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Last video:  The Party/Polsy The Joker has taken the mayor hostage and has the city in a deathgrip. Batman breaks in, saves the day, and is bringing the Joker to his perennial vacation home in Arkham Asylum. But it's too easy. Blackgate prisoners are in Arkham due to a fire, the Joker gave up almost without a fight. Too many coincidences, but what could happen? Batman: Arkham Asylum was released in 2009 by Rocksteady Studios. The game has received many, many accolades for its gameplay, its story, and its overall impact, not least because it has the rare distinction of being a good licensed game. For fans of Batman: The Animated Series, Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, and Arleen Sorkin reprise their roles as Batman, the Joker, and Harley Quinn. The script is written by Paul Dini, a veteran writer for not only the Batman animated series but Batman Beyond, the Superman animated series, and he's had a number of scripts in Transformers and Justice League. He also worked on Clerks: The Animated Series and appeared in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, if that's your thing. All that is to say he's got some experience. The combat flows well, you get to set up crime scenes and track the evidence down, and you get to play with all those wonderful toys. The plan is to 100% the game. 3 stars in all the challenge rooms, all the Riddler's tricks, and every Chronicle of Arkham. Along with a few sneaky bits here and there.  SPOILERS?!Talk about the comics. Talk about some of the weird poo poo in the DC universe. Talk about how Jason Todd got crowbar'd. Talk about the New 52. Don't get into petty bitchfests about the New 52, that's what BSS is for. But please don't talk about anything that happens here or in the next two games until we get there. Someone might be waiting! The Videos  Intro and Intensive Treatment 1/Polsy Intensive Treatment 2/Polsy Arkham Island/Polsy - Interview tapes: Harley Quinn 1, Chronicle of Arkham 2, Joker 1 Medical Facility 1/Polsy - Interview Tapes: Riddler 1/2, Chronicle of Arkham 3 Medical Facility 2/Polsy - Interview Tapes: Joker 2/3, Chronicle of Arkham 4/5 Sewers, Arkham Island and Arkham Mansion 1/Polsy - Interview Tapes: Killer Croc 1/2, Chronicle of Arkham 6/7/8/9 Arkham Mansion 2/Polsy - Interview Tapes: Scarecrow 1/2, Chronicle of Arkham 10 Arkham Mansion 3/Polsy - Interview Tapes: Scarecrow 2 (full) Penitentiary/Polsy - Interview Tapes: Zsasz 1/2/3/4/5, Chronicle of Arkham 11 Botanical Gardens 1/Polsy - Interview Tapes: Joker 4/5, Poison Ivy 1/2/3 Botanical Gardens 2/Polsy - Interview Tapes: Poison Ivy 4/5, Chronicle of Arkham 12/13 Return to Intensive Treatment/Polsy Mandatory Sewer Level/Polsy More Sewer Level/Polsy - Interview Tapes: Killer Croc 4/5, Chronicle of Arkham 14 Aggressive Gardening/Polsy - Interview Tapes: Chronicle of Arkham 15 The Riddler Roundup/Polsy - Interview Tapes: Chronicle of Arkham 16-24, Harley Quinn 4/5, Scarecrow 3/4/5, Riddler 3/4/5 The Party/Polsy  Combat: Intensive Treatment and Combat Breakdown/Polsy Predator: Silent Knight/Polsy Combat: Sewer Bat/Polsy DLC Combat: Crime Alley/Polsy Combat: Shock and Awe/Polsy Predator: Survival Tactics/Polsy Predator: Record Breaker/Polsy Combat: Rumble in the Jungle/Polsy Predator: Nocturnal Hunter/Polsy Combat: Intensive Treatment Extreme/Polsy Predator: Silent Knight Extreme/Polsy Combat: Sewer Bat Extreme/Polsy Predator: Invisible Predator/Polsy Combat: Shock and Awe Extreme/Polsy Combat: Rumble in the Jungle Extreme/Polsy Predator: Record Breaker Extreme/Polsy Predator: Invisible Predator Extreme/Polsy Predator: Survival Tactics Extreme/Polsy
dscruffy1 fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Oct 5, 2014 |
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Character Biographies Batman  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Batman's a pretty cool dude. He is essentially the flagship character for DC comics, DC basically stands for Detective Comics, Batman's first appearance. Not actually a "super" hero, but tends to punch significantly above his weight class due to being some kind of smart guy. Usually has a plan for taking down every superhero if he needs to. Also has a plan for if those get stolen. Really scary. Foiled a plan to make an army of clones based on his life due to the clones being crazy. Shot Darkseid. Once created a backup personality in the event that his mind was compromised. It's also Batman. The person people think of when the phrase "crazy prepared" (contains spoilers) gets tossed around. The Joker  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: The Joker's one of Batman's best frenemies. Usually claims he's just trying to get a laugh out of the guy. Might actually be true. Seems to be singularly demented, on one day he may be a harmless and mischievous prankster, the next he'll be bombing the city. No prizes for second place on what he's doing today. Kind of a surprise that no one has just killed the guy yet. Killed the second Robin, Jason Todd, with a crowbar. Had the favor returned by a later Robin. A very versatile character whose personality literally suits the story as needed. Warden Quincy Sharp  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Character created for the game. A dedicated servant of the people, obviously. Seems more concerned with leveraging Arkham Asylum for his mayoral campaign than he is for actually rehabilitating the inmates, though that might be expected considering how effective rehabilitation has been. In effect serves as concierge for most of the inmates, seeing how Arkham seems to be a revolving door for supervillains. But at least he tries. Right? Officer Frank Boles  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Character created for the game. Kind of a jerk. Drinks on the job, maybe to be expected with his career field. A bit of a dirty cop, something weeded out of much of the Gotham City Police Department by this point in time, though whether that's because he's corrupt or if he's being blackmailed is unknown. Probably the former. Career prospects are not promising. Harley Quinn  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: The Joker's girlfriend, though he doesn't seem that into her. Used to be a psychiatrist in Arkham Asylum, though apparently it wasn't quite as inviting of a job as working with the Joker. A character that originated in Batman: The Animated Series, Harley Quinn proved so popular that she was transferred to the DC canon. Hasn't appeared in any movies, but she has been a staple in the comics both before and after the New 52. Still, relationship with the Joker makes her a tough character to write from time to time. She's a recurring member of the Suicide Squad, a team of supervillains forced to do government black ops in return for reduced sentencing. Or life, as the case may