Batman Arkham City Thread

kearneybobs

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Saved the fourth Riddler hostage and retrieved Catwoman's loot (a pointless, repetitive task made bearable by the fact that it was really short).

And with that, I think I'm done. I can think of better ways to spend my time then searching for another hundred and something Riddler trophies.

I got all the riddle trophies but I just couldn't stick at the challenge rooms. Unlike Arkham Asylum, I just couldn't care enough!

bordsie

Was thinking of getting this to keep my occupied during the day in between all the boozing over xmas. Do you think I should get Arkham Asylum first or just get this one and go for it?

johnny_ultimate

Honestly: overall I preferred Arkham Asylum. It was more focused.

Arkham City is still a great game, and perhaps it was merely the shock of the new that was absent this time around.

kearneybobs

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Honestly: overall I preferred Arkham Asylum. It was more focused.

Arkham City is still a great game, and perhaps it was merely the shock of the new that was absent this time around.

Couldn't agree more with you Johhny.

I'd start with Asylum first. It's dirt-cheap these days.

bordsie

bordsie wrote: »

Was thinking of getting this to keep my occupied during the day in between all the boozing over xmas. Do you think I should get Arkham Asylum first or just get this one and go for it?

Get AA first. It's a better game, if only by a percent or two, and it's got a tighter, more linear story, but if you play AC first, although its also excellent, you might find the lack of stuff in batman's arsenal in AA makes it feel like a step back from the sheer amount of freedom and flexibility the second game gets you used to. You WILL want to play both games once you've played either one, in any order, so why not take them in the order they were written?

You can get AA for next to nothing now. I paid €7 for it on play.com last year, and it really is a game that shouldn't be missed, plus you'll get all the plot line and AI chatter references in the second game if you play the first one beforehand, and there are lots of them to get.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Saved the fourth Riddler hostage and retrieved Catwoman's loot...and with that, I think I'm done. I can think of better ways to spend my time then searching for another hundred and something Riddler trophies.

Go for the riddler trophies. I was in the same spot roughly as you are, and I got the last hundered odd trophies over an afternoon's gaming. It's quicker going than you'd think when there's nothing else left to distract you, and it feels good to give the riddler a good kicking, especially after the anticlimax of his part in arkham asylum.

CiDeRmAn

This whole focus on big, sprawling sandbox areas, ironically, just winds up de-focusing the game, the story, makes everything, well, vague.
If I am playing a game like Fallout 3 then, great, I'll have a side order of plot with my exploring thank you very much!
But with a game like Batman, telling a story, a tighter game structure is just fine.
Arkham Asylum never felt like we were being guided around glorified corridors, from plot point to plot point, but gave enough freedom or the illusion of same, to be brilliant.
Arkham City is just too darn loose and and it suffers in comparison with it's immediate ancestor because of that.

hawesome145

Arkham City €22.49 on Play.com today, happy days.

ScumLord

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

This whole focus on big, sprawling sandbox areas, ironically, just winds up de-focusing the game, the story, makes everything, well, vague.

I think as a progression from the first game it makes sense to go big. I haven't played it much yet I've been caught up with dirt 3 but I think your right about the vastness taking away from the excellent story the first game had, it really did feel like you were in the comic book.

The parts I did like though was coming across crime and people being bullied and being able to save those people, it made me think being batman going around a regular Gotham finding and fighting crime would maybe be more fun. Especially maybe interacting with and scaring normal people.

Borat_Sagdiyev

I realise my opinion is going against the grain here but I thought it was a superior game to Arkham Asylum.

The gliding was very one-dimentional in the first game, and they've made huge strides forward with this one.

I can understand where most are coming from with the "give me a smaller map and a better story" but I just don't agree. Batman has a variety of enemies, some of the side missions in this game meant you were fighting directly with them, others gave you tasters of what is to come in the next installment. I would have liked Crane to have had a part to play, but I am guessing / hoping they left him out of this one because he will return in the next one.

