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Just started playing this and the I have noticed that it seems harder than the previous two games. That, and the cast list is such a mixed bag of awesome and disappointing I don't even know how to feel. No Mark Hamil as Joker? Boo! Wait, Peter MacNicol as the Mad Hatter? Yay! No Manu Bennett as Deathstroke? Boo! CCH Pounder as Amanda Waller? Yay! Wait...no Kevin Conroy? Aw...I just...I can't even bring myself to boo, that's how big a downer that is.
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Nov 12, 2013 03:11
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MonsterEnvy posted:Boo to you as well. Smith and Baker were great as Batman and the Joker in this game. There's nothing inherently wrong with the jobs they did. I just don't think anyone could have followed up Conroy and Hamill. They defined those characters as far as I'm concerned. Obviously taste is subjective, just my opinion, yadda yadda yadda. I'm sure some people think West/Romero, Keaton/Nicholson, or Bale/Ledger are the apex of those characters.
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Nov 12, 2013 03:46
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Smith sounded like he was doing half Kevin Conroy and half Diedrich Bader. So...still Batmans. And I'm still pumped at Peter MacNichol. That guy's voice always cracks me up.
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Nov 12, 2013 03:55
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Maybe they were just really dedicated to the prequel idea and decided to make the game a bit less polished than Asylum? I could barely even play the Croc fight with how buggy it was. At one point the video just disappeared altogether. I thought that was, like, a gameplay feature, like you had to fight blindfolded, except that when I died and restarted it didn't do that again. Then Croc fell through the wall.
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Nov 12, 2013 16:08
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RyokoTK posted:My favorite part about Bane in Arkham City is that he gets locked into an elevator with a flimsy iron gate. Like, really, Bane can't just rip that gate down? The dude is the size of a house. Guy grew up in a prison. He's got a thing about bars.
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Nov 13, 2013 14:59
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Rookersh posted:"Singleminded" is the nice term they apply in the comics, but yeah, Zsasz is a moron. At least he's smarter than Croc.
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Nov 18, 2013 03:46
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MonsterEnvy posted:Actually Zsasz is not. Zsasz only has an IQ of 70. Still I fell bad about the guy getting cheated out of his families money in his depression and being to stupid to realize that he Penguin cheated. Still probably smarter than Croc.
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Nov 19, 2013 02:06
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That's something I learned to love about the Arkham games. I remember, having finished the main story of Asylum, I was wandering through the various buildings looking for Riddler stuff when I found myself thinking, "Jeez, this place is so creepy and oppressive. Even though I know there's nothing scary left in here, the atmosphere makes it scarier than pretty much any actual horror game I've ever played." Then I had a thought that made the game so much more fantastic. It is a horror game. It's me. I'm the monster.
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Nov 20, 2013 03:14
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Jesus, those last two challenge rooms were hard, but I finally did it: Now...on to City. Should be no problem, right?
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Nov 26, 2013 19:58
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Finally playing Origins in earnest. One thing I'm really noticing is the shift in aesthetic. Asylum and City both had that kind of lurid, exaggerated, Kelley Jones-esque kind of look to them, like you're playing through someone's nightmare about a circus. Origins, on the other hand, seems to be taking a page from the Nolan playbook. Everything looks so much more...reasonable. I know everyone says that Origins feels like a re-skin of City, but it really feels way toned down. I'm not saying I don't like it, it's just something I've noticed.
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Dec 3, 2013 19:14
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MeatwadIsGod posted:Agreed. I get more of an Anton Furst vibe from this Gotham than the other two. There were some art deco/fascistic buildings in Arkham City (i.e., Gotham Bank), but the architecture here (especially the bridge) feels like Anton Furst's production design on Batman (1989). I was going mostly by the character design and lighting, but I'm not sure I totally agree with this, either. The Gotham in Origins is hyperbolic, yeah, but to me it still feels like a city. Cramped and dark and claustrophobic, but still somewhere you could see people living. Maybe more like Batman Returns than the original Batman or the Nolan films. Asylum and City felt more like gigantic sound stages. The bizarre architecture, lighting, and character design combine to make them feel more like one of the Schumacher movies. But, y'know, not terrible.