be. A character with some staying power. Oracle  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Commissioner James Gordon's adopted daughter. The first Batgirl, which she pursued with some aplomb, until the Joker shot her through the spine while trying to give the commissioner one really bad day. This resulted in paralysis which tends to put an end to any dynamic crime-fighting. Resorted to being an information broker, frequently working with other superheroes by being ridiculously well-informed and tied into any and all data they may need. Used to have a crush on Batman but became a bit disillusioned over time. A frequent reference for Women In Refrigerators Syndrome. Commissioner James Gordon  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Way out of his league, but at least he's aware of it. The GCPD certainly doesn't have any easy job but Gordon's willing to play ball with the only person who can even the odds. Used to have a pretty big problem with organized crime and corruption in the GCPD, he's done an admirable job of weeding out the bad cops and turning the GCPD into a respected crime fighting force. But considering the sorts of things Gotham seems to attract and deal with on a regular basis, how useful is the GCPD? Still. The Commissioner gives Batman the legitimacy he needs to continue his fight against crime. The Riddler  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Always a fun character to have around. The Riddler is just one big bubble of superiority complex waiting to be popped. Can't resist leaving clues behind for crimes he's done, even when he really really wants to. Realizes this may actually mean he's crazy. He actually is nearly as smart as he thinks he is, puzzled out Batman's identity once. Probably not a big deal. His purpose in the games is to be most of the little secrets and to add in callbacks/callouts to other items in Batman's history. Desperately needs to prove he's better than Batman, and typically desperately fails. Victor Zsasz  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: A relatively grounded character, for comic books. Still creepy as hell. Had a bad gambling experience and then got mugged. Kinda broke his mind, now he's more or less obsessed with the only thing that matters: body count. Death is the great equalizer, and Mister Zsasz is an artist with his body as his canvas. Tends to leave his victims posed doing activities, we'll see that in a few spots in the game. And that special spot he's saving for Batman? Logic says it might be that cross for the five on his forehead, but might be somewhere else? Chronicle of Arkham  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: ??? Jack Ryder  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: I've always been entertained by the caliber of superheroes Gotham City manages to churn out. Even when they've actually got superpowers, they don't typically outshine the Batman. Jack Ryder is one of Gotham's foremost investigative reporters, journalists, or talk show hosts in nearly every incarnation, although the exact nature of his alter-ego The Creeper changes depending on who is writing. The alter-ego works somewhat like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, except that neither ego is particularly evil. It just so happens that the Creeper is a lot closer to the crazy line than Ryder. He also has a laugh that varies from either putting his victims into a comatose state or causing mild disorientation, so there's that. Overall, he's a bro. Bruce Wayne  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Where it all began. In addition to the money and weapons development, Bruce Wayne is a supremely useful alibi for the actions of Batman. Broken collarbone? Skiing accident. Fractured skull? Drinking and driving in a Ferrari. I think one of the most interesting facets of Bruce Wayne, however, is that Batman may be the primary ego and that Bruce Wayne is the fallback. On more than a few occasions Batman has referred to both himself and Bruce Wayne in the third person, perhaps letting on that he himself may be suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder. It's a neat touch that it seems most of the villains capable of logic have considered once or twice. What drives a man to dress up like a bat? Amadeus Arkham  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: The first warden of Arkham Asylum. Named after him, obviously. Amadeus has lofty ideals, but unfortunately that statement of "gaze long into an abyss" kinda took its toll. Wishing to save Gotham City, Amadeus Arkham was instead dragged down by its madness and died an inmate in his own asylum. Aaron Cash  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Aaron Cash is kind of a badass, but you'd have to be in order to be one of the veteran guards at Arkham Asylum. Has a reputation for being a hardass, but he has somewhat of a weak spot when it comes to Killer Croc due to a...disagreement. Cash is still understandably wary of Killer Croc and has a deep-seated fear, but he'll never show it if he can help it. Killer Croc  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Usually a pretty interesting character. A decent number of Batman's villains tend to focus on particular disorders or on certain emotions. If that's the case, Croc is primal violence. Born with a rare skin condition that gives him his rather bestial appearance, a big question is if Croc was always this violent of if the way he's been treated by society led him to this. Having been through middle school I'd assume it's the latter. Croc seems to continually mutate into new forms, but one thing that hardly changes is that he has an animal cunning and is a very physical, very dangerous enemy. Totally almost killed Batman once, for sure. Firefly  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: A character I actually haven't seen much, but any pyromaniac who has a flamethrower and a jetpack will find their way to danger. Firefly seems to be a little dangerously unhinged even by those standards. His backstory usually consists of having been a pyrotechnics expert, from there it's variable for when he gets burned over most of his body. Briefly teamed up with another airborne villain we'll see later, but that team broke up when the other realized just how fire-prone Firefly was. Hush  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Hush reflects a concept that's been used for at least one other villain, somewhat of a dark reflection of Bruce Wayne. Both the children of wealthy parents, Tommy Elliot is a bit more troubled than Bruce. Bruce's parents were taken from him, Tommy tried to kill his. An extremely talented surgeon, once performed open heart surgery on a member of the Bat-Family. Thanks to the Riddler he knows who Batman is, and he holds a twisted grudge that often involves trying to take Bruce Wayne's place. Scarecrow  