Erkki

So.. Batman: Arkham Asylum

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When I first saw the red targets in detective view, I wondered whether that was because they'd seen me, and they'd fade to blue after a while as they 'stood down'. No such luck.

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Being the one guy on the fucking internet who thought the demo was merely passable and having bleated constantly about the two corrupt UK mag reviews, I'm going to look like such a faking, tinfoil-hat wearing cunt because everyone in the rest of the known universe seems to have a huge boner for this game.

;(

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Being the one guy on the fucking internet who thought the demo was merely passable and having bleated constantly about the two corrupt UK mag reviews, I'm going to look like such a faking, tinfoil-hat wearing cunt because everyone in the rest of the known universe seems to have a huge boner for this game.

;(

Naaah - there's loads of GAF turds that are saying the same thing. I believe that you are sincere and truthful - but a bunch of them seem to do that kind of shit regularly so that they can feel superior to the hive-mind.

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Naaah - there's loads of GAF turds that are saying the same thing. I believe that you are sincere and truthful - but a bunch of them seem to do that kind of shit regularly so that they can feel superior to the hive-mind.

I prefer to call them gaf tossers

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Being the one guy on the fucking internet who thought the demo was merely passable and having bleated constantly about the two corrupt UK mag reviews, I'm going to look like such a faking, tinfoil-hat wearing cunt because everyone in the rest of the known universe seems to have a huge boner for this game.

;(

I was chatting to a guy the other day about the supposed machinations of the PR machine behind the game before release, with the classic "you can't have an exclusive unless the game gets a high score" stuff.

I should probably get off my behind and play the demo. I have heard the most amazing stuff about this game but I have issues with third person action games.

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In this case it was cover and at least a 9 for 'bargo busting exclusive. GamesMaster and OPM fulfilled those conditions, and even if they were going to give them those scores (which, one being an official mag and the other with a readership who "thinks everything below 90 is shit" was admittedly likely) in the first place the practice is still unacceptable.

http://ramraider.blogspot.com/2009/07/eidos-seek-90-score-cover-for-arkham.html

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In this case it was cover and at least a 9 for 'bargo busting exclusive. GamesMaster and OPM fulfilled those conditions, and even if they were going to give them those scores (which, one being an official mag and the other with a readership who "thinks everything below 90 is shit" was admittedly likely) in the first place the practice is still unacceptable.

http://ramraider.blogspot.com/2009/07/eidos-seek-90-score-cover-for-arkham.html

Agreed, it's pretty sickening. Very, very widespread though. I had a nice chat with a guy who works in development for a Texas company at Blizzcon and he was telling me a lot of people who work in development out there just shrug and take it as accepted practice now.

Obviously, that's very anecdotal, and hopefully not representative of everyone who works on video games, but it's sad nonetheless.

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Tried the Xbox demo as well. I think I'll wait for the PC release, seemed much better looking, with PhysX and all.

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I caved in and bought this yesterday. Sadly, I have immense amounts of work to do over the weekend, and we have my girlfriend's parents staying over - and they've just been introduced to Peggle, so I'm not sure if I'll get the chance to play it much.

Although, I did manage to slip in about 90 minutes of play, and I'm loving how most of that was familiar from the demo, but there were loads of gobsmacking extra bits - like

the full-on detective mode, the Riddler stuff, the upgrades etc

.

I'm enjoying it.

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So, I'll be getting this, I think, today. What manner of Batman knowledge about the Batman canon do I need to know about to fully enjoy the game? Is it tied closely to the two movies, or is it based on comics or what?

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I'm sure it's meant to be experienced with little more than a basic working knowledge of Batman canon. Isn't superhero canon basically a load of confused bullshit anyway? Batman's supposed to be dead right now or something.

Anyway, I know nothing about Batman canon with regards to events/timeline and such, but I know the premise and some key characters, and I think most people will have that sort of vague but workable context to go into this with.

