Batman: Arkham Asylum - Page 2

Picture of the ridiculous Collector's Edition- http://chud.com/articles/articles/18...ANG/Page1.html

Yeah... I'll just take the game, thank you. That will be socially marginalizing enough without the aid of a batarang.

No mention of Lego Batman? That game was incredibly fun, if a satirical take on the character. B:AA, however, may melt my face off.

They had the demo running in the PS3 kiosk at Best Buy this afternoon. It had two challenge missions to pick from. I went with the combat one since I didnt have alot of time and didnt want to try to set up traps for the first time in a hurry. I thought it was pretty fun, the fighting was fairly fluid thanks to a simple counter system. Either the shoulder buttons on my controller were shot(very possible at this Best Buy) or the moves allocated to them werent unlocked yet because I only had the main four buttons to press which made it somewhat redundant. Overall it looked nice and I liked the Joker taunts you recieve between waves of thugs. It was enough to keep me excited about the game but Im looking forward to trying to stealth challenge portion too before deciding if I want to buy it rather than rent.

Also, according to Playstation Home the Joker will be playable on the PS3 version. I didnt think he was really the type to do lots of fighting himself so its hard to say how he might play.

I was gonna say the samething. I had it on my commodore 64, twas awesome.

Total Film's latest issue somehow has a short review of it...they gave it 5 stars out of 5, essentially calling it the game that nails playing as Batman.
They gave a lot of praise to how brutal the combat and forensic/investigation mechanics are, loved the story and voice work...and then gave it the "best game of 2009 so far" award.

God dammit, I want this one even more after that.

As if I wasn't looking forward to this game enough... Can't wait until August.

The official demo release date is tomorrow, but I'm betting the PS3 demo may drop today with the Thursday store update. The PC version is delayed 'til Sep. 15th, but they've added Nvidia PhysX, which looks to yield some pretty cool effects, like volumetric fog, spiderwebs, and more.

Seriously? This demo isn't out officially yet? The local Best Buy around these parts has had it set up since March.

It was just a Challenge Room demo, but for what its worth, it plays a lot like Mark of Kri. That's definitely cause for hope.

I believe this demo is the opening 15 minutes or so of the game, with Batman and Wayne delivering Joker to Arkham.

That's what I've read Jacob, the new demo is the start of the game. This demo should be different than the Challenge Room only demo that was released months ago (which I think was just on in-store PS3 demo units).

So by available we mean downloadable via XBL? Awesome.

Yeah, I've kinda been giddy about this ever since earlier this week. Never really cared about a Batman game before in my life until this.

For the 3 of us that may wait for the PC version, here's a little more on the PhysX stuff:


The pc demo (also releasing tomorrow) is supposed to have the PhysX stuff in there. I'll get the console AND pc demos and compare them to see if there's any reason to wait for the pc release.

Sounds interesting, but I guess my lack of interest in the PC version is compounded by the fact that my PC kinda sucks.

My main reason for *needing* the PC demo is just to see if my computer might handle it. I just fried my old video card and replaced it with a new one (AGP which is now old, but a gig of video memory) and I can finally play L4D in good quality at decent framerates now.

Volumetric fog! That's hilarious that developers tout these features as fun, reminds me when the first 3D games would advertise such features a Gouraud and Phong shading!

The demo is available on PSN right now.

Oh my god I could fuck with the inmates ALL DAY.

Get them freaked out enough and those fuckers'll jump at every noise. It's hilarious throwing a batarang from a perch near a guy and watching him unload a clip into nothing.

I have to play this fucking game immediately

It's been almost 2 hours and its only halfway downloaded...

I liked Joker's encouragement to the inmates as they are dying left and right, "I have a good feeling about this, you're gonna be the crew that takes him down!"

Yeah, I've never understood why developers insist on throwing these terms around as if a quarter of their audience actually knows what language they're speaking. "Hey kids, real-time dynamic bump mapping! Doesn't that sound like a blast?"

It's weird hearing those animated series voices coming from roided up wax sculpture versions of the characters. The kung fu moves look nice and grappling onto Arkham's 10,000 gargoyle sculptures was fun, but I don't know if I like how Batman is always on the far left of the screen.

I don't know if any of you tried the inverted takedown but I couldn't get enough of it. I'm not crazy in love with the fighting (it's fun but doesn't take too much skill) but I LOVE the sneaking and grappling. If the game lives up to the demo then this thing will be fantastic.

Takedown was cool, though it seems you can only string up one per gargoyle. The combat is easy, but I imagine it'll increase in difficulty, not to mention larger crowds and inmates with weapons.

I hope that there are more metahuman type prisoners than just end boss type characters. That'd be more of a challenge too.

Edit: You're also the goddamn Batman, so you should never have to much trouble beating thugs up. They are a superstitious and cowardly lot.

Downloading the PC demo, but I suspect this won't run well on my PC at all.

My impressions (and a bunch of videos)- http://chud.com/articles/articles/20...ONS/Page1.html

Fun. Damn fun. Fucking with criminals by swooping from gargoyle to gargoyle is cool. It is very easy, but to be fair, it is the beginning of the game. Hopefully there's a bit more to the combat that tapping the square and occasionally triangle when you see the Spider Sense on the bad guys.

