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

Lima

Member
I have them all on 360, so it's all good. My PC would run these games terribly, and my Ultrabook would likely be even worse.

Ah okay. The PC Goty version is the only one I am still missing and that one will be my replay of AA this year.

Then I will have 5x 1000G on Arkham Asylum :)
 

Sullichin

Member
Finished this
+ The best story of the three games. I wasn't too excited about The Joker
being the main villain
when I had that spoiled for me, but that turned out fine. The story really picks up during the second half
+ Better boss fights, Deathstroke probably being my favorite. After dying a few times I realized that I had more freedom in that fight than I thought. I wound up using the batclaw a lot there.
+ I definitely prefer the art style of this game to the everyone-on-steroids characters from AA/AC. Most of the character designs are really cool. I especially like Killer Croc and the new Bat suit. Graphics and performance are great on PC
+/- Really enjoyed most of the indoor areas, especially during the second half of the game... but the city itself left a lot to be desired. This is my biggest disappointment with the game. A good portion of the map is copy/pasted from AC. Same city, fair enough... but there's more Gotham to explore. It didn't make any sense to me why the only people on the street were thugs and corrupt cops for Batman to beat up. And that bridge is no fun.
+/- Changes to the combat. Enemies are far more aggressive. I played on hard mode, but it was quite a bit more difficult than the other games until I got the shock gloves. I liked the challenge but some things just seemed inconsistent. I had a really hard time with blade takedowns, it seems like they only activated half of the time even if I dodged all of the attacks. The camera kind of sucks. I found myself adjusting it a lot, which I don't remember doing in AC/AA, and enemies would attack from off-screen frequently. Sometimes I would dash to the other end of a room in free flow mode only to punch air instead of the guy I was targeting, breaking my combo. I liked using the remote claw to snap people into propane tanks, but the other new gadgets didn't really add anything exciting to combat.
+/- The aggressiveness of the enemies seems to be balanced around the shock gloves, which suddenly makes everything much easier. You don't have to do anything different for shield/knife/venom guys, you just mash square and beat the shit out of everyone. On one hand it's fun to beat the shit out of everyone and it's nice to have an easier time keeping a combo, but it still feels cheap.
- Too many FMV cutscenes, I wish they were all real time. They look crappy compared to the game, and it's a bummer that they don't reflect the costume you're wearing.
- I did not give a shit about the enigma datapacks or the radio towers. I think AA is the only game that did the riddler trophies right. In that game they felt more analogous to picking up a missile expansion in Metroid or something. You'd go back to a previous area and use a new gadget to discover one. The map was also small enough that getting all of them felt like an achievable task. In AC there were just too many trophies everywhere. In AO, I only bothered picking up the obvious ones. I'm just tired of the collect-all-of-these-things-for-no-reason thing.
- Buggy and unpolished overall, from missing my targets/bad camera to black screens. Thankfully I didn't have any game breaking bugs though.

Overall I think WB Montreal did a great job making a new Arkham game. It might not do much new at all, for which it has received some really harsh criticism. If you're really fatigued from Arkham gameplay, this might feel tedious, but it didn't bother me. They took the same great mechanics and put them in a campaign with a better story and boss fights (for the most part) than the other games. I could nitpick this game for days though - lots of small blemishes on an otherwise great experience.
 

Derrick01

Banned
I miss AC's Riddler content, it was perfect in that game.

In Origins I've picked up dozens and dozens of datapacks and I haven't unlocked a damn thing except for a couple of audio tapes for a full set. I miss unlocking challenge maps, stories about side characters and then after getting enough you'd unlock an actual Riddle puzzle room to save a hostage. There were more actual puzzles to get Riddler trophies in AC too.
 
Do you have to get all of the enigma packs to get finally
get to the Riddler?
. Or just complete the towers/network antennas?

The main problem I have with the extortion packs isn't the lack of unlockables, etc. It's the fact that actually getting them don't require much thought at all. Arkham City had hundreds of them and more often than not they were actually pretty clever requiring you to use a number of skills/gadgets to get to them. Here you're more likely to just find one laying on a bridge or right behind a wall that needs blown up. There's very few that require much of any effort and that's really disappointing.
 
Playing this really hammers home what an amazing character Batman is. He's just brilliant to watch and play as. Shame he's so rude to Alfred though :(


Keep getting sidetracked with the Enigma stuff
 

Ephemeris

Member
Playing this really hammers home what an amazing character Batman is. He's just brilliant to watch and play as. Shame he's so rude to Alfred though :(


Keep getting sidetracked with the Enigma stuff

Young Bats is a dick. Fortunately he mellows out (with Alfie) over time.
 
I miss AC's Riddler content, it was perfect in that game.

