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Batman: Arkham Origins |OT| Justice from the head of Prototype And Hulk: UD

From the comments, it seems like it's worse. Being disappointed in something that I don't even know what it is, is a weird feeling lol.

iwNPbsFuejqYk.gif


How is that even fucking possible? It's fucking Batman. How do they keep screwing the story up?
 
Characters? No sir. Only one person died at the end of AC who didn't need to. The other person had to go.

Well...

After all the build up, Hugo Strange was dispatched outta nowhere by Ras who then takes a header into an iron fence and impaled, while Batman makes a pithy one liner. Then Talia gets ganked, Clayface is Joker (what?), but wait, Joker's alive! But wait, now Joker's died (fina-fucking-lly) and then Batman carries his body out like a brother or lover instead of Talia who minutes earlier Batman was ready to save instead of saving Gotham.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Maybe it's because I almost never follow comic arcs, but my investment in the Arkham game storyline is pretty damn forgiving. I liked Asylum's narrative a lot more than City's, but mostly because just seemed to meander around ideas, rush others, and didn't come together very well by the end. Not as tightly as Asylum did. But still, I'm forgiving. I'm not really expecting a masterpiece. I just want a good comic book origin story.
 
I just realize that almost every character who at one point or another in the comics knows or knew Batman's identity can be found Arkham City.
 

Skilletor

Member
Maybe it's because I almost never follow comic arcs, but my investment in the Arkham game storyline is pretty damn forgiving. I liked Asylum's narrative a lot more than City's, but mostly because just seemed to meander around ideas, rush others, and didn't come together very well by the end. Not as tightly as Asylum did. But still, I'm forgiving. I'm not really expecting a masterpiece. I just want a good comic book origin story.

I read all of the Batman comics and think the Arkham stories are mostly enjoyable. It's not like there haven't been 103298 takes on the Batman. This is just one more and doesn't have any bearing on how I enjoy Batman in other media.
 
City's story is good enough for a huge batman plot that involves everyone up until wonder tower, where it needed to slow down and take a breather for a moment before wrapping up the joker stuff. It felt like a clustefuck because a lot of really important things were happening and you were never given enough time to have them sink in.
 

Sojgat

Member
City's story is good enough for a huge batman plot that involves everyone up until wonder tower, where it needed to slow down and take a breather for a moment before wrapping up the joker stuff. It felt like a clustefuck because a lot of really important things were happening and you were never given enough time to have them sink in.

Agreed.

It just feels rushed after a point.
 

lordkosc

Member
Batman Returns is probably a better movie to watch, in preparation for this game.

Due to its Christmas theme, and I just like Keaton better. :p
 

Veelk

Banned
The only thing that pisses me off about Arkham City's ending is
Talia's death and the manner in which Joker died. It's a shame that Talia, of all people, got fridged in this day and age. What should have happened is that she should have killed Ra's, to which he responds that it is not Batman or Strange that are worthy as his successors, but his own daughter that he has overlooked. Talia leaves and one of the major villains for the next game is set up. It's stupid too because the only reason Talia isn't the obvious choice is because of his own stupid sexism, which might have been acceptable back in the day, but now the notion should be discarded as an extraordinary blindspot on part of Ra's, possibly due to his age/dips in the lazarus pit. Second, the joker should never clung so pitifully to life like he did. Pranking Batman is his life's mission, above all. In that situation, what better joke would there be than to have batman offer to save him only for him to voluntarily snap his own neck like in Dark Knight Returns, pinning the blame on Batman and making him a wanted fugitive (since one of the only reasons GCPD tolerates batman is that he doesn't kill anyone)
 
Yup,I still feel like the only one in the world who thinks Batman Begins is the best out of all the live action movies.

Batman Begins is the most Batman movie out of the whole Nolan trilogy, but not my favorite. That scene in the shipyard was classic Batman, the other two movies had nothing of the sort.
 
Does anyone else watch a bunch of Batman related stuff during the week before these games come out?

For sure, I've been on some run.I was actually a little more excited about the release of the death of the family storyline in HC but since that got knocked back a little, Arkham Origins became the driving thing for me to go about consuming as much batman as I could. Rewatched the movies, finally bought Dark Knight Rises. Caught up on Batman Incorporated volume 1, Nightwing, Batwoman & Batman and Robin vol. 2. Got the Arkham games on steam and replayed them in all their ultra settings glory. In the midst of rereading the black mirror right now. I even got my kid a bunch of stuff. Caught him right up on L'il Gotham and beware the batman, maybe see if he wants to replay lego batman 2 this week.