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Dec 3, 2013 20:26
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I was having trouble with the combat, too. Everything seemed so much more frantic until I realized that combat is actually a bit slower in Arkham Origins than in the other two. In Asylum and City you fight by hitting almost non-stop because otherwise your combo dies. In Origins the margin is a lot bigger, so I've been going "<Hit>...Okay, need to counter? No? Okay...<Hit>...Oops, need to counter...<Counter>...Okay, we good? Alright...<Hit>" I've found the game much easier, now.
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Dec 4, 2013 01:16
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I dunno. For reference I'm playing the PC version with an X-Box controller. Going from Asylum and City to Origins I couldn't keep a combo going to save my (or Batman's) life. When I stopped trying to chain three hits together and stopped between each hit to assess the situation, it just clicked and now I regularly get super-combos. Also, Origins is in the same continuity as Asylum and City, right? I only ask because the first meeting between Joker and Harley is presented completely different in the Asylum recording and the Origins sequence. Not that I care, but, y'know, that kind of thing gets to continuity-obsessed fanboys. Not like me. I don't even care. Like...at all. 
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Dec 4, 2013 21:10
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ImpAtom posted:The original Arkham one is taken directly from B:TAS. They revised it for Origins when they decided to make Arkham its own continuity instead of a B:TAS spinoff-style game. I know, albeit done better in The Animated Series because Harley used to sound like a normal, professional young woman instead of always sounding like a ditz. That said, I really liked where Origins took that scene. Paralleling Harley's obsession with the Joker with the Joker's obsession with Batman was clever. It gives the whole dynamic uncomfortable romantic subtext that feels new and interesting (even though it's been hinted at before by Miller, Morrison, etc.)
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Dec 4, 2013 21:23
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I think Batman's "no-kill" policy seems silly if you think of it over the whole run of the comic, some seventy-odd years encompassing probably thousands of innocent deaths at the hands of his foes, but I don't think it's supposed to be looked at that way. Unless it's specifically set during Batman's earlier or later years, I've always thought of the comics as pretty much perpetually taking place during some nebulous period about ten to fifteen years into Batman's career wherein each of his villains has broken out of Arkham only a handful of times. Other than the Joker, who's been explicitly linked to somewhere around a thousand deaths, I'd imagine that each of Batman's enemies is responsible for a few dozen deaths each. Still pretty extreme, but not as insane as if you take the whole run of the series into consideration. EDIT: I also like the explanation that the world's psychiatrists won't allow any of Batman's villains to be executed because they all want a chance to analyze them. Phylodox fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Dec 5, 2013 |
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Dec 5, 2013 00:56
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DrNutt posted:Funnily enough I just started reading Batman from the very beginning starting with Detective Comics and he straight up murders dudes. He broke a dude's neck, flung a dude off a building, and shot dudes up with guns on his batplane. I'm really curious now to get to the point where they decided that Batman wouldn't kill anyone and how they go about it. Did they ever really address it in the comics or did they just kind of sweep that whole part of his story under the rug? I thought his "no-kill" rule came about in response to the creation of the Comics Code, not out of any explicit story reason.
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Dec 5, 2013 01:07
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Next game needs to have Baby-Doll as the villain.
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Dec 5, 2013 04:52
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Clock King. 
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Dec 5, 2013 04:54
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Beeez posted:Clock King's back to being a Green Arrow villain now. Get with the progrum guys. Yeah, 'cause Arrow never steals any of Batman's villains. gently caress that, I want the Ventriloquist and Socko!
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Dec 5, 2013 04:58
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Conroy was just really good at distinguishing between his Batman and Bruce Wayne voices. I've always wondered why they did away with that aspect in the later seasons of the animated series, whether it was done deliberately to show how Batman's personality was slowly eclipsing Wayne's. Or maybe I put too much thought into these things.
