Batman: Arkham City - Reviews - Post #882

[KartoffelKopf]

I found the Bat swarm fairly easy remember to do, it was the multi-ground takedown (A+B on 360), with all the batarangs that was tricky as it's only useful if you have a number of already downed thugs. Plus trying to keep the combo going with all the cape stuns and evade moves is just so hard, I'd always end up miles away from the action and break the combo by punching the air.

[RubberJohnny]

Finished (except for some Catwoman stuff).

Very Good. It grabbed me, and I played through straight from start to finish, which hasn't really happened for many games recently. I wish I'd done some more sidequests, but I kind of hit a point of no return.

Interesting to see it be a bit more sure of its continuity, the first didn't kill anyone aside from characters Rocksteady created (that corrupt cop, the doctor), there's quite a large and important bodycount in this, as well as some important stuff about the backstory of Gotham.

I've got to wonder where they take it from here.

Might do a NG+ runthrough, I did of the first until I got stuck on the final boss. Might have to wait until I'm done with Anno though.

[Uzi]

[redman]

that's really well done... a reminder too of how good the music is in this game.

I'm tearing through the story, at 47% last night which I was surprised about, but only 10% total completion. So I think it's time to look around and tackle some side missions, and get practicing on my ass kicking

It's a very compelling main story and as someone mentioned the voice acting and script are really top notch

[Graham]

Re that return to the steel mill fight, another night of hand crippling and frustrating failures, but failures that have crept ever closer to success and me being permanently rewarded the 'gaming claw'

Am now consistantly getting to a point where

Abramovici and most of the henchmen have been downed and have been on the back of the Titan twice - as I remember three times normally does them. Am finding that the closer I stay to Titan the more chance I have of taking him down by simply leaping over him and back again when henchmen get too close for comfort. I think once Titan is downed, the remaining henchman and Joker will be a breeze. So keeping at the staying in freeflow as much as possible and using REC, batarang, group ice grenades, cape stuns to whittle the bastards down

[zy]

Re that return to the steel mill fight, another night of hand crippling and frustrating failures, but failures that have crept ever closer to success and me being permanently rewarded the 'gaming claw'

Am now consistantly getting to a point where

Abramovici and most of the henchmen have been downed and have been on the back of the Titan twice - as I remember three times normally does them. Am finding that the closer I stay to Titan the more chance I have of taking him down by simply leaping over him and back again when henchmen get too close for comfort. I think once Titan is downed, the remaining henchman and Joker will be a breeze. So keeping at the staying in freeflow as much as possible and using REC, batarang, group ice grenades, cape stuns to whittle the bastards down

If you want to stay in Freeflow then DON'T touch your gadgets for this fight. Just dive in with an attack; immediately escape the crowd with a double tap Evade (or Redirect , as it becomes if you jump over somebody's head); then attack to pile in again. A repeated hit and run, hit / run, hit / run, with a Freeflow speed advantage over your enemies. Pay more attention to directional stick control, aiming to hit the ordinary weaponless thugs on the perimeters. If you're having trouble surviving then you're getting too wrapped up in dealing damage and not paying enough attention to the ease with which you can avoid it, even if it costs the loss of your freeflow or combo. As an experiment, start this fight and don't hit anything; just use the Evade to see how long you can avoid taking damage. All the big attacks have sound cues. Anyone picking up an object to throw can be scuppered with a Batarang.

You're nearly there -- you will beat it, for sure!

[smithstock]

That's not great advice to be honest.

My advice: get yourself in the training modes (I.e. Challenges) and get your skills up. Getting massive combos isn't everything but knowing how to deal with every type of enemy is imperative. I agree that the Steel Mill is one of the hardest arenas you will fight in but it's not that satisfying just to tap and run when you can eventually string combos to get crit strikes or finishers, which make it much easier to deal with the fodder so you can concentrate on the bosses.

The gadgets are great. Always start a fight with the hook launcher (name?) to pull a guard for a few quick digs and throw a ice grenade at Abromvich to freeze him. Always use the special takedown to kill the most dangerous enemies first and try perfect the knife avoid takedown or the weapon destroy move, they can nullify potentially brutal enemies.

Hope that helps, give me a shout if you need any more advice

[daveodeth]

Jesus GFWL is a bastard, 1 out of every 2 starts it kills the game on login. Bet the bloody yarred version is more stable.

[Ersatz Nihilist]

I was going to get this on the PC as well, but I hate GFWL so much I just can't bring myself to do it. Why do we need Extra DRM on top of Steam if that's where. I buy it - total stupidity.

[JPR]

Jesus GFWL is a bastard, 1 out of every 2 starts it kills the game on login. Bet the bloody yarred version is more stable.