I read my comics by trade anyway so I usually have a big splurge every 6 months instead of reading regularly week by week, so it's really fun to focus catching up on the bat around the release of the games too.
 

Tookay

Member
City's story is good enough for a huge batman plot that involves everyone up until wonder tower, where it needed to slow down and take a breather for a moment before wrapping up the joker stuff. It felt like a clustefuck because a lot of really important things were happening and you were never given enough time to have them sink in.

Agreed. Wonder Tower is where the plot falls apart.
 
The only thing that pisses me off about Arkham City's ending is
Talia's death and the manner in which Joker died. It's a shame that Talia, of all people, got fridged in this day and age. What should have happened is that she should have killed Ra's, to which he responds that it is not Batman or Strange that are worthy as his successors, but his own daughter that he has overlooked. Talia leaves and one of the major villains for the next game is set up. It's stupid too because the only reason Talia isn't the obvious choice is because of his own stupid sexism, which might have been acceptable back in the day, but now the notion should be discarded as an extraordinary blindspot on part of Ra's, possibly due to his age/dips in the lazarus pit. Second, the joker should never clung so pitifully to life like he did. Pranking Batman is his life's mission, above all. In that situation, what better joke would there be than to have batman offer to save him only for him to voluntarily snap his own neck like in Dark Knight Returns, pinning the blame on Batman and making him a wanted fugitive (since one of the only reasons GCPD tolerates batman is that he doesn't kill anyone)


That would have been way better than what we got.

Christ, way to drop the ball there. Rocksteady can make a game brilliant in terms of design and mechanics, even mood a lot of the time, but actual narrative... they really need to work on that.
 

Veelk

Banned
That would have been way better than what we got.

Christ, way to drop the ball there. Rocksteady can make a game brilliant in terms of design and mechanics, even mood a lot of the time, but actual narrative... they really need to work on that.

In fairness, even with that....it'd have been a fairly mediocre batman story. All the enemies are unrepentant monsters of varying degrees but all on rank high on rampant sadistic homocide and Batman's shtick is his typical "I will NEVER give up!" that never ends. The best Batman stories often examine concepts that the Batman Mythos is comprised of (Joker's insanity, the state and nature of justice in gotham, the psychological effect Batman has on people, etc) and Arkham City wasn't doing that. If it was doing anything, it was trying to push Batman to his limits, where he'd break, but since most stories do that anyway(and 99% end with him not breaking), it's hardly unique. The only aspect that may have been interesting is how he is ignoring the advice and concern of the Batfamily out of sheer pride, but they weren't in the game enough for that to count. Which is fine, because what it delivered on is giving us the experience of being Batman in an interactive form. Simple things that evoke the mythology of Batman. Him visiting the sight of his parents deaths. Criminals being terrified to the point of nearly having a heart attack as he hunts them down one by one. His using his gadgets and ingenuity to defeat his enemies. Simply traveling through Gotham. Fighting Joker, Penguin, Ra's, etc.

The story is the excuse for why you can do these things, not the attraction of the series. Being good might even be a detriment to the game, in some ways. The best part of the Arkham series is the general "I AM THE GODDAMN BATMAN" euphoria I feel as I play. It's pure escapist fantasy and fantastic for a videogame...but terrible for a narrative, more often than not. Batman can't just be Batgod and awesome all the time in a good story. Some of the best moments of Batman is when I look at him and think that maybe he is wrong and that he's the problem. It's compelling psychological narrative to me....but that would interfere with my escapist fantasy.

That said, what the Joker did there was really out of character, imo, and Talia
being fridged
like that was just disrespectful and left a bad taste in my mouth.
 

Schlomo

Member
Just got an e-mail that the digital PC version is also delayed until November 8th in EU. Subsequently cancelled my pre-order, as I'm on vacation then.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Just got an e-mail that the digital PC version is also delayed until November 8th in EU. Subsequently cancelled my pre-order, as I'm on vacation then.

What the fuck. Why the hell would a digital release be delayed in one region?
 

Some Nobody

Junior Member
Well...

After all the build up, Hugo Strange was dispatched outta nowhere by Ras who then takes a header into an iron fence and impaled, while Batman makes a pithy one liner. Then Talia gets ganked, Clayface is Joker (what?), but wait, Joker's alive! But wait, now Joker's died (fina-fucking-lly) and then Batman carries his body out like a brother or lover instead of Talia who minutes earlier Batman was ready to save instead of saving Gotham.