I reached 100% last night and I gotta say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I got the platinum trophy for the last game, and I won't be happy until I have it for this one as well. I know you can cheat to get the Calendar Man trophy, but I'm going to attempt to get it without changing the system date.

The only real negative with the game is that the map is horseshoe shaped, meaning if you're at the steel mill and you need to get to the iceberg lounge, then you need to go the whole way around ( unless you go underground through the subway, but that's a chore ) the map. But in fairness, I didn't even mind that because it gives you a chance to glide - dive - glide - dive your way there, which is fun.

They improved on a very impressive fighting system by now being able to counter multiple enemies simultaneously. When in the middle of a fight and you counter three at the same time, it's like you actually ARE Batman. It's fantastic.

It was never going to have the "WOW!" factor that the first one had. The first one came from nowhere to be a top top game. Much more was expected of this one. In my opinion, it delivered, but again, my opinion is very much in the minority.

BopNiblets

Did anyone else find the repeating numbers on the radio scanner gadget?

Not sure what the frequency was now but it sounded a bit like Strange, repeating the numbers:
9, 23, 9, 12, 12, 18, 5, 20, 21, 18, 14, 2, 1, 20, 13, 1, 14...
Be interested to know what they were... or if I'm actually just gone mental. :pac:

Mark Hamill

BopNiblets wrote: »

Did anyone else find the repeating numbers on the radio scanner gadget?

Not sure what the frequency was now but it sounded a bit like Strange, repeating the numbers:
9, 23, 9, 12, 12, 18, 5, 20, 21, 18, 14, 2, 1, 20, 13, 1, 14...
Be interested to know what they were... or if I'm actually just gone mental. :pac:

Its not Strange, its

Scarecrow

. Its the first of three that appear throughout the game, to solve them,

replace the numbers with their letter in the alphabet

to get the messages:

1) I WILL RETURN BATMAN
2) YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO ME
3) FEAR WILL TEAR GOTHAM CITY TO SHREDS

Sarky

Now that's just cool. I love all the hidden stuff in this game.

danthefan

How does the PC version play does anyone know? Is it a decent port or buggy?

Gingervitis

I'm having a little trouble getting a USB gamepad to work with AC. I don't know the model because it was bought in a supermarket in Korea, so it's totally generic. However, it worked fine with both Sonic Generations and Assassin's Creed Revelations, so I'm confused as to why it's not being recognised by Arkham City.

When I try to map the buttons to controls in the settings dialogue (before you start the game), the buttons don't respond, even though the calibration works perfectly in Control Panel (Windows 7 64bit).

I've tried downloading an Xbox 360 controller emulator (x360ce), but because of the aforementioned generic controller, it can't be mapped to the brand name presets.

Anyone able to use a gamepad that's not an xbox 360 controller?

pixelburp

I unsubscribed from this thread when the console versions came out, not wanting to be spoiled when the PC release appeared. So that date came & went without me touching the install on Steam - Skyrim pretty much takes most of the the blame there. I finally got around to giving Arkham City a whirl the other week, and played it through to the end (on and off, between Skyrim sessions you understand).

It’s good, don’t get me wrong - it’s very very good. But I think in trying to one-up themselves, Rocksteady created a ‘bigger’ sequel, simply for the sake of it, and the game overall suffers. It loses some of its tight pacing and excitement in trying to make itself bigger & badder than before. Sure, there’s more gadgets, more villains and there’s certainly more of a game purely in terms of its content & side-missions, but generally I found Arkham City all too unfocused & vague, with the end result being a game trapped between the previous iteration and a true sandbox adventure.

The main plotline never really gave you a chance to breath, lacked much of the drama and high-stakes of the first game, ending on something of an anti-climax; made more apparent if you have the Catwoman DLC where a final mission is shoe-horned in after the main resolution. Again the urge to throw more things into the mix appears here, with nearly every major Batman villain getting screentime, sometimes making the proceeding feel like an elevator - characters constantly appearing, hanging around a bit then disappearing / dying. This fault is more glaring at the very end when an 11th hour appearance by somebody comes completely out of left-field & makes it all feel a bit thrown together.

