Groucho

Liver&Onions

Manuel?

RocShemp

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pinata242

Gamer315

The $34.99 deal at BB for the collector's set was a HOT deal.

K&AJones

I finally got around to playing mine for the first time since I got on Amazon's Black Friday. I've played GOW3, BF3 and the new COD games this year. But I must say the overall look, play, sound and design makes this GOTY. Extra kudos to the level designers on this one along with the FX artists. I find myself after a "brawl in the street" just wanting to go looking around and seeing the sights.

K&AJones

I think I'm stuck....

I went in to save Mr.Freeze and passed the "Gladiator Challenge" without a hitch. However I cannot go up, forward or back. I see two doors on either side with electrical charge with a Power Box in the middle behind some bars. I don't have a encrypter power range extender enabled yet. I really hate to re-start the last point because that means re-doing the "remote boomer-ring" which I hated and the "Galdiator Pit". Is that my only recourse?

fumanstan

I got stuck there for a bit too. You can use your remote controlled batarang to go through the fence on the right and past the electricity which charges it, and then control it all the way around to reach the electrical box.

mzupeman2

If you hang around long enough, usually Batman will say, "Hrmmm... I bet I could..."

I've played all the supposed 'games of the year' at this point, and the one that I keep going back to is Skyrim. I loved Batman Arkham City... but I personally don't think it bests the previous game. Not by a long shot. MW3... well, it's basically just an expansion, right? Uncharted 3 was pretty good but again, I don't think it bested the previous game. Skyrim? I think it has the most play vlaue, replay value, has improved things significantly since Oblivion... it's just the best game overall.

HotThang

Is anyone visiting Calendar Man today? :-). Since there's no achievements tied to visiting him on certain holidays I'm not as compelled to visit his cell. :-)

pinata242

Isn't there? http://www.trueachievements.com/a155...m?showguides=1

Anyway, thanks for the reminder. Guess I need to play AC today! Though, being around on NYD will be tough!

HotThang

Cool! I just assumed there wasn't one! Time to pop it in for a sec before finally starting Skyrim!

K&AJones

Thank you fumanstan and mzupeman2 for the tips. I'm not good at that remote BR but beats the heck out of redoing that part including using the remote BR to even get in. Happy Holidays to you both.

fumanstan

I finished the main storyline yesterday. The game was entertaining, but as with Arkham Asylum I think the novelty of the game is mostly just because you're Batman, and the excellent character design and voice work. I thought AA was just decent but nothing spectacular, and I felt Arkham City was similar. The open world stuff was a bit weird to get used to at first, but once I got used to travelling around it wasn't too bad. I'm trying to find the motivation to go back and find more Riddler puzzles and statues as well as the Catwoman stuff, but there doesn't seem to be much payoff.

The Challenge maps don't interest me too much either, which kind of sucks since I bought the Nightwing and Robin packs. I just have a hard time getting into all the remaining side quests and challenges. It would be nice if they build a small story behind them, even if they're kind of crappy like Catwoman's.

K&AJones

Think I'm either stuck or a glitch...again

I saved Mr. Freeze and on the way following the "blood trail" I got a "save the Medical Team" side mission at the church being held by the Riddler. I saved the first hostage and then on the map shows where the second hostage is...right at the edge of the wall (middle restricted area on the NW side) between a building and fence wih a Riddler trophy inside a metal basket. But there's no hostage anywhere, not unless underground but there are no doors, walls to break or vents to pull anywhere close by. I gave up and went back to tracking the blood trail of the LOA.

The Dude

You have to find the big question mark on the wall and 'investigate' it, that will get you into the area with the hostage.

chess

Finally got to play Arkham City. I didn't think I would like it more than the first one, but I think I do. I loved that the first one was basically a Metroid game, and I feared that this one would stray too far from that and become Grand Theft Batman, but the same basic feel was there. In terms of which world I liked better, I think it's a tossup. Asylum was more atmospheric and creepy and had more personality, and City is more sweeping and is fun to traverse.

The reasons I liked City more are:

• The detective/forensics portions are much better integrated and thought out
• It's less repetitive...limited number of rooms with gargoyles or repeating levels (Scarecrow levels)
• Better boss fights...Mister Freeze is better than anything in Asylum and is one of my favorite boss fights ever
• Because the environment is so open, there is almost always an opportunity to stealth your way through a bunch of guys if you want
• Better story, and I loved the twist at the end
• I didn't find myself just staying in detective mode like I did last time
• Interrogations

I don't want to discount how much I like this "just because it's Batman", but here are some things that I'm pretty sure I'd think even if it weren't Batman:

• Melee combat system is better than any 3D game
• Navigation is more fun than any open world game...or at least on par with Infamous
• Best stealth in the business...mostly due to detective vision
• Puzzles as tough as any other game
• Environment nearly on par with Bioshock

I didn't get to play much this year, but thus far, this is my GOTY and would be tough to beat. Portal 2 was a lot of fun and was charming, but I thought the puzzles were a bit too easy compared to the first. I was pretty disappointed in Battlefield 3. Uncharted 3 is up next. I picked Uncharted 2 over Arkham Asylum in '09, but I don't see that happening again this year, and I'm not even sure I had it right then.

RocShemp

I just got Arkham City thanks to the Steam sale and am enjoying it a whole heck of a lot so far.

For those considering getting it on PC, it defaults to all the settings maxed on my HD6850. However, it runs like crap if I activate DX11. However, I didn't see any graphical improvements when I had DX11 on. It looks fantastic with it off and easily beats the console counterparts.

fumanstan

DX11 adds some cool stuff like snow on the ground and better looking textures on some of the surfaces, but not easily noticeable unless you know what you're looking for. But yeah, major performance issues despite what flashburn will tell you It's not worth it on my GTX 570 either.

RocShemp

Interesting. I didn't notice the snow or better textures at all.

One thing, though. Didn't the folks at Rocksteady say that we could run PhysX sans an nVidia card (using the PC's processor instead)? Because I see nowhere to activate that in the configuration menu.

wmansir

I just finished the main storyline. I think I would say it's better than AA because it's about on par in terms of quality (storyline excepted) with a lot more quantity. There was so much to do that at one point I kind of felt overwhelmed.

One question regarding the story:

RocShemp

Weren't we supposed to be able to activate PhysX via CPU (sans an nVidia card) for this game?

bluetoast

What sucks is that I borrowed the game from a friend, so I just played the main game, without Catwoman, no problem there. I didn't beat the game, but now that I bought it, redeemed the code, and the Catwoman story is now integrated into the game, but it's completely out of context for me, since I'm in the middle of Batman's story.

RocShemp

I have it on PC and am 57% of the way in regards to the actual story (and about 33% of the way as far as the whole game). In all that time, I've only played as Catwoman twice. The last time I saw her and has only been mentioned by the ocassional random gang member. I doubt you'll be all that lost concerning her since she feels rather tacked on in the grand scheme of things.

But if you must know what she's doing, apparently Hardly compelling or important.

chess

If someone bought this used, I wouldn't even recommend paying for the Catwoman content. Compared to Batman, she's just not fun to play, particularly when navigating the world.