• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Batman Arkham City

Page 3 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
gorcorps said:
Not much is stopping people from making mods still, especially for single player games like this. Some games have plenty of mods... like Just Cause 2... and some don't. It's up to the community how much they want to make. Don't blame DLC for a disinterested community.
Click to expand...

Actually, that's not quite true. There were PLENTY of mods, specifically multiple suit mods, made by fans for the demo version of Arkham Asylum, but none of these mods were allowed to work in the full game.
There was plenty of interest, and still is.
 
Sulaco said:
Actually, that's not quite true. There were PLENTY of mods, specifically multiple suit mods, made by fans for the demo version of Arkham Asylum, but none of these mods were allowed to work in the full game.
There was plenty of interest, and still is.
Click to expand...

What do you mean "not allowed" to work? Apple doesn't allow jailbreaking, yet it happens constantly. Where there's a will there's a way, and if they couldn't get mods working then the will was simply lacking to get through whatever was there.
 
Corporate Thug said:
Played for about an hour. Am I the only one that thinks the combat is boring like Arkham Asylum?
Click to expand...

The basic combat mechanic hasn't changed the much from Arkham Asylum. There are new moves, double take-downs, etc plus new some new weapons that can be used and that's about it. As you progress further, you'll unlock new ways to take down bad guys with weapons.

The big change between the games is it moving to an open world and all the new villains plus Catwoman.
 
Btw, I found an interesting but in the Xbox 360 version of the game last night. When you download something in the background and play Arkham City, you get booted back to the title menu when the download completes. For some reason, the game thinks every download is DLC for it and forces a restart.
 
Queasy said:
The basic combat mechanic hasn't changed the much from Arkham Asylum. There are new moves, double take-downs, etc plus new some new weapons that can be used and that's about it. As you progress further, you'll unlock new ways to take down bad guys with weapons.

The big change between the games is it moving to an open world and all the new villains plus Catwoman.
Click to expand...

I see. I remember also really disliking the boss battles in the first one. Dive, batarang, dive, batarang for practically every boss. Hopefully, they changed that.
 
Some of the bat suits are pretty cool. I like the Batman Beyond one.

Holy Collector's Edition Batman! People are paying some good money for those on ebay.
 
Last edited:
Played for a few hours....I liked Asylum, so this may beat out Dragon Age 2 for the biggest let down of the year for me. Crappy sandbox, with no really interesting levels to it. The story seems pointless, wandering and I have no investment. Why do all developers buy into sandboxes?

Selling the game off used tomorrow, this is crap.
 
RampantAndroid said:
Played for a few hours....I liked Asylum, so this may beat out Dragon Age 2 for the biggest let down of the year for me. Crappy sandbox, with no really interesting levels to it. The story seems pointless, wandering and I have no investment. Why do all developers buy into sandboxes?

Selling the game off used tomorrow, this is crap.
Click to expand...

dang, pretty disappointing to hear. and surprising to hear, as metacritic has the game at 95, which ties it for the highest rating of a game in nearly 2 years (Mass Effect 2 got a 96 back in January 2010.) and really, its tied for 5th on the alltime xbox 360 list.
 
I hate sandbox games in general, but I'm having a ton of fun with this. The sandbox isn't overwhelmingly large, and the missions are pretty densely packed. They don't artificially extend gameplay time like GTA does by just adding tons of enemies and making you drive across the city. Combat is awesome too, and the boss fight against mr. freeze was fun.
 
It's so easy to get distracted by the side missions in Arkham City. I feel like I've spent several hours in the game already but am only 17% done because I keep doing side missions, Riddler Challenges, AR training, etc. I had to make myself stop last night and jumped through a good chunk of the main story.
 
Anyone that says it's no fun is probably sticking solely to the rooftops. I've found getting down on street level and picking fights and exploring is pretty fun all by itself.
 
Queasy said:
It's so easy to get distracted by the side missions in Arkham City. I feel like I've spent several hours in the game already but am only 17% done because I keep doing side missions, Riddler Challenges, AR training, etc. I had to make myself stop last night and jumped through a good chunk of the main story.
Click to expand...

I've decided to stop doing riddler challenges till I'm finished the game. I spent 20 minutes trying to do one before looking it up on the internets and finding out that I needed a gadget to solve it with.
 
Kev said:
I've decided to stop doing riddler challenges till I'm finished the game. I spent 20 minutes trying to do one before looking it up on the internets and finding out that I needed a gadget to solve it with.
Click to expand...

I did the same.

Queasy said:
It's so easy to get distracted by the side missions in Arkham City. I feel like I've spent several hours in the game already but am only 17% done because I keep doing side missions, Riddler Challenges, AR training, etc. I had to make myself stop last night and jumped through a good chunk of the main story.
Click to expand...

And this is why I HATE sandbox games. I prefer a well narrated game, that has some freedoms to it. Deus Ex HR did it well. Mass Effect 2 did it pretty well. Mass Effect 1, and Arkham City IMO, do not do it well. It's no fun. I have to constantly ignore phones wringing, political prisoners talking...random gaurds talking...

and the fighting in Asylum was fun. Always fighting in the street...not so fun. Not enough stealthing to be had.

I rated it on metacritic with 3/10. As for "professional reviews" - they also called MW2 the best game EVER MADE.
 
