Batman Review: Arkham Asylum vs. Arkham City

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300"] Harley with Warden Sharp in Batman: Arkham Asylum. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

I have quite a bit to say about these two games... I sorta should break it up into 3 posts, one about Asylum and one about City, because I beat City while back, while having only beat Asylum about a half hour ago... Yet another video game franchise I played backwards. Just the kinda guy I am, I guess.

First, I should say... I got Asylum home a few days ago, and played the bajeesus out of it for probably about five hours. The X-box did not save my progress, so when I came back the next night, I was at square one. Normally, I'd have just turned it off and gone to read or something, but these games are ridiculously fun. I almost didn't mind re-playing the beginning content at all. Although, I could have done with a "Skip" function for the introduction sequence...

Anyway here are my thoughts on these two games.

Story
I don't know much about the Batman cannon. I never read the comic books, though I did watch the original TV show when it was on Nick at Night years ago. I probably saw a couple dozen of them. I also watched the cartoon that was on in the early / mid 1990s. I am familiar with most of the characters. However, before playing these games I had never heard of Oracle, Crock, Bane, or the Al Guhls. I don't recall them ever having appeared on the shows I watched.

Not only that, but I never even realized that Liam Neeson's character in the Dark Knight movies was Ra's Al Ghul until yesterday when I was trolling IMDB. I'm not the quickest when it comes to these things, OK?

However, the story line is at least enjoyable in both games. I got into the story, I got into the characters, etc. The dialog in Asylum was kinda weak. Batman had a lot of lines where he sounded very cliché, but other than that, the story worked for me. I'm sure there are die hard comic fans out there who hate it for some kind of "that never happened" reason or what not, but for the typical gamer like myself, it did the job.

Controls
Like I said before, I played Arkham City first, which was probably a mistake. The combat system in City was probably the most polished, fluid combat in any game I've ever played... Which isn't saying a whole lot since I can count the games I have played in the last 15 years in less than a minute. But even still, I think a person would be hard pressed to come up with a more enjoyable, rewarding combat system.

That said, the combat in Asylum was pretty close. You can tell that THAT was the breakthrough combat system of its time, and they only just put a polish on it for City. There were a few things I missed, having gotten used to them being there in City, like the bat claw grab, clothesline, and slam move, and how you could throw 3 batarangs in fast succession, and the quick use of gadgets by holding LT and hitting a key... but all in all, it wasn't difficult to shift gears into the Asylum combat.

I will say, I was disappointed by the boss fights in Asylum. Each "big" boss had his/her own "thing". The mini-bosses were basically all the same. The mini-boss is a Titan-filled inmate. He runs at you, you hit him with a batarang, and get out of his way. You hit him, climb on his back and ride him around while he stumbles around beating on things. Rinse, repeat. Then later, you come to another "boss fight" and it's another of the same thing, but this time there are added thugs. Next time, there are thugs, and you're in a smaller room... Then next time, not only are there thugs, and the room is small, but now there are two big guys... Rinse, repeat.

Now, the Harley fights were basically beat up thugs, although in the second one, the floors would electrify, so beat up thugs and move from one platform to another as necessary.

I really enjoyed the first Scarecrow fight, it was complete with a really weird introduction, hallucination, etc... Not really sure what was up with running around the busted building landscape, felt a little like an old-school side-scroller (e.g. Contra), but I thought it was neat. Dunno if there was any significance to the fact that you beat the round by getting to the batlight and shining it on his torso... But OK. So I did the first one, and that was cool... The second one was introduced by Bruce re-living his parents deaths, and then more side-scrolling, avoid the gaze, and then OH! Thugs. Then more side scroll, then the batlight. The last was more of the same. Rinse... Repeat.

Ruined Xbox Disks

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="240"] Lost and Broken CD (Photo credit: Billie Hara)[/caption]

I have an X-box 360 and a GameFly account. For those of you who don't know what GameFly is, it's basically Netflix for video games. Through this service, I have found some really great games.

One such game is Deus Ex Human Revolution. Excellent game, I've spent many hours playing this game, beaten it a few different times, etc. Another such game is Mass Effect 3, which I've blogged about before.