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: I really like Scarecrow. He's different from a lot of Batman's villains in that he's not a mano-a-mano threat, he fights by screwing around with people's minds. He's got a terrible obsession with fear, phobias, what makes them work, and what makes people afraid. He's developed a gas that can bring that fear out of people and make it horrifyingly real, and he's caused more than one case of cardiac arrest due to fright. How long can your willpower hold out against your greatest fears? Great White Shark  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Warren White is a crooked banker. Even Joker is disgusted by him. After all, Joker might kill people, but he doesn't ruin peoples' futures. Mr. White made the mistake of putting an insanity plea in for a Gotham City court. The judge took it and put him in Arkham Asylum. The inmates made him realize his mistake quickly, but not before being locked in a freezer. It resulted in some minor scarring, mental and otherwise. He might not have belonged here before, but he does now. Bane  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: The Man Who Broke The Bat. Bane is huge. Killer Croc has natural strength, but Bane is pushed far beyond what any person should be capable of thanks to Venom. Something that is frequently glossed over is that he is a huge threat on multiple levels. Yes, he broke Batman's spine, but this was after weeks of working with and sending criminals all over town to run Batman ragged. Bane studies his enemies and learns their weaknesses, but this is usually tossed aside in favor of BIG MAN BIG SMASH. Pity. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Somehow not the only act in town based on Alice In Wonderland. Despite comic book appearances, they are exactly as unfit as their appearances might suggest. Their strengths do not lie in anything vaguely resembling physical work, their strength is in leading a crew suited to a particular task and occasionally playing with unique toys. They're not really top-tier villains, so to speak, they usually work under another villain. Penelope Young  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Another character created for the game. Also pretty irritating. The good Doctor Young seems to be the catalyst for a lot of goings-on at Arkham tonight, but she probably doesn't realize exactly how deep the poo poo is she's stepped in. Focused on her work to what's probably an unhealthy degree, or at the least morally questionable. Just goes to show you, maybe you have to be crazy to work here. The Penguin  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Another of Batman's older foes, the Penguin typically stays on the back lines. After all, he often can't compete with some of the craziness that goes on in Gotham, but it may be due more to the fact that he considers himself a gentleman criminal. At first introduction he was a bit more bird focused and had a good number of trick umbrellas with near every sort of attachment you can imagine, and he wasn't quite so short and fat. After Batman Returns in 1992, his image was solidified for many people as the comical Penguin we know now. He's just your average white collar crook who sometimes gets his hands dirty, or so he'd like you to believe. He has his fingers in nearly every illicit deal that goes down in Gotham. Ra's al Ghul  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Ra's al Ghul has the best of intentions but the worst of methodologies. Save the world, go green, etc. Accomplish this by killing millions. The head of the League of Assassins, Ra's origins are a little murky but it seems he's had a few centuries to perfect his craft thanks to his Lazarus Pits, which can return the dead to life and return youth to old flesh. The downside of this is that people who go into Lazarus pits tend to come out a bit crazier. Multiply that a bit. Unlike most Batman villains, at least he respects Batman and his skills. Batman would be his ideal replacement, but how can Batman ever accept what Ra's demands? Also, he's got a daughter. But that's for later. Black Mask  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Black Mask. Where to start. Frequently troubling, Roman Sionis inherited a business that he screwed up and got bought out by Bruce Wayne. Well that's one grudge, so he makes a mask out of his father's black coffin and starts killing WayneTech employees. Then he fights Batman and gets the mask burned into his skin. Thanks to a Robin's interference, he later took over the criminal underworld and repaid her with some Women-in-Refrigerators inspiring torture. Also, torture? He's pretty good at it. But you can always push someone a little too far. Scarface  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: The puppet Scarface was carved from the gallows tree of Blackgate prison by a prisoner there named Donnegan. Donnegan was then killed by his cellmate, one Arnold Wesker, who common sense says is a psychopath who's using the puppet to act out his violent tendencies and may have a problem with his B's and G's. But then, common sense doesn't explain the rumors that the puppet is possessed by the souls of the men killed on the gallows tree, or the fact that he's been seen with different puppeteers and the same mob boss mentality. Still, on his own he's really not that much of a threat. Catwoman  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: I like Catwoman, she's a strong independent woman who don't need no man. Unless she wants one I suppose. Selina Kyle is a catburglar (ho ho) with a taste for cat-themed objects, her nightly excursions tend to place her on both sides of the law whether she's stealing from museums and gangsters or helping the Bat-family out with a city-threatening criminal or two. Despite the best of intentions, Catwoman doesn't have the same resources or abilities as Batman, and she certainly doesn't have the same moral code. She'll use guns and she'll kill if she has to, or if pushed too far. She's a survivor, after all. Poison Ivy  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: If Killer Croc and Bane are just straight up strength, Poison Ivy is sexuality. Of course the best way to show this is a skimpily clad seductress, to maximally spook nerds. She used to be a botanist until her boss talked her into helping him with a museum theft, then tried to poison her with some herbs from the heist. It didn't quite work, and also gave her weird plant powers and immunity to poisons and made her green. Now she can secrete poisons and pheromones from her body, with the right applications she can seduce some pretty strong people. Luckily, we continue to be Batman. She's become quite the eco-terrorist and is more concerned with making sure her plants are thriving than with any human element. On occasion she's teamed up with Catwoman and