I've found what you need to do is keep pressing the guide/home button as soon as the game starts. It seems that if the game starts loading and you get that first screen before you're signed in to GFWL, the game will crash, doesn't help that GFWL is so slow to sign in.

[Graham]

Huzzah...victory. After far too many attempts, and onset of the gaming claw, i finally managed to defeat

Joker, Abramovici and Titan. All tactics out of the window, ended up jumping on Titan's back and using him to clear the field, ended up with joker and two stabby henchmen to defeat with one slice of health left. So nervy times as I danced around the remaining three - worried that one hit from any of them would end up with me defeated again.

[Trigg]

Any word on when we might see a patch for the DX11 issues as yet? Thought that might happened by now

[JPR]

Any word on when we might see a patch for the DX11 issues as yet? Thought that might happened by now

The patch is done and has been for at least a few days but held up by GFWL as it has to go through certification, another reason not to use it. It was found on the MS servers but taken down quickly, still enough people to get it and host it themselves but just checked the MS link and it's working again, so might mean it will be released soon.

[Smitty]

Amazed at how gorgeous Gotham is, and the graphics generally. It's a stunner.

They've done amazing things with the engine.

[smithstock]

Amazed at how gorgeous Gotham is

Arkham City*

We can only pray the sequel is Gotham.

[SaintM]

The patch is done and has been for at least a few days but held up by GFWL as it has to go through certification, another reason not to use it. It was found on the MS servers but taken down quickly, still enough people to get it and host it themselves but just checked the MS link and it's working again, so might mean it will be released soon.

Just think how great PC gaming could be if all these companies didn't make it so much harder to enjoy by adding their own stupid barriers. I got pissed off with GFWL on Fallout 2 and have not bought another game on PC since. Just not worth the extra hassle, especially since all this new 'online to play single player' DRM bollocks.

[Rain Birds]

GFWL is an abomination. Slow, laggy & crash prone. It won't be significantly improved, that's not Microsoft's way. We just need developers to stop using it.

[Matt G]

Arkham City*

We can only pray the sequel is Gotham.

Technically it used to be part of Gotham until it got cordoned off

[Jigsaw Monkey]

Skins pack dlc is up today if anyone's interested? 400 ms pts

[smithstock]

Invested!

Good spot.

[MotiVater]

PC patch is out (Sorting out the DX11 issues), fuck yeah I CAN NOW BE THE GODDAMN BATMAN

Although, 32 bit Windows users need to avoid it like the plague apparently.

[Boozy The Clown]

Skins pack dlc is up today if anyone's interested? 400 ms pts

Can only be used upon completion of the story mode.

So I'm up to the point where

I'm trying to get back into the GCPDHQ with the blood sample for Freeze

I'm not even half way am I ?

Otherwise still finding it daunting and massive, still getting completely lost when it keeps switching up what I thought I was doing for something else. i.e Go to X to find Y, but when you get there you beat up some people and Y isn't there at all but you wander around X for an hour looking for a secret door or something because you didn't hear the bit about X being in Z now which just happens to be on the other side of the city.

This game is really good at making me feel thick and not like the Batman at all.

I can't deny there's been some epic stuff in it, the museum was amazing and some of the set piece boss battles have been real ante uppers. I've also shat my tights a few times with the jumpy out scares.

So even though I've put a good few hours into it including a couple of restarts it's just not feeling as comfortable as the 1st one. There's still way too much stuff going on and as I've said when the main campaign is full of red herrings and distractions it's hard to focus when you only play a little at a time.

Shame about the skins only being usable for New game + as I'd strangely have felt more comfortable bombing about as DKR Batman even if he is fat.

I can't believe they didn't include these skins though....

http://youtu.be/Vv_-jQ4nnZ4

[zy]

That's not great advice to be honest.

My advice: get yourself in the training modes (I.e. Challenges) and get your skills up. Getting massive combos isn't everything but knowing how to deal with every type of enemy is imperative. I agree that the Steel Mill is one of the hardest arenas you will fight in but it's not that satisfying just to tap and run when you can eventually string combos to get crit strikes or finishers, which make it much easier to deal with the fodder so you can concentrate on the bosses.

The gadgets are great. Always start a fight with the hook launcher (name?) to pull a guard for a few quick digs and throw a ice grenade at Abromvich to freeze him. Always use the special takedown to kill the most dangerous enemies first and try perfect the knife avoid takedown or the weapon destroy move, they can nullify potentially brutal enemies.

Well, the more ideas the better. Sheer perseverance in the end, for sure.