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Dec 5, 2013 05:16
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Daryl Surat posted:He mentioned that there was deliberate instruction for him to not use a different "Bruce Wayne" voice as part of...I think it was when the show switched to Kids WB? I figured it was something like that, but it does dovetail nicely with the character arc they set up for him over the course of the animated series and Batman Beyond.
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Dec 5, 2013 14:48
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I really wouldn't call The Dark Knight Rises a steaming pile of poo poo. I quite enjoyed it for what it was. My only big gripe was the eight year gap between that movie and the preceding one...an eight year gap in which nothing happened. They could have done the same thing and intimated at all kinds of weird adventures Batman had gotten up to in the meantime, but...hmmm...nope, he quit right after Dent died, Joker was immediately executed, sorry. I think that was my big problem with the Nolan films. For all their spectacle they felt so...small. Despite all of Bruce's talk of being a symbol and such, Nolan really didn't seem interested in exploring the whole "Batman as mythology" aspect. Everything felt so limited that you couldn't really see the series going anywhere really exciting after the second movie. The third movie did feel like a step down, which was disappointing. I think it suffered from both Heath Ledger's death and the fact that I don't think Nolan was really all that invested in making a third Batman film.
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Dec 5, 2013 19:43
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Just beat Origins. What people were saying about it having the best story is true. That said...gently caress fighting Bane. God, I hated those fights. EDIT: So...am I to understand that WB Montreal's next project will be a Suicide Squad game? Phylodox fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Dec 5, 2013 |
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Dec 5, 2013 22:59
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Aw, jeez, I think I screwed myself out of the "Worst Nightmare" achievement on the first run. Anywhere you can find propane tanks in the open world?
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Dec 6, 2013 18:15
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Seventh Arrow posted:Not really, no. Although they don't always appear in predator rooms, either. Where in the game are you? They have one when you first enter the Sionis Steel Mill and another in the GCPD. I've finished the story and I'm in free roam now.
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Dec 6, 2013 19:06
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Please tell me Worst Nightmare progress carries over into New Game+.
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Dec 6, 2013 19:40
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For what it's worth, Arkham Asylum is the first and only game I've ever 100%ed. I'm working on City and Origins, though.
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Dec 8, 2013 04:32
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Pretty sure they're setting up both Penguin and Riddler for DLC story content. Both of their stories just kind of fizzle out with a "Welp, guess that's all I can do for now!"
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Dec 9, 2013 04:01
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I know they wouldn't really fit the aesthetic of the Arkham games, but I wonder if any Justice League members will ever be acknowledged in them.
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Dec 9, 2013 19:25
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For my money, The Animated Series is the best non-comic incarnation of Batman.
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Dec 10, 2013 04:17
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chaosapiant posted:I think I prefer how Batman Begins deals with his pscyhe by showing how his parents death simply lead to a series of events that made him Batman, rather than the idea that Batman is thinking about his dead parents constantly while fighting thugs. When put in that light....Batman is loving creepy. Once again, the animated series did it better. Batman isn't really Bruce's way of dealing with his parents' deaths, it's pretty much his way of shutting out all of the pain and disappointment in the world. He only actually decides to become Batman after being brutally jilted by the woman he was going to propose to. He surrounds himself with children and teenagers who idolize him and, when they grow up enough to question him, he drives them away. By the time we get to Batman Beyond he's a broken, bitter, crippled old man living alone with his dog, a creepy old recluse who still calls himself Batman in his head. His only path to redemption is to eventually pass on the mantle of Batman to someone who is almost literally himself. No happy ending, no running off to Italy with Selina, nothing. I mean, Jesus, even Frank Miller didn't go that dark.