Harley Quinn, whenever Mistah J kicks her out. Clayface  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Formerly a big movie star, Basil Karlo went a little kill-crazy when he found out they were remaking one of his old movies with a new actor. He took the role's mask and began killing off anyone involved with the production. He was still just a man at this point, mind you. He was captured but before long there came a group of villains calling themselves the Mud-Pack with chemically induced powers to allow them to take on different shapes and mimic appearances. Karlo injected himself with their essences and now he has the power of all of them, shape-change, mimicking appearances and powers, poisonous touch, and the ability to disintegrate objects. Hollywood is too cruel. A dangerous enemy with no simple takedown. Ventriloquist  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Arnold Wesker was the son of a mob boss who just never quite bloomed into a strong person. Not to say he didn't have his moments, a bar-room brawl ended with him breaking open a bottle and cutting open the other guy's throat. This got him sent to Blackgate prison where he encountered his cellmate and his puppet, Scarface, and the rest is history. Questions abound over who's really in control, the puppet with the plan and the bad B's or the man who's got his hand up the puppet's butt. Wesker is quite adamant that he's just a puppet in all this, Scarface frequently calls him dummy, and he really can't seem to exert himself at all without the puppet's presence. Calendar Man  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Julian Gregory Day (ha!) is about as one-note as you get. A villain who's focused on crimes focused on holidays is possibly even more predictable than the Riddler. Still, at least he keeps it fresh, July 4th could mean that the police station is getting blown up (fireworks!), Groundhog Day could mean Punxsutawney Phil is getting put down. The character saw somewhat of a Hannibal Lecter revival in The Long Halloween where Batman requested his help in trying to find out when the Holiday Killer might strike next. It wasn't very useful though. He was considered somewhat of a non-lethal gimmick by most until he tried setting off Y2K properly by shooting down an airliner, turning off the Gotham power grid, and trying to launch a nuke or two. Maybe not always dangerous, but still crazy! Two-Face  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Harvey Dent used to be the District Attorney of Gotham, along with being one of Batman's allies. Sure, he had moments where he was a little angry and he might have snapped at his wife, but who doesn't? Well. Things sort of came to a head when the mob boss he was pursuing had one of his thugs throw acid in Harvey's face on the stand. This scarred half of his face and one half of his lucky two-headed coin, giving his bipolarity a really convenient physical outlet. Harvey is now obsessed with duality, often leaving the fates of anyone he crosses up to the flip of a coin. Speaking of, that giant penny in the Batcave? Some rumors say he had something to do with it. There have been attempts to repair his face and thereby put his mind to rights. It usually works, but nothing is forever. Mr. Freeze  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: It really should be Dr. Freeze. Doctor Victor Fries was a talented cryogenics expert whose wife caught a terminal illness. Victor went down every path he could to get the resources to cryogenically preserve her until a cure could be found, but the company he was working for decided they were losing too much money on the proposition. This led to an accident that caused Victor to have to be in subzero temperatures at all times. Victor only has one thing to live for: his wife. And he will do anything for love, including that. Fun fact: before the Batman animated series in the 90's, he was sort of a gimmick knockoff villain with no story. That entire story came from the episode "Heart of Ice" and if you haven't seen it, holy poo poo. That episode caused an entire reboot of the villain at large. Watch it. The Mad Hatter  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Again, somehow not the only act in town based on Alice in Wonderland. Jervis Tetch is a bit more prolific than the Dumphreys, having had quite the criminal career in mind altering hats, headbands, and chemicals. He has in fact worked with Tweedle Dee and Dum, though they tried to turn against him. He is rather obsessed with finding his Alice which has resulted in one or two or many unfortunate deaths. If only Alice had just drank her tea. Jervis has an obsession with unusual hats, and Batman's cowl would be quite the feather in his cap. He doesn't tend to make friends, preferring instead to make them follow his will and do his bidding, as long as they come in for a pot of his specialty, his...special tea. Thomas and Martha Wayne  Story - Facts - Attributes The nominal parents in MY PARENTS ARE DEEEEEEAD. I mean, what more can you say? They are the reason for Bruce Wayne's one-man war on crime. Thomas Wayne was heir to the Wayne family fortune, and Martha Kane was heir to the Kane family who more or less owned the half of Gotham that the Waynes didn't. Thomas was a well-respected and talented surgeon who inspired Thomas Elliot aka Hush, and Martha Wayne was the socialite who kept the fundraisers running. They had a bit of tension though. In the Flashpoint storyline leading into the New 52, Bruce was the one who died in the shooting at Crime Alley. This led to a much more violent Thomas Wayne as Batman, and Martha Wayne as the Joker. Humpty Dumpty  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: I don't know too much about him but nominally Humphrey Dumpler is the sort of person Arkham Asylum was founded to help. He came from an abusive childhood and had a talent for fixing broken things. This led to him trying to fix his grandmother but that went about as well as you might expect. He's a quiet guy most of the time but his arrested development leads to being easily manipulated, and he often is convinced to make or fix some toys for Gotham's bigger players. Killer Moth  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Drury Walker is a small time hood who is impersonating a big time supervillain. No really. He masquerades as Cameron Van Cleer, who is the alter ego of Killer Moth. Presumably the Cameron Van Cleer alter ego came about from when he was trying to take Bruce Wayne's fortune and replace Batman, people found out his secret identity all the time back in the Golden Age. Still, he's gotten his money from somewhere and has a good number of toys. He was teamed up with Firefly for a while as an airborne team but he dissolved that relationship when he realized Firefly may be a little bit too into that whole fire thing. Ratcatcher  