Batman: Arkham Asylum - Page 3

Okay. If they can keep up the demo's quality for the rest of the game, I'll definitely buy it. I loved grappling from gargoyle to gargoyle in the final room taking the thugs out one by one with the survivors getting increasingly freaked out. It's great feeling so empowered in a game. And my PC runs it like a dream at 1680x1050 with everything turned up except for Phys-X. I was looking for an excuse to buy a GTX card either way.

My first playthrough went like this as well. I had a sliver of life left at the end. Patience is a virtue, because my next playthrough I really took my time, not striking until a goon was by himself, and then I rarely used the glide kick because it made too much noise.

I think some people will be turned off by the "having patience" aspect.

Guilty! My "RRRAAAA DESTROY KILL KILL KILL" strategy doesn't translate too well to videogames. Still gonna rent this at the very least.

Hehe, in my second playthrough no one even caught a glimpse of me. It's so fun hanging people upside down from the gargoyles and then cutting the rope and dropping them on their buddies. I just wish there was no limit to how scared you could make them. It would be awesome if you could give them a heart attack.

ehhhhhh........................ i'd rather play a game where you had a whole city explore, day and night cycles, activities to do as bruce wayne (feed stray cats into ATMs, listen to hughey lewis, etc) , AND batman. sort of GTA meets SPIDERMAN meets BATMAN meets that scary game i forget the name of, the one where you have to fight hobos? that game had alot of good detective mechanics i heard, but it was scary and i did not play it. i do not enjoy games that are too scary, i cannot play them. it took every ounce of nerve i had to steel myself to play bioshock. NEVER AGAIN. a game set in an asylum? no thanks

Why can I knock a brother out with my fists but not a steel batarang? Otherwise, I like the demo. Very SPLINTER CELL-esque.

So just so I'm clear, this is third person yeah? Not first?

Princess Kate, I remember reading there was a game based on The Dark Knight that was supposed to be a sandbox game like Spider-Man 2. Heard it blew all kinds of chunks so they ditched it. The other game you are talking about is Condemned.

Edit: Yeah, RD, it's third-person, although as previously mentioned, Bats stays to the left of center which is a little weird.

thank you! yes, condemmed is what i was talking about. that looked way way way too scary.

You can knock them off a ladder with one, though. That does the job and is pretty funny to watch.

You can knock people out with a batarang. Just aim for the head.

Oooh, headshots with the batarang? Didn't know I could do that. I was just using the auto-aim. I think I'm going to have to purchase this game.

Yeah, when you hold down the "batarang aim" button, you can lock on to an enemy, but you can also use the right stick to target where you want to hit (torso, head, or hands if they're armed)

eta: A headshot won't completely knock them out, though. You will have to perform a "ground take-down" or whatever they call it to finish them off. But they will fall to the ground and be seeing stars for a couple moments.

Hitting RB instead of the RT will let you follow the flight of the Batarang. Not sure what use it is but it is cool to watch.

Each and every one of those vignettes in Alex's article are ballin'. I pray one of my roommates for this year possesses a next-gen system.

Just finished playing the demo. It's shaping up to be a great game, and it really reminds me of Batman '89 which makes it even better. The stealth play is reminiscent of Manhunt as well. I need to get employment fast, so I can pick this game up.

I think you can steer the batarang after you throw it over a long distance, allowing you to nail somebody who's out of your lock on range.

Finally tried the demo out last night and came away a lot more impressed than I thought I would. The first thing I noticed were the audio files associated with the Joker file. Very cool stuff there, I can't wait to check out the other ones that were missing. I hope the file aspect of the game is sprinkled with a lot of nice touches such as this.

As far as in-game, the thing that grabbed me the most was the atmosphere. The voices, scenery, mood, background chatter etc. were great and immersive. I think the Total Recall detective mode is a bit much but damned if it isn't cool as hell. Joker in motion looked amazing, I really dig the design of him this time around. Although the fighting was simplistic, it felt like you were controlling a well oiled fighting machine so as far as I am concerned, it is as it should be.

I was already pretty excited for this due to the Xbox Live Videos and constant magazine updates but like with most pre-game hype, I held my excitement in check. After the hands-on demo play though, it's green-light-GO for me, I'll be throwing a reservation on this real soon.

The demo is a helluva fun time. You definitely have to be patient in this game though. Also, I did not mind any of the renderings of the characters. While people have complained about Batman being huge and bulky, it looks to me like they used Alex Ross' take on Batman. Harley Quinn sure got hot though.

I actually like it quite a bit (as does my 6 year old boy) but you can only play as the Joker in the PS3 version? Am I reading that right from the vignetted? Because that's gonna hurt.

I really dug the demo. I haven't played a good stealth game in forever.

I have played through the demo countless times now, I love experimenting in just how I'll take everyone out in the final room.

I haven't decided which version I want, the 360 or the PS3. Graphically I didn't really notice much difference between the two demos, and while the PS3 has that Joker exclusive I do like my Xbox Achievements more than my Playstation trophies. I'll probably to and fro on this until release day, and then I'll just flip a coin.

I didn't play too much of the demo, but didn't look like day one purchase to me. Maybe I just need to give it more time.