In Origins I've picked up dozens and dozens of datapacks and I haven't unlocked a damn thing except for a couple of audio tapes for a full set. I miss unlocking challenge maps, stories about side characters and then after getting enough you'd unlock an actual Riddle puzzle room to save a hostage. There were more actual puzzles to get Riddler trophies in AC too.

i'm gonna stab someone if i see another collectable behind steamy pipes in the next batman game.
 
The hell, my arkham credits seem to be stuck at 5955. The results screen shows me going over 6000 for the past three matches but when I go back to the store to buy the 6000 credit crate, it's back down to 5955 again. Blah!
 
i'm gonna stab someone if i see another collectable behind steamy pipes in the next batman game.

When I was just out exploring the city as soon as the game let me, I came across a bunch of collectibles locked behind steam pipes and I thought it was really weird. I mean, they wouldn't just do the Freeze Grenade from Arkham City again right? Hah, imagine if they made you yank yourself along on ice rafts again!

So, yeah, that was great.
 

Derrick01

Banned
i'm gonna stab someone if i see another collectable behind steamy pipes in the next batman game.

Yeah I'm ready for new gadgets next time. Keep the new remote bat claw (which is awesome) and the normal gadgets like the regular batclaw and batarangs but take the explosive gel, glue/ice grenades, crypto thing and the rest away and come up with a bunch of new gadgets. Hacking stuff should be handled through his all in 1 supercomputer on his arm.
 

eshwaaz

Member
I thought I was done with this game after my save file corrupted 8 hours in, but I started over and am now even further in (backing up my save every half hour or so, which is a pain). Issues aside, I'm really enjoying it. There are some changes I don't care for (the faster, more aggressive combat is too much for my liking), but overall it's very good.

For the next game, I really hope Rocksteady doesn't make the combat more complex. I already feel like there are too many options and variables - I'd rather see refinement and enhancement rather than more complexity.
 

EekTheKat

Member
I thought rocket thruster thing used in Under the Red Hood had great potential in a game. It's a little attachable rocket gadget that propels whatever it's attached to flying off in the opposite direction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=n0npdZT2yWM#t=123


Duck behind a car to take cover from gunfire, attach a thruster to the car, send the car flying towards the guys shooting. Make it attachable to a bunch of physics driven objects.

It could potentially be used for more elaborate puzzles as well.
 

Nokterian

Member
Whoehoe! they finally fixed the tower now i can move on. But i love this game it is good no it is great and looks pretty delicious on PC.
 

Nokterian

Member
Don't buy it on Steam though. They have patched out GFWL out of the Steam version, so no achievements anymore.

What are you talking about? it has steam achievements and cards and steamworks. Do research before saying something like this.
 
Can anyone clarify the new end game glitch (no spoilers please). What I mean is, does it seem to be happening to everyone on the PC version or what? Do we know what triggers it?
 
I thought rocket thruster thing used in Under the Red Hood had great potential in a game. It's a little attachable rocket gadget that propels whatever it's attached to flying off in the opposite direction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=n0npdZT2yWM#t=123


Duck behind a car to take cover from gunfire, attach a thruster to the car, send the car flying towards the guys shooting. Make it attachable to a bunch of physics driven objects.

It could potentially be used for more elaborate puzzles as well.

That would be really cool. Perhaps have where the game slows down and shows a predicted path the object will travel. Being able to attack it to enemies could be fun too...
 
Can anyone clarify the new end game glitch (no spoilers please). What I mean is, does it seem to be happening to everyone on the PC version or what? Do we know what triggers it?

I haven't seen anyone who has not triggered it since the patch. From what I can tell you cannot finish the game on Steam if it's been patched.

The glitch not only stops you cold but it screws up and overlaps the events of the ending so you are seeing things out of order.

Until it's fixed I would just recommend stopping before getting to the final location (which the game makes pretty obvious).
 

Derrick01

Banned
Can anyone clarify the new end game glitch (no spoilers please). What I mean is, does it seem to be happening to everyone on the PC version or what? Do we know what triggers it?

It seems like it triggers if you die on the boss fight and reload the checkpoint. For me the fight was going fine until that happened then all sorts of things were spazzing out. I don't think I can make any progress and finish the game until that's fixed.
 
97% initmidation, doing silent takedown on joker, some freaking idiot on bane side shoots and kills me while I'm doing it. They're already down 15 reinforcements. So instead of just letting the game end there they'd rather have joker's team win ... :(.

The animation takes so long on super villains too.
 