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: On one hand, Otis Flannegan is a ratcatcher employed by Gotham. On the other hand, he's got sort of a Poison Ivy thing going on now. He used to be pretty good at his job but now he's using his affinity for vermin to work on some less savory business opportunities. Rats can grab quite a few things of value after all. He's even as much of a threat behind bars as he is outside of prison since rats can make their way in ventilation ducts pretty easily. He never raises to being much of a threat, however, and is killed during one of the Crisis crossover events by a protection AI gone rogue. Alfred Pennyworth  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Alfred is the best. Butler to the Wayne family and Bruce Wayne's guardian after the unfortunate incident, Alfred is an excellent butler. Despite his misgivings about Bruce's choice in night time activities, he nonetheless is accomplished in a wide variety of skills useful to the would-be crimefighter. Depending on the backstory he's either been a butler his whole life, or he's been an accomplished actor and a member of MI-6. Either way, he's the only member of the Bat-family Batman allows to use firearms, and it has been done a few times. Also? He's totally Batman, in the event someone finds the Batcave. Prometheus  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: I haven't seen Prometheus in the wild, so to speak, but I've done my research. Prometheus is sort of the opposite of Bruce Wayne, a kid raised by criminals whose parents were gunned down by cops. It resulted insome fairly similar angst except that Prometheus has decided to kill as many cops as he can. His name is a reference to the Greek titan who took fire from the gods and gave it to mankind, he copies the moves of his adversary. It's about as effective as you might imagine! Unfortunately for him against Batman, it's also about as effective as you might imagine. Hugo Strange  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: And yet, somehow not the only person impersonating Batman. Not even the only other person. Hugo Strange is a for real psychiatrist who may need some help himself, he's got this real hard-on for taking Batman's place. He psychologically analyzed the kind of person who has both the motivation and the resources to do what Batman does, and lo and behold, here we are. He does know that Batman is Bruce Wayne, but he's been mentally unstable enough that other villains haven't had too much opportunity to capitalize on the fact and sometimes he even forgets that he knows. Nevertheless, the fact that he may reveal this information is enough of a threat that he has to be watched closely. Maxie Zeus  Story - Facts - Attributes Personal thoughts: Another weird one. Maxie Zeus was a fairly regular businessman until he lost his wife and child. Then he went straight off the deep end and started thinking he was Zeus, master of the Greek gods. He is powerfully charismatic and commands a surprising amount of respect from the people he leads, and he's been full on caught in his own delusions with things such as believing that he must marry an Olympian. That being one of the Olympic medal winners. It's only a little bit awkward for him when you consider that the DC universe actually has the Greek gods as characters. Extras and Whatevers Hobgoblin2099 posted:On the topic of weird Batman things, he's an actual comic panel of Batman distracting two villains with Hostess Fruit Pies before punching them in the face. Or is it Sputnik posted:Yes, pick up any DC comic from the mid 70's to 80's and you will find Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman distracting villains with pastries. Indeed, most any big-name Silver Age superhero has thwarted crooks and conmen alike with that delicious spongy filling and golden crust of Hostess Twinkies/real fruit flavor of Hostess Pies! CuwiKhons posted:Like Aaron Cash, Humphrey was originally from the Arkham Asylum: Living Hell miniseries and easily the most sympathetic of Arkham's residents. However you're wrong about one thing - Humphrey isn't talented at all with fixing broken things. He's obsessed with trying, but he's actually quite bad at it. He once caused a massive train crash because he snuck into the train yard to fix a train which had been having issues and he's destroyed many, many other things by trying to 'fix' them. Humphrey's responsible for... a lot of deaths, albeit it none of them done out of any malice like the other Rogues. He always means well, he just doesn't understand that he's messing things up. Even when he literally dismantled his grandmother and sewed her back together, he did it because he thought there must be something wrong with her to make her so cruel and he was trying to make her a better person. dscruffy1 posted:Of particular note is the guest list I mentioned before which Batman takes off of Harley. Hobgoblin2099 posted:Did someone say Maxie Zeus? The Riddler's riddle breakdown. dscruffy1 fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Oct 14, 2014 |
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Aug 12, 2014 13:42
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You know, I've got a lot to say about this game, some good, some bad (since I'm a huge nerd), but I think that this might be the only time that Batman ever actual drives someone he's apprehended by force to Arkham Asylum in the front seat of the Batmobile. It just seems; well, as odd as having a police officer drive a criminal to gaol in the front seat. Also, I miss the 'not a Bat-tank' Batmobile.
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Aug 12, 2014 14:16
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So... It's Detective Comics Comics?
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Aug 12, 2014 15:52
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anilEhilated posted:So... It's Detective Comics Comics? More or less! From Wikipedia: "The initials "DC" came from the company's popular series Detective Comics, which featured Batman's debut and subsequently became part of the company's name." I'm not saying it's because Batman is DC's best character, but oh wait yes I am. Samovar posted:You know, I've got a lot to say about this game, some good, some bad (since I'm a huge nerd), but I think that this might be the only time that Batman ever actual drives someone he's apprehended by force to Arkham Asylum in the front seat of the Batmobile. It just seems; well, as odd as having a police officer drive a criminal to gaol in the front seat. I know they've got a comic for backstory leading up to the start of the game but I think the reason Batman's driving is because the police are basically swamped. Also possibly because the Joker is in unusually good condition once he actually gets to the Asylum, normally he's had the tar beaten out of him.
