Progressive Boink

[Terry Cheesecake]

Yeah Arkham City is excellent, they've taken the first game and made just about everything better in some way.

[B]

The only issue I have with it is that it feels looser than Arkahm Asylum. Like, I was standing on the Penguin's ice and as soon as I let go of my batclaw Batman turns around and somersaults into the ice. I liked that the Asylum characters all seemed to have a weight, and that's missing here.

That being said, that Mr. Freeze fight is clever and awesome as fuck

[Spoodles]

I have been replaying Arkham Asylum for the past month, and I just got the last of the trophies/riddles/chronicles last night. Now I'm all worked up and ready to buy City - this might be the first time I've paid more than $20 on a video game in the past five years.

[Spoodles]

Oh shit, my wife is buying this for me tonight as an early b-day present. SOON PLAYING

[Jim]

I got it as a late b-day present and it's totally fucking awesome.

[B]

I have marked out now twice for characters I didn't know were in the game. This is the best.

[Spoodles]

I'm about to enter the museum (Penguin level). I'm okay with the game, although I'm not prepared to call it "better" than the first game at this point.

It's a bit heavy on the hand-to-hand combat at this point. It also seems like combat takes a lot longer in this game (i.e. I'm spending a lot more time beating these people up, and ok I get it, but it's getting a bit monotonous).

I'm also having some issue with the larger environment, and travel time kills a lot of things for me. I've never been a big fan of open world games. Some games make travel time quick and fairly painless - the open-world Spider Man games, Infamous. This one is pretty good in that regard and more often than not there is stuff you can do along the way that keeps it interesting.

I like the side-missions, Riddler quests, Zsasz stuff, Bane stuff, etc. I really like the ability to tag things on your map for later. The missions, bosses, etc. so far are spectacular. All in all I'm quite pleased,

[Alan]

my biggest problem with the game is that I never felt fully immersed in the story as much as I did in Asylum.

Like, in Asylum you walked Joker into the Asylum and could sense something was up and then things went wrong and you investigated and the whole of the story got told in a very well-paced narrative.

In this one, I have no idea what's going on half the time. Bruce Wayne wanted to shut down Arkham City (which was never really explained what it was or how it worked - I knew from pre-release stuff I read but the game didn't explain it very well) and then he's captured and thrown into Arkham City? And Strange knows he's Batman but lets him just go in normally and then you escape and get Alfred to send you the Batsuit and gadgets and you're free to roam the city right away? He planned this, apparently, but it's never really explained why.

And the mission structure is just like 'Go find (villain), now find (villain), etc etc' which is fine and all cause it's still fun, and maybe there is more to the story that will be revealed at the end but there's no sense of natural flow to the narrative I feel. Maybe I expected too much? It's just more of the same from Asylum with an open world structure and a less immersive narrative.

All that said it's still incredibly fun, and I might take back a lot of things I said once I complete it, narrative wise. Either way it's still one of the best games of the year and I'm just being nitpicky.

[B]

No matter what, I felt like the motherfucking Batman climbing that big tower

[David]

Either way it's still one of the best games of the year and I'm just being nitpicky.

Not really. Everything you and Spoodles have said are my exact thoughts. This is a really great game but the story would benefit from being more focused.

Arkham City is the perfect example of be careful what you wish for because you might get it. I've always wanted a game where I'm just Batman being Batman throughout Gotham City. Here it is and I feel kind of bad for not totally loving it.

[David]

Just finished the main story in Arkham City and is this real because holy shit is this real?

[Terry Cheesecake]

It turns out Driver: San Francisco is great fun. It's a cheesy, over-the-top, arcade racer with a ludicrous storyline and a fantastic soundtrack. The shifting gimmick is a great addition and is implemented really well. If you don't know what I mean check out some of the videos on youtube. Even if you don't want to buy it give it a rent, honestly it's just great fun.