Meh.
Ra's has come back from so much crap in the comics I'd be surprised if he were dead. Talia too, though Dini's insistence of having a Batman/Joker scene was a little ridiculous. But even without that, Talia's the only person who needed to live. The rest of them had to go.


Yup,I still feel like the only one in the world who thinks Batman Begins is the best out of all the live action movies.

I'd give it to TDK, but Batman Begins is a close second and I can definitely see why someone would put it at the top.
 

UrbanRats

Member
eh, i just play these games for the gameplay alone.
to be honest i can barely remember the story of Asylum and even less the one in City.
 

Eusis

Member
MY GOD SPOILERS.

Thank goodness I finished the game, but sheeesh. Tag that up!
I think similar happened earlier in the thread, but maybe that post was vague and I just skipped out of paranoia. Glad I just finished Arkham City though to safely read that! Even though it's been long since spoiler protected.

EDIT: Son of a bitch, same guy and a very similar post. Figures.
 

Tak3n

Banned
Just got an e-mail that the digital PC version is also delayed until November 8th in EU. Subsequently cancelled my pre-order, as I'm on vacation then.

What Country you in, as I am UK, but still saying 25th....

The EU is a big place, would help more if you list your actual country
 
Really enjoyed the two Arkham games but i do feel like they needed to move on with the Batman games with a new setting besides another Prison. The Arkham story was wrapped up neatly at the end of City.

Will wait for reviews and, well, to be honest probably skip it anyways due to Next Gen creeping up on me already.
 
2game.com
They link to this news, which only mentions the retail version though. But according to them, my Steam key order is affected. They probably rip the Steam codes they sell from retail versions then?

Haha what? I guess they might. I pre-purchased through GMG, but I've just did a quick snoop of game, steam, so on, everyone still has 25th listed. I was pretty sure people who prepurchase don steam had already started the preload stuff so it'd be a bit late to delay right ? That sucks though.

EDIT: Just had a look at the 2game site. While it does say steam key in the title of the listing, it also has shipping options, so I guess they are taking the code out the box, emailing it to customers then I guess shipping the box and disc out too? You should be fine if you just switch your pre-order to elsewhere, where it's purely the digital version your purchasing. Game has it for £25, GMG you can apply the 25% code and get it for £30 with the other arkham games if you're after them. Looks like it's still just the physical release that's been delayed.
 
Meh.
Ra's has come back from so much crap in the comics I'd be surprised if he were dead. Talia too, though Dini's insistence of having a Batman/Joker scene was a little ridiculous. But even without that, Talia's the only person who needed to live. The rest of them had to go.

Honestly,
Strange dying that way really bugged me.
It was incredibly anti-climactic. I was waiting for an epic final showdown with this:

hugo-strange-batman-arkham-asylum-character-artwork.jpg


hugo_strange_batman_comics_01.jpg


tumblr_m8ggqg50cs1rd7l99o1_500.png


Would have been an amazing sequence. He even says in the beginning he wants to surpass Batman as Gotham's hero. Fuck, I get annoyed we didn't get a twisted psychological showdown with Strange after all the shit Batman goes through in AC.
 
Really enjoyed the two Arkham games but i do feel like they needed to move on with the Batman games with a new setting besides another Prison. The Arkham story was wrapped up neatly at the end of City.

Will wait for reviews and, well, to be honest probably skip it anyways due to Next Gen creeping up on me already.

This isn't set in a prison and there's a brand new location the size of Arkham City to explore.
 

Eusis

Member
Honestly,
Strange dying that way really bugged me.
It was incredibly anti-climactic. I was waiting for an epic final showdown with this:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UyhO0EQPi...ge-batman-arkham-asylum-character-artwork.jpg

http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/hugo_strange_batman_comics_01.jpg

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8ggqg50cs1rd7l99o1_500.png

Would have been an amazing sequence. He even says in the beginning he wants to surpass Batman as Gotham's hero. Fuck, I get annoyed we didn't get a twisted psychological showdown with Strange after all the shit Batman goes through in AC.
Yeah,
I would've definitely prefered Strange to be THE main villain and the Joker to be more of a side villain, he came off as a far more interesting antagonist and seeing him breakdown in that fashion could've been amazing. Nevermind the game kinda started with Strange throwing Bruce into Arkham Asylum.
 

HT UK

Member
Just pre-loaded the game on Steam in the UK (16.2GB). I wish it was a Tuesday release in America so I could unlock it today!
 

ekim

Member
Steam still says:

Available: 25 October 2013

This game will unlock in approximately 3 days and 9 hours

(Germany here)
 
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