Batman: Arkham Asylum

[NiX]

I keep playing the demo, but I still suck at counters. How much timing is involved?

[Hindenburg]

Very little. As soon as the blue rays pop you can start pressing Y, and as long as the enemy's punch isn't 1mm away from batman's body, he'll counter it.

[Cyrrex]

And by blue rays, he means the thing that goes off over the bad guys head right before he's going to attack.  I bet all your troubles are based on the fact that you didn't know they telegraphed in such an obvious fashion.

[LK]

Combat is an amazing mini-game where timing and observation will keep that combo meter high instead of random mashing. The game just *feels* right. It is AMAZINGLY satisfying with the sound, intensity of the fights, and just OMG FUCK YES when you take out a crowd of 10 unarmed guys without stopping.

[Morfiend]

One thing that is annoying to me, why does he move faster crouched than normal movement? Thats kind of silly.

[schild]

One thing that is annoying to me, why does he move faster crouched than normal movement? Thats kind of silly.

He's the Batman.

[Azazel]

Less wind resistance?

[Teugeus]

Getting 5 inverted Takedowns in the last room of the demo is damn satisfying, definetly a must buy when it finally comes out on PC.

[Hindenburg]

One thing that is annoying to me, why does he move faster crouched than normal movement? Thats kind of silly.

Because it's more fun than walking at a speed of half a meter per hour.

[NiX]

He's the Batman.

Beat me to it.

[Yegolev]

postcount++

[Morfiend]

Another thing that I noticed. He Maybe the Batman, but who is the Batman? Markus Fenix is appears. At least when talking to Oracle.

[Ingmar]

This game is fucking awesome. 

Seriously I could do inverted takedowns all damn day.

[schild]

People who have played Demon's Souls (and logged as much time as it deserved), is it 1/10th as good or is it just awesome because it's the first real game out in 4 months?

[Rasix]

People who have played Demon's Souls (and logged as much time as it deserved), is it 1/10th as good or is it just awesome because it's the first real game out in 4 months?

Have you tried the demo?  I wasn't blown away by it, but I could see that something's definitely there.  Worth an eventual  purchase for me to see.

[schild]

People who have played Demon's Souls (and logged as much time as it deserved), is it 1/10th as good or is it just awesome because it's the first real game out in 4 months?

Have you tried the demo?  I wasn't blown away by it, but I could see that something's definitely there.  Worth an eventual  purchase for me to see.

I had no intention to because they had it for like $25USD less in Canada, which makes me assume it's a $30-$35 game. As such, I'm just guessing that most of these folks have suffered from a crap summer and are not to be trusted.

[Rasix]

It's like Splinter Cell, except you're trading Michael Ironside for Mark Hamill Kevin Conroy and more punching.

[schild]

Waiting for price drop confirmed. Unless someone can make some kind of argument for me to pick this up.

[Triforcer]

Waiting for price drop confirmed. Unless someone can make some kind of argument for me to pick this up.

Pretty much everyone on the web saying it is awesome isn't enough of an argument? 

[schild]

Waiting for price drop confirmed. Unless someone can make some kind of argument for me to pick this up.

Pretty much everyone on the web saying it is awesome isn't enough of an argument? 

Four months without a decent game will make a decent game an awesome game.

[jakonovski]

Four months without a decent game will make a decent game an awesome game.

Naw, this summer was awesome: Prototype, Sims 3 plus Summer of XBLA shenanigans. 

[Hindenburg]

Devil Summoner 2, Infamous, Devil Survivor, Ghostbusters, Bound in Blood, Street Fighter 4, Blazblue, and Bionic Commando, although I'm well aware that I'm the only one that would qualify the last one as decent.

[Cyrrex]

Waiting for price drop confirmed. Unless someone can make some kind of argument for me to pick this up.

Pretty much everyone on the web saying it is awesome isn't enough of an argument? 

Four months without a decent game will make a decent game an awesome game.

I think perhaps there is an element of truth in that, but ultimately this game looks and feels exactly like a Batman game should feel.  If that appeals to you, then you should try it.  I have a hard time imagining anyone realistically calling this thing anything less than Very Good.

[fuser]

No one can offically explain the pricing here in Canada to me its really weird as the sale is effectively dead now today.

All prices have returned to $69.99 CAD. (besides Walmart but I bet their site is lagging)

It seems Walmart cut a deal to get an exclusive price vs the rest of the stores. People caught wind that it was getting released at this price with Walmart Canada and were trying to preorder with price match, if no luck they cancelled their preorders. Futureshop/Bestbuy/EBgames were effectively forced to match the price for the first three days and now everyone has reset to normal prices.

[Trippy]

schild is just grumpy cause people are fawning over this game when he thinks they should be more excited about the US release of Demon's Souls in a little over a month.

[jakonovski]

schild is just grumpy cause people are fawning over this game when he thinks they should be more excited about the US release of Demon's Souls in a little over a month.

I'd be all over Demon's Souls if a) it was released in Europe and b) the euro prices of PS3 consoles weren't such a huge fucking ripoff.

[Khaldun]

Man, we should just institute a mandatory threadjack on all PC/Console thread discussions in which we collectively admit that nothing we're talking about is really any good, because: Demon's Souls. Then we can go back to talking about something other than Demon's Souls for a few replies before we have to again affirm the holy catechism of Demon's Souls non-comparability to anything else ever played by human beings.

