[X] My Assistant

[Tanegar]

Is it bigger? Yes. Is it better? ...Maybe. It's certainly no worse than Arkham Asylum, and Arkham Asylum was damned good. I'm not through the campaign yet, so I can't really talk about later events, but so far it's a lot of fun. There are multiple new enemy types, and combat is harder, but it's harder in a good way; real difficulty rather than fake difficulty. Stealth is also harder due to new enemy types, but again, it's real difficulty, and requires real skill to overcome. The boss fights are more varied than Arkham Asylum's, but IMO are more irritating than satisfying. YMMV.

That said, there are a few bugs, which I found surprising given Arkham Asylum's blessedly glitchless state. They're not prevalent; I cannot say for certain that you will even encounter them. On one (and only one, so far) occasion, I punched a guy who flew up above the room's invisible ceiling, rendering him invincible. I had to leave and re-enter the area so that his position reset in order to clear that room. Also, after installing the game, I had to start it three times before it quit crashing out. I still get an error message every time I exit the game, though. I haven't seen any gamebreaking bugs, but as I say, I'm not through with it yet. My overall completion at the time of this writing is 27%.

Overall, based on my experience so far, I give it 8/10. It's very good, and I recommend it, but technical issues and a few "YMMV" design elements bring it down just a bit.

[CanRay]

If only I had been able to get through Asylum. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) This would have been higher up on my "To check out" list.

[Tanegar]

OK, I'm on the last boss fight, and I'm sorely tempted to downgrade Arkham City to 7/10 based on this boss fight alone.

[ Spoiler ]

There are four Catwoman chapters, interspersed throughout the game. The last one takes place after the end of Batman's narrative, sees Catwoman fighting Two-Face... and violates one of the core conceits of the series to date, namely that you cannot take multiple armed opponents in a stand-up fight. The entirety of Arkham Asylum and all of Arkham City up to this point has trained the player to use "Invisible Predator" techniques to isolate and neutralize armed foes one by one. This last fight throws all of that out the window by making the assault rifle-toting mooks respawn. No matter how many you take down, there are always six plus Two-Face, who has a grenade launcher.

Needless to say, if, like me, you haven't been upgrading Catwoman's ballistic armor (which is now tracked separately from "combat armor;" is someone at Rocksteady a Shadowrun fan?), this encounter becomes significantly more difficult. It's incredibly frustrating, and poor design.

[LurkerOutThere]

I wasn't aware this was out already, I need to grab it I guess but I have other projects I'll need to work.

[Seriously Mike]

I caaaaan't belieeeeeeve this SHIT! So I was playing my free legal Batman Arkham City, and then my computer just decided to switch off for, like, no reason at all! Now, the game won't even start because Mr SecuROM up there says it's "corrupted" and it can't start some kind of useless bullshit module, so I can't play, end'a'story. That and my connection is in a bit of a bind because I just got a paycheck and decided to get myself Saints' Row: The Cockpunch. Which, of course, downloads like the server has a fucking CONSTIPATION because every punk and his dog also wants a copy.

[CanRay]

I blame Matt and his Deckers. They're cockblocking your computer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Seriously Mike]

Ha ha, even better. That power outage gave my HDD a bad case of Uncorrectable Sector Count. So now I'm $200 up the ass because if I didn't order a new HDD soon, the whole 500 gigs of games, music, movies and, of course, my rarely-used porn stash, would go to hell. That and the partition Steam is on started running really, really slow.
Oh yeah, this weekend will be EVENTFUL.

[Adarael]

I neeeeeeeeed my copy to come. I ordered mine for the PC. Goddamit.

[Seriously Mike]

Great. Now it turned out that a new hard drive won't get here before the weekend. Which means, I won't be enjoying Batman, or Saints' Row, or pretty much any Steam game before next week.
Now if there would be some kind of God, that would motivate my players to get their character sheets done before Saturday (the only one who did took a prefab from here and screwed things up, so I had to explain to him what he did wrong and how to fix that), the world would be a better place.

[Jazz]

OHMYGAD what a great game... At the end... OHMYGADOHNOESOHMYGAD (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Tanegar]

I bought all the DLC today. Disappointed that neither Robin nor Nightwing have voices as playable characters, but they're both fun to play. Robin's moves are a little more entertaining, IMO.

[Seriously Mike]

OK, I'm on the last boss fight, and I'm sorely tempted to downgrade Arkham City to 7/10 based on this boss fight alone.

[ Spoiler ]

There are four Catwoman chapters, interspersed throughout the game. The last one takes place after the end of Batman's narrative, sees Catwoman fighting Two-Face... and violates one of the core conceits of the series to date, namely that you cannot take multiple armed opponents in a stand-up fight. The entirety of Arkham Asylum and all of Arkham City up to this point has trained the player to use "Invisible Predator" techniques to isolate and neutralize armed foes one by one. This last fight throws all of that out the window by making the assault rifle-toting mooks respawn. No matter how many you take down, there are always six plus Two-Face, who has a grenade launcher.