I bought Deus Ex through GameFly for something like, $17. Not a big deal. I also picked up Mass Effect 1 though not through GameFly. My problem is that in addition to an X-Box 360 and a GameFly account, I also have kids. This combo has resulted in my Mass Effect 1 and Deus Ex disks being scratched.

When we got the X-box it was a Christmas deal, came with a Kinect and a couple of games, but a small 4GB internal hard drive. I recently purchased a 360GB hard drive for it, but that was after the disks got scratched. Had I installed this hard drive before they were scratched, I could have "installed" the games onto the hard drive, and thus only needed the disk for the machine to check that I owned a license, and I'd still be able to play these games.

Alas...

I contacted X-Box support to see if they had a download service, I could just download the game and install it or something (they don't.) I was told to put an old CD into the Xbox and let it run for five or six minutes, just to make sure it wasn't the console that was creating the scratches. Good advise, but I am well aware of what's creating the scratches. They also recommended that I get the disks buffed... I looked into this, and apparently there are places you can go to get CDs and DVDs and such buffed for a couple bucks. The problem is that the only place around me that does it is in the mall. I frigging hate the mall. Every time I go there, all I wanna do is buy appropriate clothes for the pre-teen girls who walk around with their crack sticking out of the back of their pants and slap the crap outta the Joe-Pro bad-ass idiots who follow them around like puppies wearing basketball shirts, jeans around their knees and baseball hats sideways.

Tangent: You youths of today need a good smacking around. Grow the F up, ffs. (...says the guy who blogs about video games.)

Anyway, my other option is to put these games back into my GameFly queue, have them send them to me, install them to my Xbox, and send them back and call it a day. But if something happens to my hard drive, I'd be back where I am now. I tried this already, put ME1 into first place in my queue, and they instead sent me item #3. About a week ago. It's still not here. So going this route, I'm likely looking at waiting about four to six weeks before being able to play those two games again.

So, now I'm faced with having to go to the mall and deal with all that garbage, wade through the stench of "Brute" and underage pheromones, to get these disks buffed for a couple of dollars, or stay home and just re-order both games for a total of around $30.

What would you do?

 

From Looking for Action, to Loving the Story

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300"] A battle with pirates. (NES version shown) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

I've always been one to love a good story, which is what my Dungeons and Dragons background was always about. I always loved the story, and would go to great lengths to tell it or make it more interesting, even if it was at my character's expense. My gaming experiences were always a little bit different though, mostly starting with World of Warcraft.

If you've never played WoW there's a LOT of story behind it. I played the game for 7 years, and there is a WHOLE lot of story behind it that I do not know. Not because there's too much to learn though, but because I just didn't want to learn it. When I read a book, it stays in my head for probably a week or two and I start to forget details... So too goes my memory for gaming... I have to do a quest four or five times before I remember it, and I found it extremely frustrating that now and then they'd change things, and the quests would either change or go away or whatever...

I simply downloaded addons that told me where to go, and figured it out from there. Most of the time when you moused over something you had to kill, it told you as much... so I'd do it, and follow the arrow to the next thing, etc. The story never interested me at all. Ever. It got to the point that when I was forced to stop and listen to story, I'd get irritated. When I had to go back and read a quest to figure things out, it made me not want to play.

So when I started playing X-box games this past January, I took a similar approach. Gogogo! Skip the text, just let me fight! '

I'd mentioned before that I had gotten Mass Effect 3 at the mis-construed advice from some friends, and started the ME franchise from the back end. When I started playing it, I went into the options and found that I could turn off the making of decisions. This took me one step further from the story, so that I could focus on the action. I enjoyed this for a little while, until I realized that you could greatly change the outcome of things. That was then compounded by the realization that decisions made in ME1 and ME2 would impact the action on ME3... I decided to turn the decisions back on, and start again.

Now, suddenly I find myself enjoying story lines in video games, all over again, the way I did in the original NES days with the first Final Fantasy, and Ultima Exodus. I find this a curious transition, to be perfectly honest.

