1redflag posted:

Similarly, the degradation of Batman's costume as the night's progress in the various Arkham games. My only complaint is that they seem to be tied to story progress alone rather than actual game performance (I.e. if you do well, the cape and cowl still get cut up even if you've been a completely stealthy bastard).

Away all Goats posted:

In Asylum at least, the damage to his costume is always sustained during cut scenes.

Rupert Buttermilk posted:

I never understood where he got the energy, but then again, I guess Bruce Wayne doesn't really do much during the day.

1stGear posted:

He pretty much just sits around eating ice cream and bread to calorie load.

CJacobs posted:

That's also something I liked about Half-Life 2. The game takes place over the course of about two days, which you can see by just, like, looking at the sun while you're playing. It starts in the late morning, and by the time Gordon escapes the city night has fallen. He spends all night in Ravenholm and the sun is coming up just as you leave. Then by the time he has traveled along the coast to Nova Prospekt the sun has gone down again. After that though Gordon and Alyx take the teleporter which sets them forward a few days, but still I think it's kind of cool that they took into account that the game's events happen in real time.

turnways posted:

I only just noticed this, but in Splatoon the Squid Sisters' names:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1f2sEJa1e0

are Callie and Marie.

Pidmon posted:

If you don't get it (and it took me a while and seeing a friend mention their names in a twitch chat), calimari.

TontoCorazon posted:

Witcher 3

Geralt's beard actually grows back after a while. Though that was cool as poo poo.

aardwolf posted:

A certain plot-important lady complimented Geralt on growing out his beard even tho' I just had it shaved off. It was kind of jarring

Rupert Buttermilk posted:

Fifth game should be Batman: Daytime, and it's a themed version of Cook, Serve, Delicious.

EDIT: Batman: Justice, Served; Delicious!

Lord Lambeth posted:

And if he prefixed every kitchen appliance or tool with bat. "Use the batknife to chop up the cucumber to go into the greek salad.!"

Sad lions posted:

Also even when he's fighting the combine at White Forest Black Mesa wasn't even a week ago for him.

Al Cu Ad Solte posted:

Oh man I never thought of this. Gordon's had a hard life.

Neddy Seagoon posted:

Now try "Booyah Base" .

Maxwell Lord posted:

The game is wall to wall puns. I love it.

Maxwell Lord posted:

The game is wall to wall puns. I love it.

Inco posted:

The Talos Principle is great. Unfortunately, you missed a giveaway for a DLC which changes Elohim's voice to that of Serious Sam. It's great.

Szurumbur posted:

- there are a lot of options to sidestep the combat system's shortcomings, but my favourite is using the alternate Quen Axii sign (enemies fight for you) which doesn't break if the enemy is attacked and whacking the enemy, ten swings and repeat - no matter how strong the enemy, as long as I can Quen Axii it it will die, too bad it doesn't always work

Subjunctive posted:

Al Cu Ad Solte posted:

Far Cry 4 has an option to turn off the loot animations

TontoCorazon posted:

I love in GTAV I can do poo poo like this:

mind the walrus posted:

I started playing Arkham Knight and I am so disappointed. Like, disappointed enough that I feel compelled to write about it instead of go the gently caress to sleep like a healthy person.

It's not a bad game and it's obviously suffering from the weight of two great prior installments-- "third in the trilogy is the weakest" rule is in full effect here--but even giving Arkham Knight all the benefits of the doubt and my own bias I'm amazed at how annoyed I am by this game. If I hadn't gotten it as part of a "free" download bundle alongside Witcher 3 with my new GPU I'd be looking for a refund.

To start, here's the biggest problem-- the writing. It sucks. It sucks on toast. It is absolutely everything you picture when you picture a hack superhero story. There are oodles of dialogue that should have been trimmed and the VAs are clearly trying to work around. Cliche conventions and lines of dialogue abound in the worst ways possible. The pacing is atrocious right out of the gate.

Like, I don't suck Paul Dini's dick. I don't like Harley Quinn; I think he took way more credit than he was ever actually due for Batman: The Animated Series; and a lot of his other projects have left me going "that was adequate," but good god am I about to suck Dini's dick now because apparently that man was essential in keeping these games from being everything I hate about bad Batman writing. Sefton Hill--and whomever the two underlings Martin Lancaster and Paul Crocker are--are clearly inadequate. Then we have that awful cliche line from the trailers "this is about the night the Batman died." That alone should tell you how bad the writing is going to be, but jesus gently caress it's actually worse than that. Seriously who the gently caress let this Sefton Hill rear end in a top hat write the script? It really does smell of a guy who was only given the job because he was a project lead on the last two games and got arrogant about his capabilities. I might be dynamite at managing the kitchen at a restaurant but that doesn't mean when the star chef leaves I go back into the kitchen as though I'll be able to keep those Michellin Stars. Why the gently caress does Sefton Hill think he could take over for Paul Dini? Is there seriously no other DC talent sitting around who would have wanted this project?

