toblix

Batman: Arkham City

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Arkham Asylum is actually one of the only games that I want to play before the sequel. I just fell something would be lost if I would be playing the new one before the old one and then probably fell that Asylum is totaly unplayable.

Also, I'm having weird flashbacks to some open world Spiderman gage I played years ago at my friend's computer.

Edited by Sleepdance

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You should definitely play Arkham Asylum. It's an extremely good game.

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Just the thought of running around Gotham City as Batman using Rocksteady's already tremendously solid engine from Batman: Arkham Asylum makes the nipples on my batsuit hard. Also, Catwoman and Two-Face. 'Nuff said.

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Arkham Asylum was definitely one of my favorite games of 2009, really looking forward to this one. Kind of bummed we have to wait for another year, but I guess it should be really polished by then. Love the artwork from the GI covers, and love that Catwoman will be in it. Can't wait.

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I was happy to see "Rocksteady" at the front of that :tup:

So far, looks like Arkham with a big dash of Escape from New York :)

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Will be great to see this in action.

I hope that the great voice actors (Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill etc.) will still return. Paul Dini is handling the story again I guess?

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Mark Hamil has said he'll play Joker, but he says it will be the last time. He thinks the first game was so good he doesn't want to run it into the ground.

This is the king of typecasting we're talking about though.

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He said last time was going to be his last time, so really last time means last time depending on the money.

Not knocking him for that, I'd do anything for the right amount of cash.

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Got some leaked information from Game Informer Via SA Via NeoGaf Via Giantbomb Via Me.

Edit: Spoiler tags for those who want to go in cold.

Sharp took credit for getting the Joker situation of the first game under control. He then used that incident to help win the Mayoral election. After winning, he declares Blackgate and Arkham unfit, and buys off a portion of the slums of Gotham. Walling off the area and calling it "Arkham City", he contracts a mercenary group called Tyger into defending the walls. The prisoners are only given one rule: "Don't try to escape", with the penalty for doing so being death. Beyond that, they can do whatever they want within.

-

Hugo Strange heads the new Arkham, though it seems like this fact is cloaked in mystery to the outside world. Those who look into him disappear.

-It's been a year.

Two face is admitted into Arkham City and he realizes he has to make a move to assert himself in the new prison lest he be eaten alive (not literally, of course). He captures Catwoman, figuring a public execution should do the trick.

-The team is aiming for a highly detailed city, on the level of what they did in the first game with Arkham itself.

-Gadgets can now be used during fights- the article mentions Batman putting explosive gel on the back of one of his opponents during a brawl.

-You can now pull off multiple counterattacks at the same time.

-Many of the super villains have formed gangs, and taken control of differnt portions of the city.

-The team wants to push the "forensics" angle of the first game more, incorporating puzzles in them that will become more complex as the game goes on.

-Most of the key gadgets that were unlocked late in the first game are available by default (Beyond the explosive gel, the article also mentions the line launcher).

-Interrogations replace the Riddler maps of the first game.

-Batman can now taunt his enemies via a button press.

-Certain characters have optional sidestories within Arkham city (the article mentions

Zsasz

), that you can dig into.

-Harley has a new costume. From the article: "Instead of a nurse outfit, Harley now wears red and black pants, and a matching midriff-baring top. Her face paint has been scaled back to a much more subtle degree, and she now has a Joker tatoo on one of her hips peeking out over her waistband."

-Batman's been given a new gadget called the "broadcast analyzer". The article mentions several broadcasts Bats can listen in on, like the GCPD dispatch and Gotham FM. The main usage here has Batman tuning in to listen to a message left for him by the Joker.

-

Oracle is missing, so

Alfred is the one in Bruce's ear (at least at the beginning of the game).

-Rocksteady wouldn't detail their multiplayer plans.

Edit: More info, I removed the story stuff because most of it is mentioned above.

Gameinformer Gameplay info:

- You are now able to counter two attacks at once.

- More puzzles.

- All gadgets included in the first game are available from the start.