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Aug 12, 2014 20:14
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Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are really two of the best games of the last console cycle. They just do so much right that the stuff that goes wrong (enemies spotting you from a mile away with their backs to you, stupid boss fight mechanics, Detective Mode being a bit too useful in AA) feels like a major flaw when it would be about standard in any other game. People watching this who don't have the games really should pick them up and play them, they have to be dirt cheap on console and are constantly on sale on the PC.
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Aug 12, 2014 21:07
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Man, the Cleaner got RIPPED after the end of Monaco! And started talking. Well, growling. High hopes for this one, scruffy! Any chance of getting frozentreasure or loco or somebody to guest once the mechanic-heavy early game is wrapped up? You guys had good banter.
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Aug 12, 2014 22:27
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Man, the Batman Arkham games were some of the best games I played when they came out. Really like the focus on stealth. Though I admit, not a fan of Harley's costume, especially now that its basically canon to the comics
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Aug 13, 2014 00:17
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Just got done replaying this out of excitement for Arkham Knight. I've played City a couple times, but honestly forgot just how great the atmosphere and presentation were in AA. It didn't feel aged at all to me, even after playing the sequels quite a bit.
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Aug 13, 2014 00:22
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The atmosphere in AA immediately grabbed me. It is probably the main reason I like it more the AC. AA captures the claustrophobic feel of an asylum with a dark history, and the way the environment opens as the player progresses felt like exploration. AC was fine and great, but I the city felt too disjointed.
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Aug 13, 2014 00:42
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True, AA was a very tight knit game, but AC has a number of things that it did better. More sidequests and moves you can do.
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Aug 13, 2014 01:32
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AA's a great game but it's easily the worst of the series (discounting Blackgate because gently caress that game) which should really just tell you how good City and Origins are (even with all the nasty bugs in Origins). I don't care for the opening sequence though. Something about it just feels very forced - it introduces a lot of plot points really rapidly, and a bunch of characters even more rapidly with very flat characterization for them (Sharpe is an arrogant idiot who wants to cure Joker for his mayoral campaign, Frank is an aggressive idiot that Joker knows, all the other guards are just plain idiots). And you can't skip it on subsequent playthroughs since you have to walk along with the group.
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Aug 13, 2014 04:34
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Thundersword238 posted:Though I admit, not a fan of Harley's costume, especially now that its basically canon to the comics Yeah, I would say that while this game's basic story, i.e. Joker taking over the asylum, feels like it could be a plot for an episode of the cartoon (that's good, I mean, any good, engaging comic-based piece of media should start off pretty simple and not convoluted) and the combat in this game was and remains revoltionary for beat-'em-ups in general, I really, REALLY do not like the aesthetics, character design - particularly costue design - a lot of the dialogue. I feel that this game was used as justification for the DC universe to become stupidly grimdark. And THAT is a major reason why I don't like it.
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Aug 13, 2014 08:21
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I absolutely adore this game. I love the sequel a lot more (as proven by all the DLC purchased and 100% completion), but this game is still a 10/10 to me. Its atmosphere is incredible. There is no such game as Arkham Origins. I know some nerds made their own romhack of AC, but it was a glitchy mess, so I don't wanna talk about it.
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Aug 13, 2014 10:17
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Origins wasn't too bad, but that's coming from someone who didn't play Asylum or City - go go Nvidia bundle! Just going by Let's Plays of predecessors, Warner didn't even try to innovate and followed the safe and sound stuff. Solid base though, could have been worse.
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Aug 13, 2014 12:28
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Lazyfire posted:Arkham Asylum and Arkham City are really two of the best games of the last console cycle. They just do so much right that the stuff that goes wrong (enemies spotting you from a mile away with their backs to you, stupid boss fight mechanics, Detective Mode being a bit too useful in AA) feels like a major flaw when it would be about standard in any other game. People watching this who don't have the games really should pick them up and play them, they have to be dirt cheap on console and are constantly on sale on the PC. I'll probably be getting to Arkham City, right now the plan is to see how this goes and then maybe do Arkham City and Arkham Origins. But that's going to be some time in the future, likely. Out of the three, I'd probably say City is my favorite. Gearface posted:Man, the Cleaner got RIPPED after the end of Monaco! And started talking. Well, growling. Maybe! I know for sure I'll need some banter whenever I do a Riddler roundup but before then who knows! Thundersword238 posted:Man, the Batman Arkham games were some of the best games I played when they came out. Really like the focus on stealth. Though I admit, not a fan of Harley's costume, especially now that its basically canon to the comics Second. The outfit she's got for the games feel a bit much like it's pandering. Kind of oversexualized as something to sell copies, as opposed to something you'd expect from the character. A regular nurses' outfit I could see but it just goes a bit overboard in the details. DumbRodent posted:Just got done replaying this out of excitement for Arkham Knight. Arkham Asylum feels cramped and creepy at times, especially as we get into some of the patient interviews, but I feel like the atmosphere I liked the most was the beginning of Arkham Origins. Before things went straight overboard with supervillains, you mostly had gangs and corrupt cops. It brings things nicely down to earth, in my opinion. The main issue I've encountered is that it's hard to go back to combat in AA after having played a lot of AC. CuwiKhons posted:AA's a great game but it's easily the worst of the series (discounting Blackgate because gently caress that game) which should really just tell you how good City and Origins are (even with all the nasty bugs in Origins). Feature-wise I'd agree. City made vast improvements and Origins even tacked on one or two on top of that. But AA is still good by any metric and that's what we're here for.