So I mentioned (I think??) that when I found out how important the decisions in ME1 and 2 were, I bought them, and started playing them... Well, a kid of mine scratched ME1, and now it won't play... Color me angry. I figured I'd go into my gamefly queue and get ME1 from them, and install it (now that I have a hard drive... Ididn't before) and then maybe my disk will work well enough for disk recognition, and I could play off the install from GameFly... So I put ME1 at the top of my list, clicked "Keep" for ME3 that I had out...

They didn't send me ME1... They sent me Gears of War... THREE... Because when I was taking the advice from my friends about Mass Effect, I guess I took the same advice about Gears of War... I haven't gotten it yet, but I think what I'll do is play it for a couple hours, and if I like it, I'll get GoW1 and 2 from Amazon... And "Keep" 3 so that they might send me ME1 again... I'd really hate to have to buy ME1 again, even if it was only $17... Oh and by the way, I also played Assassin's Creed 3 recently, having never played the first two. ALSO at the recommendation of those same friends... This was actually not misunderstood though. They told me to go with 3 first. I made sure of it... I may just stop listening to them all together though.

Anyway, like I'd said, I played all these games in reverse order, only to realize while playing Batman Arkham City, while I waited for GoW3, that I've never played Arkham Asylum... Another franchise I played backwards! I didn't mind so much the first time through, but as I'm playing AC now, I'm picking up more mentions of old business that I am assuming had to do with AA... Yet another game I need to get, and play, and beat, before I can enjoy the games I have now! GRR!

Ah well... Too many games is not a bad problem to have, methinks! :D

Batman Arkham City

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300"] Michael Keaton as Batman in Tim Burton's Batman (1989) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

I came to modern console gaming fairly late in the game, as I've said in my previous posts. I got my X-box this past Christmas (December 2011) and shortly thereafter I purchased Batman Arkham City.

Batman Arkham City is a fantastic game, which you probably already know. The fighting sequences were stupendous, particularly to me since the last game I ever played that came even remotely close to this was probably Soul Caliber... The first one. A LONG time ago. Since 2004, I played World of Warcraft exclusively.

To say I was blown away by how freakin fun this game is, is a total understatement. I beat the game on normal difficulty in around three days... I slept perhaps about nine hours total in those three days AND worked full time.

Unfortunately, since this was my first game for the X-box other than the Kinect adventures that came with the thing, it set the bar pretty high. I have tried several games that have absolutely paled in comparison. The first Spiderman game felt totally arcade-like, annoying, and unenjoyable. I felt the same way about L.A. Noire... I guess I expected every game to be as amazing as Batman... Boy was I let down.

The main story in Batman Arkham city was very enjoyable, and there were lots of other side missions you could do along the way. I finished the main story-line, and was shocked to find myself only at around 50% complete with the whole game. I've done a fair amount of work on the Riddler things, but at the end of the day I found myself getting downright frustrated by it, and I really didn't want to associate that game with frustration, so I stopped.

I also didn't bother with any of the AR training passed the upgraded grapnel hook. I don't think I'm missing a whole lot... If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me.

I do kinda feel like I missed out on a little, having never read any of the comics. I had never before heard of Bane, Ra's Al Ghul, or even Dr. Strange. I'm really only familiar with Poison Ivy (and even that was from that god awful movie with Uma Thurman... Blech.) Cat Woman, Joker and Harley of course, Two face, Penguin, Riddler and Freeze. Not familiar with the Croc or any of the other villians... Seems like there's a lot of story / history that this game might add to, but not for me.

An interesting part about this game's mechanics is that he doesn't actually kill anyone. I thought that was cool, and it made sense... You know, being Batman and all.

I was disappointed that I couldn't play as Robin. I'm told you can, or remember reading something about it somewhere, but it was downloadable content, and I wasn't quite THAT interested... So I didn't pursue it. Perhaps I will someday, I dunno.

Mass Effect 1 vs. Mass Effect 3

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="171"] Hipster Liara - Dialogue Wheel (Photo credit: scorp_stanton)[/caption]

Christmas this year I picked up an x-box with the kinect, it was our gift to the family... We were thinking we'd spend so much time jumping around, playing games with each other.

