Batman: Arkham Origins

[apsham]

How have you heard.. anything about the Deadpool game? It doesn't debut to media until this weekend and the only other time that I can seemingly find it popping up is at a trade show or two where it won some awards.

[Johnny Latino Heat]

I've heard baaaad things about the Deadpool game, don't hold your breath.

Like what? I actually just pre-ordered it this afternoon, and everything I've seen from the game seems pretty fun/good to me.

[TKz]

How have you heard.. anything about the Deadpool game? It doesn't debut to media until this weekend and the only other time that I can seemingly find it popping up is at a trade show or two where it won some awards.

There's been a few reports of a hands on from one website, I can't remember which. They seemed to want to like the game more than they did... which is never good. I'm not holding out for anything amazing, just a solid action game that sells well enough. That's all it needs to be, really.

[apsham]

That's all the game ever was going to be honestly - I mean, it's a Deadpool game. What else to expect? It's going to be the humor that's going to make it good.

[EWB's Best Poster.]

I was kinda hoping one of the men out to kill bats would be Red Hood.

But if it only 2 years after he becomes the Batman, I dunno. Don't see either a Tim/Jack version of the Red Hood.

[Colly]

How have you heard.. anything about the Deadpool game? It doesn't debut to media until this weekend and the only other time that I can seemingly find it popping up is at a trade show or two where it won some awards.

Official PS3 magazine did a preview, said the gameplay was a bit naff and the attempted humour fell well short. They don't often slate games in previews, the last one I remember them having misgivings about was Aliens Colonial Marines...

[Tyrone]

[=BK=]

That Batman voice is spotty but I love Joker and Bane.

[Nick Adams]

Finally got around to watching the video. I personally wish they'd gone with one of the Batman voices from Gotham Knight, or the guy that voiced Batman for Under The Red Hood.

[TKz]

So far this looks much more interesting to me than Arkham City, though I will say that City had the best boss battle of all thus far. Mr. Freeze.

[TKz]

I guess the concept is cool and I like the idea of playing as Batman, but man, you can just tell that being anyone other than Batman/Robin is going to feel terribly generic.

[Benjamin]

So is it only Batman / Robin versus Joker and gang versus Bane and gang, though? Or can you use the other baddies?

[TKz]

http://youtu.be/QsxH9FmaGfc

I hope not all the boss fights are the usual punch the big guy whilst knocking out thugs that Arkham City mostly was. For my money, the most enjoyable boss fight in the franchise was Mr. Freeze. Really made you feel like Batman. I'd like to see something closer to that expanded on for the boss fights in Origins. Sure, give me the option to just beat the shit out of the guy, but let me have the option to play it stealthy as well, use the environment to my advantage like Batman actually would. It's the way fights against guys like Bane and Firefly should go, he can't beat them in a straight out fight, but he can outsmart them.

The big beat um' ups should be reserved for guys like The Joker, where it's a straight up, blood fueled brawl, or Deathstroke where it'll be a fight between equals, a battle of blocks and counter attacks. Stuff like Poison Ivy and Scarecrow was cool (Scarecrow was a great representation of that character in a boss fight, I do feel like they've done that enough, though. Doing it again with R'as Al Ghul in City was boring, though) but ultimately, they felt more like mini-games inside the main game. Especially Poison Ivy, where it barely used any of the skills you'd built up during the game.

That's kind of been my problem with Asylum and City, the boss fights rarely felt like they used the core game mechanics in a clever way. To me, a great boss fight is culmination of the mechanics you've been using throughout the game, combining all of the skills you've learned to beat the boss. Most of the time it just boiled down to "Dodge, dodge, kill the random thugs, attack, repeat". And it was boring because they so obviously can do better than that and there's plenty of potential with the gameplay they use for interesting fights.

I think the worst offender was either the final boss of Asylum or City. Clayface was just so fucking boring. It felt like it could have been a boss from the start of the game, rather than the final one.

[TKz]

Just a heads up, anyone getting this for PC, you can get it for £20 from GMG.

[Skummy]

Best part of this so far is seeing "classic" Bane - the Batman & Robin movie look - in one of the holding cells in the police station.

[phatman]

I just haven't been able to get into this game so far (unlike the previous two) and I just don't know why...

Visually it's impressive and so far the story is good... Couple of audio glitches here and there but nothing too bad...

Just can't put my finger on why I can't get into it... I loved the previous two and got this on day one, maybe I just hyped myself too much for it :/

[TheLastInLine]

I don't know if I want this. I didn't enjoy the open world aspect of the last one. It kinda ruined the game for me and destroyed some of the dense atmosphere that made Arkham Asylum so awesome in the first place. And there were too many villans for my taste. Yes, there where a lot of baddies in AA too but to me it felt like there were better intergrated into the story.

Talking about the story: It felt like the story of AC was all over the place compared to AA. In AA you pretty much tried to figure out what the Joker was up to and kept running into some other bad guys who were involved along the way, In AC every bad guy sorta did their own thing and the whole "Joker is sick" sub-plot just seemed tacked on in the end. The AA story definitely felt more focused to me.

So I'll probably watche some Let's Plays and decide if this feels like an improvement to the last game.

Also: Fuck DLC.

[TKz]

Totally agree on those points, Asylum was way better and the open world did nothing but hurt the experience. It's the same in this, even worse because it's literally the exact same assets used with an extra area tacked on. I wouldn't be so bothered were it not for the promise of a larger game... this doesn't feel larger. It's even worse here because the slightly bigger city makes it feel so horribly abandoned.

Overall, I think the story is way more interesting than City, though I was disappointed by how much it focused on Joker. But, to be fair, one of the best moments in the game so far has been revolving around him, with a tribute to The Killing Joke that's wonderful. The villain thing doesn't really hurt this too much, though Deathstroke, despite an awesome boss battle that feels like you're fighting Deathstroke, is totally wasted. I mean, he could've held up as villain of a game himself, so anything less feels pointless.

It's good, though. The story is better than City and that's what we play these for. The attempts at Scarecrow levels again are really fucking bad.

Also, don't get it on PS3/360 if you can get it on PC. Mrs. TKz's version on PS3 starts lagging like fucking crazy after a while on her newish PS3, I've heard similar reports from 360 owners. So, yeah, as usual, if you can get PC, it's going to be a better experience. Though both versions have some really stupid bugs in them.

[TheLastInLine]

I'll have to get it for Xbox since my PC is an old, slow pice of shit that I bought in 2007. Or maybe I'll just start saving money to get a decent gaming PC like I wanted to do for years...But these things are so damn expensive...

[apsham]

Traded in a ton of old accessories yesterday, and received enough to pick up the game on the Wii U.

I'm loving it so far! Then again, I never had a single problem with City so eh.