I will say this: the voice acting adds. so. much.

The combat plays alot like Sands of Time. It looks really cool, but it feels more like I'm telling Batman to kick some guy's ass rather than assuming the ass-kicking role myself.

The stealth stuff was fun once you got to the last room of the demo. It was the only place where you actually got to "play". Everything up to that was standard tutorial fodder. But once they finally cut you loose, it got alot more fun.

Am I the only one who thinks there is a Two Face reference here, or am I reading too deep?

Can't wait to get my hands on this game.

I'm pretty sure I spent 10 minutes alone throwing Batarangs at everything: monitors, the guards, people I already knocked out...it was a lot of fun.

So does Conroy just sit around waiting for WB to call him to lend his voice to Bats? He's the Mel Blanc of this world now, anyone else just sounds...wrong.

If he were the Mel Blanc of this world, he'd be working all the time, playing different characters. Frank Welker is the Mel Blanc of this world.

I meant to word it that he owns Bats' voice as much as Blanc owned Bugs' etc. voices.

Welker is no Mel Blanc. Couldn't "hold his jock", as they say.

What? No. It's DLC.

My son spent about 30 minutes with only 1 guy left in the last room, he'd batarang the guy and then swing to the other side of the room and wait. Just 30 minutes of torturing the guy, and laughing as he got more and more freaked out.

I'm proud and frightened all at once.

Watch the Joker bio video that was posted. The end of it says you can play as the Joker on PS3 only.

I assume it'll hit Xbox later, but it sure looks to be PS3 exclusive now.

Oops, I misread what you wrote and thought you were implying that you could only play as Joker in the game, period(i.e. not as Batman). I have no clue what I was thinking. Disregard, I need coffee.

I would be surprised if in a few months, at least by Christmas, the Joker's "campaign" isn't available via DLC on XBL.

You apparently can only play as the Joker in the challenge rooms, not the main game.

That's what I thought, and it just changes the skins of the people you're fighting from inmates to guards.

It would have been cool to have a full Joker game, letting you trap and killing good people. They could dust off the Deception model for that, since that stupid Saw game isn't using it either.

I played through the demo a second time, really slowly. I found both Riddler trophies, used my detective vision to see into the room next to Zsazz (or however it's spelled) and generally spent a lot of time just figuring things out. Is it possible to get into the vent that's high up on the wall next to the computers in the area above Zsazz? I spent a while trying to figure out a way to get there and eventually thought maybe I needed to use an item that you can't get in the demo.

I was trying to get to that vent too, and I had no luck either. If there's a way up there I couldn't figure it out.

You get climbing equipment later on. The game is essentially a Metroidvania, you're meant to go back to older areas with newer equipment.

Fair enough. This game screams "renter" at me as I'm betting it won't be all that long but my son loves the demo so much I'm pretty sure I'll be buying it. Hopefully there will be enough little things to backtrack on to keep it interesting a little while longer.

I haven't heard this mentioned in any impressions I've read of the game but if so then I'll most likely buy it.

I've heard nothing of it either. If the game play was something like that you would think that they would really push it to get interest up.

But if that's how it is, i might just have to re-subscribe to Gamefly so i can sink some time into it.

I'm really just looking for that one excuse to make me sign up again...

Please, please, please let this be true.

Just off this demo I'm really tempted to buy this. At last we finally have a good Batman game (okay I know there were some good ones back in the day of SNES (Batman Returns and Batman & Robin: Animated)).

The only thing I kinda feel off about it is how the controls a little too dissociated. I guess when pulling the gates off is the best example. You hammer some buttons and it goes into a video. You fight a guy and it goes into a video.

I'm loving the stealth action and making the bad guys freak out, and wish there was a Bale berserker mode. Hell even the graphics (PS3 for me) look pretty good.

I wasn't thrilled with some of the graphics in the demo. I"m hopeful that it wasn't the final product being demo'd. I didn't like the whole rain intro and most of the gotham graphics. I also wasn't able to interact with stuff that looked like it should be interactable. Like audio tapes, computer equipment etc...

4 years ago this game would have been awesome but with games like Mass Effect, Dead Space, God of War, Too Human, etc... I expect more out of the first person environment.

I'll get it because it's the goddamned Batman but that doesn't mean it'll make my best of lists.

There's definitely more that we'll be able to interact with in the final product. I noticed a few security consoles that glowed in my detective vision and there was an explanation attached that they had been created by Lucius Fox and were considered unhackable. It certainly doesn't look like you can interact with whatever you feel like interacting with though.

This is an FPS?

3rd person brawler

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait......you're including Too Human in the same list as Mass Effect, Dead Space, and God of War? I didn't think Too Human was as bad as it's reputation, but it certainly isn't in the same league as the other three. Also, I didn't think the environment in Too Human was all that interactive. You can smash some crates and push a few buttons, but that was about it.

If we're going for broke, Batman should have the same level of environmental destruction that Red Faction does. It would be awesome to do a flying kick through a wall into a henchman's head!

Anyway, I enjoyed the Batman Arkham Asylum demo, but I don't think I'll be getting it right away. Unless I can find a great deal on it in the first couple weeks or so, I'll probably wait until it drops in price a time or two.