Needless to say, if, like me, you haven't been upgrading Catwoman's ballistic armor (which is now tracked separately from "combat armor;" is someone at Rocksteady a Shadowrun fan?), this encounter becomes significantly more difficult. It's incredibly frustrating, and poor design.

This is weird, because it took me all of three or four attempts to take him down. He will have one mook standing around in the beginning - if you're approaching via gargoyles, you're clear to toss a shitload of caltrops at the boss, quickly take down the mook by pouncing at him and then doing a combat takedown, then focus on the boss. When the mooks come close, keep them busy using caltrops and whip. Generally, toss shitloads of caltrops every which way, especially at the boss (so he can't use his plonker).
Invisible predator doesn't work every time. You also have to learn timing in close combat, even (and especially, I'd say) when confronting armed opponents.

[Tanegar]

I wish they'd made Batgirl playable instead of Nightwing.

[CanRay]

I wish they'd made Batgirl playable instead of Nightwing.

Which one?

And how about Terry McGinnis!Batman???

[Tanegar]

Cassandra Cain, obviously. Barbara Gordon is still Oracle in the Arkham Asylum continuity. As for Terry, the Arkham City Skins Pack DLC includes a Batman Beyond skin.

[CanRay]

Shiny! Just wish I could rent it to see if I wanted to buy it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[Tanegar]

It's $4.99 for seven skins: 1970s Batman (blue cape, cowl, gloves, and boots), Year One, Dark Knight Returns, Earth-One, Batman Beyond, Sinestro Corps Batman (when was Batman in the Sinestro Corps?), and Animated Batman (looks like Batman: The Animated Series). YMMV as to whether it's worth the money; I bought it mainly for shits and giggles. I was buying the other three DLCs anyway and thought, "Why not?"

[CanRay]

Now, if you could only play as Old!Bruce from Batman Beyond.

I loved the time travel episode of Justice League Unlimited where Batman was playing GOOD COP to his older self.

EDIT:
Jokerz Leader: "We're the Jokerz!"
Bruce Wayne: "Sure you are." *Demonstrates Cane-Fu*

[LurkerOutThere]

The sinestro corps tried to forcibly recruit Batman because of his ability to create great fear. Between his own willpower and having tried on a green lantern ring in the recent past (Batman would make the cut to be a green lantern, but is unwilling to put aside his anger/emotions at his parents death which is what he'd really need to succeed as a green lantern) he was able to fight the ring off and it didn't stick.

One of the most intriguing jthings about the 52/Final crisis plotline is when they had the monarch recruiting his ultimate justice league. Two of the candidates out of three we're young Hal Jordons. The third was a very bitter very angry Bruce Wayne Green Lantern. Rather then fight each other for Monarch they gave their best shot to kicking his teeth in, and nearly succeeded.

But i might be biased because I am an avowed Batman fanboy.

[Tanegar]

Now, if you could only play as Old!Bruce from Batman Beyond.

I loved the time travel episode of Justice League Unlimited where Batman was playing GOOD COP to his older self.

EDIT:
Jokerz Leader: "We're the Jokerz!"
Bruce Wayne: "Sure you are." *Demonstrates Cane-Fu*

Dark Knight Returns Batman looks pretty old. Fitting, considering he is pretty old in that story. No cane-fu, though.

[CanRay]

Old!Bruce: "Surprised to see me?"
Bruce!Batman: "Surprised I lived that long."
Terry!Batman: "Batman, Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne, Batman. Or have you met?"
Old!Bruce & Bruce!Batman (In Unison): "NOT NOW."
Terry!Batman: "Great, what did they used to call it? Stereo?"

Mr Powers (CEO Of Wayne-Powers Corp): "How are you holding up, Bruce?"
Old!Bruce: "With a cane."

[Tanegar]

Has anyone else gotten the reverse batarang to work outside of the one time the game teaches you to use it? There's a medal for using it in one of the challenge pack DLC maps, but I cannot get the damn thing to work right. You're supposed to "knock down a henchman with a reverse batarang, then take him out with a silent takedown while he looks the wrong way for Batman," only they never look the wrong way. After getting up, they always turn around and face directly toward me.

[Seriously Mike]

You mean, you lock on the guy with middle mouse button (alt-fire for Remote Batarang) and toss it, and then the guy looks the right way? Huh. I'll check it out, though.

[Tanegar]

I bought the new DLC yesterday, Harley Quinn's Revenge. It's very, very short; like ninety minutes to two hours short. Still, anything that gives me more Arkham City is a good thing.

Also, Harley has a new outfit that is, if anything, even more fetishistic.

[edit] With apologies to CanRay: TVTropes will ruin your life!

[CanRay]

Tanegar, you bastard, WARN PEOPLE!!!