice actor. Him and Joker completely stole the show, with honourable mention to whoever voiced the random thugs. Conroy largely phoned it in.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

"As an inmate of Arkham City facility, you must submit yourself to regular anal cavity probings by yours truly."



Also, the bit of a problem with involving Ras is that the game should also have dropped other references to the DCU to make it clear this is not a Nolanverse. Just something like Bats telling Oracle not to call Clark would have done it.

 

[anus_pounder]

Hugo Strange is great so far. Just finished a few side missions. The shot in the dark ended in a rather disappointing fashion. I don't know WHAT could've been done to make the final confrontation more exciting, but it was extremely easy.

 

[Eyeball]

Is it just me, or is the Victor Zsaszszszsaaszszszsaszsx sidequest pretty darn dull? Get threatening phone call, drop everything to run to next phone, do dull minigame while the whimpering bitch tells you about what a fuckup he is and how that caused him to start murdering people by the dozen. Does it get less shit later on? I only got two or three calls from him and my "tracking" bar is only about a third full.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Also, the bit of a problem with involving Ras is that the game should also have dropped other references to the DCU to make it clear this is not a Nolanverse. Just something like Bats telling Oracle not to call Clark would have done it.

Ras al Ghul is in the game? While I actually like the Nolan interpretation better, the immortal supervillian version is still pretty cool...especially if David Warner is playing him. But he's been AWOL for some time, so I'm pretty sure he isn't voicing him in Arkham City....or is he?

By the way, how'd they play up Fries? Sympathetic, or just a dude in cryo-power armor?

 

[Eyeball]

Aloof, unsympathetic scientist-dude with no regard for anything but his frozen wife. Whines like a ho when put in a tight spot. Somewhat lacking in characterisation, IMO, but his robotic voice fits well and his boss fight is quite fun, well animated and requires some inventiveness.

Was much cooler (hurrr) in the cartoon series. On the other hand, AC's Penguin came out surprisingly well - good London Scum-accented voice, believable character appearance (apart from his fucking stupid monocle), believable criminal goals, enough hints at dangerous and perverse insanity to keep you worried.

Bane also makes an appearance but his characterisation also lacks depth and his side quest is lame. I found the "boss fight" against him to be a nice fuck-you to Arkham Asylum - Batman just goes "Oh no you don't, I had enough of that shit in the last game!"

Croc makes no physical appearance this time around, as far as I could see, although there are signs of him. Shame - I thought he was badass in AA and would rather have seen a Croc cameo than the entire Ras Al Ghul sublevel.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Fuck that AA Croc level. Probably one of the worst gaming moments in years.

 

[Mangoose]

I kept on hearing from thugs about Croc being in the sewers. But, no, never saw him.

Maybe I'll work on a few more side missions tonight.

The Freeze fight I agree was awesome.

And I accidentally skipped the scene when Batman and Ras jumped out of Wonder Tower so I have no idea what DBZ thing happened, for better or worse.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I had quite a bit of sympathy for Fries, actually. It was clear that he'd been much better when Nora was alive and well, and that he's going through a lot with the present state of affairs, and that it's his strained mental health that makes him such a dangerous and difficult individual. But he's still rational enough to apologize for his actions when Batman proves his earlier paranoid reaction wrong.

 

[Mangoose]

Szasz ending was very anti-climactic. Kinda like Deadshot's, except.. easier.

I wonder if the side missions would be harder in new game+?



"The Watcher" hints at a sequel.

Spoiler

Watcher is Azrael... I wonder if they will try to adapt the Knightquest?!