It seems like it triggers if you die on the boss fight and reload the checkpoint. For me the fight was going fine until that happened then all sorts of things were spazzing out. I don't think I can make any progress and finish the game until that's fixed.
Lol yep. Happened to me the other day at the end of NG+. What a mess. Thankfully I've been keeping backups ever since I started hearing how buggy things were, so I think I lost like an hour of play. Not a big deal (for me). I wouldn't hold out hope for that save getting fixed though... they might be able to prevent it from happening but if your checkpoint is already broken you might be hooped.
 

justjim89

Member
Fucking hell. I was hoping after the PC patch cutscenes would run smoother. Nope. Really souring my opinion on the game as a whole. That and the fucking absurd amount of bugs and glitches.

I just got past the cutscene where apparently
Joker kills Electrocutioner
. I couldn't really tell because the video was going 5 fps and the audio was way out of sync. Suddenly, when it returns to gameplay, the entirety of the game audio is out of sync. Batman puts his hand to his ear, his lips are moving, he puts his hand down, then the conversation with Alfred plays. I fight a group of thugs in complete silence, then when the last one goes down, the audio of the fighting and the punches plays.

I'll admit my PC is not top of the line, but this kind of performance and bugginess is inexcusable, especially when gameplay for the most part runs smoothly.

I might just uninstall this and play Blacklist. Damn it I'm mad.
 

Imbarkus

As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
Sweet.

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker adaptation anyone?

Oh man I played that game on N64. You just made me have nasty flashbacks dude.

For the next game, I really hope Rocksteady doesn't make the combat more complex. I already feel like there are too many options and variables - I'd rather see refinement and enhancement rather than more complexity.

It really helps to get some outside input, on how these games need to develop.

My wife and daughter watched me playing for a bit. And they laughed at how the combat of the game really was a simulation of bad stunt fighting. I would jump down into a group of a dozen guys, who would all form around me in a circle, put up their dukes, and start dancing around you, attacking one at a time so you could fight them.

Really, if you think about it and look at it from that perspective, it is kind of ridiculous. The Invisible Predator sections on the other hand seemed to interest and compel them and give them no excuse to laugh away what they were seeing.

And thus this (and other open-world considerations) is what needs to evolve to further the willing suspension of disbelief. And its really a flaw at the heart of all these Arkham Batman games.

I don't know how you can make Batman games with vicious, real-life group fighting, where one guy tackles your right foot and another grabs your arms from behind and everything zooms in close because you just stopped that knife between your gloves but you have to head-butt the guy who is grappling you from behind before the guy on your one foot grabs the other one.

Obviously in some ways they have gotten pretty close to that, but in other ways (particularly to an outside observer) it's just a group of stuntmen dancing around you, really telegraphing their moves so the hero can counter them, bad kung-fu movie style.

On the other hand, I don't want to end up with Batman: Ryse of Quick Time, either.

97% initmidation, doing silent takedown on joker, some freaking idiot on bane side shoots and kills me while I'm doing it. They're already down 15 reinforcements. So instead of just letting the game end there they'd rather have joker's team win ... :(.

The animation takes so long on super villains too.

Finally got into some matches last night. Why would people still lobby-hop when it takes 10 minutes to fill one up enough to play? Playing pickup is going to be a bitch on this one I think.
 

justjim89

Member
The next game shouldn't be open world. Arkham Asylum is still the best of the three games because of it's relative linearity. You had room to explore and look around but in a more focused and confined area. Open world games are always buggy and poorly paced. Every time. Asylum had incredible pacing and that's what made it good.
 

Lima

Member
The next game shouldn't be open world. Arkham Asylum is still the best of the three games because of it's relative linearity. You had room to explore and look around but in a more focused and confined area. Open world games are always buggy and poorly paced. Every time. Asylum had incredible pacing and that's what made it good.

This man knows what is up.
 
I don't know how you can make Batman games with vicious, real-life group fighting, where one guy tackles your right foot and another grabs your arms from behind and everything zooms in close because you just stopped that knife between your gloves but you have to head-butt the guy who is grappling you from behind before the guy on your one foot grabs the other one.

On the other hand, I don't want to end up with Batman: Ryse of Quick Time, either.
Haha, the exact thing you make me think of with the description is the recent "killing monsters" trailer for the witcher 3, and I can't really think how they would do something like that in real time without it just turning into a moving quick time/heavy rain-esque encounter.

IF they could somehow translate that moment in year one where he wrestles badly with the three hoodlums stealing a tv on the fire escape, it would be amazing. The how though, is for greater men than me.
 

Imbarkus

As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
IF they could somehow translate that moment in year one where he wrestles badly with the three hoodlums stealing a tv on the fire escape, it would be amazing. The how though, is for greater men than me.

FuturamaBigfootNod.gif
 
Just finished it. Contrary to my earlish opinions the game grew on my a lot, to the point where its my favourite game in the series.