The combat’s as effective as before, and they’ve refined & improved it here & there with some new enemy combinations. At its simplest though it’s still an uncoordinated button-mash, but I still found myself watching in awe at all the (largely) unscripted animations chain together into some epic fisticuffs.

It’s still quite good, and there’s no doubt these two games really do the Batman mythology justice, but it definitely lacks the lightning-in-a-bottle factor the first game had. It’s perhaps one of these situations where a carbon-copy sequel would have made more sense than one that tried to out-do its predecessor with MORE.

Mark Hamill

danthefan wrote: »

How does the PC version play does anyone know? Is it a decent port or buggy?

I play without any of the dx11 settings on and everything else on highest setting and it plays perfectly on my laptop (MSI gx660r, core-i5-460m, ati HD5870, 6gb ram). With the dx11 on, everything (and I mean everything, walking, grappling with the gun etc.) just seems a bit slower, but I think its the general issue that everyone has with the dx11 settings, and not my laptop struggling.

My main issue is that you have to completely exit the game in order to change graphic settings and controls. I'm using a portable keyboard and most of the time its fine, but there are a lot of gadgets that each have their own quickfire button, that you sometimes need when fighting particular bosses, that almost need you to dislocate your thumb in order to hit them.

ScumLord

Mark Hamill wrote: »

I play without any of the dx11 settings on and everything else on highest setting and it plays perfectly on my laptop (MSI gx660r, core-i5-460m, ati HD5870, 6gb ram). With the dx11 on, everything (and I mean everything, walking, grappling with the gun etc.) just seems a bit slower, but I think its the general issue that everyone has with the dx11 settings, and not my laptop struggling.

That seems to be fixed now, I've DX11 turned on again and it's not slowing things down any more since the patch. Runs perfectly now with everything maxed out.

5uspect

I still get a bit of juddering when bats opens a door to a new area or when the game saves. Other than that its running great in DX11.

Borat_Sagdiyev

pixelburp wrote: »

The main plotline never really gave you a chance to breath, lacked much of the drama and high-stakes of the first game, ending on something of an anti-climax; made more apparent if you have the Catwoman DLC where a final mission is shoe-horned in after the main resolution. Again the urge to throw more things into the mix appears here, with nearly every major Batman villain getting screentime, sometimes making the proceeding feel like an elevator - characters constantly appearing, hanging around a bit then disappearing / dying. This fault is more glaring at the very end when an 11th hour appearance by somebody comes completely out of left-field & makes it all feel a bit thrown together.

I loved that appearance, I didn't see it coming at all and IMO it was a wonderful twist - each to their own I suppose.

pixelburp wrote: »

The combat’s as effective as before, and they’ve refined & improved it here & there with some new enemy combinations. At its simplest though it’s still an uncoordinated button-mash, but I still found myself watching in awe at all the (largely) unscripted animations chain together into some epic fisticuffs.

I see where you're coming from, but it takes serious skill to get to the level where you're not taking any hits. If you play the game on the hard difficulty, then you will not be successful with the "keep hammering punch" method.

pixelburp wrote: »

It’s still quite good, and there’s no doubt these two games really do the Batman mythology justice, but it definitely lacks the lightning-in-a-bottle factor the first game had. It’s perhaps one of these situations where a carbon-copy sequel would have made more sense than one that tried to out-do its predecessor with MORE.

I think it's totally unfair to be using that as a stick to beat this game with. It was never going to re-create that impression it made on everyone - we were all expecting an epic game because the first was THAT good. I wouldn't consider it epic to be honest, but it's definitely a step up.

We may just have to agree to disagree on this one though

Mark Hamill

ScumLord wrote: »

That seems to be fixed now, I've DX11 turned on again and it's not slowing things down any more since the patch. Runs perfectly now with everything maxed out.