The character designs look like assfuck. Like someone took the MKShit design from MK vs DC and then made them worse. The voices are cool 'cause I love the Animated Series but they don't fit AT ALL. If they wanted those voices to fit, they should've made the game look like the pics on the Character Sheets. Or Borderlands. Cause this is just meat-head, Hot Topic bullshit with a Gears of War filter on it.

Like Jacob I'm going to give both the PC and 360 versions a playthrough too see if this PhysX is a big difference. Wont get a chance till i get home from work though. In the meantime ill download them so they will be ready and waiting.

I really loved the Demo, and while the combat is easy I gather it's going to get a lot harder. I do dig the free flowing element to it though.

Also I fucked with the inmates so much that when I jumped down in front of one guy he pretty much just shit himself and gave up. Wonderful.

You get to play as the Joker...


...I need to buy a Playstation 3.

The pc version does indeed have some nice little touches that the console (well, PS3 version) lacks, but I'm not sure if it's pretty enough to warrant waiting for. It's definitely easier to control on the console, though the interface is completely customizable for the pc, so I might change a few things around.

All things considered, I may wait and pick up the pc version just to save ten bucks and get some additional flourishes.

Oh, and I dug the hell outta the demo. Not being a huge devotee of the animated series, I don't mind these voices coming out of these beefier characters, and I think the overall art design is pretty impressive. Looking forward to the full game.

I'm definitely picking this up. I like how vulnerable Bats is to weapon-fire, making it paramount that you just not run up and start hitting thugs. I also like how the thugs react when they realize they are the only one left standing in a room. Just randomly shooting and screaming.

I would have enjoyed some destructible environments, especially because it would make you have to be wary of the additional noise that's created by smashing a dude through a bookcase.

All in all a solid demo.

This has defiantly become a must rent for me. Its great grappling around and picking off the enemies one by one. The combat is great but the constant slow-mo might get a bit annoying. I ended one fight by just standing still and letting the last guy come running at me from behind and doing a neat little counter. Such a Batman thing to do....

Love the voice acting but the dialogue is laughably bad.

Sadly my PC just couldn't handle the game 100% smoothly. Although i did have everything set to High but no AA. The PhysX is a great bonus. Papers fly and walls crumble when you punch them. There was also a minor addition of some police tape that isn't in the console at all surprisingly. It all just makes the world seem that much more alive.

Yeah I don't know if I'll be buying this, could be that maybe it didn't run as smoothly on my machine.

I haven't gotten the guys to go nuts as you guys say, like shooting randomly, etc. The slo mo is very annoying, although some of the finishing punches and kicks are cool and give it a nice comic book quality.

The whole asthetic of the game is a bit ugly, was it really necessary to make Gordon Hulk out?

Zazz looks like Dalshim from Street fighter, but Killer Croc is not too bad.

I was able to do it in the last room with the gargoyles. Picked them off one by one and the last guy came down from that room to the north to find all his buddies laying about. Started screaming "I know you're here!" and firing randomly as I glide kicked him in his larynx.

I'm okay with the character designs. They got The Joker down pat, so I'll take a couple of 'roided Jim Gordons in exchange.

I was showing the demo to my brother and he noticed the chattering teeth left around Arkham. I didn't pick that up the first time. It's a nice touch.

In the first room, post-battle, when the Joker starts mouthing off on the monitors, I hit one with a batarang. It shattered in a spiderweb fashion, but the video kept playing, showing parts of the joker on separate pieces of the remaining glass. Looked very cool.

That room towards the end with all the gargoyles, what's up with the room in the middle with the glass windows? It says it can be shattered but I can't.

In that big room there's also a vent high on the wall, but I think you can't get in it.

I'll replay that section and see what I can figure out. I'm playing on console, so it might be different than PC, for whatever reason.

For an idea of how more real the Physx stuff makes the world look, here's the comparison video for Mirror's Edge- http://www.gametrailers.com/video/nv...43551?type=flv

A prompt to press a button popped up and I was able to crash through it when there was a guy directly below me.

That's sweet. I love how you can go into the floor vents and crawl around while the goons walk around above you. My second playthrough was more satisfying as I had a better handle on the stealth and countering.

Assuming you are refering to that final room in the demo(the one with like 5 guards). I believe that if you are on the glass when a badguy is below you you can use the takedown button to take him out. Batman will crash through the glass to take the guy down.

Overall its an ok demo, but I felt like the enviorments were too similar in those 15 minutes alone. I hope they have stuff that are not gargohals(sp?) that I can hang on. It like they made the entire asylum so "hey if the bad guys break out there will always be stuff batman can cling too".

More than anything else the ambience of the game reminds me of Bioshock, but the actual gameplay seems to be more based around Assassin's Creed which is a good thing.

It defiantly kinda gives the vibe where you can go about dispatching the foes to your play type. I really didn't find it necessary to use the bat-a-rang but it does seem like it would come in handy.

I'm assuming you get a decent amount of power-ups through the game right?

I wish they would have given a tease of how the detective parts play out. Hopefully they atleast are on par with, if not better, Condemned 2.

I loved that you can throw a batarang at the rope holding an inmate upside down (after a vertical takedown), cutting the rope and freaking the fuck out of his buddies below as he falls at their feet.

Agreed.

Ugh. I kept getting shot in the last room after busting out with the glide kick and I couldn't get from gargoyle to gargoyle fast enough. I made it through, but man, I hate that part. I probably just need to dick around a bit more with dispatches. That being said, Killer Croc? Awesome.