All things Batman

[Bakers_12]

I would like to think a prequel was decided on because WB would like Rocksteady to continue the story lines that where started or hinting at in city. Probley not though

[Flabyo]

Warner are always going to be very hands on with a Batman game. They own DC, it's one of their most important properties now.

That's actually part of the reason the Batman games 'got good'. Warner put more money and focus into them after buying DC than DC had put in themselves on previous Batman titles.

I'm still trying (and failing) to get out of the person I know at Rocksteady what it is they're working on, but they're (quite rightly) sticking to NDA

[DomsBeard]

I think Origins is a very clever cash in. The DLC for City put me off getting this too as Harley Quinns revenge was a joke at 1200MSP as I finished it in around 2 hours.

[AndyKurosaki]

After making £60 selling Disney Infinity and some DVDs at CEX, I picked up both Origins on PS3, and Blackgate on Vita.
An hour in to Origins so far, and they seem to have done a pretty good job with it.

[Alex79]

Ah let us know what Blackgate is like, I really like the look of it but I think I'll wait till a sale or till it's on Plus. I'll definitely be buying Origins when I can afford it though.

[AndyKurosaki]

Played Blackgate for a couple of hours, so far it's pretty good, a Metroidvania style with the classic Batman series combat. I've seen a few people on Twitter though saying they've had a few bugs, game breaking ones.

[dezm0nd]

Watching the Quick Look over at Giant Bomb reminds me just how much I loved Asylum and City. I'll get this one day but for some reason I just can't be bothered with it right now.

Blackgate interests me more if it's a good game as it's made by the guys who used to make Metroid Prime!

[AndyKurosaki]

Yeah Blackgate is really impressing me so far, it's certainly worthy of the "Arkham" name.
Put a few more hours into Origins, and it's pretty good. I hear the boss fights are pretty frustrating, but I've only had one so far which was simple enough.There's certainly enough to do, I'm already being given sidequests/colleactables/challenges to keep me occupied.

[NokkonWud]

Firefly will pay!

[InsrtCoins]

The reviews for this game are all over the place. I don't know who to believe. Jim Sterling hated it. Polygon had moderate opinions. GameTrailers loved it (although they're really not worth taking seriously most of the time).

[NokkonWud]

I think they only fact we can nail down without playing it is that it simply isn't as polished as the previous two. Now if that's acceptable to you then it's worth exploring a little further, but where it gets interesting is that some describe it as slight and others as a catastrophic failure at upholding the standards Rocksteady set in place. I have a friend who I trust implicitly and they are incredibly disappointed and are in fact trading it in this week.

[AndyKurosaki]

Quite a few people on rrlmuk have had glitches/crashes/bugs. I've put 4 hours into it so far and haven't had any. Maybe because I haven't patched it/played it online

[magicjoef]

I already felt that City was far looser than Asylum (although I know a lot of people preferred it), with a silly number of Riddler trophies etc. What made Asylum click with me so much is how the very compact and well crafted environment evolved as the game progressed.

I've got Origins scheduled in for a 2014 Steam sale...maybe!

I completed Asylum on the 360, but had a save on the PC version about a third of the way through. Went back to play having listened to the podcast, but they removed GFWL and with it everyones saves. Thanks!

[AndyKurosaki]

Put a good 6 hours into Origins so far, and personally I think it's brilliant. The combat is as satisfying as ever, there's plenty to do outside of the Campaign, and the story's pretty good. Just encountered The Joker, and the new voice actor (I forget his name) is great. Any fears that "it'll be rubbish now Mark Hamil is gone" can be put to rest.

[ratsoalbion]

It's Troy Baker, who's had a bit of a crazy year also starring in BioShock Infinite and The Last Of Us as well as Saints Row IV, Skylanders Swap Force, Lego Marvel Super Heroes and Lightning Returns FFXIII!

[AndyKurosaki]

Just finished Origins, personally I think it's just as good as Arkham City. I've still got a ton of sidequests to do, which I will have a fair crack at. The story was pretty interesting, with some great set pieces. It is pretty much "more of the same", but when the series is so much fun I don't see that as a problem.
Haven't tried the multiplayer, don't intend to either.

