Batman Arkham Asylum

[Hendo]

Finished the Scarecrow section which is nowhere near as long as I remember it being.

I’d also forgotten that you gain xp and choose where you put your upgrades. I’ve been going all in on armour so far, apart from the one that lets you dangle enemies from the gargoyles because that’s just too cool to not have.

[Hendo]

Turns out my memory was better than I suspected - there was a second Scarecrow section after all, even though that was still a little shorter than I would’ve liked.

 

Nice game to dip back into - not as hard as I was expecting to dive right back in after a few weeks away.

 

Finally got the ability to take out the security doors, so there’s only a couple of abilities left I think.

[HandsomeDead]

Nice to see this game being enjoyed.  I'm sure it is one that holds up. 

 

I have an admin complaint, though.  Looking at the formats it's on it didn't come to Wii U.  Just City and Origins did. 

[Nabby9]

I went back through all 3 earlier this year & loved it, just something about those games that just work so well (with the exception of the Bat Tank).

 

Still think Asylum is my favourite & I imagine I'll go back to them again at some point.

[Hendo]

Think I'm about three quarters through now, and on the whole it has aged pretty well.

 

The facial animations are a bit rough at times but the only real bug I have is the game lets you abuse the detective vision for most of the game, and while it's very useful, it makes the game look a bit ass at times.

[Hendo]

Stuck on the Poison Ivy boss fight at the moment. I’d say it’s been frustrating but it has led me to say out loud, “damn you, you crazy sexy plant!”, so that’s a plus in its favour.

[Metroid66]

Reached the second island on far cry 3, so taking a break with this stone cold classic. Having access to games like this, naturally upgraded with a decent GPU, is why I've gone PC. And this legendary title holds up just as much as you can imagine. Amazing art direction, great action, great stealth.... You have to say they nailed the feel of a modern Batman adventure here - it's all shadows, creepy corridors and maniac adversaries. Got to be 10 years since  I last played it but it got a timeless aesthetic that's just so punchy to the eye, and a gameplay loop that just satisfies.

 

Can't put it down.

[Maf]

Arkham Asylum is legit one of the best games ever made. That was like an earthquake when that game hit back in the day

 

For PC upgrades, though, wait until you play Arkham Knight woo

[Metroid66]

Talking about PC 'upgrades' I got the whole Arkham trilogy for about 3 quid on Cdkeys. Effing belter!

[Maf]

£3 for 2 great games is an amazing deal 

[Metroid66]

Which one are you saying isn't Great? By the way, I never play the last one, because I heard you spent most of it driving around.

[Maryokutai]

I played the remastered version of this a bit while I had Gamepass and I think visually it has aged quite a bit with that blocky UE3/Gears look. Game itself is still super good though, unfortunately my subscription ran out pretty soon after I fired it up. I do kind of want to replay it properly at some point though.

 

Two great games makes sense. Asylum is great, City is half-great and Knight is half-great.

 

The driving in Knight is actually not an issue at all in my opinion and one of those odd points of criticism I never understood where it was coming from. For me the game's issues were more about how they overloaded the simplicity of its combat and the weird way they told the story, which completely lost me at multiple points even though nothing was really happening.

[Nag]

I replayed all three games earlier this year and was surprised by how much I enjoyed City and Knight... City especially felt like a huge swing and miss for me on release but once I'd decided to completely ignore the Riddler shit this time round flowed so much better. 

 

Asylum will always be one of the greats though.

[Maf]

I used to think Knight was good but a bit played out at the time. However there’s been such a big break and revisiting it on PC where the graphics upgrade is insane - it’s hard to put to finer point on that - it’s shot up in my rankings and I actually think it’s probably the best one 

 

Arkham Asylum will always be really strong because it was the first time seeing that concept. But Knight has the best everything imo from gameplay to story. I just think it’s kind of incredible game and it’s criminal there’s no remaster (even though the PC version looks amazing, there are still shortcomings in the art, mo-cop, faces, etc that higher settings can’t solve)

[mfnick]

I’m glad people have finally realised Asylum is the best one. Felt like I was crazy when everyone said City was better. Time has proven me right. Bugger doesn’t mean better. Meant the complete opposite for me. 

[Nag]

I actually can't remember that being said... and bugger definitely doesn't mean better either. 😂

[Maf]

I thought people always said Asylum was the best one. To me City is the worst. Which is no to say I dislike the game. But definitely least favourite 

[mfnick]

People used to say City is better all the time. It used to really annoy me so I’m definitely not misremembering that. 

[Maf]

Oh, ok. Well I always thought Asylum was the best one as well until recently. Now I think it’s a tie. 

[Maryokutai]

It's very anecdotal but I was mostly active in a German board at the time and it was the same over there. During that period of time a lot of people were just by default preferring open world games no matter if the fundamental design suffered from it or not. I was definitely a bit disappointed in City when it came out but didn't really see that sentiment echoed a lot.

 

It does have some great bits as soon as you enter a building but the open world was utterly pointless from a conceptual standpoint. It was Flight Simulator: Batman Edition.