- Side missions now feature in the game.

- Gangs roam Arkham City, these are recorded in Batman's criminal database.

- You find people who work for Ridler to find Ridler challenges.

- Batman has his smoke bomb

Overall this seems cool. I love the idea of starting with all the gadgets from the last game. I hope they put in more, not tutorialization, but something to encourage you to do different take downs in the stealth sections. I played through all the challenges and wished I had known about the versatility there. Taunting a dude sounds dumb, and I probably won't do it outside of getting an achievement for using all moves in a single fight. The only thing missing is how you'll get around the larger environment. I hope they think of something cool, although if there are actual high rises you might just grapple around.

Edited by CaptainFish

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Forgive my ignorance, have they said if this is going to be an open world experience yet? That would be sweet.

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I hope so. A co-worker mentioned liking the more constrained setting of Arkham Asylum, and hoped that this doesn't become Grand Theft Batman. I think Grand Theft Batman could be pretty sweet if they do it right.

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From what's above, it looks like it'll be open world in the same sense that Arkham Asylum was open world. You can go anywhere at any time, but can only actually do things at one place. Of course, this is just my guess, and kind of my hope, but I can see having a few potential missions at a time, a la GTA having 3 letters on your map to start different missions.

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Yeah I'd imagine it was all progressively leading up to a larger, true open world game. Maybe by the third or forth sequel.

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God, I hope not. Batman or not, but open world stuff always ends up boring the shit out of me. I like the more focused nature of a Metroid/Zelda type experience, where the world slowly opens up to you though always keeping you on a track with something to do. Don't think it would improve the game for me if they opened it up even more. GTA type stuff just really isn't my cup of tea.

I got way too excited when I read that you can do multiple counters at the same time... Also really happy to read that they're going to do more with the forensics stuff. Detective Batman is on the case! POW!

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I don't really see why people are thinking this is going to be more open world than Arkham Asylum. Have they said anything to that effect or are people just thinking city == Grand Theft? For me, the linearity of the game was one of the good things about it.

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Was the game really linear? I honestly cannot remember if it was. It's probably due to the fact that you often running through the courtyards to get to the various locations. This game me a sense of openness and thus non-linearity.

Also, there were multiple ways to "solve" a room. So maybe some paths through the buildings were rather linear, and the story of course. But it didn't really gave me the feeling that it was all on-rails (like say, Uncharted 2)

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Also really happy to read that they're going to do more with the forensics stuff. Detective Batman is on the case! POW!

Ditto to this, housemate and I were both excited by it originally then disappointed to find it was just trail following. Hope they can do something more with it this time :tup:

Open world or not, I don't really care as long as it still has the kind of gameplay that goes into the stealth challenges. It seems like the kind of bullet point marketing just want on the box and can put there on the basis of a design like the previous game.

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Was the game really linear? I honestly cannot remember if it was. It's probably due to the fact that you often running through the courtyards to get to the various locations. This game me a sense of openness and thus non-linearity.

Also, there were multiple ways to "solve" a room. So maybe some paths through the buildings were rather linear, and the story of course. But it didn't really gave me the feeling that it was all on-rails (like say, Uncharted 2)

Well, as you pushed along, the world opened up. You could back track to any location you had previously visited, and occasionally you had to in order to advance the plot. It was very Metroid-esque in that sense; constantly pushing forwards into new areas, revisiting old areas with new gadgets to find something new.

Basically the only business you had going off the beaten path, was to do riddler puzzles or find collectables. That's how I remember it, at least. :D

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The game was linear, in the way that those Billy adventure strips in Family Circus were. You had this crazy world to explore, and the corridors and courtyards were wide, but you were still on a train track. Which IMO, is all you can really ask from most games. The illusion of open world while controlling the experience was pulled off masterfully, and allows the developer to focus your attention in places that they choose to polish rather than having you examine the 4th wall.

I'm very much looking forward to this new game.

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The game definitely had a critical path that Batman or Oracle would set you upon. It had an openness without having that open world filler that I so detest.

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