General gaming discussion

I started both Death Stranding & Observer system redux the other day . I wasn't sure whether I would like the previous even when i'm a huge MGS fan and I thought I would like the latter . I LOVE death stranding , after 5 hours anyways . I had to delete observer after 90 mins or so . What a load of rubbish . I thought it was supposed be one of bloober teams only good games but i nearly found it as bad as the medium . I spent 20mins twice in two them sequences where you ' plug in ' and it was like the biggest waste time iv ever put into gaming . your literally doing nothing but watching an epilepsy inducing party with all the flashing and noise . I genuinely found the sound good and engrossing at start but jesus them ' dream ' sequences were terrible and just ruined game for me .

While playing the main storyline in GTA V, there is a book called Red Dead by J Marston on the bookshelf in Franklin's house:

That's the "next gen" version you're talking about ?

Can't seem to recall any mention of new content with the latest lick of paint.

What platform are you playing on ?

With Gotham Knights coming out soon and looking bang average, I decided to try the old Arkham games again as they are all on PS Plus. Started with Origins which i loved on PS3 but it's unplayable streaming through the Plus, the lag is unreal. Not getting that from other games though so it's strange, had to drop it.

Jumped into Arkham City which was fun but again, streaming it felt off and unresponsive. Not as bad as Origins but still not fun to play.

Downloaded Arkham Knight which was not my list favourite in the series but it's fantastic to play. Smooth as butter and looks great. I was just gonna try it before heading into Asylum but think I'll keep going with Knight.

It's weird how better it looks than upcoming Gotham Knights.

I preferred City overall. I know what you mean about the move to the open world, but I think it was still small and constrained enough that all the external areas were distinct, and linked to interior areas which still had more of that metroidvania feel. Traversal was also a joy and never took too long to get from one side of the city to the other.

Knight however was too large and all looked the same to the point where a lot was lost because of it.

All the Batmobile combat bits were just awful. The Arkham Knight and Deathstroke tank fights were just abysmal and infuriating.

Pretty much everything to do with the Batmobile was horrible, and it was shoehorned into so many puzzles and missions.

The rest of the core gameplay was just so good that it carried the rest of the game.

It's definitely a tough choice between the two, and certainly no wrong choice. I think I just enjoyed the gadgets and upgrades of City, as well as the story and expanded cast of characters. Every time I played Asylum I just dreaded the parts where you fight Titans. At least in City they were used more sparingly. But the level and environment design in Asylum is terrific, and like you say it was more precise and a tighter affair which really helped the storytelling and progression.

I replayed Knight last year too and it was better than I remembered, but that was me bulling through all the Batmobile sections as quickly as possible, and knowing how best to manage them.

Origins I only played at launch. It was okay, but very buggy, and some of the upgrades were overpowered. The larger city felt too lifeless as well.

I'm not holding out a lot of hope for either Gotham Knights or Suicide Squad though. The whole "It's co-op but you can play it solo if you want" is rarely done well.

Yeah for Knight I cleared up all the villains except the Riddler trophies and, after reading it was a tank battle, Deathstroke.

Have Asylum a go tonight and it's so good. Focused, great story, great progression and unlocking parts of the map. No lag at all, the difference between the performance of this and Origins is huge! I always read about the Origins performance issues but when i owned it originally, it played very smooth for me. Unplayable streaming it now which is a pity because it had some great stories, especially with the Joker backstory, and boss fights.

Asylum though, that was truly groundbreaking when it was first released and still holds up.