5uspect wrote: »

I still get a bit of juddering when bats opens a door to a new area or when the game saves. Other than that its running great in DX11.

OK, maybe my laptop is just struggling a bit :pac:. Its a weird slowdown for me, though, as there is no juddering at all (like I've gotten in other games on older machines), its just like the whole game is slowed down a few percent.

It certainly runs perfectly for me with everything else turned up full. Do you notice a difference with the DX11 stuff on? Maybe I should try poking around with the settings to see if I can get it smooth for me.....

5uspect

There isn't really much obvious stuff added with DX11. There are more sparks and stuff and I suppose catwoman's arse is smoother...

Even from a PhysX perspective you don't seem to be able to cut town cloth flags and banners as you could in AA. The fog effects are pretty tho!

tuxy

Did anyone here find this game even a little challenging?

Temptamperu

tuxy wrote: »

Did anyone here find this game even a little challenging?

On hard in game + mode yes everything else not so much.

pixelburp

pixelburp wrote: »

The combat’s as effective as before, and they’ve refined & improved it here & there with some new enemy combinations. At its simplest though it’s still an uncoordinated button-mash, but I still found myself watching in awe at all the (largely) unscripted animations chain together into some epic fisticuffs...

I liked your synopsis on almost everything, but I have to disagree with you here. While I do think that they threw in a few too many gadgets in the mix, and the blade dodge sucks big time, the combat is anything but a button mash. Its deceptively complex, and if you get enough into it to care about combo counts, variations, critical strikes, etc, it takes a lot of skill and good timing, and on the tougher settings every move takes a fair bit of planning.

@rse

God damn, the stealth challenges SUCK in this game. The controls are horrible if you're in a hurry. That really bugged me in asylum, how the object was to get as fast a time as possible but the controls got in your way at every turn, and they've actually made them MORE frustrating for stealth this time around. :-(

The grapnel gun still NEVER aims at where you want to get, and selecting the right gadget in a hurry is a real pain due to the awkward selection mechanic and way too many icons. On top of that, I've lost count of the number of times I've been stuck in corners or on railings while getting shot at by the AI because gliding or grappling did something stupid.

Right, 100% complete can kiss my @rse, I haven't got the patience for it.

Richy06

Deleted User wrote: »

God damn, the stealth challenges SUCK in this game. The controls are horrible if you're in a hurry. That really bugged me in asylum, how the object was to get as fast a time as possible but the controls got in your way at every turn, and they've actually made them MORE frustrating for stealth this time around. :-(

The grapnel gun still NEVER aims at where you want to get, and selecting the right gadget in a hurry is a real pain due to the awkward selection mechanic and way too many icons. On top of that, I've lost count of the number of times I've been stuck in corners or on railings while getting shot at by the AI because gliding or grappling did something stupid.

Right, 100% complete can kiss my @rse, I haven't got the patience for it.

Learning the gadget combos for in battle is quite handy.

Zero-Cool

We are getting a free new Batman Inc. skin today!

http://community.batmanarkhamcity.com/news/latest/item/218-a-thank-you-from-batman-arkham-city#

Also, they rocksteady provided a cheat to use your different batsuits at any time even if you haven't cleared the game yet

To unlock this, simply press the following combination on the Main Menu screen (after you have selected your save slot):

- Left, Left, Down, Down, Left, Left, Right, Up, Up, Down.

Penn

Looks like the Batman Incorporated outfit

Zero-Cool

sheehy83 wrote: »

We are getting a free new Batman Inc. skin today!

Yupp 1st I heard of Bats Inc. tbh. Nice getting something free, was mad to get a new skin to finish the combat challenges in the new year but no way paying a fiver for it.

Penn

sheehy83 wrote: »

We are getting a free new Batman Inc. skin today!

I didn't even see that in your post.

Skin looks awesome though. Might download the others over Christmas and play through the game again using some of the skins. I actually quite like the Sinestro Corps one, looks a lot better during gameplay than you'd think