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Yep, for the game it seems you only need a loose knowledge of the world and some of the characters. You get plenty of info and biogs throughout, too, so you can easily get up to speed on those you might not have come across before.

Isn't superhero canon basically a load of confused bullshit anyway? Batman's supposed to be dead right now or something..

There's a difference between canon and continuity. This game is completely outside of continuity, but uses lots of established pieces of the canon in its storytelling - often with its own spin.

Continuity can be 'confused bullshit' sometimes (most of the time, really), but it's a product of having such an ongoing series of stories in sequence, as well as various other series and products (various comics, tv series, films) coming out at the same time. It's just one way for fans and readers to make sense of their huge stacks of comics, and also for editors and writers to shepherd their publications.

It's a bit weird, but it's the way mainstream American super-hero comics (have to?) operate. It's a strange system, especially considering its stubbornness and rigidity - especially considering how elemental most of the Batman canon and characters are: you have an rich orphan in a cape, some thugs either dressed in purple with a grin, green with an obsession with riddles, or with half-mutilated faces, with their own quirks and identity.

Those are the tropes that connect the stories, so it's usually easy to get your bearings, even when they've been put through a blender. I know I'm there for the stories and characters, not how it all fits together. Isn't that the whole point of sagas, soap operas and serials?

Not sure how Batman RIP and its aftermath are either 'confused' or 'bullshit', it's just the current story being played out across the Batman universe in the comics. Plus, it's given us Batman and Robin, which, three issues in, is shaping up to be lovely (and, bar the general premise and one or two references, can be read without knowing anything about recent Batman developments).

[/Hey! Let's talk about comics]

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PhysX

How much of a difference does that make? I have an ATI card, so turning it on slowed things to an absolute crawl. It looked pretty good anyway, but I'm wondering what I'm missing out on. I guess the main thing would be his cape. I think I can probably live with sub-optimal physics modelling. Still, it did make me question my choice of card.

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snip

Sorry if I got you pissed or whatever, wasn't really my intention! I have virtually nil knowledge of comics so probably shouldn't have been so... fucking horrible :getmecoat

The physics stuff seemed a bit dumb actually. The tearable cloth was cool for about five seconds, and the only other bits I noticed were the smashable tiles and bits of paper flying about. Those bits of paper were fucking everywhere in the demo. It's mostly jarring, because what is and isn't affected is very inconsistent and there appears to be little outside the aforementioned that uses the physics model. Definitely not worth a framerate drop for.

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Sorry if I got you pissed or whatever, wasn't really my intention! I have virtually nil knowledge of comics so probably shouldn't have been so... fucking horrible :getmecoat

Oh, you didn't, don't worry! That's a semi-rant that's been bubbling away for quite a while.

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Playing this game I found myself asking a Batman canon question;

What does Poison Ivy's diet consist of?

She values plants over human lives so she couldn't eat those, and if she were to eat meat that'd be facilitating the consumption of far more plants by animals.

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Playing this game I found myself asking a Batman canon question;

What does Poison Ivy's diet consist of?

She values plants over human lives so she couldn't eat those, and if she were to eat meat that'd be facilitating the consumption of far more plants by animals.

I am going to say people.

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O

M

G

!!

Seriously?

ah well... it's cheap and tastes well

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O

M

G

!!

Seriously?

ah well... it's cheap and tastes well

I had to keep up that dialogue.

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What does Poison Ivy's diet consist of?

She values plants over human lives so she couldn't eat those, and if she were to eat meat that'd be facilitating the consumption of far more plants by animals.

Fruit distributes seeds via the digestive system of whatever eats it.

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Didn't she have her blood turned to chlorophyll? One would assume then that she can create her own nutrients using light and water like a plant does. Asking what Poison Ivy eats is like asking what a sunflower eats, as far as I know.

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I hooked my PS3 up to my PC monitor today and it looks great. However, I never realised just how low a resolution some games play at. Trash Panic and this game's demo in particular looked incredibly rough, and the difference between the PS3 and my PC running it at 1400x900 was striking.

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