[James]

I've just finished Origins tonight. I thought it was great. Story, atmosphere, tone, combat, aesthetics... it had all these things, but more importantly they were all crafted to live up to the legacy that Rocksteady left WB Montreal in custody of.

In other news, we're recording Issue 105 this week, so if you have any specific thoughts on, or memories of Arkham City it'd be great to have them posted here. I imagine that City may divide opinion more than Arkham Asylum did, for the simple reason that it can be directly compared with its predecessor. Thanks for all your posts, past, present, and future.

[delb2k]

Arkham City felt to me like a victim of ambition when I reflect on my time with the game. Now personally that is something I cannot fault, I want developer to push themselves into trying new ideas even if they are sometimes executed in a faulty manner.

The basic tent poles are still strong in the release; the brawling feels meaty and is added to in subtle and clever ways that require more planning but never impacts the flow, the slice of Gotham presented is maybe more contrived but still has superb art direction and the acting and villains delivered excellent performances to my ears.

What was not as strong was the pacing, the story beats never felt as consistent and I had a sense of more padding being inserted to provide an excuse to go somewhere instead of being a logical progression step. The side stories were worse affected, coming and going in a blink of an eye and never being clear on progression leading to a large flurry of running about at the tail end of the title just to close everything off. They felt like decisions that the developers struggled to figure out where they should go so decided to jam them all in at the end without seriously considering where they should fall during the playtime.

I still thoroughly enjoyed the game. Despite the narrative problems I had the act of exploring, fighting and using equipment techniques to discover secrets in the world never got old and the addition of the glide ability created a greater scale of verticality that just added to the mystique of being Batman. Slamming down from a skyscraper into a group of goons felt as empowering as anything in Asylum and is a superb addition to the series.

Rocksteady probably reached a bit too far during City but it is still a tremendous title and one well worthy of a play through.

[Bakers_12]

I love the gameplay in Arkham City. I love the Story in Arkham City. I just don't like them together!!!! The Gameplay works on a "if it an't broke don't fix it" way just a few twicks that's all that was needed, I thought some of the side quests where really good , Hush's introduction being a stand out to me

The story when not as amazing as Asylum is still really good with some fine twists and turns as the story goes on.

The big problem is that the structure of the game is at odds with the structure of the story. There are many times when there is a sense of urgency in the plot but bats then potters about Arkham city collecting things. I have since played a new game plus after 100%ing the first play through with all the riddler and side quests done the story seamed much improved.

Also the hidden hold of the ship really makes me hope Rocksteady make another Arkham game.

[Alex79]

My thoughts on Arkham City :

I loved Arkham Asylum, and having been a huge Batman fan for pretty much my entire life, this was a very early purchase for me. The game oozed quality right from the start. The cinematic way the credits were still rolling as the game began - an oft-used technique, but this was a great example of it. I remember being pretty shocked as I discovered Bruce Wayne being led in to Arkham City - I don't know how much of the storyline had been revealed before release, but I'd been careful to avoid anything about the game so it was a surprise to me at least. Once the game proper began everything that made Asylum such a great game had made a return. The ultra-tight combat, the gadgets etc. An early stand out moment for me was when Bruce first gets in to his bat-suit, and the camera pans up across the city, it gave you a real sense of the excellence to come. I liked the way that whilst given a casual glance the game would appear to be a super serious and maybe even po-faced take on Batman, even slightly looking past that revealed that the game was being played completely for laughs. The stupid cheesy one-liners than Catwoman especially came out with would have been right at home on the camp 70's TV series. As I replayed the game recently, I was impressed how well most of it still stood up. The boss fight with Mr Freeze was a highlight for me, giving you massive scope on ways to take him out. Fighting Ra's Al Ghul was something I really enjoyed, too, although I get the feeling that particular boss battle may divide the audience a little, I really liked the old-school watching out for attack patterns and slowly taking him down. Overall the game was brilliant, and whilst I did prefer the more claustrophobic nature of the first game, this was a more than worthy sequel. What did strike me, however, on replaying the game was how short it is if you ignore the side missions. The main story probably only took me about 6-7 hours to complete - but having said that, completing the story mode didn't even give me 20% completion, so it's obvious there's so much more to the game than just that.