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Dec 10, 2013 15:07
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Beeez posted:EDIT: I also don't really agree with the take people are discussing where Batman is this selfish, unheroic character either. There's certainly a pathological element to the character, but it's more that he's sacrificed all possibilities for a "regular", "happy" life to protect the people of Gotham and try to stand up against the people who prey upon innocents. The problem with what you're saying is that there is no the Batman. There are as many different interpretations of him as there are people who've written him. For example, Adam West's Batman was absolutely motivated by healthy altruistm and civic duty, but there are just as many Batmans (Batmen?) who are, indeed, pathological. He's usually characterized as having an obsessive need for control to compensate for the feelings of helplessness his parents' deaths left him with, an obsession that's matured into full-blown psychosis in some versions of the character. As far as I'm concerned, the most interesting takes on Batman are the ones where his real heroism comes from struggling against his own nature, not always successfully.
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Dec 10, 2013 19:08
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MeatwadIsGod posted:This is a big reason why portrayals of the character from Batman: The Animated Series, Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams, Steve Englehart/Marshal Rogers are some of my favorites. You get the sense that Batman is still driven by his parents' murder and it still might come up to haunt him sometimes (like a flashback or a bad dream), but he's basically got his poo poo together. Batman: The Animated Series Batman only really shows the scars in one or two episodes of the show's run and in Mask of the Phantasm. They may not dwell on them every episode, but if you look at the series as a whole they're very much there, especially in Batman Beyond. In retrospect, I cannot believe how loving dark they were allowed to get with that. Batman is explicitly shown to have left a trail of broken, dysfunctional people in his wake, enemies and allies alike. I mean, Jesus, the happiest ending was Mr. Freeze's because he got to die a heroic death. Try watching the last season of the animated series after finding out that Dick struck out on his own because Batman stole his girlfriend, who was Batgirl. That whole season becomes really kind of uncomfortable.
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Dec 10, 2013 19:41
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The whole point of Batman and his villains is that they're all crazy, Batman just happens to fall on the right side of the line. A whole lot of storylines involve Batman's villains highlighting this similarity, and Batman's saving grace is that he realizes that he's dysfunctional and chooses to use his dysfunction to achieve good. Him being insane doesn't preclude the possibility of him being heroic, but when you get right down to it, the writers who really seem to understand Batman seem to understand that he's got a pathological need to control the world around him, to the point that it drives the people he cares about away from him. I think that "defending the innocent and punishing injustice" aren't as much Batman's goals so much as they're his symptoms.
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Dec 10, 2013 22:59
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But control is Batman's obsession. Why do you think the Joker is his most enduring villain? They're almost mirror images. Batman seized on a need to exert control and order to deal with his trauma, Joker embraced the chaos and insanity of his (variable) traumatic origin. EDIT: Bringing it back to Origins, that's what I loved about the portrayal of the Joker in this game. While the Joker is and always will be an affront to everything Batman stands for, from the Joker's perspective their first meeting is shown as almost a love story. That moment when you finally meet someone who utterly completes you, who balances the scales of your existence, that's what Joker's character arc is in the game and it's brilliant. Phylodox fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Dec 10, 2013 |
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Dec 10, 2013 23:26
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Yeah, that's one of the major themes of Origins, Batman having to relinquish an iota of control and let people help him. That's pretty much his whole character arc, admitting that he can't handle everything single-handed, and it's a really painful thing for him, definitely more painful than any of the physical beatings he takes.
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Dec 10, 2013 23:35
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FAT WORM OF ERROR posted:Goddamn how do I get back into the SWAT rooms and the sewers underneath GCPD again? SWAT rooms are accessible through a vent you get to off of the elevator shaft outside the bullpen. Sewers are accessible through the parking garage across from the GCPD.
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Dec 11, 2013 00:44
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Well, he's a vigilante, but that's no excuse to be rude.
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Dec 11, 2013 04:55
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Oh, thank the little baby Jesus, my Worst Nightmare progress carried over into my New Game+. I was dreading the possibility of having to do all that bullshit again. Also, I think this game is even better the second time. Now that I'm not getting used to the controls or the layout of the city the gameplay and story really come through much better. Although gently caress the snipers in the Diamond District. gently caress them so much.
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Dec 11, 2013 21:27
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Unless there's some insta-kill mechanic, I'd say anything's possible. Also, I finally tried the multiplayer. Is it a bit poo poo or am I just terrible?
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Dec 13, 2013 00:31
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