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Aug 13, 2014 13:02
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If you play Origins for a nanosecond, you can see why people were so disappointed considering the evolution of the games from Asylum to City.
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Aug 13, 2014 14:20
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Samovar posted:Yeah, I would say that while this game's basic story, i.e. Joker taking over the asylum, feels like it could be a plot for an episode of the cartoon (that's good, I mean, any good, engaging comic-based piece of media should start off pretty simple and not convoluted) You are kind of close. The concept for the game is pretty close to a Batman One-off from 1989. If you are interested in reading it I would suggest doing so after completing the game. The path the game takes and the plot of the graphic novel are completely different in a large number of ways, but you may feel some facts about the Asylum itself are spoiled by the content of the novel. ZenVulgarity posted:If you play Origins for a nanosecond, you can see why people were so disappointed considering the evolution of the games from Asylum to City. Apparently there was some sort of bug on the PC version that halted progress that WB has said they won't ever fix. That's hilariously bad and turned me off of buying the game during the various sales over the last couple months.
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Aug 13, 2014 14:33
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Origins is buggy and frustrating, the upgrade system is garbage, and the combat is a step down from City's, but I would argue that Origins had the best story out of the lot.
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Aug 13, 2014 15:31
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CuwiKhons posted:Origins is buggy and frustrating, the upgrade system is garbage, and the combat is a step down from City's, but I would argue that Origins had the best story out of the lot. I agree, great story, half-lovely glitch-ridden sequential achievement based leveling up. Also very very short. Plus as a Wii U owner very pissed off they didn't bring in the Mr. Freeze DLC.
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Aug 13, 2014 20:51
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dscruffy1 posted:Second. The outfit she's got for the games feel a bit much like it's pandering. Kind of oversexualized as something to sell copies, as opposed to something you'd expect from the character. A regular nurses' outfit I could see but it just goes a bit overboard in the details. Harley's costume from Arkham City (and Knight, it seems) is arguably a very cynical attempt to make her more 'badass' and 'sexy' for reasons of marketing, but the nurse outfit in Asylum kind of works for me. She and the Joker are all about turning everything into a dark parody, so her combining Nurse Ratched with a 'Sassy Nurse' Halloween costume, and playing up that she's the assistant to Mistah Jay as the 'warden, the inmate running the asylum as it were, fits. Just about. I think Origins does an admirable job of getting the feel of a decent Batman story, or even a Bat-family crossover event in the comics right. It just happens to be made by people who know WHAT Rocksteady did, but not WHY they made those specific choices, so you get weird balance changes to combat and the stuff cribbed right out of Assassin's Creed (someone at WB took Ezio being 'Renaissance Batman' WAY too literally).
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Aug 13, 2014 21:08
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One tiny thing missed in video 2- there's some fun dialogue between Joker and his goon if you wait around behind him after taking out his buddies.
Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Aug 13, 2014 22:34
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Samovar posted:You know, I've got a lot to say about this game, some good, some bad (since I'm a huge nerd), but I think that this might be the only time that Batman ever actual drives someone he's apprehended by force to Arkham Asylum in the front seat of the Batmobile. It just seems; well, as odd as having a police officer drive a criminal to gaol in the front seat. Makes sense to me. I mean, it's Joker. Unless you're using one of those giant armored vehicles like banks use to transport money, why would you want him behind you in any way? If he's sitting right next to Batman, there's less ways for him to pull something from behind his back. Plus he can punch him at any time. Arkham Asylum has my favorite combat sound effects out of the whole series so far. After this the impacts started sounding so muted.
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Aug 13, 2014 23:58
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CuwiKhons posted:Origins is buggy and frustrating, the upgrade system is garbage, and the combat is a step down from City's, but I would argue that Origins had the best story out of the lot. It was also done by a completely different studio that (as I understand) less than a year to get it done with existing tech and assets.
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Aug 14, 2014 00:02
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CuwiKhons posted:Origins is buggy and frustrating, the upgrade system is garbage, and the combat is a step down from City's, but I would argue that Origins had the best story out of the lot. Beyond all the bugs (which are horrible, don't let me undersell them)Origin's biggest sin to me is feeling like a much worse City. Some of the side quests are copy/pasted over. The combat is worse. Less playable characters. It felt like someone wanted to make an Arkham game, but didn't want to put in the work. Then I look at Asylum and while it doesn't have the finesse in City's gameplay, I like the flow of the plot a lot better in Asylum. Plus the bangin atmosphere and character work.
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Aug 14, 2014 01:10
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One advantage of AA and AC over AO is that the map design is infinitely better. It's not really a spoiler to say there's backtracking for collectibles in all three games- Rocksteady did a number of things with the design to make this bearable. Areas are nonlinear and interconnected, with multiple exits. They also change as the story progresses and (In AC at least) are sometimes populated with new enemies. AO's interior spaces are all completely linear tunnels, and some of them are only open at one end. This makes going back through each of them take as much as a half hour. There's nothing new in any of the interior spaces to look at, either. After they're used in the story, each one is completely empty and lifeless.
Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Aug 14, 2014 01:13
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SonicRulez posted:Beyond all the bugs (which are horrible, don't let me undersell them)Origin's biggest sin to me is feeling like a much worse City. Some of the side quests are copy/pasted over. The combat is worse. Less playable characters. It felt like someone wanted to make an Arkham game, but didn't want to put in the work. Then I look at Asylum and while it doesn't have the finesse in City's gameplay, I like the flow of the plot a lot better in Asylum. Plus the bangin atmosphere and character work. That's because a ton of poo poo feels copied and pasted from City instead of feeling unique.
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Aug 14, 2014 05:14
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My the biggest problem with Origins combat is what they fixed. Apparently the goons occasionally backing off wasn't programed in to change up the flow of combat or as a bit of flavor where it seems like nobody wants to be the next guy to piss off Batman, nope, it was just a flaw in the AI where they would get stuck and not do anything for a while, they fixed it and it made combat worse.
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Aug 14, 2014 05:22
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J.theYellow posted:It was also done by a completely different studio that (as I understand) less than a year to get it done with existing tech and assets. Oh I know. I absolutely understand why Origins had the problems it did. But that doesn't change the fact that it's repeat of City with a better story and worse gameplay. I also cannot overstate enough how incredibly lovely it was for WB Montreal to just come right out and say "We know there's still gamebreaking bugs, but we're done with fixing those and won't be releasing any further patches because we're busy making DLC"
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Aug 14, 2014 05:28
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I played this game to near-completion myself and really liked it despite my preconceptions about games with ubiquitous praise these days (typically, they're for everyone but me). I only didn't finish it because I got obsessed with getting all the Riddler's junk, hit a brick wall on that, and gave up on the whole thing, so this LP is an excellent opportunity to finally see what I missed, especially if it's going to be peppered with information about the Batman comics of which I'm completely and regrettably ignorant.
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Aug 15, 2014 07:12
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Fiendly posted:I only didn't finish it because I got obsessed with getting all the Riddler's junk, hit a brick wall on that, and gave up on the whole thing
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Aug 15, 2014 07:16
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David D. Davidson posted:Really this is the only game where I was able to manage to get all of them. This games riddler trophies were easily the least obnoxious of the three games. I'm usually terrible at finding hidden things in video games and have a habit of ignoring them on my first run, but I found this game's secrets to mostly be tough but fair and a lot of them were really fun to find, so I made an exception here. They nailed just the right balance of being difficult and being rewarding that I couldn't bring myself to skip them, it's just too bad I proved slightly too incompetent to find them all.
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Aug 15, 2014 07:46
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Bats were born to be free. Arkham Island/Polsy - Interview tapes: Harley Quinn 1, Chronicle of Arkham 2, Joker 1 Character bios updated: Jack Ryder, Bruce Wayne, Amadeus Arkham.
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Aug 16, 2014 01:35
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May as well note that much of Harley's backstory in this game is taken from the origin story shown in the TAS episode (and comic book) Mad Love, although the game actually omits some of the more risque parts. (The comic implies that Harleen wasn't exactly a 4.0 GPA at college and basically slept her way to her degree, which is an element the comics vacillate back and forth on, as to whether she's a credible shrink or not). Arleen Sorkin originally portrayed Harleen in the flashbacks on the show with a more standard American English accent, to contrast with Harley's heavy Brooklyn (?) accent, which she kind of drops here, possibly because the interview tapes are short enough that casual listeners might not realise what she was doing.
Gaz-L fucked around with this message at 02:05 on Aug 16, 2014 |
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Aug 16, 2014 01:53
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I just noticed with regards to Batman's physical stats, I'm the exact same height and weight as him and I don't have nearly that much muscle; in fact, my build is fairly average for this height. Like, he would literally need to be almost pure muscle (including bones and internal organs) in order to only weigh 210 at that height. Literal slab of meat.
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Aug 16, 2014 02:02
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chitoryu12 posted:I just noticed with regards to Batman's physical stats, I'm the exact same height and weight as him and I don't have nearly that much muscle; in fact, my build is fairly average for this height. Like, he would literally need to be almost pure muscle (including bones and internal organs) in order to only weigh 210 at that height. Literal slab of meat. Are you suggesting comic book writers and video game designers may not be experts on how much muscle weighs?
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Aug 16, 2014 02:49
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Lazyfire posted:Are you suggesting comic book writers and video game designers may not be experts on how much muscle weighs? Not unless Bruce Wayne has no internal organs or bones and is just a side of beef. Which would explain how he takes so much punishment, really. No internal organs to take damage.
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Aug 16, 2014 03:04
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Lazyfire posted:Are you suggesting comic book writers and video game designers may not be experts on how much muscle weighs? I don't think they know how much anything weighs. I seem to recall that once you get the stats for Killer Croc, the only way to reconcile his size with the weight they list would be if he was hollow.
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Aug 16, 2014 03:51
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Lazyfire posted:Are you suggesting comic book writers and video game designers may not be experts on how much muscle weighs? Nah... That couldn't possibly be it. Extensive research into body mass and composition goes into these types of things when writing a game/comic. Super heroes can create nega-mass by sheer will. This eliminates all non-vital body mass and only preserves the necessary mass, i.e. muscle. Great LP so far, I've beaten this game and am enjoying seeing things I missed in my mad dash of, "Oh my god! I'm Batman!" in completing the game.
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Aug 16, 2014 03:52
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 00:11 |
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I applaud your restraint, Scruff - whenever I played this game, I couldn't resist shouting out "I'M BATMAN!" the first few times each section I glide-kicked a mook.
citybeatnik fucked around with this message at 04:33 on Aug 16, 2014 |
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Aug 16, 2014 04:31
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