And then there's plain old bad game design. Spoilers are going to be tagged out of respect from hereon out. The very opening is actually pretty great, with the player having to ignite the Joker's body with a button press, and then everything goes downhill really quickly. We're treated to a Gotham City where the people in charge of character and interactive models, and environment/landscape designers seem to have been on two completely different wavelengths. The characters and models are still in that "Gothic/Art Deco/Modern mash-up of the first two games while the city itself is almost entirely an attempt to be as real as real can be to show off the new graphics tech, which I wouldn't mind but the contrast is noticeable because the very first thing they have you do is control some doomed NPC in a 50s-style diner in a lovely scripted event straight out of Call of Duty.

After that things pick up a bit because the core gameplay is still solid, but wait-- now instead of a quick-change menu in the lower left-hand corner we have to go to a separate pause menu when we use the D-Pad to change our gear. This is to free up button space for the new Batmobile, Mission Objective, and AR Training buttons. Holy gently caress is that trying to fix what isn't broken. I'm not going to talk about it as much as the other flaws, but it's probably the worst change overall because it actively fucks with your mechanical sense of flow, and it's hard to convey that unless you've played prior Arkham games and Arkham Knight in close proximity.

So yay, what's next? How about forced Batmobile segments. At first I was on-board because hey that's the big new feature of this game, this map of Gotham was clearly designed for driving, and maybe the plot will get rolling once I get it out of the way. No, that doesn't happen. Of course that doesn't happen.

Instead we immediately launch into boring scripted chase sequences, rescuing Poison Ivy to kick-start the detective part of the story, and then we're forced into a horrible and unskippable tutorial level to learn to use a function you need for the next car sequence that exists for no practical reason other than to force you to try an AR Mission. Everything the tutorial teaches you would have been better implemented right into the next car sequence in the Metroidvania/Zelda way that every other Arkham game has done such things. Holy poo poo are these really the same guys making this? Not only that, but The Batmobile basically handles like a cross between a GTA Car, and a vehicle from Halo. It's perfectly functional but I ditched that thing the absolute first second I could. Aside from bullet-trails coming off of your "unmanned" tank opponents nothing about the Batmobile segments were anything new to me. I'm sure if you're in that 8-18 demo this game is very clearly aiming for--to a much higher degree than the previous two--then it's the bee's loving knees but I was very underwhelmed.

Now ok, we're finally back, where do we go from here? To the GCPD of course where we're forced to parade through more awful dialogue that I began to straight-up skip at this point, something I never did in any prior Arkham game, and deal with the laziest loving trophy room I have ever seen. I wouldn't even care, but this series has already proven it can do so much better than this Remember how creative and interesting The Penguin's Trophy Room in the Natural History Museum was in Arkham City? Get ready to look at plain-rear end glass cases filled with iconography from each villain who has previously appeared in any of the other three Arkham games with the same dull voice over when you click on them for more info. What an absolute loving waste.

Ok ok ok. So if I hate this so much why am I still playing? Because I'm hoping that if I listen to a little more of this preamble bullshit I can start expediting cutscenes, get all the major tutorial and introductory bullshit out of the way, and enjoy what is still a fun exploration/combat system in absolutely breathtaking environments. So I put up with it, and now I learn that instead of being physically confined in some way to listen to the bullshit in-engine cutscenes now there are literal invisible walls. That's plain lazy And instead of having a long and winding semi-linear story where the objective meanders from Rogue to Rogue with optional side missions and mostly free exploration, now I have some bullshit Mission Objective System where I can advance the main plot with big glaring "FIGHT THIS ROGUE HERE" side missions bolted on, even though literally everything about the A-plot up to this point has an apocalyptic sense of urgency. Holy loving balls that undercuts the tension of this story. Like yeah Arkham Asylum and City had high stakes from the get-go, but in Asylum you were on a fairly linear path and in City there wasn't a sense of urgency as much as "Arkham City needs to be ended, let's deal with what's in front of us and go from there." Arkham Knight has a plot of "SCARECROW GONNA gently caress US ALL UP IN A HOT MINUTE" yet we immediately take a break so Batman can investigate a few bodies and play grab-rear end with the Riddler.

And that's all there is to loving do once you start. You start on one island with literally 4 or so objectives, one of which is to lurch the main plot forward and the others which are all opening act bullshit with no payoff. Like seriously how the gently caress did this get past the first drafts if they've been planning this game since Arkham City's development 5 goddamn years ago?

I'm not expecting people to agree, but I had to get that out. I haven't been this disappointed with a time-killer theme park of a game in a good long while. Is this what all the major game releases are now? I'm going to grind through this game for a little while longer, at least until Robin/Nightwing/Catwoman show up and I get to see how the team combat works, but considering how little I actively looked for this release I'm pretty drat let down.

Kanfy posted:

This is also my favorite little thing in that game.