[schild]

Man, we should just institute a mandatory threadjack on all PC/Console thread discussions in which we collectively admit that nothing we're talking about is really any good, because: Demon's Souls. Then we can go back to talking about something other than Demon's Souls for a few replies before we have to again affirm the holy catechism of Demon's Souls non-comparability to anything else ever played by human beings.

Hey, it's the last console action game I played. It's not like i'm saying Batman can't be good because of Deus Ex or something. All I was asking for was an opinion from someone who played it. Ironically, the only one that gave one so far was Rasix and he didn't buy Batman yet.

Edit: Oh, I guess I played InFamous too, but it would seem that was a pretty forgettable experience.

Devil Summoner 2, Infamous, Devil Survivor, Ghostbusters, Bound in Blood, Street Fighter 4, Blazblue, and Bionic Commando, although I'm well aware that I'm the only one that would qualify the last one as decent.

You're fucking reeeeeeeeaching.

[Samwise]

People who have played Demon's Souls (and logged as much time as it deserved), is it 1/10th as good or is it just awesome because it's the first real game out in 4 months?

Have you tried the demo?  I wasn't blown away by it, but I could see that something's definitely there.  Worth an eventual  purchase for me to see.

I had no intention to because they had it for like $25USD less in Canada, which makes me assume it's a $30-$35 game. As such, I'm just guessing that most of these folks have suffered from a crap summer and are not to be trusted.

Just get the demo on Steam and try it.  It's pretty goddamn fun.  If the full game was out on Steam I'd have bought it on release day.  Now that I've heard about the PS3 DLC I'm probably going to snag it next time I'm at a game store.  And I HATE buying console games at full price.

Mind you, I haven't played Demon's Souls yet because I'm still waiting for the US release.  So my opinion is next to worthless.   

[Sjofn]

I spent a few hours last night watching Ingmar play this (something I do not often do). If you like Batman shit, I really can't see why you wouldn't enjoy this game. It's all very ... Batmany. My only complaint about it (and bear in mind I haven't actually DONE the combat stuff but given I know Ingmar is a spaz at these types of games and he still was having a grand ol' time so I suspect I would be OK with the combat too) is that I don't like the choice of that art style with those voice actors. In my little ideal fantasy world, it would've been some sort of cel-shaded in-the-style-of-the-animated-series thing. But then I guess people would've bitched that the graphics were (oh no!) cartoony.

[LK]

Because I go out of my way to buy or at least rent the games you recommend, so for the head's up on Demon's Souls, Dawn of Discovery, I say buy the fucking game and quit being such a downer, schild. It has some minor flaws but overall is very entertaining.

[NiX]

I had no intention to because they had it for like $25USD less in Canada, which makes me assume it's a $30-$35 game. As such, I'm just guessing that most of these folks have suffered from a crap summer and are not to be trusted.

Just to clear up why it's so much cheaper up here: Wal-Mart Canada periodically does first day sales to draw people in, especially after long slumps in releases. Best Buy/Future Shop soon followed and so did EBStop, so the game is $20 CDN cheaper up here because of everyone playing catch up with Wal-Mart. Not the game itself being crap. This happens all the time.

[Phire]

I spent a few hours last night watching Ingmar play this (something I do not often do). If you like Batman shit, I really can't see why you wouldn't enjoy this game. It's all very ... Batmany. My only complaint about it (and bear in mind I haven't actually DONE the combat stuff but given I know Ingmar is a spaz at these types of games and he still was having a grand ol' time so I suspect I would be OK with the combat too) is that I don't like the choice of that art style with those voice actors. In my little ideal fantasy world, it would've been some sort of cel-shaded in-the-style-of-the-animated-series thing. But then I guess people would've bitched that the graphics were (oh no!) cartoony.

You do realize they are using the same voice actors from the animated series?

[Khaldun]

I spent a few hours last night watching Ingmar play this (something I do not often do). If you like Batman shit, I really can't see why you wouldn't enjoy this game. It's all very ... Batmany. My only complaint about it (and bear in mind I haven't actually DONE the combat stuff but given I know Ingmar is a spaz at these types of games and he still was having a grand ol' time so I suspect I would be OK with the combat too) is that I don't like the choice of that art style with those voice actors. In my little ideal fantasy world, it would've been some sort of cel-shaded in-the-style-of-the-animated-series thing. But then I guess people would've bitched that the graphics were (oh no!) cartoony.

You do realize they are using the same voice actors from the animated series?

I think that was the point: that Sjofn expects those voice actors to match to the animated style, not to the art style of the game.

[Morfiend]

My honest opinion is that it is an above average game, with excellent production values, and superb voice acting. Its sort of a Bioshock meets Splinter Cell type of vibe. I would rate the game in the high 80s or low 90s. The one thing thats throwing me off a little is the difficulty curve. It kind of jumps around a little bit, but over all a very fun game and worth a rental at least. I'm sure you could probably finish the game in 1 or 2 sittings Schild. But it is a game you should play, even if only for the voice acting. Sort of like Portal, even if you hated the game style and concept, you should play Portal just for the voice acting. Mark Hamil as the Joker is that good. Ok, maybe not quite Portal amazing, but it IS very very good.

*quick edit*
I am talking about the voice acting not the whole game in the above line.