Erkki

So.. Batman: Arkham Asylum

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Yeah, my brother got a 360 and I was really surprised by how horrifyingly expensive games are. No wonder the used games market is so huge.

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*actually, that's roughly the price of most new AAA Xbox 360 & PS3 games here, more often they're 80-90 though.

"Foreign countries are so scary." (ign.com)

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Just checked out the demo... very impressive! Everything about it is damned slick. I'll probably pick it up once it's gone down in price... massively.

(That should give me time to finish some other games, too :))

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Since beating it last week, I've actually got quite a strong urge to go back and play it again. It's that good. I bought Metroid Prime Trilogy on the same day, and should really put some time into that instead, but damn do I want to play more Batman. Here's hoping that the teased new free DLC is something for the story mode that'll give me an excuse to go back.

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Played through it until just after the first Scarecrow bit last night.

Holy shit! :)

I'd hoped that detective mode would have more meat than just following trails and effectively being a giant hint system "Take this guy down!" "Climb this!", but the rest of it is so good it hardly matters.

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I finally got all the collectibles last night and I really loved the Riddler mocking me for a while and then becoming increasingly frustrated the more I found. Highly amusing. It's just a small touch to have him there following Batman's progress, but it really puts random collectible hunting in almost every other game to shame.

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Yeah, except at the end where

he gets arrested.

Seriously, how does finding little question mark statues in any way help that to happen?

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Yeah, except at the end where

he gets arrested.

Seriously, how does finding little question mark statues in any way help that to happen?

Yeah, I agree.

I would have preferred if the final trophy had a 'scent' on it, and you found his secret hide-out somewhere on the island, or something, so you could apprehend him yourself.

But,

I was still surprised that they had something that conclusive at the end, and it was a good piece of voice work. I thought it was a little sly homage to some of the more contrived Batman stories, where solving the riddles were more than half the battle. I don't know.

I really liked this game, by the way,

apart from the end, but oh well

. And I'm half way gushing myself through an essay on the way the collectibles are implemented.

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Yeah, except at the end where

he gets arrested.

Seriously, how does finding little question mark statues in any way help that to happen?

Well

at about 98% a message pops up onscreen that you've finally manged to trace his signal, and lists his address. At 100%, the police arrive. So it explains the reason Batman played along with hunting the Riddler trophies was because with each subsequent communication he got a little closer at tracking his location.

I though it was pretty neat actually. It was just another example of how Rocksteady explained in-game activities through appropriate Batman logic.

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Well

at about 98% a message pops up onscreen that you've finally manged to trace his signal, and lists his address. At 100%, the police arrive. So it explains the reason Batman played along with hunting the Riddler trophies was because with each subsequent communication he got a little closer at tracking his location.

I'd assumed that was what happened,

but I missed that message completely

.

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I'd assumed that was what happened,

but I missed that message completely

.

I barely managed to catch it, but as I did a fairly (I imagine) sly smile crept across my face. It was really awesome having something so.. substantial.. be the conclusion to a sort of trivial meta-game.

Anyway, an all around fantastic game.

Anyone here finish all the challenges?

Edit: Those who have played the PC version: Did anyone else totally prefer the keyboard/mouse combination? I usually lean towards a gamepad for games like these, but I felt they did a great job optimizing it all for the PC.

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I'm playing through it with keyboard and mouse right now. And yeah, there are so few combat buttons that it seems pretty well-suited to the mouse. It's a very good port overall.

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I finished the game and found all the collectibles/arkham tablet things. Very satisfying experience. I'm going to play through it again on the hardest difficulty and try to beat all the challenges next.

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yay... playing batman

Had my first scarecrow encounter, simply awesome.

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I think I'm finished. Got 850/1000 Achievements and just missing the silver and gold combat challenges. I thought I was good when I could nail the Freeflow Combat chevo and the 40-string combo chevo without much difficulty, but Shock & Awe Extreme can bite me.

Normally I would just trade it in now, but the success of the game almost guarantees some sort of additional DLC, which forces me to hold on to it for a bit longer.

so...DLC as a method of combating the used game market...mission success?

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So I was playing this very late last night, going round collecting riddler trophies, when I heard the radio in one location talking about how great Arkham Asylum (the place) was, and giving out a web address. That is ArkhamCare - a really nice little meta-site, showing how much effort has gone into this game.

There's some nice stuff surrounding employee login as well... :)

That site is groovy. Yup, the beauty of the game is that everything is done to such a consistently high standard.

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Was anyone else impressed by the environment transformations and continuity in this game? Going back to the same areas always seemed fresh to me because of the way the story events had an effect on the locations. It also seemed like every time something important happened the characters would refer to it the next time you talked to them. Even though you end up going through the same areas several times each time felt new to me because of details like that.

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Oh yeah, definitely.

I also loved how Batman grows a damned beard. That and all the slashes and cuts he gets all really add to the immersion.

It's strange, but I found myself feeling a bit sorry for him towards the end. The poor sap looked kinda worn down.

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I finished this earlier today, and really loved it.

I was a little luke-warm toward it during some of the beginning sections, but by the end of it I was understanding the praise the game had been getting.

some of the little touches toward the end of the game really elevated the game from good to great. for instance (minor situational spoiler, not story related),

I really loved it when the game had you return to intensive care, and complete that room from the demo, except without gargoyles. It really felt like the whole game had been a slow build to something like that, and when the training wheels were effectively removed and I was left to use all the techniques I'd learnt throughout the game without the safety net that was the ever so convenient gargoyles, the excellent design (movement, level design, enemy AI) really shone through.

oh, and maybe I'm alone, but it was nice to see the return of the old-school, pattern-based, boss fight. I could have done without the

constant barrage of Bane clones toward the end of the game

, but otherwise, they were mostly well done.

I get the feeling that this will be one of those games that I enjoy even more upon repeat playthroughs, like, for instance, Half-Life 2. Playing through games that are as well paced as this more than once nearly always makes me appreciate them even more.

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Rez: Make sure you try doing it on hard next time. If you're anything like me it gives you a real appreciation for what you've learned in the combat, etc.

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yeah, that's what I'm going to do after I finish all the Riddler stuff I left unfinished in my current playthrough. :)

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