My comments reflected that Graham had already said he’d put in loads of practice and had dealt with every previous challenge but was getting thwacked here. The thing with this fight is that you have a couple of big enemies who don’t give warning flashes for their attacks, and thus have to be watched for their animation and sound cues, while dealing with a large crowd of henchmen. It's so easy to get clobbered by a thrown body or crate, a scythe swipe or a flailing Titan even if you’re making all other counters.

The Batclaw is indeed a good general starter but it and the REC both like to target Abramovici for a spin attack on his cohorts – and Batman, if too close – in this battle. Plus, you can be easily interrupted if you commit to a Batclaw in a tight crowd. I’ve already mentioned the Ultra Stun made for easier rodeo rides than AA and I’d still take early Disarm and Destroy specials to eliminate shields, stun rods and knives plus subsequent Freeflow reaction speed if I was just looking to survive. Heck, I'd certainly wheel out the gadgets, zaps and freezes at the end if I was worried about my remaining health bar getting knifed by the last guys standing

Holy hell. Starting to see the benefits of the bat swarm special move now, especially on the Lieutenants for harvesting a huge combo. I never used to use it.

That Funhouse Brawl perfect Youtube vid scores a good 100k more than my best, so I’m only fit for top 250 on my server rather than top 25 and I’ve never managed four perfect rounds on this one. I’m impressed by the cockiness that enables him to ignore knife swipes as if guessing the range to an inch. Similarly, unless you’re doing an aerial assault on a shield-carrier then it’s an interruptible attack but he never seems bothered by the possibility.

So I'm up to the point where

I'm trying to get back into the GCPDHQ with the blood sample for Freeze

I'm not even half way am I ?

You are more than half-way in the story and it all starts to rush towards the end. If you're still interested in doing sidequests then try tying them up after your current objective finally releases you back to some open-world fun. Alternatively, if you think you might be tempted by NG+ then enjoy the main story and don't worry about anything else until the replay.

[Graham]

Having beat that particular fight, have breezed through the end of the main story on first effots. So that fight was definitely the hardest fightin the game to be had for me, frustrating as hell. Hmmm, now a break for a while before hitting NG+.

[Mr. Gerbik]

PC patch is out (Sorting out the DX11 issues), fuck yeah I CAN NOW BE THE GODDAMN BATMAN

Although, 32 bit Windows users need to avoid it like the plague apparently.

Yep just tried it (win7 64bit here) and it looks fucking amazing Although I have to finish Revelations first, so it'll have to wait. And of course I still have Skyrim waiting for me

[Smitty]

And the animation! Ye Gods.

[Mr. Gerbik]

I finished Revelations earlier tonight and since I can't sleep because I'm feeling a bit under the weather ( ) I thought I might as well dive straight into Arkham City. I loved the opening and goddamn if it doesn't look fucking AMAZING at 1080p on Ultra settings and DX11 and stuff. Seems like this is going to be a good one

Btw, I can confirm that with this latest patch DX11 now works as it's supposed to, at least on my PC.

Edit: going from Assassin's Creed straight into Batman is a bad idea - I can't help but press RT constantly to run

[Don Rosco]

I went the other way and keep wanting to use the Grapnel in Constantinople.

[Stig]

Can't see this in here but they just launch Arkham City: Lockdown on the iSO. Looks class

[Boozy The Clown]

Massive Fail by me. Riddler hostage challenge related.

Riddler hostage challenge - The one with the ball in the cups trick. I was watching intently gotta be the one on the left. "You guessed wrong Batman." Repeat, yep one on the right definately.

"wrong! - fiery hostage death."

Retry -Left again it has to be

"Barbequed cop"

Retry - Just keep picking left it will eventually be the right one.

"Arrrrrggghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!"

Okay I'll watch the tops that has to be the key, yep the one with the guy in it doesn't rotate.

"Flambe"

Okay so maybe it's just me I'll pick the one in the middle to switch it up.

"Left - Fire - Death"

Just stick to left

"Wrong"

Left

"wrong"

Left

"wrong"

Middle

"Wrong - left"

Mate joins me in a party. "Oh man I'm trying this Batman bit with the cups and ball trick."

Mate - "have you tried Detective mode ?"

Otherwise I've been loving it large over the last few days. I've taken the advice given here and after defeating Freeze have started going after side missions and riddler trophies and riddles. Using the Ipod app map thingy has really helped a lot and contributed just a wee bit to making me feel more Batmanish thanks to a real 4th wall breaking batgadget in my utility belt.

I'm being far more predatory and really getting into the whole kicking seven shades of shite out of the inmates whenever I feel like it.

I've gone from not caring about the side quests to OCD city in making sure I check them all off on the app.