Sounds like I should play Arkham Asylum first before buying Arkham City. I bet Gamestop has a good price USED for it.
 
RampantAndroid said:
And this is why I HATE sandbox games. I prefer a well narrated game, that has some freedoms to it. Deus Ex HR did it well. Mass Effect 2 did it pretty well. Mass Effect 1, and Arkham City IMO, do not do it well. It's no fun. I have to constantly ignore phones wringing, political prisoners talking...random gaurds talking...

and the fighting in Asylum was fun. Always fighting in the street...not so fun. Not enough stealthing to be had.
Click to expand...

There's still plenty of stealth to be had but it's really up to you to do it. Out in the open world, it's generally not required as much as you can pretty much glide or swing roof to roof. But later in the story, it is necessary because the enemies are more likely to be equipped with guns which means you can't just go barreling around beating up everyone.

I rated it on metacritic with 3/10. As for "professional reviews" - they also called MW2 the best game EVER MADE.
Click to expand...

A 3/10 is way too harsh for Arkham City. At worst, it should be an 8/10. A 3/10 would suggest to me a game that is fundamentally broken, horrible to play and no fun. That's just not the case here.
 
Queasy said:
A 3/10 is way too harsh for Arkham City. At worst, it should be an 8/10. A 3/10 would suggest to me a game that is fundamentally broken, horrible to play and no fun. That's just not the case here.
Click to expand...

This, in a nutshell, is why I don't put all that much stock in Metacritic, at least not as much as the people who seem to make it their bible.

From an OBJECTIVE standpoint, 3 out of 10 is ludicrous and destroys any credibility. Like you say, that's "WalMart/ValuSoft Deer Hunter 94: Big Trucks, Bigger Boobies" level grade, that should only be applied to utter trash that is near unplayable, horribly broken, or objectively awful.

I mean, c'mon...a 3 out of 10? Then what would you rank a game that truly does suck all-around and has no redeeming qualities? -6 out of 10?

Gamers sometimes... 🙄
 
Last edited:
Sulaco said:
This, in a nutshell, is why I don't put all that much stock in Metacritic, at least not as much as the people who seem to make it their bible.

From an OBJECTIVE standpoint, 3 out of 10 is ludicrous and destroys any credibility. Like you say, that's "WalMart/ValuSoft Deer Hunter 94: Big Trucks, Bigger Boobies" level grade, that should only be applied to utter trash that is near unplayable, horribly broken, or objectively awful.

I mean, c'mon...a 3 out of 10? Then what would you rank a game that truly does suck all-around and has no redeeming qualities? -6 out of 10?

Gamers sometimes... 🙄
Click to expand...

It's the mindset that he thinks it REALLY doesn't deserve that high of score, so he's voting incredibly low to "balance it out" in his mind. If everybody just voted without such ridiculous extremes the user reviews would be more believable. It's like all the guys that voted Crysis 2 a 1 out of 10 because it didn't live up to the outrageous expectations of PC gamers.
 
Sulaco said:
This, in a nutshell, is why I don't put all that much stock in Metacritic, at least not as much as the people who seem to make it their bible.

From an OBJECTIVE standpoint, 3 out of 10 is ludicrous and destroys any credibility. Like you say, that's "WalMart/ValuSoft Deer Hunter 94: Big Trucks, Bigger Boobies" level grade, that should only be applied to utter trash that is near unplayable, horribly broken, or objectively awful.

I mean, c'mon...a 3 out of 10? Then what would you rank a game that truly does suck all-around and has no redeeming qualities? -6 out of 10?

Gamers sometimes... 🙄
Click to expand...

I'd rate it a zero. I rate DXHR a 6. Maybe a 7. DA2 is another 6 or 7. Asylum is an easy 8, likely a 9. A 10? Can't really think of any. The second there's a "perfect" then the scale is wrong. To me, City is truly a game that feels lost and without a purpose. It has no direction to go, it has nothing truly new and entertaining and lacks the polish of Asylum. So why a 3? Because I can see that if I sat down for 20 minutes of randomly kicking the sh*t out of people, it'd be an OK game. But so would Asylum.

gorcorps said:
It's the mindset that he thinks it REALLY doesn't deserve that high of score, so he's voting incredibly low to "balance it out" in his mind. If everybody just voted without such ridiculous extremes the user reviews would be more believable. It's like all the guys that voted Crysis 2 a 1 out of 10 because it didn't live up to the outrageous expectations of PC gamers.
Click to expand...

Or the people who downvoted DA2. But you know what? You don't know me, or my thoughts. I truly think it's a 3. Had I wanted to "correct" the bad votes, I'd have voted it a 1 or a 0. The game is not without merit, but its only merit is that is preserved the fight system of Asylum, and the voice acting. But good voice acting a good game does not make.
 
Wow a 3? Just ignore the sandbox element. It's almost like you're rating it a 3 because the game brings out the add in you thus making it impossible for you to enjoy it because of the fully optional aspects of the game.

I have the same add problem but at least realize that's my problem and not the game's.
 
Last edited:
Alright, I put 8 hours into it today.

I did like the linear track in Asylum. I feel like I end up places I shouldn't be in this one.

Still good though. If asylum was a 9, this is a solid 7.8.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top