The story really shines here, and I was glad there was some actual emotional resonance in certain scenes. Making it a origin story really made it more a personal story for Bruce instead of 'Fighting Rogue Galleries: the game' and I actually think there was better acting from the guy who played Batman as Kevin Conroy sounded asleep through the previous games.

The models and cutscenes are far better. I liked the more grounded and realistic feeling to the characters. Of course you still had the fantastical elements, but Killer Croc for example didn't have a derp face anymore and actually looked intimidating.

On the negative I think the game is a tad too short. I definitely had a feeling of 'Is that it?' at the end, as there wasn't seemingly much build up to the conclusion.

As much as I'm looking forward to Rocksteady returning to the fold, I'd like a sequel to AO as well. Theres room for a "Dark Knight" esque game here, with Batman making waves and partnering with Harvey Dent and Gordon. Theres seemingly no reason the series can't continue in paralell.
 
On the negative I think the game is a tad too short. I definitely had a feeling of 'Is that it?' at the end, as there wasn't seemingly much build up to the conclusion.

As much as I'm looking forward to Rocksteady returning to the fold, I'd like a sequel to AO as well. Theres room for a "Dark Knight" esque game here, with Batman making waves and partnering with Harvey Dent and Gordon. Theres seemingly no reason the series can't continue in paralell.

Just on those two points (as I agree with alot of what you said with just a head nod ha)

- While I did get a sense the story was a little short, now I'm not so sure. I think it's just there are few story *points* but they tend to be quite long and indepth. Also, out of interest, do you feel that way having done a fair amount of the side stuff during your *down time* between story points, or did you just kind of push on with the story to keep your head into it?

- I would also really take a bat game from both regularly, or I'd be happy to see WB Montreal spread their chops out to other DC properties
they even tease SS, and Green Arrow throughout the game
. I also think if we get a batman game every year, people will lose their shit regardless of quality, and I get the feeling batman fans could turn on the series quicker than say assassin's creed where we're getting a fairly story orientated series every year.
 

Derrick01

Banned
The next game shouldn't be open world. Arkham Asylum is still the best of the three games because of it's relative linearity. You had room to explore and look around but in a more focused and confined area. Open world games are always buggy and poorly paced. Every time. Asylum had incredible pacing and that's what made it good.

AA's linear areas were its downfall as a game. It made the encounters smaller and less exciting and you had less room to do cool Batman-y things.

The open world is the right idea for Batman games they just need to do it better. Put civilians in the game to make it feel more alive and create much better side quests. They can keep the linear interiors for certain story missions much like how this game does it.
 
AA's linear areas were its downfall as a game. It made the encounters smaller and less exciting and you had less room to do cool Batman-y things.

The open world is the right idea for Batman games they just need to do it better. Put civilians in the game to make it feel more alive and create much better side quests. They can keep the linear interiors for certain story missions much like how this game does it.

The only problem with making it *more* open world is that traditionally that means day and night cycle, cars, civilians, Batman typically doesn't deal with that stuff a lot as a property. The best thing I can think is doing an LA Noire esque day time as Jim Gordon, driving around, questioning, interrogations, doing more traditional police work etc, then as nightfalls, you meet Bats at the signal, pass over the info you could get, and switch perspective and then do it Batman's way, and so on.

Would anyone be interested in that kind of thing, or would it ruin the pure batman fantasy these games manage to capture?

I don't disagree with your suggestions though, I just mean thinking about it further.
 

Relix

he's Virgin Tight™
So, I've been itching to get this for PC but I am not sure, loved the first two. Should I jump in?
 

Derrick01

Banned
Damn it the patch kind of fixed the end game glitch but I think it broke another part of it. After the cutscene the boss fight doesn't skip anymore but I'm underground now and....there's no boss. I'm just wandering around the area and there's no one here so I'm still stuck, just in a different way than I was before >.<

The only problem with making it *more* open world is that traditionally that means day and night cycle, cars, civilians, Batman typically doesn't deal with that stuff a lot as a property. The best thing I can think is doing an LA Noire esque day time as Jim Gordon, driving around, questioning, interrogations, doing more traditional police work etc, then as nightfalls, you meet Bats at the signal, pass over the info you could get, and switch perspective and then do it Batman's way, and so on.

Would anyone be interested in that kind of thing, or would it ruin the pure batman fantasy these games manage to capture?

I don't disagree with your suggestions though, I just mean thinking about it further.

Just having civilians around would be a huge help to the feel of the city, he doesn't have to interact with them short of helping them when they're being attacked or mugged. They would comment when he'd swoop down and land in front of them, stuff like that. They just can't have an entirely empty city again for silly reasons, not with 5+gb RAM available.
 
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