The reality though is that I ended up getting Batman Arkham City and played it like it was crack and I was a homeless male prostitute looking to score. To say that I played that game hard is an extreme understatement. Anyway, this post isn't about Batman. It's about Mass Effect.

The little gaming group of friends I have recommended the Mass Effect games. At some point, someone said they liked 3 the best, although I though I heard "Play 3 first". So I did.

Mass Effect 3 is a terrific game on its own. Having absolutely no understanding or basis for comparison going into this game, I didn't feel all that lost. There were a few things that I didn't really understand completely, but got the Gist, like "indoctrination" and what exactly is a "Spectre"... But at the end of the day, I got shit done, and love it so much, I played it through again, although that was mostly to try to get Liara T'soni in bed. I went with Ashley Williams the first time. Next I might go as a female and work on Traynor.

Anyway, I was kind of amazed at how generally easy Mass Effect 3 was. I died very seldom, and most of the time it was because my god-damned wireless controller keeps disconnecting. Yeah, sure the console pauses, but it's still a total pain in the ass, and screws me up a lot. Now, the only games like this I have played in a while were Batman Arkham City, and Deus Ex Human Revolution.

"But they aren't anything alike!" I know, I hear ya. But listen, I played World of Warcraft for 7 years. In comparison, they are similar. Anyway, those are the only first person shooter games I've played ever since Wolfenstein...

I died a lot in Deus Ex. I died maybe six times in ME3 on normal difficulty.

Mass Effect 1 was a total different story. I have it currently on "casual" difficulty, and my ass shows up on a plate in front of me All. The. Time. I probably die a dozen times per mission... Or, I DID anyway, until I realized, I probably just picked a really difficult place to do first.

My first mistake was not paying attention to the gear as I was getting it. In ME 3, you got different types of guns, and you could upgrade them, etc. but I really didn't notice

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240"] Mass Effect 3 (Photo credit: JBLivin)[/caption]

much of an impact if you were using a gun that wasn't the best available. Also, the armor was apparently aesthetic. I didn't even change my outfit and never had a problem in ME3.

My second mistake was, after getting the handle of traveling system to system, I went and found Liara, and then immediately went after her mother. Apparently these are missions are higher in difficulty than some others... I got Liara just fine, but her mother whipped my ass repeatedly. A few times I got to the point where she would be the only one left, and she made short work of me with barely a scratch. I backtracked outta that place, and quickly realized how much more important saving your game was in 1 vs. 3.

Twice I went most of the way through a place, only to fall off a ledge and go ALL THE WAY back to the last save point, which was in front of her. Now, I'm neurotic about saving. I move forty feet, and save. I kill a group of things, I save. ME3, like I said, I didn't die much.

Driving the rover about was a big surprise, I love that thing. It doesn't exist in ME3. I also had no idea that you could import your saves from one to the next. The thought that what I do in 1 will make a difference in 3 is pretty awesome. (Don't gimmie and shit, I told you I'm new to the X-box and "recent" console gaming, as of December '11.)

All in all, I can say I think the game play in 3 is better, Ashley Williams isn't as bland looking, and the dialog is a lot better in 3 than it is in 1 so far., but that's the march of technology coupled with a few successful releases under the franchise's belt. 1 is still a great game though, and it has shed some light on my gray areas. I have yet to beat ME1, but there will be posts about it when I do, and probably a bunch on the way.

Oh yeah... I decided to pursue Liara in ME1, cause Ashley Williams looks a little strange... Yeah that's right, strange enough that I put my capt. Kirk pants on, and go after the blue alien. She's also a lot nicer than Ashley Williams, I think.

Thoughts?

My Video Game Resume

I grew up in the town of Brookline MA. The kids in my community had a rare amount of youth sports, playgrounds, parks, and activities to pick from. It was wasted on me though. I had absolutely no interest in sports or anything else outside for the most part.



As a very young kid, I amused myself by coloring, playing with cars and legos and watching TV. Enter the late 80s... I saved my $5 per week allowance and bought myself a Nintendo NES.

I often lament the fact that I was a horrible student from about 5th grade on. It really kind of only dawns on me now that, no freakin wonder...

