A Series Of Unfortunate Bat-Decisions. Let's Play Batman: Arkham Knight!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > A Series Of Unfortunate Bat-Decisions. Let's Play Batman: Arkham Knight!

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Yesss I'm so pumped for this. :allears:

double nine posted:

So this annoys me: Batman's whole shtick is supposed to be non-lethal - he'll break every bone in your body but you'll live. Whether you want to is another matter entirely.

But those are rockets your vehicle fires, as in explosives and death and carnage and good old ultra-violence. There is no way you don't kill dozens of people this way yet the narrative still tries to shove the bullshit "no kills" down your throat like it's the latest treat. It pisses me off - go non-lethal or just forget the whole "no kills" and go full-hog murder. This middle ground is just annoying.

This game nudges the "no he totally killed that guy but it's ok his vitals says 'unconscious' " line even harder than previous Arkham games and it's great.

CJacobs fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Feb 24, 2016

# ¿ Feb 24, 2016 02:03

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# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 23:34

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

No, it's been mostly fixed.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2016 04:40

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Replace the audio with a midi of a Frank Sinatra song.

edit:

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

Ok it's not I've Got You Under My Skin or really even close to Arkham Knight in any way at all, but I felt the need to share this because I just found out there is an entire subgenre of 8-bit Frank Sinatra songs.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2016 14:00

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

I want to believe the Arkham Knight is Alfred

# ¿ Feb 27, 2016 22:03

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

I mean the Joker did technically become Bane at the end of Arkham Asylum so that's already happened, at least.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2016 22:52

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

I like the Riddler better when he's portrayed as a pathetic guy with a crippling mental disorder, but that doesn't come across real well in a video game where he has wacky puzzles for you the player to solve. To quote a post that was actually made way back when in the Arkham City thread:

quote:

So that was a loving long video, I had almost forgotten how long we talked, and among the many things we talked about, this is the one I most wanted to bring up again:

This is Stephanie Brown trying to talk to Riddler who is apparently having a really bad mental health day. Two of the riddles in particular stand out.

Stephanie asks why her father, Cluemaster, left clues to his crimes. Riddler answers "One bug is wrapped in a web, therein to die. Another bug is wrapped in it's own web, therein to be reborn." Cluemaster is the second bug - he started leaving clues because he didn't like the person he was and was trying to be something greater, but Riddler is the first bug, unable to escape from the traps of his own psychological problems and knowing that it's killing him. And of course, the last one Riddler gives, not in response to a question but a demand. Stephanie wants one straight answer, just one. "I am the number you can't count on your fingers." Zero. He can't give her a straight answer, he's just not capable of it. He couldn't even offer her a loving drink without making it a puzzle (and notice that after she solves the puzzle, he has no problem with explaining it to her) much less respond to questions with straight answers. It's why Riddler is my favorite supervillain - he's as much a prisoner of his psyche as others are to his traps.

Then of course, Rocksteady turned him into Jigsaw

# ¿ Feb 28, 2016 02:30

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Batman having a plan to kill all his friends (edit: and himself) which he does not keep secret from them in the slightest is probably my favorite thing about the guy.

CJacobs fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Feb 29, 2016

# ¿ Feb 29, 2016 00:44

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

I don't get it, what's so dirty about two friends taking up a whittling hobby together??

# ¿ Mar 1, 2016 07:11

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Veotax posted:

Man, the Batman Beyond skin for this game is terrible. Pretty much all the other skins are as far as I know pretty faithful recreations, but Rocksteady decided to put their own 'spin' on the Beyond suit.

What is this garbage?

Batman Beyond Good Taste In Character Design

# ¿ Mar 2, 2016 00:21

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

I would like to play a Platinum Games Batman game very much and I did not realize I had this want until just now.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2016 07:31

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Brovstin posted:

I'd love a Batman Beyond game myself, though I imagine It would be hard to mesh Arkhams gameplay style with the abilities that the Bat-Suit in that series had (cloaking device, jet boots, etc).

CJacobs posted:

Platinum Games

# ¿ Mar 2, 2016 07:53

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

Arkham Knight clearly knows details about Batman's equipment -- weaknesses in his armor, expected weaponry on the Batmobile, etc. This suggests he's a former "inside friend" either turned traitor or mind-controlled (so hey, there's an in for Poison Ivy, right? Or the Mad Hatter! ).

The "The Arkham Knight is Alfred" theory grows in power and validity with every new episode.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2016 22:37

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Kal-L posted:

But he survived! So he can't be the Arkham Knight.

Pictured: Batman holding a man who is most definitely alive, as evidenced by all the blood

# ¿ Mar 4, 2016 09:12

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

I am excited for the Spec Ops: The Line esque twist where it turns out Batman was dead the whole time and we've been playing as the Joker all along.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2016 03:54

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

RareAcumen posted:

Press E to Takedown Joker.

Beating the poo poo out of Joker in 1-on-1 fisticuffs in the Arkham City combo challenge map is probably one of my favorite parts of that game. He takes so many punches before he finally stays down, too!

# ¿ Mar 5, 2016 10:11

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Lord_Magmar posted:

Pretty sure if you turn on detective mode that's Clayface. Might be wrong though.

I have never turned on detective mode in that challenge arena just because I am so steadfast in the belief that my fists are going into the real Joker's smug face. He deserves a good whappin', dammit.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2016 10:25

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Discendo Vox posted:

~~That one's the real deal, iirc. Checking now.~~ Wiki sez it's the real guy.

yesssssss

# ¿ Mar 5, 2016 11:02

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fuiO-UuPRU

I was talking about this map. Incidentally this video is insane and you should watch some of it. Perhaps not all of it though, because he managed to extend the 3 minute timer over and over for 22 minutes.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2016 15:52

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Polaron posted:

Scarecrow is pretty well-known for being a talker, though. Sort of comes with the territory of being an evil shrink.

Scarecrow deconstructing Batman/other heroes with Evil Persuasive Shrink Talk is extremely my poo poo and I am really looking forward to this LP because this game has a goddamn lot of it.

edit: My favorite brand of "Evil Persuasive Shrink Talk" is the rarest kind where the villain's not just bullshitting, and when they say the thing the hero's like "no... it's not like that." but the look on their face belies that actually... it is like that.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2016 01:56

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Hobgoblin2099 posted:

Let's not forget Copperhead's poison and Mad Hatter's "tea".

If there's one thing I'm amazed by, it's the fact that Batman manages to get drugged in all of the Arkham games. Kinda makes that conversation with Oracle about him possibly getting dosed by Crane without realizing it and killing someone (Identity Thief sidequest) a bit funnier in hindsight.

The Arkham games are somewhat like the Max Payne series, in that there is always a point where the main character gets drugged and has a weird-rear end nightmare sequence ensue. And much like Max Payne, Batman is an expert at diving through the air- they should compare notes.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2016 21:45

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

If only we had The Jokester instead of these guys :sigh:

# ¿ Mar 6, 2016 22:33

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

FicusArt posted:

The thing about frustrating or problematic tropes, or any, really, is they can be as internally logical as the writer wants. The writer has full control over the story and can weave it however they'd like to make an outcome completely make sense.

When people express frustration with that it's not just that "Oh well this is dumb in the story" or "this is out of character", but like "Oh hey another story decided to kill the black guy" or "God dammit the only good woman got helplessly kidnapped in yet another story". Because here's the deal: the writers could simply not do that, and make not doing that be logical. The fact that it's in the story was their deliberate choice.

Expecting writers to go out of their way to not do something just because it's a cliche, even if they have the ability to justify it just fine, is crap. If justified, even cliches can be done well regardless of their status as problematic in the eyes of real-world people or not.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2016 23:33

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

It's the Batman of Zur-En-:argh:

# ¿ Mar 8, 2016 02:28

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Joke's on him, time is eternally stuck in the exact same millisecond until Batman finishes his quest in these games, so at this rate dawn will never come!

# ¿ Mar 8, 2016 08:10

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

Yeah, Hush is interesting because he is one of the few characters out there that sees Batman and Bruce Wayne as two completely separate entities. Of course, this means his want to be Bruce Wayne is not all that thorough of a want, but to most villains Wayne is a complete non-entity.

I find Batman stories that involve Bruce Wayne to be some of the more interesting ones because it takes him from just being the persona that hides Batman's existence to being a real character, sometimes a totally separate one from Batman himself. I liked Hush's side quest in Arkham City because it wouldn't have happened if Batman hadn't been publically induced into AC as Wayne at the beginning of the game- you find thugs and occasionally the main villains talking about him and how they're gonna kick his rear end if they find him and I think that's kinda cool.

CJacobs fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Mar 9, 2016

# ¿ Mar 9, 2016 18:25

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# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 23:34

CJacobs: Apr 17, 2011; Reach for the moon!

...your solution to the game telling instead of showing in audio form is the game telling instead of showing in visual form? "Show, don't tell" doesn't really apply to just visually representing the aftermath of the events. I mean, it's closer, but it's still not really what the events needed in order to be properly explained imo.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2016 19:04

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > A Series Of Unfortunate Bat-Decisions. Let's Play Batman: Arkham Knight!