Batman: Arkham City - Reviews - Post #882

[redman]

I didn't do that (going after the side stuff after Mr. Freeze) and I got trapped into the story towards the end which has annoyed me a little after making a solid effort to get into all that.

I presume I can go after it all still once I'm finished with the story? (just worried it will feel a little redundant)

brilliant game though

[Boozy The Clown]

I'd presume so. The Riddler stuff alone is twice the size of the main story. Chuck in the side quests for various characters and the game is approaching Rockstar levels of activities.

Going after the extra stuff also gives you tons more XP for levelling up and getting all the unlocks and extra gadgets. So yeah I'd more than recommend doing so. I'd also heartily recommend the Official IOs map app. It's £1.99 but allows you to check off all the Riddler trophies as you find them along with explanations of how to get them if you are getting stuck.

I've had a couple mapped in the wrong places but it's otherwise a brilliant addition to the game, and as I said earlier it's kinda like having your own Bat gadget outside of the game itself.

[Uncle Mike]

I don't see the value in buying the iOS app. Just keep beating up and interrogating the Riddler thugs, and you'll get all the stuff marked on your map.

[Don Rosco]

The app does more than mark them on the map though, it sorted me out for a few tricky ones I couldn't work out.

[Boozy The Clown]

I don't see the value in buying the iOS app. Just keep beating up and interrogating the Riddler thugs, and you'll get all the stuff marked on your map.

If you are like me, it's proved invaluable. If I have a go at getting a riddler trophy and I don't have the required gadget it's paid for itself in saving me ages of frustrating gameplay. It allows me to keep tabs on which areas I've cleared, also I keep knocking out the riddler thugs by accident. The app also helps to solve riddles which I'm hopeless at and saves me from trying to scan everything in the world.

Also...

It's £2.

It's a bag of chips.

It's not even a pint of lager.

It's 5 fags.

It's £2.

[Mr. Gerbik]

You basically want more Metroid-like games.

I totally agree though, especially if they're as good as Batman

[Vemsie]

Batman spoiled aspects of other games for me that I played afterwards. Melee combat in Ass Creed and Uncharted 3 doesn't come close and flying on that fucking bird in Zelda is nowhere near as good as grapnel boosting through Arkham City. It's also a damn fine puzzle game. Than and you can't be the GOD DAMN BATMAN in other games.

Loved that hostage room you mentioned, Boozy. It was pretty clever. The hostage rooms are ace in general.

[ComradeTrotskii]

If you are like me, it's proved invaluable. If I have a go at getting a riddler trophy and I don't have the required gadget it's paid for itself in saving me ages of frustrating gameplay. It allows me to keep tabs on which areas I've cleared, also I keep knocking out the riddler thugs by accident. The app also helps to solve riddles which I'm hopeless at and saves me from trying to scan everything in the world.

Also...

It's £2.

It's a bag of chips.

It's not even a pint of lager.

It's 5 fags.

It's £2.

Not meaning to sound like a dick or anything because it should go without saying that you ate free to do whatever the fuck you want but for me such an app would actually decrease the value of the game. Half the fun is looking at a riddler trophy not having a clue how to do it, trying out some things which may not work, anticipating what you may need to do, making a note of it and then the little endorphin buzz when you figure it out and/or get the correct equipment.

The buzz is the key part though, without that the whole process is pointless as far as I'm concerned and it doesn't happen when using a guide of any sort.

[Boozy The Clown]

Speaking personally I struggled with opening the shuttered doors so I ain't no Batman at all, and the majority of the trophies I've managed without looking at the guide but still using it to mark them as completed.

However the trophy next to the calendar man I would never have gotten without some help.

[Judgement]

I can't decide if the combat is a work of art or the work of the devil, whatever black magic is powering the animation system, I'd love it if they could license it out. I'm constantly amazed at how if flows so smoothly and everything connects so physically without clipping or other weirdness.

It's special isn't it

[Kinketsu]

Bought a points card to get the suits, well actually to get the Battlefield maps but to spend the rest on the suits. Also had enough to pick up the Catwoman stuff. It is slightly annoying with this Catwoman business that I did buy a brand new version as soon as it was released but there was no code included so I have to buy it off the PS store anyway. Likewise with BF3 and access to that map pack. It seems when it comes to other territories they don't really care. That being the case, my price tag to play Batman so far has come to 72 quid in translation.

I was a bit annoyed also that installing the Catwoman pack near the end of playing through the main story meant that I suddenly had to play the Catwoman bits from her on out. I thought I could install it and play through them all in New Game PLus, but I was directly thrust into one after my last save with very little idea of her story and no idea as to how she played. Its kind of funny that the "Do you want to play as Catwoman?" question screen popped up every time when I loaded the game before I bought the DLC, but afterwards didn't bother and just produced a jarring experience.

Those wee nitpicks aside, it feels like a fantastic game. I wish they could have spent a bit longer making more missions, because they have such a great playground, but it certainly is a wonderful sequel to Arkham Asylum.

[robdood]

Hey fellow PC gamers, where can I get the DX11 patch if I don't have the Steam version? I've tried googling it, but no joy. There's nothing obvious I can see on the game's official site either. I'm finding it easier to google torrents of the patch/crack than the real thing.. WTF.

[smithstock]

Purchased the app on Boozy's reccomendation, I think that and the costumes I bought have now put me in 100% clean up mode. I just needed an extra push because the riddler and challenge arenas are the only thing I have left. Think I may get onto DLC after that, although I've already got Catwoman and Robin.

Haven't said this in any topic yet but for me, Arkham City was THE best game of 2011 and I've played all the big hitters. Not only does it have incredible fighting mechanics, a wealth of comic references, borderline perfect difficulty and the open world awesomeness but it is incredibly cheap, disguising it well. Oh, and did I mention it's from the UK? With touches of the Neatherrealm team.

Re-useable buildings and arenas, back tracking through several areas, a set amount of enemies, repetitive fun mechanics, spammed assets and so on. Unless dev teams multiply in size, AC will be the perfect role model for how high quality, fast turnaround AAA games will be made in future.

Anyone who hasn't picked this up yet needs their head checking. Big recommend from me.

[Mr. Gerbik]

Hey fellow PC gamers, where can I get the DX11 patch if I don't have the Steam version? I've tried googling it, but no joy. There's nothing obvious I can see on the game's official site either. I'm finding it easier to google torrents of the patch/crack than the real thing.. WTF.

Doesn't GFWL update automatically? Just starting up the game and logging should do the trick.

[Wiper]

Yep, GFWL dropped the update on me as I started the game (though, annoyingly, it then forces a restart - without going through the launcher, so you get the joy of waiting half a minute for it to load, then quitting, then enabling DirectX 11, then restarting. Bleh.

*something about filthy pirates disabling GFWL*

[Mr. Gerbik]

GFWL always does that, forcing you to manually quit the game and it's very annoying - just like everything else about GFWL. I always try to avoid it, but Arkham City is an unmissable game for me.

Edit: but I really should have answered Dood's question with "have you tried turning it on?"

[robdood]

Fucks sake. Its because I don't have my gamertag on my gfwl.. purely because I've yarred some other gfwl things and was worried about it screwing my account..

A bit daft you have to sign into a live enabled account to get a game update though. I mean, if I just didn't want to make a gamertag, I'd not be able to get the update. Nice one gfwl.

[Mr. Gerbik]

Just so you know, the Steam version updates through Steam instead of GFWL. This is not always the case, usually GFWL games on Steam also receive their updates through the GFWL client itself (I remember the horror that was trying to update Red Faction Guerilla ) but Arkham City on Steam updates itself regardless of what GFWL account you use. This doesn't help you now of course, but something to keep in mind once it comes up for 5 quid during a sale in year or so...

The game is more than awesome enough to buy twice

[Wiper]

GFWL always does that, forcing you to manually quit the game and it's very annoying - just like everything else about GFWL. I always try to avoid it, but Arkham City is an unmissable game for me.

Oh, I know, and to be fare I don't mind having to quit the game* - it's the bit where GFWL happily insta-restarts it without letting you go to the launcher that was irritating. So the process was: load launcher, load game, download update, quit, auto-reload, quit, load launcher, change DirectX settings, load game. Which, when every load takes a good 30 seconds (even without the videos, even with an SSD), was just a bit irritating.

*though obviously it would be infinite times better if there was a way to update it without having to boot it up in the first place

[Cappuccino Kid]

Purchased the app on Boozy's reccomendation, I think that and the costumes I bought have now put me in 100% clean up mode. I just needed an extra push because the riddler and challenge arenas are the only thing I have left. Think I may get onto DLC after that, although I've already got Catwoman and Robin.

Haven't said this in any topic yet but for me, Arkham City was THE best game of 2011 and I've played all the big hitters. Not only does it have incredible fighting mechanics, a wealth of comic references, borderline perfect difficulty and the open world awesomeness but it is incredibly cheap, disguising it well. Oh, and did I mention it's from the UK? With touches of the Neatherrealm team.

Re-useable buildings and arenas, back tracking through several areas, a set amount of enemies, repetitive fun mechanics, spammed assets and so on. Unless dev teams multiply in size, AC will be the perfect role model for how high quality, fast turnaround AAA games will be made in future.

Anyone who hasn't picked this up yet needs their head checking. Big recommend from me.

100% agreement from me. Personally, I think Arkham City is the game of the generation so far, and the closest it's come to a RE4 equivalent. What really stands out about it is that the basic mechanics of the game are so much fun. Just getting from one place to another or beating up a couple of thugs in the street is really enjoyable and - as others have said - absolutely nails that "being Batman" feeling.

I actually traded this in for Skyrim when I'd polished off the main story, but ended up going back a week later and swapping back again. Skyrim was a dreary slog in comparison (heresy, I know), and I've probably had more hours out of Arkham City since getting it back than I did the first time round. The challenge rooms (which I never really did in AA), NG+, Riddler's hostage rooms... all of it is fantastically good fun. The only downside is that nothing else matches up, so I'm really struggling to find something else to play. I guess it's back to the challenge rooms then...

[robdood]

After a load of faff I managed to get the update. Sadly some tessellation and slightly nicer lighting effects aren't worth half the framerate.

Anyway lets go back to the game itself - I am loving it even if it is a bit overwhelming what with all these things vying for my attention. Those bloody payphones always seem to ring just as I get to my next objective too, the fuckers!

The improvements to the combat are brilliant, I'm loving the knife dodges, the quick fire gadgets, the new counters, and the weapon disabling move!

One thing that's annoying / confusing me though is the tagging of riddler trophies.. not sure if it's a bug but the only ones which appear on my map are the pink (I presume Catwoman's) ones. I tag the green ones but they don't show up on the map.. what gives?

[smithstock]

Wanted to learn a few new techniques for the challenge arenas and came across this:

Jesus.

I think I'm too clinical and waste my special moves, it's cool how he uses it to stun large groups before mounting the Titan. Also subtle things like throwing a Batarang after the knife dodge animation to boost gadget scores. I need to start punishing the enemies and abusing the tools alot more.

[RubberJohnny]

Jesus christ the first Catwoman mission is impossible on NG+

[Mr. Gerbik]

After a load of faff I managed to get the update. Sadly some tessellation and slightly nicer lighting effects aren't worth half the framerate.

Try putting PhysX on medium, it runs just as smooth for me with everything on Ultra on DX11 as it does on DX9 if I have PhysX on medium. Also, keep in mind that the current DX11 patch is for 64bit Windows only - it does nothing if you're on 32-bit!

[smithstock]

Jesus christ the first Catwoman mission is impossible on NG+

Did you upgrade her armour/health? If not, pump her with upgrades.

It can get spiky if you don't, moving between her and Batman.

[11 Herbs 'n' Spices]

Not exactly an official announcement but after winning 'Best Character 2011' at the VGAs, The Joker teases another sequel:

Video footage but the guy who captured it goes on for far too long; jump to 0:55 seconds for the interesting stuff:

I doubt that will be the next title but it's a nice use of the character to announce the inevitable follow up.

[robdood]

Try putting PhysX on medium, it runs just as smooth for me with everything on Ultra on DX11 as it does on DX9 if I have PhysX on medium. Also, keep in mind that the current DX11 patch is for 64bit Windows only - it does nothing if you're on 32-bit!

Thanks - but it was already on medium! What rig are you runnning? My GTX480 on it's own isn't quite cutting it, evidently.

[Mr. Gerbik]

Thanks - but it was already on medium! What rig are you runnning? My GTX480 on it's own isn't quite cutting it, evidently.

A 580...

[robdood]

God damn it. I can't believe of all games, an Unreal engine one is the first my pooter really struggles with on max settings

A silver lining in this I suppose is that I've only just noticed the physx settings, so am now running in dx9 on ultra with high physx. At 60fps for the most part.

Those pointless bits of newspaper are so PRETTY.

[A.C.R.O.N.Y.M]

Quick question but how do you use the skins for the campaign mode, really want to play as animated Batman for my 1st run.