Anyway, I spent more time playing video games than anything else. At one point, I had well over a hundred NES games. Not bad for a chubby punk with next to no money, huh?

There was never really any one game that held my interest, I played em all! Archon, Chess, Wrestlemania, Super World Runner, Dig Dug II (I never could find Dig Dug 1...) Marble Madness, Dr. Mario, BattleToads, Contra, Final Fantasy, Zelda, Wizards and Warriors, Dragon Warrior, Ikari Warriors... I could go on all day... If you'd like me to, drop a comment, I'll email you with more (I dare you.)

I remember when Street Fighter had nothing to do with that wuss Ryu. I can't help but look at today's game consoles and think "Pff... I only needed two buttons when I was a kid. Up-hill, both ways. " Remember the NES R.O.B.? Or the PowerGlove?? The NES MAX!? Hell yeah.

Anyway, as all great empires the Nintendowent the way of Atlantis, gave way to Supre Nintendo and Sega Genesis, and I ate it up. Same channel, different show.



I kinda stopped at the Super Nintendo and got myself interested in girls. I had a few game systems between 1995 and now... All of them I had maybe four games, and it flopped. Sega Saturn. Sega Dreamcast. A few controllers, but nothing fancy. Never again had anything caught my attention like the NES had.

I still say Final Fantasy (the first one) was the best of them all.

Anyway, fast forward through my lack-luster, passive interest in video games to about 2003. At that time I belonged to a small group of nerds, most of whom got together in Ever Quest some hundred years ago, and together they wandered from game to game. I was sucked into this IRC chatroom (that we all still inhabit today) by my cousin who played EQ with these guys. They eventually dragged me into City of Heroes.

November 2004 struck, and I stopped doing much of anything aside from playing World of Warcraft. I spent my first year or so bouncing around exploring, and a little role playing (shut it.) I had never even level-capped by the first expansion, The Burning Crusade.

The next four years or so I was Guild Leader. We weren't anything incredible, but I made some great friends there. I stepped down as guild leader to help me cut down on the hours I played. I can honestly say, it didn't really work. I started raiding a lot more. I'd frequently stay up until around 3am, just to get up at 5 and haul my ass into Boston where I worked as an I.T. guy. I'd get home, and log in on my work-issued laptop, rinse, repeat.

During the seven or so years that I played World of Warcraft I level capped almost a dozen times on various characters with each new expansion. I met many great real people, saw seven divorces, eleven break-ups, dozens of hook-ups,  five marriages, four babies, two suicides and one drunk driving death. I stopped playing World of Warcraft about seven months ago.

In all honesty, I burnt the hell out on it, because you put in so much time, and you never. beat. the. game. And frankly, all the social interaction really frazzled me.

I got the X box for Christmas for the family. Figured, with the kinect, we'd all be bouncing around having fun, getting exercise, etc... That didn't happen. That's another story though...

Anyway, I was so burnt out on getting gear, crunching numbers, min/maxing, that I couldn't even think about World of Warcraft. I had gotten via gamefly Skyrim Elder Scrolls. I ran around for a minute with a sour face, thinking it was very similar to WoW... And then I picked up a piece of armor and it had stats, and I had to compare it to what I was wearing already... I ejected the disk, stuffed it back into it's envelope and sent it back.

That is my video game career in about as brief a post as I can make. How about you? Do you remember these games I talked about? Any particular favorites?

That's right, I needed another blog.

I have a lot of blogs, and as soon as I'm done with this post, I'll start linking them in the sidebar or something... 

I started this one because one of the things I do in my spare time is play video games. 

As a kid, I spent ALL my time playing video games on Nintendo NES, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, etc. I mean, ALL my time that wasn't eaten by school. 

I played World of Warcraft from day 1, and spent the next seven years in it, mostly as a mage, but also a warrior, a rogue, a hunter, etc... 

This blog is going to be able the games that I have been playing lately, which aren't many now, but I imagine it could snowball. I'll post thoughts, tips, etc, and reblog stuff I find from the internet that was helpful to me so that if I need it again, I know where it is., 

Feel free to enjoy the site, comment, contribute, etc... but if you don't